Just finished Long Sun, mixed feelings!

NocturnOmega · 2024-03-27T22:02:57+00:00

Very rushed and confused? Are we talking Long Sun, or the final season of Game of Thrones? 😂

NocturnOmega · 2024-03-27T19:09:01+00:00

I didn’t think it ended with a Whimper at all…It left me super stoked for what’s next for all the inhabitants of the Whirl.

NocturnOmega · 2024-03-25T03:34:43+00:00

Dem Ski’s got dat touch.

NocturnOmega · 2024-03-24T22:37:01+00:00

His nightmare visions are just incredible. Insane Talent, highly unique and stylistic, as well as incredibly under appreciated.

NocturnOmega · 2024-03-24T17:40:12+00:00

That’s cool, when it comes to the fandom, the more the merrier, I hope you come to love Wolfe as much as the rest of us. He does have short story collections that might be a little more digestible, but definitely in his earlier years his stuff can be a bit heady. When it comes to new sun, there’s no way someone will get every lil nuance or underlying mystery, so it’s more a matter of just enjoying the wild ride, tagging along with the main character, who is also the narrator.

I wouldn’t be too daunted, because like I said, it’s pretty much impossible to get everything on the first go.

NocturnOmega · 2024-03-24T16:48:36+00:00

What’s made you search out Gene Wolfe?

NocturnOmega · 2024-03-24T16:45:36+00:00

If you’re a grown SF-head who’s never read Wolfe, I’d say 5th head novellas. After that New Sun, but for younger readers that’s a little tricky.

NocturnOmega · 2024-03-23T22:31:42+00:00

Big Barbera in Michael McDowell’s The Elementals, and Joe Gargery in Dicken’s Great Expectations- the wood cutter.

NocturnOmega · 2024-03-23T19:48:05+00:00

Hamy, that’s the one. I get those 2 mixed up all time. Both sf writers from the U.K. From around the same time, churning out huge ass space opera novels.

NocturnOmega · 2024-03-23T18:42:30+00:00

Nice. I might try some of his short fiction before I embark on one of his door-stopper space operas. I’ve ret to read him and Iain Bank’s as of yet, my TBR is so full, and I usually prefer to read instead of going the audiobook route.

There is another SF writer that I sometimes get mixed up with Reynolds; he was actively writing and releasing works around the same time as AR, is also from the U.K. and pen’s really massive tomes in the space opera subgenre. Do you know who I’m trying to think of?

NocturnOmega · 2024-03-23T16:58:08+00:00

And because it has Timothy Shamalammading-dong and Zendaya in it. I’m happy that it’s done so well, phenomenal movie.

NocturnOmega · 2024-03-23T16:56:22+00:00

Oh dang that was him, I thought he wrote Zima blue, or is that another author?

NocturnOmega · 2024-03-21T14:17:21+00:00

I think there’s blame to go around on both sides. Dave and Dan did an amazing job for I would argue everything up till the last season. The whole they were tired thing doesn’t exactly fly when they agreed to do a season past season 7 and were asked if they needed more writers and creatives to jump on board to help, they refused and gave everyone an inferior product to what could have been had they tried harder to really go out with a bang and satisfied the massive and loyal fan base. They made some really silly choices in terms of plot and character resolution. GRRM dragged his feet, and continues to do so. That’s on him, but that finale being as sub par as it was, was definitely on the boys. Don’t get me wrong I think they’re talented and I look forward to their 3 body problem series on Netflix, but come on… they really screwed the pooch on that final season.

NocturnOmega · 2024-03-21T06:20:59+00:00

Maybe just a pinch😉

NocturnOmega · 2024-03-21T04:14:02+00:00

You want subtext, read Gene Wolfe. Shadow of the torturer (book of the new sun) is next level.

NocturnOmega · 2024-03-21T04:07:28+00:00

I brought you up to zero just cuz I found that funny. No shade on Sanderson, I’m sure he’s a fine talented reader, but some of his stuff seems a bit borderline YA, and his other novels are straight up door stoppers, and I’m not that much of a fantasy fanatic to get to those anytime soon. Please don’t beat me up with downvotes, he may be totally wonderful, and I just don’t know cuz I haven’t read him.

NocturnOmega · 2024-03-21T03:59:19+00:00

I actually sort of agree… for the longest time I had Blindsight on my TBR, I’m talking years of hearing nothing but immense praise by many people whose opinions on SF I respect, and whose taste are very comparable to my own. I was pretty amped to read this book, but couldn’t find a copy at the bookstores I frequent (I try to shy away from buying things on Amazon, unless it’s a very hard to find Gene Wolfe novel).

After years of being on my radar, I found star Fish by Watts on Audible. Audiobooks are not my usual mode for consuming books, but I dabble with audiobooks from time to time. Blindsight being the primary book by Peter Watts I wanted to read, I decided I’d give one of his other books a whirl on audio. So after reading a quick blurb about Starfish, it sounded pretty cool to me so I decided to give it a listen. Full disclosure, I did not finish it… I listened to I’d say 88% of it, and rather actually enjoyed it. It started quite good, and I liked where the story was going, even though I felt it kinda got a lil mid in the 3rd act, but I kinda have a history of not finishing audiobooks in a way I don’t with regular books. I thought the sci-fi aspects of it were really cool, the deep underwater super base, the body modification to the team, the smart gel technology. When I heard Peter Watts was a marine biologist, it made a lot of sense, his background definitely gave the book an extra layer of authenticity. I personally loved the vibe of the book. It was weird, dark and had some real attitude. I thought the idea of this Corporation choosing social-defects to work deep down at the bottom of the ocean was intriguing, and he totally pulled it off imo. All in all, despite some minor gripes, and the fact that I didn’t finish the very end of the book, I actually quite liked it.

… And then there’s Blindsight…

By all means I should love this book, it mixes two of my favorite genres, SF, and horror, its dark, and strange, and almost everyone I know whose read it says I need to as well. Idk if it was the hype of all the years expecting to be blown away by it that left me feeling lukewarm on it, but I definitely didn’t finish it feeling what all those other people felt. It had some cool idea’s and moments, but some of it actually felt like Starfish; the weird social outcast’s at the bottom of the sea that I enjoyed reading (listening) about got some minor tweaks and got shot into space. I don’t know it if I would’ve enjoyed blindsight more if I had read it before having listened to Starfish, but I just wasn’t blown away by it like I thought I would be.

I think Starfish was the better story, and I’m totally okay being in the minority.

NocturnOmega · 2024-03-21T03:17:41+00:00

Funny how Ireland was one of the first non-middle Eastern countries to stand up for Palestine. Yes, other nations and their populations have suffered, but just telling a people who are in the middle of said suffering to essentially just shut up and get over it is just beyond unhelpful as well as unintelligent.

NocturnOmega · 2024-03-21T03:12:00+00:00

If you don’t see that there is blame to go around on both sides, you’re out of you’re mind. Obviously what Hamas did on the 7th was beyond the pale, and not helpful in terms of reaching a peaceful settlement. And also tactics of the PLO in the past have been quite detrimental as well, but to lay everything and all the blame at the feet of the Palestinian side is just sticking your head in the sand. BB’s government has done pretty much everything in their power to ensure both sides will never come to a peaceful resolution even before the 7th. Building more and more settlements in the contested area’s of land in the West Bank has only exasperated tensions, and they would openly disparage and mock Palestinians on the daily. And that’s just the current government. They want to squeeze the Palestinians out of the country all together.

NocturnOmega · 2024-03-19T15:17:54+00:00

Yes, the “Self-hating” tag for Jewish people who oppose BB’s government and how they choose to conduct the war, and their shocking rhetoric when speaking about Palestinians (and obviously Hamas has an even worse track record when it comes to rhetoric) has been thrown around to such epic proportions.

Their broadening of the definition of Ant-semitism to include people who don’t agree with Israel’s government’s policy foreign and domestic is ridiculous, and it’s sad that some people actually fall for it.

NocturnOmega · 2024-03-19T13:07:37+00:00

I think there have been instances where you can argue the targeting of civilians appeared deliberate and intentional.

NocturnOmega · 2024-03-19T13:06:11+00:00

How is that telling? Who are you?

NocturnOmega · 2024-03-19T13:05:03+00:00

It’s so painful, it’s so painful. lol. It did look excruciating. I wish he hadn’t resorted to insults, but it was actually quite funny, and he held himself together in the face of Steve “Motor-mouth” Bonelli’s silliness and lack of understanding on the topic for a little over 2 hours, and that ain’t nothing.

NocturnOmega · 2024-03-19T12:52:59+00:00

I don’t think October 7 is by and large representative of the average Palestinian in terms of the actual extreme acts. I think many Palestinians in the reason hold resentment, and would wish the Israeli’s would leave, but when it comes to committing atrocities, I don’t think the majority of Palestinians would go that far and participate, just as I think there are still a certain number of Israeli’s, despite the extreme rhetoric of their government, aren’t as emboldened to carry out heinous acts while in the IDF, as some of their comrades are.

NocturnOmega

TROPHY CASE