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The word has historical provenance and its usage is at least vaguely referable to the original meaning. While it has been driven into the ground, I find it much better than other neologism abominations birthed from the foetid spawning pool of the internet.
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Dec 25, 2016 01:47
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Douglas Adams: cucking people from beyond the grave.
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Dec 25, 2016 02:45
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It's actually entirely appropriate to discuss science fiction using internet memes, as they're on similar intellectual levels.
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Dec 25, 2016 03:11
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A human heart posted:It's actually entirely appropriate to discuss science fiction using internet memes, as they're on similar intellectual levels. Agreed 
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Dec 25, 2016 06:49
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Historically, Chinese novels have generally ended poorly for main characters. There's a slight undercurrent that anyone who rejects the Correct Social Order, which is how you end up with an interesting novel, eventually suffers for it, even if they briefly enjoy success. (Though I'm mostly thinking of wuxia / military / statecraft stuff I guess.) Luo Ji definitely plays around with that concept - he wields enormous power and influence in the previous book but one of the first things you learn about him is that his wife left him again pretty quickly after the end of book 2, and his children disowned him as a world-killer; he's never rewarded or truly respected - beyond swift messiah rebounds - until his very last appearance, by which point he is finally as irrelevant as he always wanted to be. More realistically, the answer is that Cheng Xin was more of a tool for observation of the setting than a character in the modern sense. She's there to keep the reader slightly grounded as the author explores concepts. Yun Tianming and Cheng Xin's relationship potential was never explored - they never actually met after she realised the sincerity and depth of his original feelings for her, they ended up having very different lives, and her own feelings on the matter were never mentioned, despite prodding from AA Ai. She did want to see him again, but that's about all we learn. That said, there's no real reason for Yun Tianming to have not just popped into the pocket dimension in front of Cheng Xin given the vastly different rates of subjective time inside and out... unless it took entirely too long to develop that technology. Which it might have - at that point they're subjectively hundreds of years apart. Though he seemed to have a happy ending with AA Ai, whilst Cheng Xin seems very close to her own co-passenger. And yes, happiness matters not to the universe but we know nothing other than the world they go to is 3/10 for Sol Human habitability; at that point the story is over so it could still be happily ever after, even having Tianming Prime waiting for them in cold sleep if you think that's possible.
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Dec 25, 2016 11:51
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anilEhilated posted:How about Too Like Lightning? The protagonist is gay and the thing is chock-full of gender politics talk. Great read although I'm not sure about strong female leads. I'm not sure "gay" is quite the right term for Mycroft. There is also a fairly strong female leading-ish character in Thisbe. Maybe not leading enough.
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Dec 26, 2016 02:10
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anilEhilated posted:Well, yeah, the problem is it's offset by Sabetha who is about as unlikeable as they come. I didn't find her as grating in the flashbacks because being petulant and unlikeable is something many teen girls actually do, when its coming from the I assume ~ 30ish year old Sabetha in the main plot its alot worse.
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Dec 26, 2016 04:17
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I like Sabetha. 
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Dec 26, 2016 04:35
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neongrey posted:I like Sabetha. So do I, and most everyone I know who's read the book.
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Dec 26, 2016 07:56
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EVGA Longoria posted:So do I, and most everyone I know who's read the book. Two and a half books of build-up through the eyes of a protagonist who worships her is going to gloss over a lot for flaws.
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Dec 26, 2016 12:05
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GreyjoyBastard posted:I'm not sure "gay" is quite the right term for Mycroft. I'm not sure gay means anything that book anyway. I also can't remember if mycroft's physical sex is stated, the only two I remember specifically are Carlyle and dominic being physically male and female respectively
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Dec 26, 2016 15:41
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andrew smash posted:I also can't remember if mycroft's physical sex is stated, the only two I remember specifically are Carlyle and dominic being physically male and female respectively There's talk of "our rising sexes all but touching" when Mycroft and Saladin get hot and heavy, which seems to point to erections?
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Dec 26, 2016 17:18
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Fair enough it's been a while since I read it and with mycroft's deliberate obfuscations regarding everybody else's junk I may have just missed that
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Dec 26, 2016 17:42
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andrew smash posted:I'm not sure gay means anything that book anyway. I also can't remember if mycroft's physical sex is stated, the only two I remember specifically are Carlyle and dominic being physically male and female respectively Pretty sure you've got those two flipped.
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Dec 26, 2016 18:18
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I don't think so. Carlyle has a dick, somebody specifically comments on it at some point. And IIRC dominic gets called he because of his dress and swaggering, domineering persona but Mycroft hints heavily that dominic is biologically female.
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Dec 26, 2016 19:13
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Trip report for After Atlas: I loved Planetfall (a lot) but I was disappointed by this quasi-sequel. Great setup and world building that ends abruptly and unsatisfactorily. A really interesting conflict is engineered that just has the air let out of it with no real climax.
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Dec 26, 2016 19:21
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Mandatory Assembly posted:Trip report for After Atlas: I loved Planetfall (a lot) but I was disappointed by this quasi-sequel. Great setup and world building that ends abruptly and unsatisfactorily. A really interesting conflict is engineered that just has the air let out of it with no real climax.
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Dec 27, 2016 00:14
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andrew smash posted:I'm not sure gay means anything that book anyway. I also can't remember if mycroft's physical sex is stated, the only two I remember specifically are Carlyle and dominic being physically male and female respectively There are definitely elements of being attracted to gender-as- understood-at-the-time. If I had to flag Mycroft as anything, it would be either a bisexual who dislikes women, or a Saladinsexual. 
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Dec 27, 2016 01:01
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Ugh 'sociopath' really is the superhero power of hard sci fi isn't it.
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Dec 27, 2016 01:07
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GreyjoyBastard posted:There are definitely elements of being attracted to gender-as- understood-at-the-time. If I had to flag Mycroft as anything, it would be either a bisexual who dislikes women, or a Saladinsexual. Should have been more clear, I don't dispute that people have sexual preferences in the book (otherwise the bit about sniper keeping his/her sex an absolute secret to maintain desirability wouldn't make sense). It's just that mycroft's depictions of gender and sex are so convoluted it is almost impossible to tell which way anybody swings, if any.
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Dec 27, 2016 01:33
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andrew smash posted:Should have been more clear, I don't dispute that people have sexual preferences in the book (otherwise the bit about sniper keeping his/her sex an absolute secret to maintain desirability wouldn't make sense). It's just that mycroft's depictions of gender and sex are so convoluted it is almost impossible to tell which way anybody swings, if any. Oh yeah, totally agree. If anything the only ones we have a fairly solid idea of are Mycroft (because we are in his head) and maybe Dominic, punk-Victorian who as I recall takes the Victorian bit seriously enough that he only likes ladies.
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Dec 27, 2016 01:48
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He pretty well hammers in that Dominic has an innie, I am not sure how that much at least is in question. e: oh, the conversation moved on to orientation. Hell if I know on anybody, then. neongrey fucked around with this message at 02:12 on Dec 27, 2016 |
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Dec 27, 2016 01:57
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I didn't notice any particular predilection on Dominic's part aside from sadism. The Victorian thing probably applies to a few of the background characters they meet in the faux antique bordello though.
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Dec 27, 2016 02:51
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Finished fall of Hyperion and there's a plot hole(?) I don't understand. how do you reconcile moneta apparently being Rachel and apparently always on the side of humanity and Kassad with what happens at the end of Kassads story? Like Kassads whole motivation was his Hyperion encounter with moneta ending in her transforming into a shrike(?) and almost slicing his dick off and claiming he would spark a war to kill billions? What? Nothing else that character does seems to be consistent with what happened at the end of Kassads story, which was also his whole motivation. Otherwise enjoyed the two books quite a bit
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Dec 27, 2016 20:41
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So It Goes posted:Finished fall of Hyperion and there's a plot hole(?) I don't understand. I think it's just to get him to Hyperion, which is necessary.
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Dec 28, 2016 02:00
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Are the other Rifters books as good as Starfish? (Peter Watts)
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Dec 28, 2016 17:05
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Rough Lobster posted:Are the other Rifters books as good as Starfish? (Peter Watts) No not really. They go down in quality as they go on. The second is still pretty good and has some really cool parts in it but I didn't much care for the third. Edit - So, after bouncing off Neal Asher's Grilinked a couple times awhile back I decided to read his Spatterjay trilogy based on a recommendation a few pages back. I'm just about done Orbus and really liked all of them. I think I finally get what people were talking about when they say Asher can write some really in depth and alien ecosystems. Any recommendations on what to read next in the Polity universe? I was thinking maybe Prador Moon since they talk about the war quite a bit in The Spatterjay trilogy. Any thoughts? johnsonrod fucked around with this message at 17:17 on Dec 28, 2016 |
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Dec 28, 2016 17:10
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johnsonrod posted:No not really. They go down in quality as they go on. The second is still pretty good and has some really cool parts in it but I didn't much care for the third. Prador Moon is OK in that it's a stand-alone, non-essential prequel to the Polity universe. I read the books in internal chronological order and it's fun to catch some of the references to that book, but that's about it.
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Dec 28, 2016 17:43
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Finished the Magical Soviet Union trilogy by Peter Higgins and really loved that - is there any more good spy fantasy out there apart from the obviously brilliant Declare, Laundry and Ian Tregillis' magical-WW2 trilogy?
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Dec 28, 2016 21:33
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anilEhilated posted:Finished the Magical Soviet Union trilogy by Peter Higgins and really loved that - is there any more good spy fantasy out there apart from the obviously brilliant Declare, Laundry and Ian Tregillis' magical-WW2 trilogy? City of Stairs/Blades are alternate world spy fantasy.
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Dec 28, 2016 22:13
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anilEhilated posted:Finished the Magical Soviet Union trilogy by Peter Higgins and really loved that - is there any more good spy fantasy out there apart from the obviously brilliant Declare, Laundry and Ian Tregillis' magical-WW2 trilogy? Tregillis has the Alchemy Wars series that completed this month. That's very good.
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Dec 28, 2016 22:17
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Kalman posted:City of Stairs/Blades are alternate world spy fantasy. Seconding this. They are very good.
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Dec 28, 2016 22:20
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anilEhilated posted:Finished the Magical Soviet Union trilogy by Peter Higgins and really loved that - is there any more good spy fantasy out there apart from the obviously brilliant Declare, Laundry and Ian Tregillis' magical-WW2 trilogy? Have you read Stross's Merchant Princes/Family Trade series? They get into that and go strongly in that direction, with a new trilogy kicking off in January.
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Dec 28, 2016 22:21
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Grimson posted:I think it's just to get him to Hyperion, which is necessary. I legitimately don't understand how that explains what happened at the end of Kassad's story as compared to everything else we know about Moneta.
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Dec 29, 2016 00:35
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Kesper North posted:Seconding this. They are very good. Third one of these comes out in April. I hope Beckett does something different with it, City of Blades felt like nothing more than a rehash of the first.
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Dec 29, 2016 02:45
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So It Goes posted:I legitimately don't understand how that explains what happened at the end of Kassad's story as compared to everything else we know about Moneta.
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Dec 29, 2016 09:02
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Are the following two books any good: (1) Ken MacLeod's Corporation Wars. It deals with some of the sci fi things I'm interested in - war on an interstellar scale where FTL isn't possible, AI, digital physics. (2) Stephen Baxter's Massacre of Mankind, i.e. the War of the Worlds sequel. Baxter's kind of bad at novels in my experience so I'm leery.
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Dec 29, 2016 13:29
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Neurosis posted:Are the following two books any good: On a related note I just read his older book The Restoration Game, and thought it was pretty good as well!
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Dec 29, 2016 19:16
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neongrey posted:He pretty well hammers in that Dominic has an innie, I am not sure how that much at least is in question. I'm still uncertain to what extent the gender stuff is how the world currently works, and to what extent it's Mycroft being a big weirdo.
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Dec 29, 2016 23:23
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Neurosis posted:Are the following two books any good: Woah, new Ken MacLeod. Didn't even know he was working on a new series.
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Dec 31, 2016 07:46
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