Love Zhaoying Posted February 23, 2019 Share Posted February 23, 2019 3 hours ago, Lindal Kidd said: My favorite C.J. Cherryh books are I got my first CJC from the Science Fiction Book Club in the early 80’s. I may have imagined it, since I don’t recognize any of her titles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Love Zhaoying Posted February 23, 2019 Share Posted February 23, 2019 2 hours ago, Madelaine McMasters said: World Escapes Plague by Burning to the Ground “The roof! The roof! The roof is on fire!” ”We don’t need no water let the M-F burn!” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selene Gregoire Posted February 23, 2019 Share Posted February 23, 2019 12 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said: I got my first CJC from the Science Fiction Book Club in the early 80’s. I may have imagined it, since I don’t recognize any of her titles. Her Rider series (there are only two books, regretfully) are pure scifi. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rider_at_the_Gate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud's_Rider Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Love Zhaoying Posted February 23, 2019 Share Posted February 23, 2019 1 minute ago, Selene Gregoire said: Her Rider series (there are only two books, regretfully) are pure scifi. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rider_at_the_Gate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud's_Rider I’m sure it was more Fantasy than SF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selene Gregoire Posted February 23, 2019 Share Posted February 23, 2019 1 minute ago, Love Zhaoying said: I’m sure it was more Fantasy than SF. I wasn't saying the one you think you had was either of the two. The first book was published in 1996, not the 80s. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rolig Loon Posted February 23, 2019 Share Posted February 23, 2019 I'm just pleased to see Keith Laumer's name on Lindal's list. I've read everything he wrote, I think. As much as I enjoyed the Retief stories and the Lafayette O'Leary ones, and the Dinochrome Brigade series, I think some of his best writing was in one-off short stories like End As A Hero. Laumer had an unparalleled sense of humor and irony, and a Dickensian flair for colorful names. His plots were fairly linear, but usually with a twist that caught me by surprise. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Love Zhaoying Posted February 23, 2019 Share Posted February 23, 2019 10 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said: I'm just pleased to see Keith Laumer's name on Lindal's list. I've read everything he wrote, I think. As much as I enjoyed the Retief stories and the Lafayette O'Leary ones, and the Dinochrome Brigade series, I think some of his best writing was in one-off short stories like End As A Hero. Laumer had an unparalleled sense of humor and irony, and a Dickensian flair for colorful names. His plots were fairly linear, but usually with a twist that caught me by surprise. I only read the Retief books (SF book club), did not know they were written so long ago. It makes sense that Laumer was a diplomat. Think I read the Bolo books more recently based on a friend’s recommendation. Was not disappointed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lindal Kidd Posted February 23, 2019 Share Posted February 23, 2019 The Bolos are a magnificent creation...intelligent, self-aware machines of great destructive power, but who often display a moral code that's superior to that of their human creators. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selene Gregoire Posted February 23, 2019 Share Posted February 23, 2019 Now you see, we really could use a few section additions to GD. Just think of all the good books we could read on other's recommendations and discuss. 😇 I've also discovered that you can enlarge the emotes using the Size dropdown. 🐺 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lindal Kidd Posted February 23, 2019 Share Posted February 23, 2019 Maddy will like this! Keith Laumer was also a model airplane hobbyist. He wrote a book which is long out of print, How to Design and Build Flying Models that actually included plans for some of his creations. But a Google search shows that you don't need to haunt used book stores to find them. Here's a page with links to the plans in the book, and more. http://my.pclink.com/~dfritzke/Laumer/Laumer-Page.html 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Love Zhaoying Posted February 23, 2019 Share Posted February 23, 2019 51 minutes ago, Selene Gregoire said: Her Rider series (there are only two books, regretfully) are pure scifi. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rider_at_the_Gate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud's_Rider Ok, it was “The Pride of Chanur”. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dillon Levenque Posted February 23, 2019 Author Share Posted February 23, 2019 (edited) 42 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said: I'm just pleased to see Keith Laumer's name on Lindal's list. I've read everything he wrote, I think. As much as I enjoyed the Retief stories and the Lafayette O'Leary ones, and the Dinochrome Brigade series, I think some of his best writing was in one-off short stories like End As A Hero. Laumer had an unparalleled sense of humor and irony, and a Dickensian flair for colorful names. His plots were fairly linear, but usually with a twist that caught me by surprise. There's a Laumer story (title escapes me as usual) that I loved. Can't recall whether it was a novel or a short story, but the hook was the hero. It was written first person like most of Laumer's stuff, but in this case that person was a dead ringer for Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler's famous private detective. He goes through the whole story dropping Chandleresque lines right and left; it's so much fun to read. I do remember that for some reason the baddies in the story were associated with a color that I remember as being described as Nile Green, although that makes no sense whatever. Mr. Marlowe at work, as portrayed by a fairly well-known actor of years gone by ;-): ETA: Now that I've thought about it, I'm not even sure if it was Laumer that wrote that story; might have been someone else. I think I'm right just because Laumer injected a fair amount of humor in his stories; it'd be the kind of thing I'd expect from him. By the way, this whole Science Fiction thing is a hella long derail. We've been on topic for more than a page! Edited February 23, 2019 by Dillon Levenque Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dillon Levenque Posted February 23, 2019 Author Share Posted February 23, 2019 On 2/22/2019 at 10:57 AM, Selene Gregoire said: So you are saying they are "absolute must reads" in the sense that they are considered classics and not because you, personally, believe everyone should read them even if they are not the kind of scifi others enjoy? Yes, that is exactly what I meant. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madelaine McMasters Posted February 23, 2019 Share Posted February 23, 2019 25 minutes ago, Lindal Kidd said: Maddy will like this! Keith Laumer was also a model airplane hobbyist. He wrote a book which is long out of print, How to Design and Build Flying Models that actually included plans for some of his creations. But a Google search shows that you don't need to haunt used book stores to find them. Here's a page with links to the plans in the book, and more. http://my.pclink.com/~dfritzke/Laumer/Laumer-Page.html You're so right, Lindal! I'd have to crawl around the house to find it, but there's a slim chance that book is within 100ft of me. I believe that because I recall seeing this picture before... There's a greater chance that I gave that book away along with a dozen balsa/tissue model kits I pulled out of my attic a few years ago. Some of them dated back to the 1950s. The drafting table on which my computer sits is riddled with tiny holes from where Dad and I pinned down wing sections on wax paper to keep them flat as the glue dried. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rolig Loon Posted February 23, 2019 Share Posted February 23, 2019 Dill, are you thinking of Trace of Memory? I wouldn't have said that Legion was quite like Marlowe, but the novel has that familiar, dark undertone. As the story unfolds and Legion's identity become clearer, it really does have the feel of a detective novel. The Star Trek writers did several episodes in which they picked up on Laumer's Bolo theme, but without Laumer's knack for seeing the world through Bolo's eyes. I could sympathize with Bolo -- not so much with the Star Trek versions. I suppose I have Laumer to thank for my name. One of his Retief stories is set on a silly mudball planet that he named Roolit, which is a phonetic mangling of the Swedish word rolig, meaning humorous. Laumer was posted in Stockholm for part of his diplomatic career, so it makes sense that Norse themes, language, and landscapes kept cropping up in his writing. By an odd quirk of linguistic history, the word rolig takes a somewhat different meaning in Danish (where it means "calm"). I've always wished I could be both funny and calm and have never quite managed either. Laumer's Roolit appealed to my sense of imagination when I read it back in the 60s sometime, and it rattled around in my head until I found SL. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madelaine McMasters Posted February 23, 2019 Share Posted February 23, 2019 19 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said: I've always wished I could be both funny and calm and have never quite managed either. And this is why it's so important to surround yourself with people who aren't afraid to tell you that you are wrong. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kali Wylder Posted February 23, 2019 Share Posted February 23, 2019 2 hours ago, Dillon Levenque said: By the way, this whole Science Fiction thing is a hella long derail. We've been on topic for more than a page! yeah, isn't it great? I feel like I've got a shopping list of books to read and re-read. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selene Gregoire Posted February 23, 2019 Share Posted February 23, 2019 2 hours ago, Madelaine McMasters said: And this is why it's so important to surround yourself with people who aren't afraid to tell you that you are wrong. You're wrong! oops Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dillon Levenque Posted February 24, 2019 Author Share Posted February 24, 2019 4 hours ago, Rolig Loon said: Dill, are you thinking of Trace of Memory? I wouldn't have said that Legion was quite like Marlowe, but the novel has that familiar, dark undertone. As the story unfolds and Legion's identity become clearer, it really does have the feel of a detective novel. The Star Trek writers did several episodes in which they picked up on Laumer's Bolo theme, but without Laumer's knack for seeing the world through Bolo's eyes. I could sympathize with Bolo -- not so much with the Star Trek versions. I suppose I have Laumer to thank for my name. One of his Retief stories is set on a silly mudball planet that he named Roolit, which is a phonetic mangling of the Swedish word rolig, meaning humorous. Laumer was posted in Stockholm for part of his diplomatic career, so it makes sense that Norse themes, language, and landscapes kept cropping up in his writing. By an odd quirk of linguistic history, the word rolig takes a somewhat different meaning in Danish (where it means "calm"). I've always wished I could be both funny and calm and have never quite managed either. Laumer's Roolit appealed to my sense of imagination when I read it back in the 60s sometime, and it rattled around in my head until I found SL. I don't know if that's the one or not; I'll have to dig around. As I said in my edit, I'm not even sure right now that it was Laumer that I'm thinking of, I just recalled it that way when his name came up in the thread. I purely love that part about your name :-). 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dillon Levenque Posted February 24, 2019 Author Share Posted February 24, 2019 Found it! I was right, it was Keith Laumer and Nile Green was the color. How long has that been hiding in my brain?. "Night of Delusions" is the title of the novel. I took a flyer on my recollection and googled 'keith laumer nile green'; found it right away. Even better, the fourth entry on the page was a link back to my post in this thread :-). 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivanova Shostakovich Posted February 24, 2019 Share Posted February 24, 2019 Ermehgerd! I have an alt at Truth. Looking for different styles. My height is 1.67. There's a dude next to me who's nearly twice that. Why?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
So Whimsy Posted February 24, 2019 Share Posted February 24, 2019 12 minutes ago, Ivanova Shostakovich said: Ermehgerd! I have an alt at Truth. Looking for different styles. My height is 1.67. There's a dude next to me who's nearly twice that. Why?! When god gave out height the guy shouted REALLY loudly? 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skell Dagger Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 This belongs nowhere, so it's going here I just checked out last night's Oscars red carpet photos over breakfast, and a stream of delightedly-shrieked swear words left me when I saw Billy Porter's outfit. GAH! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lindal Kidd Posted February 26, 2019 Share Posted February 26, 2019 WHAT is that woman wearing on her head!? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kali Wylder Posted February 26, 2019 Share Posted February 26, 2019 4 hours ago, Lindal Kidd said: WHAT is that woman wearing on her head!? h air guitar 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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