Ok im gonna revive a classic here.I doubt that no one on this forum actually never saw or even heard about this series.The first volume:The world of Null-A,Relates the story of Gilbert Gosseyn, A non-a.Wich means he is an adept of the general semantics,a concept that would be way too big and complex to be able to actually explain it on detail in this post.Gosseyn Lives in a world extremly similar as ours It's in fact our world in the future 2155 to be exact.Venus has been colonized and his inhabited only by Non-a citizens.Gosseyn left his little town of california to go to the Machine's city.The machine is one of the most advanced technology Humans ever created,It's basically a tower as high as the eiffel tower With an incredibly developped A.I. able to hold 950 realistic conversations at the same time.The machine hold wht you could call ''Olympics'' each ten years,they are in fact intelectual evaluations for every non-a that lives on earth.If you score high enough you get to live on Venus.During the time of the game's the police department isn't active,so just living in the city is an evaluation itself.After arriving at his hotel,Gosseyn attend a reunion with the other resident's to discuss how they will act thowards the absence of any security services in the city.At this reunion Gosseyn meets a man from his village,he then decide to talk to him a little.Surprinsingly this man never heard of him or ever saw him,and even told Gosseyn that his wife (Gosseyn's) is actually the daughter of the current president and was never married.After being told this,Gosseyn goes right to the nearest lie detector and tells it his story,everything since he was born.The answer he got from the detector informed him that his memories were somehow altered and that he never lived in that village and was never married.
That is only the beggining of an incredibly complex and unusual tale written by A.E Van Vogt,an autor that was one of the most respected and praised in the 20th century.
I actually hope you guys will find a way to find this book in a library or wherever they lend or sell books because that was one of the best books iv'e ever read in my entire life.And trust me,i read alot.
DISPARITY!wikipedia said:Critical reception
The novel was the subject of an extended critical essay by noted author and critic Damon Knight. In "Cosmic Jerrybuilder: A. E. van Vogt"[1], Knight writes that "far from being a 'classic' by any reasonable standard, The World of Ā is one of the worst allegedly-adult science fiction stories ever published." Knight criticizes the novel on four main levels:
1. Plot: "The World of Ā abounds in contradictions, misleading clues and irrelevant action...It is [van Vogt's] habit to introduce a monster, or a gadget, or an extra-terrestrial culture, simply by naming it, without any explanation of its nature...By this means, and by means of his writing style, which is discursive and hard to follow, van Vogt also obscures his plot to such an extent that when it falls to pieces at the end, the event passes without remark."
2. Characterization: "Van Vogt's characters repeatedly commit the error known as the double-take. This phenomenon is funny because it represents a mental failure...Its cause is inability to absorb a new fact until a ridiculously long time has elapsed. In The World of Ā there are twelve examples in all."
3. Background: "In van Vogt's world, the advancement over 1945...amounts to no more than (a) a world government; (b) a handful of gadgets...van Vogt has not bothered to integrate the gadgets into the technological background of his story, and he has no clear idea of their nature."
4. Style: "Examples of bad writing in The World of Ā could be multiplied endlessly. It is my personal opinion that the whole of it is written badly, with only minor exceptions."
*Sigh* Nunu, that is but only one opinion in thousands,millions maybe.My goal here was just share with everyone here on this forum a book that i apreciated alot.All of Van Vogt Books were practically holy writings for ones or pieces of trash for others.You can have your own opinion,Im not forcing you to read this,but at least give it a try.DISPARITY!
Eh, the plot doesn't seem up my alley for some reason. I'll give it a pass.*Sigh* Nunu, that is but only one opinion in thousands,millions maybe.My goal here was just share with everyone here on this forum a book that i apreciated alot.All of Van Vogt Books were practically holy writings for ones or pieces of trash for others.You can have your own opinion,Im not forcing you to read this,but at least give it a try.
I loved that little graphic novel. Quite enjoyable to read.*laughs* Don't forget the Recorded History of Zombie Attacks. Squicky but good.
Also, you're a fan of the show Castle, aren't you, Sin? There's a book out about it. "Heat Wave" by Richard Castle. Not sure if this got mentioned before or not, but there it is.
And uh... what's it about?The Hunger Games Trilogy.
It may not look like much, and it's certainly nnot got the best description on the back, but omg. Hooked. Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and the third (released today) Mockingjay.
READ. THEM.
Post apocalyptic America, a nation called Panem, is comprised of a Capitol and thirteen districts. In the first rebellion the districts were put down quickly, and 13 was destroyed. And so every year after that each district sends two "Tributes" a boy and a girl between the ages of 12 and 18, to participate in The "Hunger Games" a battle royale fight to the death.And uh... what's it about?
Is it a fantasy? It kinda looked it from the fuzzy image I saw of the cover.Just finished reading Yahtzee's Mogworld. It's a damn good book and I definitely recommend it.
Seems odd and wacky, but could be interesting. I'll take a look next time I'm in the book store.It's mostly fantasy based (MMORPG style) with a few elements of Sci Fi.
The story revolves around Jim, a magic student who died 60 years ago before being resurrected by a renegade necromancer. He nows wants nothing more than to find a way to die again (and permanently this time).
I think everyone misses at least some of the jokes... there's just so many in each book that it's almost impossible to catch them all in a single reading. His novels are some of the few that I can actually stand to re-read, and it's mostly because I'll still find myself getting some more of the jokes each time I read them.But I was reading Pratchet from the early age of 8. Sure I missed a lot of the jokes at that age, but still loved it.
I loved the first book, but the ones after that just kept going down in quality, in my opinion. By the time it got to Faith of the Fallen, the series had just taken on far too political of a tone for my tastes, and I just had to stop reading.Yeah Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind and that whole series was one really long, really descriptive Fantastical soap Opera. Bu I liked it xD
784 pages, with the glossary and author's notes, and it weighs as much as one of my college-level science textbooks. It looks more like a bludgeoning weapon than a book. It's a good read, though.I have seen this book in actual 3D. It is fucking huge. FUCKING HUGE. We are talking at the very least 750 pages (I have not opened it up to see an actual page count. I'm afraid.) and it is BOOK ONE.
Sorry, doesn't sound familiar to me, I'm afraid :/ Sci-fi was never quite my bag. More on the fantasy end of things. On that note, if you like Butcher, try Simon Green's "Nightside" series. Very noir but similiarish humor. He also does several fantasy series, too.Also, there's a book I rented from the local library a few years ago, and it was good, but I just can't, for the life of me, remember what it was called or who wrote it, despite having tried to research it several times. It was a sci-fi novel about genetic engineering; the "evil professor" guy in the book had created a virus that he used to change people's genes, and he used that to form a cult of people he had modified to be inhumanly strong, fast, and resistant to pain, and used them to kidnap some random people to turn into genetically-modified clones of himself.
Also, I'm very glad I found this thread; I've now got a lot of new books to read in my excessively long gap between classes.
This is why Pratchett kicks ass.Apparently, shortly after being knighted Terry Pratchet decided that any knight worth his salt needs a sword. He decided to have one made special, and dug up some ore to this end. He then obtained a piece of meteorite to have mixed in with the ore, because everyone knows star-metal has magic properties.
Well, anything much longer than 1000 pages pretty much has to be split into two parts.Speaking of long books though, 784 isn't too bad. Martin himself had his first book sitting at 900 pages, second at 1000 third at 1100 and the half of the fourth book he released sitting at 700 or something like that. James Clavell's 'Shogun' was around 1100 pages. Hell, take a look at some of Stephen King's work, especially 'The Stand' and 'The Dome'.