I do agree about him having a formulaic approach to his characters and overall outline of his plots/stories. Like you said, the expert (Typically physically incompetent), with the main female (If my memory serves correct rhoughout the books, typically blonde) who is in good physical shape and attractive and basically everything the protagonist isn't. The main character seems to be consistently a little naive even though super smart. Rising Sun is my favorite of his books and I agree. It was the first of his books that I read. Yeah, I respect your opinion and reasoning behind it; I was just curious. I really like his stories, personally, and I find the majority (save Congo and Next) really page-turners. Though I still enjoyed Congo.
Lol, that's hilarious that you call them airport fiction, because I first got into Crichton when I had to do a project on a book and my dad, who used to travel a lot on business, would always buy books and read them on the flight, and he gave me Rising Sun (That still had the plane ticket for the bookmark, haha). I can definitely see where you're coming from. I enjoyed both parts of the book, and I'm more-so on the flip-side of you, in that I liked the second-half better than the first. I was waiting for the action to start as I really enjoy those parts of his books.
Who are your favorite authors and some of their books? Just so I can see what kind of style and books you like and if any of them would interest me.
All that being said, I am still a Crichton fan. Andromeda Strain, Sphere and J Park are true sci-fi greats and Rising Sun is outstanding crime work. Andromeda Strain has less action than most of his stuff, it's more of a medical/sci fi mystery - Like a cross between the TV shows the X-Files and House. I think you'd enjoy it.
Here's some of my Fav Author's and books.
Hemmingway - which is mostly character driven, alcohol drenched literary fiction; The Sun Also Rises, The Old Man and The Sea, A Farewell to Arms.
Asimov - Hard Sci-fi and speculative fiction; The Gods Themselves, Any of the Robot short story collections, The Last Question is an awesome non-robot related short story.
McCarthy - Tends to be violent but ornate westerns, The Road is very different; Blood Meridian, Sutree, No Country, The Road.
William Gibson - Cyberpunk; Neuromancer (It's like a cross between the Matrix and Ocean's 11), Burning Chrome, Mona Lisa Overdrive.
King - Horror; The Stand, Skeleton Crew, Dark Tower Series especially The Drawing of the Three, Cell... He can be a little hit or miss.
General sci fi -
Orson Scott Card; Ender's Game
Frank Herbert; Dune
Kim Stanely Robinson; The Mars Trilogy
Surrealist -
DeLillo; Running Dog, White Noise.
Pynchon; Gravity's Rainbow.
Hemmingway - which is mostly character driven, alcohol drenched literary fiction; The Sun Also Rises, The Old Man and The Sea, A Farewell to Arms.
Asimov - Hard Sci-fi and speculative fiction; The Gods Themselves, Any of the Robot short story collections, The Last Question is an awesome non-robot related short story.
McCarthy - Tends to be violent but ornate westerns, The Road is very different; Blood Meridian, Sutree, No Country, The Road.
William Gibson - Cyberpunk; Neuromancer (It's like a cross between the Matrix and Ocean's 11), Burning Chrome, Mona Lisa Overdrive.
King - Horror; The Stand, Skeleton Crew, Dark Tower Series especially The Drawing of the Three, Cell... He can be a little hit or miss.
General sci fi - Orson Scott Card; Ender's Game Frank Herbert; Dune
Kim Stanely Robinson; The Mars Trilogy
Surrealist -
DeLillo; Running Dog, White Noise.
Pynchon; Gravity's Rainbow.
Literary -
Chabon - Kavalier and Clay
I like your taste. I loved The Drawing of the Three.
Do you read Neal Stephenson? His post-cyberpunk writing is outstanding.
I like your taste. I loved The Drawing of the Three.
Do you read Neal Stephenson? His post-cyberpunk writing is outstanding.
Cheers,
I've heard good things about Snow Crash, but haven't actually read any Stephenson. I'm guessing you'd recomend him?
Drawing of the Three definately surprised me. It was probably the book that changed my perception of King, from being just a light-read entertainer to a serious prose-artist and storyteller. I suppose part of that is my preference for character centric novels, which it satisfied - but in general it had a more experimental/high concept feel to it.
This seems to be a pretty good thread. I don't post much on here and read mostly the NBA forum, the off court looks to have some interesting threads floating around though.
Cheers,
I've heard good things about Snow Crash, but haven't actually read any Stephenson. I'm guessing you'd recomend him?
Drawing of the Three definately surprised me. It was probably the book that changed my perception of King, from being just a light-read entertainer to a serious prose-artist and storyteller. I suppose part of that is my preference for character centric novels, which it satisfied - but in general it had a more experimental/high concept feel to it.
This seems to be a pretty good thread. I don't post much on here and read mostly the NBA forum, the off court looks to have some interesting threads floating around though.
I just finished Blink, and I'm torn over what's next.
I've got more social science stuff. I can keep going backwards through Gladwell's stuff. I haven't read The Tipping Point yet and have it. And I have Super Freakenomics, and The Drunkard's Walk.
I read more true crime than anything, and I have Havanna Nights at home, about the Cuban/Mafia connection pre revolution.
I've also been sitting on Chariots of The Gods for a little more than a year, does anyone know if it's worth reading?
No problem.. Glad that you are sticking with that reccomendation.. Black Ice may not be his best but it will divulge a lot about Harry Bosch and his personality, its good but maybe not great.
The two following B.I. are stellar. 'Concrete Blonde' and 'The Last Coyote' will blow you away.
Im revisiting my childhood and reading up on the Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander. I hope im smart enough to remember to give my children these books when its time.
Im revisiting my childhood and reading up on the Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander. I hope im smart enough to remember to give my children these books when its time.
It cannot be more emphesized how important it is to teach children the proper fundamentals of reading and writing. Also, you must inculcate love for literature in your children.
America is the land of the dumb.. we need to alter it one child at a time.
I was torn between a bunch of stuff, and finally decided to go with some light, ascerbic fiction, which I rarely read. So I just started Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Obviously a satirical retelling.
I've just started, but it's not really my thing. Even with zombies, I'm not a fan of the time period. And it's written in those short disjointed chapters, just like the real PnP, with the stuffy language that's particularly tricky with regard to describing zombie attacks. Mr. Darcy is a bad mo-fo though. And all of the daughters are well schooled in the deadly arts.
Re: What are you reading?
