181–188 of 188 posts
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I thought SnowCrash was horrendous, with terrible writing. Most overrated book I've read to date, by far.
Have you read RP1? If you haven't and that's your impression of Snow Crash: Don't.
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There are two possibilities: 1. Women write the same books as men. Then it doesn't matter what gender the author of a book has (from the perspective of the reader who only cares about a quality reading experience) 2. Women write different books than men. Then it is possible that certain groups of people simply like books written by men better than books written by women. It could be simply a matter of subject. For ex…
Here are some recent reads by female authors that I enjoyed: - "All the Birds in the Sky"(1) by Charlie Jane Anders - "The Art of Asking; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help"(2) by Amanda Palmer - Graphic novels by Rutu Modan(3) - "The Kindness of Enemies"(4) by Leila Aboulela 1. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25372801-all-the-birds-i... 2. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20980987-the-art-…
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There are two possibilities: 1. Women write the same books as men. Then it doesn't matter what gender the author of a book has (from the perspective of the reader who only cares about a quality reading experience) 2. Women write different books than men. Then it is possible that certain groups of people simply like books written by men better than books written by women. It could be simply a matter of subject. For ex…
> Fred Vargas It's great to see Fred Vargas get some recognition on HN. I'd recommend anything by Lauren Beukes, Susan Hill, or Caitlin Horrocks. (These aren't much like Fred Vargas.) Caitlin Horrocks' "This is not your city" collection of shorts is, I think, good. Susan Hill has written some great police procedurals, among others. "The Various Haunts of Men" is a great book. http://laurenbeukes.com/ http://www.caitl…
I'm really surprised to see Ready Player One on there. It relied way too heavily on the 80's nostalgia, to prop up the shallow story telling. But even that got old, it was like hanging around with someone that talks entirely in movie quotes, while fun at the right times, gets stale fast. You didn't care about the character, because there was nothing for him to really lose.
I'd consider it a decent beach read but wouldn't nominate it for a Hugo [not that I'm likely to be asked for my nomination]. I read it off the public libary new shelf a few years ago. It was two or three evenings' worth of reasonable entertainment and Pokemon Go reminded me of having read it.
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It's fun, but if you want dystopian capitalist world with a parallel vr universe, snow crash has more surprising ideas. (And better writing) Although it's a bit violent and has some... interesting mechanisms (as I was told: it gets weird) Also, the nostalgia comes baked in because it was written in the 90s. Still super relevant though
I thought SnowCrash was horrendous, with terrible writing. Most overrated book I've read to date, by far.
[great, great first 3rd]
[2nd third: OK, this isn't as good, but I think he's setting up for something in the last 3rd so I'm still on board I guess]
[last 3rd: oh f_ck you this is awful.]
Was Cryptonomicon.
The one that did it the worst was The Diamond Age, which followed that pattern so strongly that it made me swear off Neal Stephenson forever. At one point he has to have one character tell us what another character's motivation has been, in a conversation with that character, in a scene that exists solely for that purpose, because there's no possible way the reader could have puzzled it out otherwise. And that's just one of the problems. What a disaster, and what a great first third. Still makes me mad.
[edit: formatting]