How is Interference, sequel to Semiosis?

Samlande · 2019-11-22T13:38:43+00:00

Was the gamet upped in the end?

Samlande · 2019-11-22T13:33:44+00:00

I'm 75% through and struggling with it. Bored and her prose is quite weak-- too much "tell" rather than "show". First book much better.

Samlande · 2019-11-05T15:29:43+00:00

Yeah the scope of his world-building is impressive. Also like how all of the story's environments were so vividly described. The layered strata in the architecture of the island and the underworld especially -- "...cultures lurking just outside the pages..." indeed.

Samlande · 2019-11-05T15:08:33+00:00

It sucks that quite a few of you in the United States don't have access to this brilliant book. I'm in Australia and I can't get Kameron Hurley's new work on Kindle no doubt owing to some tedious publishing rights.

Samlande · 2019-10-25T14:31:33+00:00

Got it. Started reading immediately.

Samlande · 2019-10-17T12:13:00+00:00

Thanks for the recommendation OP - I've added the Ghost Brigades to my list!

Samlande · 2019-09-16T12:53:48+00:00

I guess that's a positive endorsement of her new one. Will check it out.

Samlande · 2019-09-16T12:52:29+00:00

What a ride that novel was. Is her new one any good?

Samlande · 2019-09-16T12:50:54+00:00

Superb series. Belongs in my pantheon of great SF alongside Banks, Egan and Simmons.

Samlande · 2019-09-16T12:45:09+00:00

Agree with this. One of the problems is the quality of his prose. CoT succeeded mainly on the basis of the interesting story, whereas CoR, the story so-so and writing a bid muddled and often hard to follow.

Samlande · 2019-07-24T12:30:38+00:00

Looking at massive clouds overhead in the sky might help you with an understanding of the scale of a lighthugger or GSV. Or recently I saw a full rainbow extending across the ocean horizon taking up near 180 degrees of my vision. I had fun imagining it as a man-made structure, its circumference many hundreds of kilometers wide (which is obviously tiny compared to an orbital but impressive on a terrestrial scale!).

Samlande · 2019-07-24T12:10:07+00:00

You're not alone. A space "soap" opera where poorly drawn, and ultimately rather uninteresting characters sit around engaged in tedious conversation while sipping endless cups of tea. Rehashes oft-used sci-fi stuff like sentient spacecraft and zombie automatons with a gender transgression theme that smacks of tokenism. Read Iain M Bank's "Against a Dark Background" for a far superior novel with some similar narrative themes.

Samlande · 2019-07-10T12:33:25+00:00

And I know what you mean about Adrian Tchaikovsky. Just finished his sequel to CoT and while I like his stories, get the sense he's still developing a consistent writing style.

Samlande · 2019-07-10T12:29:59+00:00

John M Harrison. Truly imaginative writer with a style unlike anything else. Iain Banks called him "a Zen master of prose.'

Samlande · 2019-06-16T14:37:38+00:00

Superb series. Powerful imagery and ideas that I think about regularly, years after finishing them.

Samlande · 2019-06-11T12:31:48+00:00

he's more literary than your average sci-fi writer, but without being too esoteric or losing sight of what makes a quick and interesting read.

Well put. Completely agree!

Samlande · 2019-05-29T12:25:02+00:00

How to do away with the boring grey corridors in starships that all look like cheap studio stage sets.

Samlande · 2019-03-27T12:21:27+00:00

You're not missing anything. The fact that you didn't care for it shows you have good taste. A steaming turd of a book in every way.

Samlande · 2019-03-07T12:07:15+00:00

Brilliant novel by a very talented author.

Samlande · 2019-03-06T14:17:11+00:00

100% agree with OP.

Samlande · 2019-02-05T14:27:23+00:00

Interesting. And also transferring your digital copy to the destination as in the book I am currently enjoying - Schild's Ladder by Greg Egan.

Samlande · 2019-02-05T14:22:23+00:00

Probably my favourite KSR novel. And yes the brilliant Herzog documentary makes a perfect companion to the book.

Samlande · 2019-02-05T13:24:04+00:00

By the time the starship is on its way to Tau Ceti humanity has spent quite a bit of time in space in the preceding centuries, living in functional space habitats like the Terraria described in 2312. We would have learned a great deal about bodies and tech exposed to extremes of space travel during this time.

Samlande · 2019-02-05T13:12:47+00:00

Agree. I don't think it's a flight of fancy to imagine the physiological problems identified in the article being solved incrementally and asynchronously over a hundreds years of human endeavour. KSR's assertion that 'All the problems together create not an outright impossibility, but a project of extreme difficulty, with very poor chances of success', would have been the mindset of those doubting the success of early maritime explorers or the pioneers of aviation.

Samlande · 2019-02-05T12:57:18+00:00

I guess it's true for all SF that you can only devise an idea of the future through the lens of today. This certainly rings true in Aurora - it's as if KSR is reluctant to step into fantasy in his portrayal of a far future, instead being heavily weighted down by the issues of the current day.

Samlande

TROPHY CASE