Books
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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.
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@mclaincausey saw your post mentioning William Gibson in the WAYWT thread. If you've read it, how did you find "The Peripheral"?
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@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).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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? 
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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.
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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 -
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.
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I was given a USB stick with about a million (slight exaggeration) Kindler books on it. I chose a book at Randon.
Are you there, vodka? It's me Chelsea. By Chelsea Handler
Never heard of her, but she makes me giggle:
"I remember having this feeling early on, during the second day of kindergarten. It became apparent to me that all of my classmates had the necessary faculties to play a serious game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey, but had no designs on how to forge a late note from their parents"
"There was more adult supervision at the Neverland Ranch than there was in my house growing up"
"….as if you're the only one in the world who's ever had a baby, I could have had a baby too....if I had gone through with any of my pregnancies."
