I enjoy heavy-handed technobabble exposition in science fiction when it's done well and in service of a good story. I always have faith when Alastair Reynolds does it because he pays off his setups big time.
That said, I hated his book Century Rain and some of his recent work hasn't been up to his earlier standards. Yet he also has some great standalone novels. Terminal World is a great postmodern take on previous fiction set on Mars and is fun steampunk. House of Suns is some of the best galaxy spanning no FTL space opera I've read.
Yes, so far the Chasm City book is interesting and tickling my various curiosities. I enjoy the various environments and the universe so far seems unafraid to let humans be more alien than some other series' aliens; which is a cool angle. It's an aspect of an interstellar society that I don't usually think of, that once you go out the groups start to evolve and advance at vastly different paces. So that's the most enjoyable part out of it up to this point: exploring how anyone who travels between systems is on a level surpassing even those who would travel from Europe to North America in the early days of such activity. You're in transit so long that who knows what will be there when you arrive... your money and status are close enough to worthless and that's assuming there's anyone to pay at that end, and even if there is someone, they are so advanced you can not offer them anything of value. On whole different levels of existence then.
But, yes, bringing it back up; the heavy-handed exposition as dialogue still grates on me, here and elsewhere. But I can usually overlook it.
The thing on dialogue is, it seems inconsistently used; I can't tell if certain characters are being written with deep knowledge to sort of foreshadow their hidden intelligence, that in in this future society almost everyone just happens to be a super-nerd for everything from cyborgs to orbital mechanics and totally would just absolutely drone on about the details of how their docking shuttle is traveling while trying to kick up conversation, or if they really are just mouth-pieces for story that are talking above the intended pay grade.
Because every time I start making my mind up on one, something starts to hint at another. I figured 'oh its just how everyone talks so just pretend in reality they're saying things in crazy accents with lots of local color' but then we get some characters who do talk in really heavy local color so it sortof draws attention to the others being normal. Then I think they're just all supposed to be super smart but then someone will ask some dumb questions and get explained to so I figure if that person diddn't know it's not exactly common knowledge stuff. So maybe it just means certain characters in the story are just super smart, but they are playing dumb. But then turns out they just were dumb afterall but could still occasionally drop a pearl of sciencey wisdom for our protagonist. And then sometimes the suppostedly smart ones say stuff that is just dumb, and the kids who speak with heavy colorful accent are there dropping science on 'em. So I don't know what to believe anymore, Reynolds; I give up!
Still, I'm not hating on the book, really; or at least not trying to. And I'm not giving up on the book either, just on trying to make sense of the dialogue's context. And, surprised how this type of device seems fine for some, that for some readers it might be a big thing they enjoy about these type of books! Me, I prefer the narrator does the heavy techno lifting, dropping hints and trying to show, not tell; and leaving the characters to just be themselves and natural. They don't need expository monologues when we can be filled in on the context, and the characters can just say a few words to tell us which way they're thinking on the topic.
It was a valuable reading experience, but the book was pretty short and repetitive. You don't learn a lot. You learn a few things really really well. It also contains no specific or technical advice, which I expected. I've got all of that from YouTube. So in that sense, it was exactly what I was looking for.
He is writing purely as someone who is not a photographer. Instead, he is writing as a consumer. It's an extremely thorough analysis of which photographs make him feel a certain way, and why. He also examines how photography is different from movies, paintings, and other forms.
What you wouldn't expect, though, is that the book is mostly about how, understandably, sad he is that his mother has passed away.
The audiobook of Digging Up Mother by Doug Stanhope read by Doug Stanhope. The audiobook is almost objectively better than the written version, not only because Stanhope has the control over his delivery and timing that he's used to as a stand up comic, but also because there is additional content provided by guest contributors not included in the writing. I find it equally compelling, hilarious, and disturbing, but I also recognize it is very inaccessible. If you've never had such a warped perspective as to consider suicide, I'm not sure if this book is for you.
The Fifth Season is *super* good, I would definitely recommend it. It stands well on its own, but the sequel was just released and I'm very curious whether it can continue the pace of continuous escalation that the first book does so well.
Based on the recommendations of GreatTeacherMcRoss and KateMonster (I think it was them), I've started reading Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. It's a little slow at first, but I'm enjoying it a lot.
I listened to the audiobook over a long car drive. It was so slow, if I wasn't going to be sitting in the car for the next 10 hours, I probably would have just stopped.
Then again, if I was actually reading, it would have gone way faster, so who knows.
I listened to the audiobook over a long car drive. It was so slow, if I wasn't going to be sitting in the car for the next 10 hours, I probably would have just stopped.
Then again, if I was actually reading, it would have gone way faster, so who knows.
I've no idea what book you are talking about, but the same thing often happens with me. If I had to read it myself, I'd not get past chapter five. Because someone is reading it for me, I finish chapter 32.
I've been in to The Moontide Quartet, and I'm a good way in to the third book Unholy War. The writing is getting weaker, but the characters are keeping me interested and the plot is good enough to keep me wanting to know what will happen.
I listened to the audiobook over a long car drive. It was so slow, if I wasn't going to be sitting in the car for the next 10 hours, I probably would have just stopped.
Then again, if I was actually reading, it would have gone way faster, so who knows.
I've no idea what book you are talking about, but the same thing often happens with me. If I had to read it myself, I'd not get past chapter five. Because someone is reading it for me, I finish chapter 32.
I certainly don't like that series as much as other people. Personally I feel the religious tones of the story just kinda annoy me. Granted it's got some really good scenes in the series.
I just started reading Oryx and Crake. I'm not too far in so things are a bit confusing. More importantly, for some reason this book so far reminds me a lot of the new Playdead game Inside. Perhaps if the overall motif is not the same the theme seems very similar.
Started Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchet. Loving it. I've heard it described as "The Omen" as written by Monty Python as I love the set up. Anything where you can deconstruct something grandiose to banal silliness is great in my book. Hits a lot of the same things I liked about Hitchhiker's Guide. Digging the hell out of it.
Interesting book, the world is interesting and the narrator does a lot of talking to the reader directly, even having reader responses and direction. It's a bit hard to explain for me, the words aren't coming.
If you're into hypothetical future societies, especially ones that are 'post geographical' and/or like some sci-fi politics, I'm gonna say you're into this on some level. If you like 18th century philosophy maybe there's some interesting concepts in here for you to chew on as well, as the societies of this book tend to idolize that time period. This future has broken away from nation states to more factions that span the globe and inter-mingle. Thus you might live next to someone who has a completely different set of laws to obey than you, though I guess cities still have their own local codes? But some don't apply to some people. It's all quite confusing and while I love the idea of joining the society that fits your lifestyle without having to move halway around the world, I can also see the benefit of knowing a certain zone has one set of rules.. As a result, it has people wearing all kinds of 'clan' insignia of some kind, whether its special boots, or certain armbands, or a particular type of cloak. This does lead to lots of dudes(?) running around in period costume cuz they're just fancy fuckers in the future so of course 18th century fashion is what's hip.
At any rate I wasn't sure what to expect beyond essentially what's above. A lot of people really liked this book, and I'll read the 2nd part when it drops, though I wouldn't say I loved it exactly.
And most of that to day that at least it was better than fucking Reamde, by Neal Stevenson. Which, I listened to over the last 2-3 weeks on audiobook.
I kinda wish someone could give Neal Stevenson novels a diet and loose some of the excess, because I don't think any of his audiobooks are shorter than a typical workweek. While I appreciate all the time you get to spend in the world and some of the meandering plot lines do yeild some great results (and it's a decent length-to-token ratio on Audible) it means by hour 30 I'm just ready for the protagonists to just hurry up and get to the end and shoot the badguy and be done with it. Or just jump in the ocean and drown. Either one.
It's spoilers to cover much of any of the details, so I won't elaborate on much but, the book started out with a lot of interesting stuff involving an MMO that combined elements of Minecraft with something akin to WoW and Planetside and EVE Online, and seemed at first like a really dumb game. (who wants to play a game about mining gold and building things, in a world with detailed geological features, with a smattering of quasi-medieval combat, and the ability to turn that gold into real money?)
And then that started to grow into something potentially compelling, and I liked that whole angle to the story. I just felt that for the amount of time setting up this world and all the paragraphs and sub-plots explaining the game and especially to the non-gamer readers how a lot of the basics of MMO games worked, and often by having characters explaining these banal details to very non-gamer type characters in-universe, (who by all rights shouldn't be nearly as interested in an MMO considering context.) But as anyone who's read him probably already knows, Neal is quite prone to just dump verbose dialogue. That said, some of the characters really do have a good voice; but those just get ignored as some are verbose beyond comprehension. Also, someone needs to tell Stevenson that a gun battle is not a situation where opponents can have a conversation that is more involved than incoherent screaming and shouting. Don't have them explaining half a weeks' worth of travel itinerary mid-reload.
I digress. Anyone else read Reamde? It's a wild ride, for a modern-day cyberpunk-action-thriller, but for as much as it has a lot of researched ingredients it doesn't seem to have enough grounding in either the cyberpunk or the action-thriller worlds to draw on one or the other as the main throughline. It really hangs on both
Interesting book, the world is interesting and the narrator does a lot of talking to the reader directly, even having reader responses and direction. It's a bit hard to explain for me, the words aren't coming.
If you're into hypothetical future societies, especially ones that are 'post geographical' and/or like some sci-fi politics, I'm gonna say you're into this on some level. If you like 18th century philosophy maybe there's some interesting concepts in here for you to chew on as well, as the societies of this book tend to idolize that time period. This future has broken away from nation states to more factions that span the globe and inter-mingle. Thus you might live next to someone who has a completely different set of laws to obey than you, though I guess cities still have their own local codes? But some don't apply to some people. It's all quite confusing and while I love the idea of joining the society that fits your lifestyle without having to move halway around the world, I can also see the benefit of knowing a certain zone has one set of rules.. As a result, it has people wearing all kinds of 'clan' insignia of some kind, whether its special boots, or certain armbands, or a particular type of cloak. This does lead to lots of dudes(?) running around in period costume cuz they're just fancy fuckers in the future so of course 18th century fashion is what's hip.
At any rate I wasn't sure what to expect beyond essentially what's above. A lot of people really liked this book, and I'll read the 2nd part when it drops, though I wouldn't say I loved it exactly.
And most of that to day that at least it was better than fucking Reamde, by Neal Stevenson. Which, I listened to over the last 2-3 weeks on audiobook.
I kinda wish someone could give Neal Stevenson novels a diet and loose some of the excess, because I don't think any of his audiobooks are shorter than a typical workweek. While I appreciate all the time you get to spend in the world and some of the meandering plot lines do yeild some great results (and it's a decent length-to-token ratio on Audible) it means by hour 30 I'm just ready for the protagonists to just hurry up and get to the end and shoot the badguy and be done with it. Or just jump in the ocean and drown. Either one.
It's spoilers to cover much of any of the details, so I won't elaborate on much but, the book started out with a lot of interesting stuff involving an MMO that combined elements of Minecraft with something akin to WoW and Planetside and EVE Online, and seemed at first like a really dumb game. (who wants to play a game about mining gold and building things, in a world with detailed geological features, with a smattering of quasi-medieval combat, and the ability to turn that gold into real money?)
And then that started to grow into something potentially compelling, and I liked that whole angle to the story. I just felt that for the amount of time setting up this world and all the paragraphs and sub-plots explaining the game and especially to the non-gamer readers how a lot of the basics of MMO games worked, and often by having characters explaining these banal details to very non-gamer type characters in-universe, (who by all rights shouldn't be nearly as interested in an MMO considering context.) But as anyone who's read him probably already knows, Neal is quite prone to just dump verbose dialogue. That said, some of the characters really do have a good voice; but those just get ignored as some are verbose beyond comprehension. Also, someone needs to tell Stevenson that a gun battle is not a situation where opponents can have a conversation that is more involved than incoherent screaming and shouting. Don't have them explaining half a weeks' worth of travel itinerary mid-reload.
I digress. Anyone else read Reamde? It's a wild ride, for a modern-day cyberpunk-action-thriller, but for as much as it has a lot of researched ingredients it doesn't seem to have enough grounding in either the cyberpunk or the action-thriller worlds to draw on one or the other as the main throughline. It really hangs on both
I liked Reamde enough, but thought it was Stephenson-Lite. By that I mean that it was almost like Neal Stephenson was trying to write a supermarket or summer thriller, as opposed to his "heavier" novels like Cryptonomicon, the Baroque Cycle, and Seveneves.
I liked Reamde enough, but thought it was Stephenson-Lite. By that I mean that it was almost like Neal Stephenson was trying to write a supermarket or summer thriller, as opposed to his "heavier" novels like Cryptonomicon, the Baroque Cycle, and Seveneves.
That's a good way to put it. I still have Cryptonomicon on my read list. Some impression I got was that Reamde was a sort of "modernized version of that story with elements of Bourne or 24" which made me think "oh well that seems good" but, more detailed reviews make me think I should have tackled the 'classics' first.
The good news is it seems Death's End is upon us, so, Monday morning I'll be jumping down Cixin Liu's rabbit hole once again.
Read the first 4 volumes of Library Wars, now have to wait till I can read Japanese a hell of a lot better for the other two.
Was a pretty good read really, raised some interesting points and had some fun character development. Would defiantly say its worth a read, and the books are short so it doesn't take to long either.
I'm just finishing up the Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher of the Dresden Files. It's a good series, ancient Rome meets high fantasy with a lot of action. Would Recommend.
I'm just finishing up the Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher of the Dresden Files. It's a good series, ancient Rome meets high fantasy with a lot of action. Would Recommend.
A friend recommended the first book to me it was pretty good. Not great but an easy read, though the main character was a bit dull. That said there was one scene, or scenes that just did not fit in and was so badly written.
Also I know Butcher was open about wanting to see what would happen if he could write Pokemon meets the roman empire but there where points where the gimmick just felt wafer thing. Strangely mostly to do with the 'roman' stuff but there we go. Edit; well tits I'm a Luddite who can't work a spoiler tag. But the short and tall was a shitty thing happens to a female character and it is written like knockoff margarine spread over a cake made of broken glass.
In other news read all of the Gaunts Ghosts books as I needed something easy after the Wind up Bird.
After burning through the show The Magicians, a depressed Harry Potter figure goes to college and finds a cold cruel world, I couldn't wait for more show so I read the first book.
Which is alright, the show and the book diverge pretty early on, kind of like two people where given the same outlines and then told to write the same story.
The story of the book isn't going to blow anyone's socks off but I enjoyed the journey. It touches on the training of a mage far more than the Potter books, there's a whole lot of places where the characters are just grinding out their abilities.
The thing I do like about it is that by the end all the characters are pretty competent magicians, There are no moments of "well, you won because love/chance/destiny". I also like how they touch on the ennui that one would imagine would overcome any human who suddenly found that they could twist reality to whatever they really wanted. The adults out in the world are basically wrestling with finding a purpose in the face of being able to do pretty much anything. Like being in a RPG, maxed level, more gold than god, every spell and bit of eq at your fingertips, the bad guy's dead, and now find something else to do!
Comments
That said, I hated his book Century Rain and some of his recent work hasn't been up to his earlier standards. Yet he also has some great standalone novels. Terminal World is a great postmodern take on previous fiction set on Mars and is fun steampunk. House of Suns is some of the best galaxy spanning no FTL space opera I've read.
But, yes, bringing it back up; the heavy-handed exposition as dialogue still grates on me, here and elsewhere. But I can usually overlook it.
The thing on dialogue is, it seems inconsistently used; I can't tell if certain characters are being written with deep knowledge to sort of foreshadow their hidden intelligence, that in in this future society almost everyone just happens to be a super-nerd for everything from cyborgs to orbital mechanics and totally would just absolutely drone on about the details of how their docking shuttle is traveling while trying to kick up conversation, or if they really are just mouth-pieces for story that are talking above the intended pay grade.
Because every time I start making my mind up on one, something starts to hint at another. I figured 'oh its just how everyone talks so just pretend in reality they're saying things in crazy accents with lots of local color' but then we get some characters who do talk in really heavy local color so it sortof draws attention to the others being normal. Then I think they're just all supposed to be super smart but then someone will ask some dumb questions and get explained to so I figure if that person diddn't know it's not exactly common knowledge stuff. So maybe it just means certain characters in the story are just super smart, but they are playing dumb. But then turns out they just were dumb afterall but could still occasionally drop a pearl of sciencey wisdom for our protagonist. And then sometimes the suppostedly smart ones say stuff that is just dumb, and the kids who speak with heavy colorful accent are there dropping science on 'em. So I don't know what to believe anymore, Reynolds; I give up!
Still, I'm not hating on the book, really; or at least not trying to. And I'm not giving up on the book either, just on trying to make sense of the dialogue's context. And, surprised how this type of device seems fine for some, that for some readers it might be a big thing they enjoy about these type of books! Me, I prefer the narrator does the heavy techno lifting, dropping hints and trying to show, not tell; and leaving the characters to just be themselves and natural. They don't need expository monologues when we can be filled in on the context, and the characters can just say a few words to tell us which way they're thinking on the topic.
Real talk though, The Fifth Season looks super interesting. Reminds me a little bit of The Mirror Empire.
Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photograph by Roland Barthes
FYI: Roland Barthes is the "author is dead" guy.
It was a valuable reading experience, but the book was pretty short and repetitive. You don't learn a lot. You learn a few things really really well. It also contains no specific or technical advice, which I expected. I've got all of that from YouTube. So in that sense, it was exactly what I was looking for.
He is writing purely as someone who is not a photographer. Instead, he is writing as a consumer. It's an extremely thorough analysis of which photographs make him feel a certain way, and why. He also examines how photography is different from movies, paintings, and other forms.
What you wouldn't expect, though, is that the book is mostly about how, understandably, sad he is that his mother has passed away.
Then again, if I was actually reading, it would have gone way faster, so who knows.
As to O&C being slow, I didn't feel that at all. However, I will say that I prefered The Year of the Flood to both O&C and MaddAddam.
Interesting book, the world is interesting and the narrator does a lot of talking to the reader directly, even having reader responses and direction. It's a bit hard to explain for me, the words aren't coming.
If you're into hypothetical future societies, especially ones that are 'post geographical' and/or like some sci-fi politics, I'm gonna say you're into this on some level. If you like 18th century philosophy maybe there's some interesting concepts in here for you to chew on as well, as the societies of this book tend to idolize that time period. This future has broken away from nation states to more factions that span the globe and inter-mingle. Thus you might live next to someone who has a completely different set of laws to obey than you, though I guess cities still have their own local codes? But some don't apply to some people. It's all quite confusing and while I love the idea of joining the society that fits your lifestyle without having to move halway around the world, I can also see the benefit of knowing a certain zone has one set of rules.. As a result, it has people wearing all kinds of 'clan' insignia of some kind, whether its special boots, or certain armbands, or a particular type of cloak. This does lead to lots of dudes(?) running around in period costume cuz they're just fancy fuckers in the future so of course 18th century fashion is what's hip.
At any rate I wasn't sure what to expect beyond essentially what's above. A lot of people really liked this book, and I'll read the 2nd part when it drops, though I wouldn't say I loved it exactly.
And most of that to day that at least it was better than fucking Reamde, by Neal Stevenson. Which, I listened to over the last 2-3 weeks on audiobook.
I kinda wish someone could give Neal Stevenson novels a diet and loose some of the excess, because I don't think any of his audiobooks are shorter than a typical workweek. While I appreciate all the time you get to spend in the world and some of the meandering plot lines do yeild some great results (and it's a decent length-to-token ratio on Audible) it means by hour 30 I'm just ready for the protagonists to just hurry up and get to the end and shoot the badguy and be done with it. Or just jump in the ocean and drown. Either one.
It's spoilers to cover much of any of the details, so I won't elaborate on much but, the book started out with a lot of interesting stuff involving an MMO that combined elements of Minecraft with something akin to WoW and Planetside and EVE Online, and seemed at first like a really dumb game. (who wants to play a game about mining gold and building things, in a world with detailed geological features, with a smattering of quasi-medieval combat, and the ability to turn that gold into real money?)
And then that started to grow into something potentially compelling, and I liked that whole angle to the story. I just felt that for the amount of time setting up this world and all the paragraphs and sub-plots explaining the game and especially to the non-gamer readers how a lot of the basics of MMO games worked, and often by having characters explaining these banal details to very non-gamer type characters in-universe, (who by all rights shouldn't be nearly as interested in an MMO considering context.) But as anyone who's read him probably already knows, Neal is quite prone to just dump verbose dialogue. That said, some of the characters really do have a good voice; but those just get ignored as some are verbose beyond comprehension. Also, someone needs to tell Stevenson that a gun battle is not a situation where opponents can have a conversation that is more involved than incoherent screaming and shouting. Don't have them explaining half a weeks' worth of travel itinerary mid-reload.
I digress. Anyone else read Reamde? It's a wild ride, for a modern-day cyberpunk-action-thriller, but for as much as it has a lot of researched ingredients it doesn't seem to have enough grounding in either the cyberpunk or the action-thriller worlds to draw on one or the other as the main throughline. It really hangs on both
The good news is it seems Death's End is upon us, so, Monday morning I'll be jumping down Cixin Liu's rabbit hole once again.
Was a pretty good read really, raised some interesting points and had some fun character development. Would defiantly say its worth a read, and the books are short so it doesn't take to long either.
Also I know Butcher was open about wanting to see what would happen if he could write Pokemon meets the roman empire but there where points where the gimmick just felt wafer thing. Strangely mostly to do with the 'roman' stuff but there we go.
Edit; well tits I'm a Luddite who can't work a spoiler tag. But the short and tall was a shitty thing happens to a female character and it is written like knockoff margarine spread over a cake made of broken glass.
In other news read all of the Gaunts Ghosts books as I needed something easy after the Wind up Bird.
Which is alright, the show and the book diverge pretty early on, kind of like two people where given the same outlines and then told to write the same story.
The story of the book isn't going to blow anyone's socks off but I enjoyed the journey. It touches on the training of a mage far more than the Potter books, there's a whole lot of places where the characters are just grinding out their abilities.
The thing I do like about it is that by the end all the characters are pretty competent magicians, There are no moments of "well, you won because love/chance/destiny". I also like how they touch on the ennui that one would imagine would overcome any human who suddenly found that they could twist reality to whatever they really wanted. The adults out in the world are basically wrestling with finding a purpose in the face of being able to do pretty much anything. Like being in a RPG, maxed level, more gold than god, every spell and bit of eq at your fingertips, the bad guy's dead, and now find something else to do!