what are you reading?

[HGFB]

Currently re-reading for the first time since the late 80s...



50 pages in, and already as ace as I remember it being...

Worryingly, though, it appears to be out of print, at least in the UK. None of the usual stores appear to have it in stock! Which is a blow to anyone in the UK who hasn't read it yet who fancied giving it a go. e-Bay and/or Amazon marketplace etc it is, then...

Great books.

I lost my old editions of this. Managed to get all three from abe-books. Similar setup to the Amazon marketplace but more focussed on bookselling. A lot of independent bookstores are on there.

I started reading the first one today but I'm not sure about it. It all seems a bit not very sci-fi to me at the moment. I'm guessing from the previews I've read that it's about a human society that reclaims its technology as the books progress and then lose it again as the planet moves back into winter?

*Edit* Ah. Never mind. I just read the Wikipedia page. It's as I expected and I'll carry on with it

I just don't think I'd bother if it was all about a load of primitives scrabbling for survival in the ice and snow.

[merman]

Carl Hiaasen omnibus, comprising Tourist Season, Double Whammy and Skin Tight... Double Whammy is all about cheating in fishing tournaments, and it's very funny.

[HippyDave]

I started reading the first one today but I'm not sure about it. It all seems a bit not very sci-fi to me at the moment. I'm guessing from the previews I've read that it's about a human society that reclaims its technology as the books progress and then lose it again as the planet moves back into winter?

*Edit* Ah. Never mind. I just read the Wikipedia page. It's as I expected and I'll carry on with it

I just don't think I'd bother if it was all about a load of primitives scrabbling for survival in the ice and snow.

Heh - good, glad you're not giving up on it. It's true, at first it might not seem particularly sci-fi, but as it moves onwards things definitely pick up in that area. The first third of Helliconia Summer ditches sci-fi almost entirely, and the first time I read it I was getting a little concerned even though it was all beautifully written, 'cos I'm not really into fantasy as a genre. However, shortly afterwards everything starts to get tied together, and I can pretty much guarantee that by the time you're well into Helliconia Winter, you'll be all "Gah! Like, wow..." I know I was...

I'm still reading it myself (very nearly at the end of Helliconia Summer now), since I rarely get a chance to read during the day and usually only pick up a book at bedtime. It's my preferred way of winding down, plus it means that occasionally I dream about what I've been reading. I've had some great Helliconia dreams in the past, lemme tell ya...

[benedictw]

Building with Straw Bales

Just finished Maus, The Lies of Locke Lamora and Red Seas under Red Skies.

[HippyDave]

I lost my old editions of [the Helliconia trilogy]. Managed to get all three from abe-books. Similar setup to the Amazon marketplace but more focussed on bookselling. A lot of independent bookstores are on there.

Aw, that's well neat - hadn't heard of that site before! Duly bookmarked - cheerz, Fuse...

Another site in this vein that Mrs HippyDave and I have been using a lot - especially since Mrs HippyDave went back to finish her degree and needed to find a bunch of specific editions of things - is Green Metropolis. Cheap, reliable, and eco-friendly...

[HGFB]

Buy this

http://www.greenmetropolis.com/book.asp ... 0Leviathan

It's excellent sci-fi with a moment part way through where the hero figures out what's going on at exactly the same time as the reader and both of you shit your pants at the implications.

[HippyDave]

Buy this

http://www.greenmetropolis.com/book.asp ... 0Leviathan

It's excellent sci-fi with a moment part way through where the hero figures out what's going on at exactly the same time as the reader and both of you shit your pants at the implications.

Heh - sounds like fun, so why not? Just added it to my wish list.

Always on the look-out for some interesting new sci-fi. Cheers, HGFB!

[lazerwalker]

I've just read Halting State, by Charles Stross. It's a near future (ten years?) detective story revolving around a bank raid in a WoW-like MMORPG, or at least it starts out there, and gets bigger. It's pretty good, lots of little techy in-jokes and the like (although I suspect it's going to age real fast) and the story's OK, with some nice extrapolating about the future of policing/augmented reality/independent Scotland (it's set in Edinburgh).

[disciple]

Guys don't forget there's the Yakyak book club. We have 11 members, I am sure there are more readers on Yakyak than that!

http://www.librarything.com/groups/yakyakbookclub

LibraryThing is excellent btw.

[ElfQrin]

The life of the ant (following the life of the bee and the life of the termite) by Maurice Maeterlinck. He wrote these books about 100 years ago.

Very interesting, it's like reading a documentary.

[HGFB]

I've just read Halting State, by Charles Stross. It's a near future (ten years?) detective story revolving around a bank raid in a WoW-like MMORPG, or at least it starts out there, and gets bigger. It's pretty good, lots of little techy in-jokes and the like (although I suspect it's going to age real fast) and the story's OK, with some nice extrapolating about the future of policing/augmented reality/independent Scotland (it's set in Edinburgh).

I read that a few weeks ago. I love Charles Stross books and this one was excellent. If you read his short story collection Toast he talks about how sci-fi authors tend to stay away from the near future for the reasons you describe. Authors normally get it wrong so the far future is a safer bet. However I do like some of his predictions regarding MMOs. Especially procedurally generated content. I also liked the heavy use of augmented reality overlays. Especially by the Police.

[Jedburgh]

[piku]

I like his writing style, it's both funny and slightly sarcastic and self-deprecating

[SimonB]

Tad Williams - War Of The Flowers

Previous: Jim Lovell and that other bloke - Apollo 13

[~D4T45H4T~]