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well I read the slovenian translation which was done by a single translator... so I don't think this is the case for me. the third book still feels different, more spacious, without a clear high-point

ah OK, apologies for assuming you read the English! i guess it's not just the English translators then.

  On 10/8/2013 at 11:22 PM, Leon Sumbitches said:

 

  On 9/25/2013 at 1:14 PM, Philip Glass said:

I can't believe I've never read Hyperion (just started)

 

Just started Hyperion myself, went to the library for the first time in years and got a stack of classic sci-fi, Asimov, PKD and the like

 

The Hyperion Cantos is good. If you start with just Hyperion, make sure you get the next part The Fall of Hyperion, otherwise you will get stuck in the middle of the story. Endymion and The Rise of Endymion are also worth a read. Simmons Ilium and Olympos are also good reads, although Simmons unfortunate current wingnut views shine through such as a Global Caliphate having created and released a genetic virus to kill Jews but it ending up killing most of Earths population.

I was told Hyperion can be read as a stand-alone, and if necessary you can jump into the whole shebang and read all the rest?

 

I'm holding on it as a stand-alone novel, in a sense that I have so much other stuff to read.

Hyperion has that thing where every chapter is a single episode from one of the characters stories so I guess you could read it how ever you want (although I don't know why you would want to), but it ends before they get to do what they were supposed to do and definitely ends with the reader hanging. When reading it I remember being glad that I had the omnibus version since if I didn't have the sequel right at hand I would have been slightly miffed.

Edited October 12, 2013 by azatoth

Thanks, I'll get the next one so I don't get hung up on a cliffhanger

finished the tipping point. interesting but not as good as outliers. will read blink next i think after..

 

 

next up hallucinations by oliver sacks.

finished Suttree by McCarthy. on the whole i found it his most difficult read. it's a very sad story, brutally so at times, but it just wasn't as compelling as some of his other books for me.

 

now i believe i'm going to read Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernières. i have no idea what it's really about, my girlfriend bought it for me, she reckoned i'd like it. also, the front cover has an approving quote from Paxo, so it must be good.

You'll probably have no choice but to read the book with Nicholas Cage as the protagonist. Which is LOL

yeah i had a search for the book after posting that and immediately discovered the existence of the film...

Reading the 4th dune book was like watching your cool hippie friend turn into a weird conservative nutjob, but so slowly & couched in so much stoner mysticism that you try to pretend like it isn't happening.

  On 10/20/2013 at 10:43 PM, Cryptowen said:

Reading the 4th dune book was like watching your cool hippie friend turn into a weird conservative nutjob, but so slowly & couched in so much stoner mysticism that you try to pretend like it isn't happening.

This is exactly what happens with every hippie friend everywhere, too.

Edited October 20, 2013 by baph

Eh wow, I just finished reading God Emperor of Dune a few weeks ago. I guess you could say I felt sympathy towards God Leto, but the book in all was just really.. It had deviated so much from what I expected after finishing the trilogy. I did like a lot of the pieces from the stolen journals, though. Fun fact, I read most of the book while soaking in the bath.

 

As to what I'm reading now: I started with one chapter of Dune Heretics, and then decided I should read through the Harry Potter series again, seeing as how it was pretty much the thin red line through my teen years: I've been feeling nostalgic lately, which has probably to do with some of my sadness (yes, they are linked). Still, I am enjoying it, and am halfway through The Goblet of Fire. I guess I am looking for a way to rekindle my wonder, or maybe it's just a way to cope. I'm also almost done with Fatale : Death Chases Me. It's a great story: compelling, gruesome, and just very, very good. I'm also halfway through Carlos Castaneda's "The teachings of Don Juan": It's an interesting read, and I feel that I'm being watched by crows.

 

Still on the list : Ray Monk - The Duty of Genius. And I still have to finish The Divine Comedy (translated by Lawrence Grant White): currently, Dante and Virgil approached the city of Dis. Maybe I should finish it.

Edited October 21, 2013 by Guest

Just bought Musicophilia, by Oliver Sacks.

I just realised that the character Oliver Saxon from dexter final season must be based on Oliver Sacks. his serial killer nickname is "the brain surgeon" and oliver sacks is a neurologist.

 

about half way through Hallucinations it started a little dry but then we got to drug hallucinations and it picked up.

this is my first sacks book.I first heard of him through the radio, and love his voice. I think I might prefer his books on tape, but only if he reads them himself.

  On 10/21/2013 at 7:21 PM, Username said:

Eh wow, I just finished reading God Emperor of Dune a few weeks ago. I guess you could say I felt sympathy towards God Leto, but the book in all was just really.. It had deviated so much from what I expected after finishing the trilogy. I did like a lot of the pieces from the stolen journals, though. Fun fact, I read most of the book while soaking in the bath.

I like Leto's character. My favourite parts were when it focused in on his worldview, like how exactly a 3,500 year old psychic, genderless worm monster who can remember back to the dawn of time might see reality. It started to lose me whenever Duncan Idaho came into the picture, with the text acting like he's some awesome cool dude (at one point he literally gives a woman an orgasm just from being so cool), but really he's just an unhinged homophobic maniac (in this incarnation, anyway. I liked smart Cyborg Duncan in Dune 2/3)

 

Apparently Frank Herbert was originally gonna write it first person, from Leto's POV, which might of been neat. But apparently Frank Herbert also had a gay son who he disowned so i dunno maybe not

I don't think I ever mentioned it, but i read Exquisite Corpse a few months back. It was pretty great, and quite disgusting, all at once. Anyone else picked it up?

Good book, fun for (us) map geeks :

  On 10/22/2013 at 3:07 AM, auxien said:

I don't think I ever mentioned it, but i read Exquisite Corpse a few months back. It was pretty great, and quite disgusting, all at once. Anyone else picked it up?

Poppy Z. Brite? Read it years ago. Was very disturbing to my young self iirc.

I'd grown up feasting on SK and Clive Barker and any other pulp gory horror books I could get my hands on, but that book is something else entirely.

Might need a reread.

  On 10/21/2013 at 11:58 PM, Cryptowen said:

But apparently Frank Herbert also had a gay son who he disowned so i dunno maybe not

 

 

jesus, really? i've read Dune 1 & 2 but haven't plunged into Children of Dune yet - is it worth it? Messiah was OK, not nearly as enjoyable as the original though.

  On 10/23/2013 at 10:26 AM, Ron Manager said:

i've read Dune 1 & 2 but haven't plunged into Children of Dune yet - is it worth it?

CoD was enjoyable - it wasn't exactly breaking new ground, but it felt more substantial than DM. The abrupt tonal shift & sudden introduction of uncomfortable themes doesn't really kick in until the fourth book (and from what I've heard, that last aspect becomes even more prevalent in 5 & 6).

I guess so. So far, I experienced the first Dune as the most enjoyable one. I kinda dug the whole inevitable downfall that loomed in Dune Messiah. CoD.. hey wow, I can hardly remember most of it, but it was al right. God Emperor of Dune was especially cool because of the God Emperor's perspective (almost everything but him singing that one song), and the chapter introductions in italic, which gave me some great insights into governmental structures.

 

I can't really form an opinion of Heretics of Dune yet, because I only started reading it. However, Ghola Idaho is there again, only at a younger age. What is this man's obsession with Duncan Idaho?

Edited October 23, 2013 by Guest

Also:

 

"..Beverly (Brian's mother), a talented copywriter, but admits that Herbert, an incessant nitpicker, never quite accepted "number two son" Bruce's gay lifestyle and regularly used a lie detector on both boys. Estranged for many years, Brian and his father eventually made peace, learning "how to talk story" and collaborating on Man of Two Worlds (1986) shortly before Frank's death from cancer at age 65."

 

I'm glad they did: life's too beautiful for grudges.

  On 10/23/2013 at 6:50 PM, Phoenix said:

What is this man's obsession with Duncan Idaho?

I know right? It's like, maybe he thought to himself early on "wouldn't it be cool if I took this minor character from the first book & slowly turned him into the main protagonist", but never actually develops him beyond "cool sword guy that girls love" (or, when he does explore his personality, it's to the point of making him literally an entirely different character)

 

I'll probably get around to reading 5 & 6 eventually but I'm all duned out at the moment. Focusing on The History of Western Philosophy for now because it's been sitting on my shelf for ages along with all those other university textbooks I snatched from a trash pile.

  On 10/21/2013 at 7:27 PM, logakght said:

Just bought Musicophilia, by Oliver Sacks.

 

Love this book.

 

I'm reading The Andromeda Strain. Fun/10. Good film too!