Hyperion was awesome. Canterbury Tales-style narrative focused on a group of pilgrims on a crazy planet steeped in legend set against a galaxy-spanning empire that is being threatened by a faceless looming external threat. As if that wasn't enough, the pilgrims are threatened from within by mystery, murder and betrayal as much as they are hounded by the immortal blade-covered daemon they know they are eventually destined to face.

Each pilgrims tale is unique and told in a different vibe - from pious and regretful to vulgar and indifferent.

The problem with Hyperion is that it was so successful, the author couldn't resist the temptation to write sequels, and those are of much lesser quality.

Opinion of course, but I couldn’t agree less. Taken as a whole, I think the whole work is beautiful, and I re read all of them occasionally. The way it all spreads out and then ties together is wonderful.

Amusingly, within just a few hours of our exchange, Hyperion popped up in another comment thread[0], where my view on the sequels was reiterated by several other people.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38424008

Seconded. The segement "The River Lethe's Taste is Bitter" is the most heard-rendingly sad thing I have ever read.

I couldn't finish Neuromancer. I guess I'm just not a fan of the antihero thing. Toward the end of the book, I just didn't care what happened to him.

I couldn't finish the Man in the High Castle. I've read the Neuromancer trilogy multiple times and the Hyperion Cantos multiple times too.

I can't read PKD's writing any more, it's too scattered for me now.

People's opinions are so diverse. I find Anne Lecke's style so dull and flat I can't read her stuff, despite the Nebula award.

I've tried to read it about 5 times over the last 20 years or so. Never made it past the first third or so of the book. Something about the way it is written is just so unappealing to me that I'd rather give up than finish. One of these days I might just read the synopsis.

I've seen that sentiment expressed elsewhere, it seems some people just aren't compatible with it.

Likewise I can't get through Pat Cadigan's 'Synners' which I think is a Nebula award winner - the world seems like it _should_ be interesting enough but it just doesn't grip me at all... I must have tried about ten times now and I just end up either leaving it for something else or leafing aimlessly through the pages trying to jump ahead to a more 'engaging' part and not finding anything

I found the ideas in Neuromancer to be, at the time, revolutionary. Going back to it, I thought that it read like a kids book. Naive and cludgy - like a Drizzt D&D book.

Neal Stephenson is I think a better writer, while also moving the genre and sci-fi concepts forward. I highly recommend "The Diamond Age" for people that couldn't make it through Neuromancer.

The writing in Neuromancer is a lot less polished than in the second two books, Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive, and I understand your point.

I like Stephenson but I don't know that you can directly compare, while they're both 'Cyberpunk' authors to an extent Stephenson's work is wildly different, there's a lot more 'education' in Stephenson whereas Gibson is pure exposition. Stephenson can also be a bit (very) preachy. I've read the Gibson books many many times and but the Stephenson ones... well, the second time I went through 'Snow Crash' I was already skipping massively, and The Diamond Age... once you've read it, you've read it.

This is going to sound incredibly judgemental but to me, Gibson writes the future, Stephenson the past.

If all you've read is Neuromancer I'd agree. What other Gibson works have you read?

The next two books in that series are quite different in tone. I think the writing is much better too.

Strangely enough, he thinks The Man in the High Castle is not worth reading, so I wouldn't follow his advice blindly.

It is highly readable for me, a PKD's masterpiece. I've reread it multiple times and each time it seems better.

Good list, but Orson Scott Card is a bit over-represnted. I recently re-read scheismatrix (plus) after 35 years. My spouse found a copy of Burning Chrome in the local tiny library, so I'm likely to review a few more cyberpunk works. I have fond memories of the 64-83 era, but it took me a while to warm to Sterling and Gibson. It almost seems like every new sci-fi story has a bit of cyberpunk embedded in it. All the cyberpunk authors were (I believe) influenced by Ballard and PKD.

Anyway. Thx for the pointer.

› found a copy of Burning Chrome

most of Gibson's works I had read in ncview.exe

I doubt I can replicate the experience now *sad smile*

There are a bunch of terminal apps that emulate CRT look-and-feel, and you can surely run NC in an emulator.

Sure, but I wans't talking about the visuals alone.

I can run NC in DosBox on the glorious 43".

I read Gibson on 15" in the native 320x200 and my 40Mb HDD shook the table table on the seeks.

This terminal emulator might help:

https://github.com/Swordfish90/cool-retro-term

As for other "effects", in theory the HDD led on the front panel could be interfaced with some actuator to produce vibration and sound when data is accessed.

Personally, I can't wait for the PineNote to exit the development phase and become an usable product; other e-paper readers are too closed and/or depending on cloud services I have no intention to surrender my personal data to.

What's wrong with a Kobo reader? Kobo is friendly to modding, so you can install e.g. the open-source interface KOReader and never use the company's own interface. Even if you use Kobo's software, initial setup can be done without registration, and you can just leave the reader in airplane mode for the entire lifetime of the device, so it would never connect to any cloud.

I have enough experience with Pine64 to not regard their products as anything other than toys that never meet their potential.

I second a very positive vote for Kobo. There are great resources for setting them up with no registration, and they work very well. Easy to get inside and make any changes you want.

Also second the downvote for Pine products. They look good off the bat, but there is no ongoing support and low compatibility.