Unsound Variations by George R. R. Martin.

Has anyone read this short story?

I've been meaning to, but I want to hear some opinions first.

 

Okay, this is a bit pointless since the book isn't out yet but damn, it sounds awesome and I want to share that with you people.

There is a high fantasy book coming out in July 2015 that has a pretty amazing title and concept.

The Dinosaur Lords by Victor Milán

Knights on dinosaurs. Knights on fucking dinosaurs. I am so psyched.

To quote one of the comments on goodreads.



Really, really hope it is a good one, or at least not terrible.

 

I have a few books that I read recently that I would like to recommend. I was looking for some more John Scalzi books after reading most of the Old Man's war series and I came across Redshirts which is pretty good . Of course I listened to most of it in audiobook format but it is basically a book where the people are actually characters from a Star Trek type of series. Well, at least the people on the ship are. Uhh, actually I'll just post the wiki summary.
"
Ensign Andrew Dahl, newly assigned to the Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union, works in the xenobiology lab. However, upon receiving the chance to work with famed senior officers of the ship on "Away Missions" to dangerous planets, Dahl realizes that as a low-ranking crew member, he is very likely to be killed while on one of these missions.
He and the other new ensigns notice something weird about life aboard the Intrepid — on any away mission, at least one crew member dies. And each away mission seems to follow a bizarre set of rules. The crew of the Intrepid has become very superstitious and fearful about getting involved in the bridge crew's missions.
The ensigns get to know Lt. Kerensky, who is Russian, lecherous and constantly getting infected with diseases, beaten within an inch of life, or otherwise hurt — only to be totally fine a few days later. Lt. Kerensky winds up dating Ensign Duvall, one of the new ensigns. After meeting with a lost crewmember, the ensigns learn that they are characters in a TV show.
As the new ensigns understand their lot, the story is similar to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, where the story tells what happens when its characters find out they are not in the "real" storyline"

I've actually been on a bit of a science fiction binge so another series I would recommend is the Undying Mercenaries series. The only problems I have with these kinds of stories is the somewhat(but I guess not really) unnecessary sexually focused bits. Amazon summary for the first book is

"
In the twentieth century Earth sent probes, transmissions and welcoming messages to the stars. Unfortunately, someone noticed.
The Galactics arrived with their battle fleet in 2052. Rather than being exterminated under a barrage of hell-burners, Earth joined their vast Empire. Swearing allegiance to our distant alien overlords wasn’t the only requirement for survival. We also had to have something of value to trade, something that neighboring planets would pay their hard-earned credits to buy. As most of the local worlds were too civilized to have a proper army, the only valuable service Earth could provide came in the form of soldiers…someone had to do their dirty work for them, their fighting and dying.
Humanity’s mercenary legions go to war in Steel World, bestselling author B. V. Larson’s latest science fiction novel."

Does anyone know of any good or decent stories with a groundhog day type of theme? Doesn't need to be repeating a particular day, it could be stretched out to decades as well. Just bought Replay so I'll be reading that. Hopefully it's alright.

 

Read The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North.

Harry August is on his deathbed. Again.

No matter what he does or the decisions he makes, when death comes, Harry always returns to where he began, a child with all the knowledge of a life he has already lived a dozen times before. Nothing ever changes.

Until now.

As Harry nears the end of his eleventh life, a little girl appears at his bedside. 'I nearly missed you, Doctor August,' she says. 'I need to send a message.'

This is the story of what Harry does next, and what he did before, and how he tries to save a past he cannot change and a future he cannot allow.

 

Contrary to my previous expectations I got some real emotional value out of The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner.

It's difficult at times, but Faulkner manages to create an atmosphere that keeps your reading, even through the harder parts. Also, now that I've seen the clear picture from reading it once, I'm actually planning on taking it on a second time sometime soon. It has a tremendous potential for a reread.

Anyhow, it's not for everyone, I guess, but if you've got the time give it a try. I definitely didn't regret reading it.

 

Not the greatest book I've read, but I definitely enjoyed it.

 

Nice, just finished listening to it. Wasn't bad at all, although I was kind of sympathetic to the villain tbh.

Spoiler

With me kind of rooting for Vincent it was tough to see him go out like he did(or like how he probably will go out) but it made sense and wasn't contrived. Ughh, I want a sequel written from his pov showing him finding some way around this predicament. Or some more info on how the erasing thing works because my understanding was that these people went to an alternate universe every time they died or something along those lines. I also theorized that every member of the group goes to the same alternate universe upon dying and is kind of time locked until it is their turn to experience life/be born.
Now the sequel could come about by showing what happens to one of them when their parents are killed before they can born by saying that maybe they go to an alternate... alternate universe and if they eventually get killed there then they go to an alternate alternate...alternate universe. Hell, maybe even the Linears can do the same thing.

 

I really enjoyed Harry August, despite picking it up largely to see if I was just imagining the similarities to Wastelands of Time (I was. Mostly.) The time travel mechanics seemed to work pretty well for the most part, but by the end I was getting a little confused - not sure whether I just didn't understand it properly or whether it's a flawed idea.

Claire North is just one of several pseudonyms for Catherine Webb. She's probably best known as Kate Griffin, under which name she's written the Matthew Swift books (A Madness of Angels, Midnight Mayor etc) and companion books - those are better, imo.

 

Just finished reading The Undying Mercenaries. Its not the greatest of books but serves as a decent time waster. Reading it though as put me in the mood for reading good Military Sci-fi prefarably something similar to Undying Mercenaries. Anyone has any recommendations?

 

The Old Man's War series is pretty decent and extremely similar to The Undying Mercenaries series. The difference here (well one difference) is that instead of having the ability to die over and over again these people are basically just really old people put into younger and enhanced bodies. They only get one life I think.

. Umm, another series written by the same guy that is kind of fun to read(haven't read all of them yet but got through the first 3) is the Starforce series. I liked the idea of the first book and then seeing how it is expanded upon in the following books is pretty cool although kind of predictable. The only thing that made kind of stop liking the protagonist is how he so readily puts the Earth in danger(but it tends to work out for him in the end so...mehh). Kind of stopped sympathizing with him lol.

People have been telling me to read the Galactic Milieu Series but I've only gotten through maybe twenty pages of the Jack the Bodiless book. Don't know how much of it is focused on actually military stuff yet.

 

So The Flight of the Silvers by Daniel Price is one of the best books I've read this year.

"Without warning, the world comes to an end for Hannah and Amanda Given. The sky looms frigid white. The electricity falters. Airplanes everywhere crash to the ground. But the Givens are saved by mysterious strangers, three fearsome and beautiful beings who force a plain silver bracelet onto each sister's wrist.

Within moments, the sky comes down in a crushing sheet of light and everything around them is gone. Shielded from the devastation by their silver adornments, the Givens suddenly find themselves elsewhere, a strange new Earth where restaurants move through the air like flying saucers and the fabric of time is manipulated by common household appliances.

Soon Hannah and Amanda are joined by four other survivors from their world--a mordant cartoonist, a shy teenage girl, a brilliant young Australian, and a troubled ex-prodigy. Hunted by enemies they never knew they had and afflicted with temporal abilities they never wanted, the sisters and their companions begin a cross-country journey to find the one man who can save them--before time runs out."

 

Something about why it's the best book you've read this year would be nice.

 

I'm a sucker for time travel stories in general, but Flight of the Silvers is a particularly cool blend of different science fiction elements (time travel, alternate Earths, people with unusual powers).

The world building is top-notch for "Altamerica" -- a parallel America with a point of divergence sometime in the early 1900s, a mix of crazy sci-fi technology and a backwards, isolationist culture.

I also liked that the villains are realistic and compelling, and just as interesting as the good guys.

Oh, and it's really funny.

 

Ugh, Redshirts. It's almost the platonic form of a John Scalzi novel; start with a cool concept, bungle it beyond all help past the first third. The great thing about Old Man's War was that because it was a series, the first third was just the first book and it was pretty good all the way through!

 

The Emperor's Soul is my favourite novella.

 

Legion by Sanderson is also a very fun novella to read. I believe a sequel was released last year which I have not read.

 

I assume you've probably already read them, but the Tales of Dunk and Egg is a pretty great, lighthearted series of novellas by GRRM set 90 years before the events of A Game of Thrones.