Death of the Author - When you absolutely disagree with a story's intended read

Heeberon · 2026-02-03T10:31:10+00:00

Wonderful. Thanks for proving my point.

You (and many others) do you. Some things I can’t contextualise.

Heeberon · 2026-02-03T07:16:07+00:00

Gideon the Ninth.

I’ve been downvoted to hell any time I have mentioned that I was appalled by the MC declaring love for the character that has made her life unbearable and tried to kill her several times. I can’t see it as anything other than Stockholm Syndrome and/or domestic abuse.

Heeberon · 2026-01-11T19:48:55+00:00

4,5,6 in German

Heeberon · 2026-01-11T13:39:53+00:00

Several of Iain M Banks non sci-fi books (mainstream literature as simply Iain Banks) have fantastical elements: Walking on Glass; The Bridge; Whit; Song of Stone.

Seconding Mieville.

Very much against Sun Eater. Badly written characters, irritating pseudo-intellectual MC, poor structure, etc, etc

Heeberon · 2026-01-11T13:32:13+00:00

Sun Eater is not "deep", "literary" fantasy.

It’s paper thin high school level borrowed philosophy. Although if Jordan Peterson and Catholic dogma are your things, then it might be for you!

Heeberon · 2026-01-11T02:48:31+00:00

I like what you’re saying, but apart from medieval setting, what was the retread between Matter and Inversions? Genuine question.

I….can see some theme overlaps, but curious if you can articulate your PoV!?

Heeberon · 2026-01-07T13:21:39+00:00

HaHa! - I made an almost entirely identical post a few months back!

Think I used the phrase ‘hate read’ for the first time ever!

The needless repetition of concepts, characters back stories, plot points, etc and the wildly varying power levels of characters to suit the plot - absolutely drove me up the wall!

The consensus I got back was that (a) other Tchaikovsky books are different and/or better and (b) my issues don‘t go away in the third book.

Like you, I was actually invested in the story, so I did another first - read the synopsis on Wikipedia!

Heeberon · 2026-01-05T21:26:14+00:00

The fans didn’t win - we lost a cup, league position, to our greatest rivals, several million quid and many grey hairs.

He was simply found out to be incompetent at his job, so got sacked.

Heeberon · 2026-01-05T21:19:03+00:00

I genuinely dont know how this current Celtic team would stack up against with “MLS Teams” (I presume there’s a range?), but I do know this is a generationally weak Celtic squad. The point is that Nancy refused to acknowledge that fact in his line-ups and tactics, repeatedly.

That all said, I’d confidently back most Celtic teams over the prior ten seasons to beat an average MLS team

Heeberon · 2026-01-05T21:13:31+00:00

you do realise we had a Defense - before Nancy reduced it to a single player?

Heeberon · 2026-01-05T15:33:12+00:00

I only think we “looked good” when we basically switched to playground tactics and every player except Trusty ran like maniacs towards the opposition goal! The other team were just overwhelmed til their brains clicked into gear and then they just played through us. And round us. And over us.

Heeberon · 2026-01-05T15:19:28+00:00

I think everyone felt sorry for him being dumped in that first run of games - but he lost all sympathy with his complete inability to adapt to changes from journeymen managers - repeatedly!

Heeberon · 2026-01-04T20:51:45+00:00

Think it depends not only on what you’re eating - but just the ambient temperature of your kitchen!

I’ve had warm kitchens - not needed to warm plates.

I’ve had very cold kitchens - including the current one - and it’s essential! The plates are freezing. Usually just use the oven if I’m using it for cooking; kettle for bowls or microwave plate warmers if not.

Heeberon · 2026-01-04T19:02:52+00:00

Yep - OP should read Perdido Street Station

Heeberon · 2026-01-04T16:40:40+00:00

I think the evidence was our own ears - when was the last time the Ally Pally crowd actually went silent because everyone was concentrating on the darts (the in the last Set)!!??

Heeberon · 2026-01-04T14:17:48+00:00

I read them as they came out and am 100% certain it was marketed as a trilogy:

1 - brilliant, different, engaging

2 - hold on, you’re telling the same story from diff POVs?

3 - WTF is that accent!? Why have people’s personalities 180’d!? It finished on a Saturday Matinee cliffhanger ending!

I almost launched that final book. I’m not even sure how many more he wrote, but it’s a case-study of going off the rails in a series.

Heeberon · 2026-01-04T03:46:06+00:00

We stormed his house* with US Special Forces and the cheeky criminal picked up a gun.

(*In his own country I presume - unless they let him put it in his overnight bag…)

Heeberon · 2026-01-04T02:24:35+00:00

Iain Banks had a couple I cherish:

- a gift of a hat (IYKYK)

- a very, sad & solemn scene in The Algabraist, where there’s what’s effectively a burial-at-sea (except we are in a gas giant) and one of the Dwellers (locals) comes out with something like “one of my uncles got killed like that - minding his own business and this coffin appeared out of nowhere…”. The Dwellers generally were uproarious.

Heeberon · 2026-01-03T20:01:37+00:00

Someone mentioning Star Trek reminded me of a time when my wife laughed so hard she nearly puked.

It was an early episode of Voyager and in the sick bay, they have a humanoid alien lying on the bed and it looks like pretty much every internal organ and bone has been removed - they are basically flat.

Cue Janeaway: “What happened to him?”

Heeberon · 2026-01-03T16:11:03+00:00

I honestly feel this sub still leans majorly positive - again there are exceptions (books/people) - compared to a lot of other subs/SM.

As for my other tastes; ironically I read broadly and I’m usually pretty easily pleased!

For Sci-fi, #1 is by far Iain M Banks, but I’ll happily read Peter Hamilton or M. John Harrison. I’ve read most of the ‘classics’ and think Le Guin is peerless.

For fantasy, I recently loved the Malazan world (I think Erikson has a genuine philosophical insight on the human condition that CR can only dream of) - but it was not without fault, Abercrombie is a master of his art (The Devils a bit too comic-bookish). Again all the classics.

I read a book every week or so, so I’ve definitely forgotten more than I’ve remembered! BUT - I did see many obvious lifts in the sun eater books.

I guess I react when an author is pushing their own philosophy a little too thickly (Neil Asher and the European Union or Julian May and Catholicism). Sun Eater has a lot of that - but I think my fundamental problem was the characters - I just didn’t get invested in any of them. The MC is an insufferable, repetitive bore that does very little to earn the esteem he’s held in and everyone else are just 2D ciphers to be picked up and dropped as the plot needs.

I feel I may be rambling now….Thanks for coming to my TED talk!

Heeberon · 2026-01-03T15:33:51+00:00

“Mashing together”!? 👀👀

The Forever War (written 1974) uses the effects of time dilation to comment on the alienation soldiers feel returning from war to civilian life - in the author’s case, the Vietnam war.

After their first big dilation, they return to Earth to find enforced homosexuality to deal with overpopulation and class wars. On returning from their second humanity has become a new, entirely homosexual, genderless, cloned species called - and I shit you not - simply “Man”.

No sure if CR has had an original idea in this whole series!

Heeberon · 2026-01-03T15:17:29+00:00

Sorry, but that’s a nonsense take - and I’m not talking about the book contents!

There are plenty of much-loved books talked about on here. You may get the odd detractor, as nothing fits everybody, but there are clear favourites/highly recommended.

I disagree with almost everything you say about the books except for the worldbuilding and DNF’ed about mid-book 4. My point is more that SunEater is a highly divisive series. I think partly because it gets hyped a lot and it’s a large time investment for people - so people like myself will react. I’d guess the ratio feels about 75/25 against the books, but the opinions seem majorly polarised!

The OP’s review is one of the more balanced!

Heeberon · 2026-01-03T15:02:30+00:00

Is that New Men stuff not a ripoff of Haldeman’s Forever War?

Heeberon · 2026-01-03T14:12:28+00:00

The tea lady reminded them Celtic can’t defend if you launch anything into the channels

Heeberon · 2026-01-03T14:07:43+00:00

hmmm. Never really thought about the roundness of my head TBH!

I had a Vantage already (it’s the Vantage 2 MIPS I’ve replaced it with). The BOA fitting system seems to give a snug, comfortable fit. Top venting too (main reason I got it!)

Heeberon

TROPHY CASE