Jᴀᴄᴜʀᴜᴛᴜ - Tʜᴇ Cᴀsᴛ Oᴜᴛ

I'm listening to Freedom of the Mask, the sixth novel in Robert McCammons Matthew Corbett series. A bit slow, but bloody good stuff. McCammons prose is great, as usual for this series, and the narrator is top notch.

HBJ

Starting off Man Plus by Frederik Pohl.

Only thing I've read by him so far is Jem, which was just okay.

Man Plus is a bit too frenetic for me. He's all over the place in that one.

Now Gateway, there's a killer book. And The Space Merchants. That one was fantastic too.

Omphalos wrote:Man Plus is a bit too frenetic for me. He's all over the place in that one.

Now Gateway, there's a killer book. And The Space Merchants. That one was fantastic too.

Gateway is in my top 5 of science fiction novels. It is truly awesome.

Sounds like I'll have to check out Gateway soon...

I thought Man Plus was pretty good overall, definitely understand the "frenetic" description. He definitely needed to slow down in places and flesh things out a bit more. The part where they actually get to Mars and settle down felt too rushed to be a truly satisfying ending.

Now I'm on to The Penultimate Truth by PKD and then Lest Darkness Fall by L. Sprague De Camp.

I finished Childhood's End over the weekend. I was kind of disappointing with the paranormal ending with no explanation, but a decent book anyway. Need a new book...

Sandwurm88 wrote:Sounds like I'll have to check out Gateway soon...

I thought Man Plus was pretty good overall, definitely understand the "frenetic" description. He definitely needed to slow down in places and flesh things out a bit more. The part where they actually get to Mars and settle down felt too rushed to be a truly satisfying ending.

Now I'm on to The Penultimate Truth by PKD and then Lest Darkness Fall by L. Sprague De Camp.

Is Penultimate Truth the one with the ship called Omphalos? That's where my screen name came from, but I read it under a different title I think. That is a rough one with a multi page acid trip description.

Lest Darkness Fall is fun. Brainy and a bit over thought, but lots of fun

Freakzilla wrote:I finished Childhood's End over the weekend. I was kind of disappointing with the paranormal ending with no explanation, but a decent book anyway. Need a new book...

Love that one.

I'm reading Insomnia by Stephen King now. Stephen King is always an entertaining, straightforward read!

East of Eden was wonderful, but I think overall I preferred Grapes of Wrath.

Now I'm reading Blood Meridian by McCarthy. I'm going to be so depressed after these two.

In non-fiction I'm reading The Fabric of Reality by David Deutsch. Cool stuff.

Snow Crash

Freakzilla wrote:Snow Crash

Hey Freak! I really love Neal Stephenson. That's a good book.

Just started reading Dune, of course! And will start reading the OC Bible from Amazon when it shows up tomorrow. You can refer to my other threads about that one.

Diego wrote:Just started reading Dune, of course! And will start reading the OC Bible from Amazon when it shows up tomorrow. You can refer to my other threads about that one.

How far have you gotten? I know that you said you have the original six plus two from Brian... just wondering which one you are reading now.

I literally JUST started. I am reading Dune itself. Novel numero Uno.

EDIT:

To be more precise, on my Kindle Device, onto which I downloaded these books, I am exactly 11% of the way through with the first book, "Dune". The Kindle does not use pages numbers, but rather, location numbers, which would not serve as reference points of value. But there you are. the percentage complete might help you.

Mandy wrote:

Freakzilla wrote:Snow Crash

Hey Freak! I really love Neal Stephenson. That's a good book.

Welcome back! This is my first by him, it's really grabbed my attention quickly.

SadisticCynic wrote:East of Eden was wonderful, but I think overall I preferred Grapes of Wrath.

Now I'm reading Blood Meridian by McCarthy. I'm going to be so depressed after these two.

In non-fiction I'm reading The Fabric of Reality by David Deutsch. Cool stuff.

Try All The Pretty Horses next. I hear that Gorbachev kept trying to get Reagan to read it.

Omphalos wrote:

SadisticCynic wrote:East of Eden was wonderful, but I think overall I preferred Grapes of Wrath.

Now I'm reading Blood Meridian by McCarthy. I'm going to be so depressed after these two.

In non-fiction I'm reading The Fabric of Reality by David Deutsch. Cool stuff.

Try All The Pretty Horses next. I hear that Gorbachev kept trying to get Reagan to read it.

I'll keep that one in mind, thanks! He also is famous (as I'm sure you know) for The Road and No Country For Old Men, which I want to try someday.

The Road is fantastic. It's a great and sad father - son story.

SadisticCynic wrote:

Omphalos wrote:

SadisticCynic wrote:East of Eden was wonderful, but I think overall I preferred Grapes of Wrath.

Now I'm reading Blood Meridian by McCarthy. I'm going to be so depressed after these two.

In non-fiction I'm reading The Fabric of Reality by David Deutsch. Cool stuff.

Try All The Pretty Horses next. I hear that Gorbachev kept trying to get Reagan to read it.

I'll keep that one in mind, thanks! He also is famous (as I'm sure you know) for The Road and No Country For Old Men, which I want to try someday.

The Road is beautifully written.

Also thumbs up for The Road, and I've yet to read No Country ... .

I'm currently reading "Dust and Shadow" by Lyndsay Faye, a novel in which Sherlock Holmes investigates the Jack the Ripper murders. So far so good, although the plot is somewhat hampered by having to stick closely to the factual events. The author has captured the feel of the canonical Holmes novels almost exactly, though.

Perhaps serious Holmes aficionados might find it a bit silly, but I'm enjoying it.

HBJ

Snow Crash was one of the first adult science-fiction books I read (after Dune, of course), and I thought it was hilarious. Still re-read parts of it quite often.

Right now I'm in the middle of I Am Legend, which is really good so far. Haven't seen the movie, and might not want to now, because I've heard it's quite different. After that, I'll be looking at The Restaurant at the End of the Universe and Life, The Universe, and Everything. Loved Hitchhiker's Guide, so I don't know why it's taken me this long to get around to them.

I have just started the Helliconia trilogy by Brian Aldiss. I have read the trilogy in Dutch twice already. This is the first time in English. I am loving it.

Read the first volume of a comic called Transmetropolitan. Fantastic.

I'll also start on Direct Descent by Herbert soon. Almost running out of new Herbert to read...

SadisticCynic wrote:Read the first volume of a comic called Transmetropolitan. Fantastic.

I'll also start on Direct Descent by Herbert soon. Almost running out of new Herbert to read...

"Almost" running out of new Herbert to read?!?!

Whew!

I thought for a second you may have saved Direct Descent for last. Be very, very glad you didn't. You will still be able to wash the shitty taste out of your mouth after you finish this particular travesty.

IMO, that book is shit. Save a good Herbert to read for afterwards.

Spoilers: http://www.omphalosbookreviews.com/inde ... s/info/453" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'm going to be starting Dan Simmons' Hyperion pretty soon, which I'm excited about. I've only read Ilium by him, but I was really impressed by his imagination and technical skill.