Return of the Book Thread

[ghost]

The ending of Use of Weapons is really awesome, but it won't have the same impact on a re-read. 

[Murgos]

Culture novels are very strange.  I have reread them all maybe 3 times and I am always disappointed by the endings.  And I still recommend them.   Weird?

I like the journey enough that the ending isn't anything I fret over very much.  As far as old fashioned, 'What if?" sci-fi goes it's pretty much Culture or nothing.  What if there was no death?  What if anything you wanted to do you could virtually in moments or for real with a little effort?  How much should society forgive people who can achieve that societies goals? And even in the latest, What does it mean to die when a completely accurate representation of yourself can live on forever?  How far should a society go to project it's, arguably more humane, morals on other less enlightened societies?

Not that it's at the same level as Phillip K. Dick and not that he provides any answers but no one else really uses sci-fi to ask those sorts of questions these days.

[NowhereMan]

Just got through the Wool Omni-bus and Anathem. I really liked Wool, the first one worked fantastically as a short story and the rest gave me enough Fallout vibes to really, really like.

I adored Anathem, far far more than Reamde.  The ending definitely felt very "Ok, so now what the fuck happens? I guess stuff, ambiguous wink at major plot line, fade to black," but really the world building that got to that point was just so much fun to read. I think I might be helped with it in terms of being very comfortably working out what words mean from context/ignoring the fact that I don't understand a word/reference so I didn't really feel I needed the first half of the book to get comfortable with the terminology and I enjoyed the bullshit maths/philosophy possibly in part because a lot of it was stuff I was familiar with and he really just touches on a lot of it. I think Stephenson manages to avoid going into enough detail regarding any of it to run into the problem of obviously talking bullshit or getting stuff totally wrong, the nods towards Platonism and Phenomenology were probably more enjoyable when the reader is able to fill in a lot of the blanks with what they know rather than getting irritated at the author for 'getting it wrong'. If you like  a good dose of pseudo-intellectualism and some exploration of ideas and themes that aren't necessarily sciencey in your sci-fi it's a fantastic book (you might also enjoy Scott Bakker, although he seems to be veering more and more towards the 'too much detail' side of stuff). If you prefer hard sci-fi or insist on a satisfying ending then avoid.

[HaemishM]

I thought the Anathem ending was satisfying, especially compared to say Diamond Age.

[ghost]

I'm getting ready to start reading Haemish's tome.   

[Viin]

I'm getting ready to start reading Haemish's tome.   

Speaking of lame endings ...

Just kidding, they were fine.

[HaemishM]

The publisher didn't pay me to write an ending. 

[Viin]

The publisher didn't pay me to write an ending. 

In otherwords, they -paid- you to -not- write an ending. I can see you are trying to do a serial series, no problem with that!

[ghost]

If there's no ending I'm driving to Mississippi with a shovel.   

[RhyssaFireheart]

/looks at calendar
/notes Fall is getting closer
/stares in Haemish's general direction
/taps foot

 

Anyways, I am a bad, bad person.   

So at the end of July, I suddenly got some emails saying "the book you bought is ready for download to your Nook" except I hadn't bought anything.  Cue frantic checking, discovery of inability to log into B&N online account, get that cleared up, get books removed from account, and then the real fun starts.  Seems there is another woman out there with my same name but who spells her first name with "ee" instead of "i" in it and her account somehow got tied to mine.  As in her mailing address and CC info was in the account info, it had her name, but my library of books was mixed up with hers.  Her Nook was showing in the info section instead of mine, but they could see mine was registered.  I finally got that cleared up today, password is changed (and I'm considering changing it again now that everything's set up just because) and they've deregistered her Nook from my account/email (and mine is now showing as registered as of the date I originally got it). 

Everything's good, except all the books are still in the library, mine and hers.  So now I'm the proud owner of a few series that I wanted (aka Hunger Games trilogy) and a whole lot more that I have no interest in reading, ever.  I do feel kind of bad about it, so I'm wondering - do I download the books, since they are "mine" or don't I?

But hey, now everything is cleared up and I can finally get the Wool Omnibus, which is what started off this whole journey of needing to get this fixed.

[RhyssaFireheart]

Not that I think anyone on this forum is stupid or desperate enough to read the crap that is Fifty Shades of Grey, but I found this review to be fantastic.

BTW, the Hunger Games books aren't that bad.  They move a bit quickly, but I'm not turned off by the writing or anything like that.  Next up - the Wool Omnibus book, which I finally got downloaded after getting my B&N account straightened out.

[Viin]

I picked up another random SciFi book, called the Complete Atopia Chronicals which seems to be 6 short(er) stories. Interesting so far, but nothing too crazy. Basically, a new "software" system has been developed to be installed in your brain - this software runs a virtual you, so while you are off in virtual land playing with furries, your body is being controlled by your virtual you .. probably doing pushups and running 6 minute miles. One of the stories is about "virtual" kids that age very quickly, which you can spawn to see if you are ready for real kids. But, apparently, after becoming attached to those kids its pretty hard to see them die at age 89, 8 weeks later.

Also finished The Lathe of Heaven, which is actually very good. Guy dreams and his dreams become reality - all of history changes in order to make his dreamed reality come true. Sleep doctor figures out how to harness this guy's dream to advance himself and enact what he considers improvements to the world. Of course, dreams aren't predictable, so some of his suggestions don't turn out like he expected.

[HaemishM]

Also finished The Lathe of Heaven, which is actually very good. Guy dreams and his dreams become reality - all of history changes in order to make his dreamed reality come true. Sleep doctor figures out how to harness this guy's dream to advance himself and enact what he considers improvements to the world. Of course, dreams aren't predictable, so some of his suggestions don't turn out like he expected.

It really is a fantastic novel.

[pxib]

Not a book, and not new: Bruce Sterling's Bicycle Repairman (1997) is a terrific sendup of cyberpunk tropes (post-government living, super secret techno ninjas, rogue AI) while being a fun bit of cyberpunk worldmaking on its own. That link is the whole thing, by the way.

If you've never read it and you've got 45 minutes or so, give it a try.

[Chimpy]

Just finished Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I really dug the book, to the point that I ended up having to force myself to stop reading at 430 AM Tuesday as I had started the book around 10pm on Monday and gotten about 80% through but had to get up for work at 630.

Overall, it felt very Stephensonesque, which to me is not a bad thing. It did do a better job at ending simply because the number of threads which needed to be tied up were nowhere near as monumental as in a Stephenson book.

Going to start on the second (and third) book soon. The joys of working at a library is you can pick books up without making an extra trip :D

[Sky]

The joys of working at a library is you can pick books up without making an extra trip :D

Even better when your fiancee is the fic librarian. Wrapping up Toll the Hounds right now and pondering whether to finish the series or break it up for a while. Just got in the Wool omnibus and I'm tempted to detour over that way.

[Khaldun]

Working on Kim Stanley Robinson's latest. So far I like it a good deal.

[Rasix]

Decided to give the Mistborn series another shot previous putting down book 2 after the first major section a while back.  I must stay, the last half of the book has been really entertaining and has changed my view of the series for the better.  Just the small last section to go, then it's on to the third book.

Got Wool and Consider Phlebas based on the discussion here.  They'll come next.

[RhyssaFireheart]

Read Wool while at the in-laws - marvelous, marvelous recommendation! 

Also read Divergent and Insurgent with make up the Divergent series (so far).  I really enjoyed both books and it's obvious there is more coming since the story isn't done yet.  It also appeals to me for being set in (a slightly broken) Chicago.

[Sky]

Knew I should've put a hold on Wool when it came in, it's out and there are holds on it. This thread is pretty awesome for our patrons!

[ghost]

I find Kim Stanley Robinson a bit too technical for my tastes and a bit dry.  But I haven't made it all the way through the Mars trilogy yet. 

Currently I'm reading the Gap sequence.  I could have sworn that I had read it before, but it's all foreign to me so apparently I didn't.  It's decent, although a bit contrived.  I'm glad he laid off of the raping a little. 

[Abagadro]

laid off the rape? Are you only three pages in?

[ghost]

No, in the second and third and fourth books it's not so prominent.  The first book is all rape.

[lamaros]

I got myself a kindle, finally, and picked up Midnight Empire and Alif the Unseen. About 15% of the way through the first and enjoying it so far.

[pants]

No, in the second and third and fourth books it's not so prominent.  The first book is all rape.

Though you can get all turtle-necky and say that everything that happens to Angus Thermopyle for books three through five is rape.

[ghost]

He certainly gets his due, that's for sure. 

[Sky]

After reading the first one, I swore off Donaldson for good. Life's too short for that garbage.

[ghost]

I'm going to finish these.  I'm on book 4 and I have to see the end.  I'm telling myself there will be an ending that I can relate to (please don't ruin it for me if there isn't   ).

The other books aren't full rapey goodness, Sky. 

[Sky]

Since Wool is checked out with multiple holds, I'm dipping into 1632. Devoured almost half of it last night, pretty quick read. I like this kind of book, ever since reading the old Joel Rosenberg "Modern D&D players get put into their game world" stuff. My favorite aspect was always how they build up the tech and smite backwards rulers and whatnot, fun pulpy stuff.

[dd0029]

I can't vouch for the quality of this, but my 15 year old self loved Leo Frankowski's The Cross-Time Engineer. That was a long time ago and it was old even then, so I'm not sure if your library would still have it. David Weber has gone to that well two and a half times now in increasingly David Weber fashion. First with the last in the Dahak series, Heirs of Empire, half way in the March series he did with John Ringo, and again with the current Safehold series.

[Abagadro]

I'm going to finish these.  I'm on book 4 and I have to see the end.  I'm telling myself there will be an ending that I can relate to (please don't ruin it for me if there isn't   ).

The other books aren't full rapey goodness, Sky.  

I really like that series actually (read it all the way through a couple of times). The ending is pretty well put together.

And you are correct, just having some fun.

[Morat20]

Since Wool is checked out with multiple holds, I'm dipping into 1632. Devoured almost half of it last night, pretty quick read. I like this kind of book, ever since reading the old Joel Rosenberg "Modern D&D players get put into their game world" stuff. My favorite aspect was always how they build up the tech and smite backwards rulers and whatnot, fun pulpy stuff.

I'm slowly working my way through that -- got a few books in. The author actually collects a ton of, basically, fan short-stories done in "newspaper article" style. Baen has the whole thing in ebook form.

I'm always a sucker for Uzis versus Axes. :)

[Chimpy]

So I finished The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. Overall they were pretty good reads. They went off in some generally odd directions at times but I recommend them.

Now I need to find something else new to read. hrmm

[Abagadro]

Read Hit & Run about the two producers of Batman that managed to finagle their way into running a studio when Sony bought Columbia. It's a bit dated at it mostly concerns itself with the era of 1988-1995 but if you are into the movie business (or just how staggeringly stupid corporations can be with their money) its a pretty fun read.

Currently reading Lewis' The Big Short.

[Ironwood]

The Gap Cycle is about Violation and Rape.  Every Single Character has it happen to them.

If that's not your thing, don't read.  Other hand, it's an excellent series.