ALT.SF4M

  Amusements

   • s******j@e***.**o.com
     07/09/1999 00:00:000 UTC

     I finally saw _The Matrix,_ in a second-run theater far to the south.

     The movie print, unlike those of the commercials and public service

     spots they ran before hand, were in good shape. Good thing, because the

     movie rocked. The justification for the keeping of humans was dippy,

     though. They should have stolen Simmon's idea of a parasitic distributed

     processing system.

     I'm reading Guth's _The Inflationary Universe_. Not bad. I'm just
     starting

     _A Short History of Time_ by "that wheelchair guy."*

     I enjoyed Rucker's _Seek!_, which was a wild grab-bag of essays and

     travelogues and articles. Rucker is off of drugs and booze and onto a

     sort of free-form theism.

     Pratchett's _Hogfather_ was 90% Prachett in hack mode, 10% Prachett in

     "almost deep" mode.

     Sterling's collection _A Good Old Fashioned Future_ doesn't have any
     duds,

     but a few are Sterling in Indulgent Smug mode. The best stories were a

     collaboration with Rucker (synthetic jellyfish run amuck), and a really

     cool, low-key piece about a day in the life of a Japanese fellow who

     lives in a cybernetically enhanced gift economy. It was up for a Hugo

     but didn't make it; "Takalakaman" was up for it and won one. It was OK.

     And I'm reading Brin's next novel in manuscript. Very off the beaten

     track for him. Not-Giving-Anything-Away-Description: Lives of a private

     eye in a future where you can make short-duration dupes of yourself to

     do dirty work or take on extra work. Strange stuff.

     Stefan

     Stefan

     * Homer Simpson

     --

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     SeJ@ay-oh-el-dot-com ~ stefanj@eye-oh-dot-com

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       • Stargazer
         11/09/1999 00:00:000 UTC

         >I enjoyed all 3 of KSR's Mars books, but there were too many large

         >expository lumps for my taste...probably could have done 2 books if

         >they'd been cut out.

         I saw he has out another Mars book, which oddly sounds exactly like
         his

         previous Mars books but doesn't seem directly related. Dunno, maybe
         he

         needed some cash.

         --Doc

       • Stargazer
         07/09/1999 00:00:000 UTC

         >I'm reading Guth's _The Inflationary Universe_. Not bad. I'm just
         starting

         >_A Short History of Time_ by "that wheelchair guy."*

         I'm in the middle of "Red Mars" by Robinson. Lots of neat ideas, but
         it

         looks as if he's given away the ending in the first couple of
         chapters so it

         is difficult to slog through it. I keep putting it down and weeks go
         by

         before I pick it up again.

         --Doc

            • p*******x@****.com
              08/09/1999 00:00:000 UTC

              One day in Teletubbyland, "Stargazer" said:

              >I'm in the middle of "Red Mars" by Robinson. Lots of neat
              ideas, but it

              >looks as if he's given away the ending in the first couple of
              chapters so it

              >is difficult to slog through it. I keep putting it down and
              weeks go by

              >before I pick it up again.

              I enjoyed all 3 of KSR's Mars books, but there were too many
              large

              expository lumps for my taste...probably could have done 2
              books if

              they'd been cut out.

              For something similar and easier to read (IMHO) try
              "Antarctica"

              --

              73 de Dave Weingart KA2ESK Want to help me raise funds for

              mailto:p*******x@****.com cancer research? Sponsor me in

              http://www.liii.com/~phydeaux the NYC Marathon, Nov 7, 1999.

              Email me for more info!