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Johnny Truant posted:The black "bullet" that Holden and... Mari? named. I'm getting characters from different series mixed up, but the doctor/biologist lady who was thirsting for Holden on the first alien planet. They think it's a weapon from the aliens that killed the makers of the PM, or possibly it is the aliens that killed the PM? Anyway. Thanks! This is definitely bringing stuff back. I thought Marcos was killed by the "wave" because he went through the gate too quickly and ended up fading into oblivion?
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Nov 27, 2018 23:22
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hatelull posted:Thanks! This is definitely bringing stuff back. I thought Marcos was killed by the "wave" because he went through the gate too quickly and ended up fading into oblivion? You're correct, he was killed by whatever weird traffic laws the PM makers implemented, but the chapter from his perspective when he dies is identical to the incident in our solar system where everyone "loses" consciousness when the "bullet" appears. Maybe the traffic laws or whatever are actually the PM makers enemies!? I also think that the boiling space around the Ring bit is going to be important. It seems like the PM makers and whoever made the "bullet" possibly inhabit a different dimension than us, perhaps? Someone here pointed out that Miller says something along the lines of our reality is a "substrate" compared to the PM aliens, if I recall correctly?  I want the next book already, ugh!
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Nov 27, 2018 23:29
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bitprophet posted:To be fair, 30 years being a 'college grad to retirement' length of time isn't some sort of inherent law of physics - it's driven by our current average lifespan. If that span is increased the way it has been in the Expanse, why would life phases necessarily be the same length as they were centuries earlier? Yeah this is what I was thinking as well. It's still pretty jarring to think of a bunch of 70 year olds as active as the crew is in PR but at 33 I'd be nearing the end of my life expectancy a few hundred years ago too. The average in the Expanse for non belters is ~150 iirc.
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Nov 27, 2018 23:57
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Johnny Truant posted:Maybe the traffic laws or whatever are actually the PM makers enemies!? I think this is very strongly implied, yeah. The impression I get is that the Protomolecule makers pushed the wrong envelope and attracted the attention of something they couldn't handle. I haven't spent much time thinking about what makes the enemy so effective against the Protomolecule makers and their tech, but here's an idea. A lot of what we've seen of how PM tech works is grounded in evolutionary algorithms and emergent properties. I wonder if something about the enemy causes those algorithms to figuratively divide by zero, making them impossible to assimilate and maybe also causing errors to ripple out. I don't know why, exactly, but I feel like the enemy probably wasn't just an antagonist with better tech. I suspect it's another implacable unthinking mechanism, like the Protomolecule but operating on antithetical principles.
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Nov 28, 2018 00:06
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acumen posted:at 33 I'd be nearing the end of my life expectancy a few hundred years ago too. No, you wouldn't.
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Nov 28, 2018 00:12
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Krazyface posted:No, you wouldn't. Yeah it's kind of misleading because average life expectancy is brought way down by all the dead babies. Modal or median life expectancy might be a better way to look at it (although '0' might be the modal result still). e: I finally watched the rest of Season 3 of this show, and how do they make it all so...boring? They have the acting, set design, and VFX talents to tell a great story but somehow it never seems to go beyond 'competent'.
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Nov 28, 2018 00:38
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There's a separate thread for dissing the show. You're going to get spoilered to all hell in here!
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Nov 28, 2018 00:57
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I've read all the books.
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Nov 28, 2018 01:07
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I only watched the first half of Season 3 and stopped so I could finish reading Abaddon's Gate, and then I never got around to watching the second half apart from the splat.
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Nov 28, 2018 01:30
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The splat was the best bit.
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Nov 28, 2018 01:38
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tooterfish posted:The Fixed that for you. Toast Museum posted:I think this is very strongly implied, yeah. The impression I get is that the Protomolecule makers pushed the wrong envelope and attracted the attention of something they couldn't handle. Yeah I've thought about it just being some kind technology that isn't conscious of, or doesn't even realize, what it's doing. The whole cosmic-Lovecraft kind of vibe I don't think is where this is ultimately going though, I think we're gonna learn some poo poo about the PM makers, the "bullets", the Strange Dogs, who the gently caress knows what else, before this series is finished. I mean I'm definitely hoping for that, so maybe I'm a bit unbiased, but gently caress it I want some more  type poo poo, you dig?
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Nov 28, 2018 01:57
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Remember back at the end of book...4? When that Martian battleship was headed to Laconia, and right before it got eaten by the gate ghosts the captain was looking at some blueprints about something they were going to strap to his ship? Assuming I'm remembering that right, maybe they were planning on a faster rollout of Laconia originally, with the alien technology more haphazardly integrated.
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Nov 28, 2018 02:26
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They weren’t strapping something to his ship, they were docking his ship to the orbital factory. It’s book 5.
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Nov 28, 2018 03:04
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Black bullet is probably basic bullshit about universal laws regarding the conservation of mass or something equally meh and how the PM creators were "overloading" the fabric of the universe with their technology. Same reason ships vanish if too many go through too often. Predict the series is going to end with the Duarte or whoever it is on Laconia delivering a long monologue about glory and empire right before going full-akira and then being turned into a black hole due to his PM self-abuse.
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Nov 28, 2018 03:17
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Rime posted:Black bullet is probably basic bullshit about universal laws regarding the conservation of mass or something equally meh and how the PM creators were "overloading" the fabric of the universe with their technology. Same reason ships vanish if too many go through too often. Predict the series is going to end with the Duarte or whoever it is on Laconia delivering a long monologue about glory and empire right before going full-akira and then being turned into a black hole due to his PM self-abuse. You're probably right, science fiction writers seem to love this story. Holden will have to enforce a warp 5 speed limit across human space, and then Reapers will turn up to complain that the protomolecules are causing stars to go early supernova, and then the Xeelee the will ruin everything.
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Nov 28, 2018 06:39
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General Battuta posted:You're probably right, science fiction writers seem to love this story. Holden will have to enforce a warp 5 speed limit across human space, and then Reapers will turn up to complain that the protomolecules are causing stars to go early supernova, and then the Xeelee the will ruin everything. I really wanted Mass Effect to be about the FTL dooming the universe (hey, maybe even mention causality in some fashion) and the Reapers trying to stop it. Then the whole “You wouldn’t possibly understand/agree with our motives” claptrap might make sense, if it was going to be about digitizing all sentients so they’re not doomed to solar system collapse or resource exhaustion. Of course that’s not at all original either but at least it would be internally consistent. The Expanse... I don’t know. I wasn’t really expecting Duerte, and clearly something is going to go terribly wrong with his Great Man stuff, but I feel like there’s enough mysteries it could be interesting. Or not.
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Nov 29, 2018 02:28
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Arcsquad12 posted:I never got around to watching the second half apart from the splat. The season is really good after the splat so you're missing out. If you don't enjoy the show in general that's fair enough, but the latter half of S3 is the best it's been so far.
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Nov 29, 2018 15:02
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bloom posted:The season is really good after the splat so you're missing out. If you don't enjoy the show in general that's fair enough, but the latter half of S3 is the best it's been so far. Well, I have to finish Abaddon's Gate first. Kinda got sidetracked and didn't finish my reread.
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Nov 29, 2018 16:00
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So I have started reading the books and have a question: Do the books become good again after Cibola Burn? Since in all the previous books the characters have been quite engaging while the characters in this book are dull as hell and Murtry is like a comic book villain.
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Jan 3, 2019 12:46
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Pump it up! Do it! posted:So I have started reading the books and have a question: Opinions seem mixed-to-positive about the subsequent books, but I think there's general agreement that Cibola Burn is the nadir of the series.
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Jan 3, 2019 13:02
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You have to read book 5 because it has the best Amos and Avasarala dialogue.
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Jan 3, 2019 14:11
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Pump it up! Do it! posted:So I have started reading the books and have a question: Yes, and Book 5 is probably the best in the series so far. Book 4 is the low point, really.
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Jan 3, 2019 14:22
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Pump it up! Do it! posted:So I have started reading the books and have a question: If you have a brain the size and smoothness of a peanut you may find some slight enjoyment, otherwise no and there are better things to spend ones precious leisure time on.
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Jan 6, 2019 13:36
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Book 4 is kind of a turd. It gets better again after.
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Jan 6, 2019 20:41
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Velius posted:I really wanted Mass Effect to be about the FTL dooming the universe (hey, maybe even mention causality in some fashion) and the Reapers trying to stop it. Then the whole “You wouldn’t possibly understand/agree with our motives” claptrap might make sense, if it was going to be about digitizing all sentients so they’re not doomed to solar system collapse or resource exhaustion. Of course that’s not at all original either but at least it would be internally consistent. The Expanse... I don’t know. I wasn’t really expecting Duerte, and clearly something is going to go terribly wrong with his Great Man stuff, but I feel like there’s enough mysteries it could be interesting. Or not. That was actually the original story for Mass Effect, you can still see echoes of it in ME2 on the Quarian planet. Essentially, FTL travel was introducing more dark matter (Xeelee?) and were slowing stellar fusion. Organics wouldn’t have been affected because of the timescales involved, but the functionally immortal Reapers viewed it as a serious threat, building the gate network as a fly trap to control and limit advanced species. The last game was supposed to have Shep choose between saving “the universe” and continuing the Reaper’s cycle or destroying the Reapers but condemning the universe to an early death. I understand Destiny originally had a more interesting story: the PCs were supposed to be the bad guys, a reveal that was going to be made in game 2 or 3. It makes sense: an undead army of zombies with job titles like Assassin or warlock fighting Knights and Wizards are probably not the good guys. tl;dr - yeah, it’s a popular trope. Sci-fi’s version of the climate problem, but poorly implemented.
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Jan 7, 2019 01:29
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That Destiny ‘original story’ is a complete hoax.
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Jan 7, 2019 08:32
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General Battuta posted:That Destiny ‘original story’ is a complete hoax. Ha! I guess I don’t have to be sad for what might have been, then!  How did that get started? Just to make this slightly on-topic, even though it probably got posted two pages ago: https://twitter.com/abrahamhanover/status/1081245168760545280?s=21
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Jan 7, 2019 17:35
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I thought they were done several months ago, have they spent that time rolling it in glitter?
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Jan 11, 2019 02:27
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Collateral posted:I thought they were done several months ago, have they spent that time rolling it in glitter? yes when the publisher pushed the date back, they said they'd give them some extra editing time
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Jan 11, 2019 02:36
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I hope it's blue glitter.
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Jan 13, 2019 21:02
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I was rewatching parts of the tv show, and I'm wondering if the authors were in any way inspired by the Homeworld series when they were first mapping out the setting. The protomolecule monsters in the first two novels bear a pretty big similarity to the Beast from Homeworld Cataclysm. It wouldn't be the first time Homeworld has had a major influence on another SF franchise. The reimagined Battlestar Galactica is pretty much Homeworld the TV series in terms of aesthetic and presentation.
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Jan 26, 2019 05:11
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Arcsquad12 posted:I was rewatching parts of the tv show, and I'm wondering if the authors were in any way inspired by the Homeworld series when they were first mapping out the setting. The protomolecule monsters in the first two novels bear a pretty big similarity to the Beast from Homeworld Cataclysm. IIRC, the setting was originally going to be an MMO, then morphed into a table-top RPG when that fell through. The writers played a campaign and used the broad strokes of that for the first book. For instance, Shed dies on the Donnager because that PC had to quit the campaign.  Definitely the music of BSG (specifically the use of percussion) very much reminds me of Homeworld. I get the vibe that Expanse is more influenced by Mass Effect and other, more recent games.
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Jan 27, 2019 05:18
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I didn't know about the RPG elements, but it does make sense given how focused on fleshing out the world the first novel is. I was wondering if there were connections to HW Cataclysm specifically, because I can see the Rocinante crew being inspired by the exploits of the Kuun-Lan and her ragtag fleet of mining ships and junkers as opposed to top of the line Hiigaran warships. And the Homeworld/BSG comparisons go way beyond just the music. The Cylon hybrids are basically the Bentusi, being hardwired into their ships and therefore unbound from the physical plane. Hell, Campbell Lane, the voice of the Bentusi and the narrator for Homeworld, played a Hybrid in BSG: Razor.
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Jan 27, 2019 05:54
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Leviathan Wakes clearly draws a fair bit of inspiration from Firefly. Amos, especially, comes off more as a Jayne type of character than who he quickly becomes in Caliban's War.
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Jan 27, 2019 06:33
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What's the general consensus on Babylon's Ashes? Did anybody else have trouble finishing it? I've marathoned the previous books + novellas over the past month, so I obviously enjoyed them, but I'm 50% through with BA and I'm struggling to read more than a chapter at a time. I don't know if I'm just burned out on the series, but the huge increase in POV characters and general aimlessness of the story so far is killing my interest. Is the second half of the book any tighter?
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Feb 10, 2019 17:51
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The story of the 5-6th books definitely felt like it had been broken into two volumes with a to-be-continued in the middle. It felt a little too padded. Thankfully they didn't expand the 4th book amirite?
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Feb 10, 2019 18:41
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I just realized that Prax was played by the guy who was Chuckles on Battlestar Galactica. Canadian Sci-Fi actors move in small circles around Vancouver don't they? There was the episode of Star Trek disco that had a bunch of Expanse extras including Adam Jensen's VA cameo in a prison shuttle. Arc Hammer fucked around with this message at 21:51 on Feb 11, 2019 |
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Feb 11, 2019 21:47
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Arcsquad12 posted:I just realized that Prax was played by the guy who was Chuckles on Battlestar Galactica.  Yeah, Vancouver is the Hollywood of the North, these days.
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Feb 11, 2019 22:13
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If I’m on cibola burn should I not be reading this thread
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Feb 13, 2019 01:38
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Candlelight Virgil posted:If I’m on cibola burn should I not be reading this thread Not if you care about spoilers.
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Feb 13, 2019 05:47
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