ilweran on 16/12/2005 at 11:19
Quote Posted by Gage
I really got into The Stars My Destination (a.k.a, Tiger! Tiger!) by Alfred Bester. I should pick it up and read through it again over the holidays.
Besides, the protagonist, Gully Foyle, appears as an easter egg in Deus Ex!
Being a sad geeky Deus Ex fan who also likes reading, I'm reading my way through as many of the books referred to in DX and DX:IW as I can :tsktsk:
SubJeff on 8/2/2006 at 21:24
Didn't want to start new thread bu...
I want to recommend two sci-fi novels (more novelettes) I have recently finished.
The first is a very quick read. I am Legend by Richard Matheson. It's been adapted for the screen as The Omega Man, which I haven't seen, and has been mooted for a remake for years with suggested leads of Arnie and Will Smith. That's rubbish. This would make a great film, handled well, because the concept is so good. The book is very, very short and I wish it had gone on more. But I really did enjoy it. And it would make an awesome psychological horror game.
The other, and far, far superior suggestion for you all is Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg. I couldn't put this down. For me it wasn't a bedtime read as I could have read it all night. It has a starkness to it, no doubt, but it's simple explorations of obvious, but often unspoken, truths about being human are packaged just right. And it's format is just perfect for a fantastic screen adaptation by someone who knows what they are doing.
You may notice that these are on the SF Masterworks list. It's no coincidence. Next on my list is The Fifth Head of Cerberus.
ignatios on 8/2/2006 at 21:28
I just started reading Dune and I love it so far. Suspecting that it would grab me, I avoided starting it lest it become all-consuming at a time when I couldn't handle being all-consumed.
So far, it hasn't disappointed in the least.
(Aside from the fact that it hasn't actually become all-consuming; I seem to be immune to that these days :().
demagogue on 8/2/2006 at 21:55
Great list!
I wrote & acted in a play adaptation of Repent, Harlequin! for a theatre project and it was soo much fun ... I should write it into a screenplay because it was just too cool to pit a socially-conscious psychopathic clown against the cool, pragmatic power-hungry Ticktockman.
Can we branch out into speculative fiction for recommendations?
Or even further??
If you like Stanislav Lem, some of his stories were collected into a bigger collection which more like philosophical essays/stories (but still at a popular, layman's level) trying to come to terms with the cyber-revolution called The Mind's Eye Edited by Dennett & Hofstadter. And of course, you can't mention this without mentioning the bible for the cybergeneration, Godel, Escher, Bach by Hofstadter.
And if you want to go the more literary bent, any short story by Jorge Luis Borges, speculative fiction but so much more. His stories are like crossing complex mathmatical proofs with medieval philosophy, mirrors and mazes ... they are so tight, dense, tangled, and yet so witty (he collected them in a book called Labrynths.)
SubJeff on 8/2/2006 at 23:22
Hit me up with it's top 5 sci-fi and fantasy choices please. I want to see if I'll like it.
ig - Dune really was <3. I'm going to read it again.
Nicker on 9/2/2006 at 05:45
Ian Macdonald is excellent - "Terminal Cafe" also titled "Necroville" - "King of Morning. Queen of Day" and many others.
T.J. Bass was not very prolific but he packs more ideas into one chapter than many writers do into an entire novel. "The God Whale" and "Half Past Human" are the only two I can recall of his. Memorable though.
Aja on 9/2/2006 at 05:50
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
The other, and far, far superior suggestion for you all is
Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg. I couldn't put this down. For me it wasn't a bedtime read as I could have read it all night. It has a starkness to it, no doubt, but it's simple explorations of obvious, but often unspoken, truths about being human are packaged just right. And it's format is just perfect for a fantastic screen adaptation by someone who knows what they are doing.
This sounds like something I'd want to read.. unfortunately, it looks like it's out of print. Both amazon.ca and chapters.ca list it as unavailable :(
SubJeff on 9/2/2006 at 08:22
It's one of the books on the SF Masterworks list and isn't out of print. It was bought for me 3 months ago.
ignatios on 9/2/2006 at 13:21
Quote Posted by Aja
This sounds like something I'd want to read.. unfortunately, it looks like it's out of print. Both amazon.ca and chapters.ca list it as unavailable :(
Normal amazon.com (
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743435087/sr=8-1/qid=1139491194/103-1898067-7859864) has it, and with their dollar being what it is, you might as well order from them.
I was about to say the exchange is cheaper than the HST, but then I remembered that you Alberta faggotses don't have it :mad:
