• Home
    • Recent
    • Calendar
    • Register
    • Login
    Iron Heart Forum
    Iron Heart Forum

    Iron Heart Fall/Winter 2025 Collection Preview - Now Live

    Books

    Hobbies and Pastimes
    146
    930
    241.5k
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • AppfaffA
      Appfaff
      Raw and Unwashed
      Joined:

      Ooooo I’d be all Into that one!

      Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

      last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • JDelageJ
        JDelage
        啓蒙家
        Joined:

        I finished the book yesterday night (the book would not let me sleep); it's very good. The writer is an excellent storyteller.

        last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • mclaincauseyM
          mclaincausey
          見習いボス
          Joined:

          Anyone read "Lost City of the Monkey God"?

          Great true adventure story about the effort to discover a pre-Columbian society's lost cities in the harshest rainforest in the world in Honduras. Hard to put down and some great characters.

          Think it, be it.

          last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • S
            Steffen
            Joined:

            After Giles dropped the Word WabiSabi yesterday googled a bit and then ordered these two books to educate myself a bit on the topic

            last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • JDelageJ
              JDelage
              啓蒙家
              Joined:

              Impulse purchase from a couple weeks ago. Very good.

              last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • AetasA
                Aetas
                見習いボス
                Joined:

                The cover was attracting. Addictively readable…a bit wacky, but makes me laugh sometimes.

                last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • neph93N
                  neph93
                  見習いボス
                  Joined:

                  @mclaincausey saw your post mentioning William Gibson in the WAYWT thread. If you've read it, how did you find "The Peripheral"?

                  «Stevie Heighway on the wing!
                  We had dreams, and songs to sing…»

                  • Dame Vera Lynn
                  last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • mclaincauseyM
                    mclaincausey
                    見習いボス
                    Joined:

                    @neph93:

                    @mclaincausey saw your post mentioning William Gibson in the WAYWT thread. If you've read it, how did you find "The Peripheral"?

                    Bloody brilliant! I really love his imagination and prose and enjoyed him getting back to a more dystopian futurist vibe per the Sprawl and Bridge trilogies (not that I didn't enjoy to a lesser extent the Blue Ant stuff as well).

                    Think it, be it.

                    last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • neph93N
                      neph93
                      見習いボス
                      Joined:

                      I need to go back to it and do it again. Of all the story arcs I love The Sprawl the best because it’s OG, next comes Blue Ant which I think is his best work, then The bridge Trilogy (which is last but still beloved).

                      When I got my hands on The Peripheral I was seriously wired but it didn’t work out for me. There were things I loved but it didn’t gel into a full «Gibson» experience. I’m betting that’s more to do with me than him.

                      I’ve keenly re-read everything he’s written so it’ll be interesting to go back to something with a slightly sceptical frame of mind.

                      «Stevie Heighway on the wing!
                      We had dreams, and songs to sing…»

                      • Dame Vera Lynn
                      last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • mclaincauseyM
                        mclaincausey
                        見習いボス
                        Joined:

                        @neph93:

                        I need to go back to it and do it again. Of all the story arcs I love The Sprawl the best because it’s OG, next comes Blue Ant which I think is his best work, then The bridge Trilogy (which is last but still beloved).

                        When I got my hands on The Peripheral I was seriously wired but it didn’t work out for me. There were things I loved but it didn’t gel into a full «Gibson» experience. I’m betting that’s more to do with me than him.

                        I’ve keenly re-read everything he’s written so it’ll be interesting to go back to something with a slightly sceptical frame of mind.

                        As far as skepticism goes, I still haven't read "The Difference Engine," mainly based on the setting in the past. That's a crime, because I'm a huge fan of computer science and love books that similarly plumb the history of computer science and blend it with fiction, like "Cryptonomicon" by Neal Stephenson. Also love his "Snow Crash," which reads as a satire of cyber punk while still being cyber punk AF.

                        Think it, be it.

                        last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • JDelageJ
                          JDelage
                          啓蒙家
                          Joined:

                          Good book: easy to read but insightful.

                          last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • mclaincauseyM
                            mclaincausey
                            見習いボス
                            Joined:

                            The Field by Lynne McTaggart

                            I'm only 12 % in and already this one of the most profound things I've ever read.

                            Reality is far stranger that we think, and there is more connection within the universe than we can imagine.

                            Think it, be it.

                            last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • xtcclassicX
                              xtcclassic
                              啓蒙家
                              Joined:

                              @Chris:

                              Thinking about reading Name Of The Wind again.  While wondering about when Rothfuss is going to get the last book finished, I came across this interview Rothfuss did with Leo Laporte.  It's very long and rambling, and the connection cuts out a lot, but there's some interesting stuff about the books and his creative process.

                              Oh, and the answer is probably 2014, if you're curious…

                              Well it’s 2019 and still nothing, BUT I heard Showtime is adapting the Kingkiller “trilogy” into a series, so I expect Rothfuss is going to pull a GRRM and they’ll finish the series long before we see the last book in the trilogy.

                              last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • ChrisC
                                Chris
                                Raw and Unwashed
                                Joined:

                                Damn, I utterly forgot about that.  ???

                                I think Rothfuss irritates me more at this point than Martin. C'mon Pat, it's just one more book!  I feel so completely burned by these two that I've instituted a person rule to never read a book series until it's completed.

                                last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • mclaincauseyM
                                  mclaincausey
                                  見習いボス
                                  Joined:

                                  Good rule. I'm done with epic fantasy after tiring of how long-winded The Wheel of Time series was. Not to speak ill of the dead, but the Robert Jordan was either milking it or just needed serious editing. He could have done many series in the world he created had he wanted, or created other worlds, instead of dying before he could complete the story.

                                  Think it, be it.

                                  last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • JDelageJ
                                    JDelage
                                    啓蒙家
                                    Joined:

                                    I read the first Wheel of Time book and found it incredibly boring. The character are not well defined, and the story is a drag - not to mention that the atmosphere is quite dark.

                                    last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • S
                                      Snowy
                                      Joined:

                                      Recently got through The Stormlight Archives. Near the end of book 3 I got the feeling it wasn't going to wrap up.. found out it's a 10 parter when part 4 isn't due until next year some time - talk about rest of life wait!

                                      The Wheel of Time - I got through it all over the last 2 years. I enjoyed most of it, I think it was around 3 books too long. It got a fresh breath of life when Sanderson picked it up.

                                      The Magician - that's another epic series I've loved.

                                      Random question; do any of you know of a sci-fi book where the characters upload their consciousness into a coke can and go travelling out into space on the back of a laser beam fired from earth to propel them? There's a cat in there. I read the book years ago but for the life of me can't recall what it's called and what to re-read. Have been trying to find it again for around 2 years, have skimmed through most of the books I can think of and can't find it 😕 Help? 🙂

                                      last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • ChrisC
                                        Chris
                                        Raw and Unwashed
                                        Joined:

                                        I tried The Wheel Of Time twice, maybe three times, but never made it through the first chapter.  Several of my friends liked the series, so I wanted to like it, but it just never grabbed me.

                                        Never read anything like that one, @Snowy, so I can't help you on your quest, sorry.

                                        last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • JDelageJ
                                          JDelage
                                          啓蒙家
                                          Joined:

                                          @Snowy:

                                          Random question; do any of you know of a sci-fi book where the characters upload their consciousness into a coke can and go travelling out into space on the back of a laser beam fired from earth to propel them? There's a cat in there. I read the book years ago but for the life of me can't recall what it's called and what to re-read. Have been trying to find it again for around 2 years, have skimmed through most of the books I can think of and can't find it 😕 Help? 🙂

                                          Any SF book with a cat suggests Heinlein, but that one isn't one. The only series I can think of with consciousness traveling through space is the (excellent ) Altered Carbon series. No Coke can though.
                                          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_Carbon

                                          last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • mclaincauseyM
                                            mclaincausey
                                            見習いボス
                                            Joined:

                                            No idea (very Douglas Adams-sounding), but it makes me think of replicating von Neumann machines, which at our current level of understanding of physics is the most plausible way for a civilization to propagate across a galaxy unless an Alcubierre drive or other technology could ever get us to travel faster than the speed of light (absolutely staggering how vast the galaxy is and it's such a tiny piece of the known universe)–to that end, there was a novel written about that fairly recently that I've not read called We Are Legion (We are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor. I've not read it.

                                            Think it, be it.

                                            last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                            • First post
                                              Last post
                                            Copyright Iron Heart 2025.