Whats everyone reading?

[Colin YNWA]

...or that Carlos Ezquerra worshipped a pebble shaped like Charlie Brown's winkie. That'd ruin everything for me!

More importantly how do you know the shape of Charlie Brown's winkie?

[The Legendary Shark]

Onto Chapter 5 of EG - It's not crap but it doesn't shine, either. The word "buggers" does get in the way, though, but that's probably just a British thing - I keep getting the vague feeling that it's going to turn into a Two Ronnies sketch at any moment. (From memory, part of Barker's Ministry of Communications monologue: 'Nobody's going around bugging each other, thank goodness. As the Minister himself said, "we don't want any bugs in this Ministry - I'm the only big bug around here." Now, thirdly, I come to my second point...')
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Still, enjoyable enough.
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Oh - and a bit of pimpage: don't forget to vote in the Short Story Voting Thread!
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Colin - I'm saying nowt!

[Tjm86]

On a reread of Dune since my wife amazingly bought me a copy for Christmas!  Since I haven't read it in nearly 30 years it's been interesting.  His literary style is incredibly easy going but I'm finding reading it through slightly more mature eyes (!) that I'm getting so much more out of it.

BTW Sharky, if you're working through Le Guin's stuff then make sure you don't miss the Lathe of Heaven.  That will be a great one to make you think, particularly with your political views.

[The Legendary Shark]

Added to the list, Tjm, thanks!

[sheridan]

just to clarify, I meant there's a conic version of Ender's Game, not the LeGuin stuff. I didn't really rate it myself, but I've never been a huge fan of Orson Scott Card - don't really like military-style SF such as EG, and I find it hard to divorce his work from his frankly repellent political views (I don't think any artist should be dismissed or not enjoyed due to politics, or else we'd lose so many great classics, but sometimes it's hard to separate them in your head)

I certainly wouldn't want to write off dead authors or artists due to unrelated political views, but it's a bit more difficult to do that if the money you pay for their work goes directly to them, rather than the-estate-of...

[von Boom]

On a reread of Dune since my wife amazingly bought me a copy for Christmas!  Since I haven't read it in nearly 30 years it's been interesting.  His literary style is incredibly easy going but I'm finding reading it through slightly more mature eyes (!) that I'm getting so much more out of it.

BTW Sharky, if you're working through Le Guin's stuff then make sure you don't miss the Lathe of Heaven.  That will be a great one to make you think, particularly with your political views.

I've read Dune many times and I continually get new things out of it. Probably because my own views of the world keep shifting.

[The Legendary Shark]

Finished Ender's Game and found it surprisingly enjoyable. It moves along at a steady pace and is easy to read. I guessed the major plot twist before it was revealed but not too soon to ruin the story - which is either good storytelling or me being dim. Probably the latter, to be frank. It was good enough to encourage me to read the next one, anyway.
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A friend gave me a DVD with the complete Science Fiction Masterworks collection on it and this book was included (along with The Dispossessed and about a hundred others I really should have read sooner but mainly haven't. (A great gift!)  I have to convert the files so they'll work on my Kindle but that's no real hardship.
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Right, next is Gateway by Frederick Pohl...

[von Boom]

In all honesty Sharky don't be in a rush to read Speaker for the Dead. It's not  nearly as good and is fairly plodding really.

Gateway, however, is fantastic.

[The Legendary Shark]

There seem to be quite a few "Enderverse" books (I've discovered another folder on the disk my friend gave me with hundreds more books in it of varying formats) so I'm wondering if they're worth bothering with. I hate it when you get sucked in to reading a series that declines as you go along. Best just to read Ender's Game and forget the rest until I've nothing else left to read?

[von Boom]

That would be my plan. I read Ender's Game and loved it so immediately went to Speaker. Big mistake. I've never read any other Ender book since then.

From what I can tell, the other ender books are Ender's Game retold from different character's points of view, but I could be wrong.

[The Legendary Shark]

Thanks for the tip :-)

[Tjm86]

I've read Dune many times and I continually get new things out of it. Probably because my own views of the world keep shifting.

Rather apposite when you think about it.  Once I've reread the Rama cycle (not sure I actually ever read the last one) I think I'm going to have to hunt down the rest of Frank's Dune novels.  Most of the comments about the ones written after his death have been more than a little scathing.

[von Boom]

I've read Dune many times and I continually get new things out of it. Probably because my own views of the world keep shifting.

Rather apposite when you think about it.  Once I've reread the Rama cycle (not sure I actually ever read the last one) I think I'm going to have to hunt down the rest of Frank's Dune novels.  Most of the comments about the ones written after his death have been more than a little scathing.

I wouldn't bother with the hack's McDune books. They contradict Frank's books many times and often themselves. You'd only waste your time and money.

[Tjm86]

So go and watch Superman vs Batman then?

[von Boom]

Absolutely.