The other John's comments
The other John's comments from the SciFi and Fantasy Book Club group.
Note: The other John is no longer a member of this group.
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"The Sound of Thunder" is the name of that Bradbury story.I also loved:
"Jeffty is Five" by Harlan Ellison
"The Cheese Stands Alone" by Harlan Ellison
"The Sword of Damocles" by James Hogan
"And He Built a Crooked House" by Robert Heinlein
"Needle in a Timestack" by Robert Silverberg
Those are the ones I recall off the top of my head. Give me a few days, er, maybe weeks, to peruse my short story collections and I could come up with more.
Baaaaaaa! ;-)
A Farscape movie? I don't know if I like that idea. Could they recapture the magic? Could they do a decent story given the changes that occurred in The Peacekeeper Wars? When I think of the idea, I have to think about the original Star Trek series. Of the six movies they did after the show's demise, there's only one that I would say really was really good.
In the end, I think I would be content to simply watch the old episodes again and remember how good it was.
Lori said: So likewise, something taking place in Seattle would be pretty devoid of the f bombs.
That is, unless it was taking place on the Metro bus. ;-)
Personally, I think of foul language as akin to spice. In the right amount, it can add flavor to the writing. Too much spoils the whole work.
Siddhartha?
That's a surprise
You're Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse!
You simply don't know what to believe, (actually, I do) but you're willing to try anything once. (Well, maybe within the confines of my beliefs...) Western values, Eastern values, hedonism and minimalism, you've spent some time in every camp. (Hardly.) But you still don't have any idea what camp you belong in. (A kernel of truth there.) This makes you an individualist of the highest order, but also really lonely. (True...) It's time to chill out under a tree. (With a laptop and wifi connection?) And realize that at least you believe in ferries. (I do! I do!)
Angie, as far as ads go, Goodreads is a pretty good site. Like you and Sandi and Lynn, I don't find the ads here to be overly obtrusive. Still, no ads is better than small, unobtrusive ads. When you're stuck in dial-up land like me, the less data you have to download, the better.
Harry Turtledove has a whole mess of alternate history novels. It's quite a challenge to keep them all straight. There's the Worldwar series in which the second World War is interrupted by invading aliens. Then there's the 11-part Timeline-191 series which has no aliens but features 80+ years of on and off conflict between the United States and the victorious Confederate States of America. (I just finished reading that series and I can recommend the initial novel, How Few Remain, and the first trilogy, The Great War. The subsequent novels are lesser efforts.) And there's also an unrelated novel, The Guns of the South, which also features the Civil War, but involves time travelers providing the Confederates with AK-47s.
Leslie said:A suggestion for you: try any of Harry Turtledove's alternate history series. He's done a series about how the world would be if the Allies had lost WWII, and one in which the South successfully seceded from the USA. I especially enjoyed that series. I believe the first book is called 'The Guns of the South'.
If I'm not mistaken, The Guns of the South is a standalone novel where time travelers supply the Confederacy with AK-47s. How Few Remain is the Turtledove novel which kicks off the Timeline-191 series, in which the USA and the CSA fight three wars in the 80+ years following the "War of Secession".
The only thing you could do, Otis, to make me stop splitting "my" books between using LibraryThing and GoodReads is to somehow make me dissatisfied with one or the other. Right now, I don't see any advantage to me to take the time and copy my LT data here. (If it's any consolation, I also have no desire to move my "reads" list over there.) Now if you started offering cash incentives, I might reconsider... ;-)
I'm a Librarything-er who was invited over to Goodreads by a friend. I agree with Melissa that LT is the superior cataloger but GR has the edge on the social networking. Of course, I've never really tried to network with LT, and when I came to GR I had no need to start re-cataloging my library. So maybe I'm not the best judge between the two.Oh and just to clarify: Librarything does charge $10 if you want to catalog more than 200 books, but it also offers a $25 lifetime membership with the same benefits. For me it was a small price to pay to be ad-free.
I finished last night. Sorry. Couldn't help it. It sucked me in!
The first venue that popped into my mind was Callahan's Crosstime Saloon, but I have to agree that you might get a better crowd in the Shire.I don't know who'd I'd invite. I'm tempted just to see who shows up.
I thought it was a great part of the book. I enjoyed how Stephenson made connections between the ancient and cyber cultures, putting his own spin on history. It appealed both to the SF geek and the historian in me.
Now that I've finished the book, I find myself wishing that Hiro would deliver another pizza. I'm ashamed to admit that out of all the things that made up this fine tale, I enjoyed the initial car chase the best. It made me feel twenty years younger. (Not that I ever drove like that in my own burbclave...)
That's the idea. ;-)
And notice that on A Wizard of Earthsea they got the skin tones right.
John makes a good observation about LeGuin's style in this book. In one sense, however, I found it a bit refreshing. 'Twas a nice change of pace from your typical, big, thick fantasy novel.
My favorite would either be the nature of Earthsea itself--the scattered islands with a multitude of boats plying the waters in between--or Ged's battle with the dragons. My least favorite thing? I have no complaints whatsoever.
Feb 12, 2008 11:11AM
I think the thing that one has to remember is that whenever you adapt a creative work to another medium, changes will be made. Some of them are from necessity, others stem from the new artist's interpretation of the original. That said, I would have to wonder why the producers had to change Ged's skin color. It certainly isn't a cinematic necessity.Of course, I have to confess that despite Ms. LeGuin's character description, I continued to have a mental image of Ged as a white boy. But I think the story was still good despite my unintentional "re-coloring".
No complaints, Nick, I think you're doing fine. Lots of things can affect an online discussion, so I would see how the next couple of months go before I'd start looking for something to fix.
(another John, that is.)
I agree that Vonnegut has made Billy a figure to be mocked, but is he doing it to encourage the reader to be otherwise? Or is it to point out the futility of trying to control one's (or others') destiny? I lean towards the latter interpretation, though over the years I've come to disagree with it. I did enjoy Vonnegut's lampooning of the status quo, however. I just wish he had offered a better alternative.
As for whether Billy was actually travelling in time and space or if it was just his own delusion, well,I think that's delightfully ambiguous. I prefer to think that it's reality myself, just like I like to pretend that Calvin's and Hobbes' adventures are real. ;-)
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