He came out, crawling under the cheesecloth. It was quite dark outside. It was lighter in the tent.
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Bah. No repetition and no bondage.
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Now do Dr. Seuss.
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Of course, you realize that I may give the same response to that attempt as well.
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Nickās hand was shaky. He reeled in slowly. The thrill had been too much. He felt, vaguely, a little sick, as though it would be better to sit down.
The leader had broken where the hook was tied to it. Nick took it in his hand. He thought of the trout somewhere on the bottom, holding himself steady over the gravel, far down below the light, under the logs, with the hook in his jaw. Nick knew the troutās teeth would cut through the snell of the hook. The hook would imbed itself in his jaw. Heād bet the trout was angry. Anything that size would be angry. That was a trout. He had been solidly hooked. Solid as a rock. He felt like a rock, too, before he started off. By God, he was a big one. By God, he was the biggest one I ever heard of.
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The king was working in the garden. He seemed very glad to see me. We walked through the garden. This is the queen, he said. She was clipping a rose bush. Oh how do you do, she said. We sat down at a table under a big tree and the king ordered whiskey and soda. We have good whiskey anyway, he said. The revolutionary committee, he told me, would not allow him to go outside the palace grounds. Plastiras is a very good man I believe, he said, but frightfully difficult. I think he did right though shooting those chaps. If Kerensky had shot a few men things might have been altogether different. Of course the great thing in this sort of an affair is not to be shot oneself!
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Just finished up āThe Searing Light, the Sun, and Everything Elseā, Jon Savageās oral history of Joy Divisionā¦
Some reviews and discussionsā¦
Itās put me in a weird mood. But a beautiful book about a band that made some of the most beautiful and meaningful music of the 20th century.
Theyāve been making new videos for songs off Unknown Pleasures which came out 40 years ago, but feel like their from the future stillā¦
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Really enjoying this one. So far itās hard to tell how much of the trouble is conspiracy/intrigue, and how much is basic bureaucratic incompetence and failure to communicate. That makes it pretty believable and relevantā¦
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Neal Stephensonās Fall, or Dodge in Hell. Halfway through it. Let me say up front, I am a Stephenson fan. Yep, 900 pages of walls of dense text? Iām all in. I loved Seveneves; I thought it was brilliant.
This one thoughā¦ itās denser than usual. Itās also very uneven. His work often is, but this kicks it into overdrive. It also reintroduces some old characters. Enoch Root, from The Baroque Cycle and Cryptonomicon, is back, and still seems to serve no useful purpose. Perhaps Root finally resolves into a meaningful character later in the book, but Iām not hopeful based on the history.
So whatās it about? Richard āDodgeā Forthrast, who was previously introduced in Reamde, dies and his mind is uploaded to the cloud. The mind evolves into an AI and forms a sort of social media network in a post-social-media world.
As is common with Stephenson, there are broad and complex questions about life, death, and the evolution of our existence. Some of which he glosses over in a most annoying way; some he goes off on an OCD tangent and gives levels of details that will leave even his biggest fans scratching their heads. (I did mention it was very uneven? Dude needs an editor that will stand up to him.)
I may post an update when I finally finish the damn thing.
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I love Stevenson, but lately I just donāt have the ā¦ stamina? ā¦ do digest his books. My kindle library is awash in dozens of started-not-finished novels right now. Most of which I want to finish, just canāt right now.
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I find that as I get older, I relate to his characters less. Especially the men.
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I love old sci-fi, but this is so true.
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Pretty much. See also, āwomen are interfering with my heroic-ness by always banging on about responsibility!ā
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I am reminded I should dive back into the Lensman books. Fun but oh so awfully full of culturally dated stuff and honestly that is probably half the fun for me.
The biggest eyerolls go to the movies where the woman with the PHD in astrophysics happily make coffee and sandwiches for the boys and goes gaga in love and thinks being a housewife is just perfect.
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Further update on Fallā¦
That was a week of reading time I will never get back. Skip this one. The second half of this book has nothing to redeem it. Or if you must read it, you can stop about page 375 and just thumb through the rest of it, because it has little of interest.
The second half takes place almost entirely in the virtual reality for dead people that was created in the first half. The brief segues into reality are beyond bizarre-- mainly to complain about the resources required IRL that are required to run the VR, or to kill off a real-life character whoās needed in the VR.
I am hugely disappointed. Stephenson just phoned this one in, and the editor who should have made him cut it to 400 pages, didnāt. This is the least impressive novel in his body of work.
And Enoch Root still serves no useful purpose.
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Well this should help with my decision to never bother with reading his work.
I have been tempted by Snowcrash but that has been the extent of it.
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Out of his most recent work, Seveneves was excellent. Itās horrible dystopian fiction, but itās good.
And you donāt figure out the title until maybe the last quarter of the book.
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Iāll second Seveneves (although if you donāt like it when authors go off on extended tangents, maybe skip it).
The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. was his most fun work by far, though. Zodiac was fun too, and Iād recommend Snow Crash and maybe The Diamond Age.
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ā¦then maybe Neal Stephenson isnāt the right author for you.
I have only read a few books by him (Snow Crash, The Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon), and he just seems to be tangent-prone; Cryptonomicon is the worst of those three for that, but they all feature it to some extent,
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