Read “The Stars My Destination” by Alfred Bester and am torn between liking it and not. It was recommended as a ‘must read’ for anyone who liked HPMOR by someone on r/hpmor. It really has no rationality in it to speak of—the character spends more time punching his way through problems then out-thinking them. There’s a couple cool sequences where the character pushes himself to learn in harsh environments, but that’s about it. At several points through the book I was severely tempted to put it down and not finish but at other times I was quite caught up in it. It reminds me somewhat of Ayn Rand’s works in that the author has decided their character is going to be really good at things and so spends a fair amount of time telling the reader how awesome their character is. It seems to have worked though, given that the version I read has a gushing intro from Neil Gaimman about how gripping and powerful the main character is. I wasn’t convinced.
I reread “Dune” by Frank Herbert. It’s even better than I remembered and has some fun rationalist themes (though without enough details in those themes to make it comparable to HPMOR). I tried reading the second book years ago and got tired half-way through. I might try again.
I also read some of Oscar Wilde. I was a little disappointed in “The Importance of Being Earnest”, probably due to my having read P.G. Wodehouse who has pretty similar story lines. I was expecting by his reputation more cleverness in the story. That said, his writing is quite entertaining and I found myself laughing out loud several times.
I have to say, as a more-or-less lifelongish fan of Oscar Wilde (first read “The Happy Prince” when I was eight or nine), that the ending to Ernest is especially weak. I like the way he builds his house of cards in that play, and I like the dialogue, but (and I think I probably speak for a lot of Wilde fans here), the way he knocks the cards down really isn’t all that clever or funny. For a smarter Wilde play, see “A Woman of No Importance”, although his best works are his childrens’ stories, “The Picture of Dorian Grey”, and “Ballad of Reading Gaol” (although it is not, in fact, the case that “Every man kills the thing he loves”.)
(Also I should mention that I recently reread “The Code of the Woosters” and laughed myself inside-out.)
Read “The Stars My Destination” by Alfred Bester and am torn between liking it and not. It was recommended as a ‘must read’ for anyone who liked HPMOR by someone on r/hpmor. It really has no rationality in it to speak of—the character spends more time punching his way through problems then out-thinking them. There’s a couple cool sequences where the character pushes himself to learn in harsh environments, but that’s about it. At several points through the book I was severely tempted to put it down and not finish but at other times I was quite caught up in it. It reminds me somewhat of Ayn Rand’s works in that the author has decided their character is going to be really good at things and so spends a fair amount of time telling the reader how awesome their character is. It seems to have worked though, given that the version I read has a gushing intro from Neil Gaimman about how gripping and powerful the main character is. I wasn’t convinced.
I reread “Dune” by Frank Herbert. It’s even better than I remembered and has some fun rationalist themes (though without enough details in those themes to make it comparable to HPMOR). I tried reading the second book years ago and got tired half-way through. I might try again.
I also read some of Oscar Wilde. I was a little disappointed in “The Importance of Being Earnest”, probably due to my having read P.G. Wodehouse who has pretty similar story lines. I was expecting by his reputation more cleverness in the story. That said, his writing is quite entertaining and I found myself laughing out loud several times.
I have to say, as a more-or-less lifelongish fan of Oscar Wilde (first read “The Happy Prince” when I was eight or nine), that the ending to Ernest is especially weak. I like the way he builds his house of cards in that play, and I like the dialogue, but (and I think I probably speak for a lot of Wilde fans here), the way he knocks the cards down really isn’t all that clever or funny. For a smarter Wilde play, see “A Woman of No Importance”, although his best works are his childrens’ stories, “The Picture of Dorian Grey”, and “Ballad of Reading Gaol” (although it is not, in fact, the case that “Every man kills the thing he loves”.)
(Also I should mention that I recently reread “The Code of the Woosters” and laughed myself inside-out.)
Well stated about The Importance of Being Ernest. Thanks for the other suggestions!
(There’s also a wonderful BBC version of several of the Jeeves and Wooster stories staring Hugh Laurie and Steven Fry which I would highly recommend.)