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Ahh.. I HAD forgotton about Cryptonomicon or whatever he called it, ... I actually couldnt get 25 pages in. Im not in any way a Stevenson fan (more a PKDick fan) but Diamond age (and in a fun simplistic way Snow Crash) are both brilliant...
Warrens statement that he can't write a character, is um.... er...true, but well.. um.. er... sorry Warren... boring...
Its what people come up with when they just dont like a book, but can't say why.
To be honest, after years of wallowing in arty farty clever clogs books (Burroughs Joyce Poe ) I just cant be bothered with those long and tiresome descriptions of "real" characters.. (unless its Jane Austin) yawn.. does EVERY book have to spend 4 chapters building motives and describing backgrounds, and warming up... no.. what I want is
A) a great story, as in a beginning a middle and and a proper, old fashioned, clever, resolving, end. And...
B) a good idea. So many novels I read are long sprawling desciptions of seemier gritty real ... Im sick of it... Give me something unreal, new, original, creative and surprising. And get to the story on page one.
cheers
Mark
OH.. and a NON- SF recommendation: My fave book infact. A conspiracy of dunces.On Sun, May 24, 2009 at 3:32 PM, Warren Sirota <wsirota@wsdesigns.com> wrote:
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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Warren
http://www.ubetoo.com/Artist.taf?_ArtistId=6679
http://www.warrensirota.com
--
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http://vimeo.com/user825094
http://uk.youtube.com/user/markfrancombe
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http://www.looop.no/shop/catlabel.php?q=Synch%20Non%20Synch