Gaston de Foix

On 2/25/2024 at 1:25 PM, Wilbur said:

Another possibility you might enjoy is Walter Jon Williams' Dread Empire's Fall.

Thanks, man!.  I just finished this series.  Or is it finished, does anyone know? Some spoilerific thoughts below: 

Can two things be true at the same time:  setting yourself on fire is the act of an unbalanced mind and paying attention to/fixating on real trauma and horror will in fact unbalance you? 

Anyway, in other (sad) news, today is gonna be a blockbuster day in the slow-unwinding of Fulton County's prosecution of Donald Trump and his Bros.  

1 minute ago, Larry of the Lawn said:

I really loved the first 2/3 of it, but agree that the ending was on the weak side.  I feel like there were moments when the book approached some kind of revelation or threatened to breakthrough into a new paradigm but that it just didn't quite get there.  There was so much potential with the exploration of consciousness and language and awareness and perception, that really begged for more subtext.  

Overall I enjoyed it but was disappointed, it felt like the author didn't take full advantage of the concept.

This.  Out of curiosity did you read the Children of Time series?  It provided a different perspective on Octopus consciousness. 

25 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

Are you particularly set on a specific type of SF, that space-opera-ish kind? Despite being a different sort of story than anything he wrote, Expanse is very influenced, directly, by Arthur C Clarke, so something like Rendezvous with Rama or 2001 might be worth a try if you've never read them. 

I have enjoyed Space-Operaish sci-fi the most in the past, yes.  The Foundation Series was also a formative influence as was I, Robot (books, I hasten to add).  

Yes, I have never read Arthur C Clarke so will try Rendezvouz with Rama or 2001.  If I had to pick, which one of those two?

1 hour ago, unJon said:

What you are looking for is The Gap Cycle by Stephen Donaldson. 

Read it at 14 (following the Covenant series).  I was a bit traumatized by the thing that happened early there, so maybe didn't get the full flavor of the series.  Donaldson has this bleakness, no? Of the authors I've read, on the Depress-o-meter: Robin Hobbs < Donaldson < Tchaikovksy of Shadows of Apt.

3 hours ago, williamjm said:

I think that Consider Phlebas is one of the weaker Culture books, since there's not really any order to most of the books in the series I think The Player of Games can be a better place to start.

 Thanks.  Will try it. 

3 hours ago, williamjm said:

Some other books to consider might be Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice, Arkady Martine's A Memory Called Empire or Adrian Tchaikovsky's The Children of Time.

Read A Memory Called Empire and loved it  Read the Children of Time and admired it (but was a bit bloated).   Will try Ancillary Justice - thank you.  

I finished The Mountain in the Sea based on recommendations on this thread.  I understand why others raced through it, and I did too, but I felt the ending was a bit abrupt and weak. 

Currently stuck on what to read and open to trying something new/classic in sci-fi as I'm much less well read there. 

Basically looking for something that holds up to the Expanse.  I've read the Salvation Trilogy and enjoyed it (but had to skim read large parts tbh).  I downloaded some samples of genre classics (Consider Phlebas, Revelation Space, Exordia) but nothing seemed to click. I've looked at the recommendations threads too.  Suggestions please?

On 11/17/2023 at 10:45 AM, Zorral said:

@RhaenysBee  It belatedly occurred to me, going by what you have liked and not liked, both here and screen forums, you might enjoy one of my favorite novels, Possession (1990), by A.S. Byatt.  The film is not as good, but it is good too.  The reason it just now came to mind is the notifications today that Byatt has died at age 87.

If you like Byatt, I commend this lecture by Kenji Yoshino: 

https://openyls.law.yale.edu/bitstream/handle/20.500.13051/17626/Commencement_2005_Yoshino.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y

On 11/14/2023 at 6:47 PM, williamjm said:

I have now started Martha Wells' new Murderbot Diaries story, System Collapse.

Is it a return to form for Martha Wells?  I devoured the Murderbot Diaries in April 2022 on vacation, but couldn't bring myself to read Witch King after the bad reviews.  

20 hours ago, IFR said:

If they're cutting the Finns for time reasons, how are they going to make room for an original plot to cleanse the dagger in season 3?

Already there is a lot that needs to be done. Again, the books are not at all a reliable guide for future events in the show, but presumably in some form we'll have:

1) Perrin possibly meeting Faile (unless he's intended to match with Aviendha instead or whatever they plan).  I think Perrin-Faile will definitely happen.  Rand-Aviendha will happen (foreshadowed by Aviendha identifying Rand as the Car'a'Can), but maybe later than Rand-Elayne.  

2) Perrin going to the Two Rivers.  Foreshadowed. 

3) Rand going to the Waste.  Foreshadowed. 

4) Potentially Rand getting Callandor? It hasn't been mentioned in the show, so I doubt this.  Integral to final plot resolution, so I think it will happen.  Just saved for later seasons.  

5) The overthrow of Siuan. Unless the showrunners intend for her to team up with Elaida against Moiraine, or something along that line.  I think it will also happen.  

6) Elayne romancing Rand?  Will happen, and foreshadowed. 

7) Nynaeve and Elayne off on their adventure to hunt Black Ajah, and potentially deal with Moghedien. 

8) Whatever additional scenes are required to pad out the screentime for Moiraine and Lan. Perhaps this could be the cleansing plot line?

My predictions above, FWIW.  

1 minute ago, Arakasi said:

It could be he drops this evil weapon for a true replacement. Would be a transformative change. I am guessing that is what happens because well duh the dagger is still evil but we’ll have to see.

Maybe.  That would be good.  But I don't get the sense that Sanderson got told it was temporary. 

There was some discussion of whether it is "the" Ashandarei and the implication was that to the best of Sanderson's knowledge it was.  I have to think that if he pushed back on it (as he said he did) then the showrunners would have reassured him of an upcoming replacement.  But the silence there is telling.  It wouldn't surprise me at all that they haven't figured it out for the future.  Occam's razor it's just lazy storytelling.  

There is another side to this of course.  There's no guarantee WOT will go 8 seasons, and moving places in piece for abbreviated story-telling in 4 or 5 seasons is sensible.  

1 hour ago, Arakasi said:

Well his staff there does have ravens on it which seems to indicate that. I don’t know if it’s been cut entirely because he does need to get the foxhead medallion from somewhere but it’s also a weird scene that only matters three times. Once at the beginning of TSR, once at the Cairhein battle and lastly when Mat goes back to rescue you know who. Other than that it doesn’t affect the series and if something only matters 3 times in 14 books it’s a candidate for cut.

Yeah, but this raises the broader question of Mat's arc.  If he has the memories of all his past lives (speaking old tongue for example), and his ashandarei then all he needs is the foxhead medallion (and marriage to Tuon) and he'll be ready for the Last Battle. 

I haven't seen the rest of Sanderson video (upto like 28 min I think) but I imagine he makes a similar point based on his earlier comment about arcs and themes. 

So I've watched some but not all of the Sanderson view of the last episode, but it seems like he gives away a pretty significant spoiler.  It seems like the spear with the dagger is actually Mat's Ashandarei.  Sanderson qualifies it by saying as far as he knows, but since he has seen the script, it is almost certainly described that way in the script. 

Disappointing news if true.  The logical implication is the Tower of Ghenjei and the Eelfin/Aelfin have been cut.  

7 minutes ago, Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II said:

Got it , so when you say remake it in his own image he wants it to be a world full of evil and pain and suffering ? Any reason why he’s so evil or is that simply in his nature , like the dark side ?

I guess Ishy is not wholly evil as he’s just trying to end the constant cycles, so if he succeeds in breaking the wheel , that means karma will no longer be a thing in this universe right ? Or does breaking the wheel means destroying this universe permanently as well? I’m not sure if wheel is analogue to universe/time

What Karaddin said.  The true nature of the DO and what he wants to do to the world is very much a major plot-point in the books, and the distinction between an immoral world, an amoral world, or ending the world is a subject of considerable and deliberate  ambiguity. 

Ishy is not written to be evil so much as a nihilist.  He sees no solution to the problem of evil apart from the triumph of evil and therefore wants to facilitate that triumph which he believes will be universe-ending. 

Lanfear's motives are mysterious and maybe not understandable even to herself but I comprehend her character her to be jointly obsessed with Lews Therin and power (with power predominating).  

Frankly, I think there are too many forsaken who joined the DO simply because "Lews Therin was better".  One character like Demandred would have been cool.  

11 hours ago, Maithanet said:

Democrats providing thier votes to some Republican speaker in exchange for some concessions is at least possible, although still not likely.  It would allow that Speaker to not have to kowtow to the freedom caucus.  But it's always easier in theory than in practice.  Even the "moderate" Republicans have very little in common with Democrats.

In theory the terms of the deal would not be substance (where no single bloc exists to justify movement on anything because it's all a zero-sum game)* but process where the House could change its rules to diminish the power of the speaker in favor of the House as a whole.  The elevation of a neutral or well-regarded Republican moderate as speaker would likely have to be part of the deal.  

That's what, theoretically, the Freedom Caucus and commentators like Justin Amash are most concerned with.  The thing is the way the House has been run as a dictatorship from the Speaker chair is a stable equilibrium.  I'm not sure an alternative will be stable over time, just like the attempts to resurrect the Roman Republic keep collapsing back into Caesarism.  

I'm not going to say it's gonna happen, but I see that as a potential deal-space for now.  A strong majority of either party would probably change the rules back.  

*On substance, there's just no window for a deal on substance for anything like permitting reform (bipartisan majorities of each house would support it) because it would give Biden a win.  Trump would come out against it.  There's not space for a straight up deal like Israel aid for Ukraine aid (bipartisan majorities still support both as well) because that's also a "Dem win".  Even a serious attempt at deficit reduction which is frankly an overdue necessity probably won't pass.  

27 minutes ago, Ormond said:

I don't think that's necessarily true, especially for Coolidge, who seems to average out in the third quartile and whose relative ranking actually seems to have risen a bit during the last couple of decades.

I think it's not so much that his ranking has improved as that the US has painfully discovered in the last two decades there are presidents whose activities are objectively worse than a profound philosophical commitment to inactivity.  But, yeah, OK, true.  There have always been silent Cal fanboys and fangirls.  

2 minutes ago, Ormond said:

I always advise people whose surname is also a common noun, especially one that refers to an animal, never to alliterate because then it sounds like a cartoon character. Years ago there was a man who was featured on Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show" whose parents had named him Donald Duck three years before Walt Disney created the character. But despite the Marvel characters (and all the L.L. characters in DC's "Superman") I think saying all alliteration is "cartoonish" is an overreaction. Are Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover "cartoonish" names?

 Coolidge and Hoover are uncontroversially two of the worst US presidents ever, so yes?  

19 minutes ago, Ormond said:

Ronna Romney McDaniel is actually named after her mother, Ronna Stern Romney, who is also a Republican activist.

It is in fact highly unusual in modern American culture for a mother to give her daughter her own first name. It really could be seen as a somewhat feminist thing to do, though I am sure Ms. Stern Romney would deny that.  It certainly might help explain why Ronna Romney McDaniel is so much more willing to cowtow to Trump than her uncle, given what may be her identification with a mother whose first name she shares, especially since her mother and father are now divorced. It's a complicated family situation, though, as Mitt seems to have campaigned for Ronna Stern Romney during her two runs for the US Senate in Michigan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronna_Romney

How fascinating. 

According to Wikipedia, Ronna's interest in public service was inspired by her mother and grandmother.  Trump literally made her change her name to drop the Romney so her public profession of devotion to him would be total.  He really is Voldemort isn't he?

10 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Scalise is the nominee to be the next Speaker and the voting may happen soon. However, reporting is that he's way off the needed number to get the gavel with Republicans and I suspect Dems won't throw him a frickin bone here. 

Jordan is apparently meeting him and may throw him his vote/supporters for a promotion to Majority Leader.  LOL.  

10 hours ago, Gertrude said:

I was never reading the books for the brilliant writing. Jordan was a decent writer, but nothing special IMO. Sanderson is fine. I don't prefer the simplistic style, I think Sanderson refers to it as 'window pane' or something. He doesn't like the writing to get in the way of the story. Simplistic is not the same as bad, it's just not my preference. I started reading WoT at a time when Jordan's style was pretty standard and it didn't bother me, which is about all I can say about it. It was always about the story - which is why I stuck it out through the slog and beyond.

Same.  I read a lot, and fast, so clunky writing doesn't usually bother me.  I've read most of Sanderson's published works.  This particular sentence struck me as worthy of the Bulwer-Lytton contest because, well, let's just look at it again: 

"He had hated to leave Mat with Mashadar, but was confident—from a look Mat had given him after falling—that his friend could survive the mist, and knew what he was doing." 

(i) Chapter 46 ended on a cliff-hanger with Mat having been speared by Mashadar.  We have been conditioned to expect such an event to spell Mat's demise (see Sammael; and also Egwene's death); 

(ii) Perrin immediately leaves Mat for the Wolf Dream for...reasons apparently set out in that sentence and goes to do something else;

(ii) Perrin's emotional state goes from "hate" to "confidence" in 9 words.  Actually, let's be charitable, ignore the actual words used and say that his emotional state goes from "strong guilt" to "assured purpose".  Why?

(iii) Because he simultaneously concludes that Mat is going to "survive" and "knew what he was doing" all from a look delivered from dozens of feet away while falling from your horse in surprise from an unexpected attack;  that's quite some telepathy/body language going on.  Kudos to Mat from taking the time out from being speared (apparently to death) to reassure Perrin; 

(iv) You know what, let's accept that Perrin can infer all of that from a look that Mat gives him with a ridiculously high degree of confidence. The cherry on the cake is the weird redundancy of the sentence stating that Mat was telegraphing both his future physical state ("survival") and his capability to handle the situation.  Why not simply say "had a trick up his sleeve"?  

It might even have been better to just leave the plot-hole of Perrin abandoning Mat in silence.  The fix is just so...bad. 

[End/Rant]. 

So...I've been reading "AMOL" again and the writing leaves much to be desired.  This is an actual sentence in the book: 

"He had hated to leave Mat with Mashadar, but was confident—from a look Mat had given him after falling—that his friend could survive the mist, and knew what he was doing." 

What did book readers think when the book came out? Was it satisfying? Is the show going to be able to do it justice?

I'm struggling to see how the Rand/DO confrontation scenes can be done without extensive (and expensive) CGI. 

11 hours ago, Arakasi said:

Yeah season one was fine for the most part.

I would also add that for the WOT virgin there is a complex learning curve and they are the primary audience not WOT-obsessed nerds.  The little easter eggs are for the nerds.  As the wheel turns, the complexity of story-telling can grow.   

46 minutes ago, Larry of the Lawn said:

You wanna check out a really wild ride, check out the book The Honeymooners by Chuck Kinder.  He's the real world inspiration for Michael Douglas's character in Wonder Boys, the film adapted from Michael Chabon's book of the same name.  Kinder was best friends with Raymond Carver, and the book is about their antics.  It's PG Wodehouse meets Tom Wolfe.

 

Should I read the The Honeymooners (book) if I never watched the Honeymooners (movie), Wonder Boys (movie) or Wonder Boys (book)?  Like where does one start?

27 minutes ago, Arakasi said:

Ugh don’t like that. Ingtars actor was fine and all but nowhere near the presence of Fares. I just don’t think that works but just because of actors involved.

Edit: The show was never awful even season 1. I think you’re looking for the rings of power thread. Underwhelming sure at times and season one finale was a dud for sure but I wouldn’t call any of it awful compared to things like ring of power or Witcher or other fantasy shows.

Rings of Power was an abomination.  WOT season 1 was frequently mediocre.  Big difference IMHO.  

1 hour ago, karaddin said:

I think newly raised Chosen is the best fit for Rafe's comment on "can't confirm or deny if there are 8" combined with what we've already seen.

Are you assuming they are already out there or that, like Taim, they will come onto the scene near the end? 

As an aside, I think it would be a shame not to have Demandred reprise his AMOL role.  I thought him falling to Lan was very well done.  

1 hour ago, SpaceChampion said:

We only know 6 have been named, and there are two more that Lanfear calls "the boys"

How do we know that "the boys" are only two in number? Based on counting the broken cuendillar?