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Ummie: I agree, the Worldwar books are stank. They're just silly, a contrived Alt. history.
The Great War and American Empire books, however, which were the successors to How Few Remain, I enjoy quite a bit (Just got the newest one, The Center Cannot Hold.
[ June 25, 2002, 13:25: Message edited by: First of Two ]
-------------------- "The best defense is not a good offense. The best defense is a terrifyingly accurate and devastatingly powerful offense, with multiply-overlapping kill zones and time-on-target artillery strikes." -- Laurence, Archangel of the Sword
Registered: Mar 1999
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This is were I get to chime in with examples of my smartness and hipness and out-thereness, and say everyone should read Either/Or, and The Gay Science (and not snigger and chuckle and guffaw, damn you!), and that book about the cheese moving. But no. I will suggest, humbly, based on what very little I know of Mr. Magnus, that he may, or may not, enjoy a brief novel by Jonathan Lethem entitled Gun, With Occasional Music, which is about drugs and detectives and talking sheep, and so on, and is not so stupid as I have just made it out to be.
I would also humbly disagree regarding The Big U, which is Stephenson's first novel, which shows, but which is also Stephenson's first novel, which also shows. So it's, like, smart and funny and stuff. Also features: non-abrupt ending!
Registered: Mar 1999
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For something rather strange and touching, try "100 years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
For an insightful exploration of philosophy, you might want to read "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", by Robert M. Pirsig. The whole book is online here.
-------------------- "Out of doubt, out of dark to the day's rising I came singing in the sun, sword unsheathing. To hope's end I rode and to heart's breaking: Now for wrath, now for ruin and a red nightfall!"
The Battle of the Pelennor Fields.
Registered: Mar 2000
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Wait, so you mean the ability to write a proper ending is something that Stephenson lost, not something he has yet to gain? Well, that's disappointing...
Registered: Mar 1999
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Just saw The Bourne Identity. Was the book incredibly different? Did he hold onto a corpse while flying down a stairwell and picking off assassins with a shotgun in it?
Ah, well, it was okay. Some well placed comedy would have made it better. Matt Damon saying "How the Fuck did I do THAT!" would be great.
Registered: Jan 2001
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So I'll check it out then. Good concept, anyway.
While waiting for the movie I read the first two chapters of the book at a nearby bookstore. Looks cool. I got psyched up to see the movie...
I noticed they changed a bunch, just on the boat. Like all the cool dialogue where the drunken doc was telling amnesia man he's a bad ass, based on medical observation. Gone. Poof!
Ah well. An old woman really jumped at one point because of a Hollywood suprise orchestra hit when a baddie unexpectedly flys at the camera, and spilled her coke all over herself...so It wasn't that bad.
Registered: Jan 2001
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I was fairly surprised at how decently the boat/healing sequences were adapted, in the interest of time and such for the movie. And then I saw the rest of it and weeped. After he finds the moneys and the passports (Which, I have no clue where they pulled those out of), the movie turns into Dolph-esque fare, although the same can be said for the Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. I sure hope noone has a mind to movify those. Leave that to me.
Registered: Oct 1999
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It's pretty much a cliche that IF you happen to get a Swiss bank account number, when you go to check it out there will be a safety deposit box. When you open it up, there will ALWAYS be a gun, various monies, and passports.
I have seen this no less than five times in teh movies.
Registered: Jan 2001
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