Re: WAY OFF TOPIC: recommendations for great science fiction written in the last 10 years?

[Warren Sirota <wsirota@wsdesigns.com>]

im(extremely minority)o, Stephenson can't write characters to save his life and i find his books deadly boring (ok, let me be specific and indulge my passion for exaggeration a little less: 250 slow pages into Cryptonomicon or whatever he called it, i realized that every single person in the book was the identical blend of system analyst and amateur sleuth/reflexive information hider that i have to work with in corporate life every day, just with different circumstances. i couldn't find a spec of character in any of them, and i couldn't go on reading). 

and, sorry to those who've seen this recommendation before, but the best SF book, or any book, that i've read in the past 5 years was "The Time Traveler's Wife"

On Sun, May 24, 2009 at 8:53 AM, Christophe <cburke55@comcast.net> wrote:

You can skip, "Zodiac", though.  It was his first and most definitely not in the same league as his later books.

And don't forget William Gibson!  Try "Idoru".

Chris

----- Original Message -----
From: "mark francombe" <mark@markfrancombe.com>
To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
Sent: Sunday, May 24, 2009 6:14:55 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Re: WAY OFF TOPIC: recommendations for great science fiction written  in the last 10 years?

DEFINATELY the Diamond Age, or from the same author Snow Crash.

What Neil Stevendon does is present you with a world for a bit ( Nano technology works, in Diamond Age, or Everyone has a second virtual life in Snow Crash) and then gives you a run of the mill exiting rollacoaster of a novel, based on those presumptions.. LOVE HIM... < br>
I just read Anathem, his latest, also genius, but a bit long and heavy for a "trip book"..

Of the 3 .. Diamond Age, lots of cool stuff.. changed the way I think about e-learning (my day-job) as a matter of fact...

enjoy

M

PS:
but surely.. all planes have SO MUCH inflight fun... catch up on all them films you missed... play Super Mario... Or my favorite... (but expensive) use the seat-back phone to call a random seat for a chat!!!








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