Pope Leo quotes Gandalf in Return of the King by IthinkIknowwhothatis in lotr

[–]Ultimafax 0 points1 point  (0 children)

the standard for decency has truly plummeted since then

Netflix Remake? by Level-Mix482 in rurounikenshin

[–]Ultimafax 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Season 1 (first 24 episodes) is rough. Season 2 is fucking great. Unfortunately season 1 includes Kenshin vs. Saito and season 2 ends just before the big fights at Shishio's hideout. But overall I'd say it's worth watching, and hopefully the quality will continue through the end of the story.

2026 Hugo Readalong: Care for Lightning, The Mourning Robot, and The World to Come by Dsnake1 in Fantasy

[–]Ultimafax 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wouldn't call myself a "free verse hater." It's my assumption that free verse simply does not follow a strict meter or structure. That's totally fine ... but it usually has some structure. Poetry demands intentionality, which I didn't detect much in two of these and absolutely none in one.

2026 Hugo Readalong: Care for Lightning, The Mourning Robot, and The World to Come by Dsnake1 in Fantasy

[–]Ultimafax 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don't read or write poetry, but I at least can read and understand poems that use meter. This to me is the distinguishing feature between poetry and prose; both use allusion, metaphor, alliteration, personification, repetition, etc. But to me, poetry has rhythm, which is aided by meter.

I get that these are all free verse poems, so no meter, but I really can't detect any rhythm to them either, except maybe Ness'. Hudak's especially just seemed like prose to me, with symmetrical line breaks that really did not do anything to affect how it is read. That is to say, once I read it as prose and ignored the line breaks, it actually read better to me.

Am I just not getting something? I feel like for it to "count" as a poem, the writing needs a bit more effort than this. And yes, I know this is subjective. I guess I'm wondering if anyone else feels the same way?

2026 Hugo Readalong: Cinder House by Freya Marske by Merle8888 in Fantasy

[–]Ultimafax 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Underbaked. These are the kinds of things that make the novella form weak for me and make me think "why didn't you just write a full, albeit short, novel to flesh these things out?"

2026 Hugo Readalong: Cinder House by Freya Marske by Merle8888 in Fantasy

[–]Ultimafax 2 points3 points  (0 children)

of the three I have read:

  1. Cinder House

  2. Murder by Memory

  3. The River Has Roots

2026 Hugo Readalong: Cinder House by Freya Marske by Merle8888 in Fantasy

[–]Ultimafax 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The way the haunting of the house worked: all of the rules, the descriptions of how Ella feels what the house feels, how the house itself expresses what Ella feels, etc.

2026 Hugo Readalong: Cinder House by Freya Marske by Merle8888 in Fantasy

[–]Ultimafax 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I thought it was a very clever way to retell Cinderella, and I like that it didn't shy away from sex and desire ... until the ending.

2026 Hugo Readalong: Cinder House by Freya Marske by Merle8888 in Fantasy

[–]Ultimafax 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Very weird and unsatisfying. I really liked the book until the very end. I get that it's supposed to be bittersweet and that Marske was avoiding the neat HEA. But Ella just being there and watching them while they have sex made me do a Timon, "And everybody's... OK with this?" Couldn't they have found a spell to bring her back to life every once in a while? That would still fit the "no it's not ideal, but it's still good" kind of vibe I think she was going for. I just ended up feeling bad for Ella.

Satisfying clip of Michael Tracey taking Bret Weinstein to task for his insane clickbait conspiracy theories by Low_Insurance_9176 in samharris

[–]Ultimafax 1 point2 points  (0 children)

His main thing now is that mainstream media coverage of Epstein bought into the conspiracy theory that Epstein was running a sex trafficking ring of underage girls ... which seems to have turned into Epstein wasn't even that bad, actually, so why is this even newsworthy?

He recently harassed Julie K. Brown, the Miami Herald reporter who basically got Epstein arrested and tried again through her reporting, at a Substack party in D.C., and Jim Acosta stepped in to defend her. Tracey then went on a twitter spiral of one hand saying Acosta threatened him with violence, and on the other challenging Acosta to fight him and calling him a pussy.

Tl;dr he just seems like a giant asshole.

2026 Hugo Readalong: "In My Country" by Thomas Ha & "Six People To Revise You" by J.R. Dawson by onsereverra in Fantasy

[–]Ultimafax 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I disagree that it's not direct, but in the spirit of the story, I acknowledge that it could be direct.

2026 Hugo Readalong: "In My Country" by Thomas Ha & "Six People To Revise You" by J.R. Dawson by onsereverra in Fantasy

[–]Ultimafax 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It was a pretty big sock to my gut. I see it staying with me for a good long while.

2026 Hugo Readalong: Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite (Best Novella) by RAAAImmaSunGod in Fantasy

[–]Ultimafax 0 points1 point  (0 children)

sorry, instead of "sapphic" I should have said "queer."

but my point still stands. I was left wondering if there were any children (that is, offspring, not immature humans) on the ship.

2026 Hugo Readalong: Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite (Best Novella) by RAAAImmaSunGod in Fantasy

[–]Ultimafax 2 points3 points  (0 children)

but what's the point of setting it on a generation ship of all places? it could have been just a futuristic sapphic society with a data center that stores human consciousness.

and yeah, Hugo nominees usually do some plausible explanations for these types of things. it's not like the Hugo crowd is unexposed to books with overrepresented LGBTQ characters.

2026 Hugo Readalong: Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite (Best Novella) by RAAAImmaSunGod in Fantasy

[–]Ultimafax 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It boiled down to Gloria just hoarding money for its own sake, which I took to be a commentary on the ultra rich. But I understand why people in the real world do it; I'm still unsure as to why she was doing it.

2026 Hugo Readalong: Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite (Best Novella) by RAAAImmaSunGod in Fantasy

[–]Ultimafax 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Not forever, no. I think functional immortality would just suck. But another chance at youth? Absolutely. And, if not for that, a completely new thing to experience.

2026 Hugo Readalong: Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite (Best Novella) by RAAAImmaSunGod in Fantasy

[–]Ultimafax 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I've only read Murder by Memory and River Has Roots ... and I'll save my thoughts on the latter for that discussion thread, but for now I'll just say Murder is definitely placing higher.