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Dalton wrote:I don't understand why I'm still melting my brain with Dan Brown pap.

I've read all five of his books, and I think its because each chapter ends with a cliffhanger, and like his writing or not, there's a bit of a honeymoon period with them before you figure out he wrote the same book four times.

Currently reading Off the Planet by Jerry Linenger, about his experiences on Mir.

Finished the Dark Griffin. Much better than I expected, don't want to give away details.

Starting the sequel.

Currently reading the restored version of Joe Haldeman's excellent The Forever War.

I'm now currently reading Game of Thrones, after seeing the TV show.

Patrick Degan wrote:Currently reading the restored version of Joe Haldeman's excellent The Forever War.

Are you reading the trilogy collection ('Peace and War')?

Just started 'The Prize,' which seems to be pretty well known around here. Was hooked by the midpoint of the first page.

Kanastrous wrote:

Patrick Degan wrote:Currently reading the restored version of Joe Haldeman's excellent The Forever War.

Are you reading the trilogy collection ('Peace and War')?

No, just FW.

I just finished The Cold Commands by Richard Morgan, the second book in his fantasy trilogy (he's mostly a SF writer). That was a fucking awesome novel, much better than the first one. I wish the ending wasn't confusing, though.

Now it's on to How I killed Pluto and Why it had it coming, and The Prize.

"Surface Detail" apparently had some influence on me. Bought "Consider Phlebas" today and are really looking forward to it.

Need to get my hands on "Reamde" and "Snuff". Hope I can get it from the local libraries...

I put down How I Killed Pluto and The Magic of Reality - the former because it was boring, the latter because it's really intended as a children's book, and there's nothing in it that I haven't already read in other Dawkins books. I think the latter would make a solid children's book, though.

I also glanced through What if the Earth had two moons? again, and I'm still pretty "meh" towards it. The basic counterfactuals are interesting, but the actual book (and how the scenarios play out scientifically and in terms of reading) didn't turn out great. There's too many areas where the author is using outdated knowledge about geology and biology, and it shows in both this book and in What if the Moon didn't exist?.

I'm reading Brian Greene's The Hidden Reality on a library e-book loan on my Kindle, but I'd prefer books with more general knowledge about the state of physics today.

Just read CS Lewis' On Miracles.

Lewis writes well, has a friendly, engaging style, and assembles his arguments well - the only problem is that much of his position seems to be based upon outmoded scientific understandings that pretty much knock the legs out from under the text by the time you finish the second chapter.

I'll stick with the Space Trilogy and the Chronicles of Narnia.

Also Brave New World Revisited, Aldous Huxley. Boy howdy, did he ever call it.

I'm reading The Great Hunt in the Wheel of Time series.

Ian Rankin's The Impossible Dead. Apparently he thinking about Fox getting his mitts on Rebus at some point. Can't wait for that!

So i finished reading "Consider Phlebas" yesterday. And i must say, what an awesome read! I repeatedly caught myself thinking: If done well, this would totally kick ass as a movie. And it wouldn't even be that hard to stick relatively close to the book.

Had "Snuff" since Friday, have to return it this Friday. Someone already has it on hold so I can't renew, but I think I can power through in the next few days.

It's solid Vimes so far, but I can tell Pratchett's starting to go a bit daffy

Requested REAMDE. Almost every local library already has it loaned out, some overdue. Blast.

A Brave New World- Aldous Huxley

I've put down Brian Greene's The Hidden Reality (fortunately, it was a library e-book on loan). I'm more interested in knowing what the state of physics is today, as opposed to alternate universes.

I picked up my library copy of The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham, and loved it. It's a good page-turner, and the three main characters are fun to read about.

I've got The Prize by Daniel Yergin, which is an excellent history of the rise of the petroleum industry (unfortunately, it's in hardback form, so it's huge). I've read select parts of it before, but never the entire book. I've also got a small e-book called Race against the Machine, which is about the increasing use of automation in the last ten years.

Snuff was alright, better than the last go, but no Death cameo and an unsatisfactory denouement.

Managed to get REAMDE from the library. Stephenson actually makes an oblique reference to "Snow Crash", which is awesome.

I never got into The Prize. I was distracted by two books:

1. A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge. Great book, although I started getting impatient with it at about page 250 and was skimming from then on. It's basically Vinge's pessimistic view on a setting where human technological and even societal capabilities have plateaued (I don't entirely agree with some of this, but it's fascinating nonetheless). It's amazing how he managed to make even an interstellar civilization spread across dozens of planets seem claustrophobic at times.

2. Dune. I got this as a library e-book on my Kindle through Overdrive, and I'm reading it now. It's interesting to me because I was in my early teens the last time I read Dune, and I only got the basic jist of it then. Reading it now 10+ years later is much more entertaining.

Maybe I'll try Reamde when I'm done. I've read a couple of Stephenson novels, and didn't really care for any of them.

Guardsman Bass wrote:Maybe I'll try Reamde when I'm done. I've read a couple of Stephenson novels, and didn't really care for any of them.

Speaking as a Stephenson devotee, I must now crush you with a pillowcase filled with the Baroque Cycle.

His books aren't for everyone, but "Snow Crash" is undeniably a classic in the genre.

I just finished Dune. Wow. That was much, much better than I remembered from reading it years ago. What a great book.

That book must have been a huge inspiration for R.Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing trilogy. I remember someone on another forum commenting on the parallels, but they seemed extremely obvious when reading Dune this time.

I've checked out the library kindle e-books for Dune Messiah and Children of Dune. I'll be spending most of my reading time on those novels.

Guardsman Bass wrote:I just finished Dune. Wow. That was much, much better than I remembered from reading it years ago. What a great book.

That book must have been a huge inspiration for R.Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing trilogy. I remember someone on another forum commenting on the parallels, but they seemed extremely obvious when reading Dune this time.

I've checked out the library kindle e-books for Dune Messiah and Children of Dune. I'll be spending most of my reading time on those novels.

The Dune books get progressively weirder until Chapterhouse: Dune, which is the last Frank Herbert book. After that, I refuse to continue.

^ ditto - I think that the Herbert books are pretty great at the beginning and end (Dune, Dune Messiah, Heretics, Chapterhouse) but sort of sag in the middle (Children, God-Emperor)

Dalton wrote:

Guardsman Bass wrote:I just finished Dune. Wow. That was much, much better than I remembered from reading it years ago. What a great book.

That book must have been a huge inspiration for R.Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing trilogy. I remember someone on another forum commenting on the parallels, but they seemed extremely obvious when reading Dune this time.

I've checked out the library kindle e-books for Dune Messiah and Children of Dune. I'll be spending most of my reading time on those novels.

The Dune books get progressively weirder until Chapterhouse: Dune, which is the last Frank Herbert book. After that, I refuse to continue.

I think the biggest problem with the prequels and sequels are that Brian Herbert has many many unresolved daddy issues and as we know KJA is just a talentless hack who simply must shoe horn in the work Kirana to every fucking piece of shit he writes.