Science Fiction Reading in December 2016

[Windshadow]

I am not sure where to put this but since everyone knows that Sir Terry Pratchett was a fantasy writer I will put it here for mild shock value... If you have skipped this book you will find tales from every branch of our favorite genre
i am listening to A Blink of the Screen: Collected Shorter Fiction
and it is got some really great stuff in it along with some things that are a window into his growth as a writer and as a story teller (the two do not always go together in the same author) the prominent Science fiction tale for me is a longish short story or a short novella that he developed into the Long Earth series with Stephen baxter in 2012 the story in this collection i think is better than the collaborative novel one needs to recall On 11 December 2007, Pratchett posted online that he had been newly diagnosed with early-onset Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) and signs can be seen in his later works... in this series more perhaps than in the later disc world books and the tone of Baxter is strong the further in to the series you get.
But this short version is vintage Pratchett at his best. it even has a mystery component.

1. "The High Meggas" (1986)

and the next one i have to mention is a Christmas horror story that is the next tale in the collection that had laughing if you enjoyed Tim Burtons The Nightmare Before Christmas film you will love it.

1. "Twenty Pence, with Envelope and Seasonal Greeting" (1987)

 

[farseer2]

I was kind of lost and not completely satisfied with the series and thought going through it again would fix that since it has such good reviews. I am going to put that on hold however. I think what is needed is to read the series before it.

My take on Hamilton's novels is that they are overly long and not good enough to make it worth it. Other people with fine taste differ, so you'll have to judge by yourself.

 

[Contrarius]

I'm currently reading the first book in the sci fi books called mineran series.. it's called mineran influence I haven't been able to put it down since it arrived from amazon. I'm half way through and already can't wait for the next book. highly recommended

Please don't spam us with a sock puppet! We are not dumb, you know.

Sffworld even has a section of its forum dedicated to author promos. Go post there, and be honest about it!

 

[Contrarius]

I'm not a author I was just mentioning the book I am enjoying at the moment

Suuuuuure, Tanya. You just happened to join this forum on the day that you just happened to decide to advertise a book that just happens to have been published two weeks ago. And it isn't even commercially available in ebook format, so you would have had to go to Amazon, order the paperback, wait for delivery, read it, and then scurry on over here to promote it (and on GR as well, I noticed, which you also just joined).

Uh-huh.

As I said -- sffworld has an author promo section. Please use it. Dishonesty does not sell books around here.

 

[Contrarius]

I


Im sorry if my post has offended you, I have the ebook version I can send you a screen shot if necessary.

I wouldn't doubt that you do -- authors often have eArcs available for their own promo purposes. That is not commercial availability.

Keep trying.

 

[Contrarius]

I have removed my post as I didn't mean for this to happen. I just wanted to talk about a book I like sorry

You made a strategic mistake, Mr. Burrows. You started spamming your book before it became commercially available in e-format. I can see multiple commercial pages where you've taken the steps to e-publish, but none of them (that I can find) are active yet.

Yet again -- dishonesty doesn't help to sell books around here. Honesty does.

 

[Contrarius]

Hone

Honestly I'm not the author I could happily send you a picture I'm a 23 year old female. again I'm sorry if your not happy with my post

Where did you get the ebook? Should be an easy question to answer, right?

 

[Contrarius]

Please see my profile picture. and it was on Google play

As of the time of this posting, it isn't available yet on Google play, Tanya.

https://play.google.com/store/search?q=Mineran Influence&c=books

Keep trying.

 

[Contrarius]

Again I'm sorry if I shouldnt post when I first join but the topic said what are you reading so I replyed I was just sharing my intrest for a book I'm reading

No, you just spammed our forum dishonestly using a sock puppet to "hide" the author's identity. And you just keep digging yourself deeper with more and more falsehoods.

Where did you get the book, Tanya? Again -- should be an easy question to answer, right?

 

[Contrarius]

I got the book of Google play and then bought a hard Copy when it was relesed

No, you didn't, Tanya. Again -- it isn't even available on Google Play.

Please stop wasting our time, Tanya.

 

[Contrarius]

I'm sorry for any confusin in future I will only post about well known books

Just be honest when you post. When you want to advertise your own books, do that in the author's promo section. We're really very friendly and accommodating around here -- but we don't take kindly to sock puppets.

 

[Contrarius]

Again honestly I'm not the autor if you would like to email me I can send you pictures if my self to prove I'm a 23 year old female who is a huge sci fi fan. I do apologise for any confusion thats happen and I hope your all okay with me staying apart of this forum

Tanya, I can send you pictures of me "proving" that I'm a 23-year-old man -- even though I am actually neither.

You haven't even been honest about where you got the book. That tells us something very obvious. Give it up.

 

[Contrarius]

Please email me on [email protected] I woild just like to prove my self I can send you screen shots of my Google play books

Tanya, why do you keep wasting our time? You do know that gmail accounts are free and can be set up within about 30 seconds, right?

 

[Contrarius]

Because i just want to prove my self. I can send you screen shots of everything you have questioned me on to prove I'm not lying. I only wanted to join to be part of a community but now I feel I'm not welcome

Honest people are welcome. Sock puppets are not.

You see, we get this sort of spam all the time. People join all the time just to hawk their books -- and they often do it while pretending to be just a member of the public. It gets really annoying after a while.

But, again, you made a critical strategic error -- you started spamming book forums like this one (and GR, and who knows where else) before your book actually became commercially available in ebook format. And that makes your sock puppet status even more obvious than it usually is.

Again -- sffworld is very welcoming to honest posters. Not so much for sock puppets.

 

[Contrarius]

We are just going in circles. the only way I can prove to you is by email and can show svreenshots from Google and send a picture of my self.

Please, Tanya, just STOP. You're just digging yourself deeper. I've already posted the link to Google Play, and the book is not available there.

And yes, please, we'd love to know what you think about books that you have actually purchased, as opposed to written and/or advertised. As long as you post honestly, you are welcome around here.

 

[mylinar]

This recent thread posting kind of made me recall how I ended up here. After waking around a bookstore nearly a decade ago I was kind of frustrated. I could have gotten a book from an author known to me, the devil you know choice but wanted to try something different. All the back cover blurbs sounded great but none of the authors were known to me, the devil you don't know. At work the next day I decided to go looking for a place where knowledgeable people might be found and this site was the first to pop up on search. I have never regretted joining here and have found a great number of now well known authors because of the great people here.
The only problem is a lot of the books are sometimes not available over here in the States, but I keep an eye out for them anyway.

 

[Contrarius]

The only problem is a lot of the books are sometimes not available over here in the States, but I keep an eye out for them anyway.

I am currently being intensely irritated because Peter Newman's The Malice is STILL not available over here in audio OR ebook. Gaaaaaaaaaah.

 

[farseer2]

Sigh. When I see a brand new poster gushing about a little known self-published book I always take it with more than one grain of salt. I mean, it's theoretically possible that the poster is not connected in any way to the author, but come on... Still, I also feel sorry for authors in that situation. Writing a novel without many chances of financial success is a labor of love, and it's sad that they can't get people to give it a chance.

 

[Contrarius]

Writing a novel without many chances of financial success is a labor of love, and it's sad that they can't get people to give it a chance.

But they can -- if they're just honest about it.

And yes, it's a lot of work. I respect them for that. But I'm not gonna cut them slack on the honesty front. We're already sliding into the "post-truth/post-fact" age, and I'm going to resist that trend as strongly as I can.

 

[Westy]

Will McIntosh wrote the very readable Defenders published back in 2014, and so I've been looking forward to his latest (non-YA) novel Faller.

"Faller" wakes up remembering nothing, living on a world he discovers is fragmented into islands, and discovers replicas of himself and others he's known. This is the ambitious premise of the book, and for most parts it's pulled off quite well. It's told in mostly alternating chapters of the before and after, there is an evil enough bad-guy, and the world building is interesting enough to also make it very readable.

Some parts though were a bit too implausible (and not explained), and some of the characters not very likeable, but overall it was a decent read (though I liked Defenders better).