Post by Jobber Blitz on Oct 12, 2008 3:15:16 GMT -5
As a huge fans of the series, I'm not expecting much. The fourth book was bad, and the fifth was meh, so it's not as if a bad sixth book will spoil some holiness. Colfer is pretty good, but I don't think he has the style that will fit Hitchhiker's Guide. I'll still read it though.
Winner of the 2009 Pun's Supergroup Draft Thing. Eliminated in first round of everything else.
I don't know what to do other than not panic and pre order it. And read some Artemis Fowl books, I guess. Heard of them, but never delved into them. Anyone else?
I borrowed a few Artemis Fowl books from a former roommate. Not bad for children's fiction. I would put it at the same level as Rowling's worst (which for me, was HP 1-2). Definitely has the tools to rope you into a story.
In my opinion, the trilogy could have done a LOT worse than this.
Stu: You might like the Dirk Gently books better. They have more of a serious core underneath the humor, and they are essentially a Doctor Who fan-fic.
(Or, technically, an unused Who premise that Adams decided to change enough to avoid a lawsuit and then expand into a novel....)
Stu: You might like the Dirk Gently books better. They have more of a serious core underneath the humor, and they are essentially a Doctor Who fan-fic.
(Or, technically, an unused Who premise that Adams decided to change enough to avoid a lawsuit and then expand into a novel....)
Yeah, I've heard of that. It's currently being done as a show on BBC Radio 4 I did actually like the TV Show and Film of Hitchhiker's(i wasn't bothered by the differences since even Adams says there's no definitive version of the story).
Just got done reading World Without End by Ken Follett, I HIGHLY recommend it.
It is the sequel to Pillars of the Earth, which he wrote something like fifteen years ago (and I also highly recommend)
Pillars is set in the 1100's England, and basically follows the lives of several families, the most prominent being a mason and his family. They deal with the town monastery and the local overlord. I don't want to give it away, but their lives are woven together fantastically and the story never seems to lose steam.
World Without End picks up in the same town 200 years later with some of the descendants of the first story (thought you don't necessarily have to read Pillars of the Earth to know what is going on in this one, it stands alone very well). The story is similar, we follow several families, but we also have to deal with the plague and innovations in trade and medicine.
I know these are not the greatest reviews ever written, but both books are worth the read. They are long - Pillars is over 900 pages, and World Without End is over 1000, but I blew through them both in no time, they are definitely page turners.
One criticism I have read is that they are not 100% historically accurate. Well, you know what? Fuck that. This is coming from a history major too. If I wanted the accurate historic truth I would read a dry text on the era. Follett takes some liberties, but they are not so egregious that it ruins the story (there are no flying cars, or duels fought with lasers, nothing like that). They are both well written, engrossing stories.
I hope someone else picks them up and reads them, just so I can get another opinion on them. I am not much of a movie wonk, but either (or both) of these would make AWESOME movies.
The Phillies are everything I hoped the Mets would be - a team that plays their fucking asses off for all 27 outs. They're never out of a game. Solly 10/20/09
Just got done reading World Without End by Ken Follett, I HIGHLY recommend it.
So it doesn't just come in Braille then?
Just started reading Extraordinary Engines, a steampunk anthology. the first story's a good start, having a guy in a special Penal Colony (which has Fagin and Jack the Ripper as convicts) narrate how being a "trainer" for Mechano Boxers got him sent there.
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Michael Crichton, who helped create the TV show "ER" and wrote the best-sellers "Jurassic Park," "The Andromeda Strain," "Sphere" and "Rising Sun," died in Los Angeles on Tuesday, his public relations firm said in a news release.
He "died unexpectedly," the release said, "after a courageous and private battle against cancer."
He was 66.
Crichton, a medical doctor, was attracted to cautionary science tales. "Jurassic Park" -- perhaps his best-known work -- concerned capturing the DNA of dinosaurs and bringing them to life on a modern island, where they soon run amok; "The Andromeda Strain," his first major fiction success, involves an alien microorganism that's studied in a special military compound after causing death in a nearby community.
Crichton also invited controversy with some of his scientific views. He was an avowed skeptic of global climate change, giving lectures warning against "consensus science." He later took on global warming and the theories surrounding it in his 2004 novel "State of Fear," which attracted attacks in its own right from scientists including NASA's James Hansen.
Crichton was a distinctive figure in the entertainment business, a trained physician whose interests included writing, filmmaking and television. (He was physically distinctive as well, standing 6-foot-9.) He published "The Andromeda Strain" while he was still a medical student at Harvard Medical School. He wrote a story about a 19th-century train robbery, called "The Great Train Robbery," and then directed the 1979 film version.
Crichton won an Emmy, a Peabody, and a Writer's Guild of America Award for "ER," and won other awards as well.
"Through his books, Michael Crichton served as an inspiration to students of all ages, challenged scientists in many fields, and illuminated the mysteries of the world in a way we could all understand," the news release said.
My favorite books from him was The Great Train Robbery and Airframe (investigation on a plane accident).
Now just to go back on World Without End, I found it also to be a good book, but it was a little too long, I found that Follet could have shorten the story just a little as I tought it got a little redundant at the end. But still a great read. Now Pillars of the Earth was awesome.
Post by Outback Frito Pendejo on Nov 7, 2008 12:53:00 GMT -5
Funny coincidence. I read Pillars this summer and am about to start World. I liked that I couldn't predict many of the plot twists in Pillars.
I just finished Robert Parker's latest Spenser novel. I've read every one in the series, as well as the Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall series and his tribute to Raymond Chandler. The ones written in the 80's were terrific updates on the classic hardboiled PI tradition. During the 90's they became increasingly formulaic, and now that he's cranking out 2-3 books a year there's very little emotional charge left. Still, I enjoy the familiar characters and New England background, so I'll continue to read the series. I'll pick up the occasional Philip Craig mystery (all have Vineyard in the title) for similar reasons. For mysteries that don't rely on my nostalgia for New England to appeal, I currently prefer Harlan Coben, Robert Crais, G.M. Ford, Donna Leon, John Lescroart, and Randy Wayne White. (I know I'm forgetting a couple of other authors.)
Yeah, I know this place pretty good. I went to law school here.[My5:]
The last few books I read: -Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett. Good, but like I've seen in a lot of the early Discworld stuff, there seems to be a lot of wandering around and setting up the world as opposed to advancing the story, so the ending is a bit anti-climactic. -Ask The Parrot by Richard Stark. A Parker novel which begins with him being on the run after a botched job, before being aided by a guy who wants him to help rob the racetrack he used to work at before being fired for being a whistleblower. The guy's a total amateur, but Parker has to go along with the job, improve on the guy's plan, and deflect suspicion from the locals who don't know him, but know a robber is a fugitive in the area -Nobody Runs Forever by Richard Stark. Another Parker one, and actually the immediate precursor to Ask the Parrot, and ends right were that one begins. Reading them out of order didn't affect my enjoyment that much. -Just finished Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks. The first in the Culture series, about a massive interstellar civilisation that's into personal freedom and is so advanced nobody really needs to work and can live lives of leisure. CP has them in an interstellar war with a religiously-dominated alien species called The Idirans. It actually tells the story mostly of a shapeshifting mercenary working for the Idirans, who's opposed to the Culture because he sees their expansion as something terrible for the universe. It follows him being rescued from capture from his most recent mission, getting a new one, but being seperated from the Idirans and having to join a gang of pirates and eventually take over their ship to go carry out the job. It's really good because it's not a very simple to decide on story. The main character can be pretty cold-blooded at times, yet you see his viewpoint, and he goes through hell, but there's a real sense of futility to it all, that ultimately none of it matters, and there's lots of unpleasantness that happens to him and those around him. -Now I'm going to read Midwinter, the fantasy novel debut of Matt Sturges, the comic writer (Jack of Fables, Blue Beetle, JSA).
I should really read more mystery. I just tried Christie for the first time this summer--came across Nemesis in a used-book store. The only detectives I've really read before are Holmes and Wimsey, but I would definitely read more Miss Marple sometime.
Just yesterday I read a Brunner book that caught my eye at Uncle Hugo's called Stardropper. It's about an undercover agent sent to investigate a device more and more people are using that is purported to allow them to listen in on the thoughts of alien beings throughout the universe. Is it a scam, a fad, an addiction? Or something more? A fun one, I thought, even if the end was maybe a bit Pollyanna. Up with my favorites of his, I'd say.
Post by Outback Frito Pendejo on Aug 25, 2009 12:35:18 GMT -5
I'm a fan of the "Doc Ford" novels by Randy Wayne White. White is a former fishing guide who writes this action series about a marine biologist, formerly a government operative, who lives on Sanibel Island and gets involved in mysteries and intrigues. So recently I was buying used paperbacks at the local library, saw a book by White featuring a different protagonist, and threw it in the bag. When I started to read it, the author's intro explained that he had written this earlier series under a pseudonym for a pulp fiction publisher and was now re-releasing it. He called the genre "duck and fuck", since chapters alternated between the hero dodging bullets and getting it on with half the women he meets. The intro was amusing, but the book wasn't worth more than the $.50 I paid for it. I do, however, still recommend the Doc Ford series.
Yeah, I know this place pretty good. I went to law school here.[My5:]
I stopped reading The Prestige mid-way through to read the new Discworld book
It's about the wizards having to play a game of football, and in the process rewrite the rules to make it more organised and less vilolent. But it's also about nostalgia and the differences between the classes, as the University servants are prominent characters. And a goblin...who isn't a goblin. It kinda takes a while to get going but when it does it's really funny, and has a good story with some emotional depth as usual. Though wow, this really made me see how shitty the US covers are for Discworld compared to the UK...