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Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 11:47 pm
by GeekyGirl
Just picked up a book that will be a short read but still is good.

From Baghdad, With Love by Lieutenant Colonel Jay Kopelman

I'm looking for a good sci-fi bio-engineering book for my next book.

Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 12:39 am
by Voldenuit
GeekyGirl wrote:
I'm looking for a good sci-fi bio-engineering book for my next book.


Then I heartily recommend Blindsight, by Peter Watts. Hugo nominee for 2007, but alas, didn't win. His earlier series, the Rifters trilogy, is also good but not as polished or focused as Blindsight.

Currently reading the Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peakes. Gothic fantasy series in the vein of Poe. It's slow going for me, though - I typically manage about 20 pages at a sitting before needing to take a break or play some computer games. :p Still, very evocative mood and a nice change to my reading habits.

Recently finished Al Gore's The Assault on Reason, which was a very informative and thought-provoking piece.

Also recently read Coupland's Shampoo Planet. Loved it, debating whether to get All Families Are Psychotic.

Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 9:51 am
by GeekyGirl
Voldenuit wrote:
GeekyGirl wrote:
I'm looking for a good sci-fi bio-engineering book for my next book.


Then I heartily recommend Blindsight, by Peter Watts. Hugo nominee for 2007, but alas, didn't win. His earlier series, the Rifters trilogy, is also good but not as polished or focused as Blindsight.


Interesting set up of characters with that book:
Led by an enigmatic AI and a genetically engineered vampire, the crew includes a biologist who's more machine than human, a linguist with surgically induced multiple personality disorder, a professional soldier who's a pacifist, and Siri Keeton, a man with only half a brain.

When I saw the title, I thought I had read the book but I read the one by Robin Cook with the same title.

Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 10:26 pm
by Voldenuit
Yeah, I can't help but draw parallels to Wizard of Oz

an enigmatic AI and a genetically engineered vampire = The Wizard/Dorothy
a biologist who's more machine than human = Tin Man
a linguist with surgically induced multiple personality disorder = Wicked Witch/Good Witch of the East/West/North
a professional soldier who's a pacifist = Cowardly Lion
Siri Keeton, a man with only half a brain. = Scarecrow

I wonder if the similarities are intentional or subconscious (or imagined). In a way, Siri is the distillate of all the archetypes, as in addition to only having half a brain, he also lacks courage, a heart (portrayed most poignantly in the flashbacks of his life), and his brain is essentially a "black box" (as per the curtain behind which The Wizard works), and finally, is as lost and stranded in space as any human who was picked up by a tornado and swept from Kansas could be.

Few books make me go "Wow." after finishing them. Blindsight was one of them.

Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 10:15 am
by roont
i just picked up "programming the universe" because someone here mentioned it. saw it on the shelf and thought "interesting"

Nightwatch

Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 3:29 am
by Voldenuit
Just finished the first three books of the Night Watch Tetralogy by Sergei Lukyanenko.

They were real page-turners, with Machiavellan scheming ang wheels within wheels within wheels. The term 'page turner' often carries connotations of pulp or mass market trash, but the Watch series manages to rise above the median with good characterisation, clever allusions to Russian and English/American pop and literary culture, and a healthy dose of moral ambiguity.

I also liked that the movies and the books were divergent - while the movie strayed from the plot of the books, they managed to remain true to their essence while giving the viewer (and readers) something new. Quite an astonishing task. The second movie (Day Watch) is one of my favourite fantasy movies of all time.

I'll be looking forward to the last book of the series, Final Watch, which to my knowledge has not been published in English yet.

Anyone who spots the Bulgakov references deserves a cookie. ^_^

EDIT: For some reason, the "[url]" tags for the wiki entry don't seem to be working. I'll leave the url there for anyone who's interested enough to check out the link.

Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 5:20 am
by Jigar
I have just finished with "my experiements with truth" by Gandhiji.

Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 5:41 am
by NeXus^

Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 5:48 am
by StrangeDay
I just gave up on The Butlerian Jihad. It took me 236 pages or so to realize that the book filled me with "meh."

In no particular order:
S. M. Stirling's Dies the Fire (re-reading this, actually)
E. E. Doc Smith's Triplanetary (read lots of good reviews for this)
David Weber's The Short Victorious War (I liked the two previous ones in the Honor Harrington universe.
John Scalzi's The Ghost Brigades (I read Old Man's War, and loved it)
Jenna Rhodes' The Four Forges (seems interesting)
Tad Williams' Otherland (likewise, seems interesting, and it's been sitting on my shelf for years)

Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 6:00 am
by wtburnette
gibson wrote:
I'm glad to see this thread finally. I'm a big reader. :)

Right now, I'm a bit behind, but here it is.

The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks, The Neutronium Alchemist by Pete Hamilton, and Programming The Universe by Seth Lloyd.

I just finished the first book of the 'His Dark Materials' series by Phil Pullman. It's The Golden Compass, or Northern Lights, depending on where you're at. It's an awesome book. I'm really looking forward to The Subtle Knife when I finish Alchemist.


Those books by Peter Hamilton are great. I read them a few years back. He has a new 2 book series that I also enjoyed, Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained. Well worth picking up if you liked the previous series.

I just finished reading Inferno by Troy Denning, the latest book in the Legacy of the Force Star Wars series. The next book in the series isn't going to be relesed until next month, so I need to head to the library today to find something else to read.

EDIT: dragmor, I enjoyed that Black Magician Trilogy as well. If you haven't already, check out her Age of the Five series as well. It's also pretty good.

Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 3:10 pm
by roont
StrangeDay wrote:
S. M. Stirling's Dies the Fire (re-reading this, actually)


AMAZING book. i just finsihed "the sunrise lands" (4th book in that series) and now im going back and reading the first trilogy starting with "island on the sea of time."

Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 5:18 pm
by linda
I love threads like this, I get so many good ideas.

I'm reading Anne Rice's Vampire books, because someone recommended them that has the same taste as I do, but I'm not overly impressed. I need something else, I think.

The last book I read that thrilled me was The Terror, by Dan Simmons.

Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 6:02 pm
by wtburnette
linda wrote:
I love threads like this, I get so many good ideas.

I'm reading Anne Rice's Vampire books, because someone recommended them that has the same taste as I do, but I'm not overly impressed. I need something else, I think.

The last book I read that thrilled me was The Terror, by Dan Simmons.


Do you like SciFi or just horror? Simmons wrote a couple good ones I liked a lot (his Hyperion books and Olympos/Ilium). Otherwise for horror, I always liked King, Straub and Robert McCammon (http://www.robertmccammon.com/bib-books.html).

Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 3:06 pm
by linda
wtburnette wrote:
linda wrote:
I love threads like this, I get so many good ideas.

I'm reading Anne Rice's Vampire books, because someone recommended them that has the same taste as I do, but I'm not overly impressed. I need something else, I think.

The last book I read that thrilled me was The Terror, by Dan Simmons.


Do you like SciFi or just horror? Simmons wrote a couple good ones I liked a lot (his Hyperion books and Olympos/Ilium). Otherwise for horror, I always liked King, Straub and Robert McCammon (http://www.robertmccammon.com/bib-books.html).


Actually I like both types: I like to read pretty much anything that has a good story. I haven't read anything else by Simmons, but I guess I should. The other authors you mentioned are also some of my favorites, too.

What I'm reading

Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 5:33 pm
by ssidbroadcast
Just finished:
The Children of Men
------------------------
by P.D. James

Started, but it got *lost* :
Paradise Lost
------------------------
by John Milton

(I'll assume God wanted it that way)

Started:
The Sickness Unto Death
-----------------------------
by SOren Kierkegaard

Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2007 9:54 am
by Captain Ned
Just forced myself to read the two-volume conclusion to the Dune saga, supposedly based on an outline and other materials written by Frank Herbert and found on 5 1/4" floppies in a safe-deposit box some years after his death.

Frank Herbert may have had the ideas in these 2 books, but his son Brian and co-writer Kevin Anderson couldn't be a worse pair of authors to bring this story to life. The denouement is gag-worthy:

SPOILER ALERT:

Duncan Idaho is the ultimate Kwizatz Haderach? Omnius and Erasmus survived the Butlerian Jihad and have spent 15,000 years rebuilding the Synchronized Worlds to fight Kralizec (OK, we saw that in Leto II's prescient visions in God Emperor)? Norma Cenva has existed as a disembodied mind since her disappearance into the Void and in a classic deus ex machina appears at the time of greatest peril and removes Omnius to a different universe? Humans and machine life agree to just get along with Duncan Idaho able to guide/control both humans and machines with his powers?

Gah. I should have known it would be this crappy. Hell, I did know based on the prequel novels, but I just had to finish the story. Maybe someday Brian will publish the exact content of those two floppies and we can all excoriate him for the **** job of exposition he did with them.

Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2007 10:04 am
by elmopuddy
Just finished "The Time Traveller's Wife", by Audrey Niffenegger.

Pretty good, and looks like they're making a movie.. ugh.

I decided I need to read more than TR Forums and fark.com :)

Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 2:51 pm
by king_kilr
Just picked up "I am America and so Can you" by Colbert, I probably won't get to read it until I finish "Above Suspicion" by Helen MacInnis though.

Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 5:29 pm
by David
Looking for Knowledge wrote:
zerohex wrote:
"Guards! Guards!" by Terry Pratchett
I read that last Summer. My wife does not understand why I enjoy Pratchett so much. :D


I love Pratchett. I finished "Guards! Guards!" a couple of weeks ago. It's my least favorite of his books that I've read, but it's still good.

I just started on "City of Splendors" by Ed Greenwood and Elaine Cunningham. It's OK so far.

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2007 12:30 am
by Hawkwing74

Re: What I'm reading

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2007 1:31 am
by Voldenuit
ssidbroadcast wrote:
Just finished:

Started:
The Sickness Unto Death
-----------------------------
by SOren Kierkegaard


Tell me how it goes. I've been interested in that, but Kierkegaard's strong Christian conceit puts me off reading it.

Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 6:09 pm
by EbeinTides
Elfstones of Shanarra
The Finite Element Method 4th ed

Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 7:05 pm
by FireGryphon
I'm Not Crazy, I'm Just Not You!

It's a really good book about personality types (the MBTI test stuff). It's about as easy a representation as you'll get, and it's fascinating.

Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 11:58 pm
by pyrodeus
roont wrote:
Mind Performance Hacks, Tips and Tools for Overclocking Your Brain

I just started this one, but the other one in the series... simply Mind Hacks was an incredible, interesting, page turner read.[/url]


If you get smarter, let us know. I am reading Stock and Asset Purchase Agreement, dated as of October ___, 2007. by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. (I am withholding the names of the parties so that I do not go to jail.)

I've also been reading John Grant's, Discarded Science: Ideas that seemed good at the time, and Lee Smolin's The Trouble With Physics: The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next. I suppose I like reading things that talk about people smarter than me being wrong.

Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 12:55 pm
by KBeee
I'm reading Royall Tyler's Genji Monogatari, and enjoying it more than Seidenstickers version, except for too many stating-the-bleedin'-obvious footnotes.

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 1:16 am
by GeekyGirl
I just picked up Digital Fortress by Dan Brown. So far, I like it.

I wanted to read Angels and Demons by the same author but the bookstore didn't have it in stock except for the extra large print version.

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 7:05 am
by tanker27
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson.

I want to read it before the movie comes out.

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 9:54 am
by Darkmage
GeekyGirl wrote:
I just picked up Digital Fortress by Dan Brown. So far, I like it.

I wanted to read Angels and Demons by the same author but the bookstore didn't have it in stock except for the extra large print version.
I've read them both. I would suggest stopping after about three of Dan Brown's books. After a few of them, you start to get tired of the cliffhanger-at-every-chapter thing he has going.

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 10:12 am
by blitzy
The Fundamentals of Drawing by Barrington Barber

ebook downloaded from http://www.WOWIO.com (US residents only), cool site with a lot of free books - you can download 3 free per day. If someone from the US wants to hook me up with a login that'd be cool :P

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 10:32 am
by Rolling20s
Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb. I've read it a number of times and it's quite good. I'm probably going to go through the whole trilogy, then on to the Liveship Traders and then into the Tawny Man to round out the trifecta. My favorites were the last three. Great stuff.