New Dawn goes literary!

[New Dawn]

Sorry for being unclear. The name of the movie is 'The girl with the Dragon Tattoo'.

[Peacemaker]

Isn't that a series of movies or a TV show, preceding the recent big budget film release earlier this year?

[New Dawn]

'The girl with the Dragon Tattoo' is a big budget movie released in December 2011 which covers the first book with the same title in a trilogy by this Stieg Larsson. (Daniel Craig is playing the main (male) character in the movie)

[New Dawn]

In a response to cugel - who I doubt is reading this but anyway - I like to announce that I have now read Dune. I think it is a good book well worth a read.

[cugel the clever]

New Dawn - Glad to hear that you read Dune.  If I were you, I wouldn't bother with the endless sequels - as is often the case, the sequels are not as good as the original.  Here are some other great science fiction novels.... all are masterpieces of thought-provoking speculative fiction and are well worth reading (* beside my personal favourites in this list which together with Dune are my "top-5" of SF):

 - The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov (Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation)
 - Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
 - Ringworld by Larry Niven
 - The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
 - The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Leguin
 * - A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller
 - To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip Jose Farmer
 * - The City and the Stars by Arthur C Clarke
 - Watership Down by  Richard Adams
 * - A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K Leguin
 * - The Dying Earth by Jack Vance
 - The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin

[New Dawn]

Ah, thank you Cugel for those book titles. I've read several of them already. I did read quite a lot of science fiction when I was young. For example the Foundation-serie as well as the Robot-serie by Asimov. I loved 'To Your Scattered Bodies Go' and I also read the other 4? books in the Riverworld series (but it was long ago). I have also read several books about the EarthSea by LeGuin. I will list the other books in my list. Thanks again.

[New Dawn]

In the meantime I take the opportunity to say that I have read Hemingway's 'For Whom the Bell Tolls'. I must say I have never read a book with more 'doom' written over it. Already from the first few chapters I got the feeling this will not end well.

[New Dawn]

Since my last post here I have read:

Lord of the flies:    Interesting book but not a favorite. I'm glad I've read it at last as it's mentined now and then and it's good to know what it really is. I didn't find the story very realistic though.

The Long Ships by Frans G Bengtsson. A really amazing story about the time of the vikings. Not very realistic this book either but a very fun read in my opinion.

The Grapes of Wrath. I liked this too. It is well written and gives a picture of how life could be during the great depression.

Anna Karenina: Sometimes this book is said to be the best novel ever written. I don't subscribe to that point of view. I found it more or less boring but I can understand that at the time of writing it was an important work with it's view of women's liberation and worker's liberation in a time of traditional family values and slavery. But I would recommend an abridged version if possible.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Not unexpectedly it is a 'little' bit different from the Disney version.

Now I'm reading 'Memoir's of a geisha' by Arthur Golden'. I find it very interesting and it gives a fascinating (albeit criticized) view of life in early 20th century Japan.

Stay tuned for next episode of 'literary stories' by yours truly New Dawn

[Sir Osis of Thuliver]

Anna Karenina, eh? I've never gotten around to that one. Maybe this summer.

[New Dawn]

Well, if the summer is long enough you may be able to finish it :-)

[cugel the clever]

I'm watching a new "docudrama" series on TV called "The Vikings" about Ragnar Lothbrok's first voyages to England.  Has anyone else seen it?  I find it very well done and to my admitedly inexpert opinion, quite realistic.  It's a Canadian-Irish co-production (go figure!) and showing on The History Channel.

http://www.history.com/shows/vikings

[New Dawn]

I think it's time to update this thread again..

Cugel, I have not seen the drama you mentioned so I cannot comment on that..

I myself have been kind of  busy reading for a while and moved over to Science Fiction for now. I read quite a lot of books in this genre when I was younger but now it had been a while since I read SF books.

I've read
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
A very interesting book about how a young, genius kid was brought up and teached how to be a commander over a space ship armada. Interesting story and well written. It is not very plausible but which SF book is that? It is going to become a movie that will be released later this year. It will probably be rubbish but I believe I will see it anyway.

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A Heinlein
About how a human born and raised on Mars by Marsians comes back to earth and has to learn how humans work. Being raised by Marsians gave him special abilities andin the end it is he that teaches humans.

I am now reading:
Childhood's Game by Arthur C Clarke.
This book tells the story about when superbeings came to earth and took over the world - not by killing like in so many SF movies but just by demonstrating their power.

With the reservation that I have not finished the last book yet I'd like to say that I think all three books are good SF books and well worth a read.

[cugel the clever]

Hi New Dawn,

When I was 12 (almost 50 years ago!) my parents moved us to a new city.  Up until that point I was not really a science fiction fan or even a particularly voracious reader.  But, in a new city without having made new friends, I was feeling lonely and "dispossessed" and I took to frequenting the local public library.  It was there that I acquired a lifelong and passionate interest in science fiction.  In those early years, Arthur C Clarke was absolutely my favourite author.  I loved the epic scope, the imagination, the essentially optimistic, and humane nature of his stories.  The book you're reading (Childhood's End) was one of my favourites but my absolute favourite, which I read many times and influenced me in many ways for my entire life was "The City and The Stars" which is an epic vision of the future of humanity on earth a billion years in the future. 

If you like Clarke, I strongly urge you to read his short story collections, especially the old ones which were originally written in the 50's.... there are many stories of astonishingly epic sweep and profound concepts of the "nature of mankind" and our relationship to the universe.  collections I recommend include:

Expedition to Earth (1953)
Reach for Tomorrow (1956)
Tales from the White Hart (1957)
The Other Side of the Sky (1958)
Tales of Ten Worlds (1962)
The Nine Billion Names of God (1967)

So many brilliant short stories to read, including these "Must reads" : The sentinel (Which was the basis for the brilliant film 2001 a space odyssey), Rescue party (this one almost a religious experience for me), The star.

I read ENDer's game when it was first published and consider it brilliant.  As with Dune and many other good SF novels, the many sequels of Enders Game are not as good as the original

Heinlein I read more sparingly, but I certainly enjoyed Stranger in a strange land.  also good is Starship troopers (much better than the film).

In the 50's and 60s'; Clarke, Heinlein, and Isaac Asimov were known as the "Big three" SF writers of their generation/era.  Clarke was my favourite.  Heinlein tended to write military oriented stories and his right-wing almost fascist views seeped into his stories.  Asimov seemed more interested in the hard science of science fiction and was in fact also an accomplished popular science writer.  Clarke was the philosopher and idealist of the trio.  Kind of like me

[Sir Osis of Thuliver]

Stranger in a Strange Land is, aside from being one of the best classic SciFi books, a foundational 1960s counterculture book... Of course, by the time Manson came around, this thing hit a little too close to home.

[New Dawn]

Thank you,  Cugel for your recommendation. I will see if I can find them.

And I can see what you mean, Sir Osis