Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Wednesday February 13 2019, @01:22AM   Printer-friendly
from the cell-ular-automaton dept.

March: We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (Bobiverse #1) by Dennis Taylor

Discuss The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein in the comments below.

Fiasco was translated into English in 1988 by Michael Kandel:

Fiasco (Polish: Fiasko) is a science fiction novel by Polish author Stanisław Lem, first published in a German translation in 1986. The book, published in Poland the following year, is a further elaboration of Lem's skepticism: in Lem's opinion, the difficulty in communication with alien civilizations is cultural disparity rather than spatial distance. The failure to communicate with an alien civilization is the main theme of the book.

Previously: Announcement postMars, Ho!FoundationThe Three-Body ProblemSnow Crash


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by black6host on Wednesday February 13 2019, @02:08AM (19 children)

    by black6host (3827) on Wednesday February 13 2019, @02:08AM (#800435) Journal

    Ok, going to be honest here. I bought the book and was immediately turned off by the writing style. There may be much of merit within the book but I never got to it. Oh well, that's one person's opinion. I suppose I'm as entitled to it as anyone else is to their's.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Interesting=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 13 2019, @02:17AM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 13 2019, @02:17AM (#800439)

    I agree. No pictures, no tentacles, too many words.

    • (Score: 2) by Arik on Wednesday February 13 2019, @02:48AM (1 child)

      by Arik (4543) on Wednesday February 13 2019, @02:48AM (#800452) Journal
      "too many words."

      The timeless echo of your words, from the illiterate. Whose words are notorious for their inability to echo.

      Sorry, my brother in shitty fate. It sounds like you just don't want to read.

      That door over there. The one that says 'ladies.' There you go. Don't come back. Sayonara, see ya nara!

      Luv ya. C ya!

      ;)
      --
      If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 13 2019, @04:47AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 13 2019, @04:47AM (#800497)

        ... wouldn't want to be ya!

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 13 2019, @08:56AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 13 2019, @08:56AM (#800541)

      I agree. No pictures, no tentacles, too many words.

      Translation: I am an illiterate Soylentil, a younger Runaway1956, and I cannot read. Please respect my and TMB's opinions, because our opinions are equally valid as those of people who actually can read; and think; and understand stuff. Peach out, dudes!

      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 13 2019, @10:22AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 13 2019, @10:22AM (#800552)

        Alternative translation: I'm making a joke, but didn't think of Poe's law.

    • (Score: 1) by pTamok on Wednesday February 13 2019, @06:10PM

      by pTamok (3042) on Wednesday February 13 2019, @06:10PM (#800678)

      Winter stark tree-limbs
      Denuded, awaiting death
      Spring brings too many leaves

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Arik on Wednesday February 13 2019, @02:23AM (2 children)

    by Arik (4543) on Wednesday February 13 2019, @02:23AM (#800442) Journal
    "Oh well, that's one person's opinion. I suppose I'm as entitled to it as anyone else is to their's."

    You are.

    For a contrary opinion, I bought it ca. 1983 and was only able to understand parts of it later. Because a fair portion of it is in Aussie. A dialect I only started to encounter ca. 1991 with internet access. And MUDs.

    Shelby Wright, ma kunt?

    --
    If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
    • (Score: 4, Informative) by Magic Oddball on Wednesday February 13 2019, @11:09AM (1 child)

      by Magic Oddball (3847) on Wednesday February 13 2019, @11:09AM (#800561) Journal

      Because a fair portion of it is in Aussie.

      Aussie? If you're referring to Manny's narrative/dialogue, I interpreted it as being English that was very heavily influenced by Russian (or a similar language**), since that's what the non-English terms sprinkled in there were, and IIRC some of the locations in Manny's part of Luna reference the USSR.

      **Coincidentally, I was reading TMiaHM each night after sessions in a video game that features a Slavic immigrant as the protagonist, and noticed pretty early on that the sentence structure of his English is an extremely close match to Manny's with the result that I spent the entire book mentally "hearing" Manny's narrative/dialogue with the actor's accent.

      • (Score: 2) by Arik on Wednesday February 13 2019, @11:14PM

        by Arik (4543) on Wednesday February 13 2019, @11:14PM (#800780) Journal
        Oh there were bits of Russian and Chinese in there too, but Australian English is the source of a lot of it. The very first chapter is titled "The Dinkum Thinkum" IIRC - that's pure Aussie slang. Cobber, sheila, chop, the dialogue is full of Aussie slang.
        --
        If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday February 13 2019, @03:31AM (9 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 13 2019, @03:31AM (#800477) Journal

    I recall that being an issue when I read it the first time. But, I persevered. Don't recall what year that was, exactly, but I think I was in junior high school. Had to be junior high, because I read Harsh Mistress before I read Foundation, and that was sophomore year of high school.

    So, lay it down for awhile, and come back to it next month. No big deal.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 13 2019, @08:09AM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 13 2019, @08:09AM (#800532)

      Ah, Foundation, the mind screw that never ends.
      Let's not go there shall we.

      • (Score: 5, Interesting) by choose another one on Wednesday February 13 2019, @09:09AM (2 children)

        by choose another one (515) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 13 2019, @09:09AM (#800542)

        > Ah, Foundation, the mind screw that never ends.

        It does end, it just ends in a very messy attempt to tie most of his earlier his books in together - something which was unnecessary, inevitably unsatisfactory and (for me) degrades the earlier works. I wish Asimov had never written it.

        But we're talking Heinlein here - he was more into a different type of screw...

        • (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday February 13 2019, @10:43AM

          by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 13 2019, @10:43AM (#800559) Homepage Journal

          A better sequel was Donald Kingsbury's "Psychohistorical Crisis", which had the Foundation series' serial numbers filed off, so to speak. Hari Seldon was, for example, never mentioned by name.

        • (Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Wednesday February 13 2019, @01:46PM

          by NotSanguine (285) <NotSanguineNO@SPAMSoylentNews.Org> on Wednesday February 13 2019, @01:46PM (#800587) Homepage Journal

          > Ah, Foundation, the mind screw that never ends.

          It does end, it just ends in a very messy attempt to tie most of his earlier his books in together - something which was unnecessary, inevitably unsatisfactory and (for me) degrades the earlier works. I wish Asimov had never written it.

          But we're talking Heinlein here - he was more into a different type of screw...

          Given that the original Foundation stories were written in the 1940s [wikipedia.org] and the first publication of the collected storeis as the "Foundation Trilogy" was in 1952, while the subsequent books were all written and published in the 1980s/1990s, it's not surprising that there were significant differences in focus.

          I've read them all, and found that the later novels did try to pull too much of Asimov's "robot" stories into them. At the same time, the initial trilogy can and does stand on its own as pretty darn good.

          --
          No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 13 2019, @08:36AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 13 2019, @08:36AM (#800537)

      I got my copy back in fourth grade, about '75.
      I was the kid in the back of the classroom with this book tucked inside a history book 'cause I had already read That cover-to-cover...twice.
      Picked out something new every time I read it. I'm not sure my folks would have approved had they known what I was actually reading. They considered sci-fi at best mostly harmless, at worst, a waste of time. Wrong on both accounts.

      I didn't pick out quite all the Aussie-isms till I wandered a few months in NZ and then Sydney. Those infectious speech patterns took me years to fully shake out... and come back all too easy.
      I remember Mike not waking hitting young-me pretty hard.
      I was an impressionable little kid, and this got me diving deep into sci-fi, good and bad, to this day. Re-reading some E.E.'Doc' Smith stuff now.

      But more than anything else I was reading at the time, it got me thinking about what kind of person I wanted to grow into being.
      Mannie was a far better role model than what was available.

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Wednesday February 13 2019, @10:59PM

        by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Wednesday February 13 2019, @10:59PM (#800774) Journal

        I was affected by the loss of Mike as well. It wasn't just that Mike had become people and now was gone, but rather that Manny missed his friend. Heinlein managed to communicate that it hurt Manny that Mike wasn't there anymore, and while Manny wasn't lonely he certainly missed his friend.

        --
        This sig for rent.
    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 13 2019, @09:28AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 13 2019, @09:28AM (#800546)

      Don't recall what year that was, exactly,

      Another thing Runaway doesn't know! Is anyone keeping track of these? Must be close to 1K by now.

      • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday February 13 2019, @02:42PM (1 child)

        by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 13 2019, @02:42PM (#800595) Journal

        Don't know why you want to be an ass - you're not very good at it. Maybe you should set your sights lower. You might be a good callous.