Famous Lines of Books Game

Dave,

Sorry for the wait, but in order to answer your question correctly,
I ended up re-reading the book in question. With school, though, it's taken a while. The answer, put simply, is yes.
 
I guess I'll take a turn then.

The book is called 'The Difference Engine' and I think I'll put it on my 'to read sometime' list. It's a long list though.

Try this, (I've removed a name otherwise it would be too easy.)

----- was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, `and what is the use of a book,' thought ----- `without pictures or conversation?'
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Erk!

Well perhaps not a famous first line, but a long and descriptive one:

No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as man busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.
 
Thats gotta be WAR OF THE WORLDS.

Hmmm let me think.......

"Throughout the past thousand years of history it has been traditional to regard the Alderson Drive as an un-mixed blessing. Without the faster than light travel Alderson's discoveries made possible, humanity would have been trapped in the tiny prison of the solar system when the Great Patriotic wars desroyed the CoDominium on Earth. Instead, we had already settled more than two hundred worlds."

Took me a while to think which book to use :D
 
You were of course correct! :)

As for this new one, the phrasing is aged and familiar so it has to be from one of the big 4 (Niven, Heinlein, Clarke & Asimov).

Heinlein was never that eloquent, Asimov and Clarke had their own faster than light drives, which leaves Niven.

Would it be Footfall?
 
It is indeed a Niven book although he did have help by another author. According to the blurb on the back, Heinlein quoted it as being "possibly the best science fiction novel I have ever read."


Good deduction work Ray :D
 
The only Niven book I own with that particular Heinlein blurb on the back, would be "The Mote in God's Eye".
Footfall I haven't gotten around to, but it's near the top of my reading list. Too bad "The Gripping Hand" wasn't up to The Mote's level.
 
Yay! well done Greyhorse, and commiserations to Ray for being oh so close but still so far far away :D
 
Story of my life- :rolly2:

Don't remember reading the book, certainly didn't know the title.
 
Thanks L. Arkwright. That book happened to be the top one, on one of my many 2 foot high stacks of books. Good thing for me I had it upside down.

The next one comes from my tattered copy of a book that still is one of my favourites.

"Source Victoria's air intakes erupted from the summit of the Royal Ecological Conservatory like a spray of hundred-meter-long calla lilies. Below, the analogy was perfected by an inverted tree of rootlike plumbing that spread fractally through the diamondoid bedrock of New Chusan, terminating in the warm water of the South China Sea as numberless capillaries arranged in a belt around the smartcoral reef, several dozen meters beneath the surface."
 
Hugo Award winner for best Novel, 1996.

I decided to go with something fairly new, wondering if there were other people like me who were more familiar with modern stuff.

Because so few people seem to have read this book, I'd like to take this opportunity to do a little PR. I hope nobody minds.

Exotic, majestic, so TOTALLY start, fun, heartwarming... *Sigh* So much for easy PR, I just can't find words to do the book justice.

Anyhow, it contains a fantasy world made possible by advances in nano-technology, richly envisioned, totally emersive. I think the characters and plot should appeal to both SF and Fantasy fans alike; there's real characters and adventure but it's also down to earth. Not heavy reading, but it actually has something to say. Please somebody read it, and PR the book better than I can.
 
fraid im also at a lose

(we are still sticking to scifi books right?):rolly2:
 
Would this be Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age?

I'm afraid the fact that it won an award is usually a good reason not to bother reading it, just like films.
 
Originally posted by ray gower
I'm afraid the fact that it won an award is usually a good reason not to bother reading it, just like films.
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Ray,

Yes it is "The Diamond Age". I found that I've read 12 books that won Hugo awards, and you're right; I wouldn't recommend some of them. A lot of them, however, are worthy of recognition, and I think it's ok that there's a body that does this recognising.

If winning the Hugo award reflects badly on a book, then books like "Dune", "Ender's Game" and "Stranger in a Strange Land" would all be books to stay away from. Are there not any books on the list you liked?

Hugo Award Winners by Year:
http://worldcon.org/hy.html
 
This one is from another award winner, but from the Campbell's

"Carry on!" Geoffrey Tremaine strutted to his place at the head of the Admiralty conference table. Scowling, he set down his sheaf of notes and flicked invisible dust from his gold braid. As the assembled officers stood easy, I tugged at my jacket, made sure my tie was straight.

As for the Hugo's I know Asimov, Clarke and Heinlein have all won in previous years, and in the main they are good writers. But the books that they have won with have not been their better works (IMHO).
From the 96 awards, the only writers I can see that I actively follow are Baxter and Steele (reading Voyage by the former now).
Egan and Brin would both require a certain amount of desperation on my behalf and only after I had read everything else, including the label on the bleach bottle.
 
Im having a guess here, Ive only read one of these titles but does the name Nicholas Seafort come into it anywhere?
 
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