The Sword and Laser discussion

I find myself with a light amount of "required" reading this month, so I've been trying to work through some of the backlog of stuff I have on Kindle.

I'm having trouble on deciding what to do next. These are all books I haven't read yet, no rereads. I think this is most of them.

I'm not looking for something off the list as I already have too many unread books. So what should I read and why?

Blackbirds
The Lives of Tao
The Warded Man
Sand Omnibus
Control Point
Shaman's Crossing
Geekomancy
The Golem and the Jinni
The Black Prism
Stardust
Slaughterhouse-Five
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
The Light Fantastic
Quicksilver
Sandman Slim
On Basilisk Station
Anathem
The Story of the Stone: A Master Li Novel
Year Zero
The Man in the High Castle

Depends on what you're in the mood for, but of the ones off that list I have read, I'd say...

Golem and the Jinni is excellent but is a quiet, slow thoughtful read,

Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is a really good epic fantasy with a fresh feel and unique (not typical medieval European) flavor,

Geekomancy is fun, pop culture become magic power,

Lives of Tao has a great idea and is a good origin story style book, good writing, MC a bit whiny, lots of sarcasm,

Story of the Stone: Master Li isn't quite as good as Bridge of Birds, but still a fun read if you liked the first one,

Stardust is a light, fairytale type story, very well done by Gaiman,

On Basilisk Station is pretty standard space military with an interesting MC, and plenty of tech and a wild battle, also pretty short.

Blackbirds I lemmed a few chapters in but mostly because I didn't care for the tone of the story, very dark, black humor urban fantasy horror stuff,

And Control Point I faded out on but will probably go back to, a little too military for my mood at the time but interesting magic.

Others lemmed - Anathem lost me - didn't catch my interest at all, and Year Zero started off very silly and seemed to be trying very hard to be clever.

Only The Golem and the Jinni and Stardust are pure standalone, if that matters, though Geekomancy is a wrapped up story on it's own.

So that's my probably unhelpful opinion on the books you listed :)

Kaleb wrote: "Out of the two books I've actually read on your list, it'd be a choice between Blackbirds and The Lives of Tao. Both were such great books, but in the end I think the choice is Balckbirds. That boo..."

Blackbirds and Lives of Tao were the two I was originally considering.

Michele wrote: "Depends on what you're in the mood for, but of the ones off that list I have read, I'd say...

Golem and the Jinni is excellent but is a quiet, slow thoughtful read,

Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is a..."

Part of the problem is I'm not sure what I'm in the mood for. Thanks for your insights.

I've only read 3 of the ones on your list: Year Zero, Quicksilver, and Anathem. I though Year Zero was a fun book along the vein of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, although it's nowhere near as good as that.

Of the two Stephenson novels, I loved both, but I thought Anathem was truly amazing. It's not for everyone, and in the early part I felt a tiny bit lost in the new world and language he was creating, but once I got used to it, the pages flew by to the point where I was forcing myself to slow down so I could enjoy the book longer. When I wrote my short review afterward, I didn't want to give away any details of the novel, I wanted people to discover it as they went just as I did.

I'd recommend Anathem just for the chance that your experience with it was anywhere close to mine, but as always, YMMV.

I've liked both Stephenson books I've read. My only reservation is the length. I'm not sure I'd finish it before July.

I probably should have posted this two weeks ago.

I loved the Baroque Cycle...Are you planning on reading all three or just Quicksilver? Have you read The Cryptonomicon? It explores some of the same ideas, and has some of the same characters, or at least family trees.

Anathem is the only Stephenson book that I haven't read yet, I'll probably read it next month.

I hope Stephenson gets back to this stuff...REAMDE was a lot of fun, but Mongoliad and all his sword geekery is getting a little old now.

I only have the first one. The other two would depend on how much I like it.

Yes I enjoyed Cryptonomicon, but not as much as Snow Crash.

Oh yeah. I guess I have the first Mongoliad book too.

yeah, my enjoyment was something like:

Snow Crash > Cryptonomicon > REAMDE > Baroque Cycle > Mongoliad Trilogy

There is not as much action in the Baroque Cycle as his previous novels. A lot of painstaking historical details, lots of great ideas. It was a bit of a slog to get through it all, but I felt better for it at the end. I am not sure there is much benefit to reading only the first volume without committing to the entire series.

I found the Baroque Cycle fascinating and I agree with Sky, you can't just read the first book. There may be some things that predisposed me to enjoy the series, like having read all of Neal Stephenson's previous books, a lot of reading about the history of science, and I also enjoy reading adventurous historical novels. The Baroque Cycle has all of this. On the other hand, I lemmed Anathem. I may try it again someday.

I've read 8 of the books on your list. These are my thoughts:

Gut reaction, I'd read Golem and the Jinni, it's a beautifully written story of finding yourself as a new immigrant, plus fantasy elements. I recommend it a lot to people who aren't normally into genre fiction.

After that I'd say Man in the High Castle. Ubik is still my favorite Dick novel, but this one is also quite good. Perks - it's short and standalone.

The rest fall into 3 categories:

Funny summer read: Lives of Tao or Year Zero. I didn't love either of these, but I'd take Lives of Tao first for sure. Comedy sci-fi just isn't my jam, but they're both good books for hanging out outside and enjoying.

Thought provoking / requires much more concentration: Anathem and Slaughterhouse 5. Not my favorite of either of these two authors, but both are definitely worth reading.

Unique fantasy series: The Warded Man or 100 Thousand Kingdoms. I would take Warded Man over 100 Thous, I liked the characters, writing, and the worldbuilding better. However, if you read Warded Man, you'll be committed to the next 2. 100 Thou you can do as a standalone, the next 2 books are same world, but different-ish characters.

I'll second Man in the High Castle, though it's an alternate history where the Allies lost WWII and the United States have been split between Germany and Japan. So, quite good, but not something to turn to if you want light or funny.

Thanks for the input all. I've got a few more hours to think about it further.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. It's very different and Jemisin has such wonderful prose.

The Black Prism was good. Much better than the Night Angel books.

Ha whatever you choose, you've definitely given me quite a few books I wasn't aware of, I better get on it.

Slaughterhouse Five and The Man in the High Castle are both short, at least compared to the current trend. Neither are fun, light, happy stories. Both are about WWII. If you are in the mood for that type of story, you could easily knock two off your list in less time than one of the longer choices.

I enjoyed Blackbirds and The Golem and the Jinni, the first because I was intrigued by the main character and the second because it's a barely fantastical NYC setting, and reads more like historical fiction than anything else.

Quicksilver - this book made me furious, something about the tone - "let me show you how smart I am" - otherwise I enjoy Stephenson most of the time but I wouldn't recommend this one.

I ended up going with The Lives of Tao and one of my holds just came in from the library, so I'll probably be reading that next.

Thanks everyone for the input!

Here's my 2 cents with a different take. If you listened to, and enjoyed, the interview with David Weber then try On Basilisk Station. No literary masterwork, but the books are as entertaining as Mr Weber himself :)

I know you've already made your choice but in advance of next month I wanted to throw in my two cents about the books on your list that I've read:

Shaman's Crossing - only read it if you absolutely loved her other trilogies.

Slaughterhouse-Five - it's a classic for a reason but, like Janet, I can't say it's my favorite Vonnegut.

The Light Fantastic - I liked this less than any other Pratchett book I've read (which means it's in about thirtieth place)

On Basilisk Station - If you've never read any Mil-SF, this is perhaps the best series to try as an entry point. If you don't like it, you can cross off the David Drakes and John Ringos of the world.

The Man in the High Castle - it's my favorite Phillip K. Dick book.

The Warded Man - I'm currently reading it and enjoying it so far.

Thanks Alan.

A bit coincidentally I'm listening to On Basilisk Station right now. I'm about a quarter of the way through and while I'm intrigued by the plot, the writing style is bad. I feel the bulk of the story has been an infodump instead of true world building, and the use of fake science/tech gibberish is 5 times worse then ST:TNG. And the point of view is a bit awkward as well it's sort of 3rd person, but flips from the POV of multiple characters in a single scene.

I've heard enough good things about this that I'm going to keep listening, but I'm a bit surprised that for someone who had a handful of published novels before this, that the writing style is so week.

The funny thing is when I read military Sci/fi I'm usually not that critical, I'm just looking for fun adventure. But it stood out to me so much in this that I had to mention it.

John wrote: "A bit coincidentally I'm listening to On Basilisk Station right now. I'm about a quarter of the way through and while I'm intrigued by the plot, the writing style is bad. I feel the bulk of the st..."

THANK YOU! Sometimes, I feel like I'm the only one. Believe me, the next book isn't any better.