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Really ? GTFO !
In reply to Kreb (Forum Supporter) :
Read any of Larry Niven's stuff from when he was in his prime?
Ringworld - the first book or two, anyway
The Mote In God's Eye
Hammerfall - these two are with Jerry Pournelle
In reply to Duke :
Thanks!
In reply to Kreb (Forum Supporter) :
Sorry, I was lumping two Niven/Pournelle books together:
Lucifer's Hammer is one and Footfall is a different book. Both pretty good.
If you don't mind short stories, Niven's Tales Of Known Space collections are good too. They are set in the same universe as Ringworld.
I started going to SCCA Regional and National races in the Northeast in the sixties, and Fred always seemed to be at those races. At the time he sold and prepped small-bore formula cars out of a shop in NJ. When he went international I "lost track" (awful pun intended) of his exploits. Then about a month ago I saw this book reviewed in Octane and bought a copy to find out the rest of the story. I just started reading it.
His old logo:
Squadron of Deception about which is something I had no idea existed. Apparently the US and UK were using heavy bombers as early version of "Wild Weasels" in WWII to diminish the effectiveness of German early warning radar through jamming. Later, they were suppressing the radio effectiveness of German tank units during the Battle of the Bulge. It's a fascinating book but primarily it's a compilation of letters/memories of the men in the unit. I was hoping the book was more like RV Jones' "The Wizard War" focused on technical detail.
Been working through the Robert Crais catalog, also read both books by Noah Boyd. Pretty good overall for all; except the use of "automatic" interchangeable with handgun in the Noah Boyd books. An oddity.
Just finished "Madhouse at the End of the Earth" by Julian Sancton.
I'm into real history. Amazed what explorers willing endured 100+ years ago to be the "first" to discover someplace or climb some mountain. I wouldn't want to be stranded on a floating ice pack for over a year.
I enjoyed the read. Science only learns from those that survived. NASA is studying these old adventures to try to figure out how folks could survive a lengthy trip to Mars.
Currently reading Trevor Noah's "Born a Crime." Hard not to read it in his voice.
I really came here to ask if anyone else has read "Street Rod" by Henry G. Felson? Written in the 50s, it was one of those books that I read in (probably) middle school that left a mark on me, especially the ending. For some reason, it popped into my head again today (couldn't remember title/author) and I tracked it down on Goodreads. I never knew it was part of a series so I will have to track down some of the other titles.
Just finished "Fighter Pilot" which is the biography of Robin Olds, written by Olds' daughter and Ed Rasimus. It's an excellent balance of nuts & bolts flying P-38's, P-51's through the F-4 Phantom in Viet Nam. It's very readable. My only quibble is they do not tie the narrative to specific dates very well. It would have been nice to hear an occasional link to what year the events happened.
Duke said:I'm about... 2/3 (?) of the way through Stephenson's Quicksilver after 6 weeks.
The first half was pretty good but the second half is dragging on way too long. Maybe it's just that I don't think that allegedly-lovable rogue Jack Shaftoe is as hilarious a character as Stephenson clearly thinks he is.
Still plodding through this monster. I ran out of renewals and had to request it again. Woof. I really really hope the next 2 are less of a slog.
While I was waiting to get Quicksilver back, I breezed through The Secret Life Of Dorothy Soames which is a memoir centering around the Foundling Hospital in England. It was a sort of orphanage for illegitimate children and by most accounts a horrific place. For almost 200 years, into the 1950s.
In reply to Duke :
That one broke me. I never finished it. I'm sure I've blithered about it somewhere on here when Stephenson's come up... I picked up REAMDE after a decade or so off from him, and... wandered off, but I still have hope I'll get back to that one. It's on the bedside table somewhere under Kevin Cameron's Sportbike Performance Handbook and John Bradley's The Racing Motorcycle, Vol 2 (setup).
Actually, I think I probably read Snow Crash twice in the middle there.
Right now, reading Jasper Fforde's Dragonslayer series. It's very silly, and I'm enjoying it a lot.
Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O'Neil - Ph.D. Mathematics and Data Science
Basically, she's showing how the algorithms used by Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc. create feedback loops that drive societal divisiveness...we don't agree on things because we're being pulled into different realities. Imagine if the information you get from Wikipedia is highly dependent on your internet user history...that's exactly what social media sites are doing.
"the only two industries that refer to their customers as users are illegal drugs and software"
Gordon R Dickson's Dragon Knight series.
Visited my mom a while back and we went to this book store in/near Jacksonville, roughly 55,000 square feet of shelves of used books. I found almost the entire set of books in the series, I've loved it since I was a teen but never got the books.
Some of the aisles here you have to down sideways
In reply to Mr_Asa :
That looks like a fantastic place. I'd love to spend a day there.
An egress nightmare and not a sprinkler head in sight. I bet the fire marshal loves them.
When I saw that I'd have some downtime during my recent trip to Vegas to drive the new Z, I grabbed a book from my office. (Check it out: reading poolside.)
I had read Childhood's End a long time ago–I'd guess 25 or 30 years–so it seemed a little familiar but I could never remember what was next.
Just finished it and, yeah, even up until the very end, I couldn't recall where the story was going. There was just this strange familiarity–which, looking back at the book's story, kinda works nicely.
I don't want to give any spoilers, but I'd recommend it.
In reply to David S. Wallens :
I'm not a huge Clarke fan and I read that probably 45 years ago, but yeah, I recall enjoying that.
Believe it or not I'm still not done Quicksilver. There have to be like 20 pages left and it just. Will. Not. End.
I wish somebody would do something like a "X-Prize" for fiction on a story featuring the settlement of Mars. I'd put money on Andy Weir for that but I'd love to see what other authors might come up with... The publishing companies might use such a tool to invigorate publishing actual paper books....
Duke said:In reply to David S. Wallens :
I'm not a huge Clarke fan and I read that probably 45 years ago, but yeah, I recall enjoying that.
Believe it or not I'm still not done Quicksilver. There have to be like 20 pages left and it just. Will. Not. End.
The more I think about it, the deeper/more sobering it gets. I know it's not a perfect novel, but it makes you think.
There's some analysis on Childhood's End at Sparknotes.
I started reading the Martian Chronicles last night–another book I first read a million years ago. We'll see if I continue with that or move to something else.
Sticking with Arthur C. Clarke:
I really liked Childhood's End and 2001.
Currently reading The Misfit Soldier, by Michael Mammay. It's not terribly cerebral, but it has a fun Oceans Eleven/Kelly's Heroes in Halo armor vibe.
ProDarwin said:
I really liked Childhood's End and 2001.
2001 was great right up until the final act. And then it was just like Clarke dropped a lot of acid and said berk it, I'm done.
I finally finished Quicksilver over the weekend. Started it somewhere around Groundhog Day, so that's what, 14 weeks to read it? Oof. I'm a fast reader typically. For all those words, some of the important story points kind of got yadda-yaddaed over. I'm going to wait a bit before moving on to the second part of the trilogy. At least Jack Shaftoe gotten written out a fair distance before the end, so I didn't have to deal with him that whole time. At the risk of a minor spoiler, I'm assuming that he will appear again later in the series.
I just started reading a set of Gibson short stories from the pre-Neuromancer '80s, including Johnny Mnemonic and a few others.
Picked up Leviathan Wakes at the library, based on [the forum's] recommendations for The Expanse series. I should probably skip the rest of the Gibson and start in on that, because I may only have 3 weeks with it. I had to reserve this copy so I may not be able to renew it.
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