Alfred Bester's classic The Stars my Destination for the first time. I am wondering if it is one of the inspirations behind Donaldson's Gap Cycle - the thuggish anti-hero reminds me a bit of the thuggish Angus...
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| Author: | Duchess of Malfi [ Tue Jul 21, 2009 5:03 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: what science fiction are you reading right now? |
Alfred Bester's classic The Stars my Destination for the first time. I am wondering if it is one of the inspirations behind Donaldson's Gap Cycle - the thuggish anti-hero reminds me a bit of the thuggish Angus...
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| Author: | Avatar [ Fri Jul 24, 2009 8:22 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: what science fiction are you reading right now? |
Wow, long time since I've read that. --A |
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| Author: | Duchess of Malfi [ Fri Jul 24, 2009 11:03 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: what science fiction are you reading right now? |
It is sort of freaky, but I am enjoying it so far. 
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| Author: | FarmUrTed [ Wed Aug 12, 2009 7:39 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: what science fiction are you reading right now? |
I read Stars last summer and thought it was pretty awesome. There's no doubt that Gully was the inspiration for Angus. I'm pretty sure SRD was asked that in TGI, and said that he was a big fan of the book (I did a search and found several references to it in TGI). Now, I'm reading The Garden of Iden, by Kage Baker. It's pretty interesting. |
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| Author: | aliantha [ Tue Aug 25, 2009 6:27 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: what science fiction are you reading right now? |
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. Had it recommended to me. I *guess* it's sci-fi -- one of the two main characters time-travels -- tho it's more of a romance, I think. Anyhow, it's not bad so far. |
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| Author: | FarmUrTed [ Thu Aug 27, 2009 3:46 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: what science fiction are you reading right now? |
I'm reading Crystal Rain by Tobias Buckell. I love this book, and will definitely read the follow-ups. Not bad at all for a free book. |
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| Author: | Duchess of Malfi [ Thu Aug 27, 2009 4:25 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: what science fiction are you reading right now? |
| Author: | taraswizard [ Sat Aug 29, 2009 11:42 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: what science fiction are you reading right now? |
Her Smoke Rose up Forever, collection of short stories all by James Tiptree Jr. I'm not duplicating everything already written over at the Watch. It's the selection of our monthly reading group in Oak Park, Illinois, and this selection was one of mine for the group. |
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| Author: | Duchess of Malfi [ Mon Aug 31, 2009 2:13 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: what science fiction are you reading right now? |
Flood, a new apocalyptic science fiction thriller by British writer Stephen Baxter. 
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| Author: | Moonwatcher [ Wed Sep 09, 2009 5:48 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: what science fiction are you reading right now? |
Just read the novelization of Terminator 2 by Randall Frakes.  What?It was actually a decent read. Found the book for $2 used, so I thought, why not? I do like to read novel versions of my favorite movies...just because. 1991 seemed like such a long time ago, but reading T2 took me back. |
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| Author: | Moonwatcher [ Tue Sep 22, 2009 6:20 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: what science fiction are you reading right now? |
My thoughts on Vendetta, a Star Trek:TNG novel I read this summer: Fist and Faith had recommended this book a while back. I finally picked it up over the summer holidays. Written by Peter David back in 1991, Vendetta isn't deep literature, but it does competently depict the drama and thrills of the Trek universe and promote the "franchise." That's a reasonable expectation for a Trek novel. As a bonus, Vendetta is also emotionally affecting at times. It certainly gripped me more than any of the ST:TNG feature films, and it compares well with the series' best episodes. In this story, Picard and crew once again face the Borg. This time, however, the Borg's usual role as cosmic badass is usurped by none other than the world devourer as first encountered by Commodore Matt Decker in the classic Trek episode "The Doomsday Machine." But now it's Doomsday Machine version 2.0 that confronts Picard's crew: bigger, faster, hungrier and controlled by someone with a huge grudge against the Borg. (Who in the galaxy doesn't?) That someone is Delcara, lone survivor of an ancient race (the Shgin) that had been wiped out by the Borg. Delcara's all-consuming hatred of the Borg led to her assuming control of the doomsday vessel, itself the product of another race that also had been destroyed by the Borg. This other race, given the working name "the Preservers" by Picard, had built the doomsday machine in secret as a weapon of last resort against the Borg - or so Picard surmises. But the one Matt Decker crossed paths with had been a "mere" prototype: the Preservers had rushed it into service for a "dry run" while they continued work on the much more fearsome and final version. But their entire race came to an end before DM v.2.0 could be launched, and so knowledge of it was lost. Incredibly, Delcara herself only found out about it via some sort of psychic attunement to Picard. (It's a bit contrived.) This connection between them means that Delcara has somewhat of a soft spot for Picard. He in turn tries to dissuade Delcara from her mission of vengeance, because her doomsday vessel would consume worlds for fuel while on its voyage into Borg space, making it as bad, if not as worse, as the Borg. Meanwhile, the Borg have "woken up" to the threat of the doomsday machine and are intent upon eliminating it, after the DM had single-handedly obliterated a Borg ship early on. The book's climax is a showdown between the DM and three Borg cubes, with Enterprise and another Federation starship, the Chekhov, somewhere in the middle. It's an exciting battle, featuring enough firepower to please a Star Wars fan. However, Peter David's prose lets me down here. It doesn't capture the epic scale of the things being witnessed, such as the size of the DM, and the enormous energies being tossed around by the Borg and the DM. I don't get a real sense of how huge this battle is, so it loses some impact. I was wishing for someone like Arthur C. Clarke to describe it. Maybe it would have been a less manic action scene in his hands, but Clarke knew how to present massive alien constructs in a way that instilled total awe. Mr. David does make up for those shortcomings in other areas. Particularly in a weird but interesting side plot involving a Borg soldier whom the Enterprise had recovered from a world attacked by the Borg. The soldier was once Reannon Bonaventure, a free-spirited cargo smuggler. Geordi La Forge's attempt to rehabilitate Reannon, to re-awaken her identity, is the most human part of the book. The most poignant scene happens in the holodeck: Geordi has constructed a hologram of Reannon in the hope that it could spark something in the flesh-and-blood Reannon. Hologram-Reannon tries to provoke a response from Borg-Reannon, but to no avail. Hologram-Reannon then goes into a fit, raging against an "idiot" girl who has allowed herself to fall to such a cruel fate. Before the simulation is ended, she pleads to Geordi to not leave her the way she is. Sure, it might sound corny, but I was moved by this whole scene, and I'm not ashamed to say it. Spoiler concerning the book's ending: All in all, this was the best ST: TNG movie I never saw. |
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| Author: | Avatar [ Tue Sep 22, 2009 3:53 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: what science fiction are you reading right now? |
Strangely, I've never been a fan of the trek novelisations. Star Wars ones, I love. But not the Trek ones. Maybe there was just too much Trek from which to build stories...I dunno. --A |
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| Author: | FarmUrTed [ Sat Oct 03, 2009 4:05 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: what science fiction are you reading right now? |
Just finished Banks' Use of Weapons. I gotta say, that book was kind of mind-blowing. I'm sure that I missed a ton (having a 2 year old does that, lol). I almost feel like re-reading it. It wasn't at all what I expected, but it was good. Just got Buckell's Ragamuffin. Can't wait to read this sucker. I tried to get it a few weeks ago, but it's a bugger to find online. Only Mobipocket has it, but when I tried to buy from them, I kept getting an error. They charged me for the book, but didn't put it in my bookshelf. Then a day later, I got a call from my credit card company (yay!), and they fixed it for me. I gave it another shot this morning, and the transaction went through. |
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| Author: | danlo [ Sun Oct 04, 2009 2:27 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: what science fiction are you reading right now? |
That's very encouraging!!! I put Use of weapons down after 4 chapters a year ago---I'll give it another go! 
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| Author: | Avatar [ Sun Oct 04, 2009 6:38 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: what science fiction are you reading right now? |
Do. It's one of my favourite Banks books. (My best two are Player of Games and Against a Dark Background.) --A |
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