prog likes books! Do you like books too?

[prog]

Some time ago I bought The System of the World, the third and final volume in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle. What little I've read of it is enjoyable, but also very dense and hard to get into -- moreso than the last volume -- and thus most of my leisure-reading time has been invested in working through my paperback backlog instead.

• The Dragon's Egg by Robert Forward. Part of the SF canon, I'd argue. I don't know how long I've owned this, but finally read it after running into reference after reference to it over the years. It's supah-hardcore SF that imagines a very alien civilization developing from scratch on the surface of a neutron star, and how it crosses paths with humanity. Really weak characterization (I wrote critiques in the margins about this, it bothered me so much) but I suppose people forgive this because that's not the point. Once we get past the awkward opening chapters on Earth and (in a distant but parallel narrative thread) the "cheela" manage to evolve sentience, things get eminently more readable.
  
  Question: WTF does the word "cheela" come from? The aliens don't communicate through human-audible sounds, so the implication that this is the one "native" word that Forward doesn't translate for us doesn't really work. Shrug.


• The Guns of Avalon by Roger Zelazny. Book two of the Amber series. I bought it three years ago and didn't want to read it then, for some reason, but I ate it up in a couple of sittings last week. Court intrigue mixed with wacky superheroics and a twencen-smartass POV. (Corwyn totally needs a D&D alignment, but as usual it's a tough call with an established character. Maybe lawful neutral? He's selfishly ambitious, but genuinely believes that he can save the kingdom if he can get the throne, and anyway is too much of a softie to be evil.)
  
  It's "funny" when things appear in the book that I recognize from Zangband.


• 3001: The Final Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke. Written in 1997, thus amazingly predicting Futurama by over a year! The story opens with astronauts in the titular year recovering the flyin' corpsicle of Frank Poole, the astronaut from 2001 that HAL offs in one my favorite cinematic shot sequences evah. Using sufficiently advanced technology they revive him, allowing him to wander about, gaping at things. I'm less than halfway through it, and am liking it OK.
  
  Amusing I: The Frank Poole in 2001 was actually from the late 1960s as far as his cultural references went, but the one in this book is from the late 1990s. In his internal monologues, he makes reference to his "boyhood memories" which include meeting Patrick Stewart and enjoying the Jurassic Park movies, and often compares what he sees to an accurate recall of real-life circa-2000 technology. And he slyly avoids making reference to things like commercial spaceflight or the survival of the USSR, both of which the first two movies and books placed in 2000. (There is reference to the plot of 2010, but the Leonov and crew are described as Russian, not Soviet.)
  
  Amusing II: often when I read fiction, I visualize appropriate real-life actors playing the main characters. It's a strange treat to have a legitimate reason to do so with this book. (I guess I wouldn't feel this way if I read more fanfiction or Star Trek novels or whatever, but I don't.)

Comments

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

Forward knows his science but can't write characters to save his life. Other than that he's fine :) Good question on the word "cheela".

[cnoocy]

Not that you'd know anything about that exact question. -o)-

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

Why yes, that's a very good LOOK OVER THERE!

[prog.livejournal.com]

Oh, come on, you have a very reasonable answer to the same question, as I recall. :)

I was half-expecting Forward to have a similar explanation for "cheela", but its just left hanging.

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

He's just not as cool as I am. Or maybe he's just not a linguist and these questions don't occur to him.

[dougo.livejournal.com]

Good old Amber. I'm a sucker for those real-world/parallel-fantasy-world novels. (The World of Tiers series is the only other one coming to mind, though. Xanth doesn't count.) I have the second Amber series that you can borrow if you ever make it through the first.

[prog.livejournal.com]

There's a second series?!

Is this beyond the ten books I know about, or is it their latter half or something?

[dougo.livejournal.com]

Oh, I guess it's the latter half. Starts with Trumps of Doom. The main character is Merlin, Corwin's son. I have them in hardback (book club editions).

3001

[cortezopossum.livejournal.com]

I read 3001 a while back and although I don't remember much of the specifics I knew I was rather disappointed with this one. It's disturbing when the technical notes in the latter half of the book were more interesting than the story in the book itself.

In his internal monologues, he makes reference to his "boyhood memories" which include meeting Patrick Stewart and enjoying the Jurassic Park movies

Hah hah... Oops. I missed that one.

Re: 3001

[prog.livejournal.com]

As I read, I find it becoming increasingly clear that this book's Frank Poole is actually a Mary Sue character...

[uilos.livejournal.com]

Remember that Corwin is telling his story to Merlin, who is technically one of the enemy at the time he is telling the story. Take into account that every word coming out of his mouth may well be a lie. :> I love Zelazny. He makes you think.

[prog.livejournal.com]

GAH... I don't know any of this. Dougo, Uilos, allaya, can it with the spoilers. :) (seriously tho!)

[uilos.livejournal.com]

AAAAAAAAAAA. SORRY! I've read the series so many times that I thought you found that our in the beginning (I read them with that assumption, so everyone else must also, right?), but now that you've said something about it, I remember that you don't find out until later. Craploads of apologies on my part.

[prog.livejournal.com]

Don't feel so bad... It's pretty clear, starting from some point in Nine Princes, that the story is apparently Corwin's deathbed memoirs, though it's not revealed to whom he is speaking, and how far into the future... I had thought he was just talking to some random chronicler after ten books until you and dougo conspired otherwise, so it's not that big a revelation. :)

[uilos.livejournal.com]

Actually, the chronicler is at the end of the fifth book. Merlin does his own thing for the last five and Corwin doesn't enter into them much at all.

I hate it when people give spoilers to me, so I hate it when I do it to other people. :> Right, time to re-read Amber, I guess.

[prog.livejournal.com]

Actually, the chronicler is at the end of the fifth book. Merlin does his own thing for the last five and Corwin doesn't enter into them much at all, because in a shocking turn of events his trusted butler stabs him in the head.

See, look, you're doing it again.

[uilos.livejournal.com]

:< Sorry.

I'll stop.

Really.