Search results

I'm currently several million pages into Neal Stephenson's latest tome. Sight fading fast. No end in sight. Send water, food, conclusion.

Just bits and pieces. His reputation is well-deserved: nutty, but occasionally insightfully profane. What did you think of it? Read any other Orwell? I'm a fan of his non-fiction particularly.

Damn straight. Cracking book. I'm a few pages from the end currently.

Fred, was he appalled that it was in that section, or that it was in the library at all?

You'll like O'Brian so. He's been praised for his ear for dialects (he was a translator professionally), the accuracy of his descriptions of shipboard life and his characterisation. I think every navel battle he describes is based on an actual event; he used read old naval reports and captain's...

Ever read any of Patrick O'Brian's novels set in the Napoleonic-era British navy? Cracking good reads.

It's not terribly long after it, I think. Just a few years maybe. Dune Messiah is in between the two though. The later trilogy is set a long time later, a couple of thousand years for the last two books.

It's the third book of six actually. I like the second book, Dune Messiah, better; it's essentially the tragedy of Paul. The second trilogy isn't as good.

They're sufficiently different that I can recommend both. I prefer the movie; the book's a bit of a cold war fossil, but it's decent all the same. I've finally gotten around to reading Animal Farm (I'm a big Orwell fan). It's good, but it's no Homage to Catalonia. I just started Catch...

Oh, boy was that long. Excellent in parts, but Stephenson always had a tendency to spend too long showing off his research. Never bothered me before, but there's a chunk of this book that just should have been cut. Very impressive overall though.

Yes, this is pretty much true. Well, if you get found out anyway!

No way. The threat is often stronger than the execution. Your first Pratchett? His first few Discworld books are relatively weak.

Really? What made you think that? I certainly think first of the older guys, but Iain M. Banks, Alastair Reynolds, Charlie Stross, Ken McLeod, Neal Asher, Stephen Baxter and M. John Harrison are very active authors, just to stick to the British ones I can list off the top of my head.

Amazon has 4,000 books in the genre, about 1/3 the number of books in fiction>comedy. So quite a few. Hell, modern British hard SF is a pretty lively genre in its own right.

Zima Blue and Other Stories by Alastair Reynolds. Reynolds is one of the top space opera writers of the current generation. This collection of short stories is pretty good, though the persistent downer endings can drag a little. The title story was the highlight for me, but there are a number of...

Actually, I think that´s the titular Aaron Burr. Hard to be sure, of course!

A novelised examination of the life of a remarkable character in US history, the 3rd vice president, the man who killed Hamilton in a duel and a man who successfully defended charges of treason. It also humanises many of the 'founding fathers' (Washington is particularly savaged as an...

Nothing like, I'm afraid. Moderately well read in science and science fiction, but not so much in any other genres.

I've read it. Quite different to Snow Crash, and I'm not sure about the ending, but it had me fairly engrossed for a few days.

He had family from Sligo, probably not more than a few dozen miles from where my father was born, so he might be a distant relative. It's not an uncommon name.