Watcha reading??

[JohnT]

Perdido Street Station. God, what an overhyped bit of scatology!

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Kassiopeia
Dan Simmons's Fall of Hyperion. I finished Hyperion a few weeks ago and the blasted book ended right when things started to get interesting. In other words, they are pretty much one novel split in two parts.

Wonderful book, one that is helped immeasurably by the shift in perspective from the first book. Meina Gladstone is one of my favorite science fiction characters - I wish he'd do more with her, but it looks like Simmons has put down the Hyperion universe as well.

The next two novels are just as good, but more languid and less compelling than the other two. Things have changed in the Hyperion universe... but then, not all things have done so.

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Kassiopeia


So I've heard, but a friend told me that Endymion and Rise of Endymion are more on the ripoff scale of novels; that is, Fall of Hyperion wraps things up nicely and the rest are somewhat inferior to the first two books. But I'll probably check out Endymion and see if it's going anywhere. The Hyperion universe is very fascinating.

While I'm sure he's a helluva guy in all other regards, when it comes to the two post-Hyperion novels your friend is a dolt. Read them, but don't expect the same story told the same way with the same pacing and same style as the other two books. Simmons is too good of an author for that.

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Sava
"Executive Orders" -- Tom Clancy...

pretty decent so far, Jack Ryan (of course) is made president after a plane crashes into the Capitol and kills Congress, the Joint Chiefs, the President, his cabinet, the Supreme Court, and a lot of the secret service. The book deals with how Jack is rebuilding the government.

Possibly the greatest rah-rah, "USA! USA!" popcorn novel of the 1990's. Good choice, young squire.

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

no, the vice-president resigned because of a sex scandal and Ryan agreed to become Vice President until the end of the term

That COULDN'T be it! Veep is President of the Senate, so it obligated to be there at the State of the Union. He was just made a Cabinet Minister, IIRC, and was GOING to be the Veep.

SPOILERS FOR THE BOOK "DEBT OF HONOR" AHEAD!!!! PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!!

To make it work, Clancy used quite a number of liberties with protocols and functions, so comparing what happened in the novel to what should happen in real life is quite meaningless, as well it should be: this is fiction, after all.

Anyway, what happened was this: Kealty, the original VP, resigned due to a sex scandal. The Pres. nominated Ryan and a special session of Congress was called to swear Ryan in*. This session includes the Congress, Senate, and Supreme Court, and Clancy gave the "not-there-for-Constitutional-reasons" cabinet member such a low-sounding posting (one that I don't think really exists, though I can't remember it) that they weren't going to scrabble for the job of President.

The President made a speech for Ryan, explaining his role in the recent Japanese war. The Senate made their vote (everything had been agreed to in the first place, so the fix was in) and the vote came in overwhelmingly for Ryan. During all this Ryan was waiting in an antechamber with his family, waiting to be called up to the Senate floor to be sworn in by the Chief Justice. However, after the Senate logged their vote and made it official, but before he was called to the ante-chamber to be sworn in, the plane hit, leaving Ryan the highest ranking member of government still alive - but his status uncertain.

Except for Ed Kealty, who makes a big stink about whether or not he really resigned... apparently hoping (along with Clancy) that America forgets that they just saw the new VP get sworn in right before the government done got blowed all to hell.

*In real life, no such session is called for. Gerald Ford got sworn in as President in the East Room of the White House at 12:05pm, 30 minutes after Nixon's official resignation. Otoh, there were probably ranking members from Congress and the Senate on hand as witnesses, as well as TV camera's and the administrator: Chief Warren Burger.

**IRL, the family would already be seated in the chamber watching the President give his speech and the Senate their vote, all the while waiting for Dad to show up.

[gunkulator]

Originally posted by Tingkai
I'm halfway through Bill Bryson's new book A Short History of Nearly Everything.

This is a great book for layman about science. Bryson looks at things like how do we know how much the earth weighs, or how old it is, evolution and genetics.

What's equally interesting are the stories Bryson tells about the famous and not-so-famous scientists.

The book is extremely well-written and covers so many scientific disciplines that I think even a scientist would find it interesting.

.
Here's another vote for Bill Bryson's books. I enjoy his writing style: mixing off-beat history with a good dose of humor. I've read "I'm a Stranger Here Myself" and "In a Sunburned Country." The latter book is about Australia and has so many interesting historical tidbits, that I bet even Aussies are unaware of many of them.

I'll have to try the book you mentioned, Tingkai.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Harry Seldon
Yep, with a kid.

iiuc she remarried and had another kid. thats one of the things that delayed book 5.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by St Leo
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. JK Rowling gets better with every new book she writes.

no - i think book 3 was better structured and more compelling than book 4.

[Saras]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
well i was reading Peter Ackroyd's "london: a biography" (non-fiction) im interested in the topic but found Ackroyds approach annoying - good thing its a library book.

I bought that recently. Big mofo of a book.

Now I'm reading "Cold War Hot: Alternative Decisions of the Third World War" by Peter Tsouras. The first chapter doesn't look promising.

Also just finished "Financier: a biography of Andre Meyer". Meyer was the man who turned Lazard Freres into a M&A powerhouse as well as started or jump-started many well known business ventures, which are thriving corporations today - Avis, Holiday Inn, Warner-Lambert.

[Zkribbler]

I found Terry Prachett's "Thief of Time" on a close-up shelf, so I'm re-reading it.

[monolith94]

http://lookinside-images.amazon.com/Qffs+v35ler6Cce3qmw9ec7pbioQa/uux7kgW+JLgkhySbas2RMQlqX0mp4a7/uVXWXaCEhHRgk=

[monolith94]

I love thief of time!