November's adventures in Reading needed...

Hello everyone - I'm new to this and am just throwing a few things in here and there. Am re-reading Neal Stephenson's Snowcrash. It's great fun and rattles along at a fair clip despite there being lengthy passages on the nature of language. Any Stephenson fans out there?
 
Nah not a fan of Stephenson. Snow Crash is overrated **** pardon my french :p

Welcome anyway hope you will like your stay. SF fans are more than welcome here !
 
Stephenson I rate Snow Crash as far as I am concerned it was a good read which kept me entharlled, my intoduction to cybertech read it when it first came out, have not managed to catch any of his others as I'm not a fan of steampunk like his others seem to be.
 
My reading was quite awhile back, but I remember liking The Diamond Age. I think that was my first cyberpunk. I don’t recall it being steampunk.




 
I like Snowcrash, but I have no time for Stephenson's recent tomes of enormous width. Someone needs to reel him back in - there is no reason for that many pages. It's ridiculous.
 
Finished Patterns of Chaos by Colin Kapp. Silly, somewhat overwrought space opera, with some neat ideas. Now reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy.
 
Mission Of Gravity by Hal Clement

The story is set on a highly oblate planet named Meskln, which has surface gravity that varies between 700 g at the poles and 3 g at the equator. The story is told from the points of view of one of the local intelligent life forms and a human explorer. The locals are centipede-like, in order to withstand the enormous gravity, and terrified of even small heights.
 
A friend returned James Herbert's The Secret of Crickley Hall last night so I started browsing through it and ended up reading it again.

It's a well-written book but admittedly I generally like James Herbert. However, it's not a new story and I was wondering at the appeal of this theme.

Many writers have written about houses haunted by the spirits of abused children. They have also written about houses haunted both by the children and the abuser (as is the case here). And yet writers still keep writing this theme and readers keep buying the book. Even the makers of the movie Haunting included children and a very angry man.

The book had me very angry and crying in turn and I I had already read it before. I was just wondering how everyone else felt about the endurance of this particular theme in books.
 
Just finished Caine Black Knife by Matthew Stover and Bernard Cornwell's Warlord Chronicles trilogy last week. Each was an excellent read and highly recomended.

Now, I'm reading Brandon Sanderson's The Hero of Ages, the finale of the Mistborn trilogy. So far so good.
 
Finished Neal Ashers - Cowl - a time travel story, which didn't feel as such. The events are actually pretty linear, some nice characters and interesting plot twists (especially the part, when a event I thought would end the book happened 120 pages before that :eek:) Now I have to find a place which would sell me Gridlinked as I prefer to read series from the start.
Started with the first book of Jim Butchers other serie - Furies of Calderon - first 40 pages have been interesting, although the main character selevtion seems to be as cliched as possible.
 
Nesacat said:
The book had me very angry and crying in turn and I I had already read it before. I was just wondering how everyone else felt about the endurance of this particular theme in books.
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I enjoyed this book, as to the theme, it is hard as I have read some real life accounts of abuse, written by the victim. Everytime it makes me feel the same way, sick to my stomach.

James Herbert has hit the nail on the head with this book, the people are belivable the way in which the kids were abused, the way it was hidden by the abusers, the way when the crime was discovered it was covered up. All hall marks of the time.

While I enjoyed the story I tolerated the theme as I felt it was very well portrayed. I suspect this will be a theme appearing in more books as more survivors of abuse find their voices.
 
Flowers For Algernon - Daniel Keyes

Easily the best book I've read this year, possibly the best I've read ever.
 
That's exactly how I felt after reading it, Woody. I'm quite sure it's my favourite book of all, now.
 
Just finished a collection of stories entitled The Fairy Tales of London Town Volume One - Upon Paul's Steeple by William Mayne. I've always loved London Town and stories pertaining to it and this book is no exception.

It's got everything from classic retellings such as Dick Whittington to contemporary fairy tales of goblins lurking under Tower Bridge, and pixies tending tulips in the park.
 
Finished The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Good book. Now reading House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds. And it's a bit of a jolt after the McCarthy...
 
Am probably going to start in on Syrup by Maxx Barry when I get home tonight along with House on the Borderlands (the graphic novel).

Am quite curious to see how it will be as I have read the book and like that very much. Took a look at the artwork earlier and it's all pretty sombre dark colours.
 
HoopyFrood said:
That's exactly how I felt after reading it, Woody. I'm quite sure it's my favourite book of all, now.
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I'm heading that way. It screws up my 'insides' brings tears to the eye. Makes me want to punch and hug humanity in turn. I guess, most powerfully, it makes it harder to look in the mirror.

I've just re-read it.
 
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