02-03-2013, 09:13 PM | #15541 |
The Dank Side of the Moon
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Or they'd feed themselves another way, which is what many if not most of them do at the moment.
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02-04-2013, 12:43 AM | #15542 | |
Indie Advocate
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Quote:
Today I started Mr Shivers by Robert Jackson Bennett. It's one of the many paperbacks in my bookshelf that has sat there unread for quite some time. Anyone read this before? |
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02-04-2013, 08:50 AM | #15543 |
Wizard
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Well, I finished Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A Heinlein. "The most famous SF novel of all time" according to its cover.
I must say I didn't think much of it. Indeed, for about 50 pages, two-thirds of the way in, I thought it was the worst book I'd ever read. It started OK - I thought maybe I'd been wrong to fear it - but then it was quite boring until the aforementioned 50 pages when it went massively downhill. It recovered a bit as I pushed through the last hundred pages over the weekend, but it's still not a book I particularly take anything from, or want to take anything from. Like a lot of Heinlein, it is opinionated and self-satisfied, but unlike his shorter works, it lacks a decent story. The female "characters" are a joke, and the final sections seem to be an extended sexual fantasy of a kind that does nothing for me. If anyone can begin to explain why this is so well-regarded, I'd like to hear it. I should maybe say I read the original cut - the one that actually won the Hugo - and not the newer, longer edition, and on this evidence I can only be relieved. |
02-04-2013, 09:15 AM | #15544 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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Surely this isn't the first time you've been puzzled by a book's popularity/acclaim? |
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02-04-2013, 09:32 AM | #15545 |
Grand Sorcerer
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I'm not entirely sure how I picked some of the books on my reading list this year, but
Glimpses by Lewis Shiner is so far an extremely fun book. Other good reads so far this year: The Woman who Walked into Doors by Roddy Doyle Flow my Tears, the Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick |
02-04-2013, 06:35 PM | #15546 | |
Opsimath
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We change. Times change. Ya gotta go with the flow. Sgt. Bilko is no longer funny. The Fonz is no longer 'cool.' (Well, maybe just a little.) Stitchawl |
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02-04-2013, 06:42 PM | #15547 |
Grand Sorcerer
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Bite your tongue. The Fonz is always cool. Except when he's jumping the shark.
On a side note. I'm testing the theory on things not aging well with my reading challenge for this year. So far the 80s has been a wasteland. |
02-04-2013, 07:12 PM | #15548 |
Bah, humbug!
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The old Burns and Allen TV show is still funny.
I'm currently reading a hardback edition of Gracie: A Love Story by George Burns. |
02-04-2013, 07:47 PM | #15549 |
Bookaholic Holly
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Presently reading "Inuyasha, V38" by Rumiko Takahashi.
Had been putting this off for awhile, but I'm loving it. |
02-05-2013, 04:43 AM | #15550 |
The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠
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Hmm... I didn't think it could go more over the top, but it did. And while all the detailed discussion about guns I give a pass, and just assume it's accurate, the main MacGuffin of the computer boards rang false to me.
I don't know how much of the writing or plotting the second named author did, but it certainly wasn't up to the standard I expected. Next up: Analog SF, March 2013. |
02-05-2013, 06:05 AM | #15551 | |
Wizard
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As to why Stranger in a Strange Land is seen as a major science-fiction work--well it's a complete mystery to me. Last edited by fantasyfan; 02-05-2013 at 12:13 PM. |
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02-05-2013, 08:50 AM | #15552 | |
Wizard
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Of course, it's MIAHM and Stranger in a Strange Land that were voted 11th and 12th best SF novels of the 20th Century in the recent Locus poll. But even with Starship Troopers, my enjoyment was kind of that the balance of things I liked vs things I hated was in favour of the things I liked, not that I liked all of it. There has always been something about Heinlein that rubs me up the wrong way. A modern equivalent might be Peter F Hamilton, whose books I generally enjoy, but who manages to throw in something that annoys me with some regularity. I certainly didn't go into Stranger without some negative preconceptions, but I was hoping to be pleasantly surprised, as I have been by some of the other Hugo winners. I had taken a bit of a dislike to China Mieville until I read The City and the City. I guess, as DiapDealer says, people are just different. Anyway, I fancied some dragons as a palate-cleanser, so I have started The Adamantine Palace by Stephen Deas, which I am really enjoying so far. I won the second and third books in the series from the author, who often gives away books through his website, but I still had to buy the first one, and I only got around to it in December. |
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02-05-2013, 11:31 AM | #15553 |
The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠
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02-05-2013, 10:21 PM | #15554 | |
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Jeffrey Deaver & Carolyn Keene (Mildred A Wirt)
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02-06-2013, 05:29 AM | #15555 |
The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠
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