june gloom on 25/10/2009 at 19:49
Picked up A Scanner Darkly after all. I'm saving The Man Who Was Thursday for my inevitable Deus Ex playthrough, as I intend to read the book concurrently.
scarykitties on 25/10/2009 at 20:57
I enjoyed Huckleberry Finn. "Everyday Use" was pretty neat, "Young Goodman Brown" was a bit odd, and "To His Coy Mistress" was a bit unnerving.
theBlackman on 26/10/2009 at 02:03
The naval series about Richard Bolitho by Alexander Kent. About 24 volumes, of which I have 18 and in the last two weeks have worked my way through 14 of them.
They are similar to the Hornblower series, and great reading for history of the English navy between 1765 and 1840.
If you like the sea and action you should enjoy these.
Like many series, of which I have many, I am re-reading it for the third or fourth time.
gunsmoke on 27/10/2009 at 13:48
Stephen Hunter's Dirty White Boys
Have only just started, it is holding my attention well enough.
Aerothorn on 27/10/2009 at 14:30
Quote Posted by Andarthiel
The Diamon Age by Neal Stephenson. Borrowed it fro a friend as part of my latest obsession with -punk books. It's very interesting and has some intriguing characters. The nanotech is pretty cool and I like the re-emerging cultures they have in it.
I've been meaning to re-read The Diamond Age, and ended up picking up a used hardcover for this purpose. Talked my dad into reading it and somewhat to my surprise he really liked it.
Quote Posted by dethtoll
I've come to the conclusion that at least 60% of the people who slobber Stephenson's knob have never actually completely read one of his books.
Not really sure how you did? It's not like having read Snow Crash is exactly a badge of honor, at least not in my society. And, love it or hate it, it's a relatively easy read. So what makes you think people are praising Stephenson without reading his books?
For that matter, are you particularly opposed to the manner of Stephenson's storytelling/writing style, or do you just dislike all postmodern fiction?
On an unrelated note, I am currently reading The Last Unicorn and throughly enjoying it.
june gloom on 27/10/2009 at 17:51
I'd read it because I was on a cyberpunk binge and wanted to see what the hype was all about. It was shit. I kept picking up Stephenson's later novels and they were shit too.
Stephenson gets praised a lot for some unfathomable reason, and I suspect a lot of it has to do with the fact that he likes to make this big confusing knot of multiple plot threads and post-modernist horseshit correlating something completely unrelated to the plot at hand that forces you to slowly try to unspool the whole mess trying to find some central core of meaning that in the end does not exist and you can't put it back together again. People seem to think that somehow constitutes brilliance. Take everything negative anyone's ever said about Metal Gear Solid 2's plot and multiply that by about 5 or 6 orders of magnitute and you have a Neal Stephenson novel.
Stitch on 27/10/2009 at 17:58
Quote Posted by dethtoll
Stephenson gets praised a lot for some unfathomable reason, and I suspect a lot of it has to do with the fact that he likes to make this big confusing knot of multiple plot threads and post-modernist horseshit correlating something completely unrelated to the plot at hand that forces you to slowly try to unspool the whole mess trying to find some central core of meaning that in the end does not exist and you can't put it back together again. People seem to think that somehow constitutes brilliance.
While I agree that Snow Crash is basically garbage, I do think you're underselling Stephenson's later work. Where you see messes to unspool many find a treasure trove of fascinating historical facts and trivia to uncover.
At least, in theory. I only made it through 150 pages of Cryptonomicon before I finally admitted I was merely putting in time.
jimjack on 27/10/2009 at 17:59
I just finished Monstrous Regiment, one of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.
For me, this was the last book -- I have now read them all.
I've now started Irvine Welsh's "Crime".
Matthew on 27/10/2009 at 18:13
Including Unseen Academicals?
gunsmoke on 27/10/2009 at 21:05
Quote Posted by dethtoll
I'd read it because I was on a cyberpunk binge and wanted to see what the hype was all about. It was shit. I kept picking up Stephenson's later novels and they were shit too.
Stephenson gets praised a lot for some unfathomable reason, and I suspect a lot of it has to do with the fact that he likes to make this big confusing knot of multiple plot threads and post-modernist horseshit correlating something completely unrelated to the plot at hand that forces you to slowly try to unspool the whole mess trying to find some central core of meaning that in the end does not exist and you can't put it back together again. People seem to think that somehow constitutes brilliance. Take everything negative anyone's ever said about Metal Gear Solid 2's plot and multiply that by about 5 or 6 orders of magnitute and you have a Neal Stephenson novel.
Good analogy. And entirely appropriate.
