Jay
Bork! Bork! Bork!
+2,006|5328|London, England

uziq wrote:

william gibson, j g ballard and philip k dick once in a blue moon can do a good service to sci-fi. fantasy is a much tougher sell.
Dick too, yes. Most of my fiction these days is historical. I have a Bernard Cornwell addiction.
"Ah, you miserable creatures! You who think that you are so great! You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything! Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough."
-Frederick Bastiat
KEN-JENNINGS
I am all that is MOD!
+2,973|6602|949

I'm gonna spend about 45 hours on planes over the next few weeks, so I'm looking forward to catching up on reading when I'm not zonked out on valium.  May even watch a few tv shows!

I can do a little bit of sci-fi, but I much prefer sci-fi to sci-fantasy, obviously.  Virtually the only fiction i read is classical lit.  I'm always open to a good #storey though.

@macbeth: same brother reads star wars novels.  I actually brought it up to him today, and this was relevant: The guy who wrote a lot of the fantasy books he reads (RA Salvatore) actually wrote a Star Wars novel recently.  I guess there was a big push to retool the storytelling into more adult themes, and he said the guy sucked at it.  Killed Chewy off in his first book.  My brother is all into this so he went on a 30 minute rant, but explained it as RA Salvatore taking his blueprint from the "Forgotten Realms" series (see previous comment about 40 tome story sets) and trying to force it into Star Wars Universe, with disastrous results.

He reads about 100 books a year, and over 50% are re-reads. He is really weird.
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3689
Is that the brother that hooked up with a prostitute in Thailand?
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
CC-Marley
Member
+407|6798

SuperJail Warden wrote:

At least no one here reads Star Wars novels
I used to a ways back. The Admiral Thrawn trilogy was really good.
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3689
They brought him back in the new extended universe if you want to give the new stuff a try.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
uziq
Member
+492|3422

Jay wrote:

uziq wrote:

william gibson, j g ballard and philip k dick once in a blue moon can do a good service to sci-fi. fantasy is a much tougher sell.
Dick too, yes. Most of my fiction these days is historical. I have a Bernard Cornwell addiction.
pretty much airport departure lounge trash but i won’t condemn you for your serviceable books. they’re like an old ragu recipe that has been handed down through the writerly family.
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3689
I saw a clip from Dr. Who on youtube. Wow that show looks awful. How did they make 20 seasons of it and who watches this?
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
DesertFox-
The very model of a modern major general
+794|6654|United States of America
In my experience, somewhat overweight nerdy white girls.
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6741|PNW

SuperJail Warden wrote:

I saw a clip from Dr. Who on youtube. Wow that show looks awful. How did they make 20 seasons of it and who watches this?
It is a tad awful.

It's also approaching 40 if you count the new series on top of the old seasons. I liked Baker as a little kid. Having rewatched some, they're bad, but at least they're cult/MST3K bad.

The new series feels like a middling drama that kind of played all its cards in two seasons. I watched it with family but had to stop somewhere between series 8 and 9 as the writing grew more and more atrocious. Even my tolerance levels for cheese were stretched.

I think both the old and new could have been so much better as a sci-fi program, but I won't lose any sleep over it.
uziq
Member
+492|3422
from a british perspective it always seemed like the 'revived' dr. who was to be enjoyed on the level of knowing its kitschiness/b-grade production and sort of revelling in how campy and naff the whole thing was. a lot of that plays into the fact its a BBC production, in a sort of eccentrically 'british' way, in that the BBC with its modest funding and remit has no business making ambitious drama series or sci-fi shows in the era of HBO, netflix, cable studios, etc. it's supposed to have a shoe-string budget and quintessentially british 'charm'.

it never appealed to me.

Last edited by uziq (2019-04-16 14:07:45)

unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6741|PNW

I like how characters run for their lives with all the urgency of having to visit the restroom.
KEN-JENNINGS
I am all that is MOD!
+2,973|6602|949

SuperJail Warden wrote:

Is that the brother that hooked up with a prostitute in Thailand?
nope, that was my younger bro. Just got back from SouthEast Asia with him, did not get a prostitute but he did shag a pretty hot filipina chick. Jelly?
uziq
Member
+492|3422
the mexicans of asia. 3/10, low effort easily capitalisation for the white man.
KEN-JENNINGS
I am all that is MOD!
+2,973|6602|949

das racist.jpg
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3689
I liked the game of thrones ending.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
coke
Aye up duck!
+440|6679|England. Stoke
Not really the ending though... But yes it was good.
uziq
Member
+492|3422
game of thrones is literally the show that a generation of cucks deserve. pathetic. have you guys heard of the wire? black people sell drugs in it. it’s so real.
coke
Aye up duck!
+440|6679|England. Stoke
Have you heard of breaking bad, white people sell drugs in that.
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6741|PNW

The problem with Game of Thrones for me is that some characters seem arranged to be killed off just for the shock value heck of it, and not as a result of a mistaken course of action the character would believably take. The storytelling in this respect feels directly manipulative and fake, and each time it happens my patience for it dwindles even further.
DesertFox-
The very model of a modern major general
+794|6654|United States of America
Up until now, it has been quite a few seasons since an important main character died, so the plot armor does seem much stronger for the amount of danger people have be in. I think the Battle of Winterfell episode was a no-win scenario for the show, though. They had to have a lot of humans die, or else it wouldn't feel like a dire situation. However, then you start questioning as how Sam and one-handed Jamie manage to live throughout the night unscathed. It felt like For Honor with the hero units shrugging off the unnamed minions.
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6741|PNW

If people didn't think it was a "dire situation" when a slogging carpet of ice zombies visible from space entered human occupied lands, there's no hope. I'll wait to watch the new ones on disc or something. I couldn't care less about the internet "spoiling" it at this point, because nothing would surprise me. I'm guessing Jon Snow will tragically bungle some other war strategy before the end.
DesertFox-
The very model of a modern major general
+794|6654|United States of America
I had been re-watching some old episodes recently, and it does feel and look like a much different show compared to how it started. I remember my favorite part in the early seasons was good dialogue, but now they seem to have traded that for a fancy opening credits sequence.
DesertFox-
The very model of a modern major general
+794|6654|United States of America
After the most recent GoT episode, I'm becoming worried about the ending. It felt a lot like The Last Jedi, where I came out of it thinking "that was very mediocre, at best". Strange, out-of-character choices are being made. All sorts of skipping ahead in the timeline along the Kingsroad whereas previously characters spent whole seasons traveling it. It's feeling rushed, and that's not a good sign.
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3689
The only plot armor that bothers me is the one they have given Cersei in order to even her odds against Dany. They sacrificed like half a dozen characters plus 2 dragons to make it even despite the fact that as an arc, it shouldn't have been even at all.

Dany should have hit Kings with all her force at the start of S7. Cersei dying at KL would have been the logical end result of her lifetime of evil. Dorne and the Reach assisted by Tyrion sieging down KL would have coalesced many of the storylines in westeros. The fact that the North and Vale were also in rebellion would further drive the point that the whole world finally came down on the Lannisters.

S7 should have been about Dany uniting the 7 Kingdoms and S8 the war against the Night King.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6741|PNW

The fact that anyone expects this show to have cohesion at this point is amazing.

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