(Untitled)

[spin1978]

1.) Really, one of these days I am just going to work with proteins I can buy in gigantic quantities for cheap from commercial suppliers. But not any time soon. Alas.

2.) Hope Solo - future consort of the royal House of Telcontar! :)

3.) Bought A Dance With Dragons the other day (along with Biopunk, a non-fiction book on DIY-bio). Given that

Comments

[sarahblack]

You haven't been bloggin much lately, just busy with work and G.R.R. Martin?

[spin1978]

I've been in lab every day for a while now, even if it's only been for a couple of hours per weekend day. It's kind of been a mess research-wise, with reproducibility issues and the entire "why hasn't anyone bothered to actually implement a reasonable approach instead of half-assing it all the time?" element.

Sadly, GRRM has not been taking up too much of my time. Soon, though, I hope!

o O (Emilia Clarke is welcome to distract me, though.)

[sarahblack]

I'm sorry the science is being annoying. (Although, when isn't it? When science stops being annoying, I think it will be apocalypse time.)

I hope you get more time to read soon. :)

[spin1978]

It's been exceptionally irksome as of late. ;)

Me too!

o O (Jennifer Morrison, too.)

[bungeebot]

Oh man, I'm ALSO reading Clash Of Kings right now, for the second time. You get a lot more out of it the 2nd read through. Haven't bought DANCE yet, figured I'd wait til I'm done my 2nd push through FEAST.

Do you have any recommendations for good Sci-Fi books? I'm thinking after DANCE I'll try to read Dune again, and maybe try to tackle Ender's Game.

[spin1978]

I figured it will serve as motivation. :)

Well, my perpetual recommendation for seriously gritty sci-fi (that involves actual scientists and fairly plausible science) is Timescape by Greg Benford. If you're looking for something a bit lighter and more action-oriented, I'd give John Scalzi's Old Man's War a try. I don't read his blog routinely, so - given a comment I heard a while back - I haven't grown weary of his writing style beforehand.

It resides within space-oriented speculative fiction, really, more than sci-fi, but Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series is a must-read. If you want something a bit more dark urban fantasy, I'd suggest Sergei Lukyanenko's Watch tetrology (less dense narrative style and takes place in mostly modern Eastern Europe) or China Mieville's Bas-Lag novels (definitely more to plow through, thoroughly fictional setting as far as I can tell so far).

[bungeebot]

Oh man, I knew I came to the right guy for scifi suggests - thx!!

[spin1978]

I do what I can.

Timescape was published in 1980 (or thereabouts), so the "future" is actually 1997 or thereabouts. It did win a Hugo (or Nebula, I can't remember), and - because I'm totally biased - a good chunk of the story involves science with which I'm familiar and was tickled pink to see used in a sci-fi novel.