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This week i am reading.....
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09-04-1999 4:58pm#1
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While i really shouldn't get involved in another topic of discussion and waste more time at work - you guys have brought up some good books here
Kharn, i envy you that you just read the rings trilogy
Have you guys checked out Dan Simmon's Hyperion, erm, quadrology?
On the thriller side & for those that fancy themselves snipers in games like Tribes (where i usually post) check out Stephen Hunter's Bob the Nailer series - class writing, tense atmospheres & fantastic set pieces. These are not vietnam / re-hash the war series, they are set in the late 80s with a retired ex-vietnam sniper type who gets involved in a conspiracy - cracking stuff!
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Thanks BoN, I just picked up the first two of the Gap series (book one is a bit on the skinny side isn't it? And expensive, considering..) Anyway, another I picked up was Tad Williams' 'Otherland'. Anyone any idea what his sci-fi writing is like (I enjoyed the Dragonbone Chair - great set of fantasy books by the way - but I'm usually not too keen on writers who switch genre, though 'Eyes of the Dragon' by Stephen King was a good fantasy yarn - better than some of his horror!.
Any idea how difficult it is to find a copy of Alice in Wonderland that ISN'T in kiddy-big-text-edited-to-bits-crappy-piccies-interspersed format? Had to order a copy in from Chapters (Eason's has one but it's some sort of Collector's edition, you know, the ones you pay for with both your arms and then discover you can't read it because it is too valuable and a collector's piece to risk damaging - and the fact that you have no arms, unless you learn the Christy Brown trick..)
J.
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Hmmm....books, god I seem to be reading alot of them atm
Shogun - James Clavell (I recommend it to anyone with a few months on their hands, very authentic I do believe.)
Tek Wars - William Shatner (not too bad, Just imagine Capt. Kirk narating it for an added touch of authenticity)
The Bears Tears - Craig Thomas (All I can say is Brilliant. Writen by the same guy that wrote Firefox. It's about Russias attempt to bring down the British Secret Service. If you are into spy thrillers, this is a must read)
Dune - Frank Herbert (Still making my mind up about thisone, although it has started to get interesting)
Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep - Philip K. Dick (It's the original book that was converted to make the film Bladerunner. Some similarities between the book and the film, but a masterpiece in it's own right)
And yes I am reading all of these books at the moment
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heres some pretentious stuff for you all that contain neither paranoid androids nor talking trees.
"The Age of Reason" by Satre i am halfway through, and though is is alright, it is nothing on anything i have read by Camus. Check "the Outsider" out, brilliant.
also am 200 pages into Ulysses. but am not sure if it is the greatest work of fiction this century.
And finally "The tao of physics" by fritjof capra is a kind of this-is-how-life-is-and-this-is-why-it-is book that has some "deep" insights. yeah
might try out the douglas adams fellow next.
harVey
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Kharn - been a while since you posted, but i missed your comment re. snipers/campers in quake
Yes, as a former quake/qII boffin, I would have to say that sniping is pretty much camping - in the quake world. In tribes however, it is very difficult to kill anyone with the sniper rifle e.g. it requires at least a disc shot and then a sniper shot to kill a healthy lite. And, it is even more difficult to actually help your team by sniping, with most so-called snipers just being newbies with no idea
Anyway, this being a book forum, i'll stick to the point! The Stephen Hunter books are in my top ten list as some of the best thrillers to emerge from the states in the last few years. Tense & gripping. There are 3 bob the nailer books with a 'related' book in the middle called Dirty White Boys - really gritty, very violent, with nasty characters. None of the books are perfect, but damn I chewed them up
-Osiris, Dune is an amazing book - I hope you stick with it and like it in the end. I wouldn't bother with the sequels, though - IMO they just devalue Dune.
Haven't read shogun in years, but i seem to remember you learn a lot of japanese from it something like wahkarimasen (forget the spelling) which is something like I do or dont understand..heh. Good book, but huge.
Nobody has commented on Dan Simmons Hyperion saga - for you sci-fi fans if you haven't read it you're cheating yourself.
For example, Tad Williams Otherland was mentioned above - I mildly enjoyed it - big, lotsa characters, some nifty ideas about the future of the internet - but compared to something like Hyperion, you can see how Williams has not been able to realise world as real and coherent as in Hyperion. Hyperion is a very well realised world which slowly reveals its secrets to the reader in an original and engaging manner. It has simplicity, so the details never overwhelm the reader at the cost of the story, yet ultimately weaves a tale of great complexity.
Otherworld, while enjoyable, I remember as simple, without the depth required to engross a reader. Or maybe it would be better said, with far less depth than i found in Hyperion.
aaaaneeeway , my two bits on that
for the record i'm reading a reasonable military thriller by a guy named Ralph Peters - not bad. - detective stuff reading a series by a guy named Peter Bowen with a detective named Gabriel Du Pre. Can't wait for the new Stephen Greenleaf, who is a great detective writer.
On detective stuff, anyone read James Crumley's The Last Good Kiss My all time favourite detective novel.
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