I'm enjoying Pandora's Star thus far. The start has been a bit slow and the introduction of so many characters make it a bit confusing, but it is starting to get somewhere now.
 
I knocked off Rally Cry rather quickly, it's always a fun read, the premise is a ship from the American Civil War era gets shot into another world, where the humans there are preyed upon by huge creatures, standing roughly eight to ten ft in height. I'll be moving onto book two shorty yet I got a copy of Three Body Problem to read first!
 
After watching both Dune - movies I am currently re-reading the first book. It's quite enjoyable and in a way complementary to the films that capture most aspects of the books quite well and faithful I think. I haven't read the book in almost 30 years so I've forgotten many things, especially some more obscure aspects of the drugs involved.

One thing that I still can't grasp completely are the intricate politics and the layers of messages that the characters can sense, see or understand.

Some things that are missing, changed or shortened in the films are interesting, for example the sidestory of Thufir Hawat, the mentat that appears to be changing sides, or the attempted assasination of the baron Harkonnen by Feyd Rautha.
 
Because I think it's true of both of them. But I've only read 5000+ sf & fantasy, including every Hugo, nebula and Clark winner since inception.
You *think* it is true of both of them?

There is not a single translation Ted Chiang has done and you are acting like he has and that the majority of his awards are for these non-existent “translations” (you said “many”).

I don’t care if you have read every sci-fi book in existence, you act like a troll that doesn’t do much research.

By the way, I’m completely fine if you personally aren’t a fan. Unfortunately you went past that and made non-factual statements and now are arguing something akin to “well the awards are shit anyway.” Before you argued the awards had merit (with his “many translations”) and now they suck. What’s next?
 
I've been reading the Spenser novels that were penned after Parker's death, the original author. The new bloke does a bang-up job, keeps true to the characters and the cases are well worth reading. I'm currently on Old Black Magic, which is the last book available via my local library.
 
And today I finished Old Black Magic, Atkins does a great job of keeping the torch burning for the Spenser series. I'll have to hope my library gets the new books asap.

Next up for me is Wild New World by Flores, and since I'm looking at taking an anthropology course in June, I'm hoping to learn a lot about life on the North American continent.
 
Just about finished Exhalation, by some asian dude who definitely is not famous for translations. ;)

Half way through the last story, and it's a good one. Interestingly, my favourite so far is probably one of the ones that didn't get a Hugo or Nebula ("Omphalos"). The two shortest ones are piffle. The ideas within needed to be expanded on.
So my scorecard is probably going to be:
Great: 4 ("The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate", "Exhalation", "Omphalos", "Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom")
Good: 2 ("The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling", "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" - suffered from me already having read it and the real-world rapid development of certain ideas within)
Meh: 3 ("What's Expected of Us", "The Great Silence", "Dacey's Patent Automatic Nanny")

I don't think any of them are as good as my favourite Chiang story, "Story of Your Life" (aka Arrival), but I still think it's a good collection.
(@SveNitoR - you should try and find just this story, I'd be interested to see what you think of it.)
 
Just about finished Exhalation, by some asian dude who definitely is not famous for translations. ;)

Half way through the last story, and it's a good one. Interestingly, my favourite so far is probably one of the ones that didn't get a Hugo or Nebula ("Omphalos"). The two shortest ones are piffle. The ideas within needed to be expanded on.
So my scorecard is probably going to be:
Great: 4 ("The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate", "Exhalation", "Omphalos", "Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom")
Good: 2 ("The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling", "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" - suffered from me already having read it and the real-world rapid development of certain ideas within)
Meh: 3 ("What's Expected of Us", "The Great Silence", "Dacey's Patent Automatic Nanny")

I don't think any of them are as good as my favourite Chiang story, "Story of Your Life" (aka Arrival), but I still think it's a good collection.
(@SveNitoR - you should try and find just this story, I'd be interested to see what you think of it.)
Yeah, considering I really liked Arrival, I think I'd like that short story.

After some time has passed, I still think most of the short stories were forgettable ("meh", in your rating system :) ) but I did enjoy the first one and the last one (the alchemist, and the one about addiction and interacting worlds).

BTW, it's my birthday soon and will get my wish from my wife: A Kobo Libra Color. I only have Kindles and am looking forward a more open e-reader and to some (washed out) color illustrations :)
 
BTW, it's my birthday soon and will get my wish from my wife: A Kobo Libra Color. I only have Kindles and am looking forward a more open e-reader and to some (washed out) color illustrations :)
Cool. I have a recent non-colour Kobo (can't remember the model name). Well, at least I do when the kids aren't borrowing it.
Make sure you install Calibre so that you can easily load ebooks from 3rd party sites (e.g. Smashwords) or found via... ummm... less official channels. You can also load DRM-afflicted ebooks (e.g. Kindle books) if you install a certain plug-in.
 
About to start The Four-Dimensional Nightmare, a 1963 SF collection by J. G. Ballard, "New Wave" SF darling, but famous outside of SF circles for Empire of the Sun.
I've got the 1977 Penguin re-issue which annoyingly swaps two stories that I don't have in any other collection for two stories that I do have in another collection (Vermillion Sands). Such is life.

I found this book in a throw-out/take-for-free box outside a charity store. Win!
 
Cool. I have a recent non-colour Kobo (can't remember the model name). Well, at least I do when the kids aren't borrowing it.
Make sure you install Calibre so that you can easily load ebooks from 3rd party sites (e.g. Smashwords) or found via... ummm... less official channels. You can also load DRM-afflicted ebooks (e.g. Kindle books) if you install a certain plug-in.
Already have calibre installed since I've used it to modify books for my Kindles :)

And I sometimes do a drive to download all my ebooks to have backups offline and use that drm plug-in you mention ;)