Actual, by himself, not that much of a fan. But writing with Pournelle, one of my favorites. Nice guys, too. Met them last year at the con I am on the committee of, got to chat with them for a half hour or so.
What have you been reading?
- Thread starter veritas
- Start date
-
Love Gotmead and want to see it grow? Then consider supporting the site and becoming a Patron! If you're logged in, click on your username to the right of the menu to see how as little as $30/year can get you access to the patron areas and the patron Facebook group and to support Gotmead!
-
We now have a Patron-exclusive Facebook group! Patrons my join at The Gotmead Patron Group. You MUST answer the questions, providing your Patron membership, when you request to join so I can verify your Patron membership. If the questions aren't answered, the request will be turned down.
Actual, by himself, not that much of a fan. But writing with Pournelle, one of my favorites. Nice guys, too. Met them last year at the con I am on the committee of, got to chat with them for a half hour or so.
I'm still working on Heinlein, obviously a great but not my favourite so far, I'm more of a Joe Haldeman guy when it comes to the Military SF (he wrote The Forever War, which is considered sort of the antithesis to Starship Troopers). Not that I'm disliking his works, just not my favourites, right now I'm reading his stuff mostly for the academic sake of it.
Niven I'm not a huge fan of on his own (Edit: HA! Funny, I wrote that before I read your last post Storm!), but then again I've yet to get the Ringworld series so I'm probably missing a lot, but when he teams up with Pournelle (Mote books) it's awesome for sure.
I'm definitely a fan of many of the huge greats of the genre, Frank Herbert, Issaac Asimov (not a great writer, but a great visionary), Arthur C Clarke, Ursula K Le Guin, Verne... Poe actually wrote some excellent early Science Fiction as well.
I have moved on to "Pride and Prejudice" and am enjoying it more than I thought I would. I actually like and/or respect some of the characters in this one!
Also plowing my way through "The Authoritatians", which will probably result in my pulling the Bible of the shelf yet again...
Also plowing my way through "The Authoritatians", which will probably result in my pulling the Bible of the shelf yet again...
I'm midway through Battle Cry of Freedom. It's an extensive history of the American Civil War. Great.
I'm still working on A Dance With Dragons, probably 3/4 of the way through it now, or maybe closer to 2/3.
A friend of mine works for a small publishing company called Variance Publishing and they have an author I have been enjoying lately by the name of Jeremy Robinson, he's written a series of books called "Chess Team" and I am currently reading "Instinct". The Chess Team is a Delta team that goes on special missions. Normally not my kind of book, but they encounter mythological things as their problems in our real world where people don't believe in that stuff anymore. Like in the first one, "Pulse" they deal with a Hydra that is resurrected by science after the Hydra's head is found. He also wrote another book I enjoyed called "Antarktos Rising", it doesn't have the Chess Team and there are a few plot holes, but it was a fun and quick read.
It's the Library Book Sale Day!
Lord Have Mercy!
While I'm still slogging my way through Richard Wright's Native Son, I find that my hand keeps picking up literature on race, on Africa, on African descent, on slavery, on the attempted blending or the failure of blending cultures...Barbara Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible, Mark Twain's Huck Finn, Alan Paton's Cry the Beloved Country, Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, Joyce Carol Oates's Black Girl White Girl...
Lord Have Mercy!
While I'm still slogging my way through Richard Wright's Native Son, I find that my hand keeps picking up literature on race, on Africa, on African descent, on slavery, on the attempted blending or the failure of blending cultures...Barbara Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible, Mark Twain's Huck Finn, Alan Paton's Cry the Beloved Country, Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, Joyce Carol Oates's Black Girl White Girl...
Plus...I'm arrested by the cover of Roger Housden's Chasing Rumi.
Jelaluddin Rumi, born in 1207, says:
All the particles of the world
Are in love and looking for lovers
He's a poet, but he's got his finger on the pulse of organic chemistry...like Fredrich Kekule dreaming up the ouroboros-like structure of the benzene ring.
I take it home with me and drink it (plus one glass of Kurpiowski Royal Mead...Happy National Mead Day!)all up in one sitting. Turns out to have been a tasty little dismemberment journey/soul retrieval/ darkness retreat/vision quest all rolled up into one.
Jelaluddin Rumi, born in 1207, says:
All the particles of the world
Are in love and looking for lovers
He's a poet, but he's got his finger on the pulse of organic chemistry...like Fredrich Kekule dreaming up the ouroboros-like structure of the benzene ring.
I take it home with me and drink it (plus one glass of Kurpiowski Royal Mead...Happy National Mead Day!)all up in one sitting. Turns out to have been a tasty little dismemberment journey/soul retrieval/ darkness retreat/vision quest all rolled up into one.
So this summer's theme seems to be "classics" for me...
I actually enjoyed "Pride and Prejudice". Much better than "Sense and Sensibility".
Got into my mother in law's SF collection while we were in Sudbury, "Beyond the Horizon" and "Methuselah's Children" from Heinlen, started on "A Tale of Two Cities" and got halfway through the Book of Genesis (Good News Bible, I blame AToE for that one) and am making horrid notes on it... Also read "Childhood's End" by Arthur C Clarke. I think I enjoyed his biographical blurb at the end of the book as much as I enjoyed the story... his comment on having become temporarily paralyzed by whacking his head on a doorframe during the height of the polio epidemic, "I highly recommend it to anyone who takes their body for granted."
But I think the best book I read this summer had to be "Dandelion Wine" by Ray Bradbury. I was just absolutely charmed by that one, I think it'll go beside "Good Omens" and "By the Sword" on my "read it every few years" list.
I actually enjoyed "Pride and Prejudice". Much better than "Sense and Sensibility".
Got into my mother in law's SF collection while we were in Sudbury, "Beyond the Horizon" and "Methuselah's Children" from Heinlen, started on "A Tale of Two Cities" and got halfway through the Book of Genesis (Good News Bible, I blame AToE for that one) and am making horrid notes on it... Also read "Childhood's End" by Arthur C Clarke. I think I enjoyed his biographical blurb at the end of the book as much as I enjoyed the story... his comment on having become temporarily paralyzed by whacking his head on a doorframe during the height of the polio epidemic, "I highly recommend it to anyone who takes their body for granted."
But I think the best book I read this summer had to be "Dandelion Wine" by Ray Bradbury. I was just absolutely charmed by that one, I think it'll go beside "Good Omens" and "By the Sword" on my "read it every few years" list.
Last edited:
Well, I'm done the book now, without any spoilers its tough to say much, it's a great book, but it is a lot like the 4th book in that it's largely still set-up for the final books (which I'm guessing are going to stretch into 3 more, not just 2 more honestly).
Without spoilers... the chapters that follow Bran are great, nice to see what he gets up to. Also, if you thought things were bad at the end of the last book, they're worse at the end of this one!
Without spoilers... the chapters that follow Bran are great, nice to see what he gets up to. Also, if you thought things were bad at the end of the last book, they're worse at the end of this one!
Yep. Just had one of those here recently, and for $1 I picked up The Failure of the Founding Fathers: Jefferson, Marshall, and the Rise of Presidential Democracy by Bruce Ackerman. It is a richly referenced, and the work of a heavy-weight legal scholar (a slow read), but the information contained is fascinating stuff.
Our founding fathers created a marvelous document, the U.S. Constitution, but it has a few holes, and one of the biggest is the process involved in electing a President. If you thought the "hanging chads" brouhaha in 2000 was fun, the story of the screwed-up election of 1800 makes the 2000 issues look like a tempest in a teacup. It's hard to believe we are still fighting through the same old problems. One thing is for certain - when you hear someone say they long for the days when politics wasn't so partisan and vitriolic, you can be sure they haven't read much of our history because such a time never existed.
Steppenwolf
Hermann Hesse
I'm finding this more engaging as an audiobook than I did when I picked up the tree-based version.
Hermann Hesse
I'm finding this more engaging as an audiobook than I did when I picked up the tree-based version.
How did I miss this thread? I know how to read! Mostly Sci-Fi/Fantasy stuff, because I'm stupid. Actually told that by my western lit teacher in high school. Got sent to the principal's office when I suggested she wasn't smart enough to grasp the symbolism in Dune.
Someone mentioned reading some of Dumas' work. If you like mystery/fantasy stuff, I recommend checking out "The Club Dumas" by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. The book is infinitley better then the movie. The world of high stakes antique book collecting.
Anne McCaffrey - Loved the dragon series, but think it should have ended with "All The Weyr's of Pern". Sky's of Pern was weird. And no good ever comes from letting your kid write books in your world. My Aunt & Uncle are good friends of McCaffrey, and are mentioned in several of her books (they did a lot of the maps for her). My sister once baby sat for her grandkids, and says she is a really, really nice lady.
Fire & Ice - My reaction to the events in Dance with Dragons, "AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" I hate Martin. Hate him, hate him, hate him. Can't wait for the next book.
Did you know that he has apparently left instructions that all his notes and unfinished manuscripts are to be burned if he dies before the series is finished? Now taking volunteers to sit outside his house with a defibrillator.
Dune - Toast rocking. One of my favorite books. Not as much as AToE, but at least the first three were pretty awesome. I never got through God Emporer. Something about it just kind of loses me. Maybe I'll just kidnap AToE and make him tell me how it all ends. He'd probably do it for free, but kidnapping is so much fun. (Is "He" the appropriate pronoun for a giant sandworm?)
Sword of Truth - Loved many moons ago, but tried rereading it and it wasn't as good. Might be because Goodkind is an arrogant ass, and I'm kind of turned off by him. "I don't read other author's works, because I'm better then them" (actual quote). I have several prints of Keith Parkinson's artwork from the series that really need to get matted and framed.
LotR - I've never managed to read it. I always get bored. Winnie the Poo fantasy, to quote C.S. Lewis. Sauron is supposed to be Mr. Super Evil, but really? He doesn't even make the top 10 when compared to real world evil dictators. Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot....
Wheel of Time - Gah. Much like LotR, I find Jordan just a bit too verbose. Gave up half way through the 5th book.
Classic Sci-Fi - Clark, Asimov, Heinlein, Sturgeon, etc. Love reading their stuff because I'm a politics/philosophy junky. A lot of their stuff was just thinly disguised philosophy postulations. I'll throw up another couple thumbs for Ender's Game and Starship Troopers.
The Great Gatsby - I despise this book. caffeine211, I challenge you to a duel!
Favorites not mentioned so far..... I'm a big fan of Alt History and Contemporary (Near Future) Fantasy.
Dies the Fire - S.M. Stirling's novel of the modern world in which the laws of physics change such that you can no longer build up large stores of energy. In other words, firearms no longer work (high pressure), nor does electricity. Fire burns and water boils, but only enough pressure can be built up for cooking and the most basic steam engine. Needless to say, modern society joins the Dodo.
Dresden Files - Popcorn fiction to be sure, but still a good enjoyable read.
Simon Hawke's Wizard of 4th St series - More popcorn fiction, but fun popcorn fiction. Future world, fossil fuels have run out, world is in chaos, etc. Merlin awakens, and brings magic back. Now everything runs on magic. Life is paradise, then the ancient demons awaken. Each book is about the "Chosen Avatars" chasing down the demons and killing them.
Jennifer Government - Future world in which the only law is corporate/contract law. People take their last name from the corporation they work for. Main character, Jennifer Government, is a government agent. The NRA is now a contract assassin company, and Nike pretty much rules the world. It inspired the "popular" internet time waster "Nationstates.net".
Pulp Classics - Soloman Kane and Tarzan are my favorites. I actually have first edition copies of about the first 20 Tarzan books my grandfather left me. While skiming through them, I found one that was signed and dated by my great grandfather, my grand ather, and my father. I of course added my signature and the date I received them.
Alas, Babylon - Classic post-apocolyptic novel. The author, Pat Frank, was a military reporter at the height of the Cold War. He realized no one, not even a lot of military folks, really understood what would happen if we went at it with the Soviets. The TV series "Jericho" was unofficially based pretty heavily on the book. This book is in constant battle for "my favorite book of all time" with....
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant - To this day this remains one of my favorite series. Covenant is a text book example of an anti-hero. A best selling author, Covenant has everything until he contracts leprosy. In short order, his wife leaves him, the townspeople shun him, and he grows increasingly bitter and cynical. When he's transported to a magical fantasy world in which his leprosy is cured, and the people think he's a hero, he must confront all of his neurosis that have become his weapons/armor against the outside world.
Donaldson was really creative in his ideas, though his writing isn't always the absolute best. It's good, but sometimes the flow of the story slows a bit much. I'm about to start the last book in the series, which I'm a bit hesitant to do, as the third trilogy hasn't been as good as the first two. Those were published in the late 70's, early 80's, while the third trilogy has been published just in the last decade.
(sorry this become so long.... I really like books)
Someone mentioned reading some of Dumas' work. If you like mystery/fantasy stuff, I recommend checking out "The Club Dumas" by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. The book is infinitley better then the movie. The world of high stakes antique book collecting.
Anne McCaffrey - Loved the dragon series, but think it should have ended with "All The Weyr's of Pern". Sky's of Pern was weird. And no good ever comes from letting your kid write books in your world. My Aunt & Uncle are good friends of McCaffrey, and are mentioned in several of her books (they did a lot of the maps for her). My sister once baby sat for her grandkids, and says she is a really, really nice lady.
Fire & Ice - My reaction to the events in Dance with Dragons, "AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" I hate Martin. Hate him, hate him, hate him. Can't wait for the next book.
Did you know that he has apparently left instructions that all his notes and unfinished manuscripts are to be burned if he dies before the series is finished? Now taking volunteers to sit outside his house with a defibrillator. Dune - Toast rocking. One of my favorite books. Not as much as AToE, but at least the first three were pretty awesome. I never got through God Emporer. Something about it just kind of loses me. Maybe I'll just kidnap AToE and make him tell me how it all ends. He'd probably do it for free, but kidnapping is so much fun. (Is "He" the appropriate pronoun for a giant sandworm?)
Sword of Truth - Loved many moons ago, but tried rereading it and it wasn't as good. Might be because Goodkind is an arrogant ass, and I'm kind of turned off by him. "I don't read other author's works, because I'm better then them" (actual quote). I have several prints of Keith Parkinson's artwork from the series that really need to get matted and framed.
LotR - I've never managed to read it. I always get bored. Winnie the Poo fantasy, to quote C.S. Lewis. Sauron is supposed to be Mr. Super Evil, but really? He doesn't even make the top 10 when compared to real world evil dictators. Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot....
Wheel of Time - Gah. Much like LotR, I find Jordan just a bit too verbose. Gave up half way through the 5th book.
Classic Sci-Fi - Clark, Asimov, Heinlein, Sturgeon, etc. Love reading their stuff because I'm a politics/philosophy junky. A lot of their stuff was just thinly disguised philosophy postulations. I'll throw up another couple thumbs for Ender's Game and Starship Troopers.
The Great Gatsby - I despise this book. caffeine211, I challenge you to a duel!
Favorites not mentioned so far..... I'm a big fan of Alt History and Contemporary (Near Future) Fantasy.
Dies the Fire - S.M. Stirling's novel of the modern world in which the laws of physics change such that you can no longer build up large stores of energy. In other words, firearms no longer work (high pressure), nor does electricity. Fire burns and water boils, but only enough pressure can be built up for cooking and the most basic steam engine. Needless to say, modern society joins the Dodo.
Dresden Files - Popcorn fiction to be sure, but still a good enjoyable read.
Simon Hawke's Wizard of 4th St series - More popcorn fiction, but fun popcorn fiction. Future world, fossil fuels have run out, world is in chaos, etc. Merlin awakens, and brings magic back. Now everything runs on magic. Life is paradise, then the ancient demons awaken. Each book is about the "Chosen Avatars" chasing down the demons and killing them.
Jennifer Government - Future world in which the only law is corporate/contract law. People take their last name from the corporation they work for. Main character, Jennifer Government, is a government agent. The NRA is now a contract assassin company, and Nike pretty much rules the world. It inspired the "popular" internet time waster "Nationstates.net".
Pulp Classics - Soloman Kane and Tarzan are my favorites. I actually have first edition copies of about the first 20 Tarzan books my grandfather left me. While skiming through them, I found one that was signed and dated by my great grandfather, my grand ather, and my father. I of course added my signature and the date I received them.
Alas, Babylon - Classic post-apocolyptic novel. The author, Pat Frank, was a military reporter at the height of the Cold War. He realized no one, not even a lot of military folks, really understood what would happen if we went at it with the Soviets. The TV series "Jericho" was unofficially based pretty heavily on the book. This book is in constant battle for "my favorite book of all time" with....
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant - To this day this remains one of my favorite series. Covenant is a text book example of an anti-hero. A best selling author, Covenant has everything until he contracts leprosy. In short order, his wife leaves him, the townspeople shun him, and he grows increasingly bitter and cynical. When he's transported to a magical fantasy world in which his leprosy is cured, and the people think he's a hero, he must confront all of his neurosis that have become his weapons/armor against the outside world.
Donaldson was really creative in his ideas, though his writing isn't always the absolute best. It's good, but sometimes the flow of the story slows a bit much. I'm about to start the last book in the series, which I'm a bit hesitant to do, as the third trilogy hasn't been as good as the first two. Those were published in the late 70's, early 80's, while the third trilogy has been published just in the last decade.
(sorry this become so long.... I really like books)
Ha, nice work with that teacher! I once made an English teacher reverse the answer on a test, the original "right" answer was something about SF and Fantasy being only escapist, not possible for them to convey deep meaning. Seriously. I won too, wasn't hard since almost every major SF book in history is drenched with social/political/moral messages.
Good for him - though personally I would prefer for the notes simply to be released but never have anyone try to finish the novels, like Chris Tolkien did for his father (yeah yeah, he made some books out of them, but he took great care to always release everything he had for notes, hid nothing and honestly tried to do the best for the legacy, unlike the goofs that took over Dune).
Oh man, GEoD is the best book of the bunch in most hardcore Dune fans' opinions! Leto II is probably one of the most difficult to portay character in any novel ever written, and Herbert pulls it off flawlessly. Personally my fav is probably Dune Messiah, not because it's fun to read, but because that's where the whole point of the first novel is actually made. (Plus it, Children of Dune and GEoD stand up to re-reads better than the first novel, I never could recreate the feeling I had the first time I read that book, like a drug addict chasing that first high!) GEoD is up there for me too though, really killer book - does better after the first read though because it's so cryptic. The last 2 books are good, but a departure, and don't deal with the entirety of humanity any more.
EDIT: and of course I'd be happy to outline what Leto II was up to, how that book ends, and basically how the rest goes. That should be over PM though, so's not to spoil it for everyone. PM me if you actually want that!
And not sure about "he" for a worm, though they are referred to as Grandfathers of the Dessert... people tend to refer to gender neutral dieties as masculine anyways, and the worms were thought to be Shai Hulud in physical form, so maybe "he" would work!
Fire & Ice - My reaction to the events in Dance with Dragons, "AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" I hate Martin. Hate him, hate him, hate him. Can't wait for the next book.
Good for him - though personally I would prefer for the notes simply to be released but never have anyone try to finish the novels, like Chris Tolkien did for his father (yeah yeah, he made some books out of them, but he took great care to always release everything he had for notes, hid nothing and honestly tried to do the best for the legacy, unlike the goofs that took over Dune).
Oh man, GEoD is the best book of the bunch in most hardcore Dune fans' opinions! Leto II is probably one of the most difficult to portay character in any novel ever written, and Herbert pulls it off flawlessly. Personally my fav is probably Dune Messiah, not because it's fun to read, but because that's where the whole point of the first novel is actually made. (Plus it, Children of Dune and GEoD stand up to re-reads better than the first novel, I never could recreate the feeling I had the first time I read that book, like a drug addict chasing that first high!) GEoD is up there for me too though, really killer book - does better after the first read though because it's so cryptic. The last 2 books are good, but a departure, and don't deal with the entirety of humanity any more.
EDIT: and of course I'd be happy to outline what Leto II was up to, how that book ends, and basically how the rest goes. That should be over PM though, so's not to spoil it for everyone. PM me if you actually want that!
And not sure about "he" for a worm, though they are referred to as Grandfathers of the Dessert... people tend to refer to gender neutral dieties as masculine anyways, and the worms were thought to be Shai Hulud in physical form, so maybe "he" would work!
Looks like I'll be adding Dies the Fire - S.M. Stirling to my to-do list.
Reading Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amos. It's a HOOT! Calls to mind the British Souls of all the cute guys, Monty Python fans all, I loved in college.
Read The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant some 20 or 30yr ago. Liked them better than Heinlein.
MrMoo, you may enjoy the SciFi Nerd thread...I think it's in The Hive.
Reading Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amos. It's a HOOT! Calls to mind the British Souls of all the cute guys, Monty Python fans all, I loved in college.
Read The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant some 20 or 30yr ago. Liked them better than Heinlein.
MrMoo, you may enjoy the SciFi Nerd thread...I think it's in The Hive.
A fine choice. I thought the first trilogy was excellent "Alt History". Trips my switch for post-apocolyptic, survivalist stuff. I'm fascinated by "collapse of civilization" type stuff. I should probably seek counseling. Or become a dentist. ;D
There's a second trilogy, that focuses on a descendant of both the "good guy" clans. However, Stirling starts to veer into more serious fantasy with the second trilogy, and something about it has always made stop before buying it. The kid's getting vision quest from "The Goddess", there's a magic sword I think.... I don't know.
