From: nehrlich@MIT.EDU
Date: Sun, 25 Jun 1995 21:01:27 EDT
Subject: Doug's Library
 
Hi, bounced into your home page from Yahoo when I was browsing various
book links, and spent a fair amount of time comparing your impressions
with my own on various books :).
 
Based on your recommendation, I finally went out and bought the Timothy
Zahn Star Wars trilogy and enjoyed it - I kept putting it off since I
was worried it would just be dreck, but hey, it was pretty good.  On
the other hand, I didn't particularly like The Black Company by Glen
Cook but that may be because it left the story hanging and I need to
read the other two books of the trilogy if I can ever find them.
Your page also reminds me I need to pick up Hyperion at some point - I
read Simmons's Carrion Comfort and liked that but never got around to
his more "pure" SF work.
 
Several comments/recommendations:
1) Definitely have to recommend Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson as did a
few others in your Mail Bag.  Incidentally, Interface by Stephen Bury
(also recommended by another) is Stephenson co-writing with his uncle
under a pen name - I recommend that one as well.  Haven't read The
Diamond Age (Stephenson's latest) myself yet.
 
2) A decent epic fantasy trilogy I read last year is by Tad Williams,
with the books being, The Dragonbone Chair, Stone of Farewell, To Green
Angel Tower (split into two parts in paperback version *grumble*).  Not
awesome (i.e. worthy of re-reading over and over again) but engrossing.
 
3) Might want to read Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein - good solid
SF from before he started writing his "dirty old man" set of books :)
 
4) Shockwave Rider, and Stand on Zanzibar, by John Brunner are both well
worth checking out.  Shockwave Rider is sort of a precursor to
cyberpunk, and Stand on Zanzibar is a fairly disturbing portrayal of a
possible near future world.
 
5) Bug Jack Barron, by Norman Spinrad is way cool - haven't read much
else of his that I liked though (Little Heroes was okay).  mini-review
of it in the book section of my home page.
 
6) If you get the chance, read Orson Scott Card's short stories.  I read
them originally in hardback from the library as Maps in a Mirror, but
they're also available in paperback as 4 books - Flux/Cruel
Miracles/Monkey Sonatats/The Hanged Man.  Extremely good short stories -
it's these and the Ender trilogy that attract me to Card - I haven't
found the rest of his work to be anywhere near the same quality,
although my expectations are probably unjustifiably high.
 
7) If you liked A Fire Upon the Deep, by Vernor Vinge, you should try to
find a copy of an earlier set of stories by him called True Names, and
other stories.  Don't know if it's still in print, but the title novella
(True Names) is wonderful reading if you're a net-fiend like myself.
 
That's all I can think of off the top of my head (and not in immediate
view of my bookshelf :) ).  Nice job on the page and the reviews - I
find them pretty interesting.
 
Eric Nehrlich, Devil's Advocate - These are just my thoughts/flames/ideas
nehrlich@mit.edu - Feel free to disagree
http://web.mit.edu/nehrlich/www/home.html