I liked it. Pretty fast read, both in pacing and that you can read it in an afternoon if you wanted to. Doesn't get bogged down in detail, and what detail is given is interesting and pertains to the story. My only real complaint is the over use of the phrase 'of course' which I abhor. (Alistair Reynollddddsss!!!! *shakes fist*) 

My only real complaint is the over use of the phrase i've noticed this a lot these days... every author seems to have some phrase that they like to write over and over and over again... :\
for god sakes, brandon sanderson kept writing 'In addition'... ffs, is this a WoW spell tooltip?!
or david weber as his damn 'like so many/much xxxxx' 

http://www.wetasphalt.com/content/murakami-mieville-continuum 

based on reading some David Mitchell (cloud atlas, number9dream), who is supposed to have borrowed a lot from Murakami 

Overnight, the vast majority of Europe is replaced with alien wilderness in the early 1900s. As countries begin to explore and recolonize this new Europe, the story goes from the Finch Expedition to end of time to a final confrontation between the Archive and some galactic virus or something.

The only 'twist' in the book I didn't really accept was the one where it ended up as essentially Underworld - semi-immortal super-humans on side A face off against semi-immortal super-humans on side B in a covert war waged through the ages (though the build up of the 2nd half wasn't as gripping as the 1st half.)

I actually appreciated the explanation of what The Miracle was and how the entirety of Europe was replaced -

(SPOILER - A super galactic historical computer called the Archive which recreates history inside itself was attacked by super-complex viruses which invaded the Archive and tried to re-write things for its own purposes. /SPOILER)

- it seemed elegant enough an explanation and offered a lot of possibilities. I was expecting more of the 1900s exploration through alien wilderness story, it was sort of why I picked the book up in the first place. Kind of a shame it didn't continue down that path really, but I suppose the 2nd half of the book is alright in its own light.

P.S. Also a pretty light read, clocks in under 400 pages and goes pretty fast. 

Yeah I was pretty dissapointed by that one, it's ok though.
He's done better in my opinion, his best is still Spin I think (sequel doesn't live up to it unfortunatly). And I quite enjoyed his last one, Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America. 

AFAIK I really liked that one.

Must check out more of his stuff. I'd read some previous ones (Chronoliths, Bios). 

Awesome book. If you know Neil DeGrasse Tyson, then you can read the book imagining him narrating it, which is pretty damn cool. It's like an extended episode of Nova Science! Now (if you're unfamiliar, it's a science show on PBS hosted by Mr Tyson that covers a range of scientific topics.)

It's essentially an easy-to-read science extravaganza for laymen. It's just got a ton of interesting, I suppose you could say trivia, but it seems so much more than that. It's all the cool things that science has discovered that you didn't know, or perhaps did know if you're a nerd like me.

Like I said, it's pretty easy to read, under 400 pages and just plain fascinating. The last section of the book addresses science vs religion, and their roles in relation to each other, if you're interested in that sort of thing. Pretty big deal in the states, so I was pretty interested.

Cool book. 

totally into religious/scientific discourse

I will check this out. thanks 

Well only the last part is dedicated to that - it's a small part (30 - 50 pages or so?) 

still interested 

Yo, this book is damn good. It's like all about this empathic genius kid named Ender Wiggin who basically gets drafted into the space army at age 6 and then later on saves the world and stuff. That's some crazy story telling.

Meanwhile, on Earth... his older brother and sister begin taking over the planet while he's all up in space yo and then they like all unify the planet and then Ender and his sister are like Yo bitch we leavin and then they go and start a colony, where like Ender finds the last of the alien species he killed off and then goes and gets them bitches goin again.

Yo that shit was deep. 

Hey, at least you get http://xkcd.com/635/ now! 

Nope, still don't get it. :/ 

 

Like Ender's Game, these two books are also considered staples of sci-fi.

Rama is fantastic adventure to an alien spaceship, lying dormant flying through space aimed suspiciously at our solar system's sun. A team is assembled to land on it and find out wtf is going on. I don't want to give up any details, but the rest of the book is fascinating as Mr. Arthur C. Clarke explains this alien ship and the adventures of the crew that explores it. Solid book, looking forward to the other two in the series (Ramans do everything in threes, after all.)

Foundation - I view this sort of as the anti-Ender's game. Whereas Ender's Game was about the world who pinned their hopes on a genius boy to save their bacon by combating an alien threat head on, Foundation is all about fore thought and planning on a grand, statistical scale. Relying on psycho-history (basically statistics and economics) the future has been mapped out very thoroughly by the greatest psycho historian the world has known (I forget his name though.) Long story short, the galactic empire is about to crumble and enter a thirty thousand year dark age. The psycho historians can't stop it, but they can shorten the dark age to only 1,000 years if they are allowed to do as they please. Well, the entire story takes places over 1,000 years, the first book only about 200 of those years, wherein Foundation, the bastion of scientific understanding, fends off threats in its small back-water part of the galaxy.

(Slight spoiler) Violence is a last resort, and the problems Foundation faces are all met through non-violent means, utilizing instead religion to control ignorance and trade embargoes to stifle war. I am looking forward to the other books in the series as well, this kind of story (handling conflict through non-violent means) very intriguing.

Good shit from scifi juggernauts. 

... are not very good :-( 

Kindle Paperwhite vs. Kobo Glo??

Read mostly sci-fi and fantasy, occasional thrillers and horror. 

I think either one is fine really, maybe a bit more book choices on Kindle because of amazon, but probably better interface/usability on the Kobo, and more DRM free books (all books on Amazon have DRM, so you can only read them on your kindle). 

Name me some good semi-obscure sfi-etc books that I can test, please xxx 

The Kobo looks nicer because cheaper, microSD and lighther (185g vs 220g). Now I want one too. 

http://www.amazon.com/Tain-Translated-Irish-Epic-Cuailnge/dp/0192803735

Blood, guts and warp spasms! 

http://www.v3.co.uk/IMG/224/241224/kobo-glo-ereader-pink-back-cover-320x198.jpg?1354020635 

 

Who here really, really likes the quakeinjector? :-D