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

haven't started jordan yet, although i've been quietly hoarding the books away. damned if i'm ging to start something he might not finished though - when eddings was writing new stuff i lived in mortal fear that he would die before he'd finished a series and i'm not going through that again

i buy way too many new books (well too many books in general) but where i work i get 30% discount which rocks. i've got piles of books all over the place - there's no point in really doing anything will them because i'm moving out soon and hopefully then i'll graduate to proper student shelves (ie planks and those concrete bricks).

haven't read any modesitt or jones either although i've heard good things. what amazes me is that there are heaps of brit and american sci-fi and fantasy books out there, but very little from australia and new zealand, which is odd considering the huge number of books from the genres that we devour every year. i remember when it used to be really hard to get the good stuff over here and now it's everywhere. there's a fair bit of kids stuff, but not much for adults

You should get a student coffee table, a pallet (not that I'd ever advocate stealing, but they used to have some slightly broken ones round the back of R'toto's) place it on the top of four terecotta (is it one or two R's?) plant pots (you can use cheaper plant pots, but go on splurge), cover with a large cloth.

But if the one Eddings meets with some unfortunate accident then at least theres another to carry the torch. Thats actually quite weird because when I've been waiting for a book to come out from a particular author and you no it should be out by now, it does pass through my mind, oh my god what if they've died, what will happen to the characters (somebody help me please ).

I read a lot of American fantasy, but their spelling of certain words, that crop up rather a lot in fantasy I find really irritating.

Have you read any Pratchett? I really enjoy some of his books (normally the ones with the guards), but some aren't that funny.

Do you get Gemmell over their, most of his is aimed at kids (you know heroic fantasy), but the earlier stuff was actually quite good.

Glaws

I've just finished reading 'the hobbit', 'lord of the rings' and the 'simmarilian' by J RR Tolekin...And i thought they were exagurating when they said his works were brilliant...

By the way the auther of 'the book of words' trillogy was J V Jones

I was going to carry on reading the saga of the exiles or some issac asimoth people try to get me to read, but unfortunately i've got exams comming up so i'll have to make to with GCSE texts like 'of mice and men'.

I've got a stack of books at home, to many to count, far to many to fit into one room...

Yes, Tolkien is an extremely good writer. He really started the ball rolling on the fantasy genre.

Asimov and Bradbury are classic sci-fi authors, so should be read. A lot of my friends rave about Iain Banks, I haven't read any of his sci-fi but I have read a few of his other books. I reccommend 'Wasp Factory', it's a little sick in places but extremely clever.

read lots of pratchett - haven't read carpe jugulum yet, that's where i'm up to - IMHO his best is Good Omens, with neil gaiman. some of the sci-fi (written years ago) doesn't quite cut it, but they're still funny reads. in general sometimes he tries a bit too hard i think, and gets a little too moralistic. i think he needs to not feel so pressured to be commerically successful and get back to his roots.

as to gemmell i haven't read any of his, but we've got heaps in store at the moment - they've recently rereleased a lot of his stuff over here, and initially the gemmell fans were going mad and buying heaps, but then they saturated the market and now we've got too much.

have heard the wasp factory is great, been looking for a cheap second hand copy for ages. will keep hunting.

robert silverberg is great too - i really enjoyed his valentine series (and a new one has just come out here, but i can't afford it yet. also heinlein (who i think i already mentioned). john wyndham is a master (day of the triffids, the chyrsalids, chocky, the midwich cuckoos, et al) and MUST be read (and they're short too, so there's no excuse). although he has an interesting way of characterising women, which seems to differ wildly from book to book (i used to have a theory that this corresponded to his personal life but i have no basis for that belief)

I started to read Carpe Jugulum but that was six months ago and I still haven't got very far. I watched Shakespeare in love last night that seems to have a certain Pratchettesque (I've invented a word) quality.

You definitely want to read Wasp Factory, there's one nasty bit so if your a bit squeamish it might upset you for a while.

I haven't read wyndham for years, since school. So I can't comment on his characterisation.

I haven't read any silverberg, but I still have piles of books to go through, so I must remember not to buy any books before hitting the pub to watch the rugby final.

Cheers,

Glaws

Apparently shakespere in love was based on the book quality of mercy, i don't no what relivence that has but i thought i'd just mention it.

Anybody read 'first and last' by some author or another. I'm told its good but i cannot find it in any shop.

there's a book called quality of mercy by faye kellerman i think - i haven't read it but i think it's an historical thriller type thingy, but i might be wrong. she and her husband both usually write thrillers but i know quality of mercy was supposed to be a real departure for her, so that might be it. hmmm will have a look next time i work, if it's in stock, and report back.

there's a book called the first and the last which is by a german general (adolf galland) and all about the war.

or there's last and first men by william olaf stapledon, which is a scifi, so that's probably what you mean - it got really good reviews on amazon. i've never seen it over here though.


span

Did you know those facts off the top of your head or did you have to look it up?

well i looked it up of course - on amazon, hence the reference to it - i was curious, because i hadn't heard of it, so i checked it out

span
who is not a walking encyclopaedia and did not mean to pretend to be

Ooooooooh! All i meant was that was a very fast reply to avatars question and was not in any way referring to you as a walking book of any variety

sorry - i didn't mean to sound sensitive, cos i wasn't

i guess the internet just speeds everything up nowadays (now when i was young we had to walk ten miles to school, in the snow, and my horse died, and by the time you got to school it was time to go home, and the puddles used to freeze and i had no shoes ...)

span

well when i was a lad we weren't rich enough to go to school, so we were sent to work in the mines, which we had to walk 40 miles to get their and there was always a blizzard even in the middle of summer! We were so hungry we ate my horse and had to wear it's shoes! you try and tell the kids today and they won't believe you

Well, when I was a kid...ermm...we wern't rich enough to own a horse to eat, let alone wear its shoes, so I had to walk 60miles to the nearest port in golfball-size hail, then swim through the shark-invested freezing english channle to france where I tried to beg on the streets, posing as an american tourist that had had his walet stolen.
Then I had to be back in time for tea which consisted of dried mud with a little water (if i was lucky). This went on untill I was fifteen, which would actualy be now (?)

Thanks for the tip Span

isn't it amazing how all over the world we all knew exactly what i was talking about, and exactly how to reply - racial memory i reckon

span

Definitely blame racial memory, and avoid terms like sad

Anyway, it made me laugh

Glaws

So I've Seen many references to authors I haven't heard before.
But here are some sci/fi questions for the rest of the Commonwealth. Any thoughts on William Gibson, Frank Hiebert, Richard Preston, Dave Wingrove, or Tesseracts (which is actually a compilation)?

Sorry, I've only heard of gibson out of that lot and I haven't read any of his stuff. Fantasy is more my thing

Hiebert = Dune
The Lord of the Rings for Sci/Fi.
Funny little saying I've heard from some comedian.
"Dungeons & Dragons is for those people that read Lord of the Rings when they were a kid and never quite got over it."
I think its the same for Dune and me.

Someone's actually logged on at the same time as me - it's a miracle

Seen the film, and various friends have read the books they said I should read them - but I don't have time to read the ones I've got at the moment.

I have to admit I've been playing Baldurs Gate on the PC, which is based on the AD&D rules (shit - I have no life)