I've heard of that book... or I'm having a mean dose of deja vu. My poor demented mind is slowly going.

"Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do..."

Most women have had to brush a man's hand off their thigh or wriggle their way out of an unwanted embrace, and while the author may just be trying to establish a character as being a slimeball or going for realism, for those women who weren't able to wriggle out of such an embrace the experince of reading it or seeing on the screen can be very uncomfortable--almost like having to relive the ordeal. I've always thought there should be a disclaimer of some kind for such books or movies. We use these things for escapism.

But, then again... I know a lot of survivors who love to read those V.C. Andrews books. Go figure.

[This message has been edited by grasstains (edited 08-04-2006).]

Altered Carbon completed today after a page turning frenzy throughout the book. I can't hardly beleive this book is over 500 pages long. I was definitely into it, even though he did borrow/coined a few of Gibsons invented words and scenario's. Started Accelerando by Charles Stross, I really love the title of this and I hope it lives up to the name and hype. May read Count Zero next but I am unsure and unconcerned at the moment about what comes next.

Finished Nevada Barr's first. Not that impressed, really. She has some good surprises and descriptions, but her caracters aren't very realistic or well-developed.
She comes off a bit misanthropic, too.
I like Diane Mott Davidson much better.

I'm about sixty pages into Accelerando by Charles Stross and hating it. First book I've read in a long time that I almost immediately felt like putting down. It just seems like a bunch of meaningless dribble barely coherently tied together by shallow flashy characters. Its like the whole book is a conglomeration and mish mash of about forty authors scrambled together in one book. I kept thinking that something is going to happen at twenty pages, thirty, now sixty, I guess thats my answer as much as I don't like not finishing a book, I'm putting it down.

Stross is one of those authors who is more popular with the highbrow set, an author's author. I usually don't "get" those kinds of authors either. Samuel Delany and Gene Wolf are also like that.

Stross' SINGULARITY SKY is difficult for other reasons. In that book you have to be well-versed in the whole singularity theory thingy because Stross doesn't really do much of a job explaining it, or perhaps I'm just a bit thick-headed, but anyways... I didn't "get" that book either.

A lot of hoopla has been made of his short story "Lobsters", and I can't really figure out why. It is a good story, but nothing great. Deals with a guy who makes people rich, it's his knack of knowing when and how to invest, pullout, downsize, upgrade, buy, sell, increase production, or simply giving advice on how marketable a certain gadget may be or how to get around copyright laws. He ALWAYS makes people rich. Although he himself has little money (too many complications for him) he really has no need for it as his tabs are picked up by others wherever he goes. "Carte blanche" I guess you'd call it. That's his asking price. With no money he can never be sued and it frees him up to be more daring than even the biggest companies, which in itself is a pretty cool idea. He's fearless and quite powerful as a result. Everyone respects him, needs him, and fears him--this guy with no money. Eventually, it takes a woman to find a way to nail him down, or rather... tie him down. Now, that I think about it I guess it is a pretty cool story. Pretty cool, but still not GREAT.

Sounds like wishful thinking.
Come to think of it, wishful thinking may be the inspiration for much writing!

What you just described is the book Accelerando. I just couldn't stomach his twisted stab at humor or his "deep" story plot using words no one has ever heard of before, sorry I found it to be drivel, especially the added bonus of the ex-wife dominatrix into the plot, POLEEEZE wipe my memory from my cortex stack! Your right though, the initial story line is kinda cool, but it wasn't given the treatment it deserved to be great or even so so.

Wow! I never knew ACCELERANDO was an expanded version of "Lobsters". Stross was offering it free on the internet through his homesite prior to the actual release of the book. Trying to hype it, I guess. Personally, I can't read novel length stuff on my computer. There's nothing like kicking back with a real book in your hands. E-books are gonna have to not only go handheld to really catch on, but be softer on the eyes somehow.

Yes on both accounts. They will have to figure out just what that certain magical appeal is about a book with turning the pages and holding it in your hands. Maybe if the hand helds looked more like a Martian singing book, I'd go that route. I think it also has something to do with an ancient inherent trait of ownership as in "having and owning" a book as opposed to an electric file on a computer. I've often been reading at night though and thought how wonderful it would be to have an overhead projector of some kind that shuts off automatically when you fall asleep. Did I read that in a book, I wonder?

Just finished Count Zero by Gibson. I enjoyed it a lot, but not the mind blower Neuromancer was. My hand, quicker than the eye, has chosen Kim Stanley Robinson's Forty Signs Of Rain off my stack. Sorry Grass, I have Sturgeon Is Alive And Well in my desk drawer. It's next.

KSR is our local SF superstar. He lives in a self-sustaining/eco-friendly community of tract homes in Davis, California which is about 20 minutes from me. His stuff is pretty far left and he tends to beat you over the head with it at times, but with me he's just preaching to the choir. I like him and I'm glad to have him nearby. I just wish he was more visible and vocal. This IS the state capital, you know.

THANKS!
dandelion
for the continued upkeep of this board.