Author Topic: What are you reading?  (Read 845385 times)

Darwinist

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Reply #525 on: July 29, 2008, 06:31:11 PM
Just finished reading Jack McDevitt's Polaris. Years ago, I read his A Talent for War, which is amongst my favourite novels. But nothing else he did ever seemed to satisfy in the same way.

And then I discovered that there were other Alex Benedict novels out, so I started buying them. And, like it's predecessor, it's an excellent science fiction detective novel, which is a genre I'm always a sucker for.


I've started on Neil DeGrasse Tyson's Death by Black Hole, which is a nice little primer n astrophysics and cosmology, but doesn't iclude anything terribly exciting, yet. Certainly, the man's enthusiasm carries the book nicely, and I do understand more than I did when I started, but it's clearly aimed at people who've not read much on the subject before.


I really liked A Talent for War and bought Polaris but haven't read it yet.  Like my NetFlix list, my "to-read" list is full of great stuff that I never have enough time for.  Glad to hear that you thought it was good and a worthy Benedict novel.  I'm looking forward to it.

I've heard Neil DeGrasse Tyson interviewed from TAM on some skeptic podcasts over the last couple of weeks.  Sounds like an interesting guy.   We need more scientists like him to carry the torch for science now that Sagan is gone.   

For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.    -  Carl Sagan


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Reply #526 on: July 31, 2008, 04:00:39 AM
Just finished Thumbs, Toes, and Tears: And Other Traits That Make Us Human by Chip Walter.  It was an interesting look at current thinking of human evolutionary biology.  I was especially fascinated with the idea that walking upright -- enabled by the mutation of the big toe -- came first, and set off the chain of events that led to toolmaking, language, and self-aware intelligence. 

I'm currently reading Momentum Is Your Friend by Joe Kurmaskie.  It's about the summer journalist, cyclist and lunatic-about-the-continent Joe Kurmaskie spent pedaling across the country while towing 250 lbs of gear and children behind him.  I got the book over a year ago (signed!!!!) when Joe gave a speech at the Iowa Bicycle Coalition fund-raiser banquet, and so far it's met all expectations -- a series of vignettes about a terrific adventure. 

Mods: Please EP-ize those Amazon links....

Link Bandit strikes again.
« Last Edit: July 31, 2008, 08:47:46 AM by Russell Nash »

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Reply #527 on: July 31, 2008, 11:06:30 AM
Just finished "Fearful Symmetry" by Olivia Woods.  If you don't know, that's the Star Trek DS9 flip-book.  It picks up after Kira and Ro are nearly killed by Taran'atar.  The writing is good, and less expository than most Star Trek I've read lately, but the first few chapters of Side Two have some annoying "hey, isn't this Cardassia/Bajor situation NOT AT ALL LIKE IRAQ AT ALL NO REALLY I NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT THAT IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM I'M JUST MAKING THIS UP OUT OF WHOLE CLOTH" conversations.  But it's interesting to see the Bajoran occupation from the POV of a single Cardassian officer who isn't Dukat.

I think I'll go back to "The Three Musketeers" (Dumas) tonight.

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Reply #528 on: July 31, 2008, 01:19:55 PM
Just finished "Fearful Symmetry" by Olivia Woods.  If you don't know, that's the Star Trek DS9 flip-book. 

"Flip-book"?  ???

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Reply #529 on: July 31, 2008, 02:36:41 PM
Just finished "Fearful Symmetry" by Olivia Woods.  If you don't know, that's the Star Trek DS9 flip-book. 

"Flip-book"?  ???

Amazon listing.
« Last Edit: July 31, 2008, 06:34:16 PM by Russell Nash »

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Reply #530 on: July 31, 2008, 02:56:00 PM
Just finished "Fearful Symmetry" by Olivia Woods.  If you don't know, that's the Star Trek DS9 flip-book. 

"Flip-book"?  ???

Amazon listing.

So it's similar in concept to Ender's Game/Ender's Shadow if they were bound back-to-back?

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Reply #531 on: July 31, 2008, 03:34:47 PM
Just finished "Fearful Symmetry" by Olivia Woods.  If you don't know, that's the Star Trek DS9 flip-book. 

"Flip-book"?  ???

Amazon listing.

So it's similar in concept to Ender's Game/Ender's Shadow if they were bound back-to-back?

Couldn't tell you.  Never read them.

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stePH

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Reply #532 on: July 31, 2008, 04:02:24 PM
Just finished "Fearful Symmetry" by Olivia Woods.  If you don't know, that's the Star Trek DS9 flip-book. 

"Flip-book"?  ???

Amazon listing.

So it's similar in concept to Ender's Game/Ender's Shadow if they were bound back-to-back?

Couldn't tell you.  Never read them.

Ender's Shadow is a novel "parallel" to Ender's Game, as most of it covers the events of Ender's Game from the viewpoint of Bean, a secondary character from that novel.

The Amazon listing doesn't really describe what a "flip book" is, but the first review (currently) describes it as two books back-to-back with the same story told from two different points of view.

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Listener

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Reply #533 on: July 31, 2008, 04:19:27 PM
Just finished "Fearful Symmetry" by Olivia Woods.  If you don't know, that's the Star Trek DS9 flip-book. 

"Flip-book"?  ???

Amazon listing.

So it's similar in concept to Ender's Game/Ender's Shadow if they were bound back-to-back?

Couldn't tell you.  Never read them.

Ender's Shadow is a novel "parallel" to Ender's Game, as most of it covers the events of Ender's Game from the viewpoint of Bean, a secondary character from that novel.

The Amazon listing doesn't really describe what a "flip book" is, but the first review (currently) describes it as two books back-to-back with the same story told from two different points of view.

That sounds accurate.

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Reply #534 on: July 31, 2008, 04:37:15 PM
Just finished "Fearful Symmetry" by Olivia Woods.  If you don't know, that's the Star Trek DS9 flip-book. 

"Flip-book"?  ???

Amazon listing.

So it's similar in concept to Ender's Game/Ender's Shadow if they were bound back-to-back?

Couldn't tell you.  Never read them.

Ender's Shadow is a novel "parallel" to Ender's Game, as most of it covers the events of Ender's Game from the viewpoint of Bean, a secondary character from that novel.

The Amazon listing doesn't really describe what a "flip book" is, but the first review (currently) describes it as two books back-to-back with the same story told from two different points of view.
And there was me hoping it was something like a pop-up book...

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stePH

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Reply #535 on: July 31, 2008, 04:45:11 PM
[Flip-book]

And there was me hoping it was something like a pop-up book...

I was thinking, each page has a "frame" of animation that you can make move by flipping rapidly through the pages.

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Reply #536 on: July 31, 2008, 06:35:16 PM
[Flip-book]

And there was me hoping it was something like a pop-up book...

I was thinking, each page has a "frame" of animation that you can make move by flipping rapidly through the pages.

I was right there with you.



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Reply #537 on: July 31, 2008, 08:10:12 PM
I'm almost done reading the Ursula LeGuinn's The Left Hand of Darkness and Carl Hiassen's Hoot.  Normally, I don't read two novels at the same time, but for some reason, I thought this pairing was a good idea.  I know I'll probably get kicked out of the club for saying this, but I'm only now really getting into Left Hand of Darkness.  I know it's an amazing, treasured gem of SF literature, but somehow, I'm still struggling through it.


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Reply #538 on: July 31, 2008, 11:23:14 PM
I know I'll probably get kicked out of the club for saying this, but I'm only now really getting into Left Hand of Darkness.  I know it's an amazing, treasured gem of SF literature, but somehow, I'm still struggling through it.
We can get kicked out together, then.  That book utterly failed to interest me.  Finishing it was a chore.  Give me The Lathe of Heaven over it any day.

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Reply #539 on: August 01, 2008, 01:03:52 AM
I'm a LeGuinn fan... started with Earthsea as a kid.  I think Left Hand of Darkness is great, but probably needs to be taken in it's historic context.

The Lathe of Heaven though - that's just fantastic.  By far my favorite of her works.



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Reply #540 on: August 01, 2008, 04:21:21 AM
I'm a LeGuinn fan... started with Earthsea as a kid.  I think Left Hand of Darkness is great, but probably needs to be taken in it's historic context.

The Lathe of Heaven though - that's just fantastic.  By far my favorite of her works.


"The Lathe of Heaven" is excellent.  I read it about 25-30 years ago and loved it.  I read it again last year and still liked it, but found it dated.

I read "The Left Hand of Darkness" around the same time last year and was astounded by it.  It's so much more than a science fiction classic; it's a classic piece of literature, period.  I thought it was truly timeless.



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Reply #541 on: August 01, 2008, 05:37:50 AM
I'm a LeGuinn fan... started with Earthsea as a kid.  I think Left Hand of Darkness is great, but probably needs to be taken in it's historic context.

The Lathe of Heaven though - that's just fantastic.  By far my favorite of her works.


Yeah, I need to give both of those others a try.  I can certainly appreciate Left Hand of Darkness in a historical context, I think. 


I read "The Left Hand of Darkness" around the same time last year and was astounded by it.  It's so much more than a science fiction classic; it's a classic piece of literature, period.  I thought it was truly timeless.

I was under that impression from what I'd heard about it and suggested it to my wife and friends who we do a very small book club thing with.  It was my first pick and I wanted to do some SF, and one of our friends was keen on reading it, too.  My wife read a couple of pages the other day though and groaned.  (Which, after reading the first couple of chapters, I could've predicted.  She doesn't have anything against SF/Fantasy in general, but I think a good bit of the worldbuilding will kill it for her.)  I'm curious to hear what our friends think about it, if they finish it in time.  (To be fair, I've never finished one of the other books in time.) 

I kind of dig the historical bits of it, the smaller aside chapters.  And I think the monosexual stuff is interesting especially in comparison to the roles of males/females and women's equality and all that.  But other than that, I'm not really feeling the story. 

What do you both like so much about it?



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Reply #542 on: August 14, 2008, 01:18:11 AM
I'm almost done with Phillip Pullman's The Golden Compass.  I'm really enjoying it.  I never saw the movie so I started the book not knowing exactly what to expect. 

Pullman throws a huge amount of world-building info at you in a relatively short amount of space, and every single bit of it is thoroughly integrated into the narrative.  He never breaks away from the story for even a little bit of exposition.  I like that.  And somehow the fact that it's clearly a parallel-universe Earth (instead of a totally alien world like most high fantasy) makes me even more interested in finding out exactly how this world works.

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Reply #543 on: August 14, 2008, 01:58:36 AM
I'm almost done with Phillip Pullman's The Golden Compass.  I'm really enjoying it.  I never saw the movie so I started the book not knowing exactly what to expect. 

Pullman throws a huge amount of world-building info at you in a relatively short amount of space, and every single bit of it is thoroughly integrated into the narrative.  He never breaks away from the story for even a little bit of exposition.  I like that.  And somehow the fact that it's clearly a parallel-universe Earth (instead of a totally alien world like most high fantasy) makes me even more interested in finding out exactly how this world works.

I loved the first book (I listened to the trilogy in audio, which was read by Pullman with a full cast for all the characters) but found the second volume somewhat less enjoyable, and the third even less so.

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Reply #544 on: August 14, 2008, 04:37:59 AM
I'm a LeGuinn fan... started with Earthsea as a kid.  I think Left Hand of Darkness is great, but probably needs to be taken in it's historic context.

The Lathe of Heaven though - that's just fantastic.  By far my favorite of her works.


Yeah, I need to give both of those others a try.  I can certainly appreciate Left Hand of Darkness in a historical context, I think. 


I read "The Left Hand of Darkness" around the same time last year and was astounded by it.  It's so much more than a science fiction classic; it's a classic piece of literature, period.  I thought it was truly timeless.

I was under that impression from what I'd heard about it and suggested it to my wife and friends who we do a very small book club thing with.  It was my first pick and I wanted to do some SF, and one of our friends was keen on reading it, too.  My wife read a couple of pages the other day though and groaned.  (Which, after reading the first couple of chapters, I could've predicted.  She doesn't have anything against SF/Fantasy in general, but I think a good bit of the worldbuilding will kill it for her.)  I'm curious to hear what our friends think about it, if they finish it in time.  (To be fair, I've never finished one of the other books in time.) 

I kind of dig the historical bits of it, the smaller aside chapters.  And I think the monosexual stuff is interesting especially in comparison to the roles of males/females and women's equality and all that.  But other than that, I'm not really feeling the story. 

What do you both like so much about it?



I thought LeGuin did a fabulous job of creating an androgynous world in "The Left Hand of Darkness."  I was especially impressed with her use of an outsider's misunderstanding of the sexual mores of Winter's inhabitants to show us what the humans on Winter were really like.  I liked how she built on impressions along the way.  She never relied on awkward exposition.  When explanations were made, the were in a sensible context.  Most importantly, LeGuin's prose was absolutely beautiful.  I majored in English Literature and I'd say that her prose style was quite masterful.

"The Lathe of Heaven" is quite good, but it just doesn't have the literary quality that "The Left Hand of Darkness" does.



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Reply #545 on: August 14, 2008, 04:48:54 PM
Just finished an Oxford translation of Dumas's "The Three Musketeers".  Pretty good for old French literature.  And I don't like literature, so that's saying something.

Knocking down some short-stories now, including Doctorow's "The Things That Make Me Weak And Strange Get Engineered Away" and Rudy Rucker's "The Men In The Back Room At The Country Club".

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Reply #546 on: August 14, 2008, 05:33:24 PM
Knocking down some short-stories now, including Doctorow's "The Things That Make Me Weak And Strange Get Engineered Away" and Rudy Rucker's "The Men In The Back Room At The Country Club".

How was the Doctorow one?


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Reply #547 on: August 14, 2008, 05:34:37 PM
I'm a LeGuinn fan... started with Earthsea as a kid.  I think Left Hand of Darkness is great, but probably needs to be taken in it's historic context.

The Lathe of Heaven though - that's just fantastic.  By far my favorite of her works.


Yeah, I need to give both of those others a try.  I can certainly appreciate Left Hand of Darkness in a historical context, I think. 


I read "The Left Hand of Darkness" around the same time last year and was astounded by it.  It's so much more than a science fiction classic; it's a classic piece of literature, period.  I thought it was truly timeless.

I was under that impression from what I'd heard about it and suggested it to my wife and friends who we do a very small book club thing with.  It was my first pick and I wanted to do some SF, and one of our friends was keen on reading it, too.  My wife read a couple of pages the other day though and groaned.  (Which, after reading the first couple of chapters, I could've predicted.  She doesn't have anything against SF/Fantasy in general, but I think a good bit of the worldbuilding will kill it for her.)  I'm curious to hear what our friends think about it, if they finish it in time.  (To be fair, I've never finished one of the other books in time.) 

I kind of dig the historical bits of it, the smaller aside chapters.  And I think the monosexual stuff is interesting especially in comparison to the roles of males/females and women's equality and all that.  But other than that, I'm not really feeling the story. 

What do you both like so much about it?



I thought LeGuin did a fabulous job of creating an androgynous world in "The Left Hand of Darkness."  I was especially impressed with her use of an outsider's misunderstanding of the sexual mores of Winter's inhabitants to show us what the humans on Winter were really like.  I liked how she built on impressions along the way.  She never relied on awkward exposition.  When explanations were made, the were in a sensible context.  Most importantly, LeGuin's prose was absolutely beautiful.  I majored in English Literature and I'd say that her prose style was quite masterful.

"The Lathe of Heaven" is quite good, but it just doesn't have the literary quality that "The Left Hand of Darkness" does.

Heh.  I majored in English Literature, too.  I guess that shows you how objective a degree is  ;)  Thanks for replying, though.  Interesting points.  FWIW, I wish I'd been able to read it the way you obviously did.


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Reply #548 on: August 14, 2008, 06:56:08 PM
Knocking down some short-stories now, including Doctorow's "The Things That Make Me Weak And Strange Get Engineered Away" and Rudy Rucker's "The Men In The Back Room At The Country Club".

How was the Doctorow one?

Interesting world, classic Doctorow in terms of "our future is a sovereign security state", but the characters to me seemed like he picked them out of his memory bank -- like I've seen them before.  And the ending was a little flat, the twist TOO far out there.

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Reply #549 on: August 16, 2008, 07:53:42 AM
I'm almost done with Phillip Pullman's The Golden Compass.  I'm really enjoying it.  I never saw the movie so I started the book not knowing exactly what to expect. 

Pullman throws a huge amount of world-building info at you in a relatively short amount of space, and every single bit of it is thoroughly integrated into the narrative.  He never breaks away from the story for even a little bit of exposition.  I like that.  And somehow the fact that it's clearly a parallel-universe Earth (instead of a totally alien world like most high fantasy) makes me even more interested in finding out exactly how this world works.

I loved the first book (I listened to the trilogy in audio, which was read by Pullman with a full cast for all the characters) but found the second volume somewhat less enjoyable, and the third even less so.

Sigh.  I've heard exactly the same thing from several other people.  Now I've just got to hope this is one more area where my opinion turns out to be different from everyone else's...

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