SubJeff on 9/2/2010 at 22:58
I think that times have changed. I read 1984 over 10 years ago. At that time it was a little fresher than it is now. Its like reading Neuromancer now for the first time probably wouldn't be the same for someone as it was for me all those years ago.
Now then, if you want to read some Sci-fi that doesn't age and which will give you an emotional trip try (repeato time here) Flowers for Algernon or Dying Inside.
I've finished Ender's Game. Refreshing. Reminded me of Rendezvous with Rama for some reason. Spoiler here. If there is one thing that I really, really like in this book - and which really isn't what the book is about per se, and arguably its a Deus Ex Machine its the description of the aliens. THAT is what I'm talking 'bout. Their reason for attacking Earth is so much more coherent than the usual PLANET HARVEST crap, and the physiological basis for it is much more interesting than the blue alien sex nyphs that you get in things like Avatar.
june gloom on 10/2/2010 at 00:06
Quote Posted by ercles
Although I realize that he was one of the first to the well with these ideas, this book was so influential on the sci-fi novels, films, and computer games that came after it, that I felt like I'd played it before.
aaaaaaghghghghgh I
hate this shit. I realize it's kind of unavoidable but that doesn't make it so goddamned
irritating.
As to Neuromancer, I read it for the first time a few years ago and was basically blown away. It's just overall a very trippy read in this day and age, for much the same reason as playing Deus Ex for the first time
after 9/11 was for me.
theBlackman on 10/2/2010 at 01:06
the "RAIN" series by Barry Eisler. Freelance assassin. Interesting character.
The whole series <u>Enders Game</u>, <u>Speaker for the dead,</u> <u>Xenocide</u> and <u>Children of the Mind,</U> are also great Sci-Fi
Another good series is by Gordon Dickson the DORSAI books.
Sulphur on 10/2/2010 at 09:10
The Ender saga goes a bit downhill with Xenocide. Ender's Shadow was a good read; again, it's not on the level of Ender's Game, but the experiment Card was trying to work with its overall narrative made it pretty compelling.
SubJeff on 10/2/2010 at 17:29
Everyone says the same thing about the second in the series about everything - its not as good. Well I don't want to read it then because coming of the back of the original which is great I'd be disappointed. This true of the Dune series (stopped reading the 3rd one about 1/4 way in) and is the reason I will not touch another Ender book, nor another Rama.
Sulphur on 10/2/2010 at 17:35
Xenocide is the second sequel. Speaker for the Dead is the first, and went in the other direction: it isn't more of the same, it's quite emphatically as far away from Ender's Game as you can get and still be a great read. I really wanted to know what kind of person Ender would become, and well... that's what Speaker for the Dead shows you.
I liked it plenty; it's not Ender's Game, but that's exactly what it strives to be.
(Rama's sequels did devolve into some pretty wince-inducing and turgid drama at times, yeah. Rama II was mostly decent, but not a patch on the sheer imagination of the original. The less said about everything following Rama II the better.)
Aja on 10/2/2010 at 19:06
Still Ulysses. In fact I'm about 70 pages further than I was three months ago. Turns out the pursuit of a degree is a more powerful motivator to read challenging literature than I led myself to believe
(actually I knew it all along)
ercles on 10/2/2010 at 21:47
Quote Posted by Sulphur
Xenocide is the second sequel. Speaker for the Dead is the first, and went in the other direction: it isn't more of the same, it's quite emphatically as far away from Ender's Game as you can get and still be a great read. I really wanted to know what kind of person Ender would become, and well... that's what Speaker for the Dead shows you.
Speaker for the dead was the one which introduced the pigs, right? Because that was terrific. Xenocide certainly got bogged down at times, but I still thought it contained some fascinating concepts.
Sulphur on 11/2/2010 at 17:57
Yep, Speaker for the Dead was the one with the pequeninos. And yep, it was pretty damn good.
I liked Xenocide for its ideas dealing with philotes and aiuas, but the narrative didn't really take those concepts anywhere new. It's a good read nonetheless, and always well-written, but Xenocide is undeniably a lesser book than the two before it.
june gloom on 11/2/2010 at 18:30
Cormack McCarthy why do you hate quotation marks so!?!?!?!
I mean okay granted I like the style usually and it worked 100% for The Road but I'm closing in on the end of No Country For Old Men and it's starting to grate on me a bit.
