Guns Of Icarus Online
Off-Topic => The Lounge => Topic started by: DMaximus on August 08, 2013, 11:12:42 pm
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I'm re-reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig. It's a study of values and the differences between the classical, rational view and the romantic viewpoint. Illustrated early on mainly through the analogy of maintaining a motorcycle, the author blends travel novel, his erased past, and philosophy dissertation together to explain his philosophy of quality. Just previous to this I read Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs, and it's very interesting to see the influence the Beat Generation had on Pirsig's writing. I highly recommend ZAMM, but I'm much more reserved on Naked Lunch. It's... interesting, but incredibly disjointed and makes little sense as a story. You need to just enjoy the prose, I guess.
My favorite quote so far is:
"Each machine has its own, unique personality which probably could be defined as the intuitive sum total of everything you know and feel about it." (Pirsig 44)
I'm not really much for vehicle maintenance, but as a Computer Engineer, I see this all the time with the hardware and computers I work with.
We have to have some other readers in the GoIO community. What are you currently reading?
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Just recently, I bought and read Swallow's book, Arteess: Conflict.... in a night.... I'm not real good at summarizing things, so I will just put the link here:
http://elsewhen.alnpetepress.co.uk/index.php/catalogue/title/arteess-conflict/
It's a great book, that sucks you in from the beginning :))
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It's called "he's back" (german book). Bought it because I loved the book cover design. Surprisingly it's has a hilarious parody story in it.
(http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01652/SNF1134BOOK_1652386a.jpg)
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I been reading a lot of John Ringo's work lately, I've also got some David Weber queued up as well along with some Brian Jacques (May he rest in peace.)
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I'm about half way through "The long dark tea-time of the soul" by Douglas Adams. like all Douglas Adams novels it's extremely witty and the story is like a Douglas Adams esque take on Sherlock Holmes, mixed in with Norse gods.
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a3/Long_dark_tea_time_of_soul_UK.jpg/200px-Long_dark_tea_time_of_soul_UK.jpg)
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this thread?
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I'm about half way through "The long dark tea-time of the soul" by Douglas Adams. like all Douglas Adams novels it's extremely witty and the story is like a Douglas Adams esque take on Sherlock Holmes, mixed in with Norse gods.
I have this sitting on my self right now. It's probably going to be my next read after I finish Zen. I loved Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (and of course, Hitch Hiker's Guide), so I'm looking forward to it.
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I fear I may need to by Swallow's book. Reading a Neal Stephenson right now.
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O.o how bizarre. I saw that Zen book at the store a few weeks back and thought it was an interesting title. Out of ALL the books I could've looked at, I saw that one, and now you've mentioned it.... Freaky.
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Now, I'm not reading it currently, but I highly suggest reading Ender's Game. It's an Orson Scott Card book, so get ready for underlying messages, but I'd say read it chiefly because they're making a movie of it. A movie which looks very very separate to the book, and for some reason tells you the ending in the trailer. In short, read for the bending of Ender's mind and the social commentary on the compliance of mankind when faced with annihilation.
I just finished a decent book, Child of Vengeance. It's a fictional account of the early life of Miyamoto Musashi/Miyamoto Bennosuke and as such it takes one of the many possible variations on his tale. Interestingly it goes for a far more outlandish take, causing Game of Thrones-esque political manipulation bound up in the honour code of samurai. In terms of time period, it's at 1600 AD, and the climax of the novel occurs at the Battle of Sekigahara. For those with an interest in Japanese culture this is a decent start, as most of the real accounts are muddled and conflicting. For the Dynasty Warriors fans out there, this is just after Nobunaga Oda kills himself, and the battle is his apprentice Tokugawa Ieyasu facing off against the Clan Ukita. The winner of said battle goes onto become Shogun, and yet another reunification of Japan.
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Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melnibonè. A book my friend threw at me and told to read. Enjoyable night-time read thus far, nothing as deep or intellectual as previous ones.
But I do recommend reading Chris Evans' A Darkness Forged In Fire, a fantastic musket-punk with fantasy. ^^
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I fear I may need to by Swallow's book. Reading a Neal Stephenson right now.
I'm half-way through re-reading Skinner by Neal Asher.
Psyching myself up for another re-read of the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson. I've read it two or three times since it came out, it takes me three months to get through it all.
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Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of WWII by Keith Lowe. I'm not very far into it yet but I find it really fascinating.
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I fear I may need to by Swallow's book. Reading a Neal Stephenson right now.
I'm half-way through re-reading Skinner by Neal Asher.
Psyching myself up for another re-read of the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson. I've read it two or three times since it came out, it takes me three months to get through it all.
Neal Stephenson is amazing, I have Cryptonomicon and Anathem sitting on my shelf now (the rest are at my parents house). Zodiac is about Boston, so I have to love that one (even if it's about how polluted the area is). I pretty much love all of his writing.
If you liked his more sci fi stuff (like Diamond Age and Snow Crash) I highly recommend picking up some William Gibson. Neuromancer is a classic and a must read for any SF fan. His more recent books aren't hard SF (no more cyberpunk, sadly) but they're all quality. I'm struggling to describe them well, so I'll simply state that they are always enlightening each one makes you think about something you likely haven't considered before.
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My copies of Count Zero and Mona Lisa Interrupt are probably older than many players of GOIO!
Neuromancer I had to replace more recently after losing it a while ago. I have most of the novels of Neal Stephenson, William Gibson Iain M Banks and China Meiville sat on my shelf. All the Laundry novels by Charles Stross (highly recommended if you like HP Lovecraft and have a sense of humour), several Paolo Bacigalupi (I've got to recommend The Windup Girl), there's some Ken MacLeod, Peter F. Hamilton (I can recommend Great North Road) .. .. and that's just some of the sci-fi..
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I am unable to read fiction, My concentration just ends there.
However I read some comics from time to time, and just finished preacher again.
Also I have received my history book: a companion to europe 1900-1945 which will act as inspiration for my finals at history.
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Finishing up "The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke". Amazing set of 1950s -> 1990s scifi which really shows the progression culture and scifi in general has taken! (From OHGODNUCLEARPOWERISGREAT to "Warp drives, lasers, and cloning").
Still have a massive backlog. I don't read as much as I would like to, just a bit each night.
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My copies of Count Zero and Mona Lisa Interrupt are probably older than many players of GOIO!
Neuromancer I had to replace more recently after losing it a while ago. I have most of the novels of Neal Stephenson, William Gibson Iain M Banks and China Meiville sat on my shelf. All the Laundry novels by Charles Stross (highly recommended if you like HP Lovecraft and have a sense of humour), several Paolo Bacigalupi (I've got to recommend The Windup Girl), there's some Ken MacLeod, Peter F. Hamilton (I can recommend Great North Road) .. .. and that's just some of the sci-fi..
Meiville is a little hit or miss with me, but in the end I always enjoy reading his books. I've been meaning to pick up some Iain M Banks for a while now, but haven't gotten around to it. I'm going to have to check some of those out.
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Meiville is a little hit or miss with me, but in the end I always enjoy reading his books. I've been meaning to pick up some Iain M Banks for a while now, but haven't gotten around to it. I'm going to have to check some of those out.
If you do, I recommend you start with either Consider Phlebas or The Player of Games. Excession is probably my favourite, but you're jumping in at the deep end with some of the concepts of the Culture.
I know what you mean about Chine Meiville, I really wasn't keen on Iron Council for some reason.
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Last thing I read was the Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell. It does scifi space battles that obey most of the laws of physics as we currently understand them. Such as no faster than light communication. All speeds given in fractions of the speed of light. All distance given in light seconds or light minutes as well as noticeable delays in communication and information about objects far away. Some Faster than light transportation hand waving is done to permit one fleet to do battle in multiple solar systems without putting their crew in Cryo. It also plays off the resurrected legendary hero trope which I enjoy.
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Reviving this discussion thread.
Anyways I've been reading some of Ray Bradbury's work as of recent, mostly due to a project I had in english a few months ago, but even then I think he's an author well deserved of the praise he's given.
I also read the Zone of Thought series by Vernor Vinge, not entirely sure how to describe it, best you googled it and find out yourself.
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Reviving this discussion thread.
Anyways I've been reading some of Ray Bradbury's work as of recent, mostly due to a project I had in english a few months ago, but even then I think he's an author well deserved of the praise he's given.
I also read the Zone of Thought series by Vernor Vinge, not entirely sure how to describe it, best you googled it and find out yourself.
Have you read Something Wicked This Way Comes? It's probably my favorite Bradbury.
I just finished Infinite Jest a week or so ago. It's... really weird? I'm still not too sure how I feel about it.
Currently reading Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson. It's like a William Gibson/Neal Stephenson tech thriller meets the Arabian Nights. I've heard it described as an IslamoPunk novel, riffing off of cyberpunk. I'm really enjoying it and heartily recommend it.
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Been reading A Song of Ice and Fire the last couple of weeks, and that's actually part of the reason I haven't been playing GoIO.
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Decided to read Heinlein's Variable Star, and I'm not regretting that decision.
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Just recently finished re-(re?)-reading Terminal World by Alistair Reynolds. Of distinct interest here because about half of the book is set on steampunk airships in an apocalyptic future. Most of Reynolds work is very very sci-fi, and I love all of his books, but this one really sits well with GoI.
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Just recently finished re-(re?)-reading Terminal World by Alistair Reynolds. Of distinct interest here because about half of the book is set on steampunk airships in an apocalyptic future. Most of Reynolds work is very very sci-fi, and I love all of his books, but this one really sits well with GoI.
Oh wow, I haven't read that one! I love Alistair Reynolds books in his Revelation Space Universe (even got a couple signed by him at a book signing) but I didn't know he did any steampunk stuff.
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Just recently finished re-(re?)-reading Terminal World by Alistair Reynolds. Of distinct interest here because about half of the book is set on steampunk airships in an apocalyptic future. Most of Reynolds work is very very sci-fi, and I love all of his books, but this one really sits well with GoI.
Oh wow, I haven't read that one! I love Alistair Reynolds books in his Revelation Space Universe (even got a couple signed by him at a book signing) but I didn't know he did any steampunk stuff.
AHHHH JEALOUS. The Revelation Space universe is so awesome. If GoI allowed so many characters, one of my ships would have been named Nostalgia for Infinity from day 1.
Terminal World is the only steampunk he has written (that I know of). It is really interesting how he does it. Good book, but not his best. My personal favorite of his is Century Rain. It doesn't share a universe with any of his other books, but it spins a fabulous tale on its own. If you like Reynolds and haven't read it, go get it now. :P
Also, congrats on being the first person I have found who has read his books. Woo!