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kcaryths
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Comments
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Ok, the dogs were cute and fun and loyal and all that, but I thought the idea that they would create some sort of pacifist society to be funny. One of the aspects of post-apocalyptic books that seems to be consistent is when society fails and the an…
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Have not read Cities in Flight. Might need to give it a go. I don't recall if I see it kicking around. I thought the agoraphobic angle was an interesting one. When I see the anxiety that younger generations appear (I say appear because I can't clai…
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(Quote) I landed around there as well. I felt like people would move to the country to get away, but then if they moved in such mass numbers then wouldn't the country just become urbanized anyways? It didn't quite compute for me. Also, it seems to s…
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I also really liked it. Something about the tone and the melancholy nature of it appealed to me. I actually did not remember about the Huddling Place being in SF Hall of Fame until I was a couple pages into reading it again and wondering why it soun…
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Alright, questions for City are up!
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Questions for City will be up after October 5 as I am out of town for vacation.
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Still need to get around to Riddley Walker.
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I have been reading Dark Eden, which also features a group of people completely isolated from anyone else (on another planet) and it shows a very different take on how the group of people have developed over time (I think better) - though in this ca…
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(Quote) Fair - but would that look the same in a situation like this where these new people are borderline alien?
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(Quote) I don't know Dr Who at all, but communication barriers can be really interesting parts of some stories. Darmok was already mentioned as a Star Trek episode. the communication issues in Project Hail Mary are another example.
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(Quote) Neal Stephenson. It's the only one of his tomes that I have read. I really liked it, but it's not without its flaws (and some people hate it)
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(Quote) They just needed a babelfish
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(Quote) I'll have to find the time to read this when I can give it the right attention - thanks!
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Wasn't sure where else to put this, but one of the other parts I liked about this book is that it was a pseudo first-contact story. It's been SO long since the settlement had seen any humans and they believed they were gone. There was so much fear b…
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This entire book could have been written without the Exiles. No idea why they were added to be honest. I guess since it adds to the "hidden information" theme, but then they were such an add on that I wondered why she bothered. I was hopi…
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Definitely one of the weaker points of the book in my view. The characters were distinct but generally sort of iterative of the others in their respective groups as well.
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I am with you there @Apocryphal I feel like my expectations for worldbuilding in SF to be pretty low so this was not too bad relatively speaking. 400 years is a LONG time though and it was hard to tell how much change there was. But then, with a sma…
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I don't really have a level of expertise or understanding to comment much on the accuracy of the "Russianness" of the cultures. They did seem a little bit forced, but then, I wasn't expecting Tolstoy either. I thought that the behaviour o…
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I loved that it was left somewhat abiguous. Very refreshing actually. I am unsure if the characters themselves knew exactly what was going on between them.
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I liked the setting quite a bit. Enjoyed the constant battle against an enemy that will never give up (radiation or time). It reminded me a little bit of Seveneves in that sense, in that things just keep getting worse, but Seveneves I enjoyed a lot …
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(Quote) I also liked the roll out of the two factions through the two narrators. The pacing of it was fine for me. Anya felt like someone just going through the motions after some trauma so maybe that had an impact on her not "getting it" …
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I enjoyed this one. I thought it was well paced and the plot kept me engaged for most of it. Prose was solid. Will I remember most of the details in a year? Hard to say. I appreciate books that have a creeping feeling of inevitable doom about them, …
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I like that choice as well.
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That's a great photo of him.
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I am thinking of City by Clifford Simak. I didn't see it on the reading list already.
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(Quote) For sure. It's just something I noticed and I like that about older books.
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That came along fast - time to think on this!
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She has a very good point. While I do enjoy Lord of the Rings, there is a LOT of tromping going on!
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What would an equivalent book look like today? Someone spends all day tracing cryptocurrency transactions to try and figure out which politician is being paid off by which foreign state?
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I don't have the book with me at the moment to pull out examples but the way they relate to one another seems more respectful (even when at times they are more direct!), but affection seems to be more acceptable as well. I think it's a good thing ov…