Not bad, really like the Jubal character. Although I could not help
feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
anymore.

Of the next book I have decided to read is:

EON by Greg Bear
Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester

Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.

ChrisC  wrote:
>Not bad, really like the Jubal character. Although I could not help
>feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
>thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
>anymore.
>
>Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>
>EON by Greg Bear
>Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>
>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.

Oh my. If you HAVEN'T read the Bester yet, set aside a day or two for it NOW.

Eon is okay-to-good. Fallen Dragon I'm fairly sure I've read, and I bought the
sequel, and I sort of like Hamilton's work, but even reading the sequel's
blurb didn't bring back much about Fallen Dragon. So start with the Bester.

Dave
-- 
\/David	DeLaney	posting	from dbd@vic.com "It's not the pot that	grows the flower
It's not the clock that	slows the hour 	The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is	all it takes to	make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE	HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.

In article ,
 ChrisC  writes:
>Not bad, really like the Jubal character.

Really? I've just finished the book too (having been rather put off by
what I had read about it), thought that he was a highly annoying
opinionated windbag and know-all, and that he patronised his highly
intelligent and competent female staff dreadfully. Admittedly he seemed
to become rather less annoying as the book went on, but maybe I just
became acclimatised to him.

> Although I could not help
>feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
>thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
>anymore.

I can imagine that it must have seemed revolutionary to many people when
it was first published. I supposed it was one of the first indications
of the coming changes in attitudes in the 1960s.
>
>Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>
>EON by Greg Bear
>Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>
>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.
>

I haven't read any of those three.
-- 
John Hall

     "I am not young enough to know everything."
                                                 Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 13:02:00 -0400, dbd@gatekeeper.vic.com (David
DeLaney) wrote:

>>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>>
>>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.
>
>Oh my. If you HAVEN'T read the Bester yet, set aside a day or two for it NOW.
>
>Eon is okay-to-good. Fallen Dragon I'm fairly sure I've read, and I bought the
>sequel, and I sort of like Hamilton's work, but even reading the sequel's
>blurb didn't bring back much about Fallen Dragon. So start with the Bester.

I'm wondering what is the best kind of mood to be in to best
appreciate the first time one reads it.

"David DeLaney"  wrote in message 
news:slrnf31m8t.7j4.dbd@gatekeeper.vic.com...
> ChrisC  wrote:
>>Not bad, really like the Jubal character. Although I could not help
>>feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
>>thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
>>anymore.
>>
>>Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>>
>>EON by Greg Bear
>>Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
>>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>>
>>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.
>
> Oh my. If you HAVEN'T read the Bester yet, set aside a day or two for it 
> NOW.
>
> Eon is okay-to-good. Fallen Dragon I'm fairly sure I've read, and I bought 
> the
> sequel, and I sort of like Hamilton's work, but even reading the sequel's
> blurb didn't bring back much about Fallen Dragon. So start with the 
> Bester.
>

There's a sequel to Fallen Dragon?
I haven't heard of one. What is it's name?
-- 
-- 
Chris Lyth (clythJFK@ifis.org.uk - shoot the president to reply)

Year: A period of three hundred and sixty-five disappointments.




-- 
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

ChrisC wrote:
> Not bad, really like the Jubal character. Although I could not help
> feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
> thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
> anymore.

Free love was not a new concept when the book was published.  It had, in 
fact, been around for a very, very long time.

ChrisC  wrote:
>Not bad, really like the Jubal character. Although I could not help
>feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
>thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
>anymore.
>
>Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>
>EON by Greg Bear
>Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>
>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.

Oh my. If you HAVEN'T read the Bester yet, set aside a day or two for it NOW.

Eon is okay-to-good. Fallen Dragon I'm fairly sure I've read, and I bought the
sequel, and I sort of like Hamilton's work, but even reading the sequel's
blurb didn't bring back much about Fallen Dragon. So start with the Bester.

Dave
-- 
\/David	DeLaney	posting	from dbd@vic.com "It's not the pot that	grows the flower
It's not the clock that	slows the hour 	The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is	all it takes to	make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE	HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.

In article ,
 ChrisC  writes:
>Not bad, really like the Jubal character.

Really? I've just finished the book too (having been rather put off by
what I had read about it), thought that he was a highly annoying
opinionated windbag and know-all, and that he patronised his highly
intelligent and competent female staff dreadfully. Admittedly he seemed
to become rather less annoying as the book went on, but maybe I just
became acclimatised to him.

> Although I could not help
>feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
>thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
>anymore.

I can imagine that it must have seemed revolutionary to many people when
it was first published. I supposed it was one of the first indications
of the coming changes in attitudes in the 1960s.
>
>Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>
>EON by Greg Bear
>Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>
>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.
>

I haven't read any of those three.
-- 
John Hall

     "I am not young enough to know everything."
                                                 Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 13:02:00 -0400, dbd@gatekeeper.vic.com (David
DeLaney) wrote:

>>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>>
>>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.
>
>Oh my. If you HAVEN'T read the Bester yet, set aside a day or two for it NOW.
>
>Eon is okay-to-good. Fallen Dragon I'm fairly sure I've read, and I bought the
>sequel, and I sort of like Hamilton's work, but even reading the sequel's
>blurb didn't bring back much about Fallen Dragon. So start with the Bester.

I'm wondering what is the best kind of mood to be in to best
appreciate the first time one reads it.

"David DeLaney"  wrote in message 
news:slrnf31m8t.7j4.dbd@gatekeeper.vic.com...
> ChrisC  wrote:
>>Not bad, really like the Jubal character. Although I could not help
>>feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
>>thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
>>anymore.
>>
>>Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>>
>>EON by Greg Bear
>>Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
>>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>>
>>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.
>
> Oh my. If you HAVEN'T read the Bester yet, set aside a day or two for it 
> NOW.
>
> Eon is okay-to-good. Fallen Dragon I'm fairly sure I've read, and I bought 
> the
> sequel, and I sort of like Hamilton's work, but even reading the sequel's
> blurb didn't bring back much about Fallen Dragon. So start with the 
> Bester.
>

There's a sequel to Fallen Dragon?
I haven't heard of one. What is it's name?
-- 
-- 
Chris Lyth (clythJFK@ifis.org.uk - shoot the president to reply)

Year: A period of three hundred and sixty-five disappointments.




-- 
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

ChrisC wrote:
> Not bad, really like the Jubal character. Although I could not help
> feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
> thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
> anymore.

Free love was not a new concept when the book was published.  It had, in 
fact, been around for a very, very long time.

On Apr 26, 12:37 pm, ChrisC  wrote:
> Not bad, really like the Jubal character. Although I could not help
> feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
> thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
> anymore.
>
> Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>
> EON by Greg Bear
> Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
> The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>
> Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.


I like Eon, but go for the Bester first.


William Hyde

On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 18:36:43 +0100, John Hall
 wrote:

>In article ,
> ChrisC  writes:
>>Not bad, really like the Jubal character.
>
>Really? I've just finished the book too (having been rather put off by
>what I had read about it), thought that he was a highly annoying
>opinionated windbag and know-all, and that he patronised his highly
>intelligent and competent female staff dreadfully. 

You don't remember the scene where he gets too cranky with the staff
and the three ladies take him out from the dining room while he is
eating and dump him in the pool?

>Admittedly he seemed
>to become rather less annoying as the book went on, but maybe I just
>became acclimatised to him.
>
>> Although I could not help
>>feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
>>thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
>>anymore.
>
>I can imagine that it must have seemed revolutionary to many people when
>it was first published. I supposed it was one of the first indications
>of the coming changes in attitudes in the 1960s.
>>
>>Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>>
>>EON by Greg Bear
>>Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
>>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>>
>>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.
>>
>
>I haven't read any of those three.
-- 
"Money is truthful. If a man speaks of his honor, make
him pay cash."
         -Lazarus Long

Beeblebear  wrote:
>"David DeLaney"  wrote in message 
>> Eon is okay-to-good. Fallen Dragon I'm fairly sure I've read, and I bought
the
>> sequel, and I sort of like Hamilton's work, but even reading the sequel's
>> blurb didn't bring back much about Fallen Dragon. So start with the 
>> Bester.
>
>There's a sequel to Fallen Dragon?
>I haven't heard of one. What is it's name?

....okay, that tells you how MUCH I didn't remember about Fallen Dragon; I was
thinking of (as examining it here in my pile of to-read proves) the sequel to
Pandora's Star (Judas Unchained). So that invalidates my original claim, yet
illustrates it at the same time...

Dave
-- 
\/David	DeLaney	posting	from dbd@vic.com "It's not the pot that	grows the flower
It's not the clock that	slows the hour 	The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is	all it takes to	make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE	HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.

On 26 Apr 2007 09:37:19 -0700, ChrisC 
wrote:
>Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>
>EON by Greg Bear
>Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>
>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.

These are all excellent, in very different ways, but the Bester one is
a classic.

// JJ

In article ,
 "David Loewe, Jr."  writes:
>On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 18:36:43 +0100, John Hall
> wrote:
>
>>In article ,
>> ChrisC  writes:
>>>Not bad, really like the Jubal character.
>>
>>Really? I've just finished the book too (having been rather put off by
>>what I had read about it), thought that he was a highly annoying
>>opinionated windbag and know-all, and that he patronised his highly
>>intelligent and competent female staff dreadfully.
>
>You don't remember the scene where he gets too cranky with the staff
>and the three ladies take him out from the dining room while he is
>eating and dump him in the pool?

I do. Well deserved, IMO. He did slightly redeem himself for me, though,
by his surprisingly compassionate thoughts in connection with the
sculpture of the caryatid collapsing under her load.
-- 
John Hall

     "I am not young enough to know everything."
                                                 Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

In rec.arts.sf.written ChrisC  wrote:
: EON by Greg Bear
: Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
: The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester

: Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.

The Stars My Destination brightly outshines the rest. It has ideas so
densely packed a writer would nowadays use them for at least a trilogy of
1500 pages and fail to make it half as good.

Eon is the Bear that made me think Bear gets his ideas from one-line
synopses of Clarke's books. It's about exploring the innards of a
hollowed-out asteroid which arrives into our system. Beyond that, it's not
too much like Rendezvous with Rama, but the initial similarity was
striking and made me wonder. (It makes an interesting triad with The City
and the Stars / Strength of Stones and Childhood's End / Blood Music). 
Nice. Not too impressive, but nice.

Fallen Dragon is not bad as such. It contains a few interesting characters
and several nice ideas. Unfortunately one can IMHO easily read too much
Hamilton in a row, and by the time I read it, I had. He seems to recycle
his ideas a lot. Each iteration is usually better than the last one, but
I'm tempted to think I could spare myself the effort and just read the
last book or series he will ever write.

(The exception to the rule is the miserable Pandora's Star and its sequel.  
I recommed avoiding them. I may be in the minority, but I found them
simply awful. The worst part of the experience was having a terrible
feeling that they could have been very good indeed, if the future society
was designed with more effort. The best I can say about them is that I
read them cover to cover hating them all the way.)


-- 
Esa Perkiö

ChrisC wrote:
> Not bad, really like the Jubal character. Although I could not help
> feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
> thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
> anymore.
> 
> Of the next book I have decided to read is:
> 
> EON by Greg Bear
> Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
> The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
> 
> Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.
> 

The Stars My Destination, absolutely.


-- 
An opinion should be the result of thought, not a substitute for it.

ChrisC  wrote:
>Not bad, really like the Jubal character. Although I could not help
>feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
>thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
>anymore.
>
>Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>
>EON by Greg Bear
>Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>
>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.

Oh my. If you HAVEN'T read the Bester yet, set aside a day or two for it NOW.

Eon is okay-to-good. Fallen Dragon I'm fairly sure I've read, and I bought the
sequel, and I sort of like Hamilton's work, but even reading the sequel's
blurb didn't bring back much about Fallen Dragon. So start with the Bester.

Dave
-- 
\/David	DeLaney	posting	from dbd@vic.com "It's not the pot that	grows the flower
It's not the clock that	slows the hour 	The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is	all it takes to	make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE	HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.

In article ,
 ChrisC  writes:
>Not bad, really like the Jubal character.

Really? I've just finished the book too (having been rather put off by
what I had read about it), thought that he was a highly annoying
opinionated windbag and know-all, and that he patronised his highly
intelligent and competent female staff dreadfully. Admittedly he seemed
to become rather less annoying as the book went on, but maybe I just
became acclimatised to him.

> Although I could not help
>feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
>thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
>anymore.

I can imagine that it must have seemed revolutionary to many people when
it was first published. I supposed it was one of the first indications
of the coming changes in attitudes in the 1960s.
>
>Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>
>EON by Greg Bear
>Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>
>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.
>

I haven't read any of those three.
-- 
John Hall

     "I am not young enough to know everything."
                                                 Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 13:02:00 -0400, dbd@gatekeeper.vic.com (David
DeLaney) wrote:

>>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>>
>>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.
>
>Oh my. If you HAVEN'T read the Bester yet, set aside a day or two for it NOW.
>
>Eon is okay-to-good. Fallen Dragon I'm fairly sure I've read, and I bought the
>sequel, and I sort of like Hamilton's work, but even reading the sequel's
>blurb didn't bring back much about Fallen Dragon. So start with the Bester.

I'm wondering what is the best kind of mood to be in to best
appreciate the first time one reads it.

"David DeLaney"  wrote in message 
news:slrnf31m8t.7j4.dbd@gatekeeper.vic.com...
> ChrisC  wrote:
>>Not bad, really like the Jubal character. Although I could not help
>>feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
>>thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
>>anymore.
>>
>>Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>>
>>EON by Greg Bear
>>Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
>>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>>
>>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.
>
> Oh my. If you HAVEN'T read the Bester yet, set aside a day or two for it 
> NOW.
>
> Eon is okay-to-good. Fallen Dragon I'm fairly sure I've read, and I bought 
> the
> sequel, and I sort of like Hamilton's work, but even reading the sequel's
> blurb didn't bring back much about Fallen Dragon. So start with the 
> Bester.
>

There's a sequel to Fallen Dragon?
I haven't heard of one. What is it's name?
-- 
-- 
Chris Lyth (clythJFK@ifis.org.uk - shoot the president to reply)

Year: A period of three hundred and sixty-five disappointments.




-- 
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

ChrisC wrote:
> Not bad, really like the Jubal character. Although I could not help
> feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
> thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
> anymore.

Free love was not a new concept when the book was published.  It had, in 
fact, been around for a very, very long time.

On Apr 26, 12:37 pm, ChrisC  wrote:
> Not bad, really like the Jubal character. Although I could not help
> feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
> thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
> anymore.
>
> Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>
> EON by Greg Bear
> Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
> The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>
> Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.


I like Eon, but go for the Bester first.


William Hyde

On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 18:36:43 +0100, John Hall
 wrote:

>In article ,
> ChrisC  writes:
>>Not bad, really like the Jubal character.
>
>Really? I've just finished the book too (having been rather put off by
>what I had read about it), thought that he was a highly annoying
>opinionated windbag and know-all, and that he patronised his highly
>intelligent and competent female staff dreadfully. 

You don't remember the scene where he gets too cranky with the staff
and the three ladies take him out from the dining room while he is
eating and dump him in the pool?

>Admittedly he seemed
>to become rather less annoying as the book went on, but maybe I just
>became acclimatised to him.
>
>> Although I could not help
>>feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
>>thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
>>anymore.
>
>I can imagine that it must have seemed revolutionary to many people when
>it was first published. I supposed it was one of the first indications
>of the coming changes in attitudes in the 1960s.
>>
>>Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>>
>>EON by Greg Bear
>>Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
>>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>>
>>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.
>>
>
>I haven't read any of those three.
-- 
"Money is truthful. If a man speaks of his honor, make
him pay cash."
         -Lazarus Long

Beeblebear  wrote:
>"David DeLaney"  wrote in message 
>> Eon is okay-to-good. Fallen Dragon I'm fairly sure I've read, and I bought
the
>> sequel, and I sort of like Hamilton's work, but even reading the sequel's
>> blurb didn't bring back much about Fallen Dragon. So start with the 
>> Bester.
>
>There's a sequel to Fallen Dragon?
>I haven't heard of one. What is it's name?

....okay, that tells you how MUCH I didn't remember about Fallen Dragon; I was
thinking of (as examining it here in my pile of to-read proves) the sequel to
Pandora's Star (Judas Unchained). So that invalidates my original claim, yet
illustrates it at the same time...

Dave
-- 
\/David	DeLaney	posting	from dbd@vic.com "It's not the pot that	grows the flower
It's not the clock that	slows the hour 	The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is	all it takes to	make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE	HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.

On 26 Apr 2007 09:37:19 -0700, ChrisC 
wrote:
>Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>
>EON by Greg Bear
>Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>
>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.

These are all excellent, in very different ways, but the Bester one is
a classic.

// JJ

In article ,
 "David Loewe, Jr."  writes:
>On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 18:36:43 +0100, John Hall
> wrote:
>
>>In article ,
>> ChrisC  writes:
>>>Not bad, really like the Jubal character.
>>
>>Really? I've just finished the book too (having been rather put off by
>>what I had read about it), thought that he was a highly annoying
>>opinionated windbag and know-all, and that he patronised his highly
>>intelligent and competent female staff dreadfully.
>
>You don't remember the scene where he gets too cranky with the staff
>and the three ladies take him out from the dining room while he is
>eating and dump him in the pool?

I do. Well deserved, IMO. He did slightly redeem himself for me, though,
by his surprisingly compassionate thoughts in connection with the
sculpture of the caryatid collapsing under her load.
-- 
John Hall

     "I am not young enough to know everything."
                                                 Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

In rec.arts.sf.written ChrisC  wrote:
: EON by Greg Bear
: Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
: The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester

: Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.

The Stars My Destination brightly outshines the rest. It has ideas so
densely packed a writer would nowadays use them for at least a trilogy of
1500 pages and fail to make it half as good.

Eon is the Bear that made me think Bear gets his ideas from one-line
synopses of Clarke's books. It's about exploring the innards of a
hollowed-out asteroid which arrives into our system. Beyond that, it's not
too much like Rendezvous with Rama, but the initial similarity was
striking and made me wonder. (It makes an interesting triad with The City
and the Stars / Strength of Stones and Childhood's End / Blood Music). 
Nice. Not too impressive, but nice.

Fallen Dragon is not bad as such. It contains a few interesting characters
and several nice ideas. Unfortunately one can IMHO easily read too much
Hamilton in a row, and by the time I read it, I had. He seems to recycle
his ideas a lot. Each iteration is usually better than the last one, but
I'm tempted to think I could spare myself the effort and just read the
last book or series he will ever write.

(The exception to the rule is the miserable Pandora's Star and its sequel.  
I recommed avoiding them. I may be in the minority, but I found them
simply awful. The worst part of the experience was having a terrible
feeling that they could have been very good indeed, if the future society
was designed with more effort. The best I can say about them is that I
read them cover to cover hating them all the way.)


-- 
Esa Perkiö

ChrisC wrote:
> Not bad, really like the Jubal character. Although I could not help
> feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
> thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
> anymore.
> 
> Of the next book I have decided to read is:
> 
> EON by Greg Bear
> Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
> The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
> 
> Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.
> 

The Stars My Destination, absolutely.


-- 
An opinion should be the result of thought, not a substitute for it.

In alt.books.sf ChrisC  wrote:
> EON by Greg Bear

If you _do_ go for this one, make sure to get Eternity too.
Although not as good as this one, it rounds of the story about
the tunnel.
Furthermore I join the rest of the comments, the Bester tale
(The Stars my Destination) really _IS_ a classic one you must have
read. The Hamilton book I don't know, but I do not expect too much
of it, at best Hamilton is an "adequate" writer, not a GREAT one.
-- 
********************************************************************
**  Eef Hartman, Delft University of Technology, dept. EWI/TW     **
**  e-mail:  E.J.M.Hartman@math.tudelft.nl, fax: +31-15-278 7295  **
**  snail-mail:  P.O. Box 5031, 2600 GA  Delft, The Netherlands   **
********************************************************************

ChrisC  wrote:
>Not bad, really like the Jubal character. Although I could not help
>feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
>thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
>anymore.
>
>Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>
>EON by Greg Bear
>Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>
>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.

Oh my. If you HAVEN'T read the Bester yet, set aside a day or two for it NOW.

Eon is okay-to-good. Fallen Dragon I'm fairly sure I've read, and I bought the
sequel, and I sort of like Hamilton's work, but even reading the sequel's
blurb didn't bring back much about Fallen Dragon. So start with the Bester.

Dave
-- 
\/David	DeLaney	posting	from dbd@vic.com "It's not the pot that	grows the flower
It's not the clock that	slows the hour 	The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is	all it takes to	make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE	HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.

In article ,
 ChrisC  writes:
>Not bad, really like the Jubal character.

Really? I've just finished the book too (having been rather put off by
what I had read about it), thought that he was a highly annoying
opinionated windbag and know-all, and that he patronised his highly
intelligent and competent female staff dreadfully. Admittedly he seemed
to become rather less annoying as the book went on, but maybe I just
became acclimatised to him.

> Although I could not help
>feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
>thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
>anymore.

I can imagine that it must have seemed revolutionary to many people when
it was first published. I supposed it was one of the first indications
of the coming changes in attitudes in the 1960s.
>
>Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>
>EON by Greg Bear
>Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>
>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.
>

I haven't read any of those three.
-- 
John Hall

     "I am not young enough to know everything."
                                                 Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 13:02:00 -0400, dbd@gatekeeper.vic.com (David
DeLaney) wrote:

>>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>>
>>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.
>
>Oh my. If you HAVEN'T read the Bester yet, set aside a day or two for it NOW.
>
>Eon is okay-to-good. Fallen Dragon I'm fairly sure I've read, and I bought the
>sequel, and I sort of like Hamilton's work, but even reading the sequel's
>blurb didn't bring back much about Fallen Dragon. So start with the Bester.

I'm wondering what is the best kind of mood to be in to best
appreciate the first time one reads it.

"David DeLaney"  wrote in message 
news:slrnf31m8t.7j4.dbd@gatekeeper.vic.com...
> ChrisC  wrote:
>>Not bad, really like the Jubal character. Although I could not help
>>feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
>>thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
>>anymore.
>>
>>Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>>
>>EON by Greg Bear
>>Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
>>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>>
>>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.
>
> Oh my. If you HAVEN'T read the Bester yet, set aside a day or two for it 
> NOW.
>
> Eon is okay-to-good. Fallen Dragon I'm fairly sure I've read, and I bought 
> the
> sequel, and I sort of like Hamilton's work, but even reading the sequel's
> blurb didn't bring back much about Fallen Dragon. So start with the 
> Bester.
>

There's a sequel to Fallen Dragon?
I haven't heard of one. What is it's name?
-- 
-- 
Chris Lyth (clythJFK@ifis.org.uk - shoot the president to reply)

Year: A period of three hundred and sixty-five disappointments.




-- 
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

ChrisC wrote:
> Not bad, really like the Jubal character. Although I could not help
> feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
> thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
> anymore.

Free love was not a new concept when the book was published.  It had, in 
fact, been around for a very, very long time.

On Apr 26, 12:37 pm, ChrisC  wrote:
> Not bad, really like the Jubal character. Although I could not help
> feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
> thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
> anymore.
>
> Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>
> EON by Greg Bear
> Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
> The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>
> Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.


I like Eon, but go for the Bester first.


William Hyde

On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 18:36:43 +0100, John Hall
 wrote:

>In article ,
> ChrisC  writes:
>>Not bad, really like the Jubal character.
>
>Really? I've just finished the book too (having been rather put off by
>what I had read about it), thought that he was a highly annoying
>opinionated windbag and know-all, and that he patronised his highly
>intelligent and competent female staff dreadfully. 

You don't remember the scene where he gets too cranky with the staff
and the three ladies take him out from the dining room while he is
eating and dump him in the pool?

>Admittedly he seemed
>to become rather less annoying as the book went on, but maybe I just
>became acclimatised to him.
>
>> Although I could not help
>>feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
>>thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
>>anymore.
>
>I can imagine that it must have seemed revolutionary to many people when
>it was first published. I supposed it was one of the first indications
>of the coming changes in attitudes in the 1960s.
>>
>>Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>>
>>EON by Greg Bear
>>Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
>>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>>
>>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.
>>
>
>I haven't read any of those three.
-- 
"Money is truthful. If a man speaks of his honor, make
him pay cash."
         -Lazarus Long

Beeblebear  wrote:
>"David DeLaney"  wrote in message 
>> Eon is okay-to-good. Fallen Dragon I'm fairly sure I've read, and I bought
the
>> sequel, and I sort of like Hamilton's work, but even reading the sequel's
>> blurb didn't bring back much about Fallen Dragon. So start with the 
>> Bester.
>
>There's a sequel to Fallen Dragon?
>I haven't heard of one. What is it's name?

....okay, that tells you how MUCH I didn't remember about Fallen Dragon; I was
thinking of (as examining it here in my pile of to-read proves) the sequel to
Pandora's Star (Judas Unchained). So that invalidates my original claim, yet
illustrates it at the same time...

Dave
-- 
\/David	DeLaney	posting	from dbd@vic.com "It's not the pot that	grows the flower
It's not the clock that	slows the hour 	The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is	all it takes to	make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE	HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.

On 26 Apr 2007 09:37:19 -0700, ChrisC 
wrote:
>Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>
>EON by Greg Bear
>Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>
>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.

These are all excellent, in very different ways, but the Bester one is
a classic.

// JJ

In article ,
 "David Loewe, Jr."  writes:
>On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 18:36:43 +0100, John Hall
> wrote:
>
>>In article ,
>> ChrisC  writes:
>>>Not bad, really like the Jubal character.
>>
>>Really? I've just finished the book too (having been rather put off by
>>what I had read about it), thought that he was a highly annoying
>>opinionated windbag and know-all, and that he patronised his highly
>>intelligent and competent female staff dreadfully.
>
>You don't remember the scene where he gets too cranky with the staff
>and the three ladies take him out from the dining room while he is
>eating and dump him in the pool?

I do. Well deserved, IMO. He did slightly redeem himself for me, though,
by his surprisingly compassionate thoughts in connection with the
sculpture of the caryatid collapsing under her load.
-- 
John Hall

     "I am not young enough to know everything."
                                                 Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

In rec.arts.sf.written ChrisC  wrote:
: EON by Greg Bear
: Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
: The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester

: Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.

The Stars My Destination brightly outshines the rest. It has ideas so
densely packed a writer would nowadays use them for at least a trilogy of
1500 pages and fail to make it half as good.

Eon is the Bear that made me think Bear gets his ideas from one-line
synopses of Clarke's books. It's about exploring the innards of a
hollowed-out asteroid which arrives into our system. Beyond that, it's not
too much like Rendezvous with Rama, but the initial similarity was
striking and made me wonder. (It makes an interesting triad with The City
and the Stars / Strength of Stones and Childhood's End / Blood Music). 
Nice. Not too impressive, but nice.

Fallen Dragon is not bad as such. It contains a few interesting characters
and several nice ideas. Unfortunately one can IMHO easily read too much
Hamilton in a row, and by the time I read it, I had. He seems to recycle
his ideas a lot. Each iteration is usually better than the last one, but
I'm tempted to think I could spare myself the effort and just read the
last book or series he will ever write.

(The exception to the rule is the miserable Pandora's Star and its sequel.  
I recommed avoiding them. I may be in the minority, but I found them
simply awful. The worst part of the experience was having a terrible
feeling that they could have been very good indeed, if the future society
was designed with more effort. The best I can say about them is that I
read them cover to cover hating them all the way.)


-- 
Esa Perkiö

ChrisC wrote:
> Not bad, really like the Jubal character. Although I could not help
> feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
> thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
> anymore.
> 
> Of the next book I have decided to read is:
> 
> EON by Greg Bear
> Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
> The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
> 
> Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.
> 

The Stars My Destination, absolutely.


-- 
An opinion should be the result of thought, not a substitute for it.

In alt.books.sf ChrisC  wrote:
> EON by Greg Bear

If you _do_ go for this one, make sure to get Eternity too.
Although not as good as this one, it rounds of the story about
the tunnel.
Furthermore I join the rest of the comments, the Bester tale
(The Stars my Destination) really _IS_ a classic one you must have
read. The Hamilton book I don't know, but I do not expect too much
of it, at best Hamilton is an "adequate" writer, not a GREAT one.
-- 
********************************************************************
**  Eef Hartman, Delft University of Technology, dept. EWI/TW     **
**  e-mail:  E.J.M.Hartman@math.tudelft.nl, fax: +31-15-278 7295  **
**  snail-mail:  P.O. Box 5031, 2600 GA  Delft, The Netherlands   **
********************************************************************

On Apr 26, 9:37?am, ChrisC  wrote:
> Not bad, really like the Jubal character. Although I could not help
> feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
> thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
> anymore.
>
> Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>
> EON by Greg Bear
> Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
> The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>
> Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.

Aside from the fact there is no "free love" in the book . . .

If you haven't read The Stars My Destination, you should add that one
to your repertoire posthaste, without any dis to messrs. Bear and
Hamilton.

ChrisC  wrote:
>Not bad, really like the Jubal character. Although I could not help
>feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
>thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
>anymore.
>
>Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>
>EON by Greg Bear
>Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>
>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.

Oh my. If you HAVEN'T read the Bester yet, set aside a day or two for it NOW.

Eon is okay-to-good. Fallen Dragon I'm fairly sure I've read, and I bought the
sequel, and I sort of like Hamilton's work, but even reading the sequel's
blurb didn't bring back much about Fallen Dragon. So start with the Bester.

Dave
-- 
\/David	DeLaney	posting	from dbd@vic.com "It's not the pot that	grows the flower
It's not the clock that	slows the hour 	The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is	all it takes to	make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE	HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.

In article ,
 ChrisC  writes:
>Not bad, really like the Jubal character.

Really? I've just finished the book too (having been rather put off by
what I had read about it), thought that he was a highly annoying
opinionated windbag and know-all, and that he patronised his highly
intelligent and competent female staff dreadfully. Admittedly he seemed
to become rather less annoying as the book went on, but maybe I just
became acclimatised to him.

> Although I could not help
>feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
>thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
>anymore.

I can imagine that it must have seemed revolutionary to many people when
it was first published. I supposed it was one of the first indications
of the coming changes in attitudes in the 1960s.
>
>Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>
>EON by Greg Bear
>Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>
>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.
>

I haven't read any of those three.
-- 
John Hall

     "I am not young enough to know everything."
                                                 Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 13:02:00 -0400, dbd@gatekeeper.vic.com (David
DeLaney) wrote:

>>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>>
>>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.
>
>Oh my. If you HAVEN'T read the Bester yet, set aside a day or two for it NOW.
>
>Eon is okay-to-good. Fallen Dragon I'm fairly sure I've read, and I bought the
>sequel, and I sort of like Hamilton's work, but even reading the sequel's
>blurb didn't bring back much about Fallen Dragon. So start with the Bester.

I'm wondering what is the best kind of mood to be in to best
appreciate the first time one reads it.

"David DeLaney"  wrote in message 
news:slrnf31m8t.7j4.dbd@gatekeeper.vic.com...
> ChrisC  wrote:
>>Not bad, really like the Jubal character. Although I could not help
>>feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
>>thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
>>anymore.
>>
>>Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>>
>>EON by Greg Bear
>>Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
>>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>>
>>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.
>
> Oh my. If you HAVEN'T read the Bester yet, set aside a day or two for it 
> NOW.
>
> Eon is okay-to-good. Fallen Dragon I'm fairly sure I've read, and I bought 
> the
> sequel, and I sort of like Hamilton's work, but even reading the sequel's
> blurb didn't bring back much about Fallen Dragon. So start with the 
> Bester.
>

There's a sequel to Fallen Dragon?
I haven't heard of one. What is it's name?
-- 
-- 
Chris Lyth (clythJFK@ifis.org.uk - shoot the president to reply)

Year: A period of three hundred and sixty-five disappointments.




-- 
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

ChrisC wrote:
> Not bad, really like the Jubal character. Although I could not help
> feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
> thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
> anymore.

Free love was not a new concept when the book was published.  It had, in 
fact, been around for a very, very long time.

On Apr 26, 12:37 pm, ChrisC  wrote:
> Not bad, really like the Jubal character. Although I could not help
> feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
> thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
> anymore.
>
> Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>
> EON by Greg Bear
> Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
> The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>
> Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.


I like Eon, but go for the Bester first.


William Hyde

On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 18:36:43 +0100, John Hall
 wrote:

>In article ,
> ChrisC  writes:
>>Not bad, really like the Jubal character.
>
>Really? I've just finished the book too (having been rather put off by
>what I had read about it), thought that he was a highly annoying
>opinionated windbag and know-all, and that he patronised his highly
>intelligent and competent female staff dreadfully. 

You don't remember the scene where he gets too cranky with the staff
and the three ladies take him out from the dining room while he is
eating and dump him in the pool?

>Admittedly he seemed
>to become rather less annoying as the book went on, but maybe I just
>became acclimatised to him.
>
>> Although I could not help
>>feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
>>thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
>>anymore.
>
>I can imagine that it must have seemed revolutionary to many people when
>it was first published. I supposed it was one of the first indications
>of the coming changes in attitudes in the 1960s.
>>
>>Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>>
>>EON by Greg Bear
>>Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
>>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>>
>>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.
>>
>
>I haven't read any of those three.
-- 
"Money is truthful. If a man speaks of his honor, make
him pay cash."
         -Lazarus Long

Beeblebear  wrote:
>"David DeLaney"  wrote in message 
>> Eon is okay-to-good. Fallen Dragon I'm fairly sure I've read, and I bought
the
>> sequel, and I sort of like Hamilton's work, but even reading the sequel's
>> blurb didn't bring back much about Fallen Dragon. So start with the 
>> Bester.
>
>There's a sequel to Fallen Dragon?
>I haven't heard of one. What is it's name?

....okay, that tells you how MUCH I didn't remember about Fallen Dragon; I was
thinking of (as examining it here in my pile of to-read proves) the sequel to
Pandora's Star (Judas Unchained). So that invalidates my original claim, yet
illustrates it at the same time...

Dave
-- 
\/David	DeLaney	posting	from dbd@vic.com "It's not the pot that	grows the flower
It's not the clock that	slows the hour 	The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is	all it takes to	make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE	HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.

On 26 Apr 2007 09:37:19 -0700, ChrisC 
wrote:
>Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>
>EON by Greg Bear
>Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>
>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.

These are all excellent, in very different ways, but the Bester one is
a classic.

// JJ

In article ,
 "David Loewe, Jr."  writes:
>On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 18:36:43 +0100, John Hall
> wrote:
>
>>In article ,
>> ChrisC  writes:
>>>Not bad, really like the Jubal character.
>>
>>Really? I've just finished the book too (having been rather put off by
>>what I had read about it), thought that he was a highly annoying
>>opinionated windbag and know-all, and that he patronised his highly
>>intelligent and competent female staff dreadfully.
>
>You don't remember the scene where he gets too cranky with the staff
>and the three ladies take him out from the dining room while he is
>eating and dump him in the pool?

I do. Well deserved, IMO. He did slightly redeem himself for me, though,
by his surprisingly compassionate thoughts in connection with the
sculpture of the caryatid collapsing under her load.
-- 
John Hall

     "I am not young enough to know everything."
                                                 Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

In rec.arts.sf.written ChrisC  wrote:
: EON by Greg Bear
: Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
: The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester

: Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.

The Stars My Destination brightly outshines the rest. It has ideas so
densely packed a writer would nowadays use them for at least a trilogy of
1500 pages and fail to make it half as good.

Eon is the Bear that made me think Bear gets his ideas from one-line
synopses of Clarke's books. It's about exploring the innards of a
hollowed-out asteroid which arrives into our system. Beyond that, it's not
too much like Rendezvous with Rama, but the initial similarity was
striking and made me wonder. (It makes an interesting triad with The City
and the Stars / Strength of Stones and Childhood's End / Blood Music). 
Nice. Not too impressive, but nice.

Fallen Dragon is not bad as such. It contains a few interesting characters
and several nice ideas. Unfortunately one can IMHO easily read too much
Hamilton in a row, and by the time I read it, I had. He seems to recycle
his ideas a lot. Each iteration is usually better than the last one, but
I'm tempted to think I could spare myself the effort and just read the
last book or series he will ever write.

(The exception to the rule is the miserable Pandora's Star and its sequel.  
I recommed avoiding them. I may be in the minority, but I found them
simply awful. The worst part of the experience was having a terrible
feeling that they could have been very good indeed, if the future society
was designed with more effort. The best I can say about them is that I
read them cover to cover hating them all the way.)


-- 
Esa Perkiö

ChrisC wrote:
> Not bad, really like the Jubal character. Although I could not help
> feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
> thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
> anymore.
> 
> Of the next book I have decided to read is:
> 
> EON by Greg Bear
> Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
> The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
> 
> Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.
> 

The Stars My Destination, absolutely.


-- 
An opinion should be the result of thought, not a substitute for it.

In alt.books.sf ChrisC  wrote:
> EON by Greg Bear

If you _do_ go for this one, make sure to get Eternity too.
Although not as good as this one, it rounds of the story about
the tunnel.
Furthermore I join the rest of the comments, the Bester tale
(The Stars my Destination) really _IS_ a classic one you must have
read. The Hamilton book I don't know, but I do not expect too much
of it, at best Hamilton is an "adequate" writer, not a GREAT one.
-- 
********************************************************************
**  Eef Hartman, Delft University of Technology, dept. EWI/TW     **
**  e-mail:  E.J.M.Hartman@math.tudelft.nl, fax: +31-15-278 7295  **
**  snail-mail:  P.O. Box 5031, 2600 GA  Delft, The Netherlands   **
********************************************************************

On Apr 26, 9:37?am, ChrisC  wrote:
> Not bad, really like the Jubal character. Although I could not help
> feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
> thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
> anymore.
>
> Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>
> EON by Greg Bear
> Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
> The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>
> Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.

Aside from the fact there is no "free love" in the book . . .

If you haven't read The Stars My Destination, you should add that one
to your repertoire posthaste, without any dis to messrs. Bear and
Hamilton.

In article , 
chrispche@googlemail.com (ChrisC) wrote:

> Of the next book I have decided to read is:
> 
> EON by Greg Bear
> Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
> The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester

The Bester is an all-time classic, vastly superior to most of its 
successors. I have sat and listened to people make a good case for it 
being the best SF novel of all time; I would take it if I had only ten 
books to read and re-read in the rest of my life. 

Eon is not that great. It manages one spectacular piece of undercutting 
the reader's beliefs about what he's reading, but it doesn't follow this 
up adequately. 

Fallen Dragon is in some ways the most satisfactory single volume of 
Hamilton, since it's the only one in which he develops a half-decent 
idea, without too many of his tics showing, and brings it to a 
conclusion. It lacks the narrative drive of the Night's Dawn series, and 
the twists on the here-and-now of the first two Greg Mandel novels. It's 
distinctly better than Wasted T/r/e/e/s/ Youth and the Pandora's Star 
series. I'd prefer to re-read it to Eon, but not by much. 

-- 
John Dallman, jgd@cix.co.uk, HTML mail is treated as probable spam.

ChrisC  wrote:
>Not bad, really like the Jubal character. Although I could not help
>feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
>thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
>anymore.
>
>Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>
>EON by Greg Bear
>Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>
>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.

Oh my. If you HAVEN'T read the Bester yet, set aside a day or two for it NOW.

Eon is okay-to-good. Fallen Dragon I'm fairly sure I've read, and I bought the
sequel, and I sort of like Hamilton's work, but even reading the sequel's
blurb didn't bring back much about Fallen Dragon. So start with the Bester.

Dave
-- 
\/David	DeLaney	posting	from dbd@vic.com "It's not the pot that	grows the flower
It's not the clock that	slows the hour 	The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is	all it takes to	make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE	HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.

In article ,
 ChrisC  writes:
>Not bad, really like the Jubal character.

Really? I've just finished the book too (having been rather put off by
what I had read about it), thought that he was a highly annoying
opinionated windbag and know-all, and that he patronised his highly
intelligent and competent female staff dreadfully. Admittedly he seemed
to become rather less annoying as the book went on, but maybe I just
became acclimatised to him.

> Although I could not help
>feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
>thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
>anymore.

I can imagine that it must have seemed revolutionary to many people when
it was first published. I supposed it was one of the first indications
of the coming changes in attitudes in the 1960s.
>
>Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>
>EON by Greg Bear
>Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>
>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.
>

I haven't read any of those three.
-- 
John Hall

     "I am not young enough to know everything."
                                                 Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 13:02:00 -0400, dbd@gatekeeper.vic.com (David
DeLaney) wrote:

>>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>>
>>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.
>
>Oh my. If you HAVEN'T read the Bester yet, set aside a day or two for it NOW.
>
>Eon is okay-to-good. Fallen Dragon I'm fairly sure I've read, and I bought the
>sequel, and I sort of like Hamilton's work, but even reading the sequel's
>blurb didn't bring back much about Fallen Dragon. So start with the Bester.

I'm wondering what is the best kind of mood to be in to best
appreciate the first time one reads it.

"David DeLaney"  wrote in message 
news:slrnf31m8t.7j4.dbd@gatekeeper.vic.com...
> ChrisC  wrote:
>>Not bad, really like the Jubal character. Although I could not help
>>feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
>>thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
>>anymore.
>>
>>Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>>
>>EON by Greg Bear
>>Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
>>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>>
>>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.
>
> Oh my. If you HAVEN'T read the Bester yet, set aside a day or two for it 
> NOW.
>
> Eon is okay-to-good. Fallen Dragon I'm fairly sure I've read, and I bought 
> the
> sequel, and I sort of like Hamilton's work, but even reading the sequel's
> blurb didn't bring back much about Fallen Dragon. So start with the 
> Bester.
>

There's a sequel to Fallen Dragon?
I haven't heard of one. What is it's name?
-- 
-- 
Chris Lyth (clythJFK@ifis.org.uk - shoot the president to reply)

Year: A period of three hundred and sixty-five disappointments.




-- 
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

ChrisC wrote:
> Not bad, really like the Jubal character. Although I could not help
> feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
> thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
> anymore.

Free love was not a new concept when the book was published.  It had, in 
fact, been around for a very, very long time.

On Apr 26, 12:37 pm, ChrisC  wrote:
> Not bad, really like the Jubal character. Although I could not help
> feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
> thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
> anymore.
>
> Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>
> EON by Greg Bear
> Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
> The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>
> Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.


I like Eon, but go for the Bester first.


William Hyde

On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 18:36:43 +0100, John Hall
 wrote:

>In article ,
> ChrisC  writes:
>>Not bad, really like the Jubal character.
>
>Really? I've just finished the book too (having been rather put off by
>what I had read about it), thought that he was a highly annoying
>opinionated windbag and know-all, and that he patronised his highly
>intelligent and competent female staff dreadfully. 

You don't remember the scene where he gets too cranky with the staff
and the three ladies take him out from the dining room while he is
eating and dump him in the pool?

>Admittedly he seemed
>to become rather less annoying as the book went on, but maybe I just
>became acclimatised to him.
>
>> Although I could not help
>>feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
>>thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
>>anymore.
>
>I can imagine that it must have seemed revolutionary to many people when
>it was first published. I supposed it was one of the first indications
>of the coming changes in attitudes in the 1960s.
>>
>>Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>>
>>EON by Greg Bear
>>Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
>>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>>
>>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.
>>
>
>I haven't read any of those three.
-- 
"Money is truthful. If a man speaks of his honor, make
him pay cash."
         -Lazarus Long

Beeblebear  wrote:
>"David DeLaney"  wrote in message 
>> Eon is okay-to-good. Fallen Dragon I'm fairly sure I've read, and I bought
the
>> sequel, and I sort of like Hamilton's work, but even reading the sequel's
>> blurb didn't bring back much about Fallen Dragon. So start with the 
>> Bester.
>
>There's a sequel to Fallen Dragon?
>I haven't heard of one. What is it's name?

....okay, that tells you how MUCH I didn't remember about Fallen Dragon; I was
thinking of (as examining it here in my pile of to-read proves) the sequel to
Pandora's Star (Judas Unchained). So that invalidates my original claim, yet
illustrates it at the same time...

Dave
-- 
\/David	DeLaney	posting	from dbd@vic.com "It's not the pot that	grows the flower
It's not the clock that	slows the hour 	The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is	all it takes to	make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE	HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.

On 26 Apr 2007 09:37:19 -0700, ChrisC 
wrote:
>Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>
>EON by Greg Bear
>Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>
>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.

These are all excellent, in very different ways, but the Bester one is
a classic.

// JJ

In article ,
 "David Loewe, Jr."  writes:
>On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 18:36:43 +0100, John Hall
> wrote:
>
>>In article ,
>> ChrisC  writes:
>>>Not bad, really like the Jubal character.
>>
>>Really? I've just finished the book too (having been rather put off by
>>what I had read about it), thought that he was a highly annoying
>>opinionated windbag and know-all, and that he patronised his highly
>>intelligent and competent female staff dreadfully.
>
>You don't remember the scene where he gets too cranky with the staff
>and the three ladies take him out from the dining room while he is
>eating and dump him in the pool?

I do. Well deserved, IMO. He did slightly redeem himself for me, though,
by his surprisingly compassionate thoughts in connection with the
sculpture of the caryatid collapsing under her load.
-- 
John Hall

     "I am not young enough to know everything."
                                                 Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

In rec.arts.sf.written ChrisC  wrote:
: EON by Greg Bear
: Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
: The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester

: Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.

The Stars My Destination brightly outshines the rest. It has ideas so
densely packed a writer would nowadays use them for at least a trilogy of
1500 pages and fail to make it half as good.

Eon is the Bear that made me think Bear gets his ideas from one-line
synopses of Clarke's books. It's about exploring the innards of a
hollowed-out asteroid which arrives into our system. Beyond that, it's not
too much like Rendezvous with Rama, but the initial similarity was
striking and made me wonder. (It makes an interesting triad with The City
and the Stars / Strength of Stones and Childhood's End / Blood Music). 
Nice. Not too impressive, but nice.

Fallen Dragon is not bad as such. It contains a few interesting characters
and several nice ideas. Unfortunately one can IMHO easily read too much
Hamilton in a row, and by the time I read it, I had. He seems to recycle
his ideas a lot. Each iteration is usually better than the last one, but
I'm tempted to think I could spare myself the effort and just read the
last book or series he will ever write.

(The exception to the rule is the miserable Pandora's Star and its sequel.  
I recommed avoiding them. I may be in the minority, but I found them
simply awful. The worst part of the experience was having a terrible
feeling that they could have been very good indeed, if the future society
was designed with more effort. The best I can say about them is that I
read them cover to cover hating them all the way.)


-- 
Esa Perkiö

ChrisC wrote:
> Not bad, really like the Jubal character. Although I could not help
> feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
> thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
> anymore.
> 
> Of the next book I have decided to read is:
> 
> EON by Greg Bear
> Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
> The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
> 
> Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.
> 

The Stars My Destination, absolutely.


-- 
An opinion should be the result of thought, not a substitute for it.

In alt.books.sf ChrisC  wrote:
> EON by Greg Bear

If you _do_ go for this one, make sure to get Eternity too.
Although not as good as this one, it rounds of the story about
the tunnel.
Furthermore I join the rest of the comments, the Bester tale
(The Stars my Destination) really _IS_ a classic one you must have
read. The Hamilton book I don't know, but I do not expect too much
of it, at best Hamilton is an "adequate" writer, not a GREAT one.
-- 
********************************************************************
**  Eef Hartman, Delft University of Technology, dept. EWI/TW     **
**  e-mail:  E.J.M.Hartman@math.tudelft.nl, fax: +31-15-278 7295  **
**  snail-mail:  P.O. Box 5031, 2600 GA  Delft, The Netherlands   **
********************************************************************

On Apr 26, 9:37?am, ChrisC  wrote:
> Not bad, really like the Jubal character. Although I could not help
> feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
> thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
> anymore.
>
> Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>
> EON by Greg Bear
> Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
> The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>
> Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.

Aside from the fact there is no "free love" in the book . . .

If you haven't read The Stars My Destination, you should add that one
to your repertoire posthaste, without any dis to messrs. Bear and
Hamilton.

In article , 
chrispche@googlemail.com (ChrisC) wrote:

> Of the next book I have decided to read is:
> 
> EON by Greg Bear
> Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
> The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester

The Bester is an all-time classic, vastly superior to most of its 
successors. I have sat and listened to people make a good case for it 
being the best SF novel of all time; I would take it if I had only ten 
books to read and re-read in the rest of my life. 

Eon is not that great. It manages one spectacular piece of undercutting 
the reader's beliefs about what he's reading, but it doesn't follow this 
up adequately. 

Fallen Dragon is in some ways the most satisfactory single volume of 
Hamilton, since it's the only one in which he develops a half-decent 
idea, without too many of his tics showing, and brings it to a 
conclusion. It lacks the narrative drive of the Night's Dawn series, and 
the twists on the here-and-now of the first two Greg Mandel novels. It's 
distinctly better than Wasted T/r/e/e/s/ Youth and the Pandora's Star 
series. I'd prefer to re-read it to Eon, but not by much. 

-- 
John Dallman, jgd@cix.co.uk, HTML mail is treated as probable spam.

ChrisC  wrote:
>Not bad, really like the Jubal character. Although I could not help
>feel that the book was out of date. Like how free love was such a new
>thing when this was published. Free love is not really a new concept
>anymore.
>
>Of the next book I have decided to read is:
>
>EON by Greg Bear
>Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
>The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
>
>Which would you go for? I'm thinking the last one.

Oh my. If you HAVEN'T read the Bester yet, set aside a day or two for it NOW.

Eon is okay-to-good. Fallen Dragon I'm fairly sure I've read, and I bought the
sequel, and I sort of like Hamilton's work, but even reading the sequel's
blurb didn't bring back much about Fallen Dragon. So start with the Bester.

Dave
-- 
\/David	DeLaney	posting	from dbd@vic.com "It's not the pot that	grows the flower
It's not the clock that	slows the hour 	The definition's plain for anyone to