revtothelimit - motorbike forum

Getting into 'Time on Rock' by Anna Fleming and pondering on a trip to Hathersage/Stanage Edge. Not that I'll be flaking ropes, doing a few South African abseils and working on my hand jams.

Be nice to see some gritstone though.

Anyone else been into clambering up rocky things?

I got my dad a copy of John Clark's Ignition for his Birthday...I've heard from a few places its a good read but it's out of print AFAIK. Gonna have to borrow it

Its an account of the development of liquid fueled rockets, written half humoursly and half seriously by one of the guys there in the 60s.

Count Steer wrote: Sun Feb 06, 2022 4:06 pm
Anyone else been into clambering up rocky things?

Not for a long time.

I enjoyed climbing, though it was never a passion. There's an enormous feeling of achievement when you finish a climb.

I'm up in the hills here now and again, although it's at best a scramble. Still love standing on the tops though. It just feels right.

Count Steer wrote: Sun Dec 12, 2021 7:42 pm Just started True Names (and the Opening of the Cyberspace Frontier) by Vernor Vince....I'll report back.

IIRC thats an odd one. Fairly sure I read it a while ago.
Theres a bit of story in there but a lot of its factual and about why having good encryption is important to everyone. It's still good but not what I expected after reading a few of his fiction books.

demographic wrote: Sun Feb 06, 2022 5:33 pm

Count Steer wrote: Sun Dec 12, 2021 7:42 pm Just started True Names (and the Opening of the Cyberspace Frontier) by Vernor Vince....I'll report back.

IIRC thats an odd one. Fairly sure I read it a while ago.
Theres a bit of story in there but a lot of its factual and about why having good encryption is important to everyone. It's still good but not what I expected after reading a few of his fiction books.

It is an odd one. It's a short story preceded by a number of papers/articles on things like encryption. The story itself is supposed to be referenced by lots of SF that came out after. Some of the papers are interesting but can be heavy going. I think I now know far more than I'll ever need to! It does give insight into how/why the data companies like Faceplant and Google have prospered...and why that may not be such a great thing though. (Eeeh, lad, I remember when t'cookies were American biscuits ).

Count Steer wrote: Sun Feb 06, 2022 5:54 pm

demographic wrote: Sun Feb 06, 2022 5:33 pm

Count Steer wrote: Sun Dec 12, 2021 7:42 pm Just started True Names (and the Opening of the Cyberspace Frontier) by Vernor Vince....I'll report back.

IIRC thats an odd one. Fairly sure I read it a while ago.
Theres a bit of story in there but a lot of its factual and about why having good encryption is important to everyone. It's still good but not what I expected after reading a few of his fiction books.

It is an odd one. It's a short story preceded by a number of papers/articles on things like encryption. The story itself is supposed to be referenced by lots of SF that came out after. Some of the papers are interesting but can be heavy going. I think I now know far more than I'll ever need to! It does give insight into how/why the data companies like Faceplant and Google have prospered...and why that may not be such a great thing though. (Eeeh, lad, I remember when t'cookies were American biscuits ).

I think it was Marooned In Realtime and Across Realtime that I liked best by him.
Some of the stories themselves werent amazing but I just liked the concept of embobblement* and how far he went with it.

Where they could create a "Bobble" around something which stopped time within the bobble.
Could effectively protect the occupants, even if it was thrown into the sun, could be an off centre bobble and cut someone in half and used as a weapon or for mining and if you wanted something out of a hillside you just bobble it and it rolls down.
Size and duration being the variables and you could do a lot with those.
There was more to it than that but I just liked where he went with it.

weeksy wrote: Wed Feb 02, 2022 11:54 am Right, need some more books....

Horror related please....

What you got ?

John Connolly’s Charlie Parker series is well worth a read, in my top 5 for fiction.

Not exactly horror as such, but has a good streak of malevolence running through the whole series. Each one is stand alone, but start at the beginning,

John Sandford ...ocean prey....

I have read most of his....usually fairly funny too.

Anyone read Brian Lumley?

Worth a couple of kindle quid?

How to drive a nuclear reactor by Colin Tucker. Just got it and had a quick thumb through, Mrs M says its highly inappropriate for some one of my abilities.

Just bought Alanbrooke war diaries - off on a mini tour next week

demographic wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 10:32 pm Been reading soke of "The Expanse" books after watching the TV series.
First one was Leviathan Wakes and the next one I've fairly blitzed through is Calibans War.

Easy read, not much different from the TV series really and I suspect has been written with an eye on the idea of turning it into a series anyway.

I haven't been keeping up with this thread, but I'm currently reading the Expanse series myself, and I'm about a quarter of the way into Caliban's War.

I think the tv series and the books diverge at some point and i want to read the entire series of books.

Clive Cussler this week. I must have read 20+ of his now.

weeksy wrote: Mon Jun 13, 2022 10:29 pm Clive Cussler this week. I must have read 20+ of his now.

I've read a couple, don't they all get a bit samey, hero in a boat saves the day?

Sometimes he's in a submarine.

Started reading The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. I don't normally do fiction, but thought I'd give it a go as I'd heard it was pretty good.

A few chapters in and I'm struggling.

There's a quid wasted down the local charity shop.

gremlin wrote: Tue Jun 14, 2022 11:25 am Started reading The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. I don't normally do fiction, but thought I'd give it a go as I'd heard it was pretty good.

A few chapters in and I'm struggling.

Is it a bit pointless?

gremlin wrote: Tue Jun 14, 2022 11:25 am Started reading The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. I don't normally do fiction, but thought I'd give it a go as I'd heard it was pretty good.

A few chapters in and I'm struggling.

There's a quid wasted down the local charity shop.

I read it. Thought it was ok but didn't love it. I did think it was a bit drawn out though, but I tend to think that about 90% of the fiction I read these days.

It seems like the recommended 75-90k words that books 'ought' to be is counterproductive. A lot of older classics were 50-70k and worked better. I'd rather a story hit hard and quickly than make you feel you're trawling through it and keep checking the 'time left in this book' view.

Warriors for the working day. Part of the IWM classics collection. About half way through and enjoying it, like From the city, from the plough, it has an air of authenticity you'd only get from someone who was there.



Before that Rodger Daltrey's autobiography that was free on the kindle library. Not bad.

Taipan wrote: Sat Jul 18, 2020 9:53 am

MrLongbeard wrote: Fri Jul 17, 2020 10:20 pm

Taipan wrote: Fri Jul 17, 2020 9:13 pm So what was the book about night flights or something? A pilot wrote it? I'm sure Mr LB bought it on kindle?

Nope, I don't do kindle.
Books from another thread on here that I have bought are;
First Light by Geoffrey Wellum, about ww 2 pilots

And

Chickenhawk by Robert Mason, about choppers in nam..

First light, that was it. cheers

Finally read it whilst lazing on the beach. An excellent read! Thanks for recommending it.