November 2019 reading thread

[M. S. Ari]

I have started reading of Permafrost by Alastair Reynolds

 

[hitmouse]

Also quantum entanglement and quantum teleportation can worth thinking about. It has been done in some light molecules.

I don't want to be dogmatic, but light does not come in molecular form.
My understanding of quantum entanglement effects are that they are not really the same as teleportation.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

I'm about to begin Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

I don't want to be dogmatic, but light does not come in molecular form.
My understanding of quantum entanglement effects are that they are not really the same as teleportation.

They are not.
See here, which explains everything.

 

[hitmouse]

They are not.
See here, which explains everything.

For anyone who wants to try to get their head round this intriguing and very odd set of phenomena, I strongly recommend this lucid and funny explanation:

 

[althea]

I'm on the waiting list for Things Made by Adrian Tchaikovsky.It will be out on November 5th. I'm really looking forward to it.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

@althea, I hope you won't mind a small correction on that book title. I love AT, so went to look for this, to get a sense of the story and maybe pre-order it. It's actually Made Things, and here is the Amazon UK link.

Made Things: Amazon.co.uk: Adrian Tchaikovsky: 9781250232991: Books

Buy Made Things by Adrian Tchaikovsky from Amazon's Fiction Books Store. Everyday low prices on a huge range of new releases and classic fiction.

www.amazon.co.uk

 

[Rodders]

Started Secret Circles (the second of the teen Jack series).

 

[M. S. Ari]

I don't want to be dogmatic, but light does not come in molecular form.
My understanding of quantum entanglement effects are that they are not really the same as teleportation.

sorry but by light I mean simple . I know that with entanglement scientists can bind 2 different particles together and changing in properties of one of them can change the other one simultaneously even if they are separated 1ly from each other. With this we will create a real time link through space to transfer data. So if we can convert ourselves to some kind of information it will teleport us to other places very quickly. I am not sure but I think this is the mechanism people use to transport to other places in Dan Simmons Hyperion in detective and the robot chapter.

 

[Danny McG]

Today I'm having a go at an urban horror fictional story by Jon Athan - The Abuse of Ashley Collins.

This proved a bit disappointing, the plot got repetitive with lots of gruesome torture and screams.
It was more novella length so it's finished okay and now I can enjoy this:-

 

[Hugh]

This proved a bit disappointing, the plot got repetitive with lots of gruesome torture and screams.
It was more novella length so it's finished okay and now I can enjoy this:-
View attachment 57595

Is that the SF Masterworks edition containing 22 stories?

 

[Danny McG]

Is that the SF Masterworks edition containing 22 stories?

I'm not sure, the blurb for that says 'Introduction by Neil Gaiman' but I don't see that in my ebook.
I downloaded this together with another collection of his stories 'The man who talled tales'

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I have just started Look Big: And Other Tips for Surviving Animal Encounters of All Kinds (2018) by Rachel Levin, a mostly humorous guide to what to do about creatures ranging from ants to bears. Lots of illustrations (not photographs) and sidebars, so it's a very light read.

 

[Parson]

Finished Polaris by Jack McDevitt. I'm still trying to process what I thought of it. On the one hand it is a pretty good mystery and it has some interesting ethical questions. All to the good! ---- But it has that kind of light campy tone that drives me bats. It doesn't ever "feel" as though the really serious situations they find themselves in are actually really dangerous because the reader is reminded occasionally that this is a memoir which ratchets down the tension to a large degree for me. I might come back to this series but feel no compulsion at this time.

I'm thinking I'll move on to a murder myster: Cut and Run by Mary Burton.

 

[Hugh]

I'm not sure, the blurb for that says 'Introduction by Neil Gaiman' but I don't see that in my ebook.
I downloaded this together with another collection of his stories 'The man who talled tales'

Many thanks! I've just ordered "The Best of".

Publication: The Best of R. A. Lafferty

www.isfdb.org

I've read most of these but scattered in different anthologies - it'll be good to have them in one place. The introductions to each story should be fun also.

I can't find any trace of 'The man who talled tales'

I'd really love to read all of his short fiction but the five volumes of his collected short fiction are ridiculously obscenely vilely expensive.

 

[Danny McG]

I can't find any trace of 'The man who talled tales

Apparently it's available free download and it in theory has all his work...like everything!

I haven't looked at my download yet, it's stored in TBR file on my laptop but I'm only reading 'the best of' for now

The Man Who Talled Tales

Given their haphazard publication and preservation even while he was alive, the state of R. A. Lafferty's literary corpus is even more he...

www.goodreads.com

 

[Elckerlyc]

I can't find it either. It was published in 2015, that's 4 years ago. Nothing that's free lasts that long. Usually just as long as it takes for someone to smell money.

 

[Hugh]

Patti Smith "Year of the Monkey"
The latest riffs from Patti Smith's internal world. I doubt much will stay with me, but she's a unique and interesting individual.

 

[Hugh]

I can't find it either. It was published in 2015, that's 4 years ago. Nothing that's free lasts that long. Usually just as long as it takes for someone to smell money.

I've found it at BookFrom.NetArchive:

The Man Who Talled Tales: Collected Short Stories of R.A. Lafferty (R. A. Lafferty) » p.1 » Global Archive Voiced Books Online Free

This book was compiled and released by The Books of Sand and is licensed for distribution under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC 3.0). This means that it can be

archive.bookfrom.net

Now I need to get my kindle to cooperate.

Edit: Yayyy! Linked to my kindle! Hopefully I'll be dipping into this for a while. There's nothing quite like a Lafferty short story for reaching the parts other stories don't reach.

 

[Vince W]

Starting To Prime the Pump by A. Bertram Chandler, the second John Grimes story.