Author Topic: What are you reading?  (Read 845588 times)

Bdoomed

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Reply #425 on: April 26, 2008, 10:14:40 PM
I'm reading, on recommendation by my English teacher, Nietzsche's The Antichrist...
so far ive disagreed with pretty much everything he has said, with a few small exceptions... :)

I'd like to hear my options, so I could weigh them, what do you say?
Five pounds?  Six pounds? Seven pounds?


Listener

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Reply #426 on: April 28, 2008, 12:46:31 PM
I "read" Neil Gaiman's "A Study in Emerald" yesterday while on the road to rural south Georgia (don't ask).  It was very good.  Gaiman really is great at reading his stories, which makes sense, because they're... you know... HIS.

The ending threw me a little in that... okay... is the narrator Watson or is the evil doctor that person?

Otherwise, great stuff.  The premise -- that Cthulhu-like god-creatures came out of a rift 700 years ago, turned the moon red, and have been ruling benevolently ever since -- was addressed beautifully.

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stePH

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Reply #427 on: April 28, 2008, 12:53:45 PM
I "read" Neil Gaiman's "A Study in Emerald" yesterday while on the road to rural south Georgia (don't ask).  It was very good.  Gaiman really is great at reading his stories, which makes sense, because they're... you know... HIS.

The ending threw me a little in that... okay... is the narrator Watson or is the evil doctor that person?

I wondered the same thing.  Since no names are used, there are two candidates each who could be H and W.  (Is this really a spoiler though?  It's pretty obvious from the first page who we're supposed to think the character is even if one hasn't read Gaiman's introduction in Fragile Things.)

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eytanz

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Reply #428 on: April 28, 2008, 01:10:42 PM
The ending threw me a little in that... okay... is the narrator Watson or is the evil doctor that person?

Spoiler warning:

The narrator is Colonel Sebastian Moran (from "The Adventure of the Empty House", where he was working for Moriarty). The (very subtle) twist in the end is that in this world, where evil is in charge, prof. Moriarty and his henchman are occupying the role of detectives, while Holmes and Watson are the criminal masterminds. This is indicated by the initials at the end of the story.



CGFxColONeill

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Reply #429 on: April 28, 2008, 11:31:06 PM
not sure if this is where it goes but I picked up a book by Larry Niven today called A world out of time and I was just wondering if anyone had heard of it?
thanks

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Windup

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Reply #430 on: April 29, 2008, 12:55:53 AM
not sure if this is where it goes but I picked up a book by Larry Niven today called A world out of time and I was just wondering if anyone had heard of it?
thanks

Yes, I read it, but it was a loonnnnggg time ago.  Why do you ask?

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CGFxColONeill

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Reply #431 on: April 29, 2008, 01:43:16 AM
not sure if this is where it goes but I picked up a book by Larry Niven today called A world out of time and I was just wondering if anyone had heard of it?
thanks

Yes, I read it, but it was a loonnnnggg time ago.  Why do you ask?
I was in a used bookstore today and I asked the guy if he had any recommendations and he said that one was good so I decided to give it a try for $3.50 so I went ahead and picked it up.

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Ocicat

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Reply #432 on: April 29, 2008, 06:57:03 AM
not sure if this is where it goes but I picked up a book by Larry Niven today called A world out of time and I was just wondering if anyone had heard of it?
thanks

That was the first Niven I read as a kid.  I adored it, and still have fond memories of it.  I fear re-reading it though, since it might not live up to my time-tinted view of it.  I'll be curious to hear your impression.



wintermute

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Reply #433 on: April 29, 2008, 12:26:21 PM
not sure if this is where it goes but I picked up a book by Larry Niven today called A world out of time and I was just wondering if anyone had heard of it?
thanks
I'm a fan of Niven in general, and this is a good one. As I understand it, there are two sequels (Smoke Ring and Integral Trees), but I never seem to be able to track them down. Anyway, it stands well on its own, and I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

Ocicat: It lives up to re-reading, IMHO.

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Windup

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Reply #434 on: April 29, 2008, 01:26:10 PM
not sure if this is where it goes but I picked up a book by Larry Niven today called A world out of time and I was just wondering if anyone had heard of it?
thanks

I don't know that I'd say it was Niven's best work -- nothing else really matches up to Ringworld in my mind -- but I remember it as being a good read, and a universe with a lot of quirky and interesting things to explore.

As I remember it, The Integral Trees isn't so much a sequel as another story with some common elements.   

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Reply #435 on: May 02, 2008, 01:32:24 AM
Currently reading a book I picked up in Ocean City last year (for $1.79); it's Women of Wonder, a 1974 anthology of "science fiction stories by women about women" edited by Pamela Sargent.  (Amazon didn't seem to have any in stock, so that link is there just for the sake of showing you the cover art; this larger, later collection has many of the same stories in it, as far as I can tell.)

Judith Merril: That Only a Mother
Katherine MacLean: Contagion
Marion Zimmer Bradley: The Wind People
Anne McCaffrey: The Ship Who Sang
Sonya Dorman: When I Was Miss Dow
Kit Reed: The Food Farm
Kate Wilhelm: Baby, You Were Great
Carol Emshwiller: Sex and/or Mr. Morrison
Ursula K. Le Guin: Vaster Than Empires and More Slow
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro: False Dawn
Joanna Russ: Noboby's Home
Vonda N. McIntyre: Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand

You might recognize a few of these names; the first story was the only story by a female to appear in Robert Silverberg's Science Fiction Hall of Fame (with the half-way exception of C.L. Moore, whose stories Vintage Season and Mimsy Were the Borogoves were co-written with her husband, Henry Kuttner - the first as "Lawrence O'Donnell", and the second as "Lewis Padgett").

After the discussion over in Podcastle about fantasy women, I feel a bit of pressure to really dig these stories, but they are very dated, and tend to feel "overly feminist" (as in, the theme feels forced, and the situations contrived to make a point at the expense of logic and science), while simultaneously perpetuating the kinds of stereotypes that my modern tastes reject as misogynistic.  So far the only one I've really enjoyed is the Anne McCaffrey... but I've still got a ways to go.

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« Last Edit: May 02, 2008, 01:41:32 AM by Heradel »

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Anarkey

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Reply #436 on: May 02, 2008, 01:45:56 AM

Vonda N. McIntyre: Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand

That one is freely available on her website.  If it makes you feel better, I couldn't get through it.  After being 100 percent blown away by her story "Little Faces", I may have had unreasonable expectations.  I don't know.  I'd be interested in knowing what you thought of it when you're done and whether I should give "Of Mist, Grass, and Sand" a second try.

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qwints

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Reply #437 on: May 02, 2008, 08:01:46 AM
I liked Ringworld, but I'm kinda pissed at Niven for his comments on illegal immigration. (He basically said the government should spread a rumor in Spanish that ER's killed people.)

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wintermute

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Reply #438 on: May 02, 2008, 11:42:12 AM
I liked Ringworld, but I'm kinda pissed at Niven for his comments on illegal immigration. (He basically said the government should spread a rumor in Spanish that ER's killed people.)

Seriously? Link?

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DKT

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Reply #439 on: May 02, 2008, 04:14:11 PM
I liked Ringworld, but I'm kinda pissed at Niven for his comments on illegal immigration. (He basically said the government should spread a rumor in Spanish that ER's killed people.)

Hadn't heard that.  Really sucks if it's true. 

However, if he was talking about the King-Drew hospital in LA, it's not so much of a rumor.  (Not that any of it was really intentional, but still it was horrible.)

I started reading Holly Black's Valiant a couple days ago.  It's pretty good.  Very, very dark YA fantasy.  Actually, it's kind of making me redefine in my own mind what a YA fantasy could potentially contain, it's so dark.  But good. 


qwints

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Reply #440 on: May 02, 2008, 06:23:26 PM
 I think I originally saw it on Boing Boing.

Quote
Niven said a good way to help hospitals stem financial losses is to spread rumors in Spanish within the Latino community that emergency rooms are killing patients in order to harvest their organs for transplants.

“The problem [of hospitals going broke] is hugely exaggerated by illegal aliens who aren’t going to pay for anything anyway,” Niven said.
http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/issues/2008/March/SecurityBeat.htm#Science
« Last Edit: May 02, 2008, 06:26:32 PM by qwints »

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wintermute

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Reply #441 on: May 02, 2008, 06:37:49 PM
Well, that leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.

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Tango Alpha Delta

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Reply #442 on: May 03, 2008, 03:32:48 AM
Well, here's a thought.... take the money we WERE going to spend on a stupid fence (honestly, the only thing a 12' fence will accomplish is to drive up sales of 13' ladders) and sink it into a chain of free clinics along the border, if that's the case.

Do the people who spout this kind of claptrap ever consider the number of illegal immigrants who speak Chinese, Serbo-Croatian, or Bog znaet bolshe?  Not to demonize those people, but just to point out that the problem is a lot broader than just pointing to our nearest convenient non-white neighbor and blaming them.  (You should hear the stuff the Mexicans say about the Guatemalans who sneak across their border, btw.)

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Reply #443 on: May 04, 2008, 02:48:17 AM
I just finished Greg Egan's Quarantine.  I liked it.

Short review: At 248 pages, it's the longest SF short story I've ever read.

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wintermute

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Reply #444 on: May 04, 2008, 02:42:58 PM
I read Egan's Diaspora. It didn't make me want to read more of his stuff. Too much... weird science is about the only way I can put it.

Is Quarantine better?

Science means that not all dreams can come true


Boggled Coriander

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Reply #445 on: May 04, 2008, 03:27:44 PM
Never read Diaspora, but Quarantine is full of what you might call "weird science".

It's incredibly plot driven and basically boils down to "Let's assume technology based on X and Y is possible, and see where that takes us!"  That's why I described it as a 248-page SF short story.  I still enjoyed it quite a bit.

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Reply #446 on: May 05, 2008, 03:41:06 PM
Rereading Laurell Hamilton's "The Harlequin" again in advance of "Blood Noir" coming out soon.

I worry that I only read her stuff out of habit now, but I really care about most of the characters (especially Jason) and I want to know what happens.  I can handle Hamilton's style for a few days out of every year or two for that alone.

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birdless

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Reply #447 on: May 07, 2008, 04:32:47 AM
Just checked out Song of Ice and Fire trilogy from the library (it is only a trilogy, right? they only had three books; this is my first GRRM read) and Miéville's KingRat (that's the only Miéville book they had, and it'll be my first Miéville read). Hm... you know, I just remembered that I had bought Gaiman's Neverwhere like three weeks ago (I stuck it in my messenger bag and forgot about it!!)! Got it for half price from the local comic book store that just went out of business. Tragic. :(

<edit: had put in the wrong Gaiman title>
« Last Edit: May 07, 2008, 05:00:58 AM by birdless »



qwints

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Reply #448 on: May 07, 2008, 07:07:47 AM
Kingrat like the WW2 p.o.w. camp movie?

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sirana

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Reply #449 on: May 07, 2008, 07:56:58 AM
Just checked out Song of Ice and Fire trilogy from the library (it is only a trilogy, right? they only had three books; this is my first GRRM read)

Nah, it's not a trilogy. There are at the moment 7 books planned in the series, of which four (A Game of Throunes, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows) are already out. Afaik it was originally planned as a trilogy, but with every book GRRM wrote he added two to the planned final count ;-)