Surtac wrote:

I finished Edges by Linda Nagata.  Proper huge scale space opera  - no FTL, deep time-scales,  multiple Big Dumb Objects just off-stage, nano-machines, virtual reality, preservation and storage of identity and personality, alien Berserker warships, and other such tropes.  It's the start of a trilogy, a follow-up sequence written 20 years later from her earlier Deception Wells / Nanotech succession books in the same fictional universe  - books which clearly influenced writers such as Alastair Reynolds and Neal Asher amongst others.

I enjoyed and recommend it, and I'll be diving back into the trilogy soon.  But first, a crime palate cleanser to clear the mental synapses, I think.
 

I just finished book 3 Needle, after rereading the first two. I enjoyed it a lot, but realized about 2/3 through there was no was she’d get this wrapped up. Lots and lots of loose ends. Turns out, there are two more books planned, which seems about right pacing and plot wise.  
 

Surtac wrote:

Aja Jin wrote:

Surtac wrote:

I finished Edges by Linda Nagata.  Proper huge scale space opera  - no FTL, deep time-scales,  multiple Big Dumb Objects just off-stage, nano-machines, virtual reality, preservation and storage of identity and personality, alien Berserker warships, and other such tropes.  It's the start of a trilogy, a follow-up sequence written 20 years later from her earlier Deception Wells / Nanotech succession books in the same fictional universe  - books which clearly influenced writers such as Alastair Reynolds and Neal Asher amongst others.

I enjoyed and recommend it, and I'll be diving back into the trilogy soon.  But first, a crime palate cleanser to clear the mental synapses, I think.
 

I just finished book 3 Needle, after rereading the first two. I enjoyed it a lot, but realized about 2/3 through there was no was she’d get this wrapped up. Lots and lots of loose ends. Turns out, there are two more books planned, which seems about right pacing and plot wise.  
 

That makes sense.  I'm nearing the end of the second book and the overall scope and context of the individual characters stories are still broadening and diverging.  They're nowhere near ready yet to start converging to a coherent resolution.
 

not a spoiler, but book 3 expands things again

Finished Nagata's Silver.  I enjoyed it but I think I want a break from that universe before I jump back in with Needle..

I found Paul McAuley's War of the Maps sitting unread on the kindle so will attack that one next.
 

Kokipy wrote:

I just read Bewilderment by Richard Powers - near future, not really too much sci fi, lovely writing. recommend it as a change of pace. It was a lot shorter than The Overstory, a tighter story. I was inspired to read it by KSR’s recommendation on the Ezra Klein podcast, recommended by Star. 

I'm glad you enjoyed it Koki-ji ….but I could have sworn KSR recommended Powers’ The Echo Maker. Or have you already read that one?

I don’t remember, Star- he certainly did recommend Echo Maker, and may not have mentioned Bewilderment, but his endorsement of all things Powers was clear and Echo Makers was not available at the library and Bweilderment was.