Reply With QuotePaingod and Other Delusions by Harlan Ellison.
Dark of the Moon by John Sandford. I didn't like the last Lucas Davenport novel(Phantom Prey) I read by him, but other than that he's been a pretty reliable author.
Paingod and Other Delusions by Harlan Ellison.
Gibson is my favourite author. Make sure you pick up Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive as they're sequels to Neuromancer (with Count Zero being the middle book.)
Don't worry I will. Usually if I start reading a series I like then I'll read all of it.Originally Posted by dethtoll
Favourite? Hmmm.
Anyways, I've abandoned everything in search of something new. I'm hoping to get inspiration here. Leaning towards Flowers for Algenon (or whatever his name is) in the meantime. I don't like long books anymore as I something always happens to stop me finishing and then when I get back to it picking the story up again is a chore.
Algernon. You are in luck as the short story covers the theme quite well and loses no emotional impact compared to the book which seemed to me to be the same story with filler. But I read it when I wore a younger mans clothes.
Breakfast of Champions was totally self indulgent and I loved it every bit. I don't know how he manages to get into your very thoughts but he does. Vonnegut is the only author who can pull off this kind of thing.
RBJ if you read this then you will know exactly what I meant when I wanted to hear the bullshit behind the modern art. He describes it perfectly. He is very much a facet of me and was around my age at the writing. On the other hand another facet is Walter from Gran Torino so it gets muddled.
Last edited by Tocky; 16th Jun 2009 at 00:45.
Neuromancer, Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive are in the top 10 (as 1 entry) of all books as far as I'm concerned.
They still come up in my head.
For me, being a religous nutter, the Voodoo in the machine and the question of sentience of the AIs still comes up.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legba)
And it says a lot about books if you still think about them when you haven't read them for 6 years.
The Bridge trilogy isn't as good, but they were ok.
And any player of Thief should read The Difference Engine, written with Bruce Sterling.
And yes, Kurt Vonnegut, no one like him. Gentle and kind but uncompromising.
Now re-reading Code Three by Rick Raphael.
Just about to finish Bill Bryson's Shakespeare, which I'm reading out of a sense of obligation (got it as a present). It's a pretty bad book for someone who did a degree in English Literature, although I could imagine that it's quite okay for people who are into that sort of thing.
Looking forward to reading Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. I liked The Road a lot and have heard good things about BM.
Absolutely word for word what I wanted to say. Except for the last bit, as I was still in school when I discovered science fiction through Clarke and Asimov and this.
I reread Algernon a year ago and it's lost no impact whatsoever. Listen to Tocky, SE.
...and make sure to check out Jeff Noon too if you like Gibson.. Especially "Vurt". It's like Gibson on psychedelicsIncredible authors both of them imo.
I've just started reading Tolkien's "Children Of Hurin".
Well I finally finished The Executioner's Song last week and what an exhaustive piece of work it was! I found the first section to be completely brilliant and Gary Gilmore was a fascintating character, equally likable and despicable. The second was very good but I admit that some of the legal wranglings got a little bit dull by the end. Has anyone seen the mini-series starring Tommy Lee Jones? Jones sounds like a perfect choice for the part of Gilmour but I'm wondering how the rest of it fares.
This rainy weekend I managed to get through Gentlemen Of The Road by Michael Chabon, The Old Man and The Sea by Hemingway and The Fall by Albert Camus since they are all pretty short. I found Gentlemen Of The Road to be an entertaining, if not exactly memorable, adventure and The Old Man and The Sea was very good but quite different from what I've come to expect from Hemingway. The dialog at the beginning felt a bit 'off', I usually find Hemingway's dialog to be quite natural, and the story itself much more fantastical than his usual work. Still a great read though. The Fall was interesting and compelling enough for me to read in one sitting but I never quite got into it.
Up next either Faulkner's As I Lay Dying or Joseph Heller's Closing Time. What I actually want to be reading is my recently purchase of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay but my wife nicked it while I was still finishing The Executioner's Song so now I have to read while she constantly exclaims about how great it is!
Ok, I'll check it out. Now that I've finished reading Neuromancer, I've started reading the next book I hadlined up:...and make sure to check out Jeff Noon too if you like Gibson.. Especially "Vurt". It's like Gibson on psychedelics
Vampire:The Masquerade-Clan Novel:Malkavian by Stewart Wieck.
Being a big fan of the WOD Vampire setting(and Bloodlines) I decided to give it a try, starting with one of my favorite clans.
It's quite interesting and written in a strange journal entry kind of way by a Kindred(I think he's a Toreador) who's a companion of a Malkavian named Anatole. Anatole seems to be trying to unravel the mysteries of Gehenna(probably due to his mad visions) and the start of the book is set in Bosnia.
Also an interesting note, Stewart Wieck is the original co-creator of World of Darkness PnP so it's good to know that the novel sticks to the canon.
I've just finished Flowers for Algernon, the book. (Where can you get the short story and how short is it?). It was wonderful and terrible. I've been recommending all over and I recommend it here. Read it. Everyone should read it, sci-fi fan or not.
Now reading The Drowned World.
Just read a Halo book, Fall of the Reach. Have NO idea why, I just did. Very plain Jane Sci Fi. Just starting to read The Complete Asimov.
I've been meaning to read this for a while, so your avid recommendation made me look up the short story version (here, if anyone's interested). Had me teared up pretty much the whole duration.
I gave up on The Wild Shore when I realized I just didn't care about the characters or what happened next. So I reread S. D. Perry's Aliens: Berserker which I believe I've gushed over before, and now I'm starting on Simon Spurrier's WH40K: Lord of the Night again. I've got a copy of The Road laying around here too, will probably pick that up next.
The Road, is one I have been DYING to get my hands on. Sounds right up my alley.
I'd recommend it to most everybody, honestly. Already have, as a matter of fact. I'd recommend the short story version over the book m'self, as Tocky said earlier.
SE, the short story's been published in various SF anthologies as well as used in schools over the years. There's links to it all over the 'net like the one reizak posted.
I happen to own it in print via this hardbound Isaac Asimov anthology of SF. There are some excellent stories in it, but the bloody thing's heavy enough to do some serious damage if you lob it in the general direction of some hapless individual's cranium.
I just finished reading The Simulacra by Phillip K. Dick. Now, this might be because I'm a PKD virgin and all, but that book was awesome. I'm starting Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles now, and then I'll probably read Martian Time Slip, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and VALIS.
I missed libraries
Edit: Flowers for Algernon also appears in Robert Silverberg's Science Fiction Hall of Fame anthology. That book's full of awesome stuff.
Ray Bradbury - The Day It Rained For Ever, is one of the best books ever.
That link to the short version of Flowers doesn't work for me. Anyway, I read the full version and that is the one I recommend.
Robert Silverberg also wrote Dying Inside which I think is a must for anyone over 30.
Bradbury has done some great short story collections. I've not read a novel by him though. Perhaps one of those will be next.
In case I didn't say before - I've been going through the Sci-Fi Masterworks and branching off as appropriate. I read a ton of PKD and although each one on its own was great, I'd caution anyone not to over do him or you'll get a bit jaded and irritated by his, errr, style? I don't know but there is something very odd about his stuff.
The Day It Rained For Ever is a collection from quite early. Beautiful.
Death Is A Lonely Business is late and a novel, a quiet and haunting horror mystery in a declining 1950s Venice Beach, CA.
I actually have an Audio Book of Death is a Lonely Business. Great stuff, and highly rec'd/.
The Art of paper sculpture
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