Sap'em on 10/2/2006 at 15:40
Ok SE, i took the plunge and ordered Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg. Approx 18$ US and I'll be reading it in about a week I guess. I've been feeling like my attention span has shrank to that of a goldfish with all this web reading so reading paper and ink books is a nice change of pace.
I don't know if "The Giver" falls into the SCI-Fi cat, but my daughter's book club is reading it so I gave quick read through. Its 160 pages or so long so its a short afternoon read. I enjoyed it, but my recommendation is that if you don't care for Orwell's 1984, you won't like this novel either. Its very utopian, but like in 1984, things aren't what they seem.
Aerothorn on 21/2/2006 at 23:56
Hey, doing some book research -
For the Iain M. Banks stuff, can you read them out of order? I'm having a lot of trouble finding 'Consider Phleba' or whatever it is called.
davpod on 22/2/2006 at 14:35
Yeah, you can pretty much read them in whatever order you like. I think I started with "The State of the Art" (short stories) and went on to "Player of Games", "Consider Phlebas" etc.
"Use of Weapons" is the best of the lot, in my opinion.
Stitch on 22/2/2006 at 16:35
Quote Posted by Aerothorn
I am shock and horrified that
Snow Crash was only mentioned once in this thread.
Myself, I was shocked and horrified that <U>Snowcrash</U> was mentioned at all.
Aerothorn on 22/2/2006 at 17:22
Well, for what it's worth, it is a good recommendation novel, insofar that [while there are certainly people, including you, presumably, that don't like it] most people who read it find it enjoyable and it is very accessible - I learned that on its release, it rocketed to #1 on the fiction charts, which is no easy feat for a novel that is a techy/sci-fi as it is. I suppose one can criticize it's plot or characters or whatever, but to me that's kind of missing the point; to me, it's like what one person on this board referred to Gormenghast as: something that's not about the plot/story per-say, but about the writing, which is (IMHO) really, really good.
Stitch on 22/2/2006 at 17:43
Actually, no, the writing is terrible. The book goes through several different attempts at various hip, shotgun writing styles before Stephenson just gives up and relates the inane plot piece by piece. This is probably because it was an early book of Stephenson's and he therefore had trouble pulling off what he was going for, as subsequent novels have been remarkably better written. I couldn't make it through <U>Cryptonomicon</U> but the 200+ pages I read were at least well written.
What <U>Snowcrash</U> has going for it is a lot of cool ideas, but dig much deeper than that and you'll find everything else pretty much sucks.
Schattentänzer on 22/2/2006 at 20:52
I've recently re-read Schismatrix Plus by Bruce Sterling. If you like to read a little different cyberpunk, this is for you. Great ideas and great characters.
And since A Feast for Crows left me a bit wanting, I checked out some earlier G.R.R. Martin and stumbled upon Tuff Voyaging, which I really enjoyed.
Aerothorn on 22/2/2006 at 21:08
Quote Posted by Stitch
Actually, no, the writing is terrible. The book goes through several different attempts at various hip, shotgun writing styles before Stephenson just gives up and relates the inane plot piece by piece. This is probably because it was an early book of Stephenson's and he therefore had trouble pulling off what he was going for, as subsequent novels have been remarkably better written. I couldn't make it through <U>Cryptonomicon</U> but the 200+ pages I read were at least well written.
What <U>Snowcrash</U> has going for it is a lot of cool ideas, but dig much deeper than that and you'll find everything else pretty much sucks.
Well, different strokes for different folks, I guess. I quite liked The Diamond Age, for instance; but looking at Amazon user reviews, there are tons of people who thought it couldn't hold a candle to Snow Crash, that it was slower and duller and a lot of ideas with no substance, or something.
Shevers on 22/2/2006 at 21:17
Skimming through I didn't notice Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan. A great dark Sci-fi. It's got a lot of extreme violence in it, but it's more than just a thriller, it's well written and pretty much the most adrenaline-fuelled book I've read. It's maybe my favourite serious book.
Oh, and I hear there was a sequel too so I guess I'm not the only one who loved it.
