One thing that always struck me as weird (admittedly, it's not just this book that does that) is the one planetary government thing. It'd bring a whole new set of problems and SF writers just shrug it off.
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# ? Oct 14, 2017 12:23 |
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# ? Jun 3, 2024 22:50 |
anilEhilated posted:One thing that always struck me as weird (admittedly, it's not just this book that does that) is the one planetary government thing. It'd bring a whole new set of problems and SF writers just shrug it off. It should have been lovely to form, too. Apparently the Furlites were a bunch of warring tribes that eventually signed peace treaties, and the shock of a single dictator was enough to convince them to mix the races and thus create everlasting peace. It comes off as racist in a really weird way: different races will never get along unless they mix into a generic shade of brown and everyone is alike.
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# ? Oct 15, 2017 16:15 |
quote:Geupetus ushered the family from the house to the shuttleport. He paused before entering the hangar, and stole a quick last look at the home he loved. He turned, and strode to the family shuttle. In complete silence, everyone climbed into the big family shuttlecraft. Geupetus slid into the driver’s seat and started the vehicle, guiding the large craft onto the road. The late afternoon sun slanted long red-gold beams through the trees, bathing the snowy road and forest in a lacy pattern of fire. I put 2 years into someone and planned out an entire future around her and I'm nowhere near as much of a wreck as she is! Nethunia, sitting in the front passenger seat, is still doing that thing where she struggles against her maternal instincts but steels herself and doesn't actually do anything. She also blinks back tears. quote:As the city drew closer, Elara’s talons clicked faster. She heard little of the conversations that swirled around her, dimly aware of each individual voice. She thought only of Tesuris. Why had he stopped contacting her? Could he have suffered some sort of trauma and forgotten her? What did he look like now? Most important, would he, too, find her sexually unattractive? Her lack of interest in sex troubled her deeply. She worried about the possibility of his rejection of her sexually. Her talons drummed harder. Okay the whole sex addiction with this species is kinda making me uncomfortable now. As Ara tries to calm Elara down, the shuttle pulls off on a side road before reaching the city toward the University of Cosmic Sciences. The tall gates stand out across the prairie, and she can't decide whether she's excited or worried or stressed about her ex. quote:Nethunia wondered what Elara thought of seeing Tesuris again, recalling the first meeting between the two. When Elara turned five days old, Telluris and Rania visited her, as they often did back then, bringing three-year-old Tesuris with them. The boy took to the baby immediately. He cuddled her, brushed her, and played with her with tenderness rare in children that age. Nine-year-old Ara tried to explain to Tesuris that Elara was not his new toy, but another Furlite. He stared at her, and, with a glare, stated, “No. She mine.” Ara had virtually no patience, and, in exasperation, gave up trying to talk to the boy. That memory amused Nethunia to this day. I have some concerns about the author of her Maine Coon aliens have such an interest in sex that teenagers not wanting to bone all the time is a sign of worry, and being a virgin at 19 is cause for alarm that the entire family should look into. They're finally distracted by the first sight of the sleek, buttplug-like craft. Its base color is shiny gold, with markings in copper, black, and white. In other words, gaudy as all gently caress. Geupetus parks the family shuttle in the hangar reserved for Fleet personnel. They cross the main parking lot to the apartments for crew and students under the shine of Aroriel's three moons, a rare sight to see for a family that leaves in the forest. A young Furlite and friend of Ara, Satra, is running the front desk when they get in. She leads them to their apartment, 27, and everyone makes sure to put their palm on the door lock to ensure that it recognizes them. quote:“Elara?” Geupetus smiled at her as she placed her trembling hand on the pad. Yellow light slivered past her fingers before turning blue with a soft buzz. Elara exhaled relief, glad her hand triggered no alarms. Geupetus stepped into the quarters. Off the main room, three sleeping rooms bunked two each. A small bathing room finished the apartment layout. Everyone filed in, and, as Elara turned around, she gasped. Why thank you for all of that exposition, family. There was certainly no better way to express this information to us. Elara decides to bathe before dinner, digging out her combs and brushes before running to the bathing pool and diving in. Without any conditioner, she just shampoos her fur and repeatedly dives in and out of the pool and swims underwater to rinse. Has it been too long since Elara stressed about her ex? No? quote:“Oh, chafk,” she murmured to the empty room. “What if he wants no more to do with me? Did I anger him? I must have, because he severed contact so abruptly. One day, he talked cheerfully over the vidphone; then the next day, nothing, not a letter, nothing!” Elara’s voice caught in a sob as tears suddenly stung her eyes. “Could he have bonded? Chafk, I should be happy for him, but the thought kills me,” she mumbled. quote:Another snarl pulled at her scalp. Carefully, she untangled that, and settled down for the task of combing out the longer hair on her tail. The comb suddenly snagged on a nasty knot near the base of her tail. She tugged, pried, and yanked, gritting her teeth, but the tangle worsened. She poked, and pulled, but the matt responded by knotting up into a big dark-russet ball. Frustration erupted, and tumbled ferociously, combining with her anxieties over Tesuris. The emotion bloomed, mushrooming up from her guts, overwhelming her too fast for her to stop it. For one of the few times in her life, Elara lost control. With a scream of rage and grief, she flung her metal comb across the room. It skittered across the tiling to plop into the pool, landing on the first step. She broke into hysterical weeping, unable to stop it, and, somehow, not wanting to. The whole family hears Elara throwing a tantrum over a boy and Nethunia goes to see what's wrong. We also finally learn in a small aside exactly what happened with Tesuris that caused such a problem: quote:Geupetus’ thoughts flew back to the day his best friend, Telluris, gained his first Command, leaving the Sauri for a new ship. Telluris’ spouse had been injured on a previous mission. Grounded by the injury, she decided to take her children, Tesuris and Sathria, with her back to Tital, to stay with her Clan until she healed. "What did you do when you were 12? I played Grand Theft Auto at my friend's house and didn't tell my mom!" "I stole a car and tried to drive to the other side of the planet to see my crush." Geupetus, buddy, I don't think the problem with your daughter is that she's not getting laid. Nethunia goes to her daughter, who's back to hysterics in the bathroom, and asks her what's wrong. Unable to think of anything sensible, Elara says she has a knot in her tail that she needs help with. Nethunia finds some generic conditioner in the cabinets for her, but is pretty drat aware that her daughter isn't a wreck over a knot in her hair (though considering how unstable she is, I wouldn't be surprised at this point). Elara finally admits to her mother that she's suffering a psychotic breakdown over a childhood crush who's going to be serving on the ship with her. Nethunia says that she thinks Elara bonded to him, which is why she's so obsessed with him and lost her mind when he stopped talking to her. Elara is terrified that it was a single bond (where she bonds to him but he doesn't bond to her), but Nethunia waves this off as very rare. She figures there must be some other explanation for why he hasn't spoken to her. While Elara finishes washing up, Nethunia returns to the family to explain what happened. quote:“It seems Elara has been bonded to Tesuris all this time.” Along with being a wild theory, a literal infant bonding with a toddler is a level of creep that approaches "Jacob imprinting on Nessa" heights. Before they can talk much more, a robotic server rolls into the room to take dinner selections. It'll have to wait.
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# ? Oct 20, 2017 15:19 |
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They spent their whole childhood together, presumably past the one year old mark for the girl- so even if they didn't creepily bond at birth, they could have creepily bonded at toddlerhood, which is an apparently acceptable bonding age for the freaks. Why did no one figure this poo poo out when the girl had an emotional break down after the separation? If this was a thing that happens? They had years to figure this poo poo out. Goddamnit the only reason they figured it out now and not before is because the characters are 'on screen' now that the book has started. So loving stupid.
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# ? Oct 20, 2017 22:57 |
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I know this last bit is meant to be very stirring and heartbreaking but, aside from the creepiness, I can't take anything that involves the name "Furlite" seriously. It sounds like a cheap knockoff of the Furby or something. The way these things are depicted in the illustrations doesn't help either.
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# ? Oct 21, 2017 03:35 |
SerialKilldeer posted:I know this last bit is meant to be very stirring and heartbreaking but, aside from the creepiness, I can't take anything that involves the name "Furlite" seriously. It sounds like a cheap knockoff of the Furby or something. The way these things are depicted in the illustrations doesn't help either. A cheap knockoff with a sex obsession.
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# ? Oct 21, 2017 03:51 |
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Obviously, these....things....are a tragic blend of her lifelong lack of sex and it's sublimation into her cats. Also, Chi, 10 years, 7 married.
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# ? Oct 21, 2017 03:57 |
Elara comes out of the bathroom after her mother yells for her to come to dinner.quote:“Ah,” Elara rubbed her hands together. “The Sorsa steak, with the whipped Gurt roots, and the diced Jala roots. For desert, nothing less than that dark Kaba cake, with lots of frosting! I will just have water to drink.” Everyone laughs, but they seem to be trying to avoid looking at Elara; they're all uncomfortable after hearing her crazy outburst. Ara talks to her a little about it, but it's mostly just a repeat of the last conversation. quote:She feared the worst, the dreaded single bond. Why else would he not contact her? As the food arrived, Elara pushed her worries away. She dove into the meal served on plain colorless scuffed Fleet gear that resembled baby dishware. She scowled at it briefly, but hunger won out over displeasure at the worn-out tableware. She shoveled in the food, and as she filled, sleepiness drooped her eyelids. After the meal, she bid everyone good sleep and sprawled on her bed. Slumber claimed her in minutes, but old memories and disturbing dreams battled in her mind. She tossed and turned on the cot all night. Elara awakens to the sun shining on her tail and Ara calling her to breakfast. There's a whole paragraph detailing her morning routine, which includes using a tiny electric sander to polish her talons so they look bright and shiny when she inevitably freaks out and tries to gut a cadet. As they eat breakfast, Geupetus reveals that Siritus is on his way to look over the cadets personally. In a "quat of an octien", Siritus arrives. quote:The door slid aside, and Elara gazed at the Ancient Furlite who walked into the room. His fur shimmered silver. Not a strand of creamy white, russet, gold, or red marred the elder’s spectacular coat. Such pure lack of color, she mused. To have such silver fur, how old must he be? The hair itself glowed, with a healthy sheen, not like most very old Furlites, whose coats often grew shabby, brittle, and coarse with age, as had her Ancientparents’ fur. Both lacked the sheen and beauty this elder’s coat displayed. The shiny black Medallion resting on the Fleet Commander’s chest drew her attention away from his fur. Eight gems, representing the entire sun system, sparkled from their glossy black stone setting. At the center of the magnificent stone, a perfect circle of white diamond gleamed, glowing from within, refracting light in brilliant clarity, representing Roch, the sun of her homeworld. Elara gives a confident reply about her capabilities instead of being a shrinking violent like most cadets Siritus sees, so our protagonist gets extra props from him. After he leaves, Geupetus confirms that Siritus is 131 years old (which makes him 230 in Earth years, being born around the time of the American Revolution). Despite his silver fur, he works out regularly to stay buff and the family wonders if he has so much energy because he's waiting until he finds a proper replacement before retiring or dying. A few hours later, it's time for them to leave for their first briefing; Elara realizes that Tesuris will be there and starts panicking. quote:The group paused momentarily outside Space Center Administration as Geupetus spoke his name and rank into the intercom. He placed his hand on the identification pad. The door swished open immediately, to reveal a spacious lobby. As they trotted down a long corridor, Elara peeked into some of the rooms. Furlites bustled around computer terminals and laboratory tables. A few sat behind crowded desks. Elara nearly bumped into Ara as the pace slowed. Geupetus led them into a large room. Staggered rows of well-cushioned seats lined the floor. The polished granite podium at the front of the room glistened a rich white. The marble wall behind the podium shimmered in wondrous shades and patterns of lavenders, pinks, and maroons. As they paced down an aisle, Elara noticed a small group of Furlites who had arrived early. She recognized the large Furlite with predominantly golden fur as Telluris. Her father did, as well, and his cheerful greeting echoed in the large hall. Yes. Gorgeous.
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# ? Oct 31, 2017 17:42 |
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You know for a story about tall, furred, alien cat monsters with hosed up breeding behaviours setting off on a space romp, it really manages to be banal and mundane. Isn't this like the fourth almost identical breakfast scene? Or at least a scene where they discuss inane poo poo over a meal? There's no impetus for this plot. I don't expect much from an weird crazy cat lady writing fantasies about "what if my cats had a secret third testicle", but more than this.
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# ? Nov 3, 2017 01:25 |
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Pesky Splinter posted:You know for a story about tall, furred, alien cat monsters with hosed up breeding behaviours setting off on a space romp, it really manages to be banal and mundane. Well, there's not been much excitement in her life, after her husband's tragic castration via vacuum cleaner (since you know there wasn't much excitement in THEIR life). And since he bled to death, there's been even less. So, she is just doing what that writer she met at the cat owner's convention told her and is writing what she knows...
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# ? Nov 3, 2017 06:18 |
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God drat. As vague as some of the physical descriptions are, I was not imagining... that. Addendum: Merry Christmas, because it just hit me why specifically these characters look so deeply upsetting. The weird faces, combined with those pointy tufts of hair, make them look like something out of the live-action "Grinch" or (God help us) "Cat in the Hat"! (That and, you know, the author insists on classifying them as "lizards", "dinosaurs", and/or "fur-bearing crocodilians" depending on, apparently, her mood - even though these are all wildly different animals. But they also have prominent testicles and mammary glands as well as fur, so why the hell not just describe them as mammals? If this thread is still alive after the holidays, I might attempt to redesign these ugly furballs.) Rahonavis fucked around with this message at 18:20 on Dec 24, 2017 |
# ? Dec 24, 2017 06:32 |
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This book-like object is loving awful.
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# ? Dec 24, 2017 08:26 |
i will gently caress the dinocats
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# ? Dec 24, 2017 18:14 |
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# ? Jun 3, 2024 22:50 |
It's honestly hard for me to keep going with this. I'm cutting out 3/4 or more of these chapters in my summaries, so you can imagine how awful it is to try and read in full. So many pages and still almost nothing of consequence has happened.
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# ? Dec 25, 2017 00:57 |