[Jurinjo]

wow...you girls give a lot of good quotes for me to read. Now do you have recommendation of a book? xD -thinking of getting kindle so he doesn't have to face the horror of a book store wtih so many pretty books and a lack of bathroom (except barnes and noble).

A quote from one of my current favorites is in my siggy. Which originates from The Falcon Banner series. I tend to favor sci-fi books but I'm always looking for something intense, social interactions, history....hard to explain what I think when I'm thinking about it. The last sci-fi series I oogled over had global conflicts, personal conflicts of people who held the fate of planets in their hands, and archeology. C: Oh and mammoth machines that actively sought out and destroyed civilizations.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

I'm male, just for anyone who's keeping score.

And I'm sorry, I've never really read much science fiction; fantasy has always been my genre of choice. One sci-fi book series I do want to read, and that I've heard is really good is Stephen R. Donaldson's Gap series, which is supposed to be really gritty and cerebral, and primarily character-driven, from what I've heard. I don't know if that's the sort of thing you're looking for, though.

[Gallowsraven]

my fave sci-fi is the Tripod Trilogy, The White Mountains, The City of Gold & Lead and i can't remember the title of the last one, i'll look it up . . .

I fully recommend them though, great books and interesting stories. Nothing to do with War of the Worlds kinda

[Suzerain of Sheol]

Actually, Jurinjo, thinking on what you said above, I feel like I have to recommend the Malazan Book of the Fallen, despite it not being sci-fi.

Global Conflict? Check, the series spans five different continents all mired in war and intrigue, with a cataclysmic threat building behind the scenes.

Personal Conflict? Everywhere. This series has some of the best character interaction I've ever read. A few of the book-ending confrontations are nothing short of awe-inspiring.

Holding the fate of planets in ones hands? Well, we have a character whose warhammer can raise mountain ranges and set off volcano chains, and even crack the world in half if he swings it hard enough. Then we have circle magic that functions like tactical nuclear weapons, erasing cities from the face of the earth. And, just in general, there are all sorts of Ascendants and Gods and dragons who routinely wreck armies and cities. This series is bad ass.

Archaeology? Steven Erikson worked as an archaeologist and anthropologist for over twenty years, and it shows in these books. The cultures and civilizations, and the sheer sense of age to his world is like nothing I've ever encountered before.

Oh, and it has evolved dinosaurs with flying anti-gravity castles that shoot lasers. :cool:

[Gallowsraven]

i wanna castle!!!!

There's another sci-fi series, i'll find out the title from my dad, you can never work out whether it's past, present or future, sci-fi cowboys and indians kinda thing with other stuff mixed in. Apparently way awesome series.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

Too many posts without a quote.

Carroil Wildwood's song from The Illearth War. I love the rhyme scheme and the enjambment.

Branches spread and tree trunks grow
Through rain and heat and snow and cold;
Though wide world's winds untimely blow,
And earthquakes rock and cliff unseal,

My leaves grow green and seedlings bloom.
Since days before the Earth was old
And time began its walk to doom,
The Forests world's bare rock anneal,

Forbidding dusty waste and death.
I am the Land's Creator's hold;
I inhale all expiring breath,
And breathe out life to bind and heal.

But ax and fire leave me dead.
I know the hate of hands grown bold.
Depart to save your heart-sap's redl
My hate knows neither rest nor weal.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

As far as sci-fi goes, I've only read two: William Gibson's Neuromancer and Philip K Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electic Sheep? Both are in what would be called the "Cyber punk" genre which I think was started by PK Dick. Gibson has a number of novels and shorts, and is credited with coining the term "Cyberspace."

Neuromancer is one of the frontrunners of cyberpunk if I recall correctly (thinking back to second year lit here) and is a precursor for The Matrix in a way. The idea of ones consciousness being able to travel via computer is a main theme though not something eveyone can do. It struck as being very Tron-like in some areas as far as visuals go. It is something I think it would be neat to see made into a movie, and I believe it was at some point, or at least one character, Molly, was played in real life in another story.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is the book inspiration behind Blade Runner, though the two have fairly different representations of the characters and certain points of the story. Rick comes off as much more of a jerk in the movie to me, than he does in the book, but I like movie Roy better than book Roy. It's the only PK Dick book I've read and I have heard that it isn't his best or most popular, though it seems to be the most common.

And if I could remember my stupid quote thought from earlier I'd post it. :p

[Suzerain of Sheol]

I am annihilation incarnate! --Of Carnage and the Gathering of Wolves

[Gallowsraven]

Sorry Suzerain!

"A wys womman wol bisye hire evere in oon To gete hire love, ye, ther as she hath noon." ~ The Wife of Bath on women and femininity, the wife's all about passing on her wisdom and experience to younger girls in the lower ranks so that they can rise up through the secular ladder.

"Thou seyst, som folk desiren us for richesse,
Somme for oure shape, and somme for oure fairnesse,
And som for she kan outher synge or daunce,
And som for getillesse and daliaunce,
Som for hir handes and hir armes smale;
Thus goth al to the devel by thy tale.
Thou seyst, men may nat kepe a castel wal,
It may so longe assailled ben overal."
~ The wife is saying that women can't do anything right for doing wrong by the standards of men in those days. The castle reference is indicative of the attitude of men towards women; we girls were property.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

Not literature but amusing none-the-less. Was watching an episode of Midsomer Murders the other day with mom and the episode featured a rather delightful doom and gloom priest.

Detective: And how was the Ghost Train? [carnival ride]
Priest: Oh, the same as usual. Dark, godless, reassuringly hellish.
Detective turns to another detective and gestures to Priest: "Our local optimist."

I'll make it up with an actual lit quote later. ;)

[Suzerain of Sheol]

AVENGE, O Lord, thy slaughtered Saints, whose bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold;
Even them who kept thy truth so pure of old,
When all our fathers worshiped stocks and stones,
Forget not: in thy book record their groans
Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold
Slain by the bloody Piemontese, that rolled
Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans
The vales redoubled to the hills, and they
To heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow
O’er all the Italian fields, where still doth sway
The triple Tyrant; that from these may grow
A hundredfold, who, having learnt thy way,
Early may fly the Babylonian woe. -- John Milton, On the Late Massacre in Piemont

[Gallowsraven]

That was quite funny Quiet :D

"You spotted snakes with double tongue,
Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;
Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong,
Come not near our fairy queen."
~ the opening lines of Titania's lullabye, sung by the faeries.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

Into this wild abyss,
The womb of nature and perhaps her grave,
Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire,
But all these in their pregnant causes mixed
Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight,
Unless the almighty maker them ordain
His dark materials to create more worlds,
Into this wild abyss the wary fiend
Stood on the brink hell and looked a while,
Pondering his voyage...

- John Milton, Paradise Lost.

Here not because I'm all that fond of Milton, but because this passage is in the beginning pages of my copy of The Golden Compass.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

Ooh, I like that. I must read Milton someday. Sigh.

And, you just reminded me of book-opening quotes. This one is from The Darkneess That Comes Before by Scott Bakker, attributed to Nietzche.

I shall never tire of underlining a concise little fact which these superstitious people are loathe to admit -- namely, that a thought comes when "it" wants, not when "I" want...

[Batty]

I have FAR too many to quote.

Most of them are from Jaye Wells' Sabina Kane series, and Kim Harrison's Hollows Series. xDD; I SHAL QUOTE ANYWAY!

Jaye Wells
Red-Headed Step Child; Book One

"What up, peeps?"
I looked at my hairless cat for a moment. "What up, peeps? You've been watching MTV again, haven't you?"
"Word."

"What are you doing here?” a deep voice demanded. My heart burst into a rapid staccato as I swung around, ready to defend myself. Only instead of a guard or employee, Giguhl sat a few feet away laughing at me.
“Dammit, you scared the crap out of me.”
He laughed, a spooky noise coming from an even spookier-looking cat. “You should have seen your face."

Mage in Black Book Two

"Believe it or not, there are plenty of ways to satisfy your need for blood without harming anyone."

I raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, but where's the fun in that?"

Green Eyed Demon Book Three

"Before I joined them, I cracked my neck from side to side. Breathing in a martyred sigh, I reminded my temper to behave itself. If I'd learned one thing, it was that killing people who annoyed me generally created more problems than it solved.

I mentally patted myself on the back. See? Totally growing."


I can't find the REALLY good ones right now. xD; Lets just say theres a demon. He can change into cat form, and when he changes back he's naked. His nether region is picked on quite a lot. He also has a tendency to get shot. OFTEN.

And then theres the wonderful Kim Harrison. xDD;

"Hey, ah, does anyone want a cookie or something? Oh yeah. A cookie. That would make everything better. Dunked in a shot of tequila , maybe? Or better yet, just the bottle? Yeah, that ought to do it." - Every Which Way But Dead

"I told you, computers are like women. If you shout at them or ask them to do too many things at once, they shut down and you won't even get a sniff" — The Good, the Bad, and the Undead

"Ivy turned. 'He bit you on the neck?' she said, deadpan serious but for her eyes. 'Oh, then it's got to be love. She won't let me bite her neck." — Dead Witch Walking


and of course, the endless slanders against Tinkerbell that the main Pixie character makes...

"By Tink's diaphram...!"
"Oh for the sweet humpin' love of Tink!"
"For the sake of Tink's little red thong!"

<.<; I'm done now. xDD;

[Suzerain of Sheol]

No one seems to know where this quote originated, but I first saw it in Christopher Hitchens' book God Is Not Great. I find it rather amusing.

We are the pure and chosen few;
all the rest are damned.
There's room enough in Hell, for you;
we don't want Heaven crammed.