Was recommended Orson Scott Card's classic
Ender's Game and Neil Gaiman's Stardust.

Bought them too.

Am I wasting my time? I liked that PR was NOT science fiction, so...

Aisha

I've never read Stardust, and honestly I can't see the connection between Pattern Recognition and Ender's Game, except that they're both good books. Ender's Game is pretty standard Sci-Fi, at least in the trappings.

Yes...I was the victim of a good sales pitch.

Started Ender's and it is indeed that -- classical sci fi.
Will give it away!

Gonna try the Gaiman, even if this one looks like fantasy. Does anyone know it?

Thanks, Colin.

BTW, gonna read some more Murakami soon: Sputnik Sweetheart this time.
Waiting for the new WG-- any news?
Aisha OutoftheLoop

Aisha

Have you checked the blog recently? He's been posting what look like excerpts.

Yessssssss!
Thanks-- I had this feeling it might be time.

Aha... hmmmm.. interesting.

I see I have missed a lot, including WG's discovery of Gil's F:F:F.

And his comment (again it seems) on the black Rickson:

"... I gave Cayce one because I thought it worked for her, and I made it a Buzz, because that worked for me. I never stopped to think that Rickson's didn't actually make a black one, but if I had, that wouldn't have stopped me. Hubertus Bigend doesn't exist either, and I have my poetic license right here, laminated, in my wallet. "

Back to reading the excerpts.

Aisha

quote:

Originally posted by Aisha:

Gonna try the Gaiman, even if this one looks like fantasy. Does anyone know it?

Gaiman kinda writes fantasy that's his thing... Try Good Omens with Terry Pratchett if you like what you have.. It's one of my favorites...
He also has a board...

http://neilgaimanboard.com/6/ubb.x?cdra=Y&s=733605825

Hi L,

A board in the same family as this one, it seems.
Will try the Gaiman...
Right now on a biography of Georgia O'Keeffe and a Jane Austen-like English writer, Barbara Pym (another book where there is more thought and less action...why Neuromancer wasn't my thing: very tough tone, action-packed.)

Checked Amazon: People who bought PR, only bought and viewed other WG novels So maybe there IS nothing like him.

Aisha

Well, there is Neal Stephenson/Cryptonomicon that can be compared to PR as being non-scifi..And then there is SnowCrash by him in the Scifi genre... He writes long books though..

quote:

Originally posted by Aisha:
Gonna try the Gaiman, even if this one looks like fantasy. Does anyone know it?

I read Stardust. It's fantacy alright but in Gaimans kind of way. It's short and sweet. Should give you a nice weekend.
If I were to suggest a Gaiman book I'd go for "American Gods". Fantasy again but a lot more contemporary and has a nice road trip feel to it. But it's a far longer read.

quote:

Well, there is Neal Stephenson/Cryptonomicon that can be compared to PR as being non-scifi..And then there is SnowCrash by him in the Scifi genre... He writes long books though..

[quote]
I read Stardust. It's fantacy alright but in Gaimans kind of way. It's short and sweet. Should give you a nice weekend.
If I were to suggest a Gaiman book I'd go for "American Gods". Fantasy again but a lot more contemporary and has a nice road trip feel to it. But it's a far longer read.

Thank you both.
I shipped Ender's off to a friend :-0 Ready for Gaiman and I think Cryptonomicon too.
So many books, so little time.

Aisha

not read stardust in particular, but yeah gaiman tends towards a contemporary dose of fantasy. i guess you could say he was fantasy in the same way that some of murakami's stuff is fantasy.

as for books like pattern recognition, the closest that i have come is "PopCo" by scarlett thomas. it features a woman who is fasinated by crosswords and cryptology who works for a toy company and gets persuaded to go along to a brainstorming weekend, where she starts to find a kind of no-logo sub culture. i'm a fan of thomas anyway, but popco is great!

OK SRF-- thank you: will go to Amazon and check.

I am on a No Shopping during Lent pledge but will buy on 16th April!

Aisha The Virtuous

Aisha, when the virtue subsides I would suggest you check MICROSERFS by Douglas Coupland. You could always borrow it from your local library...

Thanks, Sentinel..
Another writer I have wondered about: some of the novels seem real THIN, I like that

Hmmm, the library might have him-- great idea.

http://nyhuus.deich.folkebibl.no/deichman/dfb/engdfb.html

quote:

Originally posted by Aisha:
OK SRF-- thank you: will go to Amazon and check.

I am on a No Shopping during Lent pledge but will buy on 16th April!

Aisha The Virtuous

oh yeah, meant to say - if you do read it, let me know what you think of it.

remote, I will-- it is in my shopping cart at Amazon, ready to go in the 16th.

Gonna add Coupland.

Meanwhile, in another development, I gave away Gaiman unread to my 17-year old niece as she loves fantasy and it seemed kinda her thing.

Aisha

remote and sentinel,

Next on my list are Popco and Microserfs-- both too heavy (some paperbacks are amazingly leaden) to take on my travels recently, so instead I chose a lighweight (in both senses) Murakami: Sputnik Sweetheart.

Will keep you posted!

Aisha who has been to Japan, yeah!
I loved it.

OK: here goes: nearly finished PopCo in a coupla days: having developed into a slow reader (and switching between books too) that's very good on my Book Barometer.

Yes, definitely reminiscent of PR, the thoughtful not action-prone heroine with a No Logo attitude, the mystery.

AND she mentions William Gibson as one of the heroine's fave authors too: page 292 in my American paperback version

Thanks, Remote.

Aisha

no problem, glad you are enjoying. i thought the neuromancer reference was pretty cool as well. she actually does reviews every so often for one of the UK papers - one of those was pattern recognition, so i think its a clear influence. actually, just checking her site, couldn't see the pattern recognition review - but there is a section books that changed me, which lists neuromancer.