Carlos's comments (member since Apr 18, 2009)

Carlos's comments from the SciFi and Fantasy Book Club group.

I believe it to be a major component of some eastern socieites(Japan, China), which would certainly mesh with the daoist overtones, or so I think.

Agnes is pretty much my favourite, though Crowley and Death are also excellent.

Although just thinking quickly on it, Famine was almost as good. The bits about "Meals(tm)" had me laughing out loud.

I absolutely loved the Dispossesed. I reccomend that one to anyone interested in her. She did a lot of great work with it.

LHOD was both to me. Anything involving the characters and ideas was excellent, while I wasn't particularly thrilled by the descriptions of the places. This is no fault of the book or LeGuin, just that I'm not much for pure description in my reading.

I did really like the intermediate myths and stories, they made the book somehow more real to me.

I loved Exhalation. Ted Chiang is just an incredible author. I feel like I'm reading science fiction by Borges when I read him, it's just so excellent. Exhalation might even be his best story yet. I certainly hope it wins the Hugo, though I suppose he's in no pressing need of another.

Right, and also a Stephan King story about a boy by a river getting attacked by the devil. Easily the scariest thing I have ever read. I want to say it's the man in the black suit, but I cannot be sure.

I have to second the reccomendation of Card's masterpieces of science fiction. Whenever I think of science fiction stories that I truly love, they are almost all from that collection.

(But not quite!)

Personal favorites:

Dr. Mortimer Grey's History of Death

A Sound of Thunder

Robot Dreams

Repent Harlequin, Said the Ticktock Man

A story along the lines of "10^26000" (I can't quite recall the name)

I Have no Mouth and I Must Scream

The collected works of Ted Chiang in general, and in particular:

Hell is the Absence of God(more of a novella)

Exhalation(easily one of the best stories I've ever read)

Liking What You See

and one which is named something like "The Things We Must" or something about a device that has a negative current delay.

Otherwise, outside of science fiction, some of Lovecraft's work and absolutely anything by Borges.

Yes, that does seem very likely. I would have liked to know what it was she saw, but I suppose the extra hundred pages might not have been worth it :)

I agree, I was quite a fan of Princess Arjumand. I also was a fan of Verity in both her victorian guise and as her more actual self.

I also agree about Baine, he's a clever character and quite funny.

Though I do admit that some characters do drag on a bit, as was mentioned earlier.

Honestly, I wanted to know a bit more about Maud. I understood why Terrence liked her(I liked her!) but I didn't understand why she would like Terrence.