What are you reading at the moment

[Tripe]

needing a bit of fluff and enjoyable fluff at that after my Sgt test, ive bought a new copy of Dune.  my old one fell apart from use (i had bought that one used at the library for a quarter)  and am rereading it yet again.  I still think its the best SERIOUS sci fi story ever written. 

Dune is a bit of fluff? I admit, I haven't read it in ages, but I thought it was brilliantly dense.  Hard to read, but worthwhile.  I think I read the two sequels afterwards, but sort of baulked at the others written by his son.

Well it's a space opera in the same way Gone With the Wind is a (historical) romance novel.  Both genres are generally a little light but Dune and GWTW transcend their respective genres by being incredibly dense and detailed.

Incidentally while one might baulk at it everyone should give GWTW a go, it's a surprisingly good book.

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

Dune is a bit of fluff? I admit, I haven't read it in ages, but I thought it was brilliantly dense.  Hard to read, but worthwhile.  I think I read the two sequels afterwards, but sort of baulked at the others written by his son.

if i needed something serious i would finish a discourse on method (which i intend to do afterwards) or some other historical or philisophical peace.  I also got some hume i need to start, and then theres crime and punishment im half way through, And then i got all those learn mandarin books to study. 

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

all i got out of your long post was dune=bah asimov=bah and lotr=good.

fair enough, but what "GOOD" sci fi do you see anyways?

[Tripe]

No, Asimov is not BAH. Foundation is bah.  Asimov's short stories = Good.

I'd agree on that point. I've never found an Asimov novel that I've enjoyed but as a short story writer he's phenomenal. I also liked his meditation on the book of Genesis.

[RandyMistie]

Well, after reading "The Road" for another time, I started on "Game of Thrones", George R.R. Martin's stuff.  Many here on these boards have waxed effulgent for this fantasy series, and I have heard great things about it since '96, so I finally gave in and started reading it.  Plus, the news that HBO is developing a series for it that will include 12 episodes for every book, every season... that was intriguing...

Well, WOW, is all I have to say.  I was sucked in from page two.  Good, clean writing, unapologetically great medieval court politics... I am hooked.  So, that's what I am going to be reading for next few months....

[mrbasehart]

On the other hand, I hated Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars soap-operas, and Heinlein (despite having a few good stories here and there) is largely bat-shit insane.  So there's bad sci-fi too.

I quite liked Stanley Robinson's Red Mars, but felt it was padded an awful lot and according to others, it gets worse the farther the series goes.

[Johnny Unusual]

What I've read of Harlan Ellison has been outstanding. 

I've only read "Repent Harlequin" cried the Tick-Tock Man and Jeffty is Five.  Repent Harlequin is the more Well known one but I find that Jeffty is my favourite of the two.  Powerful stuff.  It's funny that there are some writers that are so talented but manage to make so many enemies.  It's like you either love or you hate the guy if you meet him and there's no middle ground (based on what I heard).  Maybe it's just a first impression thing, but while I heard he can be a real dick, his friends respect him and stand by him close.  Bu it's best not to confuse the artist with the art.  Say what you want about the person, the stories are great.

On a different note, I just finished reading the Elephant Vanishes, which I had problems with.  I had the same problems when I was reading Kurt Vonnegut's Bogombo Snuff Box: the stories aren't quite to my taste and they just aren't as wowing as the creators other works.  Murakami has sort of a David Lynch meets the mundane feel for most of the stories in this book: there's weird crap going down but it's really focusing on normal human emotions and realistic quirks.  My favourite story was probably the not-weird-at-all story called the Silence, about a bookish boxer's painful memory about a rival at school, and we see that while his rival is a wholly unsavory person, the real scary people are the ones who let themselves fall into mob mentality so quickly and show little empathy for others at the drop of a hat.

Sleep is another good story, but it could have been a little shorter and I didn't quite understand the end (though maybe I wasn't supposed to.  I do have some theories however, but maybe there's not supposed to be an answer and looking is a waste of time)  It focuses on a woman who discovers she doesn't need sleep to function and how she starts to question th nature of the waking world and her own mortaility.  Powerful and engaging stuff despite the fact that she's really spending most of the story reading a book and eating chocolate.

[mrbasehart]

I just finished reading Ender's Game.  I thought it was good, though parts of it were kinda trippy - the mind game, the ending - and I found it hard to visualize children in battle simulators seriously.  Has anyone read the rest of the series? I wouldn't mind knowing if it maintains the standard set by the first one.

[mrbasehart]

Yeah, it's just my own immaturity when I picture Jake Lloyd and Jonathon Lipnicki doing all the stuff Ender and co. are supposed to be doing 

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

No, Asimov is not BAH. Foundation is bah.  Asimov's short stories = Good.

i can agree with that.  or at least understand it. 

Is that too much writing, Sarcasm? I can summarize...

like Basho i feel that if you use more than 17 syllables then you've gone too far. 

[Tripe]

like Basho i feel that if you use more than 17 syllables then you've gone too far. 

Damn those technical manuals you have to read must be a double nightmare then

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

whats really sad is my attention span only last 6 and a half syllables

[msmpls]

In the last three weeks I've read:
Misery by Stephen King
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited by Aldous Huxley
1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell
Other People's Children by Lisa Delpit
and
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

[Daezarkian]

Currently reading The Grand Design by John Marco.  I enjoy heroic fantasy, especially fantasy that takes a slightly different approach to the genre (such as this series, Tyrants & Kings, which incorporates some low-level technology and WWI style trench warfare to the proceedings to spice things up.  Great fun.)

[mrbasehart]

Just finished The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde.  His books are wonderfully entertaining - his take on aliens is remarkably original - and incorporate all manner of fictional figures.