Jeff’s Comments (group member since Dec 29, 2010)

Jeff’s comments from the BGGWW Books group.

Any one still here? Work's and play have kept me from reading much books (that coupled with having a few duds on the bookstand), but the last one read was an anthology of Sci-Fi stories including one entitled...

The Cassandra Project.

It was not about what I expected :)

Goo wrote: "So, who's getting the Kindle Fire?"

Tempting, but I'm not a fan of Amazon (or Apple) pushing their customers to their own commerce sites exclusively. I'll probably just end up getting a solid Android tablet when I next upgrade (if they're still around then)

Definitely not! World War Z is more about the humans surviving than the zombies. And the greatest part of WWZ is the psychology of survival. Well, that and the extreme environment zombies, which are very much glazed over in the ZSG

This was an awesome book. Just don't read his Zombie Survival Guide if you've read this. It seems like disjointed author's notes for the novel.

And Miraria, you have seen the official CDC preparation site for Zombie attacks? http://www.bt.cdc.gov/socialmedia/zom...

Definitely looking for some new suggestions... but I'm also starting to organize an RPG campaign, so I might be lacking time to actually read.

He may take forever to have written it, but at least George knows where to start a book tour. About ten minutes from my house on the release date, July 12th.

I'm reading it currently. Not sure what to think of it. The concept of psychohistory initially put me off, but I'm willing to see what Asimov's going to do with it. As a man who likes history, the long view here is quite intriguing.

If it's anything like the reductionist analysis of the Empire's representative's meetings, I might not be too happy.

Yeah, the Eastern plot arc remains that way through most of the books -- and there is already the Beyond the Wall arc distracting from the politics. One I can see as a breather/pacing argument, but both may explain why the books are getting too big to write. The chapters of the east may have worked well as interludes if he had portioned his books out into Parts, but the story is too fluid to segment like that.

Thanks!

We need a nudge here. Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron?

Foundation?

The Sheriff of Yrnameer?

Barron's New York State Grade 6 English Language Arts Test?

I'd be up for any of those. I think I've read I, Robot (not sure, but I did read a good amount of is robot work) I even pulled my copy of the foundation Trilogy out of the library and returned it to my to read shelf. Still haven't done that series. Is Jasper Fforde the Tuesday Next author? I really enjoyed the first one, but the idea seemed to get stale after a few retreads.

Time to pick a new book folks. Any nominations?

I actually just finished Elantris. I can definitely say he made a serious leap from first book to next book. Hopefully, he continues his improvement.. his magic systems are wonderful, but his character development seems a bit stale at times.

He famously predicted he'd die during a convention last September, and was through writing novels. But I can't find any evidence that he's not still kicking around out there. He is definitely marching on past his best-by date though.

(Shameless cut and paste from http://www.sfwa.org/nebula-weekend/ne... )


Short Story

‘‘Arvies’’, Adam-Troy Castro (Lightspeed Magazine 8/10)
‘‘How Interesting: A Tiny Man’’, Harlan Ellison® (Realms of Fantasy 2/10)
‘‘Ponies’’, Kij Johnson (Tor.com 1/17/10)
‘‘I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno’’, Vylar Kaftan (Lightspeed Magazine 6/10)
‘‘The Green Book’’, Amal El-Mohtar (Apex Magazine 11/1/10)
‘‘Ghosts of New York’’, Jennifer Pelland (Dark Faith)
‘‘Conditional Love’’, Felicity Shoulders (Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine 1/10)
Novelette

‘‘Map of Seventeen’’, Christopher Barzak (The Beastly Bride)
‘‘The Jaguar House, in Shadow’’, Aliette de Bodard Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine 7/10)
‘‘The Fortuitous Meeting of Gerard van Oost and Oludara’’, Christopher Kastensmidt (Realms of Fantasy 4/10)
“Plus or Minus’’, James Patrick Kelly (Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine 12/10)
‘‘Pishaach’’, Shweta Narayan (The Beastly Bride)
‘‘That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made’’, Eric James Stone (Analog Science Fiction and Fact 9/10)
‘‘Stone Wall Truth’’, Caroline M. Yoachim (Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine 2/10)
Novella

The Alchemist, Paolo Bacigalupi (Audible; Subterranean)
‘‘Iron Shoes’’, J. Kathleen Cheney (Alembical 2)
The Lifecycle of Software Objects, Ted Chiang (Subterranean)
‘‘The Sultan of the Clouds’’, Geoffrey A. Landis (Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine 9/10)
‘‘Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance’’, Paul Park (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 1-2/10)
‘‘The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen’s Window’’, Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean Magazine Summer ’10)
Novel

The Native Star, M.K. Hobson (Spectra)
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit UK; Orbit US)
Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)
Echo, Jack McDevitt (Ace)
Who Fears Death, Nnedi Okorafor (DAW)
Blackout/All Clear, Connie Willis (Spectra)

Jason wrote: "NEWS! GRRM announced this morning that there's a "real publication date" for A Dance With Dragons: July 12"

Yup, July 12, 2112

Dr. Ben wrote: "Thanks for the warning. To be honest, though, I don't see myself reading any Herbert in the future after this."

But, but... there's that awesome one about mind-controlling cheese!

Yes, really. The Santaroga Barrier

Sci-Fi can bring up a lot of interesting themes. But Dune is definitely more about the idea than the stories. I think the best way to desribe it is Herbert took a perfect haiku and tried to make it into a sonnet. Too lengthy and not the right form anymore.

The sisters really develop through the novels. I was actually rather shocked to read that they seemed similar in the beginning. They do a great deal of differentiating in the series.

Goo wrote: "I tossed a coin and started A Game of Thrones. I was about 20 pages in when I noticed how intensely you all have been drooling over the sequel to Name of the Wind and started kicking myself a bit...."

Sadly, AGoT really doesn't end. It's more like the first chapter...

Also, I really, really suggest you and Ben don't look into Herbert's The White Plague. The overarching concept is a terrorist who designs a virus that kills only women.

I'd say be willing to actually give the Ecological Appendix a go. It's the best of the lot (that I bothered reading, admittedly) and is a focused extract of the part of the book we both didn't hate.