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What books are we reading now?

GKarsEye said:
I"m currently reading "The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan," by Ben Macintyre, a biogrophy (of sorts) of Joseph Harlan, a 19th century American adventurer who tried to conquer Afghanistan with a rag-tag army of mercenaries.
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Joseph DeMartino said:
Another one I think I came across on BookTV. It is on my list. You'd think something like that would make a terrific subject for a major Hollywood film, instead of the next lousy sequel or bad big screen version of a mediocre TV series, or yet another hideous remake of a film that was either great, and therefore can't be remade, or lousy and therefore shouldn't be. :)
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A version of this story was made into a film starring Micheal Caine and Sean Connery.This however was based on Rudyard Kilpling's short story which was inspired by real life events.A few diferances,mainly the two heroes being British.Wont say anymore so as I don't spoil the other book.

Currently reading the first of Gemmel's Troy books.
 
I am looking for a good LONG sci-fi read. Any ideas?

must be at least a trilogy or a REALLY thick book

Hard SF, Space Opera, Cyberpunk or some Heinlein type future fiction would be great. Some decent Alt. History would be cool. It has been ages since I have read a well written Alt. history book.

Just to give you a idea of what I have read so you can cross it off the list of what to suggest to me ;)

I have read: The Foundation Series, most of Turtledove's work/series, Dune Series, LoTR/Hobbit, All of Robert J. Sawyer and Heinlein I can get my greedy paws upon.

And that is it, Help me out please!
 
I quite enjoyed Ben Bova's Exiles trilogy. Which is a fairly quick read for a trilogy though.
 
Do you like A.C. Clarke's writing style? He wrote the "Rama" trilogy?

It's real hard sci-fi so it might bore most people, but it's an interesting trilogy.

I kept hearing rumors that there would be a Rama movie, but I suspect those plans have stalled or died.

And I swear to you, a real fun read (but long at times) is the Harry Potter series. Don't judge the books by the movies, please. :laugh:

The movies cut and twist and water down a lot of things, but that's what movies do, you know? :)

Good luck in your search.

Edit: if you can be content with a couple of shorter works combined, A.C. Clarke also wrote "Childhoods End" and "Songs of Distant Earth".
 
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Clarke has a lot of good books and collections out there.

Stephen Donaldson's Gap series (7 books I believe) is worth looking at.First book is really thin and not much more than cheap porn in places but it does get better and the books considerably bigger.
 
crazyhorse said:
This however was based on Rudyard Kilpling's short story
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I know; I have it on DVD. :) It is precisely the fact that it is fiction twice removed that makes me think the actual story would make for an interesting and original film now, and why I didn't mention the Kipling picture in my own post.

Regards,

Joe
 
crazyhorse said:
Clarke has a lot of good books and collections out there.

Stephen Donaldson's Gap series (7 books I believe) is worth looking at.First book is really thin and not much more than cheap porn in places but it does get better and the books considerably bigger.
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Yes, it gets considerably better, although still gratuitous seeming in some places, it definitely serves a place in the story.
 
Mindwalker said:
I am looking for a good LONG sci-fi read. Any ideas?
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Jerry Pournelle's Co-Dominium novels were a fun future history overtaken by events. His starting concept in the late 70s was a future where the Soviet Union remained a going concern (as who could imagine otherwise at the time) and all-out nuclear war would be avoided, not by the collapse of the USSR but by the Soviets and Americans divvy'd up the world between them. :) This led to space colonization but ultimately resulted in war and collapse and the emergence of an interstellar empire - which itself collapsed after a further series of wars and emerged from a centuries-long Dark Age as a Second Empire. Unfortunately reality made it too hard to bridge the gap between the present and the crucial Co-Dominium period, so Pournelle basically stopped writing novels and stories in the cycle. (Most of the books and stories are stand-alone tales and weren't written in anything like chronological order. The Falkenberg's Mercenary Legion books - mostly short story collections - deal with the period surrounding the end of the Co-Dominium and the formation of the First Empire. The two best and best-known of the cycle are the two "Mote" novels which he wrote with frequent collaborator Larry Niven, The Mote in God's Eye and The Mote Around Murcheson's Eye, two Second Empire books that can be read independently of any of the others. The Mote in God's Eye is one of the best First Contact tales ever written and features an alien race whose biology, technology, and culture are more fully realized and more important to the plot than that of most alien races in SF. So is their "astrographical" position in the galaxy, vis a vis Earth-controlled systems and the prevailing faster-than-light technology. If you want to see an interesting look at the military implications of a certain kind of "jump" drive system, this is the book. The two "Mote" books together make a good long read.

The Legacy of Heorot, a concious bounce on the Beowulf story, is another Niven & Pournelle book that uses biology and ecology to drive the narrative of a First Colony story, and once again they create a tale that ranks among the best ever in its subgenre. (I'm pretty sure there was a sequel, Heorot's Children, but my memory of it is not as clear.)

And at some point every SF fan ought to dip his or her toes into the slightly disreputable waters from which the modern genre arose, the pulp space opera of the 30s, 40s and 50s. E. E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman series is an absolute must, in part to see how a somewhat cartoonish version of the "two ancient races mess with everybody for millions of years" story could help inspire something as adult and serious as B5. Besides, in the course of the story lots of stuff gets blowed up real good! :)

Regards,

Joe
 
I'm just reading some that I need for next semester:

Things Fall Apart
Kiss of the Spider Woman
Remains of the Day

and I'll be perusing the Hobbit and LOTR as well.

Nothing new, though or too fancy, I'm afraid.
 
Remains of the day. I fear it would be a boring read (I'm not too much into the romances). But it made a good movie. :)

I finished awhile ago "The DaVinci Code". I guess I wasn't in the mood for it (too many long, boring descriptions of the architecture and junk), but it was good enough to finish. :)

I'm currently starting "Darwin's Children". I'm almost sure I got that suggestion from an earlier version of this thread.

So yea, more ideas folks. :D

And thanks to those of you who indroduced me to a lot of science fiction I'd likely not have run into on my own. :cool:
 
Ya know, I'm looking forward to Remains of the Day. I've read a few of Ishiguro's other novels and he's an awesome writer.

Never saw the movie, though heard it was great! May watch it after....
 
I'm re-reading starship troopers for what must be the sixth or seventh time, and weeping at what a bad state hollywood must in that they felt the need to commission starship troopers 3, thinking the same about I Am Legend, that book should never have been made into a movie once never mind twice. i'm currently searching around for a couple of books by David Weber, he wrote a series of space operas about a chick called Honour Harrington and having read a couple a couple of the later novels i want to go back and start from the beginning. Think Cornwells Hornblower series except the lead is a woman, and it's in space.
 
Think Cornwells Hornblower series except the lead is a woman, and it's in space.
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Did you mean C.S. Forester's Hornblower series of sea adventures set during the Napoleonic wars, or is there another that I'm not aware of? :)

Regards,

Joe
 
Joseph DeMartino said:
Did you mean C.S. Forester's Hornblower series of sea adventures set during the Napoleonic wars, or is there another that I'm not aware of? :)
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I have certainly heard the rumour that Captain Kirk was based on Hornblower from the Napoleonic Wars.
Also that Mr Spock derived from Sherlock Holmes.
 
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