What are you reading? — Page 25

I also had problems getting through Xenocide back in the day. Xenocide and Children of the Mind are much more… “cerebral” is how Card puts it, than the first two books. Plus, I couldn’t stand Han Qing-jao at all. I think audiobooks help in some respects with books that can be a bit of a slog, in that the narrator continues on at pace and doesn’t stop to make sense of technical or philosophical whatsit.

I did also listen to Jurassic Park on audiobook, and I liked it. However, I think the movie was better in that it seemed to have the right number of action sequences. I think Crichton could have cut both the T-Rex at the waterfall and the Raptors in the lab from the book, and the story would have flowed better for it. I did like Nedry’s death in the book better, though. It was so much more of an aptly gruesome end for his character.

But seriously, I highly recommend the Expeditionary Force series–at least the first book, Columbus Day. Humor hooks me in to a serious storyline, and I cracked up laughing at the main character’s description of that stupid ice cream truck.

I thought that the Lost World was an Arthur Conan Doyle book?

Dek Rollins said:

I also tried reading Jurassic park before that but didn’t make it past 75 pages before I simply lost interest. Michael Crichton wrote that book as an impossibly boring slog. When something is actually happening and meaningful it’s super interesting and well written, and I’m excited for what’s going to happen next, but then that’s all bogged down by three pages of unnecessary technical explanations for things I don’t care about. It’s like he can’t just get to the point. It took all the fun out of what was otherwise an exremely fun read. I might pick it up again sometime and try to finish it, but I can’t see myself spending any time on it soon.

DuracellEnergizer said:

This mirrors my experience with Crichton. The Lost World and Timeline both had intriguing plots, but all the passages spent on technical details simply killed my enjoyment; I abandoned both books before I got halfway through either and haven’t picked up a Crichton novel since.

You know, I had a similar problem reading Daemon by Daniel Suarez. I loved Influx so I started reading Daemon, but the technical junk bogged down the plot too much and I quit reading it. Well, not complex technical explanations of things. The characters would, for example, refer to “IEEE 802.11n” instead of saying “wireless n” or “wi-fi” or “wireless ethernet”; or one character would talk about video games but then think about how he “played Massively Multiplayer Online Games or MMOGs” (it’s MMOs by the way, Suarez -.-) which “are vastly superior in their social aspect” to other games. Let me be clear: people who play games online are not snooty about how their social lives are better than gamers who like single player games.

It just… ugh. People who are knowledgeable about a certain hobby or field don’t frequently extrapolate on the jargon. They use jargon when they’re around people who would understand, and they don’t around people who don’t. But they don’t explain the jargon if it’s not necessary to get the point across. The book Daemon kept using jargon and then explaining what it meant or a character’s opinion about it.

^Imps’com suck conformed.

I’m slowly working through Children of Dune still (and so far I’m pretty much in agreement with Duracell’s above review), but I’m going to write about a book I finished a few weeks ago and never posted about.

VALIS by Philip K. Dick

I don’t think I understand a single thing about it. It’s also my favorite PKD novel (so far, anyway, I’ve only read five). Completely wacko in all the best ways, and at the same time it feels very honest. It’s a deeply personal work.

Okay, I’m terrible at literary criticims, but man I love this book.

Reading through Lost Stars at the moment, I’m enjoying it, although I can’t wait to get back to The New Jedi Order.

DuracellEnergizer said:

Radio Free Albemuth, Valis, and The Divine Invasion are all superb novels. They’re what made me a near-instant fan of PKD.

How closely connected are Valis and Divine Invasion? I hear they’re supposed to make a “trilogy” with Transmigration of Timothy Archer.

suspiciouscoffee said:

I’m slowly working through Children of Dune still (and so far I’m pretty much in agreement with Duracell’s above review), but I’m going to write about a book I finished a few weeks ago and never posted about.

VALIS by Philip K. Dick

I don’t think I understand a single thing about it. It’s also my favorite PKD novel (so far, anyway, I’ve only read five). Completely wacko in all the best ways, and at the same time it feels very honest. It’s a deeply personal work.

Okay, I’m terrible at literary criticims, but man I love this book.

My recollection of the 3rd book of the Dune series is that it is not as good as 1, but better than 2.

4 is right out.

Just finished the extended version of Stephen King’s The Stand. It was great.
Started it last year, but got distracted. Glad I started over again last month.
I really wish I had read the standard version first. There was plenty here that could have gone and nothing would be lost. But, there was never a moment while I was reading that I thought, “Oh, all of this could go…”. I dunno what all was added, but I’ll read the standard version next. I gotta feeling my ideal version would be a mix of both.

b

I’m listening to Star Wars: Darth Plagueis by James Luceno. I’m on chapter 11 of 30.

It’s… okay I guess.

I just read Ender’s Game for the first time…wow! It’s a pretty well known book so I won’t give a review, just say that I enjoyed it. I connected with it like I haven’t connected with a novel in a while. And besides, the political and military angles to it were just fascinating .

That looks interesting. I’m tempted to check it out, but first I have a mountain of stuff to get through. Speaking of which…

Mandatory reading for my literature review.