What are you reading right now?

nomadic

Danger! Danger Will Robinson! Lots of text ahead...

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@catweazle said in What are you reading right now?:

this saddens me, the actually 7 books in the series certainly deserve more than a television series, made with $50.

It is far from a cheap production from what I can tell.

These days TV shows seem far more than enjoyable than movies. They give so much more time to really develop a world and the stories that take place within them. They are also being treated with respectable budgets that rival blockbuster movies.

You could also call me a bit of a snob when it comes to watching low budget TV shows. I am a big Star Trek fan, but I just can't watch much of the Original Series or even much of the early Next Generation episodes. But the Foundation show definitely got a big budget from Apple as they continue to try and establish themselves as a source of high quality television, so there is no need to worry about it not getting the respect it deserves. ( Note that I am only 3 episodes in so far. )

If one of my favorite book series, The Expanse, had been made into a few movies rather than the great TV show that was made instead, it surely would have been an inferior adaptation.

Yes, it contains a lot of dialogue and is not as much based on space battles as Star Wars, but action is not lacking in an interesting and intelligent plot.

Asimov's short stories are pretty good and are the reason I went through the Foundation series (trilogy and 2 later books) in the first place, but the series didn't hold up as well in my opinion. It might have failed my expectations somewhat because I heard so many people raving over how good it is. As it is said, "Expectations are the thief of joy." No way for it to meet the image that had been formed in my head.

There doesn't need to be space battles for me to enjoy a story. The series just didn't feel fleshed out enough. It seemed more like a collection of neat ideas with some fairly hollow characters as well as a world. And much of the dialog seemed to consist of characters trying to prove how much smarter they are than the people around them. With saying stuff like: Oh, you thought that? You fool, I was actually doing ( x ) all along.

Maybe it just didn't fit my preferences as well as some other series. I mean plenty of people enjoy the Ender's Saga and Revelation Space series, but they weren't great in my opinion either.

These are a few Sci-Fi series that I thoroughly enjoyed ( just to prove I am not totally blind to good Sci-Fi ):

[In Alphabetical Order]

Bobiverse by Dennis E. Taylor

Might lean a little heavy on sci-fi/ other cultural references, but the overarching story is still fun

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Dune by Frank Herbert

Haven't read past the first 2 books, but my sister tells me it gets a tad weird...

The Expanse by James S.A. Corey

The Interdependency by John Scalzi

The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

Characters other than the narrator are a bit hollow, but it is from the perspective of the Murderbot, so it fits

Old Man's War by John Scalzi

Silo Saga by Hugh Howey

Some aspects are a bit silly, but a decent dystopia

Southern Reach by Jeff VanderMeer

Had a movie adaptation (Annihilation) that many people liked, but the books were so much better

Catweazle

@nomadic , add
Eden by Stanislavv Lem
They came from another galaxy by Walter Schätzel

Ryszard

@nomadic, @Catweazle
Zajdel's universes are probably inaccessible to you, so take a look at them at least through the Wikipedia hole.
Janusz A. Zajdel – „Limes inferior”
okładka - Limes inferior