RISE FROM YOUR brewing vats

Sweet, thanks for the rec!

I know I’m late to the party but I totally agree. I had never heard anyone say to skip Phlebas so I naturally started there when taking on the series and I thought it was an excellent book. It was very thought provoking at times and provides a good perspective to take into the rest of the series. It certainly doesnt hit the same way that The Player of Games and (my personal favorite BY FAR) Use of Weapons did but it is still excellent.

These are some of my favorite authors as well. I have a lot of issues with Hamilton, though. I loved Pandora’s Star/Judas Unchained. I liked (but did not love) the Void books. I just recently read The Reality Dysfunction and have started The Neutronium Alchemist, but I really don’t like them very much. My main issue with his writing and the thing that is getting in the way of my enjoyment of the Night’s Dawn books is simply that he seems to be a massive pervert. Like, it is constant and it is gross. It really detracts from the story at times.

Banks and Reynolds are absolutely amazing though, as is Asimov. I haven’t read anything by Neal Asher yet but I plan on it.

This was part of what detracted from my enjoyment of the first five books; I just didn’t like a single character. So that, combined with the Herculean effort required to try to understand basically anything that was happening makes me feel like Im doing work when I read them. Im still going to read them again, though.