Wow, First time here and already Im posting like crazy. Lets see.......
S R Delaney is good, but sometimes difficult. Anyone, for example, read and enjoyed 'Triton"? One of my friends who is a Delaney fan couldnt finish it because the central character is a moaning minny.
Ive recently read "Stars in my pocket like grains of sand" and enjoyed it immensly, except I understand he hasnt written the second in the series!!!!!!!!!! ARghhhh.
As for Banks, Im getting a bit tired of him, since his culture novels are rather samey, you know, they have too much
( And this word has to the best of my knowledge been invented by me, I leave it here for peopel to use, but remember who made it up.)
Omnipotech, which makes life rather dull and boring, because they can do anything. All the interesting stuff happens at the edge of the culture, the interface between it and lower tech more desperate cultures, and hes virtually mined that out in my opinion. When look to windward has things liek the lava rafting, banks is being clever but not ultimately anything more. (except entertaining, in a rather familiar fashion)
Benfords good, I have the first two in that series, which is ocean of night and sea of suns, but there is a third isnt there? I find it an extremely depressing series.
Then E E Smith, his writing is well, entertaining. His books other than lensmen ones are sort of OK, such as teh Skylark series and "Spacehounds of ICP and so on, but they shorter. But in essence they are all the same, mindless entertainment.
As for teh gap series, lets see, maybe I was having an off day, but I found the first one a little boring. Donaldson seems slow in building up to things, but I dont find myself enjoying the tension and character building very much.
Talking of characters, Alastari reynolds "Revelation space" has rubbish ones. One of my friends threw teh book across the room half way into it because he didnt like any of them and htought Mr Reynolds did them really badly. Which I agree with, I didnt start atually getting on with any of them until the last few pages, then when it was all over I thought oh well, that was barely worth it. And now hes done a wheen more?? Hey, I can write just as well as him, but I dont see anyone approaching me to publish anything. (thatll be because I havnt had anything published then....) Wake up people, and see beyond the nice gadgetry and knowledgable use of physics.
Then what about Greg Egan? I loved "Distress", got kind of bored with Terranesia, and thought Quarantine was ok, but was fed up with him using quantum wibble as the explanation. Its like reversing the whatsernames on star trek.
I sympathise with FAdingCaptain, in my opinion theres too much far out wibbly Omnipotech (see above) getting in the way of realistic exploration of hte next 30 years. Rememebr the golden age! Remember Heinlein and Clarke and others stuff, all set 10, 20 years ago, with rockets and space stations and stuff. It seems that getting across how a cell works is a bit more complex and more boring than how a rocket works, and seeing as biotech is beggining to show promise, someone will have to write mroe on that.
"Herbert is a scifi~writing god. It was taking me awhile to finish Heretics of Dune, I didn't have much time, and my friend got pissed off at me for not being quick enough about it so he took it back"
Quick, Pollux V, get it back off him now. Did you enjoy God Emperor?
(*SPOILER ALERT*)
I like the way that killing off half the main characters by the end is actually the whole point of the book, I mean where else does that happen?
Finish Heretics first, it finishes great. then get onto Chapterhous Dune, in one way its more of the same, yet is gripping and flavoursome in a distinct fashion, like all the previous novels.
