Awesome, worked. Thanks

Woody Allen is a reprobate. A talented reprobate. Mary Astor was one. And his prime-short-story-Woody review of a slight, racy, illustrated biography of her makes it sound like one of those really entertaining books I'll never get around to reading

are there any modern day writers doing anything comparable to Phillip K Dick? The idea of being able to project further into the future based on our fairly futuristic and confusing world is interesting to me right now. Don't say William Gibson b/c I'm not a huge fan of his.

or failing that just good modern sci-fi novelists or good modern sci-fi anthologies

Youseff wrote:are there any modern day writers doing anything comparable to Phillip K Dick? The idea of being able to project further into the future based on our fairly futuristic and confusing world is interesting to me right now. Don't say William Gibson b/c I'm not a huge fan of his.

Well, he's not"really" a science fiction writer, and since the novel was published in 2010, actual events have kind of eradicated the predictive qualities of it. But after taking a while to get into it I found Gary Shteyngart's Super Sad True Love Story a really satisfying novel. Does qualify in that it's set in an imagined near future.

Matt Ruff does some interesting things, but he's more alternate history than futurist. I haven't read in the genre for quite some time, so all my references are old, like Stanislaw Lem and J.G. Ballard. I guess Neal Stephenson and Bruce Stirling would come to mind from reviews, but I haven't read anything but a few short stories.

The Portable Veblen was often funny and a nice way to pass the time, but pretty light stuff.

swishnicholson wrote:

Youseff wrote:are there any modern day writers doing anything comparable to Phillip K Dick? The idea of being able to project further into the future based on our fairly futuristic and confusing world is interesting to me right now. Don't say William Gibson b/c I'm not a huge fan of his.

Well, he's not"really" a science fiction writer, and since the novel was published in 2010, actual events have kind of eradicated the predictive qualities of it. But after taking a while to get into it I found Gary Shteyngart's Super Sad True Love Story a really satisfying novel. Does qualify in that it's set in an imagined near future.

Matt Ruff does some interesting things, but he's more alternate history than futurist. I haven't read in the genre for quite some time, so all my references are old, like Stanislaw Lem and J.G. Ballard. I guess Neal Stephenson and Bruce Stirling would come to mind from reviews, but I haven't read anything but a few short stories.

Thanks! I read Lem before. I was also just recommended Ted Liang elsewhere on the internet.

Youseff wrote:

swishnicholson wrote:

Youseff wrote:are there any modern day writers doing anything comparable to Phillip K Dick? The idea of being able to project further into the future based on our fairly futuristic and confusing world is interesting to me right now. Don't say William Gibson b/c I'm not a huge fan of his.

Well, he's not"really" a science fiction writer, and since the novel was published in 2010, actual events have kind of eradicated the predictive qualities of it. But after taking a while to get into it I found Gary Shteyngart's Super Sad True Love Story a really satisfying novel. Does qualify in that it's set in an imagined near future.

Matt Ruff does some interesting things, but he's more alternate history than futurist. I haven't read in the genre for quite some time, so all my references are old, like Stanislaw Lem and J.G. Ballard. I guess Neal Stephenson and Bruce Stirling would come to mind from reviews, but I haven't read anything but a few short stories.

Thanks! I read Lem before. I was also just recommended Ted Liang elsewhere on the internet.

To me, the writer closest to Dick is Borges. He's not at all contemporary of course, but his short stories are very much worth reading. (His labyrinths collection is what I have in mind.) Also, consider Italo Calvino. Neither are really science fiction, and they aren't projecting into the future but they raise similar issues.

Youseff wrote:

swishnicholson wrote:

Youseff wrote:are there any modern day writers doing anything comparable to Phillip K Dick? The idea of being able to project further into the future based on our fairly futuristic and confusing world is interesting to me right now. Don't say William Gibson b/c I'm not a huge fan of his.

Well, he's not"really" a science fiction writer, and since the novel was published in 2010, actual events have kind of eradicated the predictive qualities of it. But after taking a while to get into it I found Gary Shteyngart's Super Sad True Love Story a really satisfying novel. Does qualify in that it's set in an imagined near future.

Matt Ruff does some interesting things, but he's more alternate history than futurist. I haven't read in the genre for quite some time, so all my references are old, like Stanislaw Lem and J.G. Ballard. I guess Neal Stephenson and Bruce Stirling would come to mind from reviews, but I haven't read anything but a few short stories.

Thanks! I read Lem before. I was also just recommended Ted Liang elsewhere on the internet.

There are other places on the internet?

I went Borges & Chiang.

nearly cried this morning listening to Kvothe get his Talent Pipes from the Eolian.

Youseff wrote:are there any modern day writers doing anything comparable to Phillip K Dick? The idea of being able to project further into the future based on our fairly futuristic and confusing world is interesting to me right now. Don't say William Gibson b/c I'm not a huge fan of his.

For this reason, I desperately wish that Arthur Clarke would've lived to be 130.

The Luminaries is pretty fun so far almost half way though. It's a light 850 pages D:

did you know Isaac Asimov wrote a 1200+ page book about the Bible?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asimov's_ ... _the_Bible

I can assure you I'll never get around to reading that but might be interesting to some of you other peoples.

RichmondPhilsFan wrote:Use the livingsocial deal in the article and get two free months of Audible instead of one—comes with one free download per month and unlimited streaming of their stations. It doesn’t seem to be restricted to new users because I’ve had multiple Audible trials in the past.

Using my second credit on the new George Saunders, which has like 69 narrators

Grotewold wrote:

RichmondPhilsFan wrote:Use the livingsocial deal in the article and get two free months of Audible instead of one—comes with one free download per month and unlimited streaming of their stations. It doesn’t seem to be restricted to new users because I’ve had multiple Audible trials in the past.

Using my second credit on the new George Saunders, which has like 69 narrators

just used my second as well. then promptly cancelled and received 20$ in credit for a book. Gonna cancel again tonight and use a different Promo code to get me 3 months for 6$.

edit: Grabbed Kingkiller Chronicles Day 1(already finished) and grabbed Kingkiller Chronicles Day 2 this weekend. Used my 20$ to get Dark Tower Book 2.

jamiethekiller wrote:

Grotewold wrote:

RichmondPhilsFan wrote:Use the livingsocial deal in the article and get two free months of Audible instead of one—comes with one free download per month and unlimited streaming of their stations. It doesn’t seem to be restricted to new users because I’ve had multiple Audible trials in the past.

Using my second credit on the new George Saunders, which has like 69 narrators

just used my second as well. then promptly cancelled and received 20$ in credit for a book. Gonna cancel again tonight and use a different Promo code to get me 3 months for 6$.

edit: Grabbed Kingkiller Chronicles Day 1(already finished) and grabbed Kingkiller Chronicles Day 2 this weekend. Used my 20$ to get Dark Tower Book 2.

Thanks for the tip. I just used my second credit (also to pick up Kingkiller Day 2), then went to cancel and got the same credit. Picked up Good Omens (Gaiman) and Way of Kings (Sanderson) with it. They were cheaper because I already own them both on Kindle.

promo code NewTravel is supposed to be the one for 3months at 2$

I wanna read that book Gotham but it's 1400 pages. Been a while since I chomped on something that meaty.



(that's a pic of me for the BSG detectives on the board)

I read Gotham a long time ago. I'm not sure it's totally worth the effort. He synthesizes an amazing amount of research though.