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Cassie - Sci Fi Reading list please

Turns out I need to read Robot Dreams as it has stories that weren't in The Complete Robot. Though confusingly it has a couple of stories that were in The Complete Robot as well. I hate it when that happens.

And now I want to read that Headvoid thing too.
 
Finished Good Omens today. It was funny til the end, though story-wise I found the conclusion a bit unsatisfying. It almost felt like the first part of a series, actually. A lot of the solutions to problems people had were pretty much fixed with a clicking of the fingers, which devalued all the well written build up. I still gave it 4 stars, and I'd like to read more of Gaiman and Pratchett's books.

Started on The King in Yellow. Not seeing the connection with True Detective so far, but I'm quite early into it. Good read though!
 
I've got American Gods and Anansi Boys if you want them. They were really good. I think I also have all the Discworld books, but I've only read a few of them so far.
 
I finished Light and am now onto Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. It feels like a typical (that's good) book by Gaiman and promising.

Light really fucked with my head. It's not Clarke really, not even Le Guin. It's like David Lynch and Rudy Rucker got together and decided to really fuck with you.

It includes:
1. A physicist serial killer
2. A horrible death like creature with a horse like skull for a head that appears and haunts
3. The phrase "twink" that bears no resemblance to our word
4. A man who puts his head into a fish tank to tell the future.

It's dark, REALLY dark and I assume that is why it is called Light.
 
Light sounds like it is right up my favorite kind of book alley and I am super jealous because I don't have it :rwmad:
 
The blurb at the beginning of the book talks about how Gaiman wanted to put loads into the radio play and had to be edited. In the end the phrase "I'll put it in the Novel" was banned during editorial discussions as he said it so often.
 
Well this was a NEW PRODUCTION with James McAvoy and Natalie Dormer so I don't know if it was longer than the original or what (I've read the book too anyway.)
 
I'm gonna start reading Light tomorrow. I know you'd expect the reviews at the start to be flattering, but they make it sound exceptional. The rating on Goodreads is something like 3.6 out of 5, but I'll take that with a pinch of salt after trudging through some awful 4.5s.

Speaking of which, I finished reading The King in Yellow, the book that inspired True Detective. There are 8 short stories. The first four interconnect and deal with "The King in Yellow", a book which drives anyone who reads it in its entirely... INSANE. Which is how I felt by the end of this. Those first four stories are creepy and original and have this great concept, but then for some reason the remaining 4 stories have no relation to them whatsoever. One's a passable "she was dead aaaaallll along" tale, then there's a war story and finally two dreadful romance snoozefests about bohemian arts students in Paris. I was disappointed. It really felt like it was leading to something.
 
Really enjoying Light. Only have a very fragile idea of what's going on so far, but it's so imaginative. I feel like I should be reading it in a sensory deprivation tank to get the full effect.
 
Fucking Hell I was DEFINITELY going to buy Snowcrash this time just because I remembered but the reviews say "DON'T BUY THE KINDLE EDITION THE FORMATTING IS FUCKED UP" so I didn't sorry Cassie!
 
Light is so weird. I just about understand what's going on, but he writes in quite broad brushstrokes at times, so you get an image or series of images of events over a few hours, rather than second by second descriptions of actions or conversations. There's also a lot of fucking. And a lot of helpless women who want to be fucked all the time.

I can see why some might hate it. Personally, I love the images it conjures in my head, but I could do with a bit of a clearer idea of what some of the jargon means. It was ages before it was made expressly clear what thinks were, even though a main character is constantly referred to as one.
 
I'm reading The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell at the moment.

It's much more like a Le Guin than anything I have read for a while. it reads much more like a novel that just happens to have some science fiction in it.

Basically, a near future discovery of an inhabited planet at Alpha Centuari. A Jesuit funded mission (but with a Jew and other non religious people) set off on a disastrous mission to make contact. The characters are wonderful and rich, with some interesting viewpoints on AI, culture differences and the human condition. It is NOT le Guin, but I need to add other authors into the mix otherwise I get a little linear and obsessive about certain authors.

Snowcrash is next for me too.

Light is a bit Marmite, I can see that. Not all is explained and the jumping about is quite hard to follow at times. Overall I really enjoyed it though and felt it was worth the effort. I feel slightly responsible having raved about it (especially as there are a few hard space opera fans here) but hey, you are all grown ups.
 
I read The Sparrow and Children of God a few years ago. They were really good! I'm sure they make some people very uncomfortable, though.
 
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