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Plumps posted:Someone post the bit about Gurgeh(?) playing space chess and it being really hard but him being really good at it anyway. idk about the other parts but the first part sounds a lot like Pham from a fire upon the deep
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Jul 14, 2018 12:51
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free hubcaps posted:idk about the other parts but the first part sounds a lot like Pham from a fire upon the deep also the plot of 3001 the alien the other aliens lived on was in Look to Windward, the squid guys who played squash were the Affront in Excession
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Jul 14, 2018 13:05
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Use of weapons is usually the book I tell people to start with. Everyone I've loaned my copy to loved it.
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Jul 14, 2018 13:09
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Plavski posted:It's gonna be a series on Amazon now  hopefully amazon will give it the budget it deserves and doesn’t stretch it too much, it would make an awesome miniseries also didn’t horzas girlfriend have fur, does that make him a furry?
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Jul 14, 2018 13:11
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Plavski posted:It's gonna be a series on Amazon now I wonder what they're gonna use as the title? The Dennis System posted:I also thought the book with the giant gas creatures that lived in the upper atmosphere of a huge planet was good.
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Jul 14, 2018 13:50
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Son of Rodney posted:I want a "Interesting Times Gang" gang tag. gently caress I want that so bad now. I love that the ITG basically trolled the prissy GSV out of its own forum.
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Jul 14, 2018 13:57
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Reading the Culture series cured me of being a Laissez Faire Capitalist and Ayn Rand fan so recommend this series to all your terrible acquaintances who won’t shut up about Ayn Rand.
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Jul 14, 2018 13:59
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free hubcaps posted:also didn’t horzas girlfriend have fur, does that make him a furry? In a galaxy where people turn into sentient bushes for fashion and hydraulic jackhammer dick mods are the norm furries are still outcasted as they should be. It's why Horza is working for space ISIS.
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Jul 14, 2018 14:14
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Because he was a shape-changer, not Reed Richards or Elastigirl. Changes would takes hours or days to happen.
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Jul 14, 2018 14:17
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spog posted:Because he was a shape-changer, not Reed Richards or Elastigirl. Changes would takes hours or days to happen. It seemed like the water level was rising very slowly. If he started right away he may have been able to stay ahead of it.
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Jul 14, 2018 14:35
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Plavski posted:It's gonna be a series on Amazon now I’m so super excited for this. They’d better not gently caress it up like the Sy- Fy channel hosed up DUNE. They need to do it up right like Netflix did with Altered Carbon.
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Jul 14, 2018 14:37
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Applewhite posted:I’m so super excited for this. They’d better not gently caress it up like the Sy- Fy channel hosed up DUNE. They need to do it up right like Netflix did with Altered Carbon. ...but I liked syfy’s dune...
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Jul 14, 2018 14:42
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Applewhite posted:It seemed like the water level was rising very slowly. If he started right away he may have been able to stay ahead of it. I have the book next to me and he did go into the trance to thin his wrists, but it would have taken hours to make the change, not the minutes he had. and I appreciate you encouraging me to get the book of the shelf and start reading it again
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Jul 14, 2018 14:46
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spog posted:I have the book next to me and he did go into the trance to thin his wrists, but it would have taken hours to make the change, not the minutes he had. i signed up for audible and am listening to the excession audiobook, inspired as i now am to go back through the whole series again. good job thread!
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Jul 14, 2018 14:52
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I liked Inversions. It was pretty much a medieval fiction book but I appreciate getting to see a non-spacefaring perspective on Culture people. It's also made reading Matter a little bit more amusing, conversely.
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Jul 14, 2018 15:19
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Kalsco posted:I liked Inversions. It was pretty much a medieval fiction book but I appreciate getting to see a non-spacefaring perspective on Culture people. It's also made reading Matter a little bit more amusing, conversely. I cheered out loud when the female protagonist of Inversions said she would be indisposed due to “special circumstances.”
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Jul 14, 2018 15:21
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i liked all of them until use of weapons. the main dude just seemed like a huge emo nerd and I stopped reading it halfway through
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Jul 14, 2018 15:25
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Xaintrailles posted:Dwellers from The Algebraist? Not a Culture book but also good. The Dwellers are basically the Culture except if they minded their own business instead of playing galactic Illuminati.
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Jul 14, 2018 15:32
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How was "The Expanse" series on television? I read the first 2 books and enjoyed them.
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Jul 14, 2018 18:20
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I've only seen first season but it's decent. Supposedly it gets better after the 1st  I for one can't wait for an adaptation of Red Mars...
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Jul 14, 2018 19:16
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I left my extra copy of Excession at one of those free library things a couple weeks ago and somebody took it, I'm happy. I love Banks 
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Jul 14, 2018 19:49
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The Dennis System posted:I don't remember much from that book. The shape-shifter dude was some sort of intelligence operative from some sort of rebel group and the main villain was a women intelligence agent from the oppressive government. But the shape shifter dude and the evil woman agent used to be lovers or something. But the dude worked for the culture, so who did the woman work for? Maybe some different alien species that the culture was fighting or something? I don't remember. Come to think of it consider plebas might have taken place a thousand years before the other culture books took place, so the culture was weaker then? Consider Phlebas happens during the Culture-Idiran war, don't remember how many years it was but it was earlyish in the Culture's history, and the last real war they fought. Horza is an agent for the Idiran theocratic empire that's trying to conquer the whole galaxy for religious reasons, and the Culture are a bunch of pacifist druggies and communists, who really don't wanna fight at all but are forced to, and after they start to actually build war ships instead of using their space cities as warships, they quickly win, but are not happy about it. Stanley Tucheetos posted:Use of weapons is usually the book I tell people to start with. Everyone I've loaned my copy to loved it. The best Culture book IMO even if the wonky timeline can be a bit confusing on first read.
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Jul 14, 2018 19:53
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Use of Weapons is great, but you really wanna give it a day between chapters to digest Edit: the twist ending was a bit of an asspull though Edit: it turns out i was the chaimaker all along gurk *dies* THE FUCKING MOON fucked around with this message at 19:59 on Jul 14, 2018 |
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Jul 14, 2018 19:55
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The Culture series is probably my favourite combination of sci-fi nonsense and beautiful writing. I've yet to really encounter anything that can rival it, though I really want to
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Jul 14, 2018 19:59
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Yeah can't really name anything that would rival it. Enjoyed this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Quantum_Thief and the 2 sequels a lot though.
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Jul 14, 2018 20:02
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The frist I M banks book I read was the algerbist
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Jul 14, 2018 20:07
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Anybody read that Terry Pratchett's scifi novel from the 80s/90s? That was some good poo poo too. Maybe in an alternate universe he went into weird scifi instead of fantasy
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Jul 14, 2018 21:04
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Ups_rail posted:The frist I M banks book I read was the algerbist That's actually not a part of the Culture series, instead depicting an oppressive, backwards, galaxy, ruled by a cruel Hierarchy, where Minds (super smart AIs) are banned and hunted. A galaxy where the Idirans won the war one could say.
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Jul 14, 2018 21:15
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Banks can be pretty on the nose with his social criticisms. The main? bad guy in Algebraist is a warrior priest of the Hierarchy that decides he's god now, genetically engineers himself to be a huge albino with blood red eyes, truth serum in his dick so he can torture his sex slaves more effectively, and invades the rest of the galaxy. Like a space pope I guess?
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Jul 14, 2018 21:26
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doverhog posted:That's actually not a part of the Culture series, instead depicting an oppressive, backwards, galaxy, ruled by a cruel Hierarchy, where Minds (super smart AIs) are banned and hunted. A galaxy where the Idirans won the war one could say. I felt it was the same universe but many, many years in the future.
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Jul 14, 2018 21:38
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Plavski posted:It's gonna be a series on Amazon now Holy poo poo. I never thought in a million years I'd see an adaption of the Culture series. This ultra rules.
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Jul 14, 2018 21:42
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Applewhite posted:I’m so super excited for this. They’d better not gently caress it up like the Sy- Fy channel hosed up DUNE. They need to do it up right like Netflix did with Altered Carbon. they need to do it right like the first half of altered carbon, but i'll probably cry a little if they do it like the second half of altered carbon.
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Jul 14, 2018 21:53
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The part where Horza is at the Damage game is the best part. Being at that event would be so much fuckin fun.
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Jul 14, 2018 21:58
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this book is like a nonstop checklist of awesome science fiction imagery. Iirc at the beginning of the book when the idiran ship arrives to save horza they are aware that there is a huge culture ship in the system somewhere but don’t see it until it’s too late because it was HIDING IN THE loving SUN.
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Jul 14, 2018 22:10
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I think it is the only book I've read that does space battle realistically in terms of "humans, sit back and pray while the AIs do all the combat in under 2 seconds before you can even process what is happening."
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Jul 14, 2018 22:22
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Moridin920 posted:I think it is the only book I've read that does space battle realistically in terms of "humans, sit back and pray while the AIs do all the combat in under 2 seconds before you can even process what is happening." I really dug the space combat in A Fire Upon the Deep but I only vaguely remember it, I think it involved the ships rapidly shifting in and out of hyperspace and launching shitloads of drones that would hopefully catch the enemy ship during their seconds long stops in realspace while doing the same thing, or something along those lines. I really need to read that book again.
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Jul 14, 2018 22:42
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Plumps posted:also the squid guys who played squash with live balls. Yeah, IIRC, the squid guys were a hyper-masculine culture, like Klingons times 100. And the Culture negotiator who worked with them liked their style so much he quit his job and some kind of genetic engineering to become one of their species and lived with them.
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Jul 14, 2018 23:08
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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:they need to do it right like the first half of altered carbon, but i'll probably cry a little if they do it like the second half of altered carbon. Yeah true it sort of unraveled there at the end.
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Jul 14, 2018 23:09
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The Dennis System posted:Yeah, IIRC, the squid guys were a hyper-masculine culture, like Klingons times 100. And the Culture negotiator who worked with them liked their style so much he quit his job and some kind of genetic engineering to become one of their species and lived with them. Yeah, that happened, but it was a condemnation of his character, and the characters of the Minds who gave the squids Culture warships so they could make the Culture wake up and be more warlike again. The Affront were like the Idirans, except worse in every way. They genetically engineered their females to feel more pain from sex, and had a slave class also genetically engineered to be slaves. The Affront were a condemnation of the the bro lad stereotype, hoho hoho we so fun, we torture animals and women. Think of bullfighting. doverhog fucked around with this message at 23:35 on Jul 14, 2018 |
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Jul 14, 2018 23:32
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the first 4 words of this thread were a wild loving ride. no idea whats going on. i climb coal stacks for a living & dont have time for this poo poo
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Jul 14, 2018 23:34
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