Atoz 77
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Post by Atoz 77 on Jan 23, 2009 8:38:28 GMT -6
Right now I'm reading "The Tommyknockers", by Stephen King. I saw the movie on the Chill channel last week, so when I saw the paperback in Wal-mart, I snapped it up.
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Post by andrewlee on Jan 29, 2009 11:59:11 GMT -6
Atoz. I have heard of this book before. What's it about? I've been reading mostly things online latley from the forums I belong to and things of interest to me that I research as a hobby.
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Atoz 77
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Post by Atoz 77 on Jan 30, 2009 8:22:43 GMT -6
A woman living in a small town in Maine finds something mysterious buried in the woods behind her house. She starts digging it up, becoming more and more obsessed with uncovering it. It turns out to be an alien spaceship, buried there for millions of years, and as more of its surface is exposed, more of the townspeople come under its spell. Eventually the whole town is working on digging it up. At the same time, they are being transformed, in some mysterious way, into alien creatures.
This is basically a science fiction concept, and I have to warn you in advance that Stephen King is not very good at science fiction (his later book, "Cell", was much better). He never does get around to explaining what is going on very well (at least in enough detail to satisfy us exobiologists). But the book is really spooky.
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Post by Atoz 77 on Jan 30, 2009 8:24:34 GMT -6
This week I'm reading "Jurassic Park", by Michael Crichton. I had read it years ago when the movie first came out, and I had forgotten how much better the novel is than the movie.
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Post by andrewlee on Jan 30, 2009 9:48:21 GMT -6
I Atoz. I never read a Stephen King book before. Is the Jurasic park book close to the movie? I saw all three of the movies several times. I did have a few wierd dreams about dinosours chasing me ,but fortunatly ,I woke up before they could get me.
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Atoz 77
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Post by Atoz 77 on Feb 2, 2009 8:54:32 GMT -6
There are a number of differences between the book and the movie, but the basic storyline is the same. When I say it's better, I mean that Crichton has a knack for technical details that make the story seem very REAL. Could can easily believe it really happened.
Stephen King novels are an acquired taste, I think. They're gorier than the movies, for one thing (if you think about it, because he was such a popular author, most of the movies are made-for-television movies, and they have to cut out some of the gory parts). Mostly they deal with horror and the supernatural, but as I say a couple like "Cell" and "The Tommyknockers" come close to science fiction.
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Post by andrewlee on Feb 2, 2009 10:24:14 GMT -6
Atoz. Now you have gotten me interseted in reading the "Jurasic park" novels by " Crichton". Is there a novel for each of the 3 movies? I'm not really intersted in reading any "Stephen King" novels though!
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Post by Atoz 77 on Feb 4, 2009 12:16:23 GMT -6
I can understand that. Stephen King novels are really long! You don't want to start one unless you have time to kill.
Crichton only wrote two books, "Jurassic Park" and its sequel, "The Lost World". He might have also written the screenplays to all of them, but I'm not sure. But you see he has pterosaurs show up very briefly in the original "Jurassic Park".
It's odd, too, because Ian Malcolm actually died in the original "Jurassic Park"! I guess he liked the character so much, he brought him back for the sequel. And he just passed it off by having Malcolm say something like it was just a "rumor" that he had died!
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Post by andrewlee on Feb 4, 2009 21:12:22 GMT -6
Atoz. How did Ian Malcolm die in the novel? This is news to me! I did like the character a lot ,so I'm glad they brought him back for the sequel! The Rumor of his death was a good idea to bring him back!
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Post by Atoz 77 on Feb 6, 2009 8:49:51 GMT -6
Remember he got tossed in the air by the T Rex? In the novel, it actually grabbed his leg in his mouth and threw him! Fractured his leg, plus he lost a lot of blood. And it was some hours later before they could get the helicopter to evacuate him. He remained conscious for a long time (telling Hammond how he screwed up) just like in the movie, but he finally lapsed into a coma.
Actually, I'm glad he was revived. He was a great character.
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Post by andrewlee on Feb 6, 2009 10:00:21 GMT -6
Atoz. Thanks for the info on Ian Malcolm!
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Post by macawol on Feb 7, 2009 13:13:57 GMT -6
Well, you should take a look at the Space Wolf Omnibus by William King if you want some over the top action for war happy boys.
I have always liked the Warhammer 40.000 universe for the mixing for superstition and technology.
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Post by Atoz 77 on Feb 9, 2009 9:29:07 GMT -6
"Space Wolf"? Not familiar with that. About the only sci-fi war novels I've read are "Ranks of Bronze" by David Drake (about a Roman legion abducted by aliens for use on primitive planets) and "Bolo" by Keith Laumer.
That's all I can think of right off hand, at least. Oh, and some of the Kzinti Wars stuff by Larry Niven, but I didn't like them much.
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Post by macawol on Feb 9, 2009 14:18:24 GMT -6
The entire Gaunt's Ghost series by Dan Abnett is a pretty neat sci-fi war novel series.
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Post by Atoz 77 on Feb 13, 2009 9:00:44 GMT -6
"The Forever War", by Joe Haldeman. I don't know why that one slipped my mind.
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