Kevin's Watch

Finally started Flat Earth, by Daniel... No wait, David Williams. Some new author, I gather. A quarter through it, and it's pretty cool so far.

Fist and Faith wrote:Finally started Flat Earth, by Daniel... No wait, David Williams. Some new author, I gather. A quarter through it, and it's pretty cool so far.

Daniel? Ugh. And "pretty cool"?! Pff! Then again--you may like the later parts a lot more. The first part has a military-adventure tone (though far more realistic and literary than most stuff lumped in that milieu).

Have I ever mentioned that my son's name is Daniel? Anyway, yeah, I enjoyed the military-adventure. Just began the druggie-adventure last night. Alas, I didn't get far, because I'm a little under the weather. Perhaps this evening will work out better.

Just started Wolfe's Sword of the Lictor.

--A

Just finished Jhereg the first Vlad Taltos book by Steven Burst an excellent fantasy writer who creates very believable worlds, some funny stuff too. Now I'm halfway through Yendi (the second). I can't believe so many fans missed this stuff when it first came out in the mid '80s--he was heartily endorsed by Roger Zelazny and a very young Tad Williams. And, like SRD he studies Shotakan karate.

After finishing Sheckley I felt ready to read a true genius of ... what is it? Surreal SF? Satirical fiction?

Paul Sladek - Keep the Giraffe Burning

books.google.de/books?id=WA4BTLP2L3cC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Keep+The+Giraffe+Burning&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false

Heinlein, The Cat Who Walked Through Walls: A Comedy of Manners.

This one has been missing from my collection, although I've read it several times. My co-worker gave it to me today.

--A

More Heinlein, The Number Of The Beast. Fear I might end up going through this whole story-line, backwards to Methusalah's Children.

--A

Ah, Heinlein has story-lines for his novels? Beorn just finished The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, but neither of us are aware of any story-line to be following, should that fit in anywhere.

Hahaha, in the end, almost all of his novels tie into one unifying story-line, sorta like the DT.

In fact, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls can be considered a sequel of sorts to TMIAHM. It's set 120 odd years after the Revolution which that book describes. (It's probably my all-time favourite of his as I've mentioned.)

Methusalah's Children, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, Revolt In 2100, Time Enough For Love, The Number of the Beast, and The Cat Who Walks Through Walls are the major parts of his Lazarus Long / The World As Myth storyline.

Many of his other books, notably Glory Road, The Space Family Stone series, Stranger in A Strange Land and The Man Who Sold The Moon are tangentially related, and characters make appearances occasionally in the main series. (No doubt there are others I'm missing that are also connected.)

His universes are alternate reality versions...some stories occur in some realities, others in others. Sometimes big events split a timeline into two...one where the event occurred, and one where it didn't.

(The Man Who Sold The Moon for example, was a timeline where the first manned mission to the moon wasn't carried out by a government agency (NASA) but by a private enterprise.)

A lot of the alternate realities intersect in later books, (starting with NotB) when some characters discover the existence of these alternates, and how to travel between them.

Cat is the 2nd last of the storyline. The last, To Sail Beyond Sunset, was published the year before he died.

--A

Thanks Av.
I'll let Beorn know.
I am pretty sure he's just been reading what Heinlein he comes across fairly randomly at this point.

Doesn't really matter. I did the same. Most of his books function as stand-alone stories too.

--A

I remember reading The Number Of The Beast once, years ago. IIRC it was a rather meandering story with lots of sex.

Not that much sex. But yes, rather meandering. Not as good as Cat, and nowhere near as good as earlier stuff either.

--A

I'm almost done with Teckla the third book in Burst's Vlad Taltos series and looking forward to buying the next three at the used bookstore today. It really is a fun little series-Taltos is a maniac and is always running off somewhere getting himself killed. It's a very interesting world with a lot of elements shared with Patricia McKillip and Tad Williams fantasies. The Dragearans are a lot like the Sithi yet less intelligent and more warlike, there also appears to be two other races we haven't met yet. Highly interesting religious views as well, kind of reminds me of what little Erikson I've been exposed to.

Just finishing up Jordan/Sanderson's bk 12 of the Wheel of Time. Enjoying it a lot. Annoyed I have to wait for 2 more books. If it wasn't for the fact that Jordan had already pulled himself together in book 11, I'd say Sanderson saved the series. Even though he didn't, still a good job on this book.

Next: The Man in the High Castle, by Phillip K Dick.

--A

Reading a collection of short stories by Frederik Pohl called Platinum Pohl. I'm enjoying it a lot... but it kinda makes me wish I had a short story collection of C. M. Kornbluth stories...

Orlion wrote:Reading a collection of short stories by Frederik Pohl called Platinum Pohl. I'm enjoying it a lot... but it kinda makes me wish I had a short story collection of C. M. Kornbluth stories...

Pohl is one of the few writers I think I've read everything by [the others are SRD, Frank Herbert, Kurt Vonnegut]. I don't know why I like the stuff [Pohl's] so much, but I do.
Just started a re-read of "Snow Crash" last night.

Danlo...I think I've read Jhereg...it's the first of a series where the titles/plots
are sorta about "Clans" whose families relate to old powers/beasts, or something like that?

Something like that, there are 17 'houses' of Dargearans all named after and assuming the qualities of jehreg, dragon, teckla, druz, orca, phoenix and other such nasty beaties-the series has a very interesting hardcore debate between sorcery and witchcraft and, in Taltos (that I'm halfway through right now), a very brief appearance of a vampire...it just gets wilder and wilder...

I started on the second book in Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, The Confusion. I wonder how long this is going to take me. So far, I'm most looking forward to

Spoiler

Jack's swashbuckling adventures

as

Spoiler

Eliza's endless political scheming and conversations

hold less interest for me.