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Christina M

Christina M

  • member since September 10 2008

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Public Notes

  • vinaymm

    vinaymm says

    its a collection of essays of great sagan.. if u havent read him do read one of best sci writers

    posted 2 months ago. ( send a note )
  • Rebecca H

    Rebecca H says

    Hi Christina,

    My feeling about the end of Behemoth was that he had not in fact ended the world. I felt that the last few sentences had a hopefulness that suggested that Achilles really had been bluffing and that there was at least a chance that Seppuku was going to wipe out Behemoth. But it was definitely ambiguous. It didn't even occur to me that the last page mentioning non-convergence was relating to something to do with predictions about the spread of Behemoth or Seppuku or the nuclear warheads. I assumed it was a sort of meta-textual comment indicating that at that point there were so many unknown factors at play that the author couldn't predict any further what might become of mankind. I was pretty amused by that ending because I am a statistician and I use numerical maximization to solve a lot of the problems I work on, and non-convergence due to a singular hessian matrix is one of my most hated things!

    Have you made any progress with Motherless Brooklyn?

    Rebecca

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • m.h.

    m.h. says

    ]I have no doubt but that you read a little of everything?

    Hee hee. I was just showing off my sf chops. 'Cause, like, I had an example. I fluff my sf feathers at you! (Are you impressed? I mean, they're really fluffy!)

    I confess to liking _Starship Troopers_. I will say in my defense that I went to see the movie without (purposefully) reading the book. (Since I hadn't already read it, I decided to hold off and see the movie without bringing anything of the book to it. It's rare that I get the opportunity and I wanted to see what it was like.) That movie just plain sucks. I disliked it on its own merits. And THEN I read the book, and found out that there were at least 10 contradictions in the first three pages. I ask you, what is the *point* of basing a movie on a book if you're not going to follow any of the book?? (A general question that I ask over and over again. Do not get me started on the Saint movie.) In comparison to the movie, that book is a stellar masterpiece. Perhaps I should read it again. I generally find that Heinlein has interesting global ideas and writes well, but his characters tend towards the shallow.

    On fantasy v. sf, I was aware of the religious schism but had friends on both sides of the chasm and so could talk a good line either way. Or, put another way, could find someone to indulge me in a book thrashing-out whichever genre I was reading. On a basic level, they seem much the same to me. "Magical teleport" v. ftl travel; other realm v. other galaxy -- all the same suspension of disbelief, all the same "and then a miracle occurred" reality. :)

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • m.h.

    m.h. says

    I see you read a Scalzi book and rated it four stars. I have his _Old Man's War_ if you're interested.

    (And see, I *can* read science fiction.)

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Rebecca H

    Rebecca H says

    I completely agree with everything you said about Behemoth, although I probably wouldn't have expressed it quite as articulately (more shaking of my fists in the air and less multi-syllabic words). I really think the entire Rifters series was in desperate need of some decent editing. There are so many characters and storylines that the author invests many pages in introducing only to have them just sort of whither away. Anyway, I am about 20 pages from the end of the book now. Will probably finish it tomorrow morning over breakfast. And then on to better things. Hopefully.

    If you are interested in reading other books by Jonathan Lethem I would recommend Motherless Brooklyn. In my opinion, that is his best work. It's one of my all time favorite novels. Fortress of Solitude is also good, and I think got more critical acclaim than Motherless Brooklyn, but I found it to be sort of a love note (well, a very long love note) to Brooklyn in the 1970s, and I, not having experienced 1970s Brooklyn, couldn't really appreciate a lot of it. On the other hand, if that's when/where you grew up I would highly recommend Fortress of Solitude!

    Did you manage to finish Spook Country? As I was reading it I kept feeling the whole book was going to sink or succeed on whatever it turned out was in the mystery shipping container. I kept suspecting that a clever enough payoff would make the whole book worthwhile. I did end up satisfied with the way things turned out, but I felt like it would have made for a much better short story or novella. There were too many storylines that went nowhere and characters that wandered off aimlessly into the night. This seems to be a common problem with scifi authors... Have you read much else by William Gibson? I do feel like he is moving in a good direction, post-cyberpunk, as opposed to, say, Neal Stephenson who I used to really enjoy but now seems to write only 1000+ page odes to his historical research. But I guess that's a rant for another day...

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Rebecca H

    Rebecca H says

    Hi Christina,

    I am reading Behemoth:Seppuku right now. Not enjoying it too much. The whole series has really gone down hill for me after Starfish which I thought was quite original and compelling. I am very put off by the torture scenes in Behemoth which I feel are sensationalistic and don't actually contribute anything to the story, my understanding of the characters etc. What did you think of it? I really liked Blindsight (but I think that is just because I love the idea of self-awareness as maladaptive), so the whole rifters series has been a bit of a let down for me after having read that previously.

    I was looking at your shelf and we have lots of books in common! Jonathan Lethem is one of my very favorite authors. Have you read any of his other books? I love his earlier genre work, specifically Gun, with Occasional Music and Amnesia Moon. I've also read many of the other authors on your shelf. Infoquake is one I am planning to read in the near future. Would you recommend it? Oh, and what do you think of Spook Country? I really enjoyed Pattern Recognition, but felt Spook Country didn't live up to it.

    Anyway, I am always excited to talk about books! Usually I end up nit picking details of stories or writing that I don't care for to people who have no idea what I am talking about, so I would be pleased to discuss with someone who has actually read the same books as me!

    Cheers!
    Rebeeca

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )


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