bookses redux

[thanners]

As I'd mentioned in my last post, I started reading Richard Morgan's "Black Man"/"Thirteen", but just couldn't seem to get into it for some reason. I'm sorry Richard, you even wrote "Enjoy! (I hope!)" on the insides of my books, too, when I'd admitted I hadn't actually read any of your stuff before. I do hope I'll go back to it again to enjoy it

Comments

[alias_sqbr]

Orson Scott Card: I read the sequel "Speaker for the Dead" when I was 14 and thought it was pretty good but not as good as "Enders Game". The ones after that in the series go very much downhill. His older novels are heavy on the angst but all have some good ideas, the more recent books all seem to involve teenagers getting married at like 13 and making lots of babies and often have thinly veiled religious overtones, though apart from that "Enders Shadow" (set during Ender's game but from Bean's POV) was okish. I really liked his book of short stories "Maps in a Mirror" when I read it (again, at about 14, I was a HUGE fangirl of his for a while :))

"A Fire Upon The Deep" I LOVED the Tines. But I loved pretty much all of it :) For other sf which hits the same awesome-ideas button for me, have you read any Greg Egan or Greg Bear? Iain M Banks has some cool stuff too, though not in quite the same vein.

[thanners]

Okay, cool. I think I might check out some of those other books of Orson Scott Card anyway, then, if they're at least passable. (c:

"A Fire Upon The Deep" sure was a good book. (c: I guess what I liked about the Tines was how they were more than just humans-that-look-different. While there were many aspects of them that were obviously human-like in thoughts and behaviour, there was also many aspects that were uniquely different, and not just cosmetically, "oh, they look like dogs". Although, I am a dog person, maybe that influenced things a bit, too. (c: Given [their nature], it's conceivable that in certain respects they'd act differently, or think differently, etc.

I've read maybe one or two of Greg Egan's stories, though I can't remember which ones. They were ones that were freely available on his website, I think. I might check out Greg Bear and Iain M. Banks, too.

[alias_sqbr]

Avoid the Homecoming series by OSC, is my advice. That was so painful I refused to try anything else by him for years.

"Axiomatic" is a good collection of Greg Egan stories, while Quarantine, Distress, and Permutation City are some of his better novels, Permutation City has some interesting ideas about psychology and it's relationship to the physical. Excession is probably a good Iain M Banks novel to start with (they're pretty much all part of the same world but stand alone). "Strength of Stones" is not Greg Bears best work but has sentient cities which you might enjoy, otherwise I really liked "Moving Mars".

[sunshine95]

I still haven't read Ender's Game. It's on my summer reading list, though. :)

[anonymous]

Ender's game is on my list too =)

Kind of off topic, but on the topic of books - have you read Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norrell? One of my favorite books of all time. It's a thick read, but very worth it.

-Averna
(nerfthisdruid.com)

[thanners]

Heya!

I have indeed read Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norrell; I really enjoyed it. It was a bit strange (ha ha, oh dear) in that it seemed like for a large part of the book, I couldn't really see a direction for it, but I just enjoyed reading about.. things happening (how eloquent am I?). I was also amused by the footnotes, in particular the ones that contained their own stories and spanned several pages (although I understand the same footnotes irritated others).

Also, it sure is thick, but it fits well with the other doorstopper books on my shelves. (c: