Foundation the series coming out and being bad, made me reread the first two books.
I'll probably go through the rest of them as I find them.
The Foundation paperback I have was priced under a dollar.
Yeah, I did the same thing. The gap in time (writing-wise, not plot-wise) between the original trilogy and then the prequels and sequels really honed Asimov's narration skills. He always had great stories, but became a better story
teller in his later years.
Was kind of angry that they changed the TV series so drastically. Keeping the same protaganists across all those time jumps in the story was a huge departure from the books and felt a bit clunky and takes away from the grandeur of a story that spans hundreds of years and through generations of people, but I know why they did it. I think viewers would lose interest having to get to know and sympathize with a different hero every few episodes. Having Cleon's clones played by the same set of actors and cycling through them over the years was brilliant though. That worked really well.
In the same vein, I've been watching "The Peripheral" and it made me want to read Gibson's
original story, as well as his first few Cyberpunk books from the 80s.
With the off-season approaching, I picked up my Kindle for the first time in months. Found a book on there which I don't remember downloading at all. Jeffrey Archer's
"A Prisoner of Birth". I don't like prison stories, war stories or sports stories, so it's a total mystery why I have that on there. Something tangential must have prompted me to get it.
Anyway, started reading it and now I'm hooked. It's not written that well, but I just need to know what happens at the end. It's basically a re-telling of the Count of Monte Cristo.
I prefer sci-fi mainly. Awhile back, I got a recommendation from an article I read from Barack Obama:
"The Three Body Problem" by Chinese author, Liu Cixin. Very interesting story, but again, not as well-written as I'd hoped. Perhaps it got lost in translation? Anyway, it lent further insight to the person recommending it. Obama was always a man of ideas, but I always found his delivery was a bit lacking.
I have a real soft-spot for absurdist fiction. I love, love, love Miranda July, she's just straight-up WTF-weird, but so much heart in what she writes.
"The First Bad Man" is one of my favorite books. It's her writing style that I enjoy. She does movies as well, and her style translates well to the screen, "Me, You and Everyone We Know" as well as "The Future" have her signature "WTF-yet-get-me-in-the-feels" all over it.
Not everyone's cup of tea, I realize.
More mainstream-wise, I love the magic realism of Haruki Murakami. Really enjoyed
"1Q84" and to a lesser degree,
"Kafka on the Shore". Really enjoy his writing style as well.
www.theguardian.com
not Diamond Girl.
