HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: rsm58307@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Ron)
Subject: Dragon Reborn & Steven Brust
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 1992 21:49:11 GMT

>Actually, the method I use for grading books is how often I
>want to reread them *right after I buy them.*  With the
>Wheel of Time series the answer has always been "5 or 6."
>(It does help that I read at an absolutely voracious rate.)
>The only other books I reread that often are some Steven Brust
>and Diane Duane.

I like the works of the first two authors a great deal.
What has Diane Duane written?  What is she best at writing?

	- Ron
From: mst@vexpert.dbai.tuwien.ac.at (Markus Stumptner)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Co-Dominium Universe
Date: 28 Sep 92 17:10:50 GMT
Organization: DB and ES Subdivision, TU Vienna

From article <1992Sep27.201305.13335@hsv3.lsil.com>, by mvp@hsv3.lsil.com (Mike Van Pelt):
> "Warmonger" is another matter.  Some people think that it's a horribly
> war-mongering statement to say "If, God forbid, you get into a war,
> then you'd damn sure better win it."  I think this is a pretty good
> summary of Pournelle's position.  I don't think this constitutes
> "warmonger".  Some people do.

I don't, but I also think it does not sufficiently characterize
Pournelle's position.  There often are other options besides simply
bashing the barbarian's heads in.  (Of course, these options do not
apply if you face a Hitler, but again not every would-be conqueror is
a Hitler.)  Why I would consider Pournelle a warmonger is that he
tends to ignore those options because he is too fond of the military
ones, and consequently tends to portray situations in his books where
those options do not exist or work.  Sort of if you like hammers, you
go out looking for nails everywhere.

An amusing analogy is the situation before Desert Storm, where the US
generals argued for trying non-violent solutions first, while, as it
now appears, Bush favored a military solution from the start (this is
pretty close to what I perceive as Pournelle's stance in general).
The difference between those positions obviously does NOT lie in the
degree of preparedness, but in the point where one, privately, decides
that looking for other options is not the way to go and head-bashing
will be tried next.
-- 
Markus Stumptner                                mst@vexpert.dbai.tuwien.ac.at
University of Technology Vienna                 vexpert!mst@relay.eu.net
Paniglg. 16, A-1040 Vienna, Austria             ...mcsun!vexpert!mst
From: tordm@vana (Tord G.M. Malmgren)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: author'n'title...
Date: 28 Sep 92 18:32:03 GMT
Reply-To: TordM@VanA.PhySto.SE
Organization: Department of Physics, University of Stockholm -- Sweden


 hello! I remember reading a book a long time ago about some dude going to
another planet keeping contact with earth. during his going over the surface
he heard a voice saying something like "my brains for yours!", and this slime
mold thing did something to him. back on earth he was able to transform to
some kind of wolf-like creature, and he was hunted. this is all I remember.
 does any of this ring a bell? does anybody know what book this is??
any replies appreciated!





---------------+--------------------------------
 Tord Malmgren | InterNet: TordM@VanA.PhySto.SE | These opinions are my OWN,
               | BITNet  : TordM@SESUF51        | and NOT of this department!
---------------+--------------------------------
 Department of Physics, University of Stockholm
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: jdnicoll@watyew.uwaterloo.ca (James Davis Nicoll)
Subject: Coming of Age novels (was Re: Count Geiger's Blues and Jumper)
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 15:54:47 GMT

	I happened to recently read 'Orbital Resonance' and 'Rite  of
Passage' back to back. What are the great SF 'coming of age' novels?
I'd put 'The Wild Shore' on the list (and, I suppose the  other two  
books in  that series), but what else  should  go on the cannonical
list of  CoA books?

							James Nicoll
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: rob@hoster.eng.ohio-state.edu (Rob Carriere)
Subject: Re: Characters I Hate to Love
Organization: The Ohio State University Dept of Electrical Engineering
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 06:05:48 GMT

In article <1afu0oINN505@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> sdh5@po.CWRU.Edu (Scott D.
Hurley) writes: 
>Remember, evil is *supposed* to be more tempting than good [...]

Indeed?

SR
---
From: sdh5@po.CWRU.Edu (Scott D. Hurley)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Characters I Hate to Love
Date: 1 Oct 1992 22:27:36 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: slc12.ins.cwru.edu


Woah!  Wait just a second here!  Before this thing degrades into
an argument about books that portray evil as good, which was NOT
my original intention is suggesting that sometimes the antagonist
is more intriguing than the protagonist in FICTION, let's 
remember that evil relative, and if we go down that road we'll
end up with a nightmarish conflict filling this board that is
better left to a *Philosophy* BBS.

That said, I can now admit to liking Nietzche.

Remember, evil is *supposed* to be more tempting than good, and
it show's real talent when an author can demonstrate that by
making three-dimensional villains.  Would that the same were true
of modern heroes, which seem to be either pure good (which is
*really* irritating), or not much different from the evil they're
supposed to be fighting (a la Rambo).

Another example of a great antagonist:  Roy Batty in _Blade_Runner_

End of Originator's comment.
-- 
He who fights with monsters might take care,
Lest he thereby become the monster.
And if you gaze for long into an abyss,
The Abyss gazes also into you. - - Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzche
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: enthrall@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Andrew Wolf)
Subject: Re: Piers Anthony: Tantham Mound
Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston Illinois.
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 05:18:58 GMT

In article <2aca03d0@ESS.NIAID.pc.niaid.nih.gov> James_Williams@ess.niaid.pc.niaid.nih.GOV (James Williams) writes:
>In one of his earlier books, Piers Anthony says that Tantham Mound is 
>his first serious novel in years.  Now that its out in paperback, I was 
>thinking about giving it a try.  Has anyone read it and if so, is it 
>worth bothering with?
>
>--------------------------------------------
>| James Williams                           |
>| Bitnet: JWW%ESS%NIAID@NIH3PLUS.BITNET    |
>| Internet: JWW@ESS.NIAID.PC.NIAID.NIH.GOV |
>| CompuServ: 70304,2462                    |
>--------------------------------------------   
>
>

For starters, it's _Tatham Mound_, not "Tantham", and Piers considers it
his best work to date.  At least, it's the one he's most proud of.  The
problem is that <as usual> the people he had contracts with screwed him,
and didn't give it <the book> the publicity agreed upon.

I got this info from him when I visited last Spring Break.  I say go for
it.  Only you can decide, especially if you've seen the various responses
from netters on his work.  I personally <no joke> love all that I have
read, and that is upwards of 60 books of his.

Good luck, and if you have any other questions, feel free to mail me.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: wcstom@alfred.carleton.ca (Tom Hamill)
Subject: Re: Gene Wolfe's New Sun stuff
Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written
Organization: Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 14:22:35 GMT

In article lnh@soliton.physics.arizona.edu (sometimes a Wombat) writes:
>
>One day Dorothy Hamell will advertise hell's new skating rink.
>                ^^^^^^
I know how tacky it can be to point out spelling mistakes, but after
all, she was an American figure skating champion so deserves to have
her name spelt correctly--Hamill.  Still, since you live in the
endless summer of Arizona, I suppose one should consider that perhaps 
all that sunshine has had an adverse effect on your cognitive processing.
Even so, I'd trade places with you any time of the year.

---tom

l~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~l
l      CRUSH---CompassionRespectUnderstandingSelfHonesty---CRUSH      l
l         How could you have ever lived your life without it?         l
l               Join Now, Apply Within.  Spread the word.             l
l____________________________      ---me, trying to save the world,   l
l wcstom@alfred.carleton.ca l                      from itself.       l
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: scudder@bluemoon.rn.com (Richard T Sanford)
Subject: jhn
Organization: Blue Moon BBS ((614) 868-998[024])
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 92 20:42:02 EDT

lk

 This is from
     scudder@bluemoon.rn.com
who doesn't have his (or her) own obnoxious signature yet
From: swf@teradata.com (Stanley Friesen)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Books I Love to Hate (e.g., Orbital Resonance)
Date: 1 Oct 92 18:15:31 GMT
Reply-To: swf@tdat.teradata.com (Stanley Friesen)
Organization: NCR Teradata Database Business Unit

In article <1ad8hgINN3lp@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> dpn2@po.CWRU.Edu (Damien P. Neil) writes:
|
|Have you read the original ending to _Podkayne_? You should LOVE it... :-)

O.K., that's the second time I've seen a reference to this.

What is this *original* *ending*!
-- 
sarima@teradata.com			(formerly tdatirv!sarima)
  or
Stanley.Friesen@ElSegundoCA.ncr.com
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: eliz@ai.mit.edu (Elizabeth Willey)
Subject: Re: Name query
Organization: MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
	<92272.051504JOKHC@CUNYVM.BITNET>
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 17:16:24 GMT

I was waiting for someone to confuse "Melisande" and "Melusine".  Two
different ladies.  Melusine is the fay who is variously attributed
with serpentine features.


Elizabeth Willey
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig)
Subject: Re: Coming of Age novels (was Re: Count Geiger's Blues and Jumper)
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 00:51:40 GMT

jdnicoll@watyew.uwaterloo.ca (James Davis Nicoll):
>...what else  should  go on the cannonical list of  CoA books?

Timothy Zahn's "A Coming of Age". :-)



Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: kennethm@cc.gatech.edu (Kenneth Moorman)
Subject: Re: Robert Jordan's "Shadow Rising"
Reply-To: kennethm@cc.gatech.edu (Kenneth Moorman)
Organization: College of Computing
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 00:40:41 GMT

In article <168719272.ARL00SJB@UNCCVM.UNCC.EDU> ARL00SJB@UNCCVM.UNCC.EDU writes:
>Didn't I hear/read that there would be 7 books total in this series?
> 

I'd just be happy with the fourth one right now.  I just checked a local
B. Daltons and a local Waldens and neither had Shadow Rising.  
Both said check back late next month.   BUT, others have posted they've picked
it up.   Do book release dates meander cross country?


			- Kenneth Moorman (kennethm@cc.gatech.edu)
From: denebeim@brtph254.bnr.ca (Jay Denebeim P025)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Any comments on ENTROVERSE by James Hogan?
Date: 6 Oct 92 01:31:55 GMT
Organization: Bell-Northern Research

In article <1992Oct2.182734.16379@m.cs.uiuc.edu> sane@cs.uiuc.edu (Aamod Sane) writes:
>dietz@cs.rochester.edu (Paul Dietz) writes:
>
>>In article <1992Sep30.213531.13611@m.cs.uiuc.edu> sane@cs.uiuc.edu (Aamod Sane) writes:
>
>>> Try "The Genesis Machine" - superb science.(Terrible plot and characters,
>>> but IMO the physics makes up for it).
>
>>No, the science is quite ridiculous as well.  Folks don't understand
>>just how much we know about particle physics.  We've reached the 
>>point where we need to build a machine 50 miles around to have
>>any reasonable chance of producing phenomena the current theory
>>can't handle.
>
>First of all, the book is speculation. Second, the strength of book, to
>me, lies not in the gadgets (i.e. the machines to produce the effects)
>but in the fairly well developed derivation of particle behavior
>starting from the theory of particles as projections from a superdimension.
>(And of course there are holes in it, but that is besides the point.)
>
>I do not know of any *SF* development of a theory that is as well done.
>
>
>QOTD:
>
>"First, let's talk about the word `football'.  In most nations, when people 
> say `football', they mean `soccer', which is a completely different game in 
> which smallish persons whiz about on a field while the spectators beat each 
> other up and eventually overthrow the government.  I don't know why the 
> other nations call soccer `football', but I suspect it has something to do 
> with the metric system and I say the hell with it." -- Dave Barry
>-- 
>sane@cs.uiuc.edu
>         ==         / \  
>-----    ==    *    \_/     -|||- 
>         ==     


-- 
Jay Denebeim     Address: UUCP:     duke!wolves!deepthot!jay
                          Internet: jay@deepthot.cary.nc.us
                 BBS:(919)-460-7430      VOICE:(919)-460-6934
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: ins894r@aurora.cc.monash.edu.au (Aaron Wigley [Wigs])
Subject: Re: julian may
Organization: Monash University
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 01:35:53 GMT

Kevin Adams (kevina@.uucp) wrote:
: In article <1acp7rINN3qp@seven-up.East.Sun.COM>, cbrunson@vermont.East.Sun.COM (Chuck Brunson - Sun BOS Corporate Software Engineering) writes:
: > Is "Intervention" just a combination of "The Surveillance" and
: > "The Metaconcert" or is it something more?
: 
: "Intervention" was the single hardcover version of the two paperbacks.

"Intervention" was published as a paperback in Australia also.

: --Kevin

The Wigs of Oz,
Aaron Wigley
From: whit@milton.u.washington.edu (John Whitmore)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Shock wave rider
Date: 28 Sep 92 22:57:36 GMT
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle

In article <1992Sep25.174336.26949@radian.uucp> markbr@radian.uucp (markbr) writes:
>In article <1992Sep21.155430.7310@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de>, S_TITZ@iravcl.ira.uka.de (Olaf Titz) writes:
># In <19de99INNs3r@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> garvey@skybridge.SCL.CWRU.Edu writes:
># 
># >  ted@eslvcr.wimsey.bc.ca (Ted Powell) writes:
># >  >S_TITZ@iravcl.ira.uka.de (Olaf Titz) writes:
># >  >>Just to take another example of something *not* yet being invented: 

># >  >>That dance where the dancers generate the music themselves (supposedly
># >  >>via a computer controlling the noise equipment). As far as I know, no
># >  >>such thing exists by mid-1992. 

>Sorry, guys. There's been an instrument around since at least the sixties,
>whose name I canNOT remember, that you play by, I believe, moving your
>hand either in its (electrical?magnetic?) field, or over a charged plate.

	It's called a Theremin (after its inventor, Leon Theremin).
It is an old instrument, dates back to the twenties,  and uses
oscillators tuned by body capacitance, usually played with two
spheres for electrodes.  The principle would work with any body motion,
to some extent.


	John Whitmore
From: pwestlak@eoe.co.uk (Peter Westlake)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Visual Purple (was: R. A. Lafferty)
Date: 28 Sep 92 17:21:41 GMT
Organization: EO Europe Limited, Cambridge, UK
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]

: >		Houston, Houston, do you read? I'd mortgage half my soul
: >		If I could see it one more time - Apollo, Ground Control
: >		The Devil take the men who killed the dream that died too soon
: >		For all my dream are haunted by a fire on the Moon.
: >			-- Visual Purple
: 
: Where can I find the rest of this?  I've never heard of Visual Purple,
: but whatever it is (music group?  poetry collection?) sounds like
: something I would really like to know more about.

I second that. I liked the one about the Schroedinger cat too.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
Peter M Westlake                        EO Computer Ltd.,
Tel: +223-843131                        Abberley House,  Granhams Road,
Fax: +223-843032                        Great Shelford,
email:  pwestlak@eoe.co.uk              Cambridge CB2 5LQ,   England
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written,rec.arts.books
From: dstein@rhea.math.ucla.edu (David Stein)
Subject: Re: Ian McDonald's _The Broken Land_: review
Reply-To: dstein@rhea.math.ucla.edu (David Stein)
Organization: UCLA, Mathematics Department
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 92 20:19:39 GMT

In article <1a8si6INNrbp@agate.berkeley.edu>, curtis@cs.berkeley.edu
(Curtis Yarvin) writes:
|> In article <1992Sep28.215640.261@math.ucla.edu>
dstein@rhea.math.ucla.edu (David Stein) writes:
|> >In article <1992Sep28.153316.14827@wam.umd.edu>, sheilah@wam.umd.edu
|> >(Sheila Herndon) writes:
|> >|> dstein@rhea.math.ucla.edu (David Stein) writes:
|> >|> [about Ian McDonald's "Fragments of a Case..."]
|> >
|> >   In any case, I would be delighted if you tried to explain
|> >   why did the author throw in all the disparate elements
|> >   (Freud, sex, Judas-like Wandering Jew character, Ann Frank
|> >   type story, Holocaust, mice, and so on and so on) without
|> >   having hardly any story to tell?
|> 
|> Because he was trying to boil shit in a pot, and it didn't come
|> out; but the result is, I dare say, more a reflection on shit
|> than on pots.
|> 
|> Did "Fragments of a Case of Hysteria" really make a major
|> anthology?  It _is_ an awful story.
|> 
|> If you're interested in investigating the writer and not just
|> making pleasantly rude comments :-), hunt down a bookstore which
|> has McDonald's new anthology, _Speaking In Tongues_.  It's a
|> new mass-market paperback, so it shouldn't be hard to find.
|> Read the teaser for _TBL_, in the back.  
|> 
|> And maybe "Atomic Avenue" while you're at it; McDonald is
|> generally better at novel-length, but some of his stories
|> are quite passable.
|> 
|> c

   OK, fair enough.  I won't shell out money for him anytime soon,
   but I will give him another try if he's in a magazine, anthology,
   or the library.  And until then I'll restrain my wrath only to
   the story, not the author overall.  BTW, Fragments were published
   in Dozoi's best of SF anthology, so I assumed it's representative
   of McDonald; perhaps it's not.

 - David 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm not a native speaker of English, so I'm not sure what I wrote.
Flames will be ignored unless you post them in perfect Czech.
================================ - David (the metamathician) - ===
Xref: sparky rec.arts.sf.written:13046 rec.arts.books:16935
From: curtis@cs.berkeley.edu (Curtis Yarvin)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written,rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Science Fiction books with linguistic content
Date: 26 Sep 92 23:06:02 GMT
Organization: CS Dept. Snakepit - Do Not Feed.
NNTP-Posting-Host: rattler.cs.berkeley.edu

In article <rhamilt.717533630@husc9> rhamilt@husc9.harvard.edu (Rowan Hamilton) writes:
|curtis@cs.berkeley.edu (Curtis Yarvin) writes:
|
|>Hoban is an excellent writer; and I looked, once, at _Riddley Walker_,
|>expecting to buy it.
|
|>It was disappointing.  At a glance, Hoban's language seems to
|>be nothing more than English with rather queer spelling.  Not
|>used to express any concepts that English cannot perfectly well
|>express; and even devoid of any interesting linguistic
|>concepts.  Compare with, say, Burgess, or Wolfe.
|
|The language employed - odd spelling included - was used to describe
|indirectly a culture which was subtly different from our own.

One would expect this, since Hoban is not a hack.  But how does
respelling common English words help?  I can understand
inventing new words for concepts which do not exist in present
society, but (to pick the first word I saw, when I opened the
book) what does spelling "kind" as "kynd" do for a novel?

The mode of this question is curious, not rhetorical.

c
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: karen@angelo.amd.com (Karen Black)
Subject: Re: Barrayar
Organization: Advanced Micro Devices, Santa Clara, CA
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 07:02:01 GMT

In article <92272.205250CMH114@psuvm.psu.edu> CMH114@psuvm.psu.edu writes:
>Any Bujold fans beside me mildly upset at that one? 

Count me as a Bujold fan who was not upset at _Barrayar_.

>It felt so much like a paler rehash of Shards of Honor.

After I read it, I reread all her books, in order.  IMHO, it would be very 
difficult for any book to bridge _Shards of Honor_ and _The Warrior's
Apprentice_, since they are quite self-contained.  Also, the fact that
the book is from Cordelia's POV means that the reader got a lot of the
delight she had in her pregnancy, and her obsession later that Miles
would not be thrown away.  Since I'd recently had a baby, these emotions
were very close to me.
 
>It wasn't a *bad* book, she hasn't written a bad book yet, and it isn't 
>as subpar as Anthan of Anthos (or whatever that title was) 

_Ethan of Athos_:  I read it as a comedy, and it worked for me.  Of 
course, Elli Quinn is in my top five character list.
 
>or Falling Free, but still, I was waiting for something better. Has she
>written any novellas lately?  Her novellas seem to be much more fleshed 
>out than the books. Weird, because her stuff isn't the kind that would 
>translate well into a visual medium, like animation or film. 

I'd disagree, but certainly you'd have to work very carefully to keep
Aral and Cordelia from turning into, say, John Galt and Dagny Taggart :-).

>People are always citing novellas as the media that should translate 
>into film. 

Novella refers to the length of the story.  A movie is generally better 
based on a shorter work because both need to have a fairly straight-
forward story line.  A novel allows digressions (which build the 
background) that are usually cut to simplify the movie's flow.  In
general, a movie starts with a conflict, builds tension, and releases
that tension in the resolution.  (Yes, I am simplifying greatly; don't
everyone jump in to cite exceptions.)
 
>Funny, the only novella I can think of that was filmed was Barry Longyear's 
>Enemy Mine, and GAwd, that was one rotten movie. I ought ta know, I had 
>to show the #$@! thing six times on a
>cruddy 16mm projector. I was ready to trash the print.

Was "Do Androids Dream on Electric Sheep?" a short story, novellette,
or novella?  How about Arthur C. Clarke's original story that became
_2001_?  Or "Flowers for Algernon"?  There's been a movies good, bad,
and indifferent made of novellas.

Karen Black