{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/5026", "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it. Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "urth", "thread": { "id": 5026, "subject": "difference engine", "messages": 6, "voices": 6, "first": "2008-05-13T23:39:36+00:00", "last": "2008-05-14T23:50:41+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "<821849.49873.qm@web81403.mail.mud.yahoo.com>", "from": { "name": "Stuart Hamm", "address": "hammstu at sbcglobal.net" }, "date": "2008-05-13T23:39:36+00:00", "subject": "(urth) difference engine", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Hmm...should I go back and re-read it?\nI am a huge W Gibson fan...my 2nd CD was \"Kings of Sleep\",,,but I really didn't like DE and read a book by the co-author (Islands in the Net ??) and thought it was, as Roddy Doyle says..\"A Gob of Shite\"\nWould really recommend \"Pattern Recognition\" by WG and lots of early Paul Auster..not exactly sci-fi...but there are some similarities with GW\n\"New York Trilogy\"\n\"The Music of Chance\"\n\"Leviathan\"..about the uni bomber\n\"Timbuktu\"..from a canine point of view..\n\nAnyone else read them?\n\n\nStuart Hamm\n M (415) 786-3624\nSkype stuart.hamm" } ] }, { "message_id": "<482A2C4E.3040906@gmail.com>", "from": { "name": "Jeff Eoff", "address": "jeffeoff at gmail.com" }, "date": "2008-05-14T00:03:26+00:00", "subject": "(urth) difference engine", "in_reply_to": "<821849.49873.qm@web81403.mail.mud.yahoo.com>", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I enjoyed The Difference Engine, though it's been years since I read \nit. It wasn't amazing, but it was by no means a regrettable read. I \nrecall the setting and atmosphere being stronger than the plot or the \ncharacters.\n\n-Jeff Eoff" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Stuart Hamm wrote:\nHmm...should I go back and re-read it?\nI am a huge W Gibson fan...my 2nd CD was \"Kings of Sleep\",,,but I \nreally didn't like DE and read a book by the co-author (Islands in the \nNet ??) and thought it was, as Roddy Doyle says..\"A Gob of Shite\"\nWould really recommend \"Pattern Recognition\" by WG and lots of early \nPaul Auster..not exactly sci-fi...but there are some similarities with GW\n\"New York Trilogy\"\n\"The Music of Chance\"\n\"Leviathan\"..about the uni bomber\n\"Timbuktu\"..from a canine point of view..\n\nAnyone else read them?\n\n\nStuart Hamm\nM (415) 786-3624\nSkype stuart.hamm\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n_______________________________________________" } ] }, { "message_id": "<8763thk8tq.fsf@windlord.stanford.edu>", "from": { "name": "Russ Allbery", "address": "rra at stanford.edu" }, "date": "2008-05-14T00:50:25+00:00", "subject": "(urth) difference engine", "in_reply_to": "<821849.49873.qm@web81403.mail.mud.yahoo.com>", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Stuart Hamm writes:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Hmm...should I go back and re-read it?" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "I am a huge W Gibson fan...my 2nd CD was \"Kings of Sleep\",,,but I really\ndidn't like DE and read a book by the co-author (Islands in the Net ??)\nand thought it was, as Roddy Doyle says..\"A Gob of Shite\"" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I personally have not read it, but from having discussed SF quite a bit in\nother places, my estimate is that about 95% of the people who have read it\ndidn't like it and only about 5% liked it. So probably not.\n\nThe general consensus seems to be that it was a low point for both\nauthors. I've read other things by Bruce Sterling that I quite enjoyed\n(_Heavy Weather_, for example, although it's not what I'd call great\nliterature).\n\nSometimes the collaborations work and sometimes they just don't." }, { "kind": "sig", "depth": 0, "text": "Russ Allbery (rra at stanford.edu) " } ] }, { "message_id": "<0AF988B9-CEB1-4B11-88E7-C761425E7265@gmail.com>", "from": { "name": "Lane Haygood", "address": "lhaygood at gmail.com" }, "date": "2008-05-14T03:30:41+00:00", "subject": "(urth) difference engine", "in_reply_to": "<8763thk8tq.fsf@windlord.stanford.edu>", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Sterling is a good writer; just not all the time!\n\nI, too, liked Heavy Weather, but more for seeing my native land \nportrayed in fiction (not by Cormac McCarthy) and because it was a \ndecent cyberpunk novel, but largely derivative. His Schismatrix stuff \nis lightyears beyond the other books I've read by Sterling.\n\nLane" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On May 13, 2008, at 7:50 PM, Russ Allbery wrote:\nStuart Hamm writes:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "Hmm...should I go back and re-read it?" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "I am a huge W Gibson fan...my 2nd CD was \"Kings of Sleep\",,,but I \nreally\ndidn't like DE and read a book by the co-author (Islands in the \nNet ??)\nand thought it was, as Roddy Doyle says..\"A Gob of Shite\"" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "I personally have not read it, but from having discussed SF quite a \nbit in\nother places, my estimate is that about 95% of the people who have \nread it\ndidn't like it and only about 5% liked it. So probably not.\n\nThe general consensus seems to be that it was a low point for both\nauthors. I've read other things by Bruce Sterling that I quite \nenjoyed\n(_Heavy Weather_, for example, although it's not what I'd call great\nliterature).\n\nSometimes the collaborations work and sometimes they just don't.\n\n-- \nRuss Allbery (rra at stanford.edu) ", "from": { "name": "Robert Thornton", "address": "oblate777 at speakeasy.net" }, "date": "2008-05-14T10:00:38+00:00", "subject": "(urth) difference engine", "in_reply_to": "<0AF988B9-CEB1-4B11-88E7-C761425E7265@gmail.com>", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I agree about Schismatrix. It is a great book and his most ambitious \nwork though later books are better written IMHO. As far as his later \nwork, I am a big fan of Distraction but otherwise I'm not very fond of \nthem. I think his short stories are better. Of course I like the older \nstory where my hometown Rockville, Maryland becomes the center of \nglobal power thanks to biotech....\n\nAs for Difference Engine, I'd agree with the majority view. The ending \nwas interesting but you had to slog through a lot of dreck to get there.\n\nrob t." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On May 13, 2008, at 11:30 PM, Lane Haygood wrote:\nSterling is a good writer; just not all the time!\n\nI, too, liked Heavy Weather, but more for seeing my native land \nportrayed in fiction (not by Cormac McCarthy) and because it was a \ndecent cyberpunk novel, but largely derivative. His Schismatrix \nstuff is lightyears beyond the other books I've read by Sterling.\n\nLane\n\nOn May 13, 2008, at 7:50 PM, Russ Allbery wrote:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "Stuart Hamm writes:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 3, "text": "Hmm...should I go back and re-read it?" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 3, "text": "I am a huge W Gibson fan...my 2nd CD was \"Kings of Sleep\",,,but I \nreally\ndidn't like DE and read a book by the co-author (Islands in the \nNet ??)\nand thought it was, as Roddy Doyle says..\"A Gob of Shite\"" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "I personally have not read it, but from having discussed SF quite a \nbit in\nother places, my estimate is that about 95% of the people who have \nread it\ndidn't like it and only about 5% liked it. So probably not.\n\nThe general consensus seems to be that it was a low point for both\nauthors. I've read other things by Bruce Sterling that I quite \nenjoyed\n(_Heavy Weather_, for example, although it's not what I'd call great\nliterature).\n\nSometimes the collaborations work and sometimes they just don't.\n\n-- \nRuss Allbery (rra at stanford.edu) ", "from": { "name": "Dave Lebling", "address": "dlebling at hyraxes.com" }, "date": "2008-05-14T23:50:41+00:00", "subject": "(urth) difference engine", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Rob, I grew up in Bethesda and Rockville, MD myself, and attended \nRichard Montgomery High School. I've lived in the Boston area for \numpty-foo years now though, after being engulfed by MIT and never quite \ngetting over it.\n\nI find that many of the authors I really like have been mentioned \npreviously. To those who found Crowley a tough read, I suggest trying \n\"Engine Summer\" as a starter, just as \"The Crying of Lot 49\" makes a \ngood start on Pynchon (I recently reread \"Gravity's Rainbow\" and am \nworking on \"Against the Day\").\n\nI'm very partial to Bruce Sterling (his short stories are better than \nhis novels, as a rule: try \"Bicycle Repairman\" and \"Kalamantan\"), \nWilliam Gibson, Michael Swanwick (\"The Iron Dragon's Daughter\" is \nsteam-elf-punk), Charlie Stross (\"The Atrocity Archive\" and \"A Colder \nWar\" and several others), Ken McLeod (\"The Execution Channel\" is not his \nbest; start with \"The Cassini Division\"), Iain Banks (I just finished \n\"Matter\" recently), Ian McDonald (\"River of Gods\"), Neal Stephenson (I \nam inordinately fond of \"The Baroque Trilogy\"), John Scalzi, Rudy \nRucker, and even China Mieville (who seems to be less-than-favored \nlocally). I wish Jack Vance were still writing (though I hear he is \ndictating an autobiography, which should be interesting).\n\nMy tastes in non-SF fiction are fairly pedestrian: Patrick O'Brian, \nCormac McCarthy, Carl Hiaasen, Alexander McCall Smith, etc. I \nperiodically reread George V. Higgins (\"The Friends of Eddie Coyle\" is \none of those nearly perfect novels) and wish he was still around, but I \nconsole myself with Dennis Lehane.\n\nI love history and have been reading up on my Byzantine and late Roman \nstuff, which is actually pretty useful if you want to reread the New Sun \nbooks.\n\n-- Dave Lebling, aka Vizcacha" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Robert Thornton wrote:\n\nI agree about Schismatrix. It is a great book and his most ambitious \nwork though later books are better written IMHO. As far as his later \nwork, I am a big fan of Distraction but otherwise I'm not very fond of \nthem. I think his short stories are better. Of course I like the older \nstory where my hometown Rockville, Maryland becomes the center of \nglobal power thanks to biotech....\n\nAs for Difference Engine, I'd agree with the majority view. The ending \nwas interesting but you had to slog through a lot of dreck to get there.\n\nrob t." } ] } ] }