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sebmojo posted:Gibson is a stylist, and he writes kind of clipped, but the plot isn't that complicated. What aren't you clear on? I've had trouble figuring out what's happening starting with terzi leading them to see riviera get attacked by...something? I don't even know who riviera is also what are flatline, freeside and ice?
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Sep 8, 2023 21:52
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I think you can post neuromancer plot details unspoiled at this point. Flatline is dying, the Dixie flatline is a computerized record of a human hacker that molly stole from a big corp, ice is software designed to kill people breaking into computer systems, freeside is a space station that people live on. Basically the plot is just Armitage assembling people and gear for a big heist, which happens up in space. The how's and why's of the heist are the mystery, which I suspect you'll also find puzzling.
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Sep 8, 2023 22:00
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actionjackson posted:
Flatline: death, refers to the flat line on a heart monitor - nickname for McCoy, and the nickname has become ironic because he is actually dead Freeside: An enormous space colony in orbit above earth - presumably called freeside because, being in space, it is in "international waters" and somewhat lawless Ice: hacking software + security software, takes on physical forms inside cyberspace Riviera is a magician who can induce hallucinations, who they plan to use for the heist mewse fucked around with this message at 22:06 on Sep 8, 2023 |
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Sep 8, 2023 22:04
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House of Suns by Alistair Reynolds - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0819VSLF9/ Age of Ash (Kithamar #1) by Daniel Abraham - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0976XDNF2/ Fortress of Owls (Fortress #3) by CJ Cherryh - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FC1S9A/
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Sep 8, 2023 22:41
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sebmojo posted:I think you can post neuromancer plot details unspoiled at this point. thanks to you both I'm still confused about what attacked riviera and why afterwards he was fine? I think something went through his head.
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Sep 8, 2023 22:43
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I can't actually remember the bit you are talking about, but it was possibly an illusion? That's his thing.
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Sep 8, 2023 23:16
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sebmojo posted:I can't actually remember the bit you are talking about, but it was possibly an illusion? That's his thing. Yeah, Riviera has a lung removed to fit a holoprojector in his chest, leading to his escape attempt when the heist team try to strongarm him into joining quote:"Now," Terzibashjian said, and a brilliant beam of white light, Molly shoots him with a fletcher tranq and the lightshow ends edit: first time I read Neuromancer as a teen I bounced off it hard, its a book that takes some page re-reads and some bits where you just have to go with the flow and assume you'll get context down the line. NoneMoreNegative fucked around with this message at 23:24 on Sep 8, 2023 |
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Sep 8, 2023 23:21
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Like a lot of noir it doesn’t explicitly call out whys, but in their world that’s hardly unusual, famously Chandler didn’t know how or why one murder went down in The Big Sleep, could have been related to the case but it ultimately it’s impossible for the characters to know. Similarly, losers-on-the-run books, like the great early Robert Stone novels, which Gibson often quoted as inspiration, are quite impressionistic, so ya gotta go with it. I’m sure I didn’t get everything in that book, or many others, on the first read, but Gibson was pretty good about making you wonder about something right before he drops in context. Thinking I need a re-read, it’s been a while. On this topic, I always imagined Case as 80’s Iggy pop, small, skinny, wired, sharp but not physically intimidating, but with some presence. Pretty sure that was all from the text and Iggy is what I came up.  I turned off to some comic adaptation on the first page when dude was some generic big dude.
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Sep 9, 2023 00:04
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pradmer posted:How Long 'Til Black Future Month? by NK Jemisin - $2.99 Don't make me tap the sign again.
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Sep 9, 2023 01:35
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mllaneza posted:Don't make me tap the sign again. Huh?
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Sep 9, 2023 01:56
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pradmer posted:House of Suns by Alistair Reynolds - $2.99 I'm sure we've all read this but on the off chance you haven't it's arguably Reynolds' best
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Sep 9, 2023 03:03
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so when it says "The blond man, whole again, unbloodied, lay at his feet." him being harmed was an illusion? perhaps from the holoprojector? weird
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Sep 9, 2023 03:08
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I've read Neuromancer several times since my childhood, and I never had a hard time following what was going on. 
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Sep 9, 2023 03:09
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actionjackson posted:so when it says "The blond man, whole again, unbloodied, lay at his feet." him being harmed was an illusion? perhaps from the holoprojector? weird In the Tamarian language, Darmok and Jelaad were two folk heroes who joined to kill the monster of Tanagra. Hence, "Darmok and Jelaad at Tanagra" became the metaphor for cooperation.
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Sep 9, 2023 03:16
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actionjackson posted:so when it says "The blond man, whole again, unbloodied, lay at his feet." him being harmed was an illusion? perhaps from the holoprojector? weird It's honestly pretty plain from reading the words
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Sep 9, 2023 04:15
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My first experience with Neuromancer was also my first experience with audiobooks, so I didn't realize it was abridged. It turns out that heavily abridging Neuromancer turns it into a barely-comprehensible fever dream / drug trip, and honestly it works. It's also read by Gibson, who knows exactly how each line is supposed to be delivered. I wouldn't recommend it as like, a definitive version, but it's certainly interesting and worth a listen. It's also available on Internet Archive!
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Sep 9, 2023 06:27
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zoux posted:Is it in the Inhibitor universe or a new setting? Utter standalone as far as I could tell.
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Sep 9, 2023 10:06
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mllaneza posted:Buy this book ! Buy this book !
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Sep 9, 2023 13:33
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Groke posted:Utter standalone as far as I could tell. Yeah this. If it was in another established universe, it isn't indicated in any way I could see
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Sep 9, 2023 14:57
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Carrier posted:Yeah this. If it was in another established universe, it isn't indicated in any way I could see Yeah it's pretty clearly its own cosmology.
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Sep 9, 2023 22:30
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Dr Futurity by Philip K Dick - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008LQ1EUK/
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Sep 10, 2023 15:46
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zoux posted:I'm sure we've all read this but on the off chance you haven't it's arguably Reynolds' best Echoing this. It's easily his best book IMO (though I loved Redemption Ark).
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Sep 10, 2023 22:08
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Lex Talionis posted:The genius of A-M is that it's not really taking plot points from history, it's stealing details of real ship battles cherry-picked from similar time periods and using those for its action scenes completely divorced from whatever context the real ship battle occurred in. Mostly when people are transposing old battle technology into SF, they do it with World War II carrier battles where there really aren't enough to choose from for the A-M technique. based on that para i bought unconquered son, enjoyed it and am just up to the part in the second where not-Philip II of Macedon dies (i don't need to spoiler the story closely based on a real event 2,500 years ago, right?). they're pretty good, there's a lot of same sex relationships if that's important, although they aren't acknowledged as anything 'different' but it's in a trans humanist future where the Achaemenids have four arms, the Delphi can only see in infrared, there are high caste Persians who have parasite faces on the back of their heads that allow for quantum real time communication so why should they be? I think the third one is due out early next year
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Sep 10, 2023 23:44
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actionjackson posted:is neuromancer supposed to be kind of hard to follow on the first read? I had trouble with it too. But when I read it nearly a decade ago.....I was probably half falling asleep or drunk. I'll re-read it someday.
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Sep 11, 2023 03:44
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Neuromancer is one of my favorite books and I'm a tech guy but the book really benefits from Gibson not being a tech guy. I've read that it's sort of a paint-by-numbers heist novel at its core and that's fine, I just really vibe with the texture and expressiveness of his writing.
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Sep 11, 2023 03:55
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mewse posted:Neuromancer is one of my favorite books and I'm a tech guy but the book really benefits from Gibson not being a tech guy. I've read that it's sort of a paint-by-numbers heist novel at its core and that's fine, I just really vibe with the texture and expressiveness of his writing. Lol yeah he wrote the thing on a typewriter. He was basically a lightly punky/hippy dude who was running food co-ops and things. I think he's considered a sort of tech guy now, but more of a "reads a lot and has a unique perspective on tech" than a "works in tech" guy.
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Sep 11, 2023 05:52
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Guy was the crown prince of a subculture that never quite formed. I think he gained some futurist cred, and he crops up in some funny places, such as a model for extremely niche japanese cyberpunk-inspired fashion.
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Sep 11, 2023 08:06
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Gibson’s work beyond Neuromancer has been some of the most strikingly, terrifyingly prescient sci-fi anyone has written, full stop. Please Mr. Gibson, write a happy book and use your powers for good.
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Sep 11, 2023 08:11
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thotsky posted:Guy was the crown prince of a subculture that never quite formed. I think he gained some futurist cred, and he crops up in some funny places, such as a model for extremely niche japanese cyberpunk-inspired fashion. lol, discussions about the PERIPHERAL tv show qirex posted:ultimately I am glad william gibson got several million dollars out of it because he seems like an ok dude NoneMoreNegative posted:He can afford seven or maybe eight new jackets now I am a big ACRONYM fan here, no shade.
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Sep 11, 2023 08:38
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Kestral posted:Please Mr. Gibson, write a happy book and use your powers for good. The monkey paw's curled and you got people from the future manipulating an alternate past to make Hillary Clinton president.
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Sep 11, 2023 08:42
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thotsky posted:Guy was the crown prince of a subculture that never quite formed. I think he gained some futurist cred, and he crops up in some funny places, such as a model for extremely niche japanese cyberpunk-inspired fashion. It's a funny thing - the subculture never happened, but both William Gibson and Bruce Sterling have been involved in all kinds of weird vaguely-ecological tech-art and think-tanky stuff (of varying levels of influence) over the past four decades, while somehow managing to keep clear of the Silicon Valley tech pseudo-religion.
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Sep 11, 2023 08:59
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It's really funny that Billy Idol got wind of it and tried to be the mainstream cyberpunk musical act with his concept album.
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Sep 11, 2023 13:04
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The best (probably apocryphal) William Gibson anecdote is that after he got the advance for Neuromancer he was finally able to buy his own personal computer and was so loving disappointed
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Sep 11, 2023 14:45
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thotsky posted:It's really funny that Billy Idol got wind of it and tried to be the mainstream cyberpunk musical act with his concept album. Even funnier when I found out Gary Numan already did before him and he wasn’t such a tryhard
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Sep 11, 2023 15:13
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I went to a reading by Gibson a while back, he gives off the impression of being very chill and down-to-earth in person, as well.
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Sep 11, 2023 17:29
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Neal Stephenson writes those big ol' doorstops with a fountain pen. Proof.
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Sep 11, 2023 18:20
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Stephenson is absolutely the last person I would guess for authors who wrote with a fountain pen, tied with Plato.
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Sep 11, 2023 20:35
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Has anyone read The Winter King? There's a tv show of it now and I watched the first episode because it got a good AV Club review, and I thought it was decent. But every other review seems to be pretty bad since the series apparently diverges a lot from the book. It adds a lot of extra Arthur scenes at the start and changes characters ages, races, and relationships. It also features bad wigs, although I did not think they were much worse than those in Rings of Power. Anyway, if you go into it knowing its not going to be like the book at all I still think it has some strong performances. Eddie Marsen is there. He's always good. It airing also alerted me to that a bunch of other books by that author have been adapted, so I can check out The Last Kingdom and Sharpe, which are apparently better.
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Sep 11, 2023 21:14
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the last kingdom is a pro watch, sharpe as well
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Sep 11, 2023 21:22
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The Last Kingdom absolutely kicks rear end, definitely watch it. The books are great too.
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Sep 11, 2023 21:34
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