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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday November 04 2018, @12:06PM   Printer-friendly
from the two-interesting-books dept.

November: The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin.
December: Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.

A poll for the January 2019 book will be around the 15th, unless you want it sooner (not sooner than the U.S. midterms).

Discuss Foundation by Isaac Asimov in the comments below.

As for Liu Cixin's best known novel:

"Wildly imaginative, really interesting." ―President Barack Obama on The Three-Body Problem trilogy

The English translation for The Three-Body Problem was published in 2014 by Ken Liu under Tor Books.

Consider using <spoiler>text</spoiler> wherever you feel the need to do so.

Previously: Announcement postMars, Ho!


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by RedBear on Monday November 05 2018, @12:53AM (1 child)

    by RedBear (1734) on Monday November 05 2018, @12:53AM (#757800)

    I just finished listening to most of the Robots/Elijah Baley, Empire and Foundation series in unabridged audiobook form. They remain epic and amazing works of science fiction, but about 25 years have passed since I originally read them all in book form. I have to say I ended up having a different perspective on the stories after all this time.

    For one thing, I think it's just about the worst series to try and base a TV show on. If you think about it, there is virtually no direct action in the entire series, whether you're talking about The Complete Robot or Foundation & Earth, or any of the stories in between.

    Sure, a lot of things _happen_ in the universe described in the novels. But very little of it happens directly to any of the main characters, or even during the actual time period of the novel. Big things happen "just offscreen", or in the past, or in between the novels, or are briefly described as having happened somewhere else in the galaxy. Something like 90% of every novel is just narration about a character's thinking or two or three people sitting somewhere quietly having a very lengthy conversation. And of course most of it consists of conversations and thoughts involving deductive logic, often rehashing and re-discussing things that were already previously discussed earlier in the story. Asimov was very much enamored with his deductive logic, and it shows in all his writing. It's great stuff, but visually interesting? I think not. Not with an unworkable amount of narration or exposition, or abridgment of all the most interesting aspects of the stories.

    Unfortunately, I don't see any way for someone to write a TV series based on Foundation or any other Asimov series without mangling it to the point where it will be unrecognizable, and all the mind-expanding and thought-provoking charm of the originals will be lost. I'm not looking forward to Apple's attempt at an adaptation.

    --
    ¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
    ... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
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  • (Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Monday November 05 2018, @04:56PM

    by PiMuNu (3823) on Monday November 05 2018, @04:56PM (#758054)

    Cmon, just throw in a droid army and some epic space battles. How hard can it be?