[CLUE-Talk] Good Books -> was Solitaire, anyone? (crypto stuff)

[Timothy C. Klein]

* Jed S. Baer (thag at frii.com) wrote:
> On Tue, 16 Jul 2002 21:53:49 -0600
> Sean LeBlanc <seanleblanc at attbi.com> wrote:
> 
> > > >* Jed S. Baer (thag at frii.com) wrote:
> Well, OK, I just have to plug Orson Scott Card, especially the Ender
> series, and Alvin Maker. Also Dean (er, Dan?) Simmons' Hyperion. Hyperion
> also "wrapped up" too quickly for my taste, but nonetheless is fabulous
> stuff. I haven't read much Bear, but thoroughly enjoyed "Songs of Earth
> and Power" and "Moving Mars". Didn't he write the Eon books?

I have to get to Card one of these days.  And it is Dan Simmons -- he is
one of my favorites.  I loved Hyperion (you read them both, right?  It
is actually one book, but it was split up by the publisher for
commercial reasons:  _Hyperion_, and the _Fall of Hyperion_.)  The
series concludes with _Endymion_ and _The Rise of Endymion_.  I actually
liked those two even better than the first, but they are rather
different.  And the central idea is one that some might find hokey,
others might find very offensive.  But I loved it.  And it ties up all
the lose ends left in the first two.  So it is really one story, split
into 4 volumes.

> A few other faves: Paul J. McCauley - Fairyland, Marion Zimmer Bradley -
> the "Avalon" series. My memory is failing me here, "The Mote in God's
> Eye", "Footfalls". Sherri S. Tepper - the "Northshore" series.
> 

Another I really liked was _The Gold Bug Variations_ by Richard Powers.
It is not strictly science fiction as it is set in the 50's and the
present day, but science plays a pivotal role.  It is about cracking the
genetic code (via a fictional character who beat Watson and Crick to it,
but never published), and encoding in general.  It has a really neat
central conceit between DNA (2 strands, 4 bases) and Bach's Goldberg
Variations (a set of piano pieces, consisting of 2 "strands" (bass and
treble) and 4 notes).  It has a more literary bent, but is a really cool
book.

Tim
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== Timothy Klein || teece at silverklein.net   ==
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