Read Atlas Shrugged. Before I am berated as to mentioning this book in sci-fi/fantasy thread, I'll point out the novel is set at a point in the then future; predicts significant social changes, and pivotally involves the creation of new technology. That's science fiction as far as I'm concerned.
Atlas Shrugged is a lot like The Fountainhead, only it further elaborates on Rand's philosophy - to the detriment of that which made The Fountainhead enjoyable. Like in that book, most of the characters are broadly drawn caricatures, existing either as straw men, proponents of the author's philosophy, or the author surrogate. In The Fountainhead, the proponent of Randianism was one Howard Roark, who stood alone against a world of straw men (controlled behind the scenes by a nefarious schemer, Ellsworth Toohey), while having violent, passionate sex with the author surrogate. I'm simplifying a little, as I will be generally, but honestly not by very much.
Anyway, in Atlas Shrugged, instead of one Howard Roark standing alone against the world, we've got a gaggle of them, and they're really very boring and interchangable people who spent most of their time communicating quasi-telepathically. The author surrogate gets to have relationships with three of them. This expands the philosophy - a whole class of the world against another class, with their leader seeing even higher Randian truths - but boy, are these guys boring.
This time, there is no diabolical genius moving the straw men. Genius is not permitted to them and the novel goes into great length exposulating how these many little people are threats to the great Randians - which helps the philosophy but, again, undercuts the drama. Toohey was fun. The straw men remain entertaining, but they're far weaker antagonists and thus less interesting. Toohey knew about Randian truths but revelled what he was doing, these ones will literally go insane if they reach the higher enlightened plane of Randism.
But I haven't reached basically the biggest strike against this book. In essence, this is John Galt's speech. I love speeches. I love long, philosophical speeches. I thought Roark's at the end of The Fountainhead was pretty good. This, however, was simply terrible. I've never had my suspension of belief so strained then when the novel informed me people listened in rapt attention to this speech. It's a chore to read.
So, basically, whatever one thinks of Rand, The Fountainhead is a book to warm the heart of your inner misandrist. It's a shameless ego-trip about how you're right and the whole damn world had better adjust to your ideas. Atlas Shrugged is the same thing, only tedious, reducing individuals, ironically enough, to masses.
Regardless, I'm sure nobody will deny that Neuromancer is, in fact, a science fiction novel. And I also read that recently. You may now spew your high minded derision down upon me for daring not to have read this novel prior. This was an interesting read. It was very dense; I would have appreciated a glossary but none was provided in the version I bought. It could be pretty confusing and I found myself rereading paragraphs very often to get a clearer sense of what they meant and what the various unfamiliar words meant. But, as a consequence of this density, it's very vivid. It's one of the best painted science fiction worlds I've read in ages, brimming with all kinds of subcultures. It's got an interesting plot, characters, and huge quantities of enormously influential style. Definitely a good read.
Though I knew The Matrix had taken cues from this novel, I had never imagined that dreadlocked warriors of a mechanical Zion were among them.
And, having trudged my way through Rand and gotten lost in William Gibson, I'm relaxing with a volume of planetary romances by Leigh Brackett. They're under the fantasy masterworks label; though being set on Mars and Venus and whatnot. (Well, there's a lot of swords and sorcery on these planets too, so I can see their point.) If the name's unfamiliar, Brackett was credited with co-writing the screenplay to Empire Strikes Back. It's debatable as to how much of Brackett's work got into the film - I know some think that her name was left on as a courtesy - but reading these short stories it's obvious why she was approached to write for Star Wars. These have been some terrific action adventure so far.
Just finished "Lorelei of the Red Mist", which she collaborated on with Ray Bradbury - and by collaborated, I mean she told him she didn't have time to finish it and left a half-completed story without any treatment on his lap. Surprisingly, the work is very organic.
. I didn't find the first read very enjoyable because of it but I really wanted to read this.
