|
Ok, it's been a while. First off, Neil should be "Neal". (Cause that's his loving name.) Second, it should be "furniture", not loving "furnature." Seriously, it's shameful as gently caress. My thread title suggestion is "Neal Stephenson: Orbital Mechanics 101 and Tekla Porn." Anyone?
|
#
?
Jul 25, 2015 06:35
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 3, 2024 15:57 |
|
|
thetechnoloser posted:My thread title suggestion is "Neal Stephenson: Orbital Mechanics 101 and Tekla Porn." Anyone?  Hey OP, send a message to a mod!
|
|
#
?
Jul 25, 2015 18:38
|
|
|
That was 2/3 of a really great book and 1/3 of a pretty bad one. Also I hated JBF even more than I was supposed to because I thought she shot and killed her useless tech sycophant on her shuttle up, then blamed it on a bollide. It wasn't until MUCH later that I realized he magically got hit by one and then she just took his gun.
|
|
#
?
Aug 3, 2015 16:43
|
|
|
I've been paused right at the beginning of the last third for a week, and I'm not sure I want to go through him ramping up a ~~strange culture~~ right now. Hrm.
|
|
#
?
Aug 3, 2015 20:30
|
|
|
I just finished this book and for the most part I like it. I guess I'm still digesting some parts of it, but I had a few minor gripes while reading. 1. When they finally reach the moon it seemed like Julia kind of realized what a shitbird she had been, so I assumed that she would try to teach her offspring not to make the same mistakes. Instead, 5000 years later it seems like instead she genetically engineered her kids to be the same brand of manipulative rear end in a top hat that she was. Is Stevenson making a nature/nurture argument here? At least Aida stated outright that she was going to just gently caress with everybody's plans. 2. The pingers seem waaaaaay more mutated than the spacers. I thought this was a weird choice to make since the spacers were actively engineering their genes while the pingers presumably could only use selective breeding. They did mention that there was potentially a similar program to survive in the sea, but we were kind of led to believe that all the most capable folks were ferried up to space. I really like the setting and the different factions that evolved, even if I don't really care for the way they came about. I kind of wish he would write a series about how the diggers, pingers, spacers move forward or how the diggers and pingers even survived in the first place. I feel like Seveneves would have worked better as a series of short stories filling in backstory for a larger series. But that's not really Stevenson's style and maybe kind of a dumb thing to want since Seveneves has already been written.
|
|
#
?
Aug 3, 2015 21:01
|
|
|
Der Luftwaffle posted:She has to make the first nuclear strike in history, Well, third.
|
|
#
?
Aug 9, 2015 22:48
|
|
|
Inspector 34 posted:I feel like Seveneves would have worked better as a series of short stories filling in backstory for a larger series. I've had this thought about quite a few different novels. I liked the way Asimov's stories about robots all linked together, but I can't think of a more recent example.
|
|
#
?
Aug 10, 2015 03:49
|
|
|
AlphaDog posted:I've had this thought about quite a few different novels. When it's done, Mistborn will kind of be like this. You have separate trilogies and stand alone stories set at different points in time in the same world.
|
|
#
?
Aug 10, 2015 05:31
|
|
|
I finished Seveneves today after getting stuck in the final third. Unlike most people though I preferred the last third to the first two. I found the characters throughout the book were ridiculously one dimensional. I can accept that in the final third after the time shift, because society has changed so dramatically that it is not so jarring. But in the present day context at the start of the book it is just ridiculous. In particular the Cruella DaVille nasties which drive the emotional and political story are hopeless. But even more than that it was the way that society coped with its impending doom on earth that struck me as false. It was all so ordered and fatalistic. There was a little bit of chaos in the end but overall it seemed completely unbelievable. I think everything would have collapsed much more quickly but I suspect that wasn't an option because it didn't allow the space plot to advance. At that point I couldn't see the book as anything more than a device for the author to crap on about a few pet subjects he is keen on. I liked Neal Stephehson in the past (especially the Boroque Cycle) but his last few books have left me cold. I think this is better than Reamde but that is saying very little. If you want to read a good apocalyptic novel, get The Road. If you want to read about future societies, go to the space opera thread. And if you want to read about cool space technologies, there is a great space thread in science and academics. Any of these would be way better than Seveneves sadly.
|
|
#
?
Aug 10, 2015 13:00
|
|
|
Definitely about the one-dimensional characters and lack of "Earth going nuts". Whatever problems you have with REAMDE, at least it had some pretty good characters.
|
|
#
?
Aug 12, 2015 18:10
|
|
|
precision posted:Definitely I don't know about the "Earth going nuts" thing -- we can all picture pretty vividly how the world would behave if it were given two years to live, and I'm not sure anyone could do it justice in a novel. I think maybe Stephenson made the right decision to leave that to the reader's imagination. Kind of like the horror-movie trope of letting the viewer scare themselves. But yeah, the characters are a bit flat.
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2015 00:31
|
|
|
It would have been less cringeworthy if the character had just straight up been named "Neil DeGrasse Tyson".
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2015 03:40
|
|
|
mdemone posted:I don't know about the "Earth going nuts" thing -- we can all picture pretty vividly how the world would behave if it were given two years to live, and I'm not sure anyone could do it justice in a novel. I think maybe Stephenson made the right decision to leave that to the reader's imagination. Kind of like the horror-movie trope of letting the viewer scare themselves. The most unbelievable thing in the whole scenario of the book is that civilization didn't collapse days after the announcement that the world would end. But it was needed for the tale to be told so he swept the matter under the rug a bit.
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2015 13:34
|
|
|
precision posted:It would have been less cringeworthy if the character had just straight up been named "Neil DeGrasse Tyson". Only he's actually named Neal DeGrasse Tyson, and nerds sperg out whenever they see his name misspelled.
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2015 17:21
|
|
|
Relaxodon posted:The most unbelievable thing in the whole scenario of the book is that civilization didn't collapse days after the announcement that the world would end. But it was needed for the tale to be told so he swept the matter under the rug a bit.
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2015 19:07
|
|
|
I'm wondering if Stephenson is trying to say anything intentionally about nature vs nurture in the last third of the book. On the one hand, he's got the whole epigenetics thing where the geneticists aren't interested in replacing specific species but are more interested in releasing species-types that will adapt to their environments (like the canides that can be dog, coyote, or wolf-like as necessary). This is a pretty strong nurture argument. But on the other hand he has a lot of racial stereotypes that seem to actually be true of the races, as if there is just something intrinsic about being a member of one of the races that makes the individuals behave in such a way. Two races were likely to form platonic physical relationships that might eventually turn sexual with each other (and if this is true, why wasn't there a prevalent mix race of the two?). Another race simply couldn't be trusted. And at this point in the story, the environment of space isn't one isolated area. Space is a varied paradise compared to the more barren places on Earth.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2015 07:22
|
|
|
Well Neal made a choice to have all the various groups embrace their genetic and behavioral stereotypes, which I thought was kind of interesting. Most of the time people fight against those kinds of classifications in an attempt to be seen as an individual, but in Seveneves they're just like "Well, I'm from the class of dicks better be the biggest dick I can be!" Or "My people are known for being passive and helpful, better not behave too aggressively!" I didn't like that choice since it was another case if tell instead of show. I would have liked it better if he would have just had the characters do their thing without constantly reminding us they were a Julian or Aidan. Would have been more rewarding to read and make those connections on our own.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2015 22:35
|
|
|
Thanks for the thread title change!!!
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2015 12:47
|
|
|
Still bothered by the Mars colony loose thread.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2015 19:38
|
|
|
Dr. Benway posted:Still bothered by the Mars colony loose thread. Since that was obviously intentional, I'm pretty sure we are meant to conclude that they died badly, because c'mon, there's no fuckin' way.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2015 19:58
|
|
|
mdemone posted:Since that was obviously intentional, I'm pretty sure we are meant to conclude that they died badly, because c'mon, there's no fuckin' way.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2015 01:11
|
|
|
mdemone posted:Since that was obviously intentional, I'm pretty sure we are meant to conclude that they died badly, because c'mon, there's no fuckin' way. That's what I'm going with too. Just that it's never mentioned again is weird.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2015 01:25
|
|
|
So Seveneves was 20.99 in Oz on release ( ebook). Surprisingly, plenty of people bought it at that price... Crazy, crazy ebook buyers.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2015 09:54
|
|
|
Dr. Benway posted:That's what I'm going with too. Just that it's never mentioned again is weird. If I were a betting man, I'd say that Neal wrote a bit of their perspective and wrapped up the plotline, and then had it edited out. Hard to make that just a throwaway reference somewhere else in the book, since the rest is all from the Ring's perspective and they have no more information than the reader does.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2015 15:38
|
|
|
mdemone posted:since the rest is all from the Ring's perspective and they have no more information than the reader does. Well -- I'd think they'd be able to see any structures sprouting up on the surface of Mars pretty easily and radio contact would be trivial. The people on Earth have the excuse of being under miles of ocean / rock.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2015 19:07
|
|
|
If they have the ability to terraform the earth and build the ring, they could travel to Mars if they wanted. In four thousand years I'm sure an expedition was proposed, or a probe was sent, or something. The people in the ring wouldn't have forgotten that part of the epic and if they don't mention it, then nothing came of it but some dead arkers. I don't see it as a loose end at all. The pingers at least left hints that they were up to something before the final dive. The Mars expedition was just some kids being used as a political tool.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2015 02:25
|
|
|
thehomemaster posted:So Seveneves was 20.99 in Oz on release ( ebook). It's expensive for an ebook. But for most people it's still a trivial amount of money. I paid a similar amount because I am not a pauper and wanted to read book it now, in this format. The idea that spending twenty bucks on anything could be considered crazy is kind of crazy in itself.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2015 17:11
|
|
|
Hey man, trust me, I am not complaining. Though 20 bucks for a coffee would be pushing it.
|
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2015 00:10
|
|
|
You could always invest that money in cowrie shells.
|
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2015 19:33
|
|
|
I just finished Seveneves, it is only the third Stephenson novel I have read, I did not like Diamond Age, but Anathem was very good, despite the middle being hard to get through. I really liked Seveneves, but the middle chapter was definitely the worst, it had none of the tension or urgency of the first chapter, and it could easily have been half the length, that would also make the last chapter better, and actually explain the new world fully. Regarding the Mars expedition, one of the reasons the main characters are against it, is something about how a single solar flare would doom it. And during the last part of the chapter, we hear that there have been several large flares since then, so I just assumed they didn't make it to Mars. Though it would have been nice to know for sure.
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2015 07:44
|
|
|
Oasx posted:I just finished Seveneves, it is only the third Stephenson novel I have read, I did not like Diamond Age, but Anathem was very good, despite the middle being hard to get through. following the theme of the book , you know drat well they survived and formed Marsers
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2015 08:03
|
|
|
Heads up aussie folks, Seveneves will be 12.99 from next week.
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2015 12:53
|
|
|
I kind of like that it doesn't have a 100% definitive answer. The book is bleak enough that you can assume the worst, but there were other methods of surviving than just those on Cleft, so why the heck not I guess? But the major difference is that the other projects were all fairly well organized and supplied and planned over the two years before the Hard Rain whereas the Mars mission was a knee jerk reaction. There's room for a sequel, for the reader to use their own imagination, or to just ignore it completely.
|
|
#
?
Aug 29, 2015 13:14
|
|
|
I just started Snow Crash and didn't realize until chapter 4 that I am supposed to take this poo poo literally. Seriously I thought he was some kid fantasizing while delivering pizzas.
gohmak fucked around with this message at 03:46 on Sep 3, 2015 |
|
#
?
Sep 3, 2015 03:42
|
|
|
Snow Crash is great because it's pure, uncut, distilled 14 year old's day dreams and then all of a sudden it just takes a HARD left into Sumerian culture. Also remember that it was written in 1992, so the fact that it predicts things like Second Life and Google Maps is actually really crazy as opposed to just "hey check it out, I'm hip with the technologies".
|
|
#
?
Sep 3, 2015 18:39
|
|
|
Neal straight up said he consumed a lot of marijuana and heavy metal while writing Snow Crash and it really shows. It's a pulpy violent comic book in novel form and it works really well for the most part.
|
|
#
?
Sep 4, 2015 16:21
|
|
|
Sade posted:Neal straight up said he consumed a lot of marijuana and heavy metal while writing Snow Crash and it really shows. It's a pulpy violent comic book in novel form and it works really well for the most part. It was originally conceived of as a pulpy comic rendered in 3D, iirc.
|
|
#
?
Sep 4, 2015 17:12
|
|
|
Coca Koala posted:Snow Crash is great because it's pure, uncut, distilled 14 year old's day dreams and then all of a sudden it just takes a HARD left into Sumerian culture. Yeah, I mean, I read it back then and thought it was the greatest novel of all time. I still think it's pretty much alright but there is a lot of just bad writing that should not have gotten past an editor. It makes Vurt look like high art.
|
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2015 01:52
|
|
|
Read Seven Eve's, Snow Crash, started Diamond Age. This guy is a racist. I'm out.
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2015 04:33
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 3, 2024 15:57 |
|
|
gohmak posted:Read Seven Eve's, Snow Crash, started Diamond Age. This guy is a racist. I'm out. A compelling argument, but consider this - perhaps it is YOU who is the real racist!
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2015 05:37
|
|
