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read any good books lately...
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Points: 1239 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote arcer Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 06 2005 at 16:20
Just finished a couple - a crime one by something Connolly, very average, very airport, very long-haul boredom and another one I can remember neither the title or the author of. By that anonoying guy, wrote 'Man and Boy'. Oh yeah Tony Parsons. This latest one's about bunch of rock rag writers in 1997 and their troubled lives (racism, girlfriend problems, disco etc etc). Not bad but a bit run of the mill.
I'm now reading Jonathan Stange and Mr Norrell by Susannah Clarke and it it's annoying the hell out of me. It's so mannered it's not true and the footnotes drive me bonkers. I was also struggling to understand why the cod-Victorian novel writing style seemed to appear and disappear at random until someone told me she took 10 years to write it. Not suprised by that. She obviously went through 10 editors in the process, each one with a different approach, it's incredibly schizophrenic. And kinda boring. I think it's going to take me 10 years to read...
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Points: 11979 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tony R Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 06 2005 at 17:31

I'm in the middle of reading "Rush-Chemistry" by Jon Collins.

Due for release in the UK in Dec and the US in Feb 2006,it's a well-written,uncontraversial biography with few surprises.I will be reviewing it for Progarchives soon.
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just reading Dante's Inferno at moment!
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Points: 623 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kirklott Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 06 2005 at 23:54

If anyone likes Sci-Fi, and even if you don't, I stumbled across a writer named Jack Vance a couple years ago. The man is amazing:

a) his vocabulary is virtually unparalleled, always the right word for the right situation

b) his stories read like cross-cultural travel adventures in faraway lands

c) there's even adventure and intrigue!

The Washington Post likened his prose to Sir John Gielgud reciting poetry

The recommend The Demon Princes and Planet of Adventure series

 
"Progressive rock is the key to the continuance of human evolution." - Charles Darwin
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The Stranger By Camus

Its very interesting.
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Originally posted by TheProgtologist TheProgtologist wrote:

Try the Deathstalker series by Simon R. Green.


Just a good old swashbuckling,space opera.


Great stuff.



If it's a space opera you're after, go for Stephen Donaldson's 'Gap' series - a five book epic (very) loosley based on Wagner's Ring Cycle.

As with all Donaldson, it's long winded and occasionally over written, but great sci-fi nonetheless.

Jon Lord 1941 - 2012
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Originally posted by Jim Garten Jim Garten wrote:

Originally posted by TheProgtologist TheProgtologist wrote:

Try the Deathstalker series by Simon R. Green.


Just a good old swashbuckling,space opera.


Great stuff.



If it's a space opera you're after, go for Stephen Donaldson's 'Gap' series - a five book epic (very) loosley based on Wagner's Ring Cycle.

As with all Donaldson, it's long winded and occasionally over written, but great sci-fi nonetheless.


Another good space opera is Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy.  It's a long read - I think each of the books comes in at something like 1000 pages, but it's well worth it.
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Currently reading 'To the edge of the sky' by Anhua Gao - a superb book detailing the author's life growing up in Communist China during Mao's "The Great Leap Forward", and his brutal "Cultural Revolution"; heartrending, sensitive, inspirational & occasionally very funny.

Jon Lord 1941 - 2012
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I just read Easy Livinīs Pocket-Book.......it was downright depressing..........
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Points: 11979 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tony R Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 08 2005 at 14:13
I've recently been reading "The Riot Act" to a bunch of adolescent forum members...
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Points: 8548 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Velvetclown Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 08 2005 at 14:16
adolescent ??? Does that mean Young and Dumb ???? 
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Points: 11979 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tony R Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 08 2005 at 14:37

Originally posted by Velvetclown Velvetclown wrote:

adolescent ??? Does that mean Young and Dumb ???? 

No it means Old and dumber...
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Hey !!!!!!!!

Thatīs me !!!
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Points: 27802 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote TheProgtologist Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 08 2005 at 14:44

I am now reading a unique series of mystery books set in ancient Rome and they are about a  private detective/sleuth of sorts named Gordianus "The Finder".

Very good books,the whole series is called the Roma Sub Rosa series and I am on the 3rd book,titled The Venus Throw.


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Points: 2771 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Trotsky Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 08 2005 at 21:10

still on Ivan Turgenev's Sketches From A Hunters Album ... last night flicked through Tintin In The Land Of The Soviets (for a totally different perspective on Mother Russia!) ... I must say it sucked

I was a big Tintin fan when I was growing up ... but I never read the political one (Land Of The Soviets) nor the racist one (Tintin In Congo) ....



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Points: 14693 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Jim Garten Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 09 2005 at 03:39
Did you read the porno one, "Tintin does Dallas"?

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Points: 2771 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Trotsky Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 09 2005 at 08:41
No I didn't Jim, but I recently read another porno one, Tintin In Thailand (quite easily downloadable if you search for it on google) ... the joke is funny for the first 10 pages, but it gets really tired after that
"Death to Utopia! Death to faith! Death to love! Death to hope?" thunders the 20th century. "Surrender, you pathetic dreamer.”

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Points: 7003 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Syzygy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 09 2005 at 09:02
I'm not a huge sci fi fan, but I'm currently reading Well of Stars by Robert Reed, the sequel to Marrow. Chewing gum for the eyes, but very good quality chewing gum. Next on the list are The Closed Circle by Jonathan Coe (sequel to the excellent Rotters Club) and The Algebraist by Iain M Banks.
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Points: 28057 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote stonebeard Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 09 2005 at 13:11
I took Jody's advice and looked up Simon R. Green. Unfortunatly (or not), I couldn't secure a copy of Deathstalker, so I got Drinking Midnight Wine instead. It is shaping up to be a great book!.
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Originally posted by stonebeard stonebeard wrote:

I took Jody's advice and looked up Simon R. Green. Unfortunatly (or not), I couldn't secure a copy of Deathstalker, so I got Drinking Midnight Wine instead. It is shaping up to be a great book!.

That is a good book.Greene just writes good,fun to read sci-fi and fantasy.

His usually writes series,but his few individual books are great.

His Deathstalker series:
First Series-
Deathstalker
Deathstalker Rebellion
Deathstalker War
Deathstalker Honor
Deathstalker Destiny
Second Series-
Deathstalker Legacy
Deathstalker Return
Deathstalker Coda

Darkwood series-
Blue Moon Rising
Swords of Haven-The Adventures of Hawk & Fisher Vol 1
Guards of Haven-The Adventures of Hawk & Fisher Vol 2
Beyond the Blue Moon

All of these books are sort of long,about 500-600 pages.But his new Nightside series of books(which I just started) are like Drinking Midnight Wine,good quick reads.


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