September Reading Thread

[Danny McG]

I still hold to the fact that the only way I could make Ender's Game plausible for me was to add about 6 years onto all of the children's ages

Well, from the story opening until the final battle it was about eight years, it wouldn't have worked if they'd all been older at the start.

A grown man probably wouldn't have fell for the subterfuge.

In the updated edition OSC has a long introduction where he expounds in detail why the kids were that age.
He also gives several instances of people contacting him to tell him kids that age don't talk like that. His response is that they were all the pick of Earth's super smart kids, just what battle school needed

 

[Vertigo]

Yes I've seen all the justifications but I've certainly never met any kids that sort of age with even close to that level of maturity

 

[tobl]

Yes I've seen all the justifications but I've certainly never met any kids that sort of age with even close to that level of maturity

i understand what you mean but how many genius have you met?

 

[Parson]

I thought Ender's Game was alright. Even though it was originally meant as a stand-alone book,

Whether true or not, I don't know, but I was told this by someone who "claimed" to know that Ender's Game began as a (short story, novella -- old man memory problem) but OSC developed it into a novel because he needed it to set up Speaker for the Dead. If that's so, OSC was tracking with what you are thinking.

 

[Bren G]

Jo Zebedee "Inish Carraig"
Gripping. Excellent @Jo Zebedee . Many thanks for the free download. Loved that it was set in N. Ireland.

I'm actually reading it too! Love the little 'bots!'

BG

 

[hitmouse]

Whether true or not, I don't know, but I was told this by someone who "claimed" to know that Ender's Game began as a (short story, novella -- old man memory problem) but OSC developed it into a novel because he needed it to set up Speaker for the Dead. If that's so, OSC was tracking with what you are thinking.

Unaccompanied Sonata, published in Omni sometime in 1978 or thereabouts, is often viewed as a precursor to EG. Some strong parallels but opinions may vary about proximity to EG. It is an excellent ss however.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I am well into Krumnagel (1971) by Peter Ustinov (yes, the actor.) It's a satiric novel about an American chief of police on vacation in the UK. The author's poison pen spares no one on either side of the Atlantic.

 

[Parson]

Sigh! I so wanted to finish Out of the Silent Planet, but it just seemed to have no action and the age of the S.F worked against it. I quit (for the second time I think). Went to reading Final Days (book 2 Colony) by Jasper P. Scott and our own Nathan Hystad, Forty-four percent in and liking it a lot.

 

[Pyan]

The Di Vince Code by Dan Brown

I think im one of the few people on Earth who hasn't read this book. Im reading it now.

If you don't count reading the first twenty or so pages, then pitching it violently into the charity shop bin, I haven't read it either. And if anyone ever asks if there's any similarity between The Da Vinci Code and Eragon, just refer them to me...

Rereading Mønti Pythøn ik den Hølie Gräilen (Bøk), which turned up in a box from the attic I was sorting. It's (allegedly) the first draft of the film-script, and what's cut is often as funny as the final script. Turns out to be a first edition (1977) as well, which is a bonus.

 

[BAYLOR]

If you don't count reading the first twenty or so pages, then pitching it violently into the charity shop bin, I haven't read it either. And if anyone ever asks if there's any similarity between The Da Vinci Code and Eragon, just refer them to me...

Im about half way though it. It's not a great literature but, it has just enough action to keep me reading.

 

[Bick]

I finished Wild Cards I, the first volume in the GRRM-edited sci-fi superhero series, and enjoyed it very much. I probably expected to find it entertaining, and it was, but I probably didn't expect to find it to be quite as good as it was. Some of the stories, such as the Zelazny and the Walter Jon Williams were really good, and I'd recommend it. More here.

I'm now starting The Reefs of Earth, by Raphael Aloysius Lafferty. Not sure exactly what to expect but I've heard great things about Lafferty and have failed to read him yet, which is probably some sort of SF crime, so I'm setting that straight now.

 

[hitmouse]

I finished Wild Cards I, the first volume in the GRRM-edited sci-fi superhero series, and enjoyed it very much. I probably expected to find it entertaining, and it was, but I probably didn't expect to find it to be quite as good as it was. Some of the stories, such as the Zelazny and the Walter Jon Williams were really good, and I'd recommend it. More here.

I'm now starting The Reefs of Earth, by Raphael Aloysius Lafferty. Not sure exactly what to expect but I've heard great things about Lafferty and have failed to read him yet, which is probably some sort of SF crime, so I'm setting that straight now.

I like Lafferty a lot, but in very small doses. His prose can be gnomic to the point of perversity. Try not to get too frustrated.

 

[HareBrain]

Im about half way though it. It's not a great literature but, it has just enough action to keep me reading.

After the first hundred pages I found I couldn't put it down, and at the end I realised I'd gained nothing from it. It's the literary equivalent of eating two tubes of Pringles.

 

[BAYLOR]

After the first hundred pages I found I couldn't put it down, and at the end I realised I'd gained nothing from it. It's the literary equivalent of eating two tubes of Pringles.

I agree with that .

 

[BAYLOR]

I like Lafferty a lot, but in very small doses. His prose can be gnomic to the point of perversity. Try not to get too frustrated.

I just recently finished Past Master by Lafferty. the book is a mere 191 pages and yet, it took me a week to get through it. There is so much to this slim book , you want to read it slowly just to drink every detail and nuance of it . For such a small book , it is vast in terms of scope ,themes, ideas and characters. Past Master is a great, grand and remarkable book and , it was well with the time spent reading it !

 

[Paul_C]

I finished The Silence of the Wilting Skin by Tlotlo Tsamaase, which I enjoyed, though I'm not sure I really understood it. Maybe a second read through would help.

After that I began By Force Alone by Lavie Tidhar, a retelling of the Arthurian story, which is trundling along very pleasingly so far.

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

In the evening I'm reading Agent Sonya, by Ben Macintyre. And at other times I'm reading Staying Alive. Real Poems For Unreal Times, edited by Neil Astley.

 

[saulfan]

Just finished a novella by an author new to me: Elizabeth Berridge

'The Story of Stanley Brent'

This was her first published work, I believe, (in 1945) and a hugely accomplished achievement.

Quite a dark work in a number of ways - highly recommended.

I'm excited to find further works by her now.

Best Wishes,
David

 

[Galactic Bus Driver]

I thought Ender's Game was alright. Even though it was originally meant as a stand-alone book, it works better as a precursor to Speaker for the Dead. Speaker has some of the best concepts I've read in any book, especially the title - speaking for the dead. I appreciate the handling of vastly different intelligent life forms and how they come to mutual understanding. I also like the idea of the piggies having a "third form" and how this plays into the story. Overall, Speaker for the Dead is very philosophical. I never finished Xenocide. It also had good concepts, but the story is so slow moving it became boring.

In one of it's many editions, "Ender's Game" includes a short interview with Card in which the subject of the short story and it's subsequent novel length story came up. Card made it clear that the novel was the story he felt he had to tell in order to tell the story he wanted to tell, that being "Speaker for the Dead." "Xenocide" was a weak third book, but the wheels truly came off with "Children of the Mind." Ender and Speaker are my favorite books by Card, but I think the Shadow series was a better overall series.

 

[Danny McG]

I've finished book 2 in the destroyer trilogy by BGT. (Good stuff!)

I'm now reading 'To sleep in a sea of stars' by Christopher Paolini