Sci-Fi

[Pre]

That's exactly how I feel about Anathem so far.  He's taking me on a very lengthy journey between interesting parts.  Snow Crash was much tighter.

Anathem, like the Baroque Trilogy got better towards the end.  I enjoyed both, but agree on the editor.  Crypnomicron could have used with about 100 less pages too.   Diamond Age (Sci Fi) and Zodiac (Eco-Fiction?) are tighter novels and I recommend them both. 

[Jon]

That's exactly how I feel about Anathem so far.  He's taking me on a very lengthy journey between interesting parts.  Snow Crash was much tighter.

Anathem, like the Baroque Trilogy got better towards the end.  I enjoyed both, but agree on the editor.  Crypnomicron could have used with about 100 less pages too.   Diamond Age (Sci Fi) and Zodiac (Eco-Fiction?) are tighter novels and I recommend them both. 

I can second the Zodiac recommendation.

But I didn't mind the bloat of the Baroque Cycle, so there's that.

[HST Redux]

That's exactly how I feel about Anathem so far.  He's taking me on a very lengthy journey between interesting parts.  Snow Crash was much tighter.

Anathem, like the Baroque Trilogy got better towards the end.  I enjoyed both, but agree on the editor.  Crypnomicron could have used with about 100 less pages too.   Diamond Age (Sci Fi) and Zodiac (Eco-Fiction?) are tighter novels and I recommend them both. 

Yeah, I was going to recommend them too. Skip the Tom Clancy-esque books he did with his relative. I consider it an accomplishment that I finished the first book of the Baroque series. I hate verbosity for the sake of verbosity. See Wallace, David Foster. *ducks*

[PenFoe]

Bumping this thread because I finally read Dune after having it on the book shelf for probably 15 years.

I gotta say, for a book that is supposed to be one of the all-time great Sci-Fi masterpieces, I was a little underwhelmed.

This might be some high-level nerd blasphemy, but I thought it was just "pretty good."

Definitely not an absolutely must-read.

[Pre]

This might be some high-level nerd blasphemy, but I thought it was just "pretty good."

It's been a long time, but some subset of the novels (first 4?) are solid as a group.

I do think that Dune, like a lot of other older sci-fi, has aged poorly (although it better
than most).  Science fiction is still a genre where an author can have a couple of
interesting science concepts and bang out a book with flat characters and goofy plots
and win a Hugo or Nebula.  It's advanced some in the past 70 years, but on the whole
it's just full of a lot of tripe.  Against a background of garbage like Darwin's Radio, Dune
is an excellent book.

I think that's what makes someone like William Gibson or Ian M Banks stand out so much,
they can write what is legitimately a good book that happens to have a sci-fi theme.

[Kermit, B.]

Bumping this thread because I finally read Dune after having it on the book shelf for probably 15 years.

I gotta say, for a book that is supposed to be one of the all-time great Sci-Fi masterpieces, I was a little underwhelmed.

This might be some high-level nerd blasphemy, but I thought it was just "pretty good."

Definitely not an absolutely must-read.

I read it last year for the first time, and I came in at "pretty good," too.  I really enjoyed the thought he put into the technology, and his sci-fi vocabulary was easy to understand and never became overwhelming.  I'm glad I read it, but I wasn't blown away, either.

[Chuck to Chuck]

Bumping this thread because I finally read Dune after having it on the book shelf for probably 15 years.

I gotta say, for a book that is supposed to be one of the all-time great Sci-Fi masterpieces, I was a little underwhelmed.

This might be some high-level nerd blasphemy, but I thought it was just "pretty good."

Definitely not an absolutely must-read.

I read it last year for the first time, and I came in at "pretty good," too.  I really enjoyed the thought he put into the technology, and his sci-fi vocabulary was easy to understand and never became overwhelming.  I'm glad I read it, but I wasn't blown away, either.

You two will forever be remembered as wives.

[HST Redux]

I really loved Dune and the rest of the series as a kid, but I re-read Dune a couple years ago and it's just not all that. Some great concepts, interesting characters, and a good plot, but Herbert doesn't have the writing chops to make it great.

[Chuck to Chuck]

I really loved Dune and the rest of the series as a kid, but I re-read Dune a couple years ago and it's just not all that. Some great concepts, interesting characters, and a good plot, but Herbert doesn't have the writing chops to make it great.

It was pretty hollow.  Iraq-is is the desert area that has the only material in the universe to enable travel?  A bunch of terrorists live there who defeat the Empire that comes to ensure the material gets out?

Can someone explain this metaphor to me?

[PenFoe]

I really loved Dune and the rest of the series as a kid, but I re-read Dune a couple years ago and it's just not all that. Some great concepts, interesting characters, and a good plot, but Herbert doesn't have the writing chops to make it great.

It was pretty hollow.  Iraq-is is the desert area that has the only material in the universe to enable travel?  A bunch of terrorists live there who defeat the Empire that comes to ensure the material gets out?

Can someone explain this metaphor to me?

Wrong thread, Weebs.

[R-V]

Replay by Ken Grimwood. Great premise, pretty good book.

[Dr. Nguyen Van Falk]

Replay by Ken Grimwood. Great premise, pretty good book.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replay_(novel)

Ken Grimwood was working on a sequel to Replay when he died from a heart attack in 2003 at the age of 59.

[Gilgamesh]

Two recommendations:

Spin, by Robert Charles Wilson.

The Yiddish Policemen's Union, by Michael Chabon.

Great books, the both of them.

[Pre]

Spin, by Robert Charles Wilson.

I didn't really like Spin.  I mean, it wasn't bad, I just found it boring.

[PenFoe]

Spin, by Robert Charles Wilson.

I didn't really like Spin.  I mean, it wasn't bad, I just found it boring.

This is my new favorite half-insult qualifier.