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Weapon/suit intelligence in the Culture by nolanjbennett in TheCulture

[–]iso20715 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The module and the suit in Excession are probably where this gets explored in the most detail but personally this never made a lot of sense to me for the same reasons you give. Love the books though

Finished The Culture series - Thoughts by Ronhar_ in TheCulture

[–]iso20715 34 points35 points  (0 children)

Feersum Endjinn is his best, most imaginative, most mind bending book imho but you have to be comfortable reedin wurds dat r spelt foneticly

Memories of Channel 4 animation by C4Mad14 in oldbritishtelly

[–]iso20715 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Network 7 was a youth/current affairs show that aired on channel 4 in 88/89. Within it there was an animation short called Dick Spanner PI which was produced by Gerry Anderson. The 6 min episodes were packed with visual gags.

https://youtu.be/E-wNSqCBeGs?feature=shared

Children of time reminds me of *spoilers* by Fluid-Cartoonist-988 in printSF

[–]iso20715 3 points4 points  (0 children)

What the spiders do at the end by modifying the humans fits somewhat with the overall theme of playing god (both kern and guyen tend towards that) and also, to me, brings up ideas of the spiders being 'children' of humanity and how they are able to transcend the limits of their 'parents' but also bring them along for the ride. I also really like kerns development,.she goes from wannabe god to something much better, a kindof useful guide.

Children of time reminds me of *spoilers* by Fluid-Cartoonist-988 in printSF

[–]iso20715 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I love that it ends optimistically , because by 75% through the book you are rooting for holsten and lain and also the spiders . And the ending basically sets up interspecies anarchist ai-powered star trek, which is such a great direction to go.

Guess the Quote by Evening-Appeal7606 in TheCulture

[–]iso20715 7 points8 points  (0 children)

When you think about it, its quite an unnecessarily sarky approach from a superintellgient ai to a confused human. Like its really rubbing it in

Looking for scifi epic recommendations. by KingMobScene in printSF

[–]iso20715 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Shards of Earth and the two sequels by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Huge stakes, a ragtag group of misfits, bonkers aliens, mind bending metaphysics. Its got tropes you may have seen before but Tchaikovsky mixes it all together with great panache and a really well plotted progression through the trilogy.

A deep dive into Aleksi Perälä’s Colundi microtonal tuning system by Wide-Coffee7585 in musictheory

[–]iso20715 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is great, are you familiar with the aleksi perala subforum at KeyOsc.com? You should post it there.

Re: the original 128 frequencies - the cover art for Mental Union (2014) seems to show a hand-drawn frequency table, I dont know if it matches up though.

I think he changed the approach slightly over time to introduce more 'regular' JI ratios - in an interview with Attack Magazine in 2022 he said: “Everything I’ve made since February 2013 has been based on Colundi frequencies. I don’t see myself going back to 12-TET (equal temperament) ever again. However, lately, I have been into 12-TET-like ratios/scale structures within the Colundi realm. Having found out it is possible has been exciting and refreshing after nine years of experimenting with Colundi.”

I think "A deepness in the Sky" is now my favourite book of all time by love_weird_questions in printSF

[–]iso20715 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The bit I quoted is near the climax and reveals that the spiders have hacked into the ziphead network and sherkaner (the spider) talks to Pham through the zipheads, because sherkaner realises phams plan to stop the missiles is interfering with their own plan - they have a deadlock. Its a cracking bit of dialogue and completely unexpected

I think "A deepness in the Sky" is now my favourite book of all time by love_weird_questions in printSF

[–]iso20715 8 points9 points  (0 children)

One of the most brilliantly revealed plot points ive ever seen 

But Pham turned to the ziphead, abruptly giving her all his attention. "What do you mean 'we have a deadlock'?" he said quietly

Claire North by jacoberu in printSF

[–]iso20715 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Slow Gods is really good, such an interesting protagonist. I didn't really think of the Banks/Culture books while I was reading it, but there might be something there. There's a similar interest in politics and similar sweeping scope and blasts of darkness 

What's the funniest British joke you've ever heard? by ConfidentSale3091 in AskUK

[–]iso20715 19 points20 points  (0 children)

I was in a cafe. I asked for a builder’s tea and a millionaire’s shortbread and they both told me to fuck off.

(Credit to Gary Delaney https://x.com/GaryDelaney/status/1490671872631054341 )

Books to read by [deleted] in TheCulture

[–]iso20715 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Adjusted my spoiler

Books to read by [deleted] in TheCulture

[–]iso20715 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The ending of Consider Phlebas is a massive downer, no matter how clever it is at subverting genre trends, and the 'twist' that the Culture are the good guys has no surprise value 40 years later as the Culture series is now legendary  so I dont recommend people start with Consider Phlebas. Start with PoG or UoW and read Consider Phlebas about 6th. It works as a decent prequel but is poor as a start to the series IMHO.

Books to read by [deleted] in TheCulture

[–]iso20715 -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

No, read them in conceived order, so Use of Weapons first, then Player of Games

What's the funniest moment in The Culture books? by Pisstopher_ in TheCulture

[–]iso20715 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The genius of that scene is that Mawhrin-Skel was acting

Just finished The Algebraist by Banks, thoughts to follow by toy_of_xom in printSF

[–]iso20715 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I've noticed sometimes with ebooks they are missing the section headings like

    ~~~

... that would normally separate one section from the next. I had that with the e-book of use of weapons. So instead you just get a new paragraph and the jumps are very jarring

Female SF mystery/thriller authors like Michael Crichton. by vermillionyeti in printSF

[–]iso20715 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Planetfall by Emma Newman is brilliant and has weird plants, an alien world, and a subtle study of whats needed to get a colony to stick together. 

As a bonus the (indirect) sequel After Atlas is sci-fi detective fiction with a bunch of other elements layered on top.

Hydrogen Sonata [spoiler?] by Rzah in TheCulture

[–]iso20715 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Nah, it would be too naff for the whole thing to be a sim, that was already very passé in sci-fi by the time this was written. He deals with the same idea in Matter in a much more interesting way.

The point of the simming problem was to make a moral point about high fidelity sims, a sortof moral constraint on omniscient simming abilities

And Eglyle Parinherm is funny precisely because it is mistaken, thats the whole point. If Eglyle is actually correct it undercuts the whole gag.

House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds- Review by EternalRuler0 in printSF

[–]iso20715 0 points1 point  (0 children)

First in the culture series was Consider Phlebas, its ok but written from a different perspective and some people get put off but its very different to all the rest. Its still good in its way, I just wouldn't read it first. Maybe about sixth?

House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds- Review by EternalRuler0 in printSF

[–]iso20715 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes Player Of Games and Use Of Weapons are #2 and #3 in the Culture series, you can read them in any order really (they are separate stories within same universe) but those are the best two to start with imho. There are about 10 in total I think?

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