@unhedged these days I’m in too much trying to catch up on nonfiction and longreads, so fiction dah lama not read anything current. That I even read King is a surprise because I’m a chicken with horror.
My choices quite common I think: Terry Pratchett for sure, but he’s really a guy whose worldview really became nuanced the longer he went on that it’s almost a crime to say start with the early books in discworld, but they’re good to set the stage and also to see how the world developed (it’s a very loose series so you can really dive in and out). The other one is CS Forester - he does the Horatio Hornblower books and it’s really the worldview of a white British man who came of age before the British empire ended so it can be very rah-rah. But in the 1930s he’s got a good gig writing for Hollywood so his novels really go very fast - the Crichton of his time lol. I want to get into contemporary science fiction but i get really impatient with what they think is important and what i think (lol) but that said, Ted Chiang and his short stories are sooooo berhantu - his high-concept stories always stick in my head.
On SF, you might like Arthur C Clarke’s short stories. His novels are quite great, but his short stories are where the gems are. Best example is “The Star”, which the full text is easily found online. This kind of goosebump-raising stories.
The guy that wrote The Martian had a new-ish book called Project Hail Mary. That is stupendously good. It’s a bit movie like in the pacing, humour and concepts (perfect for an adaptation), but the plot is fantastic, level of detail is well balanced, twist is AMAZING, character development is quite good. His other one about the moon not as good though.
@unhedged these days I’m in too much trying to catch up on nonfiction and longreads, so fiction dah lama not read anything current. That I even read King is a surprise because I’m a chicken with horror.
My choices quite common I think: Terry Pratchett for sure, but he’s really a guy whose worldview really became nuanced the longer he went on that it’s almost a crime to say start with the early books in discworld, but they’re good to set the stage and also to see how the world developed (it’s a very loose series so you can really dive in and out). The other one is CS Forester - he does the Horatio Hornblower books and it’s really the worldview of a white British man who came of age before the British empire ended so it can be very rah-rah. But in the 1930s he’s got a good gig writing for Hollywood so his novels really go very fast - the Crichton of his time lol. I want to get into contemporary science fiction but i get really impatient with what they think is important and what i think (lol) but that said, Ted Chiang and his short stories are sooooo berhantu - his high-concept stories always stick in my head.
Oh thanks for the recs!
On SF, you might like Arthur C Clarke’s short stories. His novels are quite great, but his short stories are where the gems are. Best example is “The Star”, which the full text is easily found online. This kind of goosebump-raising stories.
The guy that wrote The Martian had a new-ish book called Project Hail Mary. That is stupendously good. It’s a bit movie like in the pacing, humour and concepts (perfect for an adaptation), but the plot is fantastic, level of detail is well balanced, twist is AMAZING, character development is quite good. His other one about the moon not as good though.
@unhedged man, Clarke! I keep overlooking him. will get to him. Thanks!