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Base Emitter posted:It's reassuring to know that even among godlike AI starships, there are still bad posters. Better not be talking about Woetra.
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Sep 17, 2013 04:08
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I'm reading Surface Detail for the first time at the moment, and I love the character of the Falling Outside The Normal Moral Constraints and/or Demeisen. Just wanted to say that.
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Sep 18, 2013 14:44
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I'm reading The Hydrogen Sonata for the first time, and while it's extremely readable and I like Cossont and a few of the ships, it also feels like he's reiterated the basics of Sublimation about four times in the first two hundred pages
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Sep 18, 2013 15:24
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Toast Museum posted:I figure any SC mission that involves a human is at least in part about that human being some Mind's pet project, because otherwise why not use avatars for this stuff? Hydrogen Sonata also mentions that Minds tend to become a bit too self-destructive unless a certain number of human are on board to keep it sane.
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Sep 19, 2013 06:28
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I just finished re-reading Surface Detail and I have to say, the little shits in the GFCF were really entertaining. I love the idea of a race of scheming "aww shucks, me?  " aliens with the worst poker faces in the galaxy.
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Sep 20, 2013 03:11
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The Dark One posted:I just finished re-reading Surface Detail and I have to say, the little shits in the GFCF were really entertaining. I love the idea of a race of scheming "aww shucks, me? I love their clumsy, cargo cult, try-hard ship names. "Fractious Person"? "Abundance of Onslaught"? "Deepest Regrets" class? Keep trying, little guys.
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Sep 20, 2013 10:06
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Barry Foster posted:I love their clumsy, cargo cult, try-hard ship names. "Fractious Person"? "Abundance of Onslaught"? "Deepest Regrets" class? Keep trying, little guys. The GFCF ships remind me of so many people who've tried to come up with Culture ship names--they're what you get if you subtract Banks's particular genius. Which just reminds me once again of how much it sucks that we won't have any more of the genuine articles coming along.
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Sep 20, 2013 17:01
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General Turgidson posted:The GFCF ships remind me of so many people who've tried to come up with Culture ship names--they're what you get if you subtract Banks's particular genius. Which just reminds me once again of how much it sucks that we won't have any more of the genuine articles coming along. Just keep twisting the knife, rubbing salt, etc. "Kiss the Blade" was my favourite. Bobby Darin, anyone?
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Sep 21, 2013 11:51
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Saw in the Graun today that some lunatic is making an opera out of The Wasp Factory, featuring a rotating all-female cast as Frank. It sounds incredible. And it's entirely sold out. Bollocks.
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Sep 21, 2013 17:45
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About the end of the Wasp Factory (seriously, don't read this unless you've read the Wasp Factory already!): Is the main character being portrayed by women not a spoiler? A rotating cast sounds pretty awesome though.
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Sep 21, 2013 19:18
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Strom Cuzewon posted:Saw in the Graun today that some lunatic is making an opera out of The Wasp Factory, featuring a rotating all-female cast as Frank. It sounds incredible. Cool, in London or Edinburgh?
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Sep 21, 2013 19:19
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The Supreme Court posted:About the end of the Wasp Factory (seriously, don't read this unless you've read the Wasp Factory already!): Is the main character being portrayed by women not a spoiler? A rotating cast sounds pretty awesome though.
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Sep 21, 2013 20:35
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WeAreTheRomans posted:Cool, in London or Edinburgh? London. Tickets are back! http://www.roh.org.uk/productions/the-wasp-factory-by-ben-frost
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Sep 22, 2013 10:00
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Strom Cuzewon posted:London. Tickets are back! loving hell, Ben Frost? God I would see this in a second if I were in the UK.
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Sep 22, 2013 13:04
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Shelvocke posted:Just keep twisting the knife, rubbing salt, etc. Yeah, I know, but that's the only way I'll ever numb the pain (that and a whole vat of booze).
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Sep 22, 2013 21:49
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When do the ship avatars show up in the Culture series? I don't remember seeing any until around Look to Windward, I think. Is that the earliest?
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Sep 23, 2013 17:43
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In Player of Games didn't the ship that took Gurgeh to Azad have an avatar?
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Sep 23, 2013 17:47
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I don't remember if there was an avatar in Player of Games or just shipboard remote drones, but there are definitely avatars in Excession which is earlier than Look To Windward at least.
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Sep 23, 2013 18:20
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Yeah, the first humanoid avatar turns up in Excession, before that it's exclusively ship drones.
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Sep 23, 2013 19:15
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Xenophobe has avatars in Use of Weapons. In Player of Games, I remember Gurgeh preferring a terminal for talking to the ship, but I can't remember whether an avatar was one of the options he was given. Edit: Xenophobe's drones aren't humanoid, but they are organic-ish.
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Sep 23, 2013 19:18
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Honestly, I prefer drones or god-voice to Avatars.
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Sep 24, 2013 02:16
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Just started The Algebraist. From what I've read so far, it is vintage Banksian space operatic weirdness. Very much looking forwarded to getting further into it.
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Sep 24, 2013 02:18
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Those On My Left posted:Just started The Algebraist. From what I've read so far, it is vintage Banksian space operatic weirdness. Very much looking forwarded to getting further into it.
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Sep 24, 2013 13:28
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The Algebraist is a fantastic, sprawling, frequently hilarious book, and its only issue is that it starts off pretty slowly.big scary monsters posted:(also I now choose to believe that it's set in another galaxy of the Culture universe) Sadly, both The Algebraist and The State of the Art make mention of Earth, so they're pretty explicitly different fictional universes 
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Sep 24, 2013 14:02
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Barry Foster posted:Sadly, both The Algebraist and The State of the Art make mention of Earth, so they're pretty explicitly different fictional universes What do you mean fictional. 
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Sep 24, 2013 14:06
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MikeJF posted:Honestly, I prefer drones or god-voice to Avatars. Oh come one - Xenophobe's avatar(s) were hilarious. Also, so was Masaq's, IIRC, but only because it was a stereotypical 'grey' alien as tinfoil nutjobs here on Earth would see them, so it's extra meta hilarious - as long as my memory isn't total poo poo. E: wins32767 posted:brony of the group Are you trying to give the good ship Meatfucker a bad name? 
Munkeymon fucked around with this message at 07:32 on Sep 25, 2013 |
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Sep 25, 2013 07:14
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Munkeymon posted:Oh come one - Xenophobe's avatar(s) were hilarious. Also, so was Masaq's, IIRC, but only because it was a stereotypical 'grey' alien as tinfoil nutjobs here on Earth would see them, so it's extra meta hilarious - as long as my memory isn't total poo poo. Oh, they're fine, I meant the Avatars where they have their own names and semi-personalities and are only partially being controlled by the ship.
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Sep 25, 2013 12:50
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big scary monsters posted:That one seems to divide opinion a bit here. Personally it's the first Banks book I read and I loved it (also I now choose to believe that it's set in another galaxy of the Culture universe). A lot of people think the main villain is a little too cartoonishly overblow but as you later find out that he spent his whole life trying to build up an aura as a cruel and scary guy who you absolutely should not gently caress with I think it's just right and makes his eventual encounter with the Dwellers all the more effective. I place Dwellers with the Affront as being the most hilariously horrible aliens around, and they make those two books.
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Sep 25, 2013 13:32
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Shelvocke posted:I place Dwellers with the Affront as being the most hilariously horrible aliens around, and they make those two books. Surrender at once or take flight wretch! Glory to the Affront!
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Oct 3, 2013 06:05
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I'd take the Dwellers over the Affront any day. The Dwellers are really only assholes to their own young.
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Oct 3, 2013 10:15
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The Supreme Court posted:About the end of the Wasp Factory (seriously, don't read this unless you've read the Wasp Factory already!): Is the main character being portrayed by women not a spoiler? A rotating cast sounds pretty awesome though. According to this article, the 'gender-bending twist' has been removed. EDIT: this piece in the Guardian expands it a little further - it tells the story in a completely different way. Tenterhooks fucked around with this message at 10:24 on Oct 3, 2013 |
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Oct 3, 2013 10:18
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Gravitas Shortfall posted:I'd take the Dwellers over the Affront any day. The Dwellers are really only assholes to their own young. The Affront are violence-obsessed, whereas the Dwellers are just self-obsessed.
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Oct 3, 2013 12:55
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Gravitas Shortfall posted:I'd take the Dwellers over the Affront any day. The Dwellers are really only assholes to their own young. Well they don't seem to care about the hostages Luceferous dumps into space at all either, though that's the point where I really questioned how seriously I was meant to take him. I'd say they need to be exposed to some real Culture  
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Oct 4, 2013 13:46
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If you've not read it, Stonemouth is on sale from Amazon for the whole of the month for $3 as part of their Kindle monthly deal thing.
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Oct 4, 2013 16:43
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It's pretty good as well, though I feel a little rushed towards the end.
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Oct 5, 2013 13:10
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Checked the spefi -shelf at the library today to see if Excession was around (it wasn't), but Against a Dark Background was. I then realised it's the only M. book I haven't read and grabbed it.
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Oct 7, 2013 22:25
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One of my favorite bits of description was when the one ambassador dude saw a human head mounted in the trophy room and was trying to figure out if it was meant as an insult or a compliment of the "you're not like those other pansies who can't handle seeing a few of their species mounted on a wall" variety.
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Oct 7, 2013 22:26
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I'm about halfway through The Algebraist and flagging. There are lots of cool ideas about Dweller society and The Truth and the Slow/Fast dichotomy being poured into all these pages, but I really want the plot to actually progress at this point.
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Oct 7, 2013 22:55
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Benagain posted:One of my favorite bits of description was when the one ambassador dude saw a human head mounted in the trophy room and was trying to figure out if it was meant as an insult or a compliment of the "you're not like those other pansies who can't handle seeing a few of their species mounted on a wall" variety. The simplest answer is to remember just who it is the Affront are a parody of: "BANTER!!"
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Oct 7, 2013 23:01
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Those On My Left posted:I'm about halfway through The Algebraist and flagging. There are lots of cool ideas about Dweller society and The Truth and the Slow/Fast dichotomy being poured into all these pages, but I really want the plot to actually progress at this point. I can't remember whereabouts it is, have you gotten to the first big battle between the Dwellers and the humans? I found that that was where it started to properly get moving, even though it is definitely a long, drawn out book.
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Oct 7, 2013 23:39
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