I concur...the Bible--inspired by God--contains some great poetry, history, and ideas that have shaped (Western) civilization more than any other work. It has been published in more languages than any other work, hands down. There are more copies than any other work, hands down. It is the most quoted work, hands down. You could completely reconstruct it using quotations found in other works. Voltaire once thought that the Bible would be irrelevant within a generation. Now he is dead, and now his old home is a Bible publishing house!
Personally, I think it's good to see a post like this. I agree completely (insofar as one can agree with facts
).
I really think that Alastair Reynolds needs more air time than we give him.
His Book Revelation Space has got to be one of the greatest Sci-Fi books i've read since Ender's Game and War of the Worlds.
Though I truly enjoyed Revelation Space, it was the only one (out of the ones I've read - I have the trilogy and the two novellas) that I really enjoyed. The other two in that trilogy are profoundly depressing, in my eyes, though I found the concept of Absolution Gap interesting.
I think Reynolds deserves more mention, but not necessarily more praise. His books contain, or have the potential for, the sort of oddities that Banks can create; unlike Banks, who treats these oddities with considerable but not ridiculous wit, however, Reynolds proceeds to regard all strangenesses with some sort of detached heavy-heartedness (at least, in my opinion). I thought Diamond Dogs had a particularly horrid ending.
I could go on about why I think Reynolds seems to consider this sort of depressed storytelling necessary, but perhaps I'd better not
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