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Who was it who posted a while ago saying the Affront are basically the cast of Monty Python wearing ridiculous fake moustaches?
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Oct 7, 2013 23:40
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Barry Foster posted: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. ... Nope. 
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Oct 8, 2013 00:47
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It's one of my favorite books, simply for the big reveal that explained the interspersed fragment of a story. I also didn't see coming at all.
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Oct 8, 2013 00:57
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Those On My Left posted:... Nope. Well then, courage, friend! It's all going to get better soon.
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Oct 8, 2013 02:16
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Those On My Left posted:... Nope. Seriously stick it out if only for that bit, it's fantastic. I found myself getting caught up in the dweller's (fictional) excitement.
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Oct 10, 2013 23:04
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Barry Foster posted: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. Am now a bit past there, and yeah, things have definitely picked up. I am a little worried it's turning into a MacGuffin but the intrigue has certainly skyrocketed.
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Oct 10, 2013 23:30
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Strom Cuzewon posted:The simplest answer is to remember just who it is the Affront are a parody of: What?
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Oct 11, 2013 01:16
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Circle Nine posted: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 11, 2013 01:16
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Carrier posted:What? British upper class?
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Oct 11, 2013 09:40
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Shelvocke posted:British upper class? Banter is the complete opposite of what the British upper class would sound like...
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Oct 12, 2013 11:53
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nothing to seehere posted:Banter is the complete opposite of what the British upper class would sound like... Someone hasn't been near a mid to upper tier university in the UK recently. Just in case there's any confusion, 'Banter' is a word used by middle and upper class 'lads' to describe their variously misogynistic, classist, or racist patter as 'just a bit of fun'.
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Oct 12, 2013 14:21
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Barry Foster posted:Someone hasn't been near a mid to upper tier university in the UK recently. I think you are projecting, I very much doubt Banks was intentionally parodying such a tiny subsection of British culture with which he has most likely had very little contact (and which hasn't really been a thing until the last 5 years or so) in a book he wrote in 1996.
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Oct 12, 2013 15:29
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Carrier posted:I think you are projecting, I very much doubt Banks was intentionally parodying such a tiny subsection of British culture with which he has most likely had very little contact (and which hasn't really been a thing until the last 5 years or so) in a book he wrote in 1996. You misunderstand, I'm not saying that he was specifically writing about uni lad culture, of course he wasn't. But the Affront are a pretty thinly veiled caricature of the fox-hunting, gene pool restricting, cheerfully cruel to anyone who isn't them British Upper Class as a whole. These guys, basically http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullingdon_Club
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Oct 12, 2013 15:34
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Barry Foster posted:You misunderstand, I'm not saying that he was specifically writing about uni lad culture, of course he wasn't. But the Affront are a pretty thinly veiled caricature of the fox-hunting, gene pool restricting, cheerfully cruel to anyone who isn't them British Upper Class as a whole. Almost exactly I'd say.
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Oct 12, 2013 16:01
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And if you haven't noticed the far left, anti-landed-gentry-and-upper-class overtones, undertones and midtones throughout Banks' collected works, then I'm not sure you've been reading the same books.
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Oct 12, 2013 18:00
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So, I'm wondering what everyone thought of the Mistake Not... . I just finished The Hydrogen Sonata and I wound up really liking it. The ship, that is. Sure, it's pretty arrogant running around with a name like that. At the same time, pretty much every non-Mind develops an attitude with the Minds. The Minds are extraordinarily benevolent and indulging, and bios start thinking that means they're weak. My favorite example is the king of the Hausk in Matter, who told his son that his people had an advantage over the Culture because they were still expanding something something. Ignoring the fact that the Culture has solved every problem that plagues his civilization and then about ten million more they haven't even conceptualized yet. Not to mention the Affront, who actually thought they would get away with pissing off a civilization exponentially larger and more well armed than they were. Frankly, it was about time a Culture Mind showed a little attitude back.
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Oct 12, 2013 19:37
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Red Crown posted:So, I'm wondering what everyone thought of the Mistake Not... . I just finished The Hydrogen Sonata and I wound up really liking it. The ship, that is. Sure, it's pretty arrogant running around with a name like that. At the same time, pretty much every non-Mind develops an attitude with the Minds. The Minds are extraordinarily benevolent and indulging, and bios start thinking that means they're weak. My favorite example is the king of the Hausk in Matter, who told his son that his people had an advantage over the Culture because they were still expanding something something. Ignoring the fact that the Culture has solved every problem that plagues his civilization and then about ten million more they haven't even conceptualized yet. Not to mention the Affront, who actually thought they would get away with pissing off a civilization exponentially larger and more well armed than they were. Have you read Surface Detail yet?
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Oct 12, 2013 19:45
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gender illusionist posted:Have you read Surface Detail yet? Haha, I forgot about the GFCF. They're even better.
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Oct 12, 2013 20:01
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Red Crown posted:Haha, I forgot about the GFCF. They're even better. Heh, I was thinking about Falling Outside the Normal Moral Constraints
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Oct 12, 2013 20:04
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http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000677541 The Kindle daily deal is The Quarry. I'm happy and sad (but mostly sad)
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Oct 14, 2013 08:35
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fookolt posted:http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000677541 Thank you for posting this. One of the reviews accused this book of being "a blatant cash grab." What the hell.
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Oct 14, 2013 22:06
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I just got done with Stonemouth. I don't think it's one of Iain's most memorable books, though it's still a very good read. It didn't have the fascinating grimness mixed with hope that made The Wasp Factory and Complicity so great, and The Steep Approach to Garbadale did the family politics thing much better. Ellie felt a bit flat as a character too, but the Murston brothers were excellent small town scottish gangsters.
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Oct 15, 2013 10:20
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Anyone else think there's an outside chance that The Algebraist and Feersum Enjinn occur in the same universe? There's a hint or two in FE that there's a wormhole in the castle somewhere.
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Oct 20, 2013 18:30
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Shelvocke posted:Anyone else think there's an outside chance that The Algebraist and Feersum Enjinn occur in the same universe? That pretty much rules it out, doesn't it, since Algebraist wormholes could only be in "flat space", like at the center of a planet, right?
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Oct 20, 2013 22:44
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ZekeNY posted:That pretty much rules it out, doesn't it, since Algebraist wormholes could only be in "flat space", like at the center of a planet, right? Perhaps the humans that remained on Earth don't know that, they just know that wormholes exist. Plus the crypt is full of super-intelligent AI, I'm sure one of them figured it out. There's also the similarity in how the rHumans left to join the galactic community, but the status of Earth is left unmentioned.
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Oct 21, 2013 15:03
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Well, finished The Algebraist. Pretty disappointing, all things considered. Flabby as hell, and didn't manage to inspire in me any emotional connection to any of the characters. Pretty anti-climactic. It's a shame, because the Dwellers are fantastic, and there were lots of individual scenes that I quite liked, but overall I just found it really aimless, cold, and indulgent. I've since started re-reading The Wasp Factory for the first time in ten years, and am struck by how immediately engaging it is by comparison. I'm only at chapter 2 but I am already hooked.
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Oct 22, 2013 00:31
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So this website makes space ships based on names MEATFUCKER: http://ship.shapewright.com/?name=MEATFUCKER Ethics Gradient is very asymmetrical: http://ship.shapewright.com/?name=Ethics+Gradient Clear Air Turbulence: http://ship.shapewright.com/?name=Clear+Air+Turbulence Cargo Cult is built like a bulldog: http://ship.shapewright.com/?name=Cargo+Cult Gunboat Diplomat has a really cool design: http://ship.shapewright.com/?name=Gunboat+Diplomat Kiss the Blade (Affront) is loving badass: http://ship.shapewright.com/?name=Kiss+the+Blade And we can't forget... http://ship.shapewright.com/?name=M...Oceans+Of+Wrath edit: Obliterating Angel is too cool to not post: http://ship.shapewright.com/?name=Obliterating+Angel Lasting Damage is kinda neat too. Turpitude fucked around with this message at 19:06 on Nov 3, 2013 |
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Nov 3, 2013 18:40
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It's a shame they don't look a thing like the actual ships. I'd post a couple of OUs, but they'd be kinda 
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Nov 5, 2013 01:09
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I don't know why, but I usually picture Culture ships as something like the Mon Calamari ships from Star Wars, sort of oblong lumps on lumps on lumps.
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Nov 5, 2013 02:03
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Toast Museum posted:I don't know why, but I usually picture Culture ships as something like the Mon Calamari ships from Star Wars, sort of oblong lumps on lumps on lumps. Culture ships are spheres of forcefield. But inside they can't be too lumpy or you wouldn't be able to fit a nice set of forests and oceans and small mountain ranges on them.
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Nov 5, 2013 03:42
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MikeJF posted:Culture ships are spheres of forcefield. Having an apartment with a veranda off the side of a GSV would be pretty awesome.
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Nov 5, 2013 06:08
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MikeJF posted:Culture ships are spheres of forcefield. I seem to recall the outer fields being more ovoid in shape in most descriptions. It's all a bit vague. The Experiencing a Significant Gravitas Shortfall is described as being a big rectangular slab blotting out a good portion of the sky when it's hanging about Masaq orbital in Look To Windward. But it might have had its fields off as it was in-atmosphere.
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Nov 5, 2013 06:39
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MikeJF posted:Culture ships are spheres of forcefield. Under the fields, I mean, and more the relatively small ships like Contact or Offensive Units. GSVs I see more as kind of long blocky slabs with terrain on top.
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Nov 5, 2013 07:38
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Toast Museum posted:Under the fields, I mean, and more the relatively small ships like Contact or Offensive Units. GSVs I see more as kind of long blocky slabs with terrain on top. When you have artificial gravity, you can have both sides of a slab be the top.
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Nov 5, 2013 08:14
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Toast Museum posted:Under the fields, I mean, and more the relatively small ships like Contact or Offensive Units. GSVs I see more as kind of long blocky slabs with terrain on top. Thanks to Excession we know exactly what an Offensive Unit looks like. 
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Nov 5, 2013 08:25
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Properly armed it can gently caress entire star systems 
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Nov 5, 2013 14:38
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More butt-pluggy than anything else, but I did make this a few months ago:
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Nov 5, 2013 17:44
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It doesn't make for pretty visuals, but I'm pretty sure that at that level of technology, reaction drives are a thing of the distant past. Whatever exotic means of propulsion are moving these ships through space it problem doesn't leave a trail that's visible in fewer than 5 or so dimensions.
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Nov 5, 2013 19:19
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Oh I know. And actually in the books (Excession in particular) the main drives are described as reacting against the E-Grid of whatever hyperspace they're in at the time, making a wake like a boat (the grid itself is like a golden ocean of sparkling energy). This is further reinforced by the idea of a "crash stop" which distorts the E-Grid so badly it can be detected halfway across the galaxy. There's also some maximum acceleration that the E-Grid can handle imparting to a ship, so accelerating ships skip back and forth between the hyperspaces (through real space!) to let the respective E-Grids recover or smooth back out. And of course the ships aren't in regular 3D real space when they're traveling anyway, so the backdrop is inaccurate too. I think a fully realized vision of Culture ships in flight would have to be animated. There's just too much going on to show in one 2D image.
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Nov 5, 2013 23:44
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Prolonged Priapism posted:Oh I know. And actually in the books (Excession in particular) the main drives are described as reacting against the E-Grid of whatever hyperspace they're in at the time, making a wake like a boat (the grid itself is like a golden ocean of sparkling energy). This is further reinforced by the idea of a "crash stop" which distorts the E-Grid so badly it can be detected halfway across the galaxy. There's also some maximum acceleration that the E-Grid can handle imparting to a ship, so accelerating ships skip back and forth between the hyperspaces (through real space!) to let the respective E-Grids recover or smooth back out. I think even an animated adaptation would have to really compromise a lot on the physics and stuff in order to make the show watchable. After all, Minds think and talk to each other at a speed we simply can't comprehend. Given all that, I would still watch the ever-loving poo poo out of an adaptation of Excession or Look to Windward.
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Nov 5, 2013 23:50
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