h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Thanks Beeblefish! Nothing like a good mug of coffee to keep the brain functioning while trying to revise!

Dont worry about the dust, it makes it seem more homely (my house is being refurbished inside.... aka knocking down all the walls and starting again!) A bit of dust never hurt anyone!

Linz

I have read the first two in Tad Williams' series-- if you mean the ones about rivers in cyberspace-- and they are pretty good but SO LONG! I guess I'll have to find the new one now...

That's the one, though it doesn't sound too interesting put like that does it 'rivers in cyberspace'!!! And the third is just as un-put-downable....

Well that was the easiest way to put it in a few words. What would you have said? I will go get the third one. Does it actually end the series???

During the last 2 days I've been reading the Tek Series by William Shatner. I was surprisingly impressed by the first two - TekWar and TekLords, which were fairly well written - or at least, better than I expected. Unfortunately the standard wasn't kept for long, leaving the next two, TekLab and TekVengence, to be terrible.
TekVengence was just an excuse for bland melodrama, but it was TekLab that was by far the worst. It was "set in England" although I've never known any England like the one that's set in. It was downright insulting, giving everyone bland "Dick van Dike" accents and playing to sterotypes in a revolting and disgusting manner - reading it made me feel so angry about how Shatner's portraying my country and rediculing us.
It was almost as insulting as "Three Men and a Little Lady".

Frankly, I've come to the conclusion that no American can write a book that's "set in England" without it becoming insulting - I've never read one that isn't.

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis. Not only did it win a Hugo, but it is dead good too. I am fairly certain she is American, but you wouldn't know from the book. Apart, maybe, from the Underground going to Coventry. But it is the future

Well, I've definately not read that one, if I see it, I'll give it a go.
So, has anyone got any other books by Americans that are offensive to other nations? Are there any other examples of Americans writing well about England? Is anyone going to defend "TekLab"?

I'm playing Devil's Advocate and trying to stimulate some discussion back into these old, sadly neglected, threads...

<BB<

I've never read any of William Shatner's books... are they worth a look in???

What's happened to this Forum????

I've just started Book Club 4, (it's taken me most of a week to get that far!) and thought I'd pop into the future a bit and see the current state of play and drop in my own tuppenth worth - it looks like its gone and died! - SHAME!

Anyway - what's happened to the Post stuff , did it ever happen - where do I goto to get the post?

Anyone out there read any of te Niven/Pournelle Collaborations - titles escape me right now ...
Thinks....
erm does Lucifer's Hammer ring any bells....

I think there is a new one out now - but no idea as to title.

Also anone else a fan of Stephen Baxter (Moonseed, Titan, Voyager, et al) - I've just bought the new collaboration between Arthur C. Clarke and him - not opened it yet - it's still in the Cellophane wrapper these American Bookshops seem to have. I went in looking for Stephen Baxters newest solo effort - which I'm sure I saw in Dillons in England about 3 months ago - TIME - anybody read it - any good?

Enough already - excep to say - Films of books you have loved - dissapointments or what!?!

Films of Books:
"The Bicentennial Man" by Isaac Asimov - it wasn't as good as the book, but I still thought it was a lot better than I thought it would be, and my girlfriend, after seeing it, stopped refering to Asimov in a negative way and started being interested slightly in my book collection.
So, not as good as the film (and very silly female robot) but still not a disaster.

Stephen Baxter is cooooooooooolllllllll! I actually quite like him. Is Time the short story collection? If so, it is very good. What has he done with Arthur C. Clarke? Anyone else agree that he should go back and do some more cod Victoriana? I really like Anti-Ice and The Time Ships.

As to films of books, the last one to spring to mind is Rancid Aluminium, a not bad book (especially if you own a house and stuff) turned into a dire film. I am also told that the film of Complicity is pretty poor, which is annoying as I wanted to se it. My mates house is in it and, as such, I got to kick around the set for a bit. Not when any of the actors/crew were there mind.

Definitely - I saw that in the States a couple of weeks back - it was on the Hotels pay per view. Not bad - pretty true to original - EXCEPT THE ENDING - if the nurse was a robot - and ....

I have a feeling that Frankenstein UnBound was made into a pretty dreadful film - but it did make me go and read the books (Frankenstein's Monster (a modern prometheus?) and Frankenstein Unbound - which led me to Dracula and Dracula Unbound - now there is plenty of room for disappointment!)

How about Dune - the released version - I thought it was a pretty good attempt at a feature film version - but a mini series would have been better.

One good one though - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep - was very happy with BladeRunner - both versions.

How about films that made disappointing novelisations!! Not that I can currently think of any!

Disappointing Novelisations:
Well, I felt that "Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi" was a very disappointing book, you could tell it was aimed at a 4 year old. But then, all the Star Trek, Star Wars and Red Dwarf novels would probably be a different discussion.

Dune
Now that was a good film, and I consider it one of my favourites. Yep, I'm Dune mad. I own all the books, the film, the games, the action figures and the soundtrack - but I agree that there was a lot that they completely missed out of the film. Not all the concepts involved may be filmable. Baron Harkonnen and Feyd Reuther were very disappointing, none of the subtlety regarding Raban being manipulated or why Harkonnens and Atreides hated each other. There should have been a lot more on the "why" side, although the "what happened" was very effective.

Don't thiink I've read Anti-Ice - what's it about.

Titan is the short story collection (I think .. nips off to Amazon.co.uk ....) No it was Traces - Time is a new HardBack good official reviews - 1 good 2 bad readers reviews. Seems to be the first in a new trilogy(?).

Clarke/Baxter collab is called: The Light of Other days - I will report back with my impressions..

Has anyone else out there read Mammoth - or was I the only one to mistake it for a non-juve book!!!

Anti-Ice: Top cod Victoriana where a lump of "Ice" is found by the Victorians in Antarctica. When melted it produces vast amounts of heat (think fission), and so they build super steam engines. It starts with the bombing of Odessa during the Crimean War with the stuff (very Hiroshima) and encompasses giant ships, rockets, anarchists and the Franco-Prussian War. Very Wells/Verne and great fun if you like that sort of thing.

Have you read The Warlord Of The Air trilogy (Warlord Of The Air, The Steel Tsar and The Land Levithian) by Michael Moorcock.
These have this sort of thing as a theme, including the bombing of Hiroshima with a nuclear weapon, from an airship.

I keep meaning too, for the Dirigibles if nothing else.

Incidently, there is a guy who is producing a Victoriana/Scientific Romance roleplaying game on the web. He has found a load of out of copyright fiction, on this sort of subject and put it on the web at http://www.ForgottenFutures.com It has stuff by Rudyard Kipling on airships and the original inspiration for Blofeld etc. if you like that sort of thing.

MM - These are pretty good, and they've reminded me about some books by Michael Scott Rohan which include Airships and the like - something about parallel universes as well.

Thanks - i will check it out! Later....

Off home now - just getting Digital Cable - hope I can get H2G2 on the TV Web Access!

Am I talking to myself?

Yup, sure looks like it....

Only way I get a decent conversation you know....

Actually as I was saying, has H2G2 shut down? Is there a server error? Or is everybody just too wrapped up reading/recovering from Glasto to type..... ?