Concerning Fine Literature

[loinburger]

Nightfall by Isaac Asimov is about a planet in perpetual sunlight. Every few millennium the planet's multiple suns and moons align to bathe the planet in darkness, at which point the planet's civilization collapses and starts over again; this time some of the planet's inhabitants are trying to prevent this.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy is set in a post-apocalyptic Earth in which a man and his young son try to survive against starvation and cannibals. Also highly recommended by McCarthy is Blood Meridian, a Western in which a young man joins a bloodthirsty band of mercenaries in Mexico during the Comanche Indian wars.

Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter Miller is set in the United States after WWIII. A Catholic monastery attempts to preserve the knowledge of the previous age by recovering lost texts and re-copying them. The book consists of several short stories following the progress of the monastery as the world around it recovers from the war, e.g. the first short story takes place several hundred years after WWIII, the next takes place a few hundred years after that, etc.

Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison is the first in a series of novels about a futuristic con man. In the first book he is caught following a bank robbery and is coerced into joining the inter-stellar government's spy and law enforcement agency.

World War Z by Max Brooks is about the aftermath of a global zombie apocalypse, told as an oral history by the survivors in interviews conducted by the author.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley takes place in a dystopian future where humans are divided into a caste system from birth, e.g. the Alphas are the highest caste who are given intelligence enhancements and the like, while the Epsilons are the lowest caste who are given limited amounts of oxygen during development rendering them mentally retarded (the state controls all reproduction - high-caste women are given mandatory birth control pills, and low-caste women are infertile). Unlike almost every other dystopian novel I can think of, this one is told from the perspective of the highest caste - life as an Alpha is physically pleasurable as they consume legal narcotics and engage in orgies, not caring that their society is built on what is essentially slave labor.

And that's all I can think of offhand.

[molly bloom]

[
Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter Miller is set in the United States after WWIII. A Catholic monastery attempts to preserve the knowledge of the previous age by recovering lost texts and re-copying them. The book consists of several short stories following the progress of the monastery as the world around it recovers from the war, e.g. the first short story takes place several hundred years after WWIII, the next takes place a few hundred years after that, etc.

Two thumbs and two big toes up for me on that one. His 'View From The Stars' and 'Conditionally Human' are worth a read too.

I like Harry Harrison's 'A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah !' and Ward Moore's 'Bring The Jubilee' :

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1400134.A_Transatlantic_Tunnel_Hurrah_

Ward Moore’s Bring the Jubilee has become an honored classic of alternate history. Like Walter Miller’s A Canticle for Leibowitz, it is one of the great books not only of science fiction but of historical fiction in general. In some quarters, both novels have become required reading for students of history

http://www.bewilderingstories.com/issue23/books.html

And don't forget Tevis's 'The Man Who Fell To Earth' ....

[Tuberski]

Just bought it via Amazon

So, has it come in yet?

ACK!

[loinburger]

Nope, I got the cheap shipping option

[Tuberski]

The thing you have to remember about the book is that it was edited and published by a gaming company, so there are a few redundancies.

ACK!

[PLATO]

Only in the new world of the internet does "presto42" sell things to "Zim-Zam O'Pootertoot" !

[loinburger]

The thing you have to remember about the book is that it was edited and published by a gaming company, so there are a few redundancies.

It came in the mail yesterday

"Sorry, that was my younger brother - he's been pretending to be a woman ever since he saw Psycho last week"

"37 injured in barroom brawl. Tuberski says they all tripped."

[Tuberski]

Ah, the famous See 'Em Dead Zoo Bar and Grill Massacre.

ACK!

[DaShi]

Nightfall by Isaac Asimov is about a planet in perpetual sunlight. Every few millennium the planet's multiple suns and moons align to bathe the planet in darkness, at which point the planet's civilization collapses and starts over again; this time some of the planet's inhabitants are trying to prevent this.

Vin Diesel was awesome in that and then nothing else.

[Tupac Shakur]

I've read Dune up through God-Emperor

You probably stopped at the right place. While a strong argument could be made for stopping after Children of Dune, God Emperor had enough interesting ideas and connections to characters you know and care about to be somewhat worthwhile (unlike the subsequent books).

[Tupac Shakur]

Forever War by Joe Halderman is about a man who is conscripted to fight an unknown alien threat. Due to the effects of relativity, a year passes by for the man while hundreds of years pass by at home, resulting in tremendous cultural and language changes to the point that he can't even communicate with new recruits.

[Dinner]

I stopped by the local book store this evening and picked up The Hedge Knight by GRRM, The Blade Itself by Joe Ambercombie, and Before they are Hanged also by J.A. (it's the second book in his series).

[molly bloom]

Detective fiction which I've enjoyed and can recommend:

'The Church Of Dead Girls' by Stephen Dobyns:

In a gripping prologue to this masterful psychological thriller, Dobyns creates an unforgettable scene: in an attic shrine, the bodies of three dead girls are tied to chairs; all have had their left hands cut off. Aurelius, the town in upstate New York where this bizarre discovery is made, is the kind of place where everyone knows everyone else. As the narrative gains momentum, Dobyns brilliantly chronicles the gradual ripping away of all trust and familiarity within the community. Everyone seems guilty, even the fussy high-school science teacher who relates the events leading up to the disappearances of the three girls. Paramount in everyone's mind is the recent return to Aurelius of Aaron McNeal, a young troublemaker whose mother, Janice, was murdered years earlier. The belated revelation that Janice's left hand had been severed, too, signals that her murderer is still at large. The citizens of Aurelius begin to see each other by the dark light of potential guilt. In a story full of brilliant touches, Dobyns, who writes the Saratoga Mystery series, shows how the support group for the family of the first victim metamorphoses into a vigilante patrol that witch-hunts Aurelius into a state of paranoid terror. In the end, this chiller is about the awful power of fear. When the people of Aurelius go looking for a monster, monsters are all they can see.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-8050-5103-2

I liked the decaying small town setting, and the creation of an atmosphere of a witch hunt.

Sjowall & Wahloo- The Martin Beck Series:

Widely recognised as the greatest masterpieces of crime fiction ever written, these are the original detective stories that pioneered the detective genre. Translated into 35 languages and with sales over 10 million copies around the world, the Martin Beck Series has been a phenomenon. Written by a husband and wife team from Sweden, the ten novels follow the fortunes of the detective Martin Beck, whose enigmatic, taciturn character has made him a lasting favourite amongst fans of crime fiction.

Books in this collection
Cop Killer - The Martin Beck Series
The Locked Room - The Martin Beck Series
The Man on the Balcony - The Martin Beck Series
The Fire Engine That Disappeared - The Martin Beck Series
The Man who went up in Smoke - The Martin Beck Series
Murder at the Savoy - The Martin Beck Series
The Terrorists - The Martin Beck Series
Roseanna - The Martin Beck Series
The Abominable Man - The Martin Beck Series
The Laughing Policeman - The Martin Beck Series

http://www.thebookpeople.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/qs_product_tbp?storeId=10001&catalogId=10051&langId=100&productId=151694

Ignoring the hyperbole, they are a great series- a searing portrait of Swedish society and full of biting wit.

[Dinner]

I'll have to check those books out.

[Elok]

I'd also recommend Ursula K. Le Guin's 'Earthsea Trilogy' especially as Elok has offspring- it's great for reading to children.

Just noticed this. I couldn't find the Earthsea books there last time (we saw the bizarre Studio Ghibli adaptation and it piqued my interest), but I wasn't trying super-hard. Also, Laz is only one, so it'll be a while before we need kid books of the non-board type. And even if they have board books at the library, that just sounds like a bad idea--sort of a county-wide germ-spittle exchange. Anyway, thanks for reminding me.

Going to the library again today with a short list...