Books, Books, Books

Just finished "the millennium trilogy"... those Swedes sure are weird, they drink too much coffee & seem to live entirely on sandwiches. Good read if not a little long winded at times in character introductions.

Now started "battlefield earth". I see the dune series isn't available on the kindle (at least not he africa store).
 
I just got The Evolutionary Void , which is the last in the Void tirlogy by Peter F Hamilton. really cool Sci Fi saga.

Has anyone read his Greg Mandel trilogy? I am looking for it.

edit: stupid
 
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Just finished The Technician by Neal Asher (brilliant reading as always, if you like far future, AI's bots, golems, terrifying aliens and black AI's- rogues) and started on Surface Detail by Iain M Banks.

Crusader, thanks for reminding me, haven't read a Simmons recently.
 
The Philosopher said:
Ilium and Olympos were awesome books, really liked the SCifi. what are the other books about?
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Haven't read them yet so can't give details of the individual titles aside from copying blurb:
Xeelee Omnibus - The novels span several billions of years, describing the future expansion of Mankind, its war with its arch-nemesis (an alien race called the Xeelee), and the Xeelee's own war with dark matter entities called photino birds. Several novels also deal with humans and posthumans living in extreme conditions, such as the heart of a neutron star (Flux) or a universe with considerably stronger gravity (Raft).

The Time Ships - What if the time machine from H.G. Wells' classic novel of the same name had fallen into government hands? That's the question that led Stephen Baxter to create this modern-day sequel, which combines a basic Wellsian premise with a Baxteresque universe-spanning epic. The Time Traveller, driven by his failure to save Weena from the Morlocks, sets off again for the future. But this time the future has changed, altered by the very tale of the Traveller's previous journey.

Drizzt Collector Editions - Fantasy series set in D&D universe. Chronicles the life and adventures of a dark elf, Drizzt Do'Urden.

Wheel of Time Box set - Epic fantasy.

wrathex said:
Just finished The Technician by Neal Asher (brilliant reading as always, if you like far future, AI's bots, golems, terrifying aliens and black AI's- rogues) and started on Surface Detail by Iain M Banks.

Crusader, thanks for reminding me, haven't read a Simmons recently.
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Haven't read Simmons in a while either. I've got The Technician PB on it's way. I've also got the rest of Neal Asher's books on their way, but unfortunately those were send via surface mail, so I'm only expecting them in March sometime. I loved Prador Moon, but haven't read anything else from him.
 
I'm not one for long stories and the perfect books for me are the Jeremy Clarkson books and his views on the world and different situations are very funny...
 
Quartered Safe Out Here.

Anybody here read the Flashman series by George MacDonald Fraser?
 
Crusader said:
Just finished "Revelation Space" by Alastair Reynolds. WOW! I loved it. The plot is so well written that everything meshes together perfectly in the end and the science (since he's an astronomer) is very realistic. I especially love the way there are no FTL space ships and how the his universe copes with it. Highly recommended to any fan of hard sci-fi!
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Here's what got me about "Revelation Space". It's a small nit pick, but it stuck with me throughout the book.

***SPOILER ALERT***

When Volyova is being chased by the first gunnery officer, and he pushes her down an elevator shaft, she uses her wrist band to control the ship, and decelerate it, so that she's no longer falling in relation to the ship. Fine, happy with that.

She then accelerates and decelerates a few times, during which the gunnery officer is reduced to pulp. Reynolds mentions the guys room, saying how nothing is really out of place because it was all bolted down. Fair enough.

What about all the ship rats who should also have been pulped? The parrot that was flying around in one scene? All the bots that are moving around?

Other than that, enjoyed the book. And as you say, the science is realistic. I did feel that it was written in a "movie script" manner towards the end, and felt a little rushed. I see there are two more books in the series. I'm keen to read them.
 
I also noticed that, but it was a small enough descrepency for me to forgive. The bots could have withstood the g-forces and the rats... well I guess the ship must have replaced them.
 
The Philosopher said:
Has anyone read his Greg Mandel trilogy? I am looking for it.
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I haven't read it. There's an omnibus edition coming out towards the end of July - The Mandel Files.

My pre-order at The Book Depository is already in. They also have the individual books, but at about $10 each, the $15 omnibus seems like a much better deal. I just hope the publisher doesn't push back the release date or cancel it altogether.
 
I'm 220 pages into this 300 page (short story?) book which is very well written & an easy read, by-and-large.

As it involves a small part of the development of the computer industry in the late 80's / early 90's, it's fascinating to go back so far in time & read about 286 / 386 Intel chips & the way in which Co's like IBM & Microsoft operated against small startups.

I have a hard copy from a library, so don't know if it can be d/loaded for free from Amazon / other sites, but people in the industry should find it worthwhile from a historical point of view.

Start Up: A Silicon Valley Adventure

http://www.amazon.com/Startup-Silic...dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GO_Corp.
 
I'm currently readin The White Tiger. Won the Booker prize a couple of years ago.
 
Came across another 10% discount link for The Book Depository.

Click on this link and enter AMEX11 when checking out.

Seems to work for any payment method without having to have an American Express card.

Valid till 14 February.
 
Just finished America Gods by Neil Gaiman. I found it OK, but there were parts that bored me - not quite the page-turner I expected.

Finally started the Girl with a Dragon Tattoo.
 
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