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Post by berkley on Mar 27, 2015 17:52:07 GMT -5
Oh, I was just being honest about my not being ready for the madness of PKD when I first read him all those years ago. I count A Maze of Death among his most interesting books now, which means I rank it up with the all-time best of SF. Though more and more I'm starting to think of all his books as different parts of an over-all mega-work (actually PKD himself retrospectively thought of a particular set of ten of his novels as a larger meta-novel).
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Post by wildfire2099 on Mar 28, 2015 7:16:28 GMT -5
Heh, yeah, you do indeed have to be in a certain mindset to ready PKD, I'd say. I'm not his biggest fan (I think for the same reason I don't like punk, I'm just a happy person ) but Maze of Death was brilliant. I've got it as a collection of his 'later work', so I'll be reading a couple of the others, too... though I'm not liking VALIS nearly as much so far. I saw something about the 'meta-novel' thing when I was doing some googling... I didn't really get it, but then I haven't read all that much of his stuff.
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Post by berkley on Mar 28, 2015 16:39:41 GMT -5
According to a diagram scrawled in his notebooks (reproduced on the inside cover of The Exegesis edited by Jackson and Lethem):
MitHC Eye Martian TS Tears Frozen Journey Maze UBIK Game Players of Titan Joint 3 Stigmata VALIS
In the diagram VALIS is in a box in the centre and all the others are in boxes attached to it by lines radiating out from it. I've listed them in clockwise order, starting from the 1:00 position and have given the abbreviations as PKD scatched them down. I see that, counting VALIS, there are actually eleven books, or rather stories - Frozen Journey is a short story, not a novel.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Mar 30, 2015 11:14:03 GMT -5
Where Nobody Knows Your Name: Life In The Minor Leagues Of Baseball (2014) by John Feinstein
My first audiobook experience . Feinstein chronicles the everyday experiences of various minoe leaguers, they're frustrations and triumphs in their quest to get to the majors. Some are players who have spent many years to get to the big time, some had been demoted and trying to work their way back. Amongst the players spotlighted include Scott Elarton, Brett Tomko, Dontrelle Willis, Nate McLouth, John Lindsey, Chris Schwinden, managers Charlie Montoyo and Ron Johnson and umpire Mark Lollo. Even minor league radio broadcasters and groundkeepers talk about their experiences
Feinstein has a clear concise voice thats easy to follow. You can't help but sympathize with these men tryng to fulfill their dreams as the clock keeps ticking down, the years passing by signifying a diminishing of their chances for the Big Show. Life in Triple A basball is an emotional rollercoaster. Your fate might be decided by your own skills, the competion your up against or the haphazard chances of injuries to you or others.Its not always fair but its business-nothing personal
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Apr 1, 2015 14:21:30 GMT -5
The Collected Stories Of Robert Silverberg Volume Three Something Wild Is Loose 1969-1972
By this point Robert Silverberg is a top-tier, highly sought after SF writer. 1969 sees him win the Hugo for best novella (Nightwings) . 1970 he wins a Nebula for best short story (Passengers).Besides the short stories and novellas in this book he is also averaging 3 short novels a year, mostly all nominated for awards. Less of his work is appearing in the contracting SF digest market and more showing up in the burgeoning original story anthology paperback market. This means the publishers contact him first to offer him a slot in the paperback and his work is all guaranteed to be published intact. He is arguably the king of the hill amongst authors who began in the late 50s. He is also comfortable and quite willing to experiment with literary style that is now in vogue and what has come to be known as the New Wave of SF writing. As a consummate author he never delves too far in this way of writing and his work is always comprehendible.
But in his personal life all is not so rosy. He had built a large house in upstate NY during the sixties. In 1970 a fire totally devastated his home and he spent a year in a daze but still able to produce work. He began to reconstruct his domicile. He was then diagnosed as having a thyroid condition. With his home almost completed he suddenly decided to re-locate to southern California. Off to the West Coast by the end of 1972
This book contains 16 stories and they are all good to great. Amongst them:
Something Wild Is Loose-A near-non-corporal alien intelligence is accidently transported to Earth where it will slowly die unless it finds a way to return home. But the only way to communicate with earthlings is through their dreams when their in deep sleep
The Reality Trip-For 10 years an alien has been living amongst us, spying on our culture and avoiding as much contact as possible. He looks humans but underneath his clothes he clearly is not. Living alone in a NYC hotel the day has come when a female neighbor aggressively tries to have sex with him
Good News From The Vatican-the first robot Pope is selected
What We learned From This Morning's Newspapers- Along a street in a sleepy suburban neighborhood, 10 households wake up to find a NY Times on their doorstep dated one week in the future
When We Went To See The End Of The World-A company offers time travel junkets to those who want to view how the earth will finally perish. But everyone sees a different method of the end
I could go on and on but take my word these are all excellent stories. I've read two of these collections back-to-back and am ready to go straight to the next. That's high praise indeed
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Post by wildfire2099 on Apr 6, 2015 9:55:03 GMT -5
Red Sonja: Endithor's Daughter by Smith and Tierney I definitely didn't like this one as much as the previous installment... everything seemed a bit off. I don't love vampires mixed with my Conan, for one... and this one was both too powerful and too easy to kill at the same time. The titular character, Areel, daughter of Lord Endithor, came into massive sorcerous powers far too easily, and far too quickly, or the usual Hyborian fare. Sonja was even a bit off... too nice to the kids (which I guess you can attribute to a mid-life crisis), and just kinda mellow in general... different even from the last book. There were a couple of nice nods to the previous book, which was nice, and it was a pretty decent (if predictable) story, just not as good as the last one... I think perhaps this is more the level of quality I was expecting, and the previous one raised my standards Still a good read, I'll probably track down the others at some point
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Apr 8, 2015 10:23:44 GMT -5
Dirty Money by Richard Stark (Donald Westlake) The last Parker novel. I finished The Hunter at the end of September 2012. So I averaged one book every month and a half or so. Obviously I read a lot of other stuff in between because each novel probably averaged three days to read. I'm definitely sad to see them go, because I never once got tired of reading them. Yeah, the quality varied. But none of them were ever less than readable and a couple were absolutely top-rate entertainment. So long, Parker. I'll miss you and Claire, Handy McKay and Ed and Brenda Mackey. One of these day's I'll pick up the rest of the Grofield novels. Here's hoping you stay a step ahead of the law...and of your partners.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Apr 8, 2015 10:31:34 GMT -5
Thuglit 15
Not quite the newest issue of this excellent e-magazine. As usual we get a nice helping of short neo-noir. The only real downside is that there was a preview of an upcoming novel. I'd rather have another short story...or two. But well worth the pretty minuscule price.
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Post by Calamas on Apr 8, 2015 18:53:22 GMT -5
Dirty Money by Richard Stark (Donald Westlake) The last Parker novel. I finished The Hunter at the end of September 2012. So I averaged one book every month and a half or so. Obviously I read a lot of other stuff in between because each novel probably averaged three days to read. I'm definitely sad to see them go, because I never once got tired of reading them. Yeah, the quality varied. But none of them were ever less than readable and a couple were absolutely top-rate entertainment. So long, Parker. I'll miss you and Claire, Handy McKay and Ed and Brenda Mackey. One of these day's I'll pick up the rest of the Grofield novels. Here's hoping you stay a step ahead of the law...and of your partners. I’m working my way through them too, though at a considerably slow clip. Next up for me is Slayground, which seems to be the consensus favorite, from what I've read on the series. Number 14 of only 24, maybe I should go slower. Anyway, so far my opinion echoes yours: readable and entertaining.
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Post by berkley on Apr 8, 2015 20:37:40 GMT -5
Dirty Money by Richard Stark (Donald Westlake) The last Parker novel. I finished The Hunter at the end of September 2012. So I averaged one book every month and a half or so. Obviously I read a lot of other stuff in between because each novel probably averaged three days to read. I'm definitely sad to see them go, because I never once got tired of reading them. Yeah, the quality varied. But none of them were ever less than readable and a couple were absolutely top-rate entertainment. So long, Parker. I'll miss you and Claire, Handy McKay and Ed and Brenda Mackey. One of these day's I'll pick up the rest of the Grofield novels. Here's hoping you stay a step ahead of the law...and of your partners. I’m working my way through them too, though at a considerably slow clip. Next up for me is Slayground, which seems to be the consensus favorite, from what I've read on the series. Number 14 of only 24, maybe I should go slower. Anyway, so far my opinion echoes yours: readable and entertaining. Always a bit of a sad feeling when you've finished the last book of a series you like. I've been holding off on the last of Andrew Vachss's Burke series since it came out a couple years ago. OTOH, it can produce a sense of freedom too - now I can start something new! Do either of you have another series lined up that you've been meaning to try but haven't had time to get to until now? But I don't mind re-reading things, especially after several years have passed and I've likely forgotten a lot of the details. I'm hoping to re-read all of Sherlock Holmes - actually, nearly half of them will be first-time reads for me in this case - in the next 2 or 3 years, and later on I want to re-read all of the Nero Wolfe series and a good many of my favourite Agatha Christies. And I have a feeling I'm going to start re-reading most of Raymond Chandler's Marlowe novels soon, because I've been reading the short stories for the first time and I can feel the Chandler magic beginning to grow.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 15, 2015 22:26:51 GMT -5
There's a bit of controversy over this year's Hugo Award nominees. All Fandom Has Been Plunged Into War, with acrimony and vitriol aplenty. Reading it all has made me want to vote this year. So I'm reading the 5 novel nominees first. They are
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison The Dark Between the Stars by Kevin J. Anderson Skin Game by Jim Butcher Lines of Departure by Marko Kloos Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie
A couple of these may be problematic. I've read some of Anderson's Star Wars books, without being too impressed. I'm pretty sure I've read one of Butcher's Dresden Files books, but I don't remember anything about it. And Ancillary Sword is a sequel to last year's Ancillary Justice, which I didn't finish. But I'm determined to get through these 5.
(Kloos has since withdrawn his book, unhappy with the circumstances surrounding this year's nominations. But I'll probably read it anyway; be a shame if it's the one I like best.)
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Post by wildfire2099 on Apr 16, 2015 6:28:51 GMT -5
Wow, two books from commerical series..that's insane! Skin Game is one of the weaker Dresden books, IMO... you'll probably be confused if you start with it, too.
I haven't read any of Kevin Anderson for some time, because his first few efforts were so terrible. Either he's gotten WAY better, or it's slim pickings this year.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Apr 16, 2015 10:06:03 GMT -5
Wow, two books from commerical series..that's insane! Skin Game is one of the weaker Dresden books, IMO... you'll probably be confused if you start with it, too. I haven't read any of Kevin Anderson for some time, because his first few efforts were so terrible. Either he's gotten WAY better, or it's slim pickings this year. It's not a matter of slim pickings. It's a matter of the ballot box being stuffed. The Hugo's have always been susceptible to this sort of thing because they're a fan vote. This year it just finally came to a boil.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Apr 16, 2015 10:13:17 GMT -5
Catch a Falling Clown by Stuart Kaminsky Toby Peters is back and he's been hired by Emmett Kelly because someone is wrecking havoc at the circus. An elephant has been killed...then a couple of aerialists. And the local sheriff is more concerned about closing the case than actually finding out who done it. Another nice Peters mystery...and it's a bit outside the Hollywood norm for the series which is nice.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Apr 16, 2015 10:18:11 GMT -5
A Hat full of Sky by Terry Pratchett. I'm not given to reading YA books. And I'd thought about skipping these in my Discworld read-through. But I'm really glad that I didn't because Pratchett really didn't dumb these books down for a younger audience. And since he had ended The Witches cycle (and has now joined hands with Mort) it was going to be my only chance to see Granny Weatherwax. And I don't want to miss that chance as she is his best character (okay...I could make a case for Sam Vimes also). This is one of his best efforts.
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