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Fiction
Feb 25, 2014 23:40:31 GMT -6
Post by williscorto on Feb 25, 2014 23:40:31 GMT -6
Sigh. I tend to read much more non-fiction than fiction. You lot seem to be differently inclined. I get very frustrated with fiction. I often think I could do a better job. My standards on fiction are ridiculously high. So, here is a short list of fiction writers I enjoy. It is, with that preamble, a short list indeed. a. Martin Cruz Smith. This is the guy who became famous off Gorky Park a long time ago. I enjoy all of his novels even though they follow a fixed pattern. Chief amongst these are Polar Star (the sequel to Gorky Park), Rose (set in 18th century northern England) and Stallion Gate (about a violence romance set amidst the Manhattan Project atomic tests). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Cruz_Smithb. Robert Harris. Here is a writer who thoroughly researches his works. His break-out novel, Fatherland, is about an alternative history Earth where the Nazi's beat Russia and England, and have a detente with the US. It was extremely successful, and in my view is one of the best novels ever - its almost perfect. I also liked his Archangel (what if Stalin had a son?) and Pompeii (which deals with an engineer working in Pompeii at the time of the famous explosion). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Harris_(novelist)c. Robert Heinlein. A classic sci-fi writer with an enormus output. The novels seem a litle dated now as they were mostly written in the 50s, but still fun and generally well-written. d. Frank Herbert. Most specifically, Dune. Mix Arab cultural tension with Medici politcs and set it in a space opera 10000 years in the future, with death, intrigue, desperation at every turn. Brilliant novel. The others in the series are generally pretty good too. (Just don't read the puerile shit pumped out by his son, Brian Herbert, as Dune novels.) e. William Gibson. A Vancouver-compatriot of Doc Quantum, his first novel Neuromancer was an excellent first foray into writing. I like most of his other novels too, including the recent release, Pattern Recognition. Gibson seems to have realised he is now living in the future and writes a contemporary novel as if it was sci-fi. Pretty slick. I wish I could add Warren Ellis to this list, as I generally like his work on comics. I read his book gun Machine a little while ago and it was pretty meh. Bad characterisation of the protagonist, silly premise (gun-festish assassin shoots people with guns from other similar crimes), inconclusive. |
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Fiction
Feb 26, 2014 10:44:40 GMT -6
Post by Babu Baboon on Feb 26, 2014 10:44:40 GMT -6
Add me to the list that reads more fiction than non-fiction. I've often thought I should read more non-Fiction. Of non-fiction, I think my favorie was Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time."
I think Heinlein is my favorite of the author's you've mentioned. I loved "Stranger in a Strange Land" and his Lazarus Long books.
I've read Robert Harris' "Fatherland" and enjoyed it. But when it comes to alternate histories, Harry Turtledove is the king. Eric Flint's 1632 series is pretty enjoyable, too.
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Killian
Junior Member
I'm going down to Shartak station
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Fiction
Feb 26, 2014 16:49:04 GMT -6
Post by Killian on Feb 26, 2014 16:49:04 GMT -6
Prefer non-fiction to fiction. Facts, insights, and opinions are my meat and grains, fiction is dessert (yum).
If I had to rank alt WWII literature,
Phillip K Dick - The Man in the High Castle (sorry, being boring placing PKD at the top)
Robert Harris - Fatherland
Harry Turtledove's WWII series
Len Deighton - SS-GB
Norman Spinrad - The Iron Dream
Sarban - The Sound of His Horn
Dune was great, the classic style of the prose turned off some of my friends, but I had no problems following. Among the best weaved sf stories. Nausicaa is similar. Couldn't really get into Heinlein, though I'll give his distinctions are well deserved, I'm sure I'll give him another try sooner or later.
There's no fiction I genuinely relate to, but I'm going to revisit this thread after trying to remember some books I've enjoyed.
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Fiction
Feb 26, 2014 20:14:02 GMT -6
Post by williscorto on Feb 26, 2014 20:14:02 GMT -6
Add me to the list that reads more fiction than non-fiction. I've often thought I should read more non-Fiction. Of non-fiction, I think my favorie was Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time." You did better than me. I got stopped by the second chapter. |
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Fiction
Feb 26, 2014 22:13:12 GMT -6
Post by mh on Feb 26, 2014 22:13:12 GMT -6
i've tended to stay with fiction, but have picked up a lot of non-fiction lately. there's a book on the norman conquest i liked, called '1066', and right now i'm reading a book called 'duel', about events leading up to & the aftermath of the alexander hamilton/aaron burr duel. it's interesting, the complicated series of letters that lead up to or dissuaded a duel, and how your 'seconds' would deliverer the letters & visit the rival duelist to try and settle things peacefully. burr was a real dick. 
i was a huge harlan ellison fan at one time, read all of vonnegut, except his last few books. when i read it, i though 'dune' was the best sci-fi book i'd ever read, but i really liked bester's 'the stars my destination', and 'demolished man' and a lot of his short stories. and yes, of course PKD and bradbury. i've heard 'altered carbon' (richard morgan) is a really great book. anyone read it? i do love the cyber punk
i read a lot of david baldacci for a while, because a lady i worked with kept giving them to me to read when she was finished with them. they weren't bad. every summer i re-read scott fitzgerald's 'tender is the night' not 100% sure why |
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Killian
Junior Member
I'm going down to Shartak station
Posts: 97
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Fiction
Feb 27, 2014 11:29:41 GMT -6
Post by Killian on Feb 27, 2014 11:29:41 GMT -6
I read Neuromancer, Count Zero, and Altered Carbon when I was 12 I think. Just a bit before puberty, man that was an awkward time. I have no idea where I got some of them, maybe a used book store while traveling? I read about half of Neuromancer on the internet, and I'm pretty sure Altered Carbon was a gift, though there's no scrawled signing inside.
Altered Carbon had some of the most shocking imaginations that I've still yet to see topped. I might be spoiling some plot details. In Morgan's novel, immortality of a sort is commercially democratized, but most people choose to not live a lifespan twice, because they can't afford the pain relief to deal with their new bodies' slow ache of death. People can also place others in a virtual hell; I suspect this could be done on a biblical scale, but as far as I remember, the book does it for a single person's torture. I don't like incarcerated torture and wouldn't want to ever do it to others, but it's still very imaginative. Also, when I read a review before reading, I was under the impression the main character was a merciless bastard. I perceived Mr. Kovash as more of a remorseless and efficient murderer, but one with at least a moral seed, if not a moral code. Kovash will kill a person if they're even complacent about crimes done around them, and stacks a body count like Rambo.
Likewise themed around questions about life is Garth Nix's Abhorsen trilogy. One of the few fantasy series I've found tolerable, and it helped the cover art was done by Leo and Diane Dillon, they make great stuff! I've only read the first book, Sabriel, and I enjoyed it, though it could have been 100-200 pages shorter. It's about necromancy, though the main character practices necromancy to free souls rather than control them. I found the altruistic subversion fairly interesting, because most people I've met who were convinced they're wizards/witches/enchanters/warlocks/necromancers/whatever have been really narcissistic.
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Fiction
Feb 27, 2014 21:43:57 GMT -6
Post by Doc Quantum on Feb 27, 2014 21:43:57 GMT -6
Dave, I understand where you're coming from. When I was a kid I read nothing but non-fiction. So many books to read, so little time, were my thoughts. Man, I was such a geek (and still am). I mean, I used to read the Encyclopedia, for cryin' out loud!
I don't think I even bothered with fiction until I was in my late teens, not counting comic-books, of course. But the comic-books I grew up on were chock-full of references to history and science, which just whet my appetite for learning more about those things, explaining my encyclopedia fixation. Alan Moore still does (or did up until recent years) those kinds of stories, but he's a rarity.
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Fiction
Feb 27, 2014 21:51:04 GMT -6
Post by Thai Ladyboy on Feb 27, 2014 21:51:04 GMT -6
I'm not a book reader. But as a pre-teen, I was literally forced to read books regularly. Those were them days, were the culture was still big on corporal punishment and the elders were only realizing how much of an advantage it is when a kid grows up to be well educated (and maybe their idea was that forcing - not encouraging - a kid to read books is the right way.)
Fortunately, I get to choose which books to read. I mostly read the ancient alien stuff from Zecharia Zitchin and Erich Von Daniken, but I think I also got my hand on Alvin Tofler's Future Shock and Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People - I think it's an early revision. Most of the anecdotes were outmoded (it had anecdotes about steel mill workers, boating, and stuff. I believe the newer revisions sort of updated the stories for modern times.)
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akbar
Junior Member
Posts: 76
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Fiction
Feb 27, 2014 23:26:33 GMT -6
Post by akbar on Feb 27, 2014 23:26:33 GMT -6
Add me to the list that reads more fiction than non-fiction. I've often thought I should read more non-Fiction. Of non-fiction, I think my favorie was Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time." You did better than me. I got stopped by the second chapter. LOL, I tried to read that when I was a kid, and I'm not sure I made it past the first chapter. I think I still have it somewhere, maybe I'll try it again and see if it makes more sense. |
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Fiction
Feb 28, 2014 1:36:21 GMT -6
Post by williscorto on Feb 28, 2014 1:36:21 GMT -6
I was watching a book club TV show - a real arty-farty intelligentsia one on our government TV broadcatser - and the entire panel of four well-known critics and authors all confessed to buying the book and never finishing it.
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Fiction
Feb 28, 2014 2:44:42 GMT -6
mh likes this
Post by Doc Quantum on Feb 28, 2014 2:44:42 GMT -6
I have that book, plus the "sequel" of sorts, "Black Holes and Baby Universes." It's been a very long time since I've read them, but they're still on my bookshelf in my office (which will become a nursery in a week's time).
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Killian
Junior Member
I'm going down to Shartak station
Posts: 97
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Fiction
Feb 28, 2014 11:29:37 GMT -6
Post by Killian on Feb 28, 2014 11:29:37 GMT -6
It's a primer of sorts, but perhaps too densely compressed to serve as a general reader introduction. Damn clever title, though, even if it barely scratches on the concept of time.
I skimmed through it; didn't fully read parts I already understood, so I'm going to say I didn't read it.
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Fiction
Feb 28, 2014 16:29:45 GMT -6
Post by mh on Feb 28, 2014 16:29:45 GMT -6
I have that book, plus the "sequel" of sorts, "Black Holes and Baby Universes." It's been a very long time since I've read them, but they're still on my bookshelf in my office (which will become a nursery in a week's time). are you ready? |
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Post by mh on Mar 4, 2014 1:45:06 GMT -6
a while back i read a stephen king book called "duma key". it's probably his most mature & controlled work. and still had some pretty creepy stuff in it. I enjoyed it a lot. if you're considering giving it a chance, read all these psychos reviews on goodreads www.goodreads.com/book/show/472343.Duma_Key |
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Post by Babu Baboon on Mar 4, 2014 8:00:48 GMT -6
I read Duma Key, too. I really enjoyed it. That and his novel, 11/22/63, about the guy who goes back in time to try and stop the Kennedy assassination.
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