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If Greg Egan is the Autechre of books, whats the Aphex Twin or Boards of Canada of books?

Thats a good question. chatGPT has had a pretty good attempt at it above, I notice it didn't restrict itself to sci-fi although Borges is somewhat sci-fi as I understand it.

I'll have a go:

If Greg Egan = Autechre then its tempting to say Iain M Banks = Aphex Twin, there's something very IDM about the Culture novels or, say, Feersum Endjinn.

I'm also wondering about Hannu Rajaniemi = Aphex Twin, specifically The Quantum Thief trilogy, I heard someone describe Selected Amibent Works as 'liquid crystal' and the Quantum Thief has something of that about it (also very intricate and mindblowing). But Hannu hasn't written enough books for the comparison to stick.

Perhaps China Miéville = Boards of Canada, I've only read a few of this books but they have this dreamlike, something-happening-just-beyond-your-perception feel to them (I recommend the ones I know - Embassytown and The City And The City)

Perhaps also Vernor Vinge = Boards of Canada, both "A Fire Upon The Deep" and "A Deepness In The Sky" have something about time, history and wistfulness about them.

  On 11/11/2024 at 11:44 PM, zazen said:

Thats a good question. chatGPT has had a pretty good attempt at it above, I notice it didn't restrict itself to sci-fi although Borges is somewhat sci-fi as I understand it.

I'll have a go:

If Greg Egan = Autechre then its tempting to say Iain M Banks = Aphex Twin, there's something very IDM about the Culture novels or, say, Feersum Endjinn.

I'm also wondering about Hannu Rajaniemi = Aphex Twin, specifically The Quantum Thief trilogy, I heard someone describe Selected Amibent Works as 'liquid crystal' and the Quantum Thief has something of that about it (also very intricate and mindblowing). But Hannu hasn't written enough books for the comparison to stick.

Perhaps China Miéville = Boards of Canada, I've only read a few of this books but they have this dreamlike, something-happening-just-beyond-your-perception feel to them (I recommend the ones I know - Embassytown and The City And The City)

Perhaps also Vernor Vinge = Boards of Canada, both "A Fire Upon The Deep" and "A Deepness In The Sky" have something about time, history and wistfulness about them.

 

 

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Very interesting thanks for making the effort to point these out. Definitely going to check 

very subjective lol but.....IMHO

Christopher Priest, Robert Silverberg = BoC

J G Ballard, William Gibson = Aphex

Alistair Reynolds, Peter F Hamilton = Squarepusher

William S Burroughs, Greg Egan = Autechre

just finished this, novella about a being on a planet that has been left not easily habitable, searching for who they are, what they are, and why they have personalities stored inside of them.

really great, weird, body horror stuff here.

  On 11/17/2024 at 6:09 PM, Atop said:

Alistair Reynolds, Peter F Hamilton = Squarepusher

This is a good call, I've enjoyed books by both of those guys but they've also produced lots of stuff that somehow doesnt appeal.

Revelation Space by Alistair Reynolds is a classic (the sequels werent so good I found)

Peter F Hamilton 'Dreaming Void' trilogy was great.

https://www.are.na/block/32689121

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samudra_Manthana

been on a Leo Tolstoy kick recently - read last month his final prose work, Hadji Murat (published posthumously in 1912), which was about a muslim military commander from the Caucasus area who is disrespected and disavowed by his amir and decides to defect to the Russian side (Russia was waging wars of imperial expansion in the mid 19th century, of which the battles depicted in this novella are a part). The Russians try to hamstring him, though, and he must escape from them and try and prevent his family back home from being killed by powers that be back home. A fairly short work, it is a great intro to Tolstoy and a beautiful account of what it meant in those times to be a warrior.

Started reading a few days ago Tolstoy's great novel Anna Karenina, which I have read before many years ago and remembered as being one of my favorite novels, so was excited to revisit. It does not disappoint, the writing is perfect.

It has two interweaving plots: one is about a society woman, Anna Karenina, who is somewhat bored in her life, married to a high level bureaucrat in Russia's government who is much older than her, the passion has faded between them. She meets a young military man and begins an affair with him. 

The more interesting plot, however, concerns Konstantin Levin, who is more or less a stand-in for Tolstoy himself. He is from an aristocratic background, a large family of agricultural landowners. He tries to find out if there is any meaning of life, searches for a wife, and runs his farm. He has periodic crises and oscillates between temporarily finding meaning in one of these pursuits and then realizing that everything is maybe meaningless and that death is the only real thing in the world, and his characterization revolves around these repeated moments of crisis and then rapture at momentarily finding some kind of meaning that might suffice.

There are dozens of interesting and memorable characters, and Tolstoy provides a very rich and detailed portrait of the entire society of his time, as Levin frequently travels from his farm to Moscow and Petersburg and has conversations with friends and others about the pressing political and social problems of his time (it was the period immediately following the liberation of serfs in Russia when all kinds of other social and technological innovations were taking place there too).

There is much wisdom and humor in this novel, and as mentioned before the writing is incredible. I think that one of his friends said that if nature itself or if the world itself could write, then its style would be like Tolstoy's style.

For both Hadji Murat and Anna Karenina, I used the husband and wife team translators, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, which seems to be the best English translation available based on the reviews.

Readi9ng the Best of Cordwainer Smith, so good and ahead of its time. Highly recommended!

also reading The Midwich Cuckoos by Wyndham. So much better than any of the film adaptations. The tension within the situation is intense.

AND also reading The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson. There is a really important and interesting book hidden somewhere in here but it has too much padding, makes for a boring read. The Deluge which has a similar plot/subject is the better book and twice as long, but it is also way too long. Lots to take away from both books though. Mainly, we should stop doing capitalism because it's going to kill us all.

I want to build a book collection in languages I am learning on Duolingo. Started with Three body problem in Japanese and Chinese. Now going to get some French books. I guess it’s easier if I know them already.

also this book by kurzweil is really interesting 

going to buy these in paper as well 

Amazing read for anyone that likes football

https://www.literature-map.com

  On 12/27/2024 at 3:33 PM, decibal cooper said:

been on a Leo Tolstoy kick recently - read last month his final prose work, Hadji Murat (published posthumously in 1912), which was about a muslim military commander from the Caucasus area who is disrespected and disavowed by his amir and decides to defect to the Russian side (Russia was waging wars of imperial expansion in the mid 19th century, of which the battles depicted in this novella are a part). The Russians try to hamstring him, though, and he must escape from them and try and prevent his family back home from being killed by powers that be back home. A fairly short work, it is a great intro to Tolstoy and a beautiful account of what it meant in those times to be a warrior.

Started reading a few days ago Tolstoy's great novel Anna Karenina, which I have read before many years ago and remembered as being one of my favorite novels, so was excited to revisit. It does not disappoint, the writing is perfect.

It has two interweaving plots: one is about a society woman, Anna Karenina, who is somewhat bored in her life, married to a high level bureaucrat in Russia's government who is much older than her, the passion has faded between them. She meets a young military man and begins an affair with him. 

The more interesting plot, however, concerns Konstantin Levin, who is more or less a stand-in for Tolstoy himself. He is from an aristocratic background, a large family of agricultural landowners. He tries to find out if there is any meaning of life, searches for a wife, and runs his farm. He has periodic crises and oscillates between temporarily finding meaning in one of these pursuits and then realizing that everything is maybe meaningless and that death is the only real thing in the world, and his characterization revolves around these repeated moments of crisis and then rapture at momentarily finding some kind of meaning that might suffice.

There are dozens of interesting and memorable characters, and Tolstoy provides a very rich and detailed portrait of the entire society of his time, as Levin frequently travels from his farm to Moscow and Petersburg and has conversations with friends and others about the pressing political and social problems of his time (it was the period immediately following the liberation of serfs in Russia when all kinds of other social and technological innovations were taking place there too).

There is much wisdom and humor in this novel, and as mentioned before the writing is incredible. I think that one of his friends said that if nature itself or if the world itself could write, then its style would be like Tolstoy's style.

For both Hadji Murat and Anna Karenina, I used the husband and wife team translators, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, which seems to be the best English translation available based on the reviews.

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From one Cooper to another I just wanted to say thanks for this post!  Anna Karenina has been on my list to read for a while (ever since I read Murakami's great short story "Sleep" where the protagonist reads it each night while she can't sleep) and this post made me go out and finally grab a copy.  I'm obsessed with it.  Settled down for what I thought would be the first 20 pages or so on New Year's Day and just couldn't put it down.  Such an enveloping read and so easy to get lost in.  So much more humor than I ever expected too (as you pointed out).  Never read Tolstoy before but this is really hitting the spot.  Anyways, thanks again for the suggestion.

  On 1/10/2025 at 9:57 PM, AgentCooper said:

From one Cooper to another I just wanted to say thanks for this post!  Anna Karenina has been on my list to read for a while (ever since I read Murakami's great short story "Sleep" where the protagonist reads it each night while she can't sleep) and this post made me go out and finally grab a copy.  I'm obsessed with it.  Settled down for what I thought would be the first 20 pages or so on New Year's Day and just couldn't put it down.  Such an enveloping read and so easy to get lost in.  So much more humor than I ever expected too (as you pointed out).  Never read Tolstoy before but this is really hitting the spot.  Anyways, thanks again for the suggestion.

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No problem, glad you are enjoying! Gotta be one of the best novels ever. Keep an eye out for Levin's hunting dog Laska. There is a chapter in second half of novel where Levin goes hunting with Oblonsky and Tolstoy writes from the dog's perspective, really great stuff. Also, without saying too much or giving away any spoilers, the final appearance of Anna Karenina in the novel is some of the most breathtaking prose I have ever read, written in a stream-of-consciousness style that anticipates the best writing of James Joyce, who perfected that style. And yes, some of the humor in the novel is perfect. I laughed out loud many a time reading it. If you ever get curious to learn more about the novel, check out the book Lectures on Russian Literature by Vladimir Nabokov. I am not a huge fan of literary criticism, but Nabokov was a phenomenal Russian-American writer himself, and his lectures helped me understand and appreciate Anna Karenina and Tolstoy's style more.

I gotta check out that Murakami story you mention. Have not read much of his work, only ever read his short story Tony Takitani, which I liked a lot. Anyway, happy reading!

  On 11/17/2024 at 6:09 PM, Atop said:

very subjective lol but.....IMHO

 

Christopher Priest, Robert Silverberg = BoC

J G Ballard, William Gibson = Aphex

Alistair Reynolds, Peter F Hamilton = Squarepusher

William S Burroughs, Greg Egan = Autechre

 

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Iain Banks = Bola

it starts pretty hard sci-fi but get very predictable after the plot is revealed to a point where I am not sure if I still care. its the typical "loss of memory" scenario but once the the fog clears up the story fits into one sentence which does not meet the standards I expect from a hard sci-fi book. Greg Egan or Dan Simmons do a much better job at keeping things complex throughout the story. also the few characters besides the main character are introduced just by fulfilling their respective cliché (the Russian scientist, the American project coordinator with unlimited access to all resources etc) and sometimes do not even make sense in what they do.

  On 1/22/2025 at 10:31 AM, o00o said:

it starts pretty hard sci-fi but get very predictable after the plot is revealed to a point where I am not sure if I still care. its the typical "loss of memory" scenario but once the the fog clears up the story fits into one sentence which does not meet the standards I expect from a hard sci-fi book. Greg Egan or Dan Simmons do a much better job at keeping things complex throughout the story. also the few characters besides the main character are introduced just by fulfilling their respective cliché (the Russian scientist, the American project coordinator with unlimited access to all resources etc) and sometimes do not even make sense in what they do.

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I liked it, Andy Weirs books are basically about people 'sciencing the shit out of something' and thats what the book is constructed around. It actually does something quite interesting with the main character in the final act

Its being made into a film with Ryan Gosling

  On 1/30/2025 at 5:28 PM, zazen said:

I liked it, Andy Weirs books are basically about people 'sciencing the shit out of something' and thats what the book is constructed around. It actually does something quite interesting with the main character in the final act

Its being made into a film with Ryan Gosling

Yes, I think that will probably work quite well as a movie. the martian was really great

@o00o re: Project Hail Mary

sounds promising maybe I should continue currently my next books are going to be these. some of them I have started already but became distracted and now I really want to finish them

JUST FINISHED CRASH BY BALLARD.

HOLY SHIT.

LOVED IT.

THE MOST CONTEMPORARY OF NOVELS.

HORNIEST BOOK I'VE EVER READ.

  On 1/31/2025 at 12:14 PM, o00o said:

sounds promising maybe I should continue currently my next books are going to be these. some of them I have started already but became distracted and now I really want to finish them

 

 

 

 

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Read all of the these except kurzweil and Reynolds

Wells is overrated imo 

Just finished the new james s corey which is cool 

Always interested in some hard sci fi recommendations