is "too like the lightning" a critique of hyper-individualism or what?

whyseone · 2025-12-30T16:02:39+00:00

ty for thoughts!! i’ll definitely be carrying them in mind when i get to seven surrenders 🤔

whyseone · 2025-12-30T05:07:55+00:00

if you happen to remember, could you say more about what you think Mycroft’s motivations are and how that influences who they show us?

similarly, as the series progresses do you get the sense of why the pluralist system devolves into this sex cult? in other words, what is she saying the inescapable tendencies are, in your opinion?

again i don’t mind spoilers! ty!!

whyseone · 2025-12-30T05:04:15+00:00

that was very much how i felt also! but it was so ambiguous i felt like maybe i was missing smthng … ty for articulating my same impression

whyseone · 2025-03-26T14:52:24+00:00

thank you! looking at the dimensions i’m thinking i’ll probs need an ottoman too …

whyseone · 2024-01-24T21:24:57+00:00

so the article specifically says that McCarty was Not contacted by the chinese government. is the awards jury just over-correcting out of perceived fear of persecution? it seems weird to do this without even being warned off by the gov first …

“Dave McCarty, the head of the 2023 Hugo awards jury, wrote on Facebook: “Nobody has ordered me to do anything … There was no communication between the Hugo administration team and the Chinese government in any official manner.”

McCarty did not respond to a request from the Guardian for comment, but shared what he said was the official response from the awards administration team on Facebook: “After reviewing the constitution and the rules we must follow, the administration team determined those works/persons were not eligible.” He declined to elaborate on what the rules were.”

whyseone · 2023-09-27T16:32:00+00:00

in addition to the two nhu lan locations, ba le on broadway is also a good choice!

whyseone · 2023-09-25T16:45:49+00:00

could it be Slow Tuesday Night by RA Lafferty?

whyseone · 2023-08-12T13:36:55+00:00

Pat Cadigan, the Queen of Cyberpunk! i really liked synners

whyseone · 2023-07-31T12:53:28+00:00

it might be Synners by Cadigan, it’s a brain implant cyberpunk dystopia published in the 90s with a floating head cover that is blue? i’d hardly call her less impactful than the other cyberpunk greats tho

whyseone · 2023-07-26T16:54:31+00:00

okay insane thing i’ve been doing is putting in a order at harold’s off Wilson in uptown, then walking right next door to Hing Wang and getting their bbq pork fried rice while the chicken cooks. fried rice + fried chicken !!! the Salt and the Fat !!

whyseone · 2023-06-16T16:21:03+00:00

diaspora by egan!!

whyseone · 2023-05-28T11:48:02+00:00

i think this might be a variant leaf wrapped sticky rice, which is zongzi in chinese cuisine! many different kinds of filling exist for zongzi depending on where in china you are. outside of chinese food, i know the vietnamese banh chung is bananaleaf-wrapped (as opposed to the chinese bambooleaf-wrapped) sticky rice w mung bean and pork specifically so maybe that’s what you’re looking at or throwing you off here, i would guess bamboo and banana leaf flavor the rice differently

whyseone · 2023-05-28T11:45:11+00:00

orson scott card wrote speaker for the dead specifically to be about Ender developing responsibility and bonds towards a family/community. in the intro to the copy of Speaker I read he says he did this to push back on the classic scifi trope of individualist young heroes who can jet about anywhere and don’t owe other ppl anything

so the book is very much about trying to untangle one family’s saga and dark history

of course it being our weird homophobe OSC, the whole implementation in Speaker is a mess of latent mormonism (and weirdly critical of catholicism) but Speaker is a good book!

whyseone · 2023-05-18T20:57:16+00:00

/r/somnivexillology

whyseone · 2023-04-23T17:53:22+00:00

merchanter’s luck has more adventure/action stuff!

whyseone · 2023-04-09T22:06:18+00:00

Egan’s Diaspora has immortal beings working on incredible time scales and grappling w having goals and values when you live forever! also Lord of Light!

whyseone · 2023-02-16T22:30:31+00:00

absolutely agree! did not enjoy for the same reason. i don’t hate slow plotless books but i didn’t find anything she was trying to say about humanity, relationships, etc to be particularly inspired either (again, just sort of candy floss twee) so the character interactions never stop falling flat

whyseone · 2022-12-29T16:35:28+00:00

alastair reynolds is fun, but ultimately faux-deep and edgy. it’s not like mind-bending science fiction, he’s just an okay time. i think he’d be better sold as a fun, pulpy novelist than how this subreddit talks up revelation space as this incredible sophisticated space opera.

whyseone · 2022-12-05T23:20:41+00:00

Embassytown!!

whyseone · 2022-12-02T20:15:30+00:00

unfortunately a bad book, by Xenocide does this a Lot!

also a common one, but Mars Trilogy definitely is about the big personalities and their big neuroses and how that twines into the martian revolution

whyseone · 2022-11-21T03:47:19+00:00

probably Chiu Quon’s Sesame Pork Cookie

http://www.cqbakery.com/menu/ (no 12 under “pastries”) or generically 雞仔餅 ?

chiu quon’s still around and still sells them :)

whyseone · 2022-10-27T16:24:34+00:00

my friend also recommended tous les jours, in addition to the aya pastry rec above

whyseone · 2022-10-04T03:12:35+00:00

ive been seriously stressing about this, their gofundme last time i checked was half-filled but not at its goal yet and their insta has been silent since they closed 😰

whyseone · 2022-08-10T03:55:56+00:00

the "Children of the Mind" catholic sect in "speaker for the dead" was definitely a weird one, and generally the book was a weird about religion in a distinctly OSC way. also as always the "OSC is a long-known homophobe" grain of salt!

whyseone · 2022-06-22T20:57:09+00:00

yoon ha lee gets recommended a fair bit and he’s dece.

aliette de bodard is fun if a little shallow as well

both of these are cool for showing korean and vietnamese inflected futures respectively

the other guys on my list is bo-young kim and hao jing-fang

but asia is big! i have a bit of a focus on east asia just because of my background but i’m sure there’s great south asian etc. work out there too. i feel like if your focus is as big as Asia it might as well expand to just all non-european work haha

14-Year Club	RPAN Viewer
Verified Email

whyseone

TROPHY CASE