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Post by MartinT on Feb 17, 2022 14:36:15 GMT
I'm reading How Not To Be Wrong by James O'Brien, the LBC broadcaster. It's very well written and argued and leaves me both laughing and shaking my head at some of the things callers have said over the years, as well as their extremist viewpoints.
Nice quote by The Secret Barrister...
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Post by Slinger on Feb 17, 2022 15:49:21 GMT
Miriam Margolyes - This much is true. A superb autobiography, touching and funny in equal measure, and fairly vulgar too.  |
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Post by rfan8312 on Jul 22, 2022 14:22:17 GMT
Anyone familiar with Three Body Problem trilogy?
I joined the reddit page weeks ago just lurking. I downloaded a text sample of the first book (the 3 are The Three Body Problem, The Dark Forest, Death's End) and it feels a bit tedious to read though what I'm reading on reddit about this series is mindblowing. I've never had any luck with audio books but I'm considering trying the audio book here.
Written by an author from China these Sci-Fi novels take place during a cultural revolution in China during which signals are being sent into space. At some point contact is made.
People who enjoyed these books are saying it is just bonkers. What caught my attention was the mention of a device a race uses called "droplets". Unmanned ships used as weapons that are incredibly destructive. Just one would overpower all of earths military might combined.
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Post by MartinT on Jul 22, 2022 19:09:05 GMT
I've stopped and looked at it several times while in Waterstone's. Let me know what you think as I'm quite tempted.
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Post by rfan8312 on Jul 22, 2022 20:29:29 GMT
Will do. I'm told that there is an absolute ton of setup and world building to be gotten through but once that is in place the events that occur are unbelievable.
Will report back.
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Post by rfan8312 on Jul 26, 2022 1:51:36 GMT
...what an absolute mind F. In Three Body Problem trilogy
SPOILERS (please let me know if it's better to delete this)
Advanced civilizations weaponize the laws of physics against each other. At one point a proton is unfolded appearing as a sheet and circuitry is etched onto it, turning it into a super computer, and then refolded and sent to earth.
When studying nature things don't seem to add up. No real advancements can be made because everything is a false discovery.
There are actually disturbing elements to these books. Glimpses into the mind of an alien race that are frightening. Certain predicaments than can exist. There is cosmic horror to witness here.
These books begin to discuss, amongst other things, the concept of first contact.
Where it sends my mind I find fascinating. If we did make contact out there in an undeniable way, knowing that another perspective exists, would change things here even if we had no further involvement with that other race.
Our tensions build up like fumes here, contact would be like a pressure release for some of it.
Though what I find interesting is that if there was involvement between the 2 races, the more advanced race, even if benevolent and even if unintentionally, would alter humanity drastically even from a great distance without any physical contact.
Just knowing how they would approach something or their disapproval of something would be a seed planted in the human psyche that would become a part of the human experience. Over time the more advanced race's influence would become inescapable I think.
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Post by petea on Jul 26, 2022 7:08:57 GMT
Interesting.
My 'favourite' analysis of contact in a work of fiction is a sort of back-story within "Rendezvous with Rama" by Arthur C Clarke.
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Post by rfan8312 on Jul 26, 2022 10:42:30 GMT
Will check, Pete. Can you offer up a blurb about it?
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Post by Slinger on Jul 26, 2022 12:39:53 GMT
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Post by MartinT on Jul 26, 2022 13:32:00 GMT
The original Rama book was by far the best of them. I like Clarke's dedicated professionals portrayal compared with so many SF stories depicting highly unbalanced characters in positions of authority.
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Post by MartinT on Oct 22, 2022 9:21:01 GMT
We were in Stourhead yesterday and there was a small secondhand bookshop opposite a gallery inside the complex. I can never resist a bookshop so I went in and had a good mooch around. I was amazed to pull a paperback copy of The Last Hero by Leslie Charteris from the shelf. I have been collecting his novels since I was a teenager and I have almost all of them now. I only find a new one at the rate of one every few years these days. This one, from 1930, is either the second or third one in the Simon Templar series (The Saint), which are excellent thrillers and, in my opinion, better written than the Fleming Bond novels. So this adds to my collection of 42, with some repeats in different anthologies. Smiling, I was  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Hero_(The_Saint) |
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Post by rfan8312 on Nov 5, 2022 19:13:15 GMT
In this Three Body Problem trilogy at one point there is a notion put forth that dark matter is 2d space. Which has benefits.
We've discussed before in other threads on this forum the notion of making contact and whether contact could be made with both benevolent and also malevolent species.
In these books the approach to how one race can be so detrimental to another race inadvertently is fascinating. The kinds of abuses that can be put forth from one to
other simply because the other has no notion that this would be harmful to the other race is interesting.
But what will we eat?
"You mean as food?"
Yes
"You will eat each other of course..."
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Post by MartinT on Nov 5, 2022 20:03:24 GMT
I'm halfway through the first volume of The Three Body Problem. I like Cixin Liu's writing style and the translation is good, together with the footnotes. I also like the gradual explanation of the complex mechanics around three orbiting bodies set in a simulation (real?) world where a planet is caught up in the three suns orbiting each other with consequent disastrous inability to predict the days/nights and impending disasters.
I can feel that large ominous events are at large, so I'll stay with it and the subsequent volumes. It's good so far!
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Post by rfan8312 on Nov 5, 2022 20:33:48 GMT
Oh that's great to hear, Martin. Glad you went for it.
I've taken your advice and stuck with The Expanse. Id like to see both Three Body Problem and The Expanse through to the end.
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Post by Slinger on Nov 11, 2022 21:16:59 GMT
I've just picked these two up from Amazon.  |  | The queen of Countdown's dictionary corner presents a year's worth of etymologies, derivations and other linguistic trivia in this hugely entertaining and informative volume.
Welcome to a year of wonder with Susie Dent, lexicographer, logophile, and longtime queen of Countdown's Dictionary Corner.
From the real Jack the Lad to the theatrically literal story behind stealing someone's thunder, from tartle (forgetting someone's name at the very moment you need it) to snaccident (the unintentional eating of an entire packet of biscuits), Word Perfect is a brilliant linguistic almanac full of unforgettable stories, fascinating facts, and surprising etymologies tied to every day of the year. You'll never be lost for words again. | Did you know that . . . a soldier's biggest social blunder is called jack brew - making yourself a cuppa without making one for anyone else? That twitchers have an expression for a bird that can't be identified - LBJ (the letters stand for Little Brown Job)? Or that builders call plastering the ceiling doing Lionel Richie's dancefloor? Susie Dent does.
Ever wondered why football managers all speak the same way, what a cabbie calls the Houses of Parliament, or how ticket inspectors discreetly request back-up? We are surrounded by hundreds of tribes, each speaking their own distinct slanguage of colourful words, jokes and phrases, honed through years of conversations on the battlefield, in A&E, backstage, or at ten-thousand feet in the air.
Susie Dent has spent years interviewing hundreds of professionals, hobbyists and enthusiasts, and the result is an idiosyncratic phrasebook like no other. From the Freemason's handshake to the publican's banter, Dent's Modern Tribes takes us on a whirlwind tour of Britain, decoding its secret languages and, in the process, finds out what really makes us all tick.
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Post by MartinT on Dec 5, 2022 14:46:53 GMT
Oh that's great to hear, Martin. Glad you went for it. I've finally finished the first book, The Three Body Problem, which was excellent. It's not often you have so many good science ideas in a single novel. Also plenty of lateral thinking with solutions to problems. I love the locust analogy at the end, signalling how humanity could possibly win this war hugely stacked against them. I also loved Liu's comment that falls into line with Stephen Hawking, that any alien intelligence with the technology to reach us would likely not be friendly. I tend to agree. |
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Post by Slinger on Dec 5, 2022 14:56:57 GMT
I've got my orders in for Christmas. Anyone who has asked me what I want has been furnished with an Amazon link to one of the hardback biographies in my wish list. Now it's just a case of waiting to see who takes the (incredibly broad) hint.  |
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Post by Slinger on Dec 5, 2022 22:26:02 GMT
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Post by MartinT on Dec 19, 2022 12:25:34 GMT
The Three Body Problem was epic and I'm waiting to see if someone buys the second volume for me for Xmas. Meanwhile, back to a favourite author, Alastair Reynolds. I'm reading Inhibitor Phase, which is a superb space opera where a man is kidnapped from his hidden enclave, sequestered to assist a strange woman who needs help to kill the 'inhibitors', wolves bent on destroying all humanity. Reynolds writes in his usual exciting and compelling style and it's just what I need while recuperating from a nasty flu. www.scifimind.com/inhibitor-phase-by-alastair-reynolds/ |
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Post by ajski2fly on Dec 19, 2022 13:05:35 GMT
I have recently taken ups reading again, I mainly enjoy Science Fiction and Fantasy, and some months ago re-read the Game of Thrones novels.
I then read The Elenium Books by David Eddings, which I found very enjoyable, a Fantasy set in a medieval land with aspects of magic, very enjoyable.
The Diamond Throne (1989)
The Ruby Knight (1990)
The Sapphire Rose (1991)
I recently came across The Bridei Chronicles by Juliet Marillier. I became hooked by these, medieval Folk Fantasy, set in the 5th century in what we now call Scotland, it centres around a society based on Druid beliefs facing insurgence from Gaels in the West, and Christians in the South. Mix with that a background of interfering fairy folk and mystical figures and it creates a great story.
The Dark Mirror (2004)
Blade Of Fortriu (2005)
The Well of Shades(2007)
More recently I have read
The Sevenwaters Books again by Juliet Marillier, these are really good, again a Folklore Medieval fantasy set in Ireland primarily, which some great characters, lots of intrigue and plot twists, very enjoyable.
Daughter of the Forest (1999) Description Book eBook
Son of the Shadows (2000) Description Book eBook
Child of the Prophecy (2001) Description Book eBook
Heir to Sevenwaters (2008)
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