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Thing called Sarcellus

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« Reply #15 on: August 21, 2017, 11:00:25 pm »
My favorite non Bakker series is The Gap Chronicles by Stephen R Donaldson

solipsisticurge

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« Reply #16 on: August 22, 2017, 06:18:40 am »
If you haven't read Blood Meridian, I would do so ASAP.

This. Very different from Bakker in prose style, but the two are soul mates when it comes to interpreting a world. Blood Meridian is one of the greatest novels ever written.

...though I do wish the bastard would use goddamn quotation marks.

Just finished Blindsight - Peter Watts. Very much can see the similarities between Bakker's TDTCB and Watts opening sequence. Rough and mysterious in the same style.

Will need to check this out.

10 years ago I had not heard of Bakker, or Hyperion. I still thought RA Salvatore and the Forgotten Realms were the best fantasy ever(!), lol

I discovered Bakker after largely abandoning fantasy, having grown tired of the trite worlds of Salvatore, Weis & Hickman, etc., and seeing series such as Wheel of Time degenerating into endless money-printing doorstops waging a war against the need for a plot to have momentum so long as each volume hits the bestseller list. Whatever review/recommendation I found framed it as Nietzsche and Frank Herbert offering their version of Lord of the Rings, which seemed right up my alley. Reinvigorated my faith in the genre's potential. (I forget exactly when I found the series. It was after TTT was published, but not by long, I believe. Would have been '05-'06 based on where I was living at the time.)

I forget how or when I stumbled onto Hyperion, but it was some time ago.

...I need to find more new books.
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Madness

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« Reply #17 on: August 22, 2017, 01:09:06 pm »
My favorite non Bakker series is The Gap Chronicles by Stephen R Donaldson

Hiro will be happy to read this.
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Wilshire

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Madness

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« Reply #19 on: August 24, 2017, 01:36:02 pm »
Thanks, #2 8).
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solipsisticurge

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« Reply #20 on: September 20, 2017, 03:09:35 pm »
Finished Blindsight the other day. How I overlooked this book for over a decade, I shall never surmise, but it has immediately leapt among my favorites. Waiting for Echopraxia to arrive in the mail.

Also, moved on to Sapiens by Harrari after enjoying Homo Deus profoundly. Highly recommend his works; he has a knack for reducing complicated concepts to easily-understood language for laymen such as myself.
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Madness

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« Reply #21 on: September 20, 2017, 05:33:52 pm »
Finished Blindsight the other day. How I overlooked this book for over a decade, I shall never surmise, but it has immediately leapt among my favorites. Waiting for Echopraxia to arrive in the mail.

I did Blindsight recently as well. Very much akin to TDTCB, I thought, in terms of debut roughness. I look forward to reading the second book when I have the chance.
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TLEILAXU

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« Reply #22 on: September 20, 2017, 06:57:33 pm »
Blindsight is an absolutely fantastic book. It's almost eerie how similar Bakker and Watts are in their themes.

Srancy

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« Reply #23 on: September 21, 2017, 02:09:27 am »
Echopraxia has lot more ranting but in between is a good story.

TaoHorror

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« Reply #24 on: September 21, 2017, 12:52:15 pm »
Reading Dune is a MUST if you haven't. It's a fantastic series of books overall, and you'll get to see where Bakker-Senpai got some of his inspiration from.
I've actually never read Hyperion. I probably should start doing that...

Hyperion is the coolest sci-fi environment ever conceived and is so much fun to read - Dan Simmons is a demon.

If you want a modern classic, check out Underworld, by Don DeLillo. Will blow your mind.
« Last Edit: September 21, 2017, 12:58:49 pm by TaoHorror »
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Madness

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« Reply #25 on: September 23, 2017, 01:28:23 am »
At least the first two books of the Hyperion Quartet are a must read.
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TheCulminatingApe

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« Reply #26 on: September 23, 2017, 09:38:59 pm »
Presently, I'm reading  Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi.
Great book
I'd highly recommend War and Peace.
Great book
If you haven't read Blood Meridian, I would do so ASAP.
and great book.

Cities of the Plain trilogy by Cormac McCarthy is also worth checking out.  Anything by Gene Wolfe is very good.  The Silmarillion, if you haven't read it already (if not what the fuck are you doing with your life).  James Ellroy's Underworld USA trilogy (American Tabloid, The Cold Six Thousand, and Bloods a Rover) makes grimdark fantasy look like Disneyland.  Roberto Bolano is good. (2666 and Savage Detectives).  China Mieville is also worth reading, as is Michael Chabon.  Mary Gentle is very good - fantasy meets alternate history meets gender bending.  Also check out William Dalrymple for good travel writing (middle east/ India), Tom Holland for narrative history, Tony Judt for politics.  Diarmuid McCulloch (on Christianity) and Peter Heather (on the end of the Roman Empire and the beginnings of Europe) are also good reads.  The Conversion of Europe by Richard Fletcher is well worth looking up  - the process by which Europe became christian (not at all preachy) - on of the best books I've veer read.

You may infer I read a lot ;) :D
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Madness

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« Reply #27 on: September 25, 2017, 05:08:24 pm »
You may infer I read a lot ;) :D

You are The Culminating Ape ;).
The Existential Scream
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