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A human heart posted:Analysing genre fiction and pop culture stuff is all the rage in academia these days and it doesn't really mean anything in terms of the value of the work being analysed My Immortal is now being analysed down to Honours thesis level ...
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Dec 23, 2016 15:04
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A human heart posted:Analysing genre fiction and pop culture stuff is all the rage in academia these days and it doesn't really mean anything in terms of the value of the work being analysed Banks is actually good though so he deserves some critical reading. Hopefully whoever's doing work on him doesn't arbitrarily segregate his SF from his (really good) modernist lit. I still think The Bridge might be his best non-M book and it's a really interesting hybrid of his M-book playfulness and his lit side.
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Dec 23, 2016 21:11
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General Battuta posted:Banks is actually good though so he deserves some critical reading. Hopefully whoever's doing work on him doesn't arbitrarily segregate his SF from his (really good) modernist lit. he's bad
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Dec 24, 2016 00:02
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A human heart posted:he's bad Mods???
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Dec 24, 2016 00:49
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Banks is good. I'm a sucker for scifi, so I'm not really a reliable judge on that, but his M-less books are also really good. So far, Complicity is my favourite.
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Dec 24, 2016 02:04
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A human heart posted:he's bad You're a worthless fucker who seems to spend all your time trying to poo poo on things here. Get bent.
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Dec 24, 2016 02:50
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a kitten posted:You're a worthless fucker who seems to spend all your time trying to poo poo on things here. Get bent. noooo lets talk about whats good about banks cause who care about whoever threadshitter It being my favorite, can we talk about Complicity a little? I love how the alternate chapters are in the second person. "You are doing ..." etc. It works excellently, especially in the context of the story and who reads it.
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Dec 24, 2016 02:56
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a kitten posted:You're a worthless fucker who seems to spend all your time trying to poo poo on things here. Get bent. I'm smart and cool
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Dec 24, 2016 08:23
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a kitten posted:You're a worthless fucker who seems to spend all your time trying to poo poo on things here. Get bent. Actually there's nothing odd or unusual about calling a sci-fi series bad.
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Dec 24, 2016 15:56
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A human heart posted:he's bad You are.
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Dec 24, 2016 16:32
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I really hate poorly written Sci Fi and fantasy. Banks is good.
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Dec 24, 2016 18:47
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Grimson posted:You are. Thank you for letting me know
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Dec 24, 2016 23:23
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BravestOfTheLamps posted:Actually there's nothing odd or unusual about calling a sci-fi series bad.
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Dec 25, 2016 00:42
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Do not engage BotL
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Dec 25, 2016 02:13
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stephenfry posted:much the same phenomenon as calling text generally bad, no? watch sports, lol dickless losers Actually there's a lot of text that is good
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Dec 25, 2016 02:57
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A human heart posted:Actually there's a lot of text that is good Print is dead.
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Dec 25, 2016 05:08
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Lemniscate Blue posted:Print is dead. the artform formerly known as print
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Dec 25, 2016 05:24
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LeftistMuslimObama posted:the artform formerly known as print GSV
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Dec 25, 2016 05:36
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I think it would be a very fast picket actually.
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Dec 25, 2016 05:55
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I just finished Matter which I really liked for the most part, but the ending felt a little unsatisfying. What were the Oct up to? We found out they were trying to secretly move their fleet but then they just get completely owned by the higher tier civilizations and made irrelevant at the end. Were they some kind of theocratic society? They seemed interesting but we don't wind up finding out much about their motives
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Jan 21, 2017 09:59
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MrWilderheap posted:I just finished Matter which I really liked for the most part, but the ending felt a little unsatisfying. What were the Oct up to? We found out they were trying to secretly move their fleet but then they just get completely owned by the higher tier civilizations and made irrelevant at the end. Were they some kind of theocratic society? They seemed interesting but we don't wind up finding out much about their motives It's been a while since I read it but I think the core of it was that the Oct wanted to graduate to being Involved
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Jan 21, 2017 10:07
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Yeah, the Oct were hoping that the 'Inheritor' they found would grant them dominance over the Shellworld and power of a higher tier.
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Jan 22, 2017 04:13
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I'm about half way through a re-read of Against A Dark Background and I think this has to be one of the slowest evolving Banks stories. It just isn't going anywhere. I kind of remember not really liking it that much from the first time I read it but couldn't remember why.
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Jan 22, 2017 19:30
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MrWilderheap posted:I just finished Matter which I really liked for the most part, but the ending felt a little unsatisfying. What were the Oct up to? We found out they were trying to secretly move their fleet but then they just get completely owned by the higher tier civilizations and made irrelevant at the end. Were they some kind of theocratic society? They seemed interesting but we don't wind up finding out much about their motives It seemed to me like the Oct had drunk their own kool-aid about being the inheritors of the shell worlds, so were genuinely acting on the belief that when one of the original beings who built the shell-worlds woke up it would confirm everything they believed. The ships were being brought in because it was such a potentially important moment that they wanted something on hand in case of interference. They were just idiots, being suckered in by the lies of the creature. You can read it slightly more charitably and say that they had suspicions about the creature lying, and wanted to have ships on hand just in case. Either way they were also unwilling to tell their mentor civ for fear of a potentially amazing opportunity being taken from them.
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Jan 23, 2017 16:54
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Matter works a lot better on a re-read. I didn't get as confused by the ending happening very suddenly and just clowning pretty much all of the main characters since they're just insignificant sacks of meat.. Instead I could see the thematic importance of it throughout the story.
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Jan 23, 2017 20:30
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They - like everyone else in the story - wanted to Matter.
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Jan 24, 2017 02:36
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MrWilderheap posted:I just finished Matter which I really liked for the most part, but the ending felt a little unsatisfying. What were the Oct up to? We found out they were trying to secretly move their fleet but then they just get completely owned by the higher tier civilizations and made irrelevant at the end. Were they some kind of theocratic society? They seemed interesting but we don't wind up finding out much about their motives So almost like they didn't matter?
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Jan 24, 2017 04:20
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I've struggled a lot to find other Sci fi writers that are on par with Banks, and it's a tall loving order. I thought Ancillary Justice was crap (seriously, the writing isn't very good). The closest I have come is Dan Simmons. Hyperion is great and I highly recommend it.
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Jan 24, 2017 08:07
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Hannu Rajaniemi has some of the same sense of joy and scale, although he's a bit more cynical and, uh, precious? He's got all these very particular flourishes about chocolatiers and Paris and so forth that kind of rubbed me the wrong way — although they also worked really well to ground the setting, so who knows. There's no one who can do Banks like Banks.
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Jan 24, 2017 08:23
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remigious posted:The closest I have come is Dan Simmons. Hyperion is great and I highly recommend it. Hyperion is great, but everything that comes after Hyperion is garbage.
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Jan 24, 2017 08:35
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Ken Mcleod's Fall Revolution stuff is pretty fun and you can tell he was clearly having sozzled ideas sessions with Banks.
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Jan 24, 2017 09:26
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Hyperion is meh and everything that comes after is pure trash.
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Jan 24, 2017 12:09
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remigious posted:I've struggled a lot to find other Sci fi writers that are on par with Banks, and it's a tall loving order. As far as I can tell, it's impossible. There's a reason I have re-read Banks so much (the same reason I re-read William Gibson constantly.)
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Jan 24, 2017 17:42
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Inspector_666 posted:As far as I can tell, it's impossible. I agree. I just finished Fall of Hyperion, and it went off the rails in a hurry (well, after a bunch of tedious bureaucracy stuff). I decided to go back and read Consider Phlebas again. Banks is my happy place. remigious fucked around with this message at 19:07 on Jan 24, 2017 |
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Jan 24, 2017 18:14
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Inspector_666 posted:As far as I can tell, it's impossible. This is a problem I have with most sci-fi / fantasy writers. Even if the story is good, the actual writing is so bad I just can't make it through.
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Jan 24, 2017 18:29
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Inspector_666 posted:As far as I can tell, it's impossible. Gibson is an awful writer my man
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Jan 25, 2017 00:21
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Sci-fi writer bad? Tell me it ain't so.
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Jan 25, 2017 00:29
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BravestOfTheLamps posted:Sci-fi writer bad? Tell me it ain't so. For someone who seemingly hates genre fiction you sure post in an awful lot of threads about it
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Jan 25, 2017 00:33
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remigious posted:I've struggled a lot to find other Sci fi writers that are on par with Banks, and it's a tall loving order. Alastair Reynolds has some of the scope and epic-ness and the analysis/deconstruction of social systems of Banks, but completely lacks the playfulness that Banks has.
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Jan 25, 2017 01:14
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A human heart posted:Gibson is an awful writer my man Gibson's prose can be amazing. His characters are always the weakest link, but he's not awful. Pattern Recognition is a great book.
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Jan 25, 2017 02:18
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