Author Topic: Science Fiction Novel Poll - Group D  (Read 11021 times)

Ocicat

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on: October 28, 2009, 05:56:48 PM
Group C was won by Flowers for Algernon.  I found this a bit surprising since it's not usually listed among the SF great works, but it shows you have great taste as a group, since it's one of my favorite books.  And there were quite a few good books in last week's poll... nothing got less than two votes, and five books tied for second place.  Foundation, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Startide Rising, The Mote in God's Eye, and To Say Nothing of the Dog.  They will all appear in a run off poll after the group phase is over, along with any future ties for second.

This week we have some real classics, including a couple that aren't normally shelved with SF in the bookstore - Orwell, Verne, and Vonnegut all being considered "respectable authors".  No sequels this time around unless you count A Deepness in the Sky (I wouldn't).  And we have cyberpunk, proto-cyberpunk, proto-steampunk, time travel, distopia, space opera... it's a pretty wide range.  We'll see what comes out on top.



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Reply #1 on: October 28, 2009, 06:34:04 PM
Two books I've read here I love. One I think is overrated. One I don't really have a deep desire to read. The rest I'm very curious about. What I said about feeling underread before? This is a recording :)


jrderego

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Reply #2 on: October 28, 2009, 06:41:00 PM
Cripes I picked three, Verne (a lifetime favorite), Heinlein, and Orwell... Seems I am in good company as those three are currently leading the pack (no doubt to be crushed by Snowcrash later)

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Bdoomed

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Reply #3 on: October 28, 2009, 09:36:15 PM
1984 was good of course... But Cat's Cradle for the MOTHERFUCKING WIN!!!!! I absolutely loved that book.

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


stePH

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Reply #4 on: October 28, 2009, 09:45:17 PM
Of the list, I've read
1984
Snow Crash
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
The Postman
.

I voted for all of those but Moon, which I didn't like quite as much as the other three.

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lowky

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Reply #5 on: October 28, 2009, 11:42:38 PM
Wow, i can't believe Callahan's is doing so poorly, it is by far my favorite on that list though I also voted for Orwell, Heinlein, and Verne.  Not surprised to see 1984 on the list.  I used to think that Orwell got it wrong, then I thought he was close but instead of big brother it was Big Mother (Mandatory Seat Belt Laws, Warnings for doing stupid sh*t will get you killed or injured on almost all products) but now I more and more am realizing that Orwell was just off on the date it would happen by about 20 years.  Orwell was prophetic.  Many people say Asimov was prophetic, but I think it's more people read it, and said that would be cool, let's build it. 


Sgarre1

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Reply #6 on: October 28, 2009, 11:58:38 PM
Big Brother made room for Big Mother and now both have to make room for Big Child ("I want my gas guzzling cars right now, damn the environment!"  You can't shut down the child rape factory, it's bad for the economy, jobs will be lost!").  No one got it right right, but put Orwell and Huxley in a blender and that's pretty much right on the mark!



Heradel

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Reply #7 on: October 29, 2009, 01:42:27 AM
[...] Big Mother (Mandatory Seat Belt Laws, Warnings for doing stupid sh*t will get you killed or injured on almost all products) [...]

Pedestrians and people in other cars have been struck and killed by drivers and passengers that were ejected from cars in an accident.
« Last Edit: October 29, 2009, 01:44:42 AM by Heradel »

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lowky

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Reply #8 on: October 29, 2009, 02:06:24 AM
[...] Big Mother (Mandatory Seat Belt Laws, Warnings for doing stupid sh*t will get you killed or injured on almost all products) [...]

Pedestrians and people in other cars have been struck and killed by drivers and passengers that were ejected from cars in an accident.

But it's mostly to protect the driver/passenger in YOUR car.  I am not say you are wrong, but the main thing was insurance companies told states that if you don't do this, we are going to Jack your states insurance rates up.  I put a seatbelt on any time I get in the front seat of a car, I know it saved me when i went over 1.5 times in a rollover accident.  It used to be if I was going less than a mile or so to the corner store i didn't bother, after the accident it was the first thing i did when getting in a car. 

I also don't necessarily agree with helmet laws.  I would probably wear a helmet, but knowing people who ride etc.  the helmet often times only makes the difference between death and vegetable.  If those are my choices I would prefer to take death thank you.


kibitzer

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Reply #9 on: October 29, 2009, 04:18:48 AM
The Anubis Gates is one of my top ten favourite books, fantastic to see it here. It's such a wonderful mix of sci-fi and fantasy with oddball magicians, time-travel, moon powers, Egyptian gods -- wonderful. Wonderful!!

I've read some but not all of the others. The Demolished Man is about the best psi powers thing I've read. You'll find more than a hint of the concepts in Babylon 5 -- no surprise given the Big Bad Psi-Cop's name. Best thing? Hmm, well maybe Julian May. But Bester is awesome.

I'm gonna have to start a list of books to get from the library.


Heradel

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Reply #10 on: October 29, 2009, 05:41:56 AM
[...] Big Mother (Mandatory Seat Belt Laws, Warnings for doing stupid sh*t will get you killed or injured on almost all products) [...]

Pedestrians and people in other cars have been struck and killed by drivers and passengers that were ejected from cars in an accident.

But it's mostly to protect the driver/passenger in YOUR car.  I am not say you are wrong, but the main thing was insurance companies told states that if you don't do this, we are going to Jack your states insurance rates up.  I put a seatbelt on any time I get in the front seat of a car, I know it saved me when i went over 1.5 times in a rollover accident.  It used to be if I was going less than a mile or so to the corner store i didn't bother, after the accident it was the first thing i did when getting in a car. 

I also don't necessarily agree with helmet laws.  I would probably wear a helmet, but knowing people who ride etc.  the helmet often times only makes the difference between death and vegetable.  If those are my choices I would prefer to take death thank you.

I hate running to studies (and dragging threads off topic), but Helmets do help save lives and prevent grievous bodily harm. Your choices are rarely just death and vegetable (plus, you can recover from vegetable — it's much harder to recover from death without a glacier around). You also seem to be ignoring a fair number of accidents that can happen that are less dangerous than a bicycle/vehicle collision. When I was in my teens (god saying that makes me feel old) I was glancing behind me and hit the top and right side of my helmet on a low-hanging branch. If I hadn't been wearing a helmet I probably wouldn't have been able to stay on the bike, and might very well have cracked my skull (would have at least needed stitches). The helmet was certainly cracked.

Will helmets save you in every case? No, but nothing will. Helmet laws make sense, along with seatbelt laws. Warning labels can be really, really obvious sometimes, but there are people out there who it wouldn't have occurred to, including children. Behind every warning label is probably a lawsuit or two where that thing happened to someone or several someones. People have used lighters to try to see how full a fuel tank is. People get crushed under vending machines when they rock them.

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Bdoomed

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Reply #11 on: October 29, 2009, 06:16:00 AM
I have a helmet... if I'm going far on busy streets, which I never go on, I'll wear a helmet.
Around campus? nah.  everything is too slow anyway, cars can't go fast on campus.

seatbelts... I always wear one, first thing I do, always have, not because of an experience, just because I do.  Sometimes when I'm in a back seat squashed with 4 other people, I won't of course, but I don't like it...

anyway...
back on topic...
Why isn't Cat's Cradle winning!?  That book was so good!  I don't want to have to Ice-9 the competition, but I'll do it!

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


stePH

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Reply #12 on: October 29, 2009, 02:31:33 PM
Warning labels can be really, really obvious sometimes, but there are people out there who it wouldn't have occurred to, including children. Behind every warning label is probably a lawsuit or two where that thing happened to someone or several someones. People have used lighters to try to see how full a fuel tank is. People get crushed under vending machines when they rock them.

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Why isn't Cat's Cradle winning!?  That book was so good!  I don't want to have to Ice-9 the competition, but I'll do it!

I didn't vote for it because I haven't read it.

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Ocicat

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Reply #13 on: October 30, 2009, 12:21:51 AM
Why isn't Cat's Cradle winning!?  That book was so good!  I don't want to have to Ice-9 the competition, but I'll do it!

I didn't vote for it because I haven't read it.

You need to read it.  Cat's Cradle is actually my favorite book of all time.  But though it has a great SF idea (ice-9), the core of the book is really philosophy and religion.  Well, more like a treatise against religion, but it's very insightful and very, very funny. 



stePH

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Reply #14 on: October 30, 2009, 01:41:58 AM
Well, more like a treatise against religion,

I like it already  ;D

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Bdoomed

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Reply #15 on: October 30, 2009, 05:05:08 AM
Why isn't Cat's Cradle winning!?  That book was so good!  I don't want to have to Ice-9 the competition, but I'll do it!

I didn't vote for it because I haven't read it.

You need to read it.  Cat's Cradle is actually my favorite book of all time.  But though it has a great SF idea (ice-9), the core of the book is really philosophy and religion.  Well, more like a treatise against religion, but it's very insightful and very, very funny. 
yes yes yes, in fact, ice-9 doesn't really play too much of a part for most of the novel.  The book is insanely funny, and really just classic Vonnegut.  I took up this book's fake religion for a bit too.

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


Darwinist

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Reply #16 on: October 31, 2009, 03:11:14 AM
1984 was good of course... But Cat's Cradle for the MOTHERFUCKING WIN!!!!! I absolutely loved that book.

EFF YES!!  I liked a lot of the books on this list.  Loved The Postman but hated the mutant pile that Costner turned it in to on the silver screen.

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


lowky

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Reply #17 on: October 31, 2009, 03:17:16 AM
disappointed in how poorly Callahan's is doing.  I loved all of those books


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Reply #18 on: October 31, 2009, 10:00:27 PM
1984 was good of course... But Cat's Cradle for the MOTHERFUCKING WIN!!!!! I absolutely loved that book.

THIS.

Cat's Cradle is sooooooooooo good.  It's one of those books that changed me as an individual.  Granted, I was quite young and impressionable when I read it, but I read tons of stuff at that age and most of it failed to make an impression, whereas I'm allatime telling people there's no goddamn cat and there's no goddamn cradle, for which the absence of spoons and the lying cake are but shallow, pale imitations.

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Bdoomed

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Reply #19 on: October 31, 2009, 10:28:23 PM
1984 was good of course... But Cat's Cradle for the MOTHERFUCKING WIN!!!!! I absolutely loved that book.

THIS.

Cat's Cradle is sooooooooooo good.  It's one of those books that changed me as an individual.  Granted, I was quite young and impressionable when I read it, but I read tons of stuff at that age and most of it failed to make an impression, whereas I'm allatime telling people there's no goddamn cat and there's no goddamn cradle, for which the absence of spoons and the lying cake are but shallow, pale imitations.

YES!

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


kibitzer

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Reply #20 on: November 03, 2009, 03:47:16 AM
...but hated the mutant pile that Costner turned it in to on the silver screen.

That pretty much goes for Costner, period -- with the possible exception of his appearance as a corpse in The Big Chill. I regret to say he's starring in an adaptation of a John Connolly short story, The New Daughter.
« Last Edit: November 03, 2009, 03:58:55 AM by kibitzer »



DKT

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Reply #21 on: November 03, 2009, 05:27:32 PM
I'm personally waiting for Kevin Costner to make a comeback in a Quentin Tarrantino movie, then do some John Woo stuff, although, I'm not exactly excited for him to ham it up in that one about the bikers or the new one with Robin Williams and all those penguins...

Nah, actually, I like Costner. He's done some good stuff like Dances with Wolves and the Untouchables. Unfortunately, it's been a long time since he's done anything really great.


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Reply #22 on: November 03, 2009, 06:13:35 PM
I'm personally waiting for Kevin Costner to make a comeback in a Quentin Tarrantino movie, then do some John Woo stuff, although, I'm not exactly excited for him to ham it up in that one about the bikers or the new one with Robin Williams and all those penguins...

Nah, actually, I like Costner. He's done some good stuff like Dances with Wolves and the Untouchables. Unfortunately, it's been a long time since he's done anything really great.
He was pretty good in El Dorado, too.



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Reply #23 on: November 03, 2009, 06:14:54 PM
I thought it was Rio Bravo...

But his best roll of all was that of the crippled gay guy who climbed Mt. Whitney.


stePH

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Reply #24 on: November 04, 2009, 01:57:22 AM
INah, actually, I like Costner. He's done some good stuff like Dances with Wolves and the Untouchables. Unfortunately, it's been a long time since he's done anything really great.
He was pretty good in El Dorado, too.

I liked No Way Out but that was a long time ago.

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