Fractal Softworks Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

Pages: [1] 2

Author Topic: A Starsector Reading List  (Read 18584 times)

David

  • Global Moderator
  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 909
    • View Profile
A Starsector Reading List
« on: March 12, 2015, 06:33:13 PM »

The blog post in question can be found here.
Logged

CrazyDave

  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 144
  • Never left, stopped posting
    • View Profile
Re: A Starsector Reading List
« Reply #1 on: March 12, 2015, 06:45:40 PM »

Ive recently gotten to the end a long book series and was wondering what I was going to read next so seeing as these come recommended I'll be sure to give them a go. So cheers, have a double thumbs up from me!
Logged
Naysmyth Armouries, for all your blasting needs.

legopatch

  • Ensign
  • *
  • Posts: 3
    • View Profile
Re: A Starsector Reading List
« Reply #2 on: March 12, 2015, 07:18:10 PM »

I wanted to do something productive over spring break, guess ill be reading instead.  ;D
Also, really liking the art!
Logged

Zaphide

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 799
    • View Profile
Re: A Starsector Reading List
« Reply #3 on: March 12, 2015, 07:52:04 PM »

Yeah Revelation Space was an amazing book, I read it without putting it down! After that I promptly bought and read pretty much everything else by Reynolds, but I still think Revelation Space was my favorite book.

I did not even know about Against a Dark Background (I have read the majority of the other Banks novels); it sounds right up my alley so thanks for that :D
Logged

FasterThanSleepyfish

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 727
  • Blub
    • View Profile
Re: A Starsector Reading List
« Reply #4 on: March 12, 2015, 08:03:02 PM »

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Saga_of_Seven_Suns

I really loved the Saga of the Seven Sun series for the human faction's inner tension between the fuel producing space gypsies called Roamers and the resource hungry "Hansa" League/megacorp/dictatorship.

While most of the other weird factions wouldn't fit into the no-aliens policy, there are some nice motives and backstories you could draw from them.
« Last Edit: March 13, 2015, 12:44:08 AM by Foxer360 »
Logged

Thaago

  • Global Moderator
  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 7174
  • Harpoon Affectionado
    • View Profile
Re: A Starsector Reading List
« Reply #5 on: March 12, 2015, 08:25:09 PM »

Nice! I especially like the last tag...
Logged

Cycerin

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 1665
  • beyond the infinite void
    • View Profile
Re: A Starsector Reading List
« Reply #6 on: March 12, 2015, 10:45:56 PM »

Nice blogpost. It's so sad that Iain Banks passed away...

My favorite recent stuff within scifi def. comes from Hannu Rajaniemi and Peter Watts. It doesn't have much similarities with Starsector in terms of plot and setting, but it's full of amazing ideas. The Jean le Flambeur trilogy features some truly insane posthuman stuff (multiple post/transhuman civilizations in one solar system) and Blindsight by Peter Watts is the most mindblowing first-contact-with-aliens story ever written due to its bone-chilling take on the nature of consciousness.
Logged

Tartiflette

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 3529
  • MagicLab discord: https://discord.gg/EVQZaD3naU
    • View Profile
Re: A Starsector Reading List
« Reply #7 on: March 13, 2015, 01:25:16 AM »

I read a fair chunk of those  ;D Actually I'm reading Absolution Gap right now and I'm loving it! I'll try Iain M. Banks when I'm finished with Reynolds.

If I may add my own suggestions, not exactly in the same type of universe as Starsector, but these are good books to get inspiration from:

The Dragon Never Sleeps from Glen Cook. Somewhat in the same vein as Hyperion with almost the same level of awesomeness. An Odyssey in a crumbling empire guarded by millennium old planet-sized ships. The other Houses of power are getting jealous of their diktat and are readying the blades to take over... It got some very epic scenes and some very epic characters! While the setting is quite different, it's effect is somewhat similar to the situation of the sector.

Altered Carbon from Richard Morgan. Dark thriller on earth in a close future so nothing to do with Starsector... Except for the fact that corporations took over, and because of a technology of mind backup, the life and body of people are now considered commodities. Very bleak but very interesting to maybe add flavor to the planets. Somewhat similar to a modern Neuromancer from William Gibson.

The Engines of God from Jack McDevitt (and the following books). Now this one is very interesting for a simple reason: it's not about huge wars and gigantic empires, but about archeology. Archeology in space, a thousand years from now to study strange artifacts from lost civilizations. It really is a breather in the genre, and maybe something interesting to pick from.
Logged
 

Hurion

  • Ensign
  • *
  • Posts: 2
    • View Profile
Re: A Starsector Reading List
« Reply #8 on: March 13, 2015, 04:56:45 AM »

Thanks for the blog post, I've read most of them already, but I'll have to check out the Dan Simmons stuff.

Also wanted to say that Reynolds wrote House of Suns, which is one of my all time sci-fi favourites.
Logged

ClosetGoth

  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 202
  • Permanently TTRPG-brained
    • View Profile
Re: A Starsector Reading List
« Reply #9 on: March 13, 2015, 06:43:17 AM »

I love the blog post, and I am definitely adding a ton of books to my reading list now.

That said, I am more than a little surprised to not see the Dune series by Frank Herbert, as well as its prequels. I would highly recommend reading any or all of the zillions of Dune books, by Frank Herbert or Brian Herbert/Kevin J Anderson, as they tackle how many different societies approach multitudes of issues of the future, especially space travel.
Logged
Starfaring since the very beginning of 2012

Legendsmith

  • Ensign
  • *
  • Posts: 24
    • View Profile
Re: A Starsector Reading List
« Reply #10 on: March 13, 2015, 06:47:48 AM »

Sublime taste there my friend. Alastair Reynolds is an amazing author. To reinforce the blog post: I do recommend him to anyone who's got an interest in sci-fi literature at all. I unfortunately haven't read Chasm City, or the Prefect though.

Iain M. Banks I'm not quite as well read in, which is possibly why I like Alastair more. The reality that Alastair brings to his work is simply amazing. The sheer scale and scope that Alastair uses in his work blows me away. The way he has these epic tales that span interstellar space, and yet still never loses the size, the depth of space. The emptiness. Space is not tamed in Reynolds' writing, not at all.  Not to depreciate Iain at all; I greatly enjoyed what I've read of the Culture novels.

Logged

Pnaede

  • Ensign
  • *
  • Posts: 1
    • View Profile
David Weber and Steven White
« Reply #11 on: March 13, 2015, 07:36:30 AM »

Starfire Universe title.. Insurrection comes to mind.   Though long on space opera, some gritty drama woven in.
Logged

David

  • Global Moderator
  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 909
    • View Profile
Re: A Starsector Reading List
« Reply #12 on: March 13, 2015, 08:33:00 AM »

BTW Love all the recommendations and book talk! I'm going to have so much to read after this thread, both remembering old books and learning about new ones.

The Engines of God from Jack McDevitt (and the following books). Now this one is very interesting for a simple reason: it's not about huge wars and gigantic empires, but about archeology. Archeology in space, a thousand years from now to study strange artifacts from lost civilizations. It really is a breather in the genre, and maybe something interesting to pick from.

That actually sounds like fun. There's something to the whole "investigating a mysterious thing" that's really interesting. Renedevous with Rama is the classic archetype (though it's a bit unsatisfying, which I guess is the point but, but!), and there's another that comes to mind, the first half of Greg Bear's Eon, a big chunk of Reynold's Pushing Ice and probably a zillion more.

Nice blogpost. It's so sad that Iain Banks passed away...

I know, right? Man. Definitely had a wee dram that day.

... and Blindsight by Peter Watts is the most mindblowing first-contact-with-aliens story ever written due to its bone-chilling take on the nature of consciousness.

Blindsight keeps coming up again and again, must be good! And consciousness eh? I wonder how its central conceit compares to Embassytown, but then that one is perhaps more about language.

That said, I am more than a little surprised to not see the Dune series by Frank Herbert, as well as its prequels. I would highly recommend reading any or all of the zillions of Dune books, by Frank Herbert or Brian Herbert/Kevin J Anderson, as they tackle how many different societies approach multitudes of issues of the future, especially space travel.

My first thought is that yes, I really need to read the Dune series beyond the first book (which I've read through quite a few times). Second thought is, I think the Dune-feeling in Starsector is a great deal from Ivaylo's influence. Third: But I still need to read the Dune books!

Iain M. Banks I'm not quite as well read in, which is possibly why I like Alastair more. The reality that Alastair brings to his work is simply amazing. The sheer scale and scope that Alastair uses in his work blows me away. The way he has these epic tales that span interstellar space, and yet still never loses the size, the depth of space. The emptiness. Space is not tamed in Reynolds' writing, not at all.  Not to depreciate Iain at all; I greatly enjoyed what I've read of the Culture novels.

I hear you on Reynolds; absolutely!
On Banks in this context - I very much chose his non-Culture novels as they, hmm, give up some of the comfort of the Culture.
Logged

Tartiflette

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 3529
  • MagicLab discord: https://discord.gg/EVQZaD3naU
    • View Profile
Re: A Starsector Reading List
« Reply #13 on: March 13, 2015, 08:58:27 AM »

Also, it's a shame it never got translated from French because the Omale serie from Laurent Genefort would really have appealed to you I think. It's exactly the mirror situation of Starsector: the humanity spread through the galaxy using old gates they didn't built, but one day some ships get marooned in an unknown location, completely different from the destination they were supposed to reach, and the gate close behind them. The following is quite different as that location is a Dyson sphere so they are trapped, and they aren't alone as ships from two alien species emerged from the gate too. Also they regressed to almost steampunk level of technology witch is pretty interesting.
Logged
 

Jimbo

  • Ensign
  • *
  • Posts: 1
    • View Profile
Re: A Starsector Reading List
« Reply #14 on: March 14, 2015, 02:32:19 PM »

Maybe I shouldn't tell you that since i'm too impatient for the new features to be implemented before I play the game, but if you want something exceptional to read, you should try "The gap" serie from Stephen R. Donaldson. It got the quality to go on par with the books you talked about.
Logged
Pages: [1] 2