309
[Results] Book of the Month (August 2023)
(i.imgur.com)
Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir
We had a pretty good turnout for our first book of the month vote. To be honest I did not anticipate the problem of there being a tie. I took the liberty of flipping a coin which came out heads for Project Hail Mary. In the future I might have to come up with a better method of tie breaking. I'm figuring this out as I go and it is all just for the fun of it anyway so please don't take this too seriously.
I intend to read this book over the month of September and then near the end of the month I will create a discussion thread for it where people can discuss it without worrying about spoilers. Follow along if you want to.
👽🚀
- Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir - 20 votes
- Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky - 20 votes
- Neuromancer - William Gibson - 17 votes
- Hyperion - Dan Simmons - 13 votes
- Leviathan Wakes - James S. A. Corey - 13 votes
- A Memory Called Empire - Arkady Martine - 11 votes
- Wool (Silo Series Book 1) - Hugh Howey - 10 votes
- Red Rising - Pierce Brown - 4 votes
- 22/11/63 - Stephen King - 1 vote
It's a decent book, but there were some things which bothered me.
The hero is similar to the Martian, all-knowing MacGyver type, always optimistic, likely author's alter ego. The character seems hollow. This unending optimism and humour spoils the atmosphere for me. Universe is a dark, dangerous place, I want some of that in sci-fi books ...
I also disliked the easiness with which the hero was able to learn to communicate with Rocky. I guess it was necessary to progress with the story, but figuring out a communication with aliens might be way more challenging because their whole way of thinking would be likely different (e.g. Arrival).
Out of the rest of the books, my favorites (roughly in this order) are Hyperion, Wool, Neuromancer, Children of Time.
Red Rising is IMHO rather a YA fantasy than sci-fi.
I haven't read this one yet, but I read another one by Andy Weir (Artemis) and I thought the exact same thing despite the character being female. At this point, I think Weir only writes one type of protagonist, which is disappointing because I loved The Martian.
Edit: also, you didn't mention Leviathan Wakes in your rundown of the other books. If you haven't read it yet and you enjoyed the others on your list, I'd highly recommend finding a used copy, because I've thoroughly enjoyed all of The Expanse novels (although I haven't started the last two yet)
Yeah, I've watched The Expanse, and it's kinda weird for me to read what I've already watched. I prefer to read first, watch later, otherwise the TV imagery influences the reading too much and there isn't so much space for imagination.
The books are FAR FAR better than the TV show (which was better than most adaptations). It is WELL worth reading in my opinion. Edit: Forgot to mention that there is a lot more story in the books as well. The closest point where the show ends, there are one or two more books and they are bangers.
I agree completely, and I made the same mistake. However, in this case, I took a chance on a cheap used copy of book 1 from a thrift store and I still enjoyed reading the books. Sure, it's a bit annoying that the character voices are already occupied in my brain, but the casting and writing for the show was done pretty well, so there's not too big an issue there.
Reading the books after seeing the show did mean that some parts were a bit of a slog, but there are a few major deviations that make the books worth reading if you liked the show (mostly the show cutting good but unnecessary exposition as well as combining some characters for continuity and messing with the timeline to fit the actors' ages). Plus, getting chapters written from the different characters' perspectives is a nice insight into their personalities and it's done pretty well. I thought the characters were pretty one-dimensional in the show, but IMO they are much more believable and well-rounded in the books.
Also, the show left some significant dangling plot threads, so I'm looking forward to reading the conclusion of the book series. I just finished book 7 (which is the first one where the premise was only hinted at in the show) and I'm glad I took the time.
If you wanted to jump straight into book 7 from the show, there's probably a recap or something out there to cover the gaps in what you missed (or DM me, I guess, and I can give you a few paragraphs to get you started)
While this wouldn't be as bad for the Expanse than some other series, skipping would miss out on a lot of little things and characters that either didn't exist or were combined with others for the TV show. Either way it is still worth reading, but reading them all is superior.