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Peder said:
Afterthought: Sparky, If my reaction to Ender's Game is as wide of the mark as I think your post suggests, then perhaps it sounds like a good sci-fi book for BOTM discussion by the members there. Just a thought. :flowers:
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Excellent advice Peder, but if we did that, we would need four threads with polls to decide what to do.
 
Peder said:
Hi Sparky, I read your post as meaning you take issue with my evaluation. I also mentioned "imaginative details," which I think relates to your observation and perhaps covers what I take to be our difference.
Perhaps we just suspend disbelief to different degrees about different things.
I'd be interested in your own evaluation of this work. Needless to say (maybe), I have heard of it and its fame.
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I think I read too literally your war-of-the-worlds comment.

I'm not quite sure what you mean about the suspension of disbelief bit and how it would apply to differences.

I think it's a classic and I feel it to be the best example of the "and you thought it was only a game" trope out there. Sadly the sequels disappoint although I did enjoy Ender in Exile.
 
Thanks for your post Sparky.

sparkchaser said:
I think I read too literally your war-of-the-worlds comment.

I'm not quite sure what you mean about the suspension of disbelief bit and how it would apply to differences.
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I just meant that different people might react differently to different aspects of the story -- liking certain parts of the genre, being underwhelmed by other parts.

sparkchaser said:
I think it's a classic and I feel it to be the best example of the "and you thought it was only a game" trope out there. Sadly the sequels disappoint although I did enjoy Ender in Exile.
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Sci Fi is not a genre I have read extensively, and this is the only Ender, so I don't have many examples for comparison. But as you say, it is a classic. There I agree, which is why I read it. I thought some parts seemed remarkably ahead of their time, such as a training school in orbit. Other parts seemed more ordinary in the modern context, such as weightlessness and its implications. What was avant garde then, and making the work deserving of its historical fame, dulls a little with the passage of time and the growth of technology, and leaves the story sounding somewhat less than exceptional in a literary sense, e.g. in its predictabilty. Hence my sort of ho-hum reaction.

That "and you thought it was only a game" is frequent enough to be a trope is new to me. I thought it a clever and imaginative twist for plot resolution. Still do.

And I thought all the subplots were tied up very nicely. So finally it did end up as a satisfying read.
 
Invisible by Paul Auster. Alleged murder through different pairs of eyes, with erotic interludes. So-so. :cool:
 
The Odd Tales of an Old Man

I just really finished this book recommended by a friend called the Odd Tales of an Old Man by Edward P. Cardillo. I can't quite place it. It's part drama, part horror, part dark fantasy with a sprinkle of sci-fi. I loved it.
:innocent:
 
Intelligence by Susan Hasler. A humorous novel set in the post 9-11 intelligence world as suspicions of another terrorist attack emerge. The author, a former employee of the CIA has artfully combined everything you have probably ever heard, known, suspected or believed about the CIA, Presidential advisers, and Senatorial committees, whether true or false, into this beach read for followers of the genre. Written to be entertaining, and even gripping at times, you will probably learn nothing you didn't already know; and everything you might already have learned might even be confirmed for you. Read for enjoyment, not for insight.
 
Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (Graphic Novel) illustrated by I.J.N Culbard, adapted by Ian Edgington. One gets the story, with a full dose of Wilde's epigrams, but with very unappealing artwork.
 
Polly Parrot said:
Aww, did they ruin it? I love that novel.
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I suspect the answer must be 'yes.'
An endless diet of witty epigrams makes tiresome reading, and I would suppose there were some elements of dramatic suspense and character development in Wilde's writing between the high points of the plot selected for the GN. So I am sure it must not have the literary feel of the original. Duh, no big surprise if so. But at least now I know the story and have a clearer indication of Oscar Wilde's sharp tongue -- and without much effort. /hangs head in shame/
 
Here is I. N. J. Culbard's work,I do like 'The Hound Of The Baskervilles's cover more,could it have to do with the story? It seems the Dorian Gray cover is more clean cut,pretty etc.
STRANGE PLANET STORIES
 
Libra said:
Here is I. N. J. Culbard's work,I do like 'The Hound Of The Baskervilles's cover more,could it have to do with the story? It seems the Dorian Gray cover is more clean cut,pretty etc.
STRANGE PLANET STORIES
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Hi Libra, that's a good question you raise. Let me do some research to try to figure out why I am put off by the illustrations for Dorian Gray when I haven't been put off for other of the relatively few GNs I have looked at. I'll post further when I can assemble some specific reasons other than "I didn't like it."
Thanks for the question.
Peder
 
Michael Connelly's A Darkness More than Night - It reunites three of Connelly's characters in Harry Bosch, Terry McCaleb and Jack McEvoy. I though it was so and so. I wanted more interaction between all three. Now on to my next Harry Bosch book.:star3:
 
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