smackfu posted:

We accidentally made coffee the other day without swapping the grounds.

That does not work well at all.

C.M. Kruger posted:

Behold the deep science fiction lore of the Cassava tuber, which has to be soaked in water for 24+ hours.

neongrey posted:

also thats definitely a reasonable extrapolation of how some oolong teas could be handled if the expense were an issue

eXXon posted:

I'm giving up on A Memory Called Empire about 25% in. I find the plot superficially similar to The Goblin Emperor, in that it's (somewhat implausibly) whirlwind court intrigue drama with a main character thrust into a leading role they're not ready for, except in AMCE it makes even less sense because she was specifically trained to fulfill her role, albeit hurriedly.

eXXon posted:

The empire is vast and sprawling, spanning most of the galaxy, but most of it is only vaguely hinted at. Lsel Station has a population of 30,000 and has some outsized importance that isn't particularly well-explained, and a culture that's only sketched out in brief. They want to avoid being annexed by the empire but rely on a solitary ambassador who rarely informs them of anything he does. The new ambassador arrives - again alone - at the capital city and jewel of the empire, an ecumenopolis/planet-city later stated to have a population of a few hundred thousand. The gently caress!? How tiny is this planet? It's described as having some tall towers and a large subway/train network with buildings covering most of the surface. I can't say I enjoy long-winded and detailed descriptions of architecture but there's virtually nothing here to express alien-ness, grandiosity or a particular flavour of post-scarcity society.

Lex Talionis posted:

I liked AMCE too but remember it as being worse than I thought at the time (just checked my contemporaneous notes) because instead of merely trying to be a good anxiety/comfort novel, Martine tries to write a great novel. I approve of her ambition but it didn't work out. She nails the moves from her subgenre influences but the book has its sights set on exploring the combination of menace and seduction of a powerful empire and for me fails entirely at this. The empire feels like a small town and nothing about it seems particularly bad, so it's not menacing, and the amazing and seductive culture amounts to prestige TV plus improvisational poetry you'd have to be completely fluent in their language to hope to understand.

mewse posted:

She accepts support staff from her host country, how is that not a giant conflict of interest?

eXXon posted:

Maybe Imperial Radch ships have a special cryogenic flash freezer. I just found it amusing that that reviewer got very angry that they were making tea wrong with how often it's mentioned in those books (by contrast, I assume cyanide tuber paste will not come up again).

Lex Talionis posted:

I liked Goblin Empire, the Ancillary sequels, and similar books more than you sound like you did. I think it's very much in that vein.

RDM posted:

I haven't read this in years but it's definitely not described as a small planet, the individual provinces have like 8-figure populations.

Remulak posted:

I bought the first book on sale some time ago, and picked it up to read Wednesday.

I’ve now completed all three and done basically nothing else.

I’m not claiming they’re great literature, but goddamn they were what I needed and I could not put them down, it’s an odd mix of sub genres and unusually colorful writing, along with a some terrific narrative twists.

I think my favorite part is that it’s never really clear what is true and what is exaggeration, or even lies, as it’s all from the mouth of the protagonist, who clearly has his own agenda.

silvergoose posted:

Heh, I did link it in here when I made it, but the more people seeing it the better!

eXXon posted:

Something mildly traumatic happens and someone makes a soothing tea, luxuriously using fresh leaves instead of the old batch that had been there for a week (but would normally have been used for another week, since the stuff is expensive as it's an obsession in that particular space empire). "That's not how tea works!! What the gently caress!", the reviewer sputtered. I feel you.

cptn_dr posted:

I can't speak for anything else in the post, but nearly every embassy I've ever dealt with IRL has had locals staffing it alongside the Ambassadors/mission staff from the country in question.

eXXon posted:

The CDC tells me 4-6 days. Anyway, I did not mean to imply that it was implausible, more just funny that it was the only example of foreign food used to reveal the character's ignorance to that point.

C.M. Kruger posted:

And that a star faring culture hadn't gene-engineered a version that's not full of cyanide, as people on Earth are already working at.

The Sweet Hereafter posted:

Who?

shrike82 posted:

the set pieces meant to shock (the cult eating poo poo) are pretty staid by modern standards.

buffalo all day posted:

mdemone posted:

I was in a restaurant once that had Hot Ham Water on the menu. I tried to order it but they said it was just a joke.

mdemone posted:

I was in a restaurant once that had Hot Ham Water on the menu. I tried to order it but they said it was just a joke.

RoboCicero posted:

Late to the A Memory Called Empire chat, but I quite liked it! It was a propulsive scifi intrigue piece even though I was expecting the whole time for Three Seagrass to do a heel turn at the end. Relating to empire -- I think in general the conquering (directly or indirectly) empire doesn't have to be capital b Bad for it to be a force sovereign nations want to resist -- the fact that places want to hold on to their sovereignty should be enough (not to mention that any annexation war with Lsel Station would likely result in a significant amount of casualties).

I finished the first book and immediately bought the second! The references and developments related to imago usage are really interesting and the second book promises to dive more into the themes of "first contact", "perceptions / boundaries of self" and the repeated question, "what is your definition of you" that is brought up in the first book.

RDM posted:

I didn't think the second book worked nearly as well as the first to be honest. The weird alien hivemind is just a weird alien with weird space guns, the humans are all dumb as rocks, and the driving conflict of the plot is 'a politician on the tiny space station will try to murder me, the person who has come to the space station with a fleet of warships and the explicit backing of the ultra space emperor - better run for my life'. No part of the plot to this book made any sense to me.

NoneMoreNegative posted:

Actually speaking of the SF Masterworks, TW here has a bit of the vibe of Christopher Priest's 'INVERTED WORLD', in a 'geography is hosed and affects you in odd ways' feel.

pradmer posted:

The Jasmine Throne (Burning Kingdoms #1) by Tasha Suri - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08F4YZZ84/

RDM posted:

I didn't think the second book worked nearly as well as the first to be honest.

MockingQuantum posted:

Yeah agreed, I think the second book really lacked any kind of focus

cptn_dr posted:

I can't speak for anything else in the post, but nearly every embassy I've ever dealt with IRL has had locals staffing it alongside the Ambassadors/mission staff from the country in question.

mdemone posted:

I was in a restaurant once that had Hot Ham Water on the menu. I tried to order it but they said it was just a joke.

pradmer posted:

Pulling the Wings Off Angels by KJ Parker - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09NJSVL1T/

fermun posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXzoJin8-p0

Sinatrapod posted:

I have similar feelings about Ancillary Justice, but I think my opinion on that one was hugely tainted by the audiobook's narrator who seemed to be trying out a brave new "No intonation whatsoever for anything" angle.

fermun posted:

I have a water carbonator thing where you put a mix of baking soda and citric acid into a compartment and close it up and then it will squirt some sacrificial water into there which generates CO2 and bubbles that CO2 around through a water bottle you hook up to the machine which will carbonate the water and every 4th of July and Labor Day I buy a couple packs of hot dogs, pour out the 30ish mL of packing water and add some fresh water to make a lightly hot dog-flavored carbonated water and bring it to whatever BBQ party I go to. It's both better and worse than it sounds. Better tasting, worse smelling, and also you don't want to drink it when you're actually eating a hot dog, and it for some reason makes everyone whose tried it not feel as hungry come dinner time unless they give it a couple hours, so they don't eat as much as they normally would then they are absolutely ravenously hungry later in the evening and if they're drinking then they often have drank on an empty stomach.

Sinatrapod posted:

I have similar feelings about Ancillary Justice, but I think my opinion on that one was hugely tainted by the audiobook's narrator who seemed to be trying out a brave new "No intonation whatsoever for anything" angle.

DurianGray posted:

For what it's worth, they did eventually re-record Ancillary Justice using the much better narrator who did Sword and Mercy (Adjoa Andoh). The direction they gave that initial narrator was baffling though. I guess they wanted her to sound "like a robot" but it was incredibly grating to hear that monotone for the whole book (only exceptions being when she read dialog for other characters).

fermun posted:

I am a US citizen and I worked for the Indian Consulate for about 9 months where my job was 6 hours a day processing applications for Overseas Citizen of India documentation and then for 2 hours a day I was required to take off my dress shirt, where I was supposed to wear a heavy metal t-shirt underneath to look like a bouncer, and smoke a nicotine-free vape, wait for a car (driven by a guy from Nepal) to show up, then I'd open up a locked door and transfer 6 locked suitcases to the trunk (it was always 6, sometimes one or two would be clearly empty), hop in, and go to an off-site location where they'd do additional security checks if needed, phone/online customer support, and various other things. I would say maybe half the people working there were not Indian citizens.

I have a water carbonator thing where you put a mix of baking soda and citric acid into a compartment and close it up and then it will squirt some sacrificial water into there which generates CO2 and bubbles that CO2 around through a water bottle you hook up to the machine which will carbonate the water and every 4th of July and Labor Day I buy a couple packs of hot dogs, pour out the 30ish mL of packing water and add some fresh water to make a lightly hot dog-flavored carbonated water and bring it to whatever BBQ party I go to. It's both better and worse than it sounds. Better tasting, worse smelling, and also you don't want to drink it when you're actually eating a hot dog, and it for some reason makes everyone whose tried it not feel as hungry come dinner time unless they give it a couple hours, so they don't eat as much as they normally would then they are absolutely ravenously hungry later in the evening and if they're drinking then they often have drank on an empty stomach.

sebmojo posted:

what an absolutely mind-melting post

DurianGray posted:

For what it's worth, they did eventually re-record Ancillary Justice using the much better narrator who did Sword and Mercy (Adjoa Andoh). The direction they gave that initial narrator was baffling though. I guess they wanted her to sound "like a robot" but it was incredibly grating to hear that monotone for the whole book (only exceptions being when she read dialog for other characters).

fermun posted:

I have a water carbonator thing where you put a mix of baking soda and citric acid into a compartment and close it up and then it will squirt some sacrificial water into there which generates CO2 and bubbles that CO2 around through a water bottle you hook up to the machine which will carbonate the water and every 4th of July and Labor Day I buy a couple packs of hot dogs, pour out the 30ish mL of packing water and add some fresh water to make a lightly hot dog-flavored carbonated water and bring it to whatever BBQ party I go to. It's both better and worse than it sounds. Better tasting, worse smelling, and also you don't want to drink it when you're actually eating a hot dog, and it for some reason makes everyone whose tried it not feel as hungry come dinner time unless they give it a couple hours, so they don't eat as much as they normally would then they are absolutely ravenously hungry later in the evening and if they're drinking then they often have drank on an empty stomach.

sebmojo posted:

what an absolutely mind-melting post