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Arsenic Lupin posted:People genuinely do not understand how technically complex farce is. I just finished reading Piccadilly Jim and I cannot begin to imagine how many notecards Wodehouse must have got through getting the plot in order. On the subject of cosy books recommended in this thread, I read Light From Uncommon Stars. In theory it ticks a lot of boxes I like, but somehow it didn't quite land for me and I can't put my finger on why. My best guess is that, after finishing Exordia beforehand, I was slightly thrown by the way that when certain facts were revealed (eg. the discovery that the donut shop owners were aliens), they were just accepted, rather than delving into the meaning or implications of this for humanity.
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# ? Mar 2, 2024 10:15 |
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# ? Jun 13, 2024 05:43 |
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GhastlyBizness posted:I only read Lyonesse but Jack Vance seemed implacably hostile to his characters in that. Extremely fun and arch writing style, good story in itself, but felt like there was a gleefully nasty streak running through it. Yep, that's Vance. He's real good and real nasty. The Moon Moth is one of the best Science Fiction stories ever and it's just a guy getting clowned on for not understanding a culture. Vance also did a couple of Wodehousian novels at the end of his life, but they're not really elaborate farces. Pretty strictly only for those who already way on board with Vance.
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# ? Mar 2, 2024 12:25 |
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Arsenic Lupin posted:I have been binge reading Pratchett. He is immensely comforting because he believes in decency, he knows there's not enough of it, but he demands more. Auden's self-chosen epitaph was "he had a lovers' quarrel with the world" and that is absolutely Pratchett. Neil Gaiman said Pratchett was the angriest man he knew, and I believe it. The theme of his books is 'do better, dammit.' Totally agree on Pratchett. The closest to that I've found, though it's outside genre, is Raymond Chandler. Obviously products of their time (sexist, homophobic, racist though not in the worst degrees I've ever seen) but still about a world that makes it hard to be decent, and a man trying his best to be decent anyway.
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# ? Mar 2, 2024 12:38 |
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RDM posted:Page 100: I have been betrayed in a shocking twist by my closest confidant, Treason McLiar. Lmao, yeah that seems to be essentially how it's going. I just try to frame it like all the golds are just like that, willing to gently caress anyone over to get ahead or get some advantage. theysayheygreg posted:Yep, a melodramatic guilty pleasure is exactly how I'd describe them. They're a fun romp in a neat if a little over the top setting. Pierce Brown is still a very young author all things considered, and I think the first trilogy definitely reads like an author in their twenties writing it. There's so many twists, double crosses, and reverse double crosses (triple crosses?) some of which strain fourth wall considerably, but if you can turn your brain down and go "hell yeah IRON RAIN and THE SICKLE!!!" they're a good time. I've been pruning the last couple of weeks, so it has been a nice distraction because it just keeps flowing. Mindless entertainment has been good for a tedious, repetitive task Isolationist posted:That narrator absolutely makes that series, he chews scenery left right and center - I listened through to... Book four or five years ago and can STILL hear "PAX AU TELEMANUS". Haha yeah the "PAX AU TELEMANUS" was great. I remember laughing out loud one of the times I heard the narrator saying it during a battle.
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# ? Mar 2, 2024 13:00 |
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Arsenic Lupin posted:People genuinely do not understand how technically complex farce is. (farce lovers may like Oyvind Thorsby's webcomics, so long as they can stand "art made in MSPaint and plot elements" - I am genuinely recommending them, but with those caveats. Seems like there's always another goon that hasn't heard of them)
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# ? Mar 2, 2024 13:50 |
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Arsenic Lupin posted:People genuinely do not understand how technically complex farce is. My current "what if" project is a farce with a 40k rogue trader as the backdrop and yeah this poo poo is tough
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# ? Mar 2, 2024 15:32 |
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Blamestorm posted:I’m a bit sceptical of the cozy fantasy/sci fi label, the two common examples of which that get cited are the Becky Chambers books and the Goblin Emperor, probably because I don’t think either are that good. (Obvious caveats, like what you like, personal opinion only etc) It’s not actually a sub-genre like cozy mystery is, it’s just a vibe. It flummoxes my used-bookstore owning friend to no end, people these days asking for extremely specific “genres” and actually getting mad she doesn’t have labels for them on her bookshelves like she can just tag and sort poo poo irl like an Amazon algorithm. I’ve been helping her tag on her website somewhat established sub-genres so she can look it up easier when people ask for “historical romance” or “alt-history sff” and so on but the combination of Goodreads and Booktok is driving this overly specific vibe/trope tagging to completely ridiculous proportions Also yeah, a lot of people reading Legends and Lattes and wanting more like that are likely young enough they haven’t heard of Terry Pratchett yet. Even likelier they haven’t heard of Wodehouse
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# ? Mar 2, 2024 15:52 |
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Milkfred E. Moore posted:The first chapter of Red Rising is like: I am the grittiest toughest miner known to man -- a helldiver. I use my helldrill to hellmine Helium-3 as I sip from my drinktube. My frysuit is ironically named because it keeps me from frying. I spit into my helmet that stinks like piss. Here on Mars, the planet that is red, girls get married off at fourteen. Life's just that tough on the red planet but my uncle is weak and my father is dead -- everyone is weak, my hands are worn and my expression grim and the caverns of Mars smell like death. The society killed my wife on our wedding day. I am fourteen years old.
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# ? Mar 2, 2024 17:06 |
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Stuporstar posted:It’s not actually a sub-genre like cozy mystery is, it’s just a vibe. fez_machine posted:The Moon Moth is one of the best Science Fiction stories ever and it's just a guy getting clowned on for not understanding a culture. Re Raymond Chandler, one of his famous statements about noir was: "Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. " Arsenic Lupin fucked around with this message at 18:08 on Mar 2, 2024 |
# ? Mar 2, 2024 18:05 |
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Poldarn posted:A buddy of mine lent me some of his Wodehouseses as character prep for a tabletop RPG we were running. I called 'em "low stakes shenanigans". Very fun and readable. Incidentally, if you like Wodehouse you might want to check out his contemporary Thorne Smith, whose books are full of similar shenanigans but with lots more drinking and -- by the standards of the 1920s-1930s -- sex.
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# ? Mar 2, 2024 18:11 |
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Elysium Fire (Prefect Dreyfus Emergencies #2) by Alistair Reynolds - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073P43TMS/ I looked into the amazon affiliate program and I'm pretty sure posting links on somethingawful isn't going to cut it. They say I need to provide original content on a publicly accessible website that I own or a social media page.
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# ? Mar 2, 2024 18:22 |
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pradmer posted:Elysium Fire (Prefect Dreyfus Emergencies #2) by Alistair Reynolds - $2.99
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# ? Mar 2, 2024 18:32 |
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Arsenic Lupin posted:Precisely this. That's the quote I was trying to remember earlier. I've gotten at least half a dozen people to read The Big Sleep just based on the opening paragraph or two. The prose is so perfect to me. quote:It was about eleven o’clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills. I was wearing my powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark blue clocks on them. I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn’t care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be. I was calling on four million dollars. Nice. e: Also I heard an interview with Raymond Chandler and his English accent took me completely by surprise
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# ? Mar 2, 2024 18:47 |
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Yip. That's glorious. There's also this opening to a short story: quote:There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge.
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# ? Mar 2, 2024 20:24 |
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Good lord this is dead on
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# ? Mar 2, 2024 20:37 |
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Does anyone have any recommendations for books with great audiobook narration? I'm almost done with my current book (2nd book of the "Red Rising" series) and considering starting a different book or series. The only way I have time to consume any books is through audiobooks nowadays and I've realized that terrible narration can make an otherwise great story seem like a chore.
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# ? Mar 2, 2024 20:54 |
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MarksMan posted:Does anyone have any recommendations for books with great audiobook narration? I'm almost done with my current book (2nd book of the "Red Rising" series) and considering starting a different book or series. The only way I have time to consume any books is through audiobooks nowadays and I've realized that terrible narration can make an otherwise great story seem like a chore. Circe by Madeline Miller Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (Chiwetel <3333)
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# ? Mar 2, 2024 21:04 |
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MarksMan posted:Does anyone have any recommendations for books with great audiobook narration? I'm almost done with my current book (2nd book of the "Red Rising" series) and considering starting a different book or series. The only way I have time to consume any books is through audiobooks nowadays and I've realized that terrible narration can make an otherwise great story seem like a chore. Moira Quirk absolutely nails the narration for Gideon the Ninth et al. They're great books in their own right but she does the narration justice imo.
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# ? Mar 2, 2024 21:05 |
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There's a version of Watership Down read by Roy Dotrice that I adored when I was a kid.
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# ? Mar 2, 2024 21:11 |
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A stupid grudge I have held for literal decades: I noped out of Thomas Covenant at the rape for obvious reasons (it was a rape). I remain maddened that "white gold" is treated as a rare thing. It's a loving alloy. Can you mine gold? Congratulations. You can now make white gold.
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# ? Mar 2, 2024 21:25 |
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Arsenic Lupin posted:A stupid grudge I have held for literal decades: A wizard did it.
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# ? Mar 2, 2024 21:39 |
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MarksMan posted:Does anyone have any recommendations for books with great audiobook narration? I'm almost done with my current book (2nd book of the "Red Rising" series) and considering starting a different book or series. The only way I have time to consume any books is through audiobooks nowadays and I've realized that terrible narration can make an otherwise great story seem like a chore. Dungeon Crawler Carl has a great reading.
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# ? Mar 2, 2024 21:43 |
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I accidentally ended up with these books called the "exordium" series which was definitely not due to loving up searching for exordia but it turns out they're pretty good, especially if you like stuff like overwrought political descriptions and weird space rituals. The Phoenix In Flight is the first one. They are for some reason incredibly hard to search for. Like em a lot
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# ? Mar 2, 2024 21:51 |
Arsenic Lupin posted:A stupid grudge I have held for literal decades: I saw some reddit thread recently about some horrible boomer grandma ranting about how her grandchild had been allowed to visit some relative who had "filthy" books in his house Reading the description the "filthy" books were very clearly the Thomas covenant series I thought about it and realized "yeah, those books do suck" and put my copies in the "for goodwill" box in the garage
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# ? Mar 2, 2024 22:39 |
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Cugel the Clever posted:I've loved a lot of Reynolds' works, but was really put off by his Revenger series' drastically lower quality... Anyone have thoughts on how this and Machine Vendetta hold up? Inhibitor Phase felt like fanservice, unnecessary step back to an universe that was reasonably settled at this point in time, with the obligatory character throwbacks to the earlier and better novels. The general mood of the Inhibitor universe is still there and that bit works, I did enjoy the pressing end times vibe bit of it. But otherwise, just unnecessary. No clue about Machine Vendetta, but I will pick that one up once I see it. The first two Prefect Dreyfuss novels were quite enjoyable enough.
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# ? Mar 2, 2024 23:29 |
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Arsenic Lupin posted:A stupid grudge I have held for literal decades: I bailed at the same place and for the same reason, so I have no idea what the in-universe explanation is, but my assumption has always been that "white gold" in that universe is some sort of magical bullshit, and they use some other term for the non-magical alloy.
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# ? Mar 3, 2024 00:38 |
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I also bailed at that point but was already annoyed by the way he talked about leprosy as if it were the 1400s. That said it's been a long time so maybe I just misremember.
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# ? Mar 3, 2024 00:51 |
ToxicFrog posted:I bailed at the same place and for the same reason, so I have no idea what the in-universe explanation is, but my assumption has always been that "white gold" in that universe is some sort of magical bullshit, and they use some other term for the non-magical alloy. it was ages ago but it was some sort of metaphor for beautiful things with a slight impurity, kind of like LEPROSY get it? I read those in high school (so decades ago), and read the last two books of the second trilogy as they were released borrowed from the library, then buying the hardcovers from them has they downsized their reserve collections. Only learned there was a third trilogy relatively recently from here.
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# ? Mar 3, 2024 00:52 |
I noped out of Thomas Covenant for two reasons: one, it's played completely straight and I am completely incapable of taking a world with so many Proper Nouns (and stupid actual names - Lord Foul, for gently caress's sake) properly. Two, from how far I got (about halfway through book 1 I think) it had the most generic fantasy world I've ever seen.
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# ? Mar 3, 2024 01:34 |
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I really liked all the parts of the Thomas Covenant books, except Thomas Covenant. Lord Mhoram was great, the siege of Revelstone is by far my favourite part of the trilogies. With the possible exception of 'Nom'.
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# ? Mar 3, 2024 01:57 |
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MarksMan posted:Does anyone have any recommendations for books with great audiobook narration? I'm almost done with my current book (2nd book of the "Red Rising" series) and considering starting a different book or series. The only way I have time to consume any books is through audiobooks nowadays and I've realized that terrible narration can make an otherwise great story seem like a chore. Either version of the wheel of time (the new ones with Rosamund Pike or the old ones with the husband and wife team) are tremendous and will give you dozens of hours of entertainment.
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# ? Mar 3, 2024 01:58 |
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Arsenic Lupin posted:A stupid grudge I have held for literal decades: There's no gold at all in The Land or whatever it's called. That's the whole point, he brings it with him from Earth. Also my lol story about the Thomas Covenant books is that I read them when I was really young and must've totally skipped the rape bit or not really realised what was happening, because when I found out as an adult it came as quite a shock.
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# ? Mar 3, 2024 02:39 |
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Phobeste posted:I accidentally ended up with these books called the "exordium" series which was definitely not due to loving up searching for exordia but it turns out they're pretty good, especially if you like stuff like overwrought political descriptions and weird space rituals. The Phoenix In Flight is the first one. They are for some reason incredibly hard to search for. Like em a lot The Exordium series is really good and really weird in a lot of cool ways. Anybody who wants a five-volume series of very complex science fiction should check these out. A short description of the setting is that the Exiles went through a one-way wormhole from Earth, ending up scattered in time and space at their destination. Over the millennia, a very complex society has evolved, ruled over by a royal line of extremely pragmatic people. Twenty years ago, they were attacked by a rigidly hierarchical outsider society, and won. The outsiders have been plotting revenge ever since. Now they strike, with the power of a Suneater backing them up.
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# ? Mar 3, 2024 02:46 |
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Deptfordx posted:I really liked all the parts of the Thomas Covenant books, except Thomas Covenant. It’s really unfortunate that Donaldson seems to be incapable of writing without a rape or a lot of rape, thanks Gap Cycle being involved because he’s actually a decent writer outside of that.
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# ? Mar 3, 2024 02:51 |
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Kalman posted:It’s really unfortunate that Donaldson seems to be incapable of writing without a rape or a lot of rape, thanks Gap Cycle being involved because he’s actually a decent writer outside of that. As I recall, the two Mordant's Need books were both good, and lacking in rape. They're closer to the Romance genre, so there's some boddice ripping. I haven't read anything by him after that, and I should, he's a really good writer. The Gap Cycle is five volumes of content warnings, but if you can get past that, and I'm not saying you necessarily should, they're really goddamn good. In the afterward to the first book he says everything he actually writes is the result of the intersection of two ideas. In this case the ideas are "the Ring Cycle by Wagner" and the character name "Angus Thermopylae". Which you have to admit, is a great name for a space pirate. e. I'm gonna see the Dril quote in a reply, I just know it.
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# ? Mar 3, 2024 03:10 |
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mllaneza posted:The Gap Cycle is five volumes of content warnings, but if you can get past that, and I'm not saying you necessarily should, they're really goddamn good. You do not, under any circumstances, gotta hand it to Donaldson and I noped out of Thomas Covenant in like 1992. https://x.com/dril/status/831805955402776576?s=46&t=gWzpfrvXxUbLMdxEMDGWfg
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# ? Mar 3, 2024 03:14 |
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ulmont posted:You do not, under any circumstances, gotta hand it to Donaldson and I noped out of Thomas Covenant in like 1992. Ha! I noped out in 1978!
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# ? Mar 3, 2024 03:40 |
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The problem with Donaldson (minus the rape) is when stuff happens in his books it's fun, but in between stuff happening every character introduced so far feels the need to tell you what they think about what just happened, which really bogs down the back half of any series.
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# ? Mar 3, 2024 08:59 |
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HopperUK posted:I also bailed at that point but was already annoyed by the way he talked about leprosy as if it were the 1400s. Donaldson was writing from first hand experience. His father was a medical missionary working with lepers in India in the 1950s. And if you don't like Covenant, well, good. He doesn't like himself either. His self-loathing, particularly over the rape he commits, is the driving force of the narrative.
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# ? Mar 3, 2024 11:34 |
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# ? Jun 13, 2024 05:43 |
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Some of my favorite SFF audiobooks, a couple have already been mentioned. Just going through my Audible account for stuff where I really liked the narration. Piranesi Murderbot series Locked Tomb series (not great for casual listening though) Golden Enclaves series (or really most of Novik's stuff) Wayfarers series Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell Bobiverse series Eifelheim Pushing Ice House of Suns Both Goblin Emperor and the other books in the same world And not really SFF but still discussed here sometimes (and my favorite of all time), the Aubrey Maturin series read by Patrick Tull.
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# ? Mar 3, 2024 13:40 |