Tag: Books

Who Reads My Books? Seth Samuel.

Posted on by Neal Asher

Dear Neal,

I’ve been enjoying meeting some of your other readers and decided to chime in myself.
Amazon recommended The Skinner to me about 6 or 7 years ago, and I checked it out of my school’s library (Oberlin College in Ohio), read it way too fast, bought my own copy, and read it again. I never read books twice.

And I’ve subsequently read fifteen more of your books (all of them?)

You may be happy to know that you’re now one of my four favorite Neals! (Neal Asher, Neil Gaiman, Neal Stepheson. And my friend — Neil — who is not an author.) I’m also a big fan of China Mieville, Stanislaw Lem, and Jonathan Carroll, among others, in case you’re interested.

I am a 25-year old composer living in San Francisco, not yet making a living with music. Soon enough, I hope, though! (I’ve put a ton of my original music on my website — www.sethgsamuel.com ). I worked at two bookstores in Atlanta while in high school and summers during my college years — Chapter Eleven and Wordsmiths — and now both are gone, which is sad. I got a Masters in Film Scoring at NYU after getting my Bachelor’s in Composition at Oberlin, and while in New York I interned at the literary agency Black, Inc — the agency of, among others, Mitch Albom. Yep. I got Mitch Albom coffee! He said “thanks.” To me!

And now I live biking distance from a great, great store in San Francisco called Borderlands that carries all your books. I got my last two Ashers there, and they were pleased. Maybe I’ll work there.

Anyway, 99.9% of my books are back in Atlanta, in my parents’ house, but I’ve catalogued just about every book I’ve read to date on librarything.com. I’ve attached a screenshot of page one from it to this message.
Right between Woody Allen and Isaac Asimov — that’s you!

Best,

Seth

H is for Heinlein and Herbert

Posted on by Neal Asher
 
PETER HAMILTON
SECOND CHANCE AT EDEN
CHARLES L HARNESS
THE ROSE
THE PARADOX MEN
HARRY HARRISON
STAR WORLD
PLANET OF THE DAMNED
ONE STEP FROM EARTH
ROBERT A HEINLEIN
STARSHIP TROOPERS
FARMER IN THE SKY
THE STAR BEAST
THE GREEN HILLS OF EARTH
THE MAN WHO SOLD THE MOON
PODKAYNE OF MARS
THE PUPPET MASTERS
FRANK HERBERT
THE JESUS INCIDENT
HELLSTROM’S HIVE
THE GREEN BRAIN
THE SANTAROGA BARRIER
THE DOSADI EXPERIMENT
THE BOOK OF FRANK HERBERT
THE WORLDS OF FRANK HERBERT
DUNE
DUNE MESSIAH
CHAPTER HOUSE DUNE
HERETICS OF DUNE
GOD EMPEROR OF DUNE
PHILIP E HIGH
COME HUNT AN EARTHMAN

Who Reads my Books? Phil Ackerman.

Posted on by Neal Asher

Hi Neal
You asked who was reading your books, well here I am an Electronic Engineer designing radios for air-traffic control. Small department of approx 20 people so have to put my hand to all sorts of designs, audio, PSU, RF etc.

I have been reading SF since finding my older brothers collection of Asimov and Heinlein, though I was put off Heinlein after reading Stranger in a strange land, too hippy.

I love reading most proper SF, you, Reynolds, Hamilton, Vogt, Smith, Egan etc etc. Best thing with SF though is getting Interzone every other month. My other hobbies include cycle racing, bird watching and walking.

Can find photos of me at www.PhilAckerman.co.uk and I have attached photos of part of my collection.

Phil Ackerman.

Pushing Ice — Alastair Reynolds

Posted on by Neal Asher

So Janus, one of Saturn’s ice moons abruptly takes off out of the solar system, shedding ice and rock as it goes to reveal the alien spaceship underneath. Fortunate choice, and in every sense, since Janus is the two-faced Roman god of gates and doorways. I could ramble on like the most anal of SF reviewers about how this was an ongoing theme throughout the whole book, but such themes can be found in any book.
Then, after Bella Lind puts it to a crew vote, the mining ship Rockhopper sets off in pursuit. A human story aboard that ship, friendships tested, broken, healed, life and death decisions to be made and sometimes not made too well.
I had a little problem with some of the characters, not because they weren’t well-drawn or weak as some reviewers seem to think, but because they were annoying. I constantly felt that they needed a kick up the behind, whilst one of them could have done with a rock chisel through the back of her head quite early on. Also there was what I’ll describe as a black box MacGuffin that fizzled a bit. Minor points, really.
All this was set against a backdrop of the immensity of space and deep time lovingly illustrated by Reynolds’ knowledge of astronomy and relativity, vast and ancient alien technology, human technology taken to the limit too, and aliens. Yup, sensawunda here, and Pushing Ice pushed all my buttons in that respect. I enjoyed this and I’m glad I bought it.

Who Read My Books? Alexander Kruel.

Posted on by Neal Asher

I’m 25 year old guy living in Germany. I call myself a transhumanist, atheist and vegetarian. I’m interested in science fiction, science, philosophy, math, language, consciousness and the nature of reality…

I grew up within a religious environment. Later decided to become vegetarian when I was around 14. That decision was likely my first revolt against religion. Shortly afterwards, still ‘believing’, I completely rejected god. I guess that made me a satanist? Anyway, around the age of 19, with the onset of prevalent Internet access, I quickly decided to call myself an atheist. Although my atheism is just a public statement. In an epistemological debate I’d position myself as agnostic.

I Visited elementary school and afterwards went onto middle school. In Germany we have 3 school types that follow upon elementary school. Basically the lowest one is for dumb people, the middle one for average and another one for smart kids. I quit middle school at 15 and went onto the lowest school type to quit altogether after a year, without graduation.

I started to work as baker. Though found I’d rather sleep at night, since staying up basically turns me into a zombie. Afterwards I did various jobs, amongst other things working as digital media designer. The horror of push-button creativity…

These days I’m mainly trying to get a decent education.

P.S.
As you’ve probably guessed, I’m not neurotypical 😉

Photos? http://www.flickr.com/photos/xixidu/sets/1026306/

Who Read My Books? Mark Chitty.

Posted on by Neal Asher

Where to start with the exciting information about Mark Chitty? Well, I’m a 29 year old guy living in North Wales with my wife, Jane, and hyperactive cocker spaniel, Snoop. I work at Bangor University where I deal with students on a day to day basis and help them with any problems they have while also attending to vital jobs such as unjamming the photocopier, ensuring adequate stock of yellow highlighters and whiteboard markers for the academic staff, and other generally riveting and challenging duties. Before doing this I’ve been an NVQ assessor, a paperwork processor, an admin dogs-body and also worked in a hotel doing all the things associated with it. Yes, that also includes cleaning the vomit stained beds after rather inconsiderate guests.
Due to the high excitement (or rather lack of) in my working day I found sci-fi as the perfect escape route. While I’ve always been a fan of tv shows and console games in the genre, it wasn’t until 2004 that I really started reading as heavily as I do now. While I’ve read some of the classics I much prefer fiction from the mid 90’s onwards with the likes of Peter Hamilton, Neal Asher, Alastair Reynolds, Gary Gibson, Eric Brown and a host of other British authors taking the top spots. John Scalzi and Tobias Buckell are really the only recent American authors that I like enough to name, but anything sci-fi will get a look in one way or another.
Because of this new found love of sci-fi literature I run a blog, www.walkerofworlds.com, where I review what I read and post other bits of information, cover art and press releases whenever I get them. I also run a Peter Hamilton fan site at www.theunisphere.com, something that stemmed from that book I picked up in 2004 that started this all off (Pandora’s Star, in case you’re wondering).
Other than reading I’m still a fairly avid gamer, but I get nowhere near enough time to play anymore. Favourites are the Final Fantasy series and Star Ocean games, although give me a bit of Resident Evil any day of the week. I just got an Xbox too, so more time and money are slowly being absorbed by it’s seductiveness! TV shows and movies are again pretty much sci-fi orientated – the Alien series is a particular favourite, as too are the Stargate shows.
As for hobbies, after reading and squeezing some game time into the week I still like to try and play some basketball. I started playing while at school and used to play in the national under-19s league, way back in the day! Nowadays it’s all about playing for enjoyment and keeping fit – it’s one of the few sports I will actually play.

Who Read My Books? Taylor Preston.

Posted on by Neal Asher

I recently graduated from North Carolina State University with a BA in English and am currently in the process of applying for graduate school. I studied abroad in Oxford last summer and absolutely loved it. As soon as I have enough money I hope to come back. No technical or scientific background, but I love science and always have. Not enough people with English degrees appreciate the beauty and complexity of the natural world, and more’s the shame.

It’s safe to say I’ve read a lot of books, but I’m particularly fond of science fiction. Current favorites writing in the genre are Reynolds, Banks, Morgan, Kessel, Gibson (Gary, though I do like William as well), Hamilton, and, of course, Asher. I’m starting to reread many of the classics and I’ve found a lot to like in A.E. Van Vogt, Larry Niven, and Samuel Delany.

As well as reading, I also enjoy writing since my undergrad concentration was Creative Writing. I’ve taken fiction writing from John Kessel, which was loads of fun, particularly since he’s a science fiction writer and all around great guy.

G is for Gemmell and Gibson (either).

Posted on by Neal Asher

DAVID S GARNETT
TIME IN ECLIPSE
DAVID GEMMELL
LEGEND
WAYLANDER
FIRST CHRONICLES OF DRUSS THE LEGEND
THE KING BEYOND THE GATE
HERO IN SHADOWS
QUEST FOR LOST HEROES
GHOST KING
MORNINGSTAR
KNIGHTS OF DARK REKNOWN
THE LAST GUARDIAN
DARK MOON
MIDNIGHT FALCON
RAVENHEART
STORMRIDER
THE LION OF MACEDON
MARK S GESTON
OUT OF THE MOUTH OF THE DRAGON
GARY GIBSON
AGAINST GRAVITY
ANGEL STATIONS
TERRY GREENHOUGH
TIME & TIMOTHY GRENVILLE
PARKE GODWIN
WAITING FOR THE GALACTIC BUS