FREE/BARGAIN — Science Fiction & Fantasy

[Tarana]

Red Mars By Kim Stanley Robinson $1.99 AMazon, Kobo and B&N

In 2026, the largest spacecraft ever built transports the first colonists to Mars, beginning a multigenerational journey. A Nebula Award winner hailed as “staggering… The best novel on the colonization of Mars that has ever been written” (Arthur C. Clarke).

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075V8LBPP...5547129&sr=8-1
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/red-mars-1

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Tarana

Red Mars By Kim Stanley Robinson $1.99 AMazon, Kobo and B&N

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075V8LBPP...5547129&sr=8-1
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/red-mars-1

I started the book in paperback waaaaay back when but just didn't get into it. Yet I hear it's the best thing since sliced bread. Should I give it another go?

[Dazrin]

I enjoyed them and am glad I completed them but I stalled several times trying to get through them.

I thought there were a lot of good ideas in them that seemed plausible, especially given our knowledge of Mars in the early 90s, but I'm not sure how well they stand up to our current science. I would say, if they do stand up to current science, they would be good to read as still "plausible." That's the fund part of these books to me. But if they no longer really align with the science then I wouldn't try reading them if you have stalled out already.

[salty-horse]

I read the Mars trilogy as an impressionable youth so can't critique it well. They're overlong, and plodding at times, but I overall enjoyed it, and the scope and time scale is impressive. (I didn't read the short story collection.)
Whatever outdated science they have, had I known it, wouldn't have affected my own enjoyment from it. (Ignore grammar mistakes in the preceding sentence)

[ZodWallop]

Eh, $2. The trilogy is a classic. I bought it

[cc_in_oh]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I started the book in paperback waaaaay back when but just didn't get into it. Yet I hear it's the best thing since sliced bread. Should I give it another go?

I barely managed to slog through the first one - the characters were utterly uninteresting to me. Maybe it gets better?

[pdurrant]

I got through Red Mars and Green Mars, but I discarded Blue Mars & The Martians from my TBR pile.


Let's see.... that was back in 2010. What did I say about it?
Red Mars: "it didn't really work for me"
Green Mars: "slow and lumbering"

I'm not surprised I discarded the sequels.

[Manabi]

I read them and there's some really interesting scientific stuff in there, but there's just way too many characters. All of them get lots of character development, so it's hard to keep track of everything. They didn't pull me in and keep my interest the way other series have and I've never had any desire to re-read them, nor try any of Robinson's other books.

I only really finished them to find out what Mars ended up like in the end, plus I try not to abandon series. (The only one I have is Gentry Lee's abysmal and depressing sequels to Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous With Rama. They're the worst books I've ever read and I regret the time I wasted reading them.)

They're not awful, but I don't understand why people rave about them either.

[Alastair_S]

The Adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser Volume One (Swords and Deviltry, Swords Against Death, and Swords in the Mist) by Fritz Leiber is available for £2.59 at Kobo UK.

https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/the...he-gray-mouser
or (it seems to make no difference)
https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/the...ser-volume-one

Curiously the individual books Swords and Deviltry and Swords Against Death are also on offer (price reduced) for £3.99 and £3.39 respectively...

[Critteranne]

Originally Posted by Alastair_S

The Adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser Volume One (Swords and Deviltry, Swords Against Death, and Swords in the Mist) by Fritz Leiber is available for £2.59 at Kobo UK.

It's also on sale on Amazon -- $2.99 for the set. (I already own that, but I still have a used copy of one of the Science Fiction Book Club omnibus editions because it looks neat. But I don't have the SFBC edition with the cool Bob Eggleton cover. )

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Critteranne

It's also on sale on Amazon -- $2.99 for the set. (I already own that, but I still have a used copy of one of the Science Fiction Book Club omnibus editions because it looks neat. But I don't have the SFBC edition with the cool Bob Eggleton cover. )

My favorite edition was the 4 volume mass market paperbacks put out by White Wolf with the Mike Mignola artwork.

In the 1990's Howard Chaykin and Mike Mignola did comic adaptations of several stories. I wish those would get a digital release. They were fantastic.

[maddz]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

In the 1990's Howard Chaykin and Mike Mignola did comic adaptations of several stories. I wish those would get a digital release. They were fantastic.

Gosh, I still have those; I catalogued them last summer... As I recall, there was a fashion for 'literary' miniseries and graphic novels around that time - I have The Hobbit, The Ring of the Nibelung, Hitch-Hiker's Guide, various Anne Rice titles, Dragonflight, Jhereg among others.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by maddz

As I recall, there was a fashion for 'literary' miniseries and graphic novels around that time - I have The Hobbit, The Ring of the Nibelung, Hitch-Hiker's Guide, various Anne Rice titles, Dragonflight, Jhereg among others.

Yep. Though to be fair, DC had Howard Chaykin adapt some Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories in the early 1970's. Those are available digitally: Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser: Cloud of Hate and Other Stories. Chaykin was young and his art wasn't what it would later become.

The painted Hobbit was beautiful. I'm surprised there wasn't a digital release of that one yet.

When you mention The Ring of the Nibelung, I'm guessing you mean the Roy Thomas/Gil Kane adaptation? I enjoyed that one and wish there was a digital version.

Have you seen the P. Craig Russell version of The Ring? Who'd have thought The Ring of the Nibelung opera cycle would receive two comic adaptations?

Russell has adapted several operas in the past. His work is spectacular.

[salty-horse]

I really want to read Russell's adaptation.
He also adapted Gaiman's Norse Mythology, so by now that's two different versions of how Odin lost his eye.
Previews:
https://www.darkhorse.com/Books/24-8...he-Nibelung-HC
https://www.darkhorse.com/Comics/300...se-Mythology-1

[salty-horse]

ZodWallop, after all the convincing, when you finally try Red Mars, please share your thoughts.