February 23, 2009 at 9:52 am
Returning to the idea of this thread becoming self aware and evolving into Skynet is recursive.
__________________________________________________
Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain. -- Friedrich Schiller
Stop, children, what's that sound? Everybody look what's going down. -- Stephen Stills
February 23, 2009 at 9:52 am
Returning to the idea of returning to the idea of this thread becoming self aware and evolving into Skynet is recursive.
__________________________________________________
Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain. -- Friedrich Schiller
Stop, children, what's that sound? Everybody look what's going down. -- Stephen Stills
February 23, 2009 at 9:52 am
Returning to the idea of returning to the idea of returning to the idea of this thread becoming self aware and evolving into Skynet is recursive.
__________________________________________________
Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain. -- Friedrich Schiller
Stop, children, what's that sound? Everybody look what's going down. -- Stephen Stills
February 23, 2009 at 10:11 am
rodjkidd (2/23/2009)
The Thread is also a little bit Skynet!Maybe it/ he will transform in to every scifi computer system/ cyborb...
So long as it does kill the rest of the crew, sorry posters!
Can I just say that JosephTran2002 from the White House scares me. Maybe he just means a house that is white :w00t:
Also,
Dune - the movie is good, but is a pale imatation of the book.
The mini series was very good and I hope they make the rest.
Not sure about the Dune books writen by his son though.
Never played D&D - must have missed out somewhere!
Rodders...
Actually, I have been enjoying the Dune books co-written by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson.
February 23, 2009 at 10:18 am
I struggled through the Dune books. Much preferred the Foundation series.
If you want something newer, The Lost Fleet series is great, as it Helfort's War and the Clone series (Clone Elite, Rogue Clone, etc)
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February 23, 2009 at 10:42 am
One of the few sets of "novels" I've read from start to finish is the 10 book collection for "John Carter of Mars" written by Edgar Rice Burroughs (same guy that wrote Tarzan). That last book is a little stinky and most think he was actually too ill to write the last one, but the first 9 are great even for way back then. Spielberg would do very well converting them to a series of movies if he kept them true to form.
--Jeff Moden
February 23, 2009 at 10:56 am
One series I'm really enjoying at the moment (not Sci-Fi) is the "Dresden files" by Jim Butcher. It's about a modern-day wizard living in Chicago. Butcher's other series "Codex Alarea" is also very good.
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February 23, 2009 at 11:08 am
Roger Zelazny for me. Lord of Light is my favorite novel of all time. The Amber series was also quite good.
Steven Brust, with his Vlad Taltos series, is excellent.
I think you can really feel the difference in the Dune books between Frank Herbert and Brian Herbert. The latter never felt quite right to me, like some vital understanding was missing.
Has anyone ever read a parody called "Bored of the Rings"? It's the funniest thing I've ever read, and I'd heartily recommend if if you can still find it.
February 23, 2009 at 11:09 am
Bob Hovious (2/23/2009)
Returning to the idea of returning to the idea of returning to the idea of this thread becoming self aware and evolving into Skynet is recursive.
Actually, a little while back, The Thread posted something about being recursive. Seemed to hit a memory problem or something.
- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
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"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon
February 23, 2009 at 11:21 am
Dune is definitely my favorite sci-fi novel. Dosadi experiment (also by Herbert) is also way up there. But I think my favorite sci-fi series of all time is Laumer's Retief books. The humor just doesn't let up, at least for me. (Lots of people disagree with me on that, by the way. Their loss.)
In recent fantasy, I really liked the Wheel of Time series, for about 3 books. Then it just got more and more boring as it went along. Too many characters, too many similar names, WAY too many pages of stuff that just didn't matter. And then the author died before the last book was done.
On classic fantasy, Tolkein just can't be beat, of course.
I've read, and liked, so much that I can't even begin to list all of it here. I've been reading sci-fi, fantasy and a few other genres at a rate of a book or two a month, sometimes a couple of books per week, since I was 7 years old. I think the most I ever read was 12 books in one weekend. (Didn't sleep much that weekend.)
Recently re-read Dickson's "Soldier Ask Not". Remembered it as quite good, but I was wrong. It was excellent, way beyond "quite good". Picked up an AE Van Vogt that I hadn't read before, "The Weapon Makers". Was good, but not up to his usual standards. Read a collection of BOLO stories (based on Laumer's stuff but not by him), and some of those were quite good. Also just read "Mutineer's Moon", which was fun, and definitely an interesting concept. Couple of other's that just weren't all that memorable. That's so far this year (going into the last week of February.)
- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
Property of The Thread
"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon
February 23, 2009 at 11:23 am
Jeff Moden (2/23/2009)
One of the few sets of "novels" I've read from start to finish is the 10 book collection for "John Carter of Mars" written by Edgar Rice Burroughs (same guy that wrote Tarzan). That last book is a little stinky and most think he was actually too ill to write the last one, but the first 9 are great even for way back then. Spielberg would do very well converting them to a series of movies if he kept them true to form.
Those are excellent. Burroughs did a lot of fun writing. If Hollywood touched it, they'd probably do to it what they've already done to his Tarzan stuff, and what they did to Howard's Conan material. Complete junk on both counts, from amazing books to crap movies.
- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
Property of The Thread
"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon
February 23, 2009 at 11:27 am
John Carter!! Gentleman of Virginia!!! Sultan of Swat!!! Beloved of the incomparable Dejah Thordis and greatest swordsman on all Barsoom!!!
Never heard of him.... 😉
Jeff, with a couple of reservations, I'm going to recommend an old series to any lover of epic sword-wielding adventure: John Norman's "Gor" series, also known as the Chronicles of Counter-Earth. Some of you may groan, and I understand why. Here are the caveats:
(1) Books 1-3 are only fair, worth reading only to get the background.
(2) The series went WAY too long past it's prime. I gave up on reading them all before they started coming out with titles like "Weak-side Linebackers of Gor" and "Cost-Accountants of Gor".
(3) The author evidently got into this kick about all men being natural masters and all women being natural slaves. He should have kept it to himself because he was lame at writing vague pornography. Even back in college I used to fast-forward through those pages.
BUT, books 4-10 were great adventure stories, with some marvelous and hilarious characters and many a moment that made a man want to beat his sword upon his shield in thunderous applause, whether a "three against three thousand" melee scene, or even a chess game.
__________________________________________________
Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain. -- Friedrich Schiller
Stop, children, what's that sound? Everybody look what's going down. -- Stephen Stills
February 23, 2009 at 11:31 am
Cheers for "Lord of Light" and the Amber series.
Has anyone read Poul Anderson's "The Broken Sword". Another epic fantasy novel. These are not Tolkien's elves....
As for "Bored of the Rings"...
This ring, no other, was made by the elves
Who'd pawn their own mother to have it themselves...
__________________________________________________
Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain. -- Friedrich Schiller
Stop, children, what's that sound? Everybody look what's going down. -- Stephen Stills
February 23, 2009 at 11:35 am
Bob Hovious (2/23/2009)
John Carter!! Gentleman of Virginia!!! Sultan of Swat!!! Beloved of the incomparable Dejah Thordis and greatest swordsman on all Barsoom!!!Never heard of him.... 😉
Jeff, with a couple of reservations, I'm going to recommend an old series to any lover of epic sword-wielding adventure: John Norman's "Gor" series, also known as the Chronicles of Counter-Earth. Some of you may groan, and I understand why. Here are the caveats:
(1) Books 1-3 are only fair, worth reading only to get the background.
(2) The series went WAY too long past it's prime. I gave up on reading them all before they started coming out with titles like "Weak-side Linebackers of Gor" and "Cost-Accountants of Gor".
(3) The author evidently got into this kick about all men being natural masters and all women being natural slaves. He should have kept it to himself because he was lame at writing vague pornography. Even back in college I used to fast-forward through those pages.
BUT, books 4-10 were great adventure stories, with some marvelous and hilarious characters and many a moment that made a man want to beat his sword upon his shield in thunderous applause, whether a "three against three thousand" melee scene, or even a chess game.
Agreed on all points, including the ridiculous softcore.
- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
Property of The Thread
"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon
February 23, 2009 at 11:36 am
Anne McCaffery's "Dragon Riders of Pern" series, excellent series from years ago. I read those in the late 70's and early 80's.
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