Re: Whatcha reading? (was Re: In despair for the state of SF)
Kevin wrote: Consider Phlebas first, right Charlie? 8^) That was the first (and so far only) Banks book I have tried. I got about half-way before I gave up. Regards, -- Kevin B. O'Brien TANSTAAFL zwil...@zwilnik.com Linux User #333216 I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying. -- Woody Allen ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Whatcha reading? (was Re: In despair for the state of SF)
Kevin wrote: I wrote: Consider Phlebas first, right Charlie? 8^) That was the first (and so far only) Banks book I have tried. I got about half-way before I gave up. Hey, to each his own. CP is one of my favorite books, period, but if we all liked the same stuff the world would be a pretty boaring place. What specifically didn't you like? Doug ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Whatcha reading? (was Re: In despair for the state of SF)
On Tue, Jul 14, 2009 at 8:07 PM, Rceebergerrceeber...@comcast.net wrote: I'm in the middle of The Bridge by Banks. Just finished The Algebraist and Matter by the same with the M. I really really liked Matter. It has I think supplanted Excession as my favorite Banks. The Algebraist was real good also, if a bit less serious than the typical M novel. I just inherited about 6 books by Banks, and I'll be starting them as soon as I finish re-reading Variable Star. VS is credited to Spider Robinson and Robert A. Heinlein. Robinson actually wrote it from extensive but unfinished notes by Heinlein, and I have enjoyed this book immensely. -- Mauro Diotallevi The number you have dialed is imaginary. Please rotate your phone 90 degrees and try again. ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Whatcha reading? (was Re: In despair for the state of SF)
Mauro Diotallevi wrote: On Tue, Jul 14, 2009 at 8:07 PM, Rceebergerrceeber...@comcast.net wrote: I'm in the middle of The Bridge by Banks. Just finished The Algebraist and Matter by the same with the M. I really really liked Matter. It has I think supplanted Excession as my favorite Banks. The Algebraist was real good also, if a bit less serious than the typical M novel. I just inherited about 6 books by Banks, and I'll be starting them as soon as I finish re-reading Variable Star. VS is credited to Spider Robinson and Robert A. Heinlein. Robinson actually wrote it from extensive but unfinished notes by Heinlein, and I have enjoyed this book immensely. Consider Phlebas first, right Charlie? 8^) Doug Not a git, maru ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Whatcha reading? (was Re: In despair for the state of SF)
Doug Pensinger wrote: Mauro Diotallevi wrote: On Tue, Jul 14, 2009 at 8:07 PM, Rceebergerrceeber...@comcast.net mailto:rceeber...@comcast.net wrote: I'm in the middle of The Bridge by Banks. Just finished The Algebraist and Matter by the same with the M. I really really liked Matter. It has I think supplanted Excession as my favorite Banks. The Algebraist was real good also, if a bit less serious than the typical M novel. I just inherited about 6 books by Banks, and I'll be starting them as soon as I finish re-reading Variable Star. VS is credited to Spider Robinson and Robert A. Heinlein. Robinson actually wrote it from extensive but unfinished notes by Heinlein, and I have enjoyed this book immensely. Consider Phlebas first, right Charlie? 8^) That was the first (and so far only) Banks book I have tried. I got about half-way before I gave up. Regards, -- Kevin B. O'Brien TANSTAAFL zwil...@zwilnik.com Linux User #333216 I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying. -- Woody Allen ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Whatcha reading? (was Re: In despair for the state of SF)
At 10:37 AM Tuesday 7/14/2009, Nick Arnett wrote: I've been reading so much lately... been thinking it's time to post some quick thoughts about recent readings and ask what others are reading, too. I just started The Caryatids by Bruce Sterling. Somewhat over the top in terms of apocalyptic technology, but I can't help liking the fact that it is set on the island of Mljet, Croatia, where my namesake, great-grampa Nikolai Strazicich, lived. Mainspring by Jay Lake reminded me quite a bit of Anathem in tone - religion and science fiction set in an older age. Goes much more mystical than Anathem, however. A bit of a page-turner. I read Escapement a few months ago. It was at the local branch library. I've looked for Mainspring at the main library when I've been downtown, so far without success. Anathem struck me as somewhat desperate in its invention of language, but it all made sense in the end. I'm not sure the book deserved to be so long, but on the other hand, I was never particularly tempted to give up on it. Stephenson knows how to keep the suspense up. Now my mind is going blank as I try to remember what else I've read lately... Well, it'll come to me and I'll post again. Nick Me, too. . . . ronn! :) I always knew that I would see the first man on the Moon. I never dreamed that I would see the last. --Dr. Jerry Pournelle ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Whatcha reading? (was Re: In despair for the state of SF)
On Jul 14, 2009, at 8:37 AM, Nick Arnett wrote: I've been reading so much lately... been thinking it's time to post some quick thoughts about recent readings and ask what others are reading, too. Currently up, the latest installment of _The Year's Best SF_ edited by Garner Dozois. -- Warren Ockrassa | @waxis Blog | http://indigestible.nightwares.com/ Books | http://books.nightwares.com/ Web | http://www.nightwares.com/ ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Whatcha reading? (was Re: In despair for the state of SF)
I've been reading so much lately... been thinking it's time to post some quick thoughts about recent readings and ask what others are reading, too. I just started The Caryatids by Bruce Sterling. Somewhat over the top in terms of apocalyptic technology, but I can't help liking the fact that it is set on the island of Mljet, Croatia, where my namesake, great-grampa Nikolai Strazicich, lived. Mainspring by Jay Lake reminded me quite a bit of Anathem in tone - religion and science fiction set in an older age. Goes much more mystical than Anathem, however. A bit of a page-turner. Anathem struck me as somewhat desperate in its invention of language, but it all made sense in the end. I'm not sure the book deserved to be so long, but on the other hand, I was never particularly tempted to give up on it. Stephenson knows how to keep the suspense up. Now my mind is going blank as I try to remember what else I've read lately... Well, it'll come to me and I'll post again. Nick ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Whatcha reading? (was Re: In despair for the state of SF)
On Jul 14, 2009, at 10:37 AM, Nick Arnett wrote: Anathem struck me as somewhat desperate in its invention of language, but it all made sense in the end. I'm not sure the book deserved to be so long, but on the other hand, I was never particularly tempted to give up on it. Stephenson knows how to keep the suspense up. The thing I enjoyed most about Anathem was the way the world of the story itself shifted as the story progressed, and the way it kept surprising me even in spite of the numerous clues dropped along the way. The best kind of surprise, for me, is a kind of paraprosdokian, where the story is leading toward what looks like a familiar path but takes an intriguing left turn right when you least expect it to and the unexpected direction is the one that makes the most sense after you recover from the surprise. And Anathem is definitely full of those. :) The language seemed to be Stephenson's solution to the problem of how to tell a story in an alien universe where the language naturally wouldn't be intelligible to us at all otherwise, and I thought it was about as good a solution to that problem as any, and a little more honest than most in that it captured at least a little of the difference in thought processes that stem from different language without going so far into the language as to distract from the story. It's a fundamentally non-trivial (and quite difficult) problem that I thought he solved at least well enough to not bother me. (I'm something of an anomaly that way, though, as my brain tends to build its own dictionary somewhat dynamically and I'm used to following unusual linguistic usage.) If I say much more than that I'll spoil the story for those who haven't read it .. Almost nothing that trickles down is fit to consume. -- Davidson Loehr ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Whatcha reading? (was Re: In despair for the state of SF)
On 7/14/2009 10:37:23 AM, Nick Arnett (nick.arn...@gmail.com) wrote: I've been reading so much lately... been thinking it's time to post some quick thoughts about recent readings and ask what others are reading, too. I just started The Caryatids by Bruce Sterling. Somewhat over the top in terms of apocalyptic technology, but I can't help liking the fact that it is set on the island of Mljet, Croatia, where my namesake, great-grampa Nikolai Strazicich, lived. Mainspring by Jay Lake reminded me quite a bit of Anathem in tone - religion and science fiction set in an older age. Goes much more mystical than Anathem, however. A bit of a page-turner. Anathem struck me as somewhat desperate in its invention of language, but it all made sense in the end. I'm not sure the book deserved to be so long, but on the other hand, I was never particularly tempted to give up on it. Stephenson knows how to keep the suspense up. Now my mind is going blank as I try to remember what else I've read lately... Well, it'll come to me and I'll post again. Nick I'm in the middle of The Bridge by Banks. Just finished The Algebraist and Matter by the same with the M. I really really liked Matter. It has I think supplanted Excession as my favorite Banks. The Algebraist was real good also, if a bit less serious than the typical M novel. xponent ABridged Maru rob ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
