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Post by chefmate on Oct 30, 2009 21:10:04 GMT
I walked into the public library this morning and scored the newest book out about Michael Jackson......it is about 700 pages and I only have three weeks to finish it but I am quite happy and smiling like a Cheshire Cat to have scored that book.
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Post by Alpha Hooligan on Nov 6, 2009 23:50:45 GMT
Finished the third book in Stephen Baxters "Manifold" trilogy - "Origin" After the amazing ride I had with the second book, the first half of the third volume just didn't grab me as much, but the second half made up for it though...cracking trilogy all round, really enjoyed reading these three novels...all I have left is the related book of "Manifold" short stories..."Phase Space". The greatest thing about this series was the use of mostly the same characters in each of the three books, but each of the three novels was set in "alternate earths", so the characters backgrounds, drives and personalities differed from book to book...it was all very spectacular. The Japanes woman "Nemoto" who only appeared in the second two books was wonderfull, I really liked her, she was scientific, cold, clinical, yet driven to extremes by her passion...her actions in the second book just blew me away! AH
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Post by beth on Nov 7, 2009 1:44:07 GMT
Your reviews have been so good, I may have to put these on my list. I never cared much for fantasy or sci fi until abt 10 years ago when I happened onto Arthur C. Clarke and enjoyed a couple of his. There is a book I wish you'd try - may not be anything you'd like at all, but I loved it and wouldn't mind reading it again. It's the first book of a trilogy by Mitchell Smith, Snowfall. As you say , it blew me away. www.amazon.com/Snowfall-Trilogy-Book-1/dp/081257933X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257558056&sr=1-1
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Post by Alpha Hooligan on Nov 8, 2009 9:37:32 GMT
Thanks for the tip Beth, it gets mixed reviews on Amazon, but I am a total sucker for any kind of post apocalypse books, movies or TV shows...so it goes on my "to buy in the future" list. AH
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Post by beth on Nov 8, 2009 15:09:10 GMT
I never guarantee anyone will like the same books I like. Snowfall has a plot that carries it along, but it's really the characters that grabbed me and held on.
An older book that uses post apocalypse and that I enjoyed is Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. The story unfolds similar to Stephen King's The Stand, but there's less drag and less fantasy in this one. As one review says, it's "massively entertaining". Snowfall's the one I like best, though.
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Post by Liberator on Nov 8, 2009 21:02:34 GMT
From the review there's a lot similar to the sequel to Isaac Asimov's 'Nightfall' - except that the sequel is really the second part of the novel revision with Robert Silverberg of the original short story that ends with chaos when the people go mad discovering there are millions of stars in the sky (their world of six suns only has full night once every 2049 years and then only during a short eclipse). I'm trying to think of a similar story but I think the asteroid was deflected, where there is a doomsday cult at work trying to sabotage the deflection. In that case I think the asteroid is called Kali. Unfortunately the last thing I happened to be reading was pretty heavy-going politics, Trotsky writing about Stalin in 1936! I'm busy writing! Something to do with missing people in an unlikely alliance between Randite libertarians and Christian fundamentalists in a settlement called the Christian States of America (they both agree about 'free trade').
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Post by june on Nov 8, 2009 22:11:21 GMT
We have Unseen Academicals to read - just going through Thief of Time at the moment again and might slip in Hogfather for Christmas reading
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Post by Alpha Hooligan on Nov 9, 2009 9:31:03 GMT
From the review there's a lot similar to the sequel to Isaac Asimov's 'Nightfall' - except that the sequel is really the second part of the novel revision with Robert Silverberg of the original short story that ends with chaos when the people go mad discovering there are millions of stars in the sky (their world of six suns only has full night once every 2049 years and then only during a short eclipse). That sounds interesting. Cheers. AH
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Post by chefmate on Nov 9, 2009 15:59:35 GMT
damn, most of what you all read would put me fast asleep but in case anyone is interested, the Michael Jackson book is great and does explain alot of the Michael Jackson in later years.
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Post by Liberator on Nov 9, 2009 16:19:09 GMT
That sounds interesting. Cheers. AH A lot more interesting than a lot of Asimov's later fiction! It's the 1990 novel you need I think, not the 1945 original re-issued with other short stories. Probably the greatest rebuild after apocalypse is A Canticle for Leibowitz (1960s?) in three parts 600 years apart - but ends on a downer because Leibowitz had the idea to save science in a monastic order even if they didn't understand what they had but when nuclear war breaks out again the monks decide to leave for another planet. Why don't some authors know when to stop? Frank Herbert did it and his son has added endless sequels and prequels to the Dune trilogy and the same thing happened to tie the robot and Empire novels together and then a whole second trilogy about how the Foundation came to be set up. I was more interested in the war with Earth and how the Outer Worlds developed away in such a few of their lifetimes.
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Post by beth on Nov 9, 2009 17:33:21 GMT
We have Unseen Academicals to read - just going through Thief of Time at the moment again and might slip in Hogfather for Christmas reading Thief of Time is my son's favorite book. Any idea how Pratchett's doing - health-wise?
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Post by june on Nov 9, 2009 18:20:46 GMT
We have Unseen Academicals to read - just going through Thief of Time at the moment again and might slip in Hogfather for Christmas reading Thief of Time is my son's favorite book. Any idea how Pratchett's doing - health-wise? he's doing ok beth, he quite often appears on tv talking about his illness to raise awareness. I think he dictates his books in part at least so I guess he has some motor function issues. He's a good man if a little odd!
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Post by beth on Nov 10, 2009 16:43:53 GMT
Thief of Time is my son's favorite book. Any idea how Pratchett's doing - health-wise? he's doing ok beth, he quite often appears on tv talking about his illness to raise awareness. I think he dictates his books in part at least so I guess he has some motor function issues. He's a good man if a little odd! That's good to hear. Odd or not, I think he's very brave to go public and use it in a positive way. We wish him only the best. Have you seen the Hogfather movie?
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Post by beth on Nov 30, 2009 3:59:37 GMT
Just wondering - re-reading abt. Terry Pratchett and all - has anyone else read Good Omens? By chance, I ended up on a page with Good Omens quotes today and enjoyed it throoughly. That's one book I wish I had not read so I could read it for the first time again. "Rain hadn't been invented yet. But clouds massing east of Eden suggested that the first thunderstorm was on its way, and it was going to be a big one."
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Post by beth on Dec 10, 2009 5:20:23 GMT
Since nothing says this has to be books, I'm reading the new Vanity Fair magazine - the one with Meryl Streep on the cover. Several good articles and an excerpt from Dominick Dunne's last book. Some of the articles are here
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