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Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

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Re: Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

#551

Post by palerdot »

metroholografix wrote: post #545
d2161 wrote: post #519

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dune is soft sci fi. TBP is hard sci fi. They're very different formats of stories. Good hard SF generally doesn't have character development. In fact character development is a kind of subgenre called bildungsroman. I don't know why ppl these days expect characters to change as though it's some inherent part of a book. Some books are thought experiments or about world building. Part of reading for me is to try exper…

I don't "hate" TBP, so not sure why you chose this characterization. I just find it overrated. When I finished the trilogy, I wished I'd have gotten back the hours I spent reading it. That's neither the mark of a good book nor a good writer. And let's not pretend that the Hugo committee is some sort of arbiter of truth. Plenty of real stinkers (N. K. Jemisin anyone?) have won it. Also, If I'm in the mood for hard sci…

I'm considering start reading TBP. So my question to you is why did you progress through the trilogy if you find it kind of substandard? Meaning, once you are done with first or even the second book what made you consider reading the next books in the trilogy?

This is an honest question as someone who is seriously considering reading TBP in near future.

Re: Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

#552

Post by pchristensen »

Jkol wrote: post #103

Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy, aka Three Body Problem. Explored existential topics in a way I've never encountered anywhere else. I truly believe that decades from now this series will be viewed as the LOTR of our time. I've recently been reading the Foundation series, and have found the concept of The Mule character to be incredibly eye opening. I can't say directly it's had a positive impact on my life but it…

I read all three of those books, plus Ball Lightning by the same author. I found them very difficult reading, partly because I wasn't familiar with Chinese names and had trouble keeping them straight. Also, the material was dense and required a lot of background. But the ideas and some of the images stand out more than dozens of other books I've read over the time period. For each book, it took me about 3 months to get through the first 40%, then 3 days to get through the other 60%, once I had bootstrapped enough to get into them. Not easy, but highly recommended.

Re: Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

#553

Post by metroholografix »

palerdot wrote: post #551
metroholografix wrote: post #545

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't "hate" TBP, so not sure why you chose this characterization. I just find it overrated. When I finished the trilogy, I wished I'd have gotten back the hours I spent reading it. That's neither the mark of a good book nor a good writer. And let's not pretend that the Hugo committee is some sort of arbiter of truth. Plenty of real stinkers (N. K. Jemisin anyone?) have won it. Also, If I'm in the mood for hard sci…

I'm considering start reading TBP. So my question to you is why did you progress through the trilogy if you find it kind of substandard? Meaning, once you are done with first or even the second book what made you consider reading the next books in the trilogy? This is an honest question as someone who is seriously considering reading TBP in near future.

Because enough people I know were raving and kept telling me it starts slow / payoff comes later. Well, I won't be listening to these folks again re: books that's for sure!

If you're dead-set on reading it, read the first book and if you don't like it cut your losses short right there. I say skip the whole mess and read Watts instead.

Re: Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

#554

Post by cookie_monsta »

pengaru wrote: post #352
cookie_monsta wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anything by Vonnegut is worth a look

There are a bunch of short earlier works when he was writing for something like Women's Home Journal to pay the bills that one wouldn't go wrong skipping IMHO.

Haha. Ok - probably some of his primary school poetry isn't required reading either ;)

Re: Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

#555

Post by newen »

Zanni wrote: post #511
newen wrote: post #449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaker for the Dead is the book that the author originally wanted to write. Ender's Game was written as a prequel for it.

To clarify, yes, Speaker for the Dead is the book Card wanted to write, but he found he had to write Ender's Game first to lay the groundwork. And he did. He wrote them in that order (Ender, Speaker). A prequel usually refers to a work produced later that comes chronologically before.

I see, thanks for clarifying.

Re: Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

#556

Post by UnbugMe »

Hyperion by Dan Simmons (the whole cantos, all books).

The finale in the last book really touched my heart and let me think about love and how much to value the time you have with each other.

--- no spoilers ---

I never thought to find this in a science fiction space opera - I was shocked.

The idea in the book I am talking about is crazy and I cannot fathom how one would feel if something like this really happened. It is wonderful and sad at the same time.

That said and totally apart from it, the whole thing is a masterpiece. You have to read all books of the canon, even if the first book with the unique stories seems strange - I could not put it down though. Apart from that it also has great storytelling, wonderful language, crazy ideas (a house with rooms on different... no spoiler :) and more.

Re: Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

#557

Post by gonehome »

egypturnash wrote: post #418
gonehome wrote: post #314

I have a list here with a lot that I like (some with links that are free to read online): https://zalberico.com/about/ To pick a couple though: - The Nix (best novel I’ve read in a long time): https://www.npr.org/2016/08/31/490101821/the-nix-is-a-viciou... - Lake Success - Permutation City - Harry Potter and The Methods of Rationality ( https://www.hpmor.com/ ) - True Names - Any of the stories by Ted Chiang, but spe…

HP&TMOR is kind of terrible on many levels but it may have saved my life; I was mindlessly reading it in the depths of a long, gloomy Seattle winter when something it said about the way the Dementors work made me look up from my tablet and go find a garden shop, from which I got a two foot square sun lamp that kept the suicidal urges at bay for most of the rest of my winters in that grey, gloomy town.

I also really liked that scene you're talking about.

Not sure you think it's terrible though, I really liked it all the way through.

For people that don't know about it, it started off as a blog post on less wrong so the first chapter or so is a little different in style.

If you want to see if you'd like it I suggest people read Chapter 10 (the sorting hat chapter) and if that appeals to you to go back and start from the beginning.

Re: Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

#558

Post by volfied »

UnbugMe wrote: post #556

Hyperion by Dan Simmons (the whole cantos, all books). The finale in the last book really touched my heart and let me think about love and how much to value the time you have with each other. --- no spoilers --- I never thought to find this in a science fiction space opera - I was shocked. The idea in the book I am talking about is crazy and I cannot fathom how one would feel if something like this really happened. I…

Just re-read the entire cantos after 10 years. Totally agree, it's one of my favorite epics and the ending was extremely touching.

If you haven't I recommend Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons. It's a completely different kind of book, but it's a really good horror thriller that shows his range.

Re: Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

#559

Post by throw1234651234 »

stevekemp wrote: post #76
thaumasiotes wrote: post #5

I don't really see why book recommendations can't just be "books you enjoy". But if you're specifically looking for "books that affect your outlook on life", you might try reading through Peanuts. It's a comic strip, but there's a lot going on in there.

Agreed. No specific book has every "changed my life", or specifically been the source of positive impacts. But reading stories is fun, and something I do constantly. Currently I'm re-reading Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive. Every year or two I re-read Dune, Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Amber, and Steven Brust's Taltos series. Always a pleasure. My recommendations would probably echo those already poste…

Anything by Sanderson and The Chronicles of Amber are horrible. Sanderson has no understanding of real life. Zelazny does, but CoA were a grind.

Re: Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

#560

Post by edanm »

NateEag wrote: post #187

Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently books are not nearly as well known as his Hitchhiker's Guide "trilogy", but they are better books. The Lord of the Rings is spectacular. The movies were remarkable feats, but they missed the trilogy's heart (and ruined some great characters). It's dense reading, but the prequel The Silmarillion is perhaps the only successful epic mythology written in modern times. C. S. Lewis' "Till We Have…

If you haven't seen it, the new Dirk Gently tv adaptation is awesome. Not super connected to the books though.
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