SCI-FI BOOKS

[DRLUV]

Let's use this topic to discuss our favorite SciFi books or new Scifi books we have read.


The origional post... check out Abebooks.com
There is a seller there with incredible values look for Doc_George

I've bought some classics from him

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[This message has been edited by AsIs (edited October 06, 2001).]

[AsIs]

Anyone want me to keep this topic? It just looks like a advertisment from someone who doesn't post here to me...

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Selah

[fanuilhgkar]

We could use it as a forum to discuss books we've read and enjoyed, or books we've read and hated, recommendations, that sort of thing. Otherwise, toss it.

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[AsIs]

Ok, works for me, I have the power to edit topic description, so I will change it...

Note: I don't change any posts by established or new posters who are here to post, just trolls and people looking to spam us with ads.

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Selah

[MightyLady77]

Okay, let's get started...

I am just beginning a compilation volume of all the Lucky Starr novels written by Isaac Asimov using his Paul French pen name.

Has someone else read them? Care to let me know what you think of them? I realize that the science is going to be wrong. His introduction, written before his death, makes that abundantly clear. I'm hoping for a good read in spite of that.

Next up, after the book arrives, will be the collected Cthulhu stories of H.P. Lovecraft. Somehow I missed them when I was growing up. Time to remedy the situation.

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MightyLady of the Flame Red Hair
Love is blind, but friendship is clairvoyant.

[Nommy]

I am currently on Book 6 out of 7 of the GATEWAY series in the startrek universe. Anyone reading these.

Man, they really make you read ALL the startreks. There is one for ALL, then one for TOS, TNG, DS9, Voyager, Frontier....Book 8 will some it all together.

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Nommy

[sindatur]

Blair and I are currently reading the Sweep Series by Cate Tiernan. It's a Teen series about Wicca and really really good, much better than I had hoped for.

Anyone else reading these? We're done with the first 4 and Blair just started on the 5th, while I am reading the first Farscape Novel, which by the way is also really good if anyone wants to discuss it.

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Sindatur - The Grey owl Wizzard

[PollyMath]

I just finished the second prequel to the Dune series calles Dune: House Harkonnen.

I rather like the idea of the prequels, since the Dune universe is so rich and there is obviously a lot to explain about how the characters got to where they are. This book has it in spades, Duke Leto's young adulthood, Guerney Halek's escape from the Harkonnens and how he got that inkvine scar, Duncan Idaho's training a swordmaster, Jessica meeting Leto for the first time, the youth of Liet Kynes, etc.

But the writing in this one was SOOOOOO awful. Someone has got to tell these guys that we know Jessica has bronze hair. They don't have to mention it all the time. Likewise it is pathetic to refer to Duncan as "the swordmaster" or especially as "the new swordmaster." It is OK to repeat his name a few times in the same paragraph.

Anyway, worth it a bit for the story lines, but a slog in the writing department. I don't remember the same problem with the first prequel at all. Let's hope the third one (which will bring us the childhoods of Paul Atredies, Chani and Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen) will go back to the quality of the first one.

Overall, I rate number 2 as worth the cost of a paperback and OK, though mildly annoying, public transportation reading.

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[Nommy]

Farscape Novel? No way! I would love to read it. Got a synopsis, Sin?

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Nommy

[PollyMath]

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

Fredrick Winsor's (I think that is the name) "The Space Child's Mother Goose" has been reissued. It has been out of print for ages. I once asked Amazon to look for a copy for me and the only one they offered was in the $300-$400 range. Now, you can get it for $18.95 minus a discount. Not a first edition, but who cares?

I may have to get a bunch of these to use as gifts. This one is really worth it. And the historical context is amazing too. As in:

The hydrogen dog and the cobalt cat
Side by side in the armory sat.
Nobody talked about fusion or fission.
Everyone talked of their peace time mission.
Then somebody came and opened the door.
There they sat in a neutron fog
The codrogen cat and the hybalt dog.
They all went up in a terrible roar
And nobody never was there no more.

That was, of course an approximation from memory. I might have missed a bit. I don't own a copy...yet.

Here's a less ominous one:

Spin along in spacial night
Artificial satelite.
Monitor with blip and bleep
The universe and baby's sleep.

Or the end of another one...

Foundations shake, computers break and science goes bee bop
But baby's joy is still the toy with silly ears that flop.

I love this book!!! I want it. It is discounted 20% at amazon. I have a bunch of amazon gift certificates from my birthday that I haven't used. I think I'll get 4 - one for me, one for brother, one for uncle's kids Joey and Jacob, one for cousin Jonathan's baby Jared...

Maybe I'll need more than 4.

It has cool pictures and neat definitions of technical terms too.

P.S. Despite the "ad" at the top of the topic, Abebooks seems like a good site. I never ordered anything from them, but you deal directly with the independent sellers so experiences will vary. When I was searching for "The Space Child's Mother Goose" they occassionally came up with one that was closer to $100 than $400. I never went that far, but it seems a well organized place with a good search engine. Whether any individual bookseller is honest is, I imagine, a risk you take. Still, it is nice to support the independents that are trying to stick it out in a B&N/Borders/Amazon world.


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