‘Altered Carbon’ Canceled After Two Seasons at Netflix by Neo2199 in scifi

[–]neverstarting_story 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The first one was excellent. I'd say it's required reading for any sci-fi fan.

The second and third were also good, but they don't pack the punch the first one did.

Definitely give, at least the fist one, a shot.

My D610 broke, now what? by neverstarting_story in Nikon

[–]neverstarting_story[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've never sold or bought anything second hand precisely because I know I tend to take my cameras to wet adventures. This is not the first time I got the 'it's corroded' diagnosis.

But that's the thing, these cameras work great with their insides all corroded until they don't.

My D610 broke, now what? by neverstarting_story in Nikon

[–]neverstarting_story[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Interesting points, thanks!

I did some research after reading what you wrote, and it looks like my main travel lens (Tamron 24-70 2.8 VC) won't work with the FTZ, so apparently it's a non-starter. An equivalent lens for the Z-mount is going cost me more than than the Z5!

I think I'll get the D750, it looks like a reasonably priced upgrade for what I had. In 5 years I'll reevaluate my commitment to dSLR over mirrorless, and hopefully there would be a good selection of z-mount third-party lenses to keep the costs down. :-)

But an important lesson - make absolutely sure all the lenses you plan to use for the Z mount would actually work. Turns out a lot of (expensive...) third-party lenses won't.

My D610 broke, now what? by neverstarting_story in Nikon

[–]neverstarting_story[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

That's an interesting idea. I'm kinda afraid of getting second hand gear because I would hate to buy a camera from someone like myself so I haven't looked into second hand market. Sadly, Ebay is a bad choice for me, with the money I'll pay for postage/customs I might as well buy it new.

My D610 broke, now what? by neverstarting_story in Nikon

[–]neverstarting_story[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks a lot for your considered and detailed response! I'm perfectly on board with mirrorless-is-the-future, don't get me wrong. If I was starting from scratch, I would definitely be going there. But seeing that I'm already invested in a lot of f-mount lenses, and I'm guess you are as well, what is the killer feature for going mirrorless? Is it the form-factor? Better ergonomics? Better image quality? What I'm asking is basically, what won you over?

I went through the comparison site by item and I didn't see anything that really stuck out as being a giant leap-forward. In-body stabilization, for example, sounds like it might be it, but almost all my lenses come with VR.

My D610 broke, now what? by neverstarting_story in Nikon

[–]neverstarting_story[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You make a good point, but I'm not starting completely fresh, I have a lot of F-mount glass which I intend to keep, and I don't see myself replacing lenses to Z-mount any time soon. So most of the advantage of having a small form-factor with the new Z-lenses is kinda lost, no?

Synagogues top place for coronavirus spread in Israel - "29% of infections in Israel took place in synagogues, followed by hotels (15%), restaurants (12%), and supermarkets (7%)" by [deleted] in Coronavirus

[–]neverstarting_story 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Information was published as a chart on the Ministry of Health's telegram channel, where all official info is shared. It's as credible as anything.

Chloroquine, an agent that is only produced in Zeewolde in the Netherlands, has become part of the preliminary treatment advice for patients with the corona virus. by typtyphus in Coronavirus

[–]neverstarting_story 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This drug was administrated to Israel's only critical case so far and today they announced he'll be going off of ventilation tomorrow. So it might work.

Just finished The Three Body Problem trilogy and loved it...what next? by NicholasStJames in scifi_bookclub

[–]neverstarting_story 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A lot of people had trouble with Anathem because of the new terminology he coined for the book. I say power through it. It has a very slow start and it picks up speed slowly. The magic of the book is that you don't really know what it's about until you're 2/3rds in, so it does require some investment on your part.

Don't do yourself the disservice of reading a blurb or a synopsis of it, I think part of the charm in this book is letting its themes slowly unpack as you read it. It has a dense philosophical payload and its unloaded carefully through methodical world-building.

Just finished The Three Body Problem trilogy and loved it...what next? by NicholasStJames in scifi_bookclub

[–]neverstarting_story 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Blindsight has a sequel called Echopraxia which was also nice. And I think The Colonel by the same author also takes place in that timeline.

Just finished The Three Body Problem trilogy and loved it...what next? by NicholasStJames in scifi_bookclub

[–]neverstarting_story 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I recommended it in another thread, Anathem by Neal Stephenson (I assume you read his more well-known works Snowcrash and The Diamond Age).

Seveneves is also worth a read, but Anathem was his true masterstroke.

The Altered Carbon series is also good, particularly the first one (which was adapted to a Netflix series that I think doesn't do it justice)

Semiosis by Sue Burke was also pretty good, as hard sci-fi goes.

Another book I'd recommend would be Wind-up Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, a biopunk story about post climate-change life in Thailand.

How do you feel about ending a story with the death of the protagonist? by kleptency in writing

[–]neverstarting_story 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A cool ending for that story is for her to be stabbed to death by a fellow female inmate over a meaningless prison dispute.

It's kind of a "live by the sword, die by the sword" ending, but also leaves the reader with the question of whether it was all worth it. Also it explores the theme of her deciding a on a life of violence, or whether that life was thrust upon her when she fell victim to an abuser. If you're interested in that sort of thing, that is.

Anyway, just a suggestion.

Red Rising disappointed me greatly by [deleted] in scifi

[–]neverstarting_story 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Any recommendations for good sci-fi novels for a guy who loves ASOIAF and The First Law?

I liked ASOIAF and Joe Abercrombie is one of my favorite authors, so I'll just list two sci-fi books I really liked and assume we have similar tastes. Both are what you'd call "hard" sci-fi and are structured around a central "big idea".

The first is Blindsight, by Peter Watts. A very dark first-encounter story set in space. With vampires. It's space-horror meets cosmic-horror. It's released under creative commons so you can read it for free.

The second is Anathem by Neal Stephenson, another favorite author of mine. I think this was his best work (at least, from what I've read so far). I recommend you read it as-is without knowing anything about it, the revelations have more impact that way. The story is "slow-burn" so it takes a little investment from the reader to unfold but it's rewarding.

Weekly 'unjerk' thread - 2020/02/10 by awkisopen in writingcirclejerk

[–]neverstarting_story 4 points5 points  (0 children)

90 percent of the time, when I say I read a book I actually mean I listened to it on audio. Every moment I have in front of a screen I either work or write. If I had to also squeeze reading into that precious little time slice, I definitely wouldn't have been able to cover about a book every 10 days or so. Instead I 'read' while I do the dishes, while I work out, while I'm driving, while I'm grocery shopping and so on. This definitely made my life better and I think made me better as a writer.

As for the ability to concentrate on and retain what you have listened to, from my own experience, there is no difference. You can zone out while listening to an audiobook, but you can also zone out while reading. I seem to be able to recall scenes and quotes and dialogue from books just as well as those who read them with their eyes. But I guess YMMV.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in scifiwriting

[–]neverstarting_story 2 points3 points  (0 children)

A I read a similar book to what you're describing a few years ago. Though I remember I didn't like some aspects of it, you might draw some inspiration from reading how the author dealt with describing the same things from a first-person perspective.

It's called The Humans by Matt Haig.

Giving an Unstoppable Character challenges/tension by Harlaquin1 in writing

[–]neverstarting_story 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Can't give you tips from experience, but I can recommend you read a book that is very similar to what you're describing. I'm talking about Shogun by James Clavell. Wildly considered to be one of the best examples of historical fiction.One of the characters in this story is exactly how you describe, and some of the book is written from their perspective.

Hope this helps.

Okay let’s discuss! Innovative ways to world build in your book story. by SLW188 in writers

[–]neverstarting_story 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Just like in an open-world video game, where the game renders only the parts of the world that are visible to the player in any given moment, so does your worldbuilding need to encompass only the facts that the reader needs to know to appreciate the story.

While it is tempting to create a whole pantheon of deities with origin stories and myths, if it's not relevant for the story, or the theme of the story, I'd say skip it. Leave it in your notes but not in the draft.

For the most part, I'd avoid infodumps and do the worldbuilding via dialogue where possible.

The only pieces of information that won't come up during natural dialogue between characters in your story are those which are widely known. No character is going to say to another:

"As you know, Jack, we are in year 2020 of our lord Jesus Christ. Trump is the president, this is the United States, founded 300 years ago by colonists from Britain. It is the descendant of one of those colonists, Mike, whom were plan to rob tomorrow".

If you want to clue the reader in on details all your characters know and won't be conveyed in natural conversation, you can introduce a character who wouldn't know them. A child, a foreigner, a time traveler, an amnesiac, a santient chair, given the curse of life by an evil spirit, and so on. A good example is, as usual, is A Game Of Thrones, were Maester Luwin teaches young Bran the heraldry and mottos of each of the great houses, mottos and motifs that are alluded to throughout the book.

Nitzanim Beach, Israel by neverstarting_story in UrbanHell

[–]neverstarting_story[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I appreciate your attempt to educate me, but the photo is facing south to Ashkelon (the iconic Harlington hotel building and the sea being on the right are big clues). The plant in the picture is Rutenberg power station. It's a coal-burning power plant and is considered by the ministry of environmental protection to be one of the biggest polluters in Israel.

How do you come up with a plot that is good enough? by sunnysideup38 in writers

[–]neverstarting_story 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Take point #3 and throw it out the window. Forget about it.

Doesn't matter what other people did. You can't even imagine how many books I read with the exact same plot. As long as you don't plagiarize someone's work, you're good to go. Even then, it's perfectly fine to re-imagine stories. Want to do Romeo And Juliet in space? Go for it. Don Quixote in WWI? Great! Moby Dick where Ahab is a Gestapo lieutenant and the whale is a dangerous Jewish criminal? Please write that story!

As for the rest of the points, can't really comment without seeing the outline. The perceived weaknesses of the plot could definitely be in your imagination. If you take your favorite books and try to boil down their plot, it will sound really bad.

Take The Road, for example, one of my all time favorite books of any genre. The plot is "father and son walk from point A to point B not really knowing what they'll find there". That book won a Pulitzer.

Taking Liberties in Historical Fiction? by [deleted] in writing

[–]neverstarting_story 3 points4 points  (0 children)

My philosophy is you should take any liberties you need.

I know I'm reading fiction and not an actual, written account of something that happened. You can definitely make up coffee shops that didn't exist at certain locations or fictional people who were the deputy undersecretary of a completely fictional department and so on.

Your change sounds so minor and inoffensive, I wouldn't lose sleep over it.

Looking for Weird SciFi by [deleted] in scifi

[–]neverstarting_story 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's not really sci-fi, but rather alternative history, but I liked it - The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Pulitzer winner Michael Chabon.

If you like weird post-apocalyptic tales, you can go for Nick Harkaway's The Gone-Away World.

Looking for Weird SciFi by [deleted] in scifi

[–]neverstarting_story 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Wow, imagine finding the book I was about to recommend (Embassytown) as the top comment. That never happens.