Quick question about Pullman: Is The Golden Compass as good as it sounds? I've been meaning to read it, but the movie sort of scared me off a bit.
And who hasn't read Stephen King? That's just... weird. The Green Mile was by far my favorite of them. It was not my cup of tea; I don't suffer from coulrophobia, but I do intensely dislike clowns.
The first novel is supposed to be rather good. The second (which was the one I started from) stank, as far as I am concerned, right from the first chapter. The third has been the subject of a pile of angry or amused negative reviews.
Hi! I've been silently stalking you since the early chapters of Thorn Circle, but you posted about Stephenson so now I have to come out of the woodwork
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Re: StephensoninverarityMarch 24 2010, 20:07:10 UTC
Thanks, I will probably get around to Anathem eventually. I think Cryptonomicon was slightly hit-or-miss with his fans. It was different in tone and pacing from the books that made him an up-and-comer (Snow Crash and Diamond Age), and besides being much longer, it took itself more seriously. Another flaw was that the characters were very Heinleinesque (in both good and bad ways).
Amazingly enough, I've never actually read any of William Gibson's works. I've heard very mixed reviews, and I understand that the cyberpunk stuff was hard to swallow when it was first published, and has only become more dated. Being someone who knows a fair bit about computers and virtual reality, I get really annoyed at badly-done cyberpunk. It's just a thing with me, like the engineers and physicists who can't help rolling their eyes at Star Trek.
For me, the virtual reality in Snow Crash actually bugged me more than most of the stuff in Gibson's works, maybe because Gibson is so offset from reality I can just suspend disbelief. I'm not at all technologically savvy, though, so I don't know how bad it would be for you. Either way, I really recommend giving Gibson a try. He's an amazing writer; decent plots, good characterization, and intensely vivid, almost lyrical description. Also, if you like the-- sociological?-- aspect of cyberpunk, where the author is imagining what society would develop with certain technologies, he definitely has that down. My favorite of his books is Virtual Light, which introduces you to the squatter society that developed on the Bay Bridge after an earthquake shut it down to automobile traffic
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Just realized you've started posting the third Alexandra Quick story! This has made my day.
Also, The Wire is awesome, and Stringer is my favorite criminal. As for tv shows, it's possible that you might also like Breaking Bad. It's not a police drama and has too many deus ex machina-y escapes for it to be at all realistic, but the characters are very well drawn out.
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And who hasn't read Stephen King? That's just... weird. The Green Mile was by far my favorite of them. It was not my cup of tea; I don't suffer from coulrophobia, but I do intensely dislike clowns.
And lol @ 'Inverarity is not a Scottish Village.'
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Thank you for the input.
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Amazingly enough, I've never actually read any of William Gibson's works. I've heard very mixed reviews, and I understand that the cyberpunk stuff was hard to swallow when it was first published, and has only become more dated. Being someone who knows a fair bit about computers and virtual reality, I get really annoyed at badly-done cyberpunk. It's just a thing with me, like the engineers and physicists who can't help rolling their eyes at Star Trek.
Reply
Reply
Also, The Wire is awesome, and Stringer is my favorite criminal. As for tv shows, it's possible that you might also like Breaking Bad. It's not a police drama and has too many deus ex machina-y escapes for it to be at all realistic, but the characters are very well drawn out.
Reply
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