I just finished The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. Great book, highly recommended. 
SF/F Books: Chapter Two - What Are You Reading?
- Thread starter Neroon
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I just finished The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. Great book, highly recommended.
Oh, yeah, in the top 100 all-time, I'd say.
Try The Coming of the Quantum Cats next. I think its by Fred Pohl. Or maybe Fritz Leiber-I forget. Great book, though.
I just finished The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. Great book, highly recommended.
It's been a long time since I last read that. Probably 25 years or so. I've had the sequel, Forever Free, for seven or eight years and have been meaning to read it after rereading Forever War. One of these days...
Try The Coming of the Quantum Cats next. I think its by Fred Pohl. Or maybe Fritz Leiber-I forget. Great book, though.
Thanks, I'll bear that in mind (it is a Fred Pohl book, by the way, as Google confirms), although I've got a lot of books lined up to be read that I've borrowed from the library or bought. I've moved on to Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke.
I'm currently reading Area 51: The Sphinx, the fourth in the Area 51 series by Robert Doherty.
Comic book wise, I am currently re-reading the whole Death-Return of Superman arc. I have already finished Death of Superman and World Without a Superman and am currently reading The Return of Superman/Reign of the Supermen.
Unfortunately I'm not enjoying the series as much as I did back when I first read them. Death is nothing but a slug fest across the U.S. and World Without is nothing but a poorly written cryfest. Reign/Return is somewhat convoluted but that has not taken away from my enjoyment.
Comic book wise, I am currently re-reading the whole Death-Return of Superman arc. I have already finished Death of Superman and World Without a Superman and am currently reading The Return of Superman/Reign of the Supermen.
Unfortunately I'm not enjoying the series as much as I did back when I first read them. Death is nothing but a slug fest across the U.S. and World Without is nothing but a poorly written cryfest. Reign/Return is somewhat convoluted but that has not taken away from my enjoyment.
The real stuff Conan could only mean the real stuff
I've finished Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End. I liked the first section, where the UN Sec Gen interacts with the mysterious aliens and hatches his plan to find out what they look like.
Then the next section went into a bit of a downward spiral with descriptions of Utopia that I found a bit didactic and not terribly convincing and a sequence at a party that was pretty turgid (I find that social situations and/or romantic situations are where 50s SF often runs aground).
I was concerned at that point that the book was going to turn out to be a disappointment, but fortunately at the halfway mark it picked up considerably again and ended up being a good read, delivering some powerful sequences and ideas.
In between reading novels I'm also making my way through The Complete Chronicles of Conan by Robert E. Howard. It's a beautiful edition with every Conan story REH ever wrote, including even the drafts and outlines of the ones he hadn't yet completed upon his death.
Then the next section went into a bit of a downward spiral with descriptions of Utopia that I found a bit didactic and not terribly convincing and a sequence at a party that was pretty turgid (I find that social situations and/or romantic situations are where 50s SF often runs aground).
I was concerned at that point that the book was going to turn out to be a disappointment, but fortunately at the halfway mark it picked up considerably again and ended up being a good read, delivering some powerful sequences and ideas.
In between reading novels I'm also making my way through The Complete Chronicles of Conan by Robert E. Howard. It's a beautiful edition with every Conan story REH ever wrote, including even the drafts and outlines of the ones he hadn't yet completed upon his death.
I just finished The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. Great book, highly recommended.
It's been a long time since I last read that. Probably 25 years or so. I've had the sequel, Forever Free, for seven or eight years and have been meaning to read it after rereading Forever War. One of these days...
Oh, Forever Free may well be Haldeman's worst novel. I actually wish I hadn't read it, otherwise Haldeman is one of my favorite authors. The book doesn't do him justice.
I've started tonight on The Andromeda Strain, back from the days of yore when Michael Crichton actually knew how to write.
No. The Hyperion duology can be read as a complete, self-contained story. The second duology is very good, and I'd recommend you read it eventually, but it's not so tightly connected that you'd need to get to it right away.
Right now I'm reading the Doctor Who novel Nightshade and the George R.R. Martin short fiction collection Dreamsongs.
I started Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell over the weekend; I'm about 600 pages in. I don't know why it's taken me four years to get around to reading this book-- a copiously footnoted tale of English magicians during the Napoleonic Wars? This book was made for me!
read it from a proof copy-fought hard to stay awake. IMO-boring and contrived. But I am highly critical of fantasy in general as my father has one of the best personal collections I've ever seen(several thousand books) so my "area of exposure" is greater than most.I imagine if you haven't been super-saturated like me its an ok read. Good luck w/that.
I just finished Ringworld by Larry Niven. I enjoyed it immensely: part hard SF, part romp. It was far lighter in tone, far more humorous than I was expecting.
While it's an established classic, having won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, it seems to have a pretty vocal set of detractors nowadays, but none of the criticisms I've seen ring true for me. The characters may be defined by quite broad, simple traits, but I found them to be a fun, engaging group to follow through their adventures. The mix of awe-inspiring scope, character dynamics, humor, and occasional wackiness worked for me.
While it's an established classic, having won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, it seems to have a pretty vocal set of detractors nowadays, but none of the criticisms I've seen ring true for me. The characters may be defined by quite broad, simple traits, but I found them to be a fun, engaging group to follow through their adventures. The mix of awe-inspiring scope, character dynamics, humor, and occasional wackiness worked for me.
I love Ringworld. Definitely check out the sequels. All of them are good, although The Ringworld Engineers is the best.
I finally got my hands on Matter, the lastest Iain M. Banks, which is looking pretty good so far.
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