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Steviepinhead



Posts: 532
Joined: Jan. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 21 2007,18:21   

Quote (stevestory @ Dec. 01 2007,17:49)
I started to read the Bruce Catton books about the Civil War, but it was too high-level. They'd make great books after you already know the basics of what happened, but I got waaaaay too lost in the details only a few dozen pages in.

Heh!  Here's the "basics" of the Civil War in a four-minute video (tip of the hat to PZ Myers):
http://www.idkwtf.com/videos....minutes

Now you can return to Catton!

  
Annyday



Posts: 583
Joined: Nov. 2007

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 22 2007,08:30   

Lou's taunted me about my severe aversion to written cliches, so I'm going to be honest.

This is the worst book ever written, and I love it. One chapter is randomly generated via word-mash software, and the rest is all written by authors with no knowledge of what the other authors are doing under instructions to write as badly as possible with almost no direction. Every single virtue of a good story has been eviscerated and placed on display. It's a book so terrible it actually becomes a bizarre, dadaist form of commentary on bad fiction and writing in general.

It's also kind of funny.

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"ALL eight of the "nature" miracles of Jesus could have been accomplished via the electroweak quantum tunneling mechanism. For example, walking on water could be accomplished by directing a neutrino beam created just below Jesus' feet downward." - Frank Tipler, ISCID fellow

  
Bob O'H



Posts: 2564
Joined: Oct. 2005

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 22 2007,10:46   

From the page Annyday recommended:
 
Quote
"ATLANTA NIGHTS makes the legendary EYE OF ARGON read like Asimov!" — Nick Pollotta

Ouch.

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It is fun to dip into the various threads to watch cluelessness at work in the hands of the confident exponent. - Soapy Sam (so say we all)

   
Arden Chatfield



Posts: 6657
Joined: Jan. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 22 2007,19:30   

I'm getting this for xmas. I find most 'popular linguistics' books pretty dorky, but a very good linguist wrote this one and it looked good when I glanced at it in a bookstore. I will report back after the holidays.

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"Rich is just mad because he thought all titties had fur on them until last week when a shorn transvestite ruined his childhood dreams by jumping out of a spider man cake and man boobing him in the face lips." - Erasmus

  
stevestory



Posts: 13407
Joined: Oct. 2005

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 22 2007,19:35   

just picked up The Historian

   
KCdgw



Posts: 376
Joined: Sep. 2002

(Permalink) Posted: Jan. 12 2008,23:59   

I'm about half-way through Thomas Pynchon's new novel  Against the Day.

Huge, hilarious, strange. Just as I like it.

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Those who know the truth are not equal to those who love it-- Confucius

  
Bob O'H



Posts: 2564
Joined: Oct. 2005

(Permalink) Posted: Jan. 14 2008,14:00   

KCdgw - enough about your private life.  What's the book like?

Bob

--------------
It is fun to dip into the various threads to watch cluelessness at work in the hands of the confident exponent. - Soapy Sam (so say we all)

   
keiths



Posts: 2195
Joined: Jan. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 15 2008,02:51   

Susan Jacoby, author of the excellent Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism, has written a new book.

Entitled The Age of American Unreason, it was inspired by the following event:
Quote
The author of seven other books, she was a fellow at the [New York Public] library when she first got the idea for this book back in 2001, on 9/11.

Walking home to her Upper East Side apartment, she said, overwhelmed and confused, she stopped at a bar. As she sipped her bloody mary, she quietly listened to two men, neatly dressed in suits. For a second she thought they were going to compare that day’s horrifying attack to the Japanese bombing in 1941 that blew America into World War II:

“This is just like Pearl Harbor,” one of the men said.

The other asked, “What is Pearl Harbor?”

“That was when the Vietnamese dropped bombs in a harbor, and it started the Vietnam War,” the first man replied.

At that moment, Ms. Jacoby said, “I decided to write this book.”


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And the set of natural numbers is also the set that starts at 0 and goes to the largest number. -- Joe G

Please stop putting words into my mouth that don't belong there and thoughts into my mind that don't belong there. -- KF

  
Amadan



Posts: 1337
Joined: Jan. 2007

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 15 2008,06:09   

How would anyone here like to get involved in writing the Epic Surging Saga of the Evolution Wars?

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"People are always looking for natural selection to generate random mutations" - Densye  4-4-2011
JoeG BTW dumbass- some variations help ensure reproductive fitness so they cannot be random wrt it.

   
J-Dog



Posts: 4402
Joined: Dec. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 15 2008,09:39   

Quote (Amadan @ Feb. 15 2008,06:09)
How would anyone here like to get involved in writing the Epic Surging Saga of the Evolution Wars?

Hmmm... Maybe, but I have read your  stuff, and you are a pretty damn polished writer my friend... why look for hacks like me?

PM me about what you think about time commitment, what you are expecting, etc...

I can tell you that I would pay to read that book with chapters by Kristine, Louis, Richard, Albatrosity, Lou, ERV and all the usual suspects...

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Come on Tough Guy, do the little dance of ID impotence you do so well. - Louis to Joe G 2/10

Gullibility is not a virtue - Quidam on Dembski's belief in the Bible Code Faith Healers & ID 7/08

UD is an Unnatural Douchemagnet. - richardthughes 7/11

  
C.J.O'Brien



Posts: 395
Joined: Aug. 2005

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 15 2008,16:44   

I've been on a historical Jesus/early Christiam mythmaking kick. (It was a subject that I had previously held relatively uninformed opinions about, so I thought I'd inform myself.)

I started with Gospel Truth by Russel Shorto. It's a good, quick read, an overview of recent scholarship on the question of what can be known about the historical figure behind the myths. It doesn't give much more than a couple sentences to the idea that Jesus is wholly fictional, but it doesn't greatly overstate what is known either. It's mostly focussed on the Jesus Seminar and its critics and the various approaches to New Testament exegesis. Lots of context and differing views, very little assertion.

Now I'm reading Who Wrote the New Testament? by Burton Mack, and Excavating Jesus by Dominic Crossan and Jonathan Reed. (I switch back and forth; the Mack is somewhat dry at times.)

Mack is exclusively concerned with scriptural exegesis. He apparently doesn't even consider the question of the historical Jesus meaningful for his purposes. He draws some fascinating conclusions, but I do have to say that he comes across as a little dogmatic at times about his own particular theories. There is none of the larger scholarly context of these questions. This is Mack's book, and you get Mack's take. None other. That said, he does paint a detailed and compelling picture of the earliest Jesus people (his term) as well as the socio-political motives for the invention of the myths that find their way into the canonical Gospels. He charts the transition from Jesus movements to the Christ cults of the later First Century C.E. in a way that makes a lot of sense, but I know there are scholars who disagree. I don't have the knowledge to make informed decisions about who is more likely to be right, and this book has no interest in giving it to me. It's as I said a little dry and on the scholarly side for a popular book.

Excavating Jesus is part Achaeology, part exegesis. I haven't got very far into it, but I will read more of it this weekend. Before I'm off my kick, I also intend to read some stuff by Bart Ehrman, another highly regarded New Testament scholar. If anybody has any other recommendations along the same lines, I'd love to hear them.

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The is the beauty of being me- anything that any man does I can understand.
--Joe G

  
J-Dog



Posts: 4402
Joined: Dec. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 15 2008,18:42   

Quote (C.J.O'Brien @ Feb. 15 2008,16:44)
I've been on a historical Jesus/early Christiam mythmaking kick. (It was a subject that I had previously held relatively uninformed opinions about, so I thought I'd inform myself.)

I started with Gospel Truth by Russel Shorto. It's a good, quick read, an overview of recent scholarship on the question of what can be known about the historical figure behind the myths. It doesn't give much more than a couple sentences to the idea that Jesus is wholly fictional, but it doesn't greatly overstate what is known either. It's mostly focussed on the Jesus Seminar and its critics and the various approaches to New Testament exegesis. Lots of context and differing views, very little assertion.

Now I'm reading Who Wrote the New Testament? by Burton Mack, and Excavating Jesus by Dominic Crossan and Jonathan Reed. (I switch back and forth; the Mack is somewhat dry at times.)

Mack is exclusively concerned with scriptural exegesis. He apparently doesn't even consider the question of the historical Jesus meaningful for his purposes. He draws some fascinating conclusions, but I do have to say that he comes across as a little dogmatic at times about his own particular theories. There is none of the larger scholarly context of these questions. This is Mack's book, and you get Mack's take. None other. That said, he does paint a detailed and compelling picture of the earliest Jesus people (his term) as well as the socio-political motives for the invention of the myths that find their way into the canonical Gospels. He charts the transition from Jesus movements to the Christ cults of the later First Century C.E. in a way that makes a lot of sense, but I know there are scholars who disagree. I don't have the knowledge to make informed decisions about who is more likely to be right, and this book has no interest in giving it to me. It's as I said a little dry and on the scholarly side for a popular book.

Excavating Jesus is part Achaeology, part exegesis. I haven't got very far into it, but I will read more of it this weekend. Before I'm off my kick, I also intend to read some stuff by Bart Ehrman, another highly regarded New Testament scholar. If anybody has any other recommendations along the same lines, I'd love to hear them.

Thanks for the book reports, I appreciate it.  Based on all that I know, you are now an expert, and I am willing to wait until you develop the syllabus, and required reading.*

Seriously, this is a very interesting topic, and if I do run  accross any new books in the area, I will try to scan and report. (When I visit my  local library, @ 1-2 a week, I usually check non-fiction new arrivals.)  So, if any What's Up Wit Jesus Books are due out, I'll pick them up.

* Please make sure to tell us what is on the final test.

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Come on Tough Guy, do the little dance of ID impotence you do so well. - Louis to Joe G 2/10

Gullibility is not a virtue - Quidam on Dembski's belief in the Bible Code Faith Healers & ID 7/08

UD is an Unnatural Douchemagnet. - richardthughes 7/11

  
Lou FCD



Posts: 5455
Joined: Jan. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 15 2008,20:55   

Quote (J-Dog @ Feb. 15 2008,10:39)
Quote (Amadan @ Feb. 15 2008,06:09)
How would anyone here like to get involved in writing the Epic Surging Saga of the Evolution Wars?

Hmmm... Maybe, but I have read your  stuff, and you are a pretty damn polished writer my friend... why look for hacks like me?

PM me about what you think about time commitment, what you are expecting, etc...

I can tell you that I would pay to read that book with chapters by Kristine, Louis, Richard, Albatrosity, Lou, ERV and all the usual suspects...

Heh.  JanieBelle's working on a Sci-Fi novel of the ID galactic takeover strain.

Lots of familiar characters in it.  There's an early version of the first chapter on the blog (in five parts), but it's barely recognizable next to the current version.  (The current version isn't nearly as sexually graphic as the blog version, and it's much more filled out, etc. etc.)

It's called The Lilith Quotient.

I need to spend more time on that and less here, really.

Lou

P.S. Buy my her book (when it's published).  (Assuming it ever is, of course.)

--------------
“Why do creationists have such a hard time with commas?

Linky“. ~ Steve Story, Legend

   
Albatrossity2



Posts: 2780
Joined: Mar. 2007

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 22 2008,10:26   

I am privileged to live with a wonderful writer. She just had an essay published in the alumni mag for the University of Notre Dame, which included a very nice blurb from the editor himself.
Quote
And then, before I knew it, carried by the words, I found myself with a group of people in the cold January desert night in southern Colorado, watching the moon.

The web version, unlike the tangible magazine, has no pictures of the lunar standstill moonrise chronicled in Elizabeth's essay. But you can find them here (under the header "Chimney Rock Pueblo").

Enjoy!

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Flesh of the sky, child of the sky, the mind
Has been obligated from the beginning
To create an ordered universe
As the only possible proof of its own inheritance.
                        - Pattiann Rogers

   
Leftfield



Posts: 107
Joined: Nov. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 27 2008,09:37   

A recent novel I'm reading (listening to, actually), Ghost, by Alan Lightman, might be of interest to ATBCers. The protagonist works in a funeral home and sees something strange. Word gets out, exaggeration occurs, and he gets involved with the "Second World Society," a pseudoscientific group researching the supernatural. Scientists from the local university also get involved in the situation.
The book attempts to take a realistic look at a ghost story situation. It's not about the mystery of the ghost, it's about how seeing something strange affects the rest of the witness's life. The character ruminates on memory, consciousness, and the nature of time.

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Speaking for myself, I have long been confused . . .-Denyse O'Leary

  
J-Dog



Posts: 4402
Joined: Dec. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 29 2008,19:35   

Interesting book for all you serious Anthro Readers out there.

David W. Anthony Professor of Anthropology at Hartwick Collge, has written a book called:
"The Horse, The Wheel, and Language
How Bronze Age Riders from the Eurasion Steppes Shaped the Modern World"

He has studdied bit-wear patterns on horse molors and discovered that even ropes used as bits will leave evidence on enamel if a horse was subjected to human control.

After dealing with all the ID / Creo nonsense on a regular basis here, it is very refreshing to read some real science for a change.  

The guy writes well, lots of charts and graphs, the only down-side is no pictures of swimsuit models.  I guess they must not of had them on the Bronze-Age Eurasion Stepppes, although I swear I had an email from a couple of them last week, wanting me to get in touch with them.

But, that's a subject for another book report.

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Come on Tough Guy, do the little dance of ID impotence you do so well. - Louis to Joe G 2/10

Gullibility is not a virtue - Quidam on Dembski's belief in the Bible Code Faith Healers & ID 7/08

UD is an Unnatural Douchemagnet. - richardthughes 7/11

  
Louis



Posts: 6436
Joined: Jan. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Mar. 19 2008,05:01   

Ok so it's confessions time:

In addition to all the usual reading of journals and science books and pop science books and historical books and philosophy books etc I occasionally read a novel or two as light relief. I have read many of the so called "classics" and found them to be a varied bunch to say the least. Some staggeringly good, some atrocious, pretentious crap advocated by people trying to look smart.

One genre of novels I find myself returning to like a fat bloke to fried chicken is fantasy. It is my guilty literary pleasure. I can devour a fantasy novel in a day or two (they are very light on the brain after all and I do read very fast) and have read my favourite series several times. By far and away my favourite author is Terry Pratchett. This is the one fantasy author I feel utterly unashamed about reading, even loving, the works of. The man is an out and out genius and his parodies of our world are sublime. I shall brook little to no criticism of Terry! (incidentally donate to Alzheimer's research, Match it for Pratchett! Google it)

The "serious" fantasy authors I have read are Robert Jordan, Raymond E Feist, Stephen Donaldson, Tolkein, David Gemmell, Robin Hobb, Trudi Canavan, Tad Williams, and I've just bought George R R Martin's series of 4 books (Ice and fire? Something like that). I'm not saying these aforementioned authors are without flaws, or producers of perfect series/novels etc, but in my experience they turn out more good than bad, or at least works of sufficient consonance with my tastes that I'll buy the next book to find out how the story goes.

My quandry is this: I have invested in titles by other authors and found them to be unutterable dreck. The list is long, and it seems that the fantasy and sci fi genres are replete with talentless hacks bashing out books for the bumptious and bewildered. So I plead with you, my online chums, to recommend any of your fantasy books, I'm less interested in sci fi, but I've read a bit so feel free to add the jewels from that area too. I've heard good things about Neil Gaiman....

Louis

ETA: P.S. I've also thought about the Xanth series, worth a look?

ETA: P.P.S. I have also read most of David Eddings' work, and whilst it was fun when I was a teenager, I find his stuff very infantile (for example Terry Prachett's books for children are vastly more adult!). So don't recommend Eddings.

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Bye.

  
philbert



Posts: 20
Joined: Feb. 2008

(Permalink) Posted: Mar. 19 2008,05:31   

Ginormous Terry Pratchett fan here, also.

Absolutely no expertise in the rest of the fantasy area, but if you've only "heard" good things about Neil Gaiman, then by all means get yourself some Good Omens, sharpish.



I was a big fan of American Gods, too -- and can also recommend Coraline, which was offically written for kids, but is loads of fun (and possibly a nice, shortish, sample of his style, for when you've finished Omens.)

  
Wesley R. Elsberry



Posts: 4991
Joined: May 2002

(Permalink) Posted: Mar. 19 2008,06:16   

Arthur C. Clarke is dead at age 90.

AP obituary

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"You can't teach an old dogma new tricks." - Dorothy Parker

    
Reciprocating Bill



Posts: 4265
Joined: Oct. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Mar. 19 2008,11:30   

Quote (Wesley R. Elsberry @ Mar. 19 2008,07:16)
Arthur C. Clarke is dead at age 90.

AP obituary

Sad. It just so happens that I watched "2001, a Space Odyssey" this past weekend. Twice. (An unbelievable accomplishment for 1968).

I've often wondered why the ID community has never latched onto it: I can't think of a more explicit depiction of the "ET" variety of ID than "2001."

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Myth: Something that never was true, and always will be.

"The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you."
- David Foster Wallace

"Here’s a clue. Snarky banalities are not a substitute for saying something intelligent. Write that down."
- Barry Arrington

  
JohnW



Posts: 3217
Joined: Aug. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Mar. 19 2008,11:42   

One of the giants.  I read pretty much everything he wrote when I was  teenager, and re-read his short stories a couple of years ago when the collected edition was published.  Most of them have held up incredibly well - like all the best SF, they survived being overtaken by technological events.

Quote (Reciprocating Bill @ Mar. 19 2008,09:30)
I've often wondered why the ID community has never latched onto it: I can't think of a more explicit depiction of the "ET" variety of ID than "2001."

I expect they'll do it now that he's safely dead, and can't answer back.  If they'd tried it earlier, I think he'd have given them both barrels:

From 1984: Spring:
Quote
I would defend the liberty of concenting adult creationists to practice whatever intellectual perversions they like in the privacy of their own homes; but it is also necessary to protect the young and innocent.

From the 1998 essay Presidents, Experts, and Asteroids:
Quote
I have encountered a few creationists and because they were usually nice, intelligent people, I have been unable to decide whether they were really mad, or only pretending to be mad. If I was a religious person, I would consider creationism nothing less than blasphemy. Do its adherents imagine that God is a cosmic hoaxer who has created that whole vast fossil record for the sole purpose of misleading mankind?

Quoted on Pharyngula.

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Math is just a language of reality. Its a waste of time to know it. - Robert Byers

There isn't any probability that the letter d is in the word "mathematics"...  The correct answer would be "not even 0" - JoeG

  
Wesley R. Elsberry



Posts: 4991
Joined: May 2002

(Permalink) Posted: Mar. 19 2008,12:32   

I have a book cover credit... that's my pic of Tammy Kitzmiller and daughters in the press scrum following the close of the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial featured on Lauri Lebo's new book, The Devil in Dover.

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"You can't teach an old dogma new tricks." - Dorothy Parker

    
J-Dog



Posts: 4402
Joined: Dec. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Mar. 19 2008,12:39   

Quote (Wesley R. Elsberry @ Mar. 19 2008,12:32)
I have a book cover credit... that's my pic of Tammy Kitzmiller and daughters in the press scrum following the close of the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial featured on Lauri Lebo's new book, The Devil in Dover.

Thanks for the link -  Congratulations on the Credit - and the photo, and of course for being there.

I have read the other Dover Books; I would like to read this one.  As a Dover resident and reporter, she might bring a nice insider's perspective to the story.

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Come on Tough Guy, do the little dance of ID impotence you do so well. - Louis to Joe G 2/10

Gullibility is not a virtue - Quidam on Dembski's belief in the Bible Code Faith Healers & ID 7/08

UD is an Unnatural Douchemagnet. - richardthughes 7/11

  
C.J.O'Brien



Posts: 395
Joined: Aug. 2005

(Permalink) Posted: Mar. 19 2008,13:02   

I second Good Omens and American Gods.

Xanth, the entire output of Piers Anthony for that matter, skip it. Pratchett is far superior.

I could write a pretentious novel of my own on the subject of genre literature (SF/Fantasy), but I'll try to limit myself to what I consider the cream of the crop.

My favorite genre author, bar none, is Gene Wolfe. Often referred to as "the best writer you've never read," his prose never fails to be anything but excellent. His magnum opus is the tetrology The Book of the New Sun. I like genre-bending stuff, not quite science fiction, not quite fantasy, and this one sets the standard for that kind of thematic inventiveness.
I am especially fond of the Latro books. Originally published as Soldier in the Mist and Soldier of Arete, they are now in print in one volume, called Latro in the Mist. Set in the ancient Mediterranean just after the Persian Wars, the story is presented as the "diary" of a (Roman?) soldier who was wounded in battle and has amnesia. Along with this disability, however, comes the ability to see and interact with the gods, who seem to take an at times unhealthy interest in Latro's doings. It can be frustrating to read, since many events have to be inferred --Latro often has no idea what's going on around him. But, if you can dig it, the narrative trick is Wolfe's art, and he is truly a master. There's a new one out, too, after twenty years, called Soldier of Sidon.
There's agreat deal more, both SF and Fantasy, and a lot of it you couldn't say what it is really. Mostly it's just damn fine writing.

Another favorite author is Michael Swanwick. He deals in a brand of decidedly grown-up dark fantasy that would frankly scare the pants off the likes of David Eddings. My fave is Iron Dragon's Daughter, which turns the fairy-tale upside down and sets it in a gritty, magical-industrial dystopia. Again, a tantalizing blend of Fantasy and Sci-Fi themes. It's currently out of print in the US (not sure about the UK), so look for it used or at the library. Just out is a sequel, Dragons of Babel, which I have not yet read. I believe its release has occasioned a reprint of Daughter, so the first one may soon be available new.
Swanwick isn't the craftsman Wolfe is, but then, nobody is.

On the SF side, for a taste of "the new Space Opera," I recommend two authors: Charles Stross, especially Singularity Sky and Iron Sunrise, and Alastair Reynolds, a series beginning with Revelation Space.

My Fantasy runners-up are China Mieville (Perdido Street Station et al) and Ian R. MacLeod (The Light Ages and House of Storms). Both brilliantly inventive, if not outright weird, both much darker than traditional swords n' sorcery-type Fantasy.

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The is the beauty of being me- anything that any man does I can understand.
--Joe G

  
Louis



Posts: 6436
Joined: Jan. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Mar. 19 2008,13:20   

Quote (C.J.O'Brien @ Mar. 19 2008,19:02)
I second Good Omens and American Gods.

{snip helpful stuff, thanks}

So another vote for Neil Gaiman. Good oh.

Gene Wolfe, Michael Swanwick, China Melville and Ian R McCleod in fantasy and Charles Stross and Alastair Reynolds in SF.

Check!

{Sound of frantic Amazoning}

Ok, thanks Philbert and CJ. I'm always open to more suggestions from people. I read ferociously fast and collect books, so keep 'em coming.

Louis

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Bye.

  
BWE



Posts: 1902
Joined: Jan. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Mar. 20 2008,13:06   

Quote (C.J.O'Brien @ Mar. 19 2008,13:02)
My favorite genre author, bar none, is Gene Wolfe. Often referred to as "the best writer you've never read," his prose never fails to be anything but excellent. His magnum opus is the tetrology The Book of the New Sun. I like genre-bending stuff, not quite science fiction, not quite fantasy, and this one sets the standard for that kind of thematic inventiveness.

Definitely seconded. I haven't read much fantasy and Terry Pratchet left me wondering what people meant when they said he was clever and witty, but Gene Wolfe stands in a class alone.

--------------
Who said that ev'ry wish would be heard and answered
When wished on the morning star
Somebody thought of that, and someone believed it
Look what it's done so far

The Daily Wingnut

   
IanBrown_101



Posts: 927
Joined: April 2007

(Permalink) Posted: Mar. 20 2008,14:38   

Quote (BWE @ Mar. 20 2008,19:06)
Quote (C.J.O'Brien @ Mar. 19 2008,13:02)
My favorite genre author, bar none, is Gene Wolfe. Often referred to as "the best writer you've never read," his prose never fails to be anything but excellent. His magnum opus is the tetrology The Book of the New Sun. I like genre-bending stuff, not quite science fiction, not quite fantasy, and this one sets the standard for that kind of thematic inventiveness.

Definitely seconded. I haven't read much fantasy and Terry Pratchet left me wondering what people meant when they said he was clever and witty, but Gene Wolfe stands in a class alone.

What books of Pratchetts were you reading?

His first two works (The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic) and to a lesser extent, a few other early books of his aren't anywhere near as good as the later things, because as even he says, he wasn't as good back then. Indeed I consider myself a huge fan of his, but I can't finish Colour or Light. I find them boring, and not that well written. However, I count a number of his works among my favourite novels, and his wit is...sometimes a little obscure (his latin jokes can sometimes go right over my head, and I didn't get the main reference of Jingo at all the first time I read it).

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I'm not the fastest or the baddest or the fatest.

You NEVER seem to address the fact that the grand majority of people supporting Darwinism in these on line forums and blogs are atheists. That doesn't seem to bother you guys in the least. - FtK

Roddenberry is my God.

   
BWE



Posts: 1902
Joined: Jan. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Mar. 20 2008,14:49   

read the colour of magic and gave up. You can tell something's wrong with a guy when he thinks colour is a real word.

--------------
Who said that ev'ry wish would be heard and answered
When wished on the morning star
Somebody thought of that, and someone believed it
Look what it's done so far

The Daily Wingnut

   
Richardthughes



Posts: 11178
Joined: Jan. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Mar. 20 2008,15:16   

I am going to buy and read:

“Tongue tied: Fifty years of friendship in a subnormality hospital”

Will this get my Deacon-Karma straight? Will anyone else commit to this spiritual healing?

Rich

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"Richardthughes, you magnificent bastard, I stand in awe of you..." : Arden Chatfield
"You magnificent bastard! " : Louis
"ATBC poster child", "I have to agree with Rich.." : DaveTard
"I bow to your superior skills" : deadman_932
"...it was Richardthughes making me lie in bed.." : Kristine

  
IanBrown_101



Posts: 927
Joined: April 2007

(Permalink) Posted: Mar. 20 2008,17:00   

Quote (BWE @ Mar. 20 2008,20:49)
read the colour of magic and gave up. You can tell something's wrong with a guy when he thinks colour is a real word.

Don't bother with Colour, it's not good. Try Guards Guards, the first watch book, or Eric, one of the better Rincewind ones.

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I'm not the fastest or the baddest or the fatest.

You NEVER seem to address the fact that the grand majority of people supporting Darwinism in these on line forums and blogs are atheists. That doesn't seem to bother you guys in the least. - FtK

Roddenberry is my God.

   
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