Jᴀᴄᴜʀᴜᴛᴜ - Tʜᴇ Cᴀsᴛ Oᴜᴛ

I have almost finished the 900 pages of Alan Bullock's "Hitler and Stalin, Parallel lives". A very good read for any (amateur)historian.

The Dosadi Experiment

I've been slowly getting through Gibson's The Peripheral. Slow to start, but it seems to be getting more interesting as it goes along.

SadisticCynic wrote:I've been slowly getting through Gibson's The Peripheral. Slow to start, but it seems to be getting more interesting as it goes along.

Read that earlier this rear, looking forward to hearing how you like it.


Edit,
Earlier this YEAR I meant to say...

SadisticCynic wrote:I've been slowly getting through Gibson's The Peripheral. Slow to start, but it seems to be getting more interesting as it goes along.

It's classic Gibson. He doesn't hold your hand and he expects you to figure out his meanings and language on your own. It gets better because you understand his meanings better as you go. At least that's the way I saw it.

Oh yeah, I agree. I've read all his previous work (I think) so I'm used to the style. Feels like it's taking a bit longer than I expected this time, is what I wanted to get at.

I like this approach to writing though. The author shows some appreciation for the intellect of his readers. *Pats self on back*

So how's it going? Have you finished? Whatcha think?

Chambers The King in Yellow. 1895 horror novel that was one of the inspirations of Lovecraft. Its pretty good, the first story is a foretelling of 1920's from the perspective of the 1890's.

D Pope wrote:So how's it going? Have you finished? Whatcha think?

If you mean me, I'm still going. It's been a slow few months for reading. I'm about a hundred pages from the end now, and it's picked up a lot. I'm actually wondering how he's going to tie it all together. Which is great, has me excited.

I'm not sure if it's a genre thing or a Gibson thing, but I like the approach of having a protagonist who is battered by all these insane powerful forces moving the world around them while they just try and be a normal human being.

Actually when I write that it reminds me of the 'chips in the path of the flood' quote from Dune.

Checking out A Clockwork Orange on my spring break, and if I have time, The Forever War.

Really enjoying Clockwork so far, about 100 pages in.

Sandwurm88 wrote:Checking out A Clockwork Orange on my spring break, and if I have time, The Forever War.

Really enjoying Clockwork so far, about 100 pages in.

I really liked Forever War.

Currently The Eyes of Heisenberg and Childhood's End.

I like Haldeman a lot. He has a pretty solid bunch of books to his name.

I've started reading Cat's Cradle. First time I've read something by Vonnegut.

Well, I haven't posted here in, like, forever. Years. My loss, I know. In my old(er) age I just can't read as much at night before falling to sleep, so my volume is way down. That said...

I am on the tenth and, sadly, last of Ian M. Banks Culture books. I seem to remember these getting favorable reviews from some of the regulars here. Overall I have enjoyed them very much, more than I thought I would. There were some lowish points, but also some fantastic highs. Even though I'm still reading the Hydrogen Sonata, I can probably say with degree of certitude that Use of Weapons is my favorite. Excession and Look to Windward are up there as well.

Anyway, with Hyperion and the Culture under my belt, I am in search of the next unread "thing". I've heard good things about Neal Stephenson (I've read Snow Crash) and Greg Egan. Can anybody comment on those?

Oh...Hi!

Spicelon wrote:Well, I haven't posted here in, like, forever. Years. My loss, I know. In my old(er) age I just can't read as much at night before falling to sleep, so my volume is way down. That said...

I am on the tenth and, sadly, last of Ian M. Banks Culture books. I seem to remember these getting favorable reviews from some of the regulars here. Overall I have enjoyed them very much, more than I thought I would. There were some lowish points, but also some fantastic highs. Even though I'm still reading the Hydrogen Sonata, I can probably say with degree of certitude that Use of Weapons is my favorite. Excession and Look to Windward are up there as well.

Anyway, with Hyperion and the Culture under my belt, I am in search of the next unread "thing". I've heard good things about Neal Stephenson (I've read Snow Crash) and Greg Egan. Can anybody comment on those?

Oh...Hi!

Egan can be tough, but rewarding if you are into it. I like his short stories (most of which are actually novellas or novelettes and not so short) better than his novels. As far as I am concerned nobody is better at showing the fantasy/magic aspect of high physics, and by that I mean that he makes it look like magic, but stays pretty well rooted in reality. It's almost deceptive.

I have never had the patience to get through Stephenson.

I miss Banks.

Still have all of his non science fiction to get through though. Look to Windward was one of my favourites as well. I also really enjoyed Inversions.

I like Stephenson as well, particularly Snow Crash and The Diamond Age. I can see why books like Cryptonomicon take a lot of patience, but I study some of the things he delves into, so maybe I'm biased for liking his digressions. :p




I started reading Rothfuss' novella The Slow Regard of Silent Things. Have you read this one Amp?

SadisticCynic wrote:I miss Banks.

Still have all of his non science fiction to get through though. Look to Windward was one of my favourites as well. I also really enjoyed Inversions.

Me too.

I'm rereading the entire Culture series to lead up to finally reading The Hydrogen Sonata. I'm halfway through Consider Phlebas again, I'm enjoying it even more this time. It's made me realise that Banks was so far ahead of the game when it was published and so densely packed with ideas and style that as an introduction to the Culture it's a case of overkill. Once you are versed in The Culture Consider Phlebas is a joy.

Naib wrote:

SadisticCynic wrote:I miss Banks.

Still have all of his non science fiction to get through though. Look to Windward was one of my favourites as well. I also really enjoyed Inversions.

Me too.

I'm rereading the entire Culture series to lead up to finally reading The Hydrogen Sonata. I'm halfway through Consider Phlebas again, I'm enjoying it even more this time. It's made me realise that Banks was so far ahead of the game when it was published and so densely packed with ideas and style that as an introduction to the Culture it's a case of overkill. Once you are versed in The Culture Consider Phlebas is a joy.

I experienced the same when I re-read the culture novels.

Next up for me is Nova by Samuel Delaney and Solaris by Stanislaw Lem.

I started Dhalgren a few years back, got about a hundred pages in and didn't care enough to slog through 600 more...I hear that Nova is more concrete and to the point so I think I'll be fine with it.

As for Solaris, I've heard a lot of great things about it; haven't read any Lem before this, so we'll see how it goes.

Nova is a brilliant book! One of my favs. I can understand your not keeping with Dhalgren though.

As for Stephenson, I thought Snow Crash was very entertaining when I read it a while back. I also read The Diamond Age by him, which was just okay, not as exciting, and I didn't get through it quite as quickly. Still some good stuff here and there, but could've been cut down, lengthwise. I tried Cryptonomicon, but wasn't particularly drawn in by the first 75 or so pages and put it down.

Definitely understand the complaints about Stephenson digressing a lot with random topics he seems to be interested in. It didn't seem to bother me a ton when reading Snow Crash, but in the others it did. I think maybe in Snow Crash I liked the style because it didn't seem to take itself too seriously, and that worked well for what the book was.

Miracleman Volume 3: Olympus
Miracleman: The Golden Age
Airboy Archives Volume 4
Living Like A Runaway Lita Ford
Blood and Beauty Sarah Dunant
An Open Life Joseph Campbell in conversation with Michael Toms

Rob

Sandwurm88 wrote:Next up for me is Nova by Samuel Delaney and Solaris by Stanislaw Lem.

I started Dhalgren a few years back, got about a hundred pages in and didn't care enough to slog through 600 more...I hear that Nova is more concrete and to the point so I think I'll be fine with it.

As for Solaris, I've heard a lot of great things about it; haven't read any Lem before this, so we'll see how it goes.

Nova is good, but I like Delaney's earlier stuff better. Some of it is downright swashbuckling.

Dahlgren was almost too much for me too, but I finished it after putting it aside several times. Most of those "campus classics" are like that for me.

Anybody read this?

https://www.worldswithoutend.com/novel.asp?ID=2069" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Looks like a real trove of Golden Age SF.
I was thinking about tackling Dangerous Visions for my next SF anthology (after enjoying Dark Benediction and Burning Chrome a lot), but this could be soon after!

Sandwurm88 wrote:Anybody read this?

https://www.worldswithoutend.com/novel.asp?ID=2069" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Looks like a real trove of Golden Age SF.
I was thinking about tackling Dangerous Visions for my next SF anthology (after enjoying Dark Benediction and Burning Chrome a lot), but this could be soon after!

I read it a long, long time ago. If memory serves it was one of the first, if not the first, SF anthology book.

Dangerous Visions is very much worth it.