The Incomparable

◼   ► the incomparable podcast number 69 [TS]

◼   ► December 2011 [TS]

◼   ► welcome back to the uncomfortable I am [TS]

◼   ► Jason smell your host we are convening [TS]

◼   ► another edition of the uncomfortable [TS]

◼   ► book club and yet again i believe this [TS]

◼   ► is our fourth thousand-page long book in [TS]

◼   ► a row [TS]

◼   ► fortunately our next book is stephen [TS]

◼   ► king's book about the Kennedy [TS]

◼   ► assassination in time travel which is [TS]

◼   ► like 20 pages right also a thousand-page [TS]

◼   ► oh god help anyway [TS]

◼   ► today we are going to talk about ream d [TS]

◼   ► which is how you pronounce it [TS]

◼   ► by the way we checked Neal Stephenson [TS]

◼   ► has a video where he calls it [TS]

◼   ► md it's really be its readme misspelled [TS]

◼   ► as Reedy by chinese hackers but we'll [TS]

◼   ► get to that Neal Stephenson's Ruby came [TS]

◼   ► out in September and we've all read it [TS]

◼   ► took us that long if you didn't read it [TS]

◼   ► don't why you want this podcast and if [TS]

◼   ► you don't want to know what happens in [TS]

◼   ► it [TS]

◼   ► please don't listen to this podcast [TS]

◼   ► because we're going to tell you what [TS]

◼   ► happens we're going to talk about what [TS]

◼   ► happens in the book so joining me to [TS]

◼   ► talk about what happens in the book [TS]

◼   ► which is the purpose of a book club just [TS]

◼   ► getting out there are serenity Caldwell [TS]

◼   ► hello hi Jason it's just a check you've [TS]

◼   ► read the book right [TS]

◼   ► I have indeed read the book the whole [TS]

◼   ► book the entire book right to be a week [TS]

◼   ► maybe we can have that show off haha [TS]

◼   ► well no it's okay i'm taking like two [TS]

◼   ► months to finish cryptonomicon so all [TS]

◼   ► right well actually never ends you know [TS]

◼   ► that book just keeps going goes yeah [TS]

◼   ► it's really a lot into the first page [TS]

◼   ► and it's I think I'm glad other voice [TS]

◼   ► you just heard his kind fleischmann hi [TS]

◼   ► Glenn did you read the local oh I read [TS]

◼   ► this entire book right back [TS]

◼   ► I like it that's that's that things are [TS]

◼   ► looking up for the book club [TS]

◼   ► dan borin it also joins us Daniel I [TS]

◼   ► assume you read the whole book this time [TS]

◼   ► i read the book the whole book and [TS]

◼   ► nothing but the book it Oh Mike so help [TS]

◼   ► me God and Scott McNulty hello Scott [TS]

◼   ► know you always read the book I didn't [TS]

◼   ► read the book this time and I hope that [TS]

◼   ► there are no spoilers because i'm [TS]

◼   ► looking forward to read it it's about a [TS]

◼   ► detective in New York in the 19th [TS]

◼   ► century [TS]

◼   ► oh is [TS]

◼   ► so excited so windy [TS]

◼   ► I guess we should start by talking about [TS]

◼   ► how this is a you know Neal Stephenson [TS]

◼   ► is an interesting author he's written [TS]

◼   ► some cyberpunk kind of stuff like snow [TS]

◼   ► crash he wrote a very very sci-fi novel [TS]

◼   ► his last time out which was an M he's [TS]

◼   ► done action like in a zodiac which is [TS]

◼   ► actually a book like a lot he did [TS]

◼   ► historical kind of you know with a with [TS]

◼   ► a sci-fi flavor but historical fiction [TS]

◼   ► with a baroque cycle so he's he's been [TS]

◼   ► all over the place and yet despite that [TS]

◼   ► I was surprised at the content of reem d [TS]

◼   ► because it starts out feeling like it's [TS]

◼   ► going to be your sort of standard neal [TS]

◼   ► stephenson even though it's set in the [TS]

◼   ► present day which i think only [TS]

◼   ► cryptonomicon well now he's yeah so yeah [TS]

◼   ► mostly it's obviously an economic on [TS]

◼   ► maybe some of those other thrillers that [TS]

◼   ► he sort of pseudonymous Lee wrote right [TS]

◼   ► right but um it's so but it more or less [TS]

◼   ► still it's like you know it starts out a [TS]

◼   ► little bit like a almost like the cory [TS]

◼   ► doctorow book about for the wind after [TS]

◼   ► the wind right which is about about gold [TS]

◼   ► farmers in a in a massively multiplayer [TS]

◼   ► game right you have the two of them [TS]

◼   ► apparently had some conversation where [TS]

◼   ► Cory said Cory was assessment for the [TS]

◼   ► wind and Neal said something like [TS]

◼   ► reading about gold farming and they both [TS]

◼   ► cackle door something so you're going to [TS]

◼   ► round up i think reading their books [TS]

◼   ► nearly simultaneously independent so my [TS]

◼   ► theory is that is that uh Neal [TS]

◼   ► Stephenson discovered what cory doctorow [TS]

◼   ► is writing about 500 pages in and said [TS]

◼   ► oh well then let's change what my book [TS]

◼   ► is about let's take a sharp left turn [TS]

◼   ► listen I i want to make a point at the [TS]

◼   ► outset that because what you're going [TS]

◼   ► through about genre is i think i got 300 [TS]

◼   ► pages into this behemoth before I [TS]

◼   ► actually understood that there was going [TS]

◼   ► to be no contra factual hypothetical [TS]

◼   ► particles or anything else and sort of [TS]

◼   ► the science fictional elements yeah I [TS]

◼   ► really it had because it has all the [TS]

◼   ► tropes and feels of that terrain and is [TS]

◼   ► isn't it [TS]

◼   ► extrapolation of the the most massively [TS]

◼   ► multiplayer online game culture rain [TS]

◼   ► which is the which is the invented more [TS]

◼   ► or less arco invented by by Richard [TS]

◼   ► fourth rescue is one of the main [TS]

◼   ► characters in the book it's not World of [TS]

◼   ► Warcraft right but it is like it and [TS]

◼   ► it's sort of the it's played a sort of [TS]

◼   ► the next evolution of that so there's a [TS]

◼   ► little bit of speculation in there but [TS]

◼   ► really it's it's our world although with [TS]

◼   ► Stevenson's traditional attention to [TS]

◼   ► detail that extrapolation is i would say [TS]

◼   ► hell of a lot better than ernest cline [TS]

◼   ► xin in ready player one in terms of what [TS]

◼   ► the Oasis is versus terrain is much you [TS]

◼   ► know i think is much more grounded [TS]

◼   ► there's a good hundred pages devoted to [TS]

◼   ► exactly what the terrain of the world is [TS]

◼   ► like with name [TS]

◼   ► thank you yaso so too [TS]

◼   ► there's so much here because there's a [TS]

◼   ► thousand pages and that's why this [TS]

◼   ► podcast will last for a thousand hours [TS]

◼   ► or maybe not but but I want to go back [TS]

◼   ► to so there isn't one is right it is i [TS]

◼   ► was surprised on the one hand that [TS]

◼   ► there's nothing you know counterfactual [TS]

◼   ► there's nothing that seems like it [TS]

◼   ► couldn't happen today which i think is [TS]

◼   ► interesting and then and then despite [TS]

◼   ► Stephenson having all these different [TS]

◼   ► genres that he's played in i was really [TS]

◼   ► surprised at the turn he took because we [TS]

◼   ► end up in the last half of this book in [TS]

◼   ► basically an action movie which is its [TS]

◼   ► well I think it's well done but it is [TS]

◼   ► funny because it's not what I expect [TS]

◼   ► from Neil Stephens now I don't know what [TS]

◼   ► I expected I guess I expected something [TS]

◼   ► less common and maybe a a weirder you [TS]

◼   ► know less common kind of genre instead [TS]

◼   ► of like guys with guns fighting other [TS]

◼   ► guys with guns but that's what we got [TS]

◼   ► I was surprised that certain most of [TS]

◼   ► neal stephenson's books he's kind of [TS]

◼   ► famous for going on tangents that are [TS]

◼   ► enjoyable to read but you really lasts a [TS]

◼   ► couple hundred pages and yeah like I'm [TS]

◼   ► not sure what's going on in this book he [TS]

◼   ► seems to have decided at one point okay [TS]

◼   ► i'm going to get rid of everything [TS]

◼   ► extraneous it's going to be all plot for [TS]

◼   ► 400 pages and as I am I going to like it [TS]

◼   ► exactly [TS]

◼   ► put that in your pipe and smoke it but [TS]

◼   ► what I found really interesting along [TS]

◼   ► those lines is also that like you start [TS]

◼   ► out not only do you start thinking the [TS]

◼   ► plots going in one direction but there [TS]

◼   ► are certain characters that you start [TS]

◼   ► out thinking okay this gets pretty [TS]

◼   ► important and then you know some of [TS]

◼   ► those characters don't make it all the [TS]

◼   ► way through the book but like so like [TS]

◼   ► solace solace boyfriend right [TS]

◼   ► oh he was pegged for death let's be fair [TS]

◼   ► yeah but on the flip side there are [TS]

◼   ► other characters you think are totally [TS]

◼   ► like extraneous right like I mean like [TS]

◼   ► you know cough [TS]

◼   ► yes it's so cool officer or I love III [TS]

◼   ► thought even I thought even Abdallah [TS]

◼   ► Jones of course who is sort of caught [TS]

◼   ► topless in this random you know we'll go [TS]

◼   ► through the plot i'm sure a little bit [TS]

◼   ► he's sort of seems like a threat like a [TS]

◼   ► random character to encounter like he's [TS]

◼   ► there is a plot device right and then he [TS]

◼   ► turns into this hugely important major [TS]

◼   ► character throughout the rest of the [TS]

◼   ► book it's like a relay race though is [TS]

◼   ► like they're running this isn't this is [TS]

◼   ► like an ultramarathon and their [TS]

◼   ► characters are running running and only [TS]

◼   ► a few of them like zula for instance [TS]

◼   ► makes the way all the way through it and [TS]

◼   ► make an excellent review [TS]

◼   ► yeah Peter hands off to Abdullah [TS]

◼   ► Abdullah becomes that takes up that [TS]

◼   ► missing character position you know it's [TS]

◼   ► really ok here we go well now we got [TS]

◼   ► zulu natal Ivanovic sort of starts off [TS]

◼   ► as being kind of important and then you [TS]

◼   ► know he's he dies going [TS]

◼   ► marlin and I do know your name to the [TS]

◼   ► who said something about characters who [TS]

◼   ► are so significant and then is willing [TS]

◼   ► to to murder their darlings you know he [TS]

◼   ► sets up these from Yvonne is a great [TS]

◼   ► character and gets crazier and crazier [TS]

◼   ► and then he is called and maybe it's a [TS]

◼   ► whole new bill he exits on a high note [TS]

◼   ► you don't want to be mean you can't get [TS]

◼   ► any crazier than that certain level of [TS]

◼   ► crazy for a while [TS]

◼   ► what I really like about ream d is [TS]

◼   ► actually I can't compare it to lost in a [TS]

◼   ► way except it's lost except everything [TS]

◼   ► comes together at the end but makes a [TS]

◼   ► lot of sense because you have these [TS]

◼   ► pages upon pages of these various [TS]

◼   ► characters backstory you get a character [TS]

◼   ► Olivia that's introduced to the middle [TS]

◼   ► of the book for you know you're like [TS]

◼   ► okay where did she come from she is not [TS]

◼   ► been mentioned at all previous to this [TS]

◼   ► and you just have to be patient and [TS]

◼   ► trust that she's going to get woven into [TS]

◼   ► the story appropriately and she does [TS]

◼   ► that I think happens with most of these [TS]

◼   ► characters [TS]

◼   ► oh yeah then you end up with you know [TS]

◼   ► Sheamus Costello later on [TS]

◼   ► who's sort of you know comes up like 710 [TS]

◼   ► yeah i would order the characters that [TS]

◼   ► are introduced later in the book are [TS]

◼   ► better than only all but a handful of [TS]

◼   ► ones that you meet near the outset like [TS]

◼   ► the characterizations get more [TS]

◼   ► interesting by and the and the uh you [TS]

◼   ► know the military man I mean they're [TS]

◼   ► they're good kind of archetypes to yeah [TS]

◼   ► well i mean but i loved for example i [TS]

◼   ► love the duality in the this whole thing [TS]

◼   ► sort of starts off the beginning and [TS]

◼   ► kinda gets under woman between the two [TS]

◼   ► writers Donald and Devin you know I'm so [TS]

◼   ► that part it is but it makes know if [TS]

◼   ► there's no plot [TS]

◼   ► they're really like you kept expecting [TS]

◼   ► that to go in more of a direction [TS]

◼   ► wait a second i just realized i think he [TS]

◼   ► did something to us since we've only had [TS]

◼   ► the opportunity in our lives and may [TS]

◼   ► never have a chance to read this entire [TS]

◼   ► book again because we have jobs and [TS]

◼   ► things it's possible that if you go back [TS]

◼   ► and read the book closely that the two [TS]

◼   ► riders approach to fiction is actually [TS]

◼   ► mirror two elements the book as you said [TS]

◼   ► that I realized oh he might be playing [TS]

◼   ► with us and the two writers are actually [TS]

◼   ► contending through the plot of the book [TS]

◼   ► some things that are implausible and [TS]

◼   ► follow one path and something follow [TS]

◼   ► another it's possible but now we have to [TS]

◼   ► read the book a couple more times so I [TS]

◼   ► mean that's an interesting reading of it [TS]

◼   ► i think that somebody could go back and [TS]

◼   ► no I mean but I i think there is a yeah [TS]

◼   ► there's an interesting reason there with [TS]

◼   ► the tensions of like you know sort of [TS]

◼   ► popcorn me plot vs I think that's more [TS]

◼   ► ground date and those are sort of two [TS]

◼   ► things that are clearly a war with [TS]

◼   ► Stevenson himself in this book that's a [TS]

◼   ► good catch going honda that's very very [TS]

◼   ► good because you've got you've got just [TS]

◼   ► to touch on this for a second [TS]

◼   ► you've got d squared who is this [TS]

◼   ► completely just arrogant a Cambridge [TS]

◼   ► dawn who is writes a I guess limited [TS]

◼   ► amount of fantasy but it's incredibly [TS]

◼   ► impeccably researched and Tolkien right [TS]

◼   ► yeah and then you've got for catalytic [TS]

◼   ► or don't just look brings them out and [TS]

◼   ► he's a fantasy not and it it is an [TS]

◼   ► internally consistent and he just cranks [TS]

◼   ► out book and george george RR martin of [TS]

◼   ► course no 26 year I meri teri about [TS]

◼   ► quantity alright i'm sorry you know it's [TS]

◼   ► the quantity and the sort of all right [TS]

◼   ► yeah you got this very easy he's not [TS]

◼   ► here after speed notice george RR martin [TS]

◼   ► has more consistency know he is a he is [TS]

◼   ► a pulpit [TS]

◼   ► to see novelist like a like a 1 terry [TS]

◼   ► brooks or uh honorary salvatori ok there [TS]

◼   ► you know I mean the guy is like the guys [TS]

◼   ► who write like the D&D books right like [TS]

◼   ► the novelization of all that and just [TS]

◼   ► crank those suckers out the level above [TS]

◼   ► admit he's making real money so that's [TS]

◼   ► part of making real money but he's not [TS]

◼   ► necessarily be putting your great i'm [TS]

◼   ► not sure he's not being real money until [TS]

◼   ► he until Easter with to raising its your [TS]

◼   ► right right yeah he's making it up in [TS]

◼   ► volume i can see the point but he [TS]

◼   ► popularizing the the all the ideas that [TS]

◼   ► the the dawn has he's the one who kind [TS]

◼   ► of popularizers that makes it accessible [TS]

◼   ► and it is it is a part of the success so [TS]

◼   ► we're going to take Glenn's idea about [TS]

◼   ► these two warring parts of you know [TS]

◼   ► maybe it's an evil neal stephenson's [TS]

◼   ► mind it's also interesting because [TS]

◼   ► because the offer all of the highfalutin [TS]

◼   ► this of the dawn the fact is it's the [TS]

◼   ► it's the other guy who makes it all [TS]

◼   ► successful even though he breaks some of [TS]

◼   ► the things that are in and and was back [TS]

◼   ► in right he has to come back in and fit [TS]

◼   ► everything in the end right one there's [TS]

◼   ► the Apostle pakka lips which has thank [TS]

◼   ► you for what is to come forward green [TS]

◼   ► that that was pretty good [TS]

◼   ► that entire section of the book where [TS]

◼   ► they're just like know all of these [TS]

◼   ► words have no adequate molecule meetings [TS]

◼   ► and they often be rewritten and anywhere [TS]

◼   ► that's your hundred-page digression [TS]

◼   ► although it does serve as a plot purpose [TS]

◼   ► because the idea is that there's this [TS]

◼   ► kind of war of the war the war [TS]

◼   ► yeah of the different colors yeah I want [TS]

◼   ► to come back to that we get the point [TS]

◼   ► the plot because i have some issues with [TS]

◼   ► it but well it's it's a fascinating [TS]

◼   ► it's a fascinating digression now but [TS]

◼   ► it's also somewhat the catalyst for for [TS]

◼   ► a lot of this true enemy and mirrors yes [TS]

◼   ► so structurally eat how this so there's [TS]

◼   ► so much here there's too much [TS]

◼   ► let us let us sum up so the plot here is [TS]

◼   ► I think you can summarize it it's [TS]

◼   ► actually a very simple plot right is [TS]

◼   ► there's of itself it's a story of a [TS]

◼   ► family and some people in it and in the [TS]

◼   ► end the family comes back there is an [TS]

◼   ► overarching thing about the fourth rest [TS]

◼   ► family I really might open actually i [TS]

◼   ► love i have that it starts i love that [TS]

◼   ► opening chapter [TS]

◼   ► we're thanksgiving and it's this guy [TS]

◼   ► who's like kind of on the outs with his [TS]

◼   ► family and you don't know why and it [TS]

◼   ► turns out it's because he left home and [TS]

◼   ► became successful but but in a sort of a [TS]

◼   ► questionable way it and you know it's [TS]

◼   ► just it's fascinating and then there's [TS]

◼   ► the his niece who is also kind of an [TS]

◼   ► outsider and the texture of that like [TS]

◼   ► the mud out because they're out in in [TS]

◼   ► like Missouri right and now it's a Iowa [TS]

◼   ► Iowa alright so there in the Midwest and [TS]

◼   ► it's and it's cold and it's muddy and [TS]

◼   ► they're shooting at cans and bottles and [TS]

◼   ► stuff after a while the Thanksgiving [TS]

◼   ► dessert is being served or something and [TS]

◼   ► it's just I love the texture of it and I [TS]

◼   ► thought you know what this is not what I [TS]

◼   ► expected from you'll see even somebody [TS]

◼   ► gonna go with it because i really [TS]

◼   ► enjoyed that part of it well so that the [TS]

◼   ► story so he's I mean so here's the only [TS]

◼   ► the very bare-bones one which is that he [TS]

◼   ► and another follow developed a world of [TS]

◼   ► warcraft like game he winds up hiring is [TS]

◼   ► nice after meeting her at this gathering [TS]

◼   ► she has a boyfriend who's kind of a [TS]

◼   ► slightly asperger e idiot and needs to [TS]

◼   ► raise some money fast because he's [TS]

◼   ► overextended the real estate market gets [TS]

◼   ► hooked up with Russian mafia a virus [TS]

◼   ► infects machine destroy some of the [TS]

◼   ► Russian mafias information and then you [TS]

◼   ► wind up in this worldwide trip is that [TS]

◼   ► people get carried along to China [TS]

◼   ► because this crazy russian guy this sort [TS]

◼   ► of mafioso wants to looks like his house [TS]

◼   ► of cards is falling apart [TS]

◼   ► he wants to track down the author of the [TS]

◼   ► virus whose he decides to personally [TS]

◼   ► blame for all these ills they wind up [TS]

◼   ► that's how the whole first arc of the [TS]

◼   ► story is getting to China figuring this [TS]

◼   ► out tracking down the people who wrote [TS]

◼   ► the rim d virus which infected the [TS]

◼   ► Russian systems unintentionally and a [TS]

◼   ► lot of other people stuff they get there [TS]

◼   ► then you hand off to the next part [TS]

◼   ► because they go in expecting to kill all [TS]

◼   ► these room d virus writers these hackers [TS]

◼   ► or Stewart holding data free ransom and [TS]

◼   ► instead they run into a muslim terrorism [TS]

◼   ► cell in China this industrial or [TS]

◼   ► commercial City they wanted firing up [TS]

◼   ► firing on that apartment full of Muslims [TS]

◼   ► and Islamic terrorists who are planning [TS]

◼   ► to blow stuff up and then you get the [TS]

◼   ► handoff and so zula Richards nice [TS]

◼   ► there's a programmer her boyfriends kill [TS]

◼   ► the Russian mafioso is killed [TS]

◼   ► Zula is handed off [TS]

◼   ► to Abdullah Jones and then takes the [TS]

◼   ► ball any runs where he goes he goes it [TS]

◼   ► goes and they wound up traveling again [TS]

◼   ► you know a large distances gets them out [TS]

◼   ► of China eventually into Canada where [TS]

◼   ► through a large series of adventures [TS]

◼   ► they finally wind up crossing the border [TS]

◼   ► through an area that Richard fourth rass [TS]

◼   ► when he was a drug runner before you [TS]

◼   ► started the video game company had [TS]

◼   ► figured that was a way to avoid were [TS]

◼   ► controlled by going through old mines [TS]

◼   ► and meanwhile a British spy who's going [TS]

◼   ► to involve the China tracks and they're [TS]

◼   ► Richard tracks them down and Richards [TS]

◼   ► family the rest of them wind up being [TS]

◼   ► sort of exactly survivalists but [TS]

◼   ► fundamentalist living on the other side [TS]

◼   ► of this mining tunnel where it comes out [TS]

◼   ► so you get Islam Islamic radicals [TS]

◼   ► killing people across Canada joining [TS]

◼   ► together crossing into America and [TS]

◼   ► hitting the salt of the earth religious [TS]

◼   ► fundamentalists for the big final [TS]

◼   ► showdown what you think that's pretty [TS]

◼   ► good pretty good though [TS]

◼   ► that's pretty good friend to sort of the [TS]

◼   ► main skills and apply its think there's [TS]

◼   ► two sides of the first is like we learn [TS]

◼   ► all about the video game we learn all [TS]

◼   ► about the culture and whatever and [TS]

◼   ► they're on their way to try and always [TS]

◼   ► trying to stop in the second half is [TS]

◼   ► essentially you know Muslim extremists [TS]

◼   ► on the run terminating in this sort of [TS]

◼   ► run across the border yet no that's [TS]

◼   ► that's exactly it you've got you've got [TS]

◼   ► half the book which is setting up the [TS]

◼   ► the you know multiplayer universe and [TS]

◼   ► the gold farmers in China and trying to [TS]

◼   ► figure all that out and then the second [TS]

◼   ► half is largely this action story [TS]

◼   ► involving the terrorists in canada and [TS]

◼   ► crossing the border and all of that it [TS]

◼   ► turns out you need to know almost [TS]

◼   ► nothing about the entire video game [TS]

◼   ► backstory in order to understand the [TS]

◼   ► second half of the book that pretty much [TS]

◼   ► disappears after back-to-back yeah right [TS]

◼   ► it becomes a communications tool later [TS]

◼   ► as opposed to a plot point Walton and [TS]

◼   ► not to mention you know hundreds of [TS]

◼   ► pages there and there's literally [TS]

◼   ► hundreds of pages where Richard who sort [TS]

◼   ► of his setup as the main character in [TS]

◼   ► the first you know hundred pages just [TS]

◼   ► not there's no 40 years he goes away [TS]

◼   ► yeah by the book might be about him and [TS]

◼   ► I kept waiting for him to come back I'm [TS]

◼   ► like that word where we're going to go [TS]

◼   ► back to him right [TS]

◼   ► I said it's it's like lost each [TS]

◼   ► character has their section it's amazing [TS]

◼   ► what kind of a head-fake an author can [TS]

◼   ► give a reader in the sense that [TS]

◼   ► we start at the very beginning of the [TS]

◼   ► book with Richard fourth rest and then [TS]

◼   ► by the end of that chapter zula and [TS]

◼   ► Peter have pulled up and he's befriend [TS]

◼   ► befriended them a little better said [TS]

◼   ► hello to them and and and i think they [TS]

◼   ► go somewhere and it's funny because [TS]

◼   ► without that chapter [TS]

◼   ► you could probably you would probably go [TS]

◼   ► in assuming that zula is the main [TS]

◼   ► character but he gives you this head [TS]

◼   ► fake where he says no no this is richard [TS]

◼   ► fourth-fastest that is the is the main [TS]

◼   ► character here and he's not do list the [TS]

◼   ► main characters her book is this is [TS]

◼   ► really soon but absolutely Richard [TS]

◼   ► bookends it is facilitating plot element [TS]

◼   ► but it's and she's a great i think she's [TS]

◼   ► a great character I mean she does things [TS]

◼   ► that are extreme but not unrealistic you [TS]

◼   ► can say I can't believe that aerotrain [TS]

◼   ► refugee adopting America's our parents [TS]

◼   ► adopted parents killed gone through all [TS]

◼   ► this managed to get her in on and [TS]

◼   ► whip-smart you can see her being that [TS]

◼   ► resourceful it's not like you know the [TS]

◼   ► girl her or something it's like it's a [TS]

◼   ► real so i'm sticking up for Mythbusters [TS]

◼   ► are it's it's things that somebody [TS]

◼   ► pushed to extremist with capabilities [TS]

◼   ► would do she just sort of just low-tech [TS]

◼   ► smart things right and she gets a couple [TS]

◼   ► of lucky breaks but he also just [TS]

◼   ► realizes when there's an opportunity and [TS]

◼   ► knows when attenuates for it yeah well [TS]

◼   ► you have that nice section when they're [TS]

◼   ► all trapped in the basement [TS]

◼   ► they've this is at the point where [TS]

◼   ► they've been locked to two chains and [TS]

◼   ► the broth Russian mafia is going to to [TS]

◼   ► go kill the Chinese hackers and the [TS]

◼   ► she's trapped with two other hackers who [TS]

◼   ► instantly take out lock-picking tools or [TS]

◼   ► I guess she she gives great yeah she [TS]

◼   ► gives him her Bobby their hair pins and [TS]

◼   ► they instantly start lock kicking but [TS]

◼   ► you notice she not being a hacker is not [TS]

◼   ► well versed in the art of lock-picking [TS]

◼   ► it does not spend her days idly [TS]

◼   ► practicing so she actually has to wait [TS]

◼   ► for them it's just a nice touch it's [TS]

◼   ► like no not all three characters are [TS]

◼   ► expert lock Pickers it's just the same [TS]

◼   ► as a hobby certain people pick up right [TS]

◼   ► well but the to the fact that she's [TS]

◼   ► smart and does things like I mean the [TS]

◼   ► one that got me was when she's locked in [TS]

◼   ► the bathroom of the i rise in China and [TS]

◼   ► she writes the long note and sticks it [TS]

◼   ► in the drainpipe just thinking like hail [TS]

◼   ► mary hey maybe somebody will find this [TS]

◼   ► and I kind of felt like you know reading [TS]

◼   ► that ever [TS]

◼   ► reading in thinking and it sounds like [TS]

◼   ► that's just kind of a throwaway plot [TS]

◼   ► point and maybe someone will find it [TS]

◼   ► like way way down the road or whatever [TS]

◼   ► and then I sort of forgot about it and [TS]

◼   ► then came back and actually made it [TS]

◼   ► actually turns out to be important [TS]

◼   ► i also got to say I think this book is [TS]

◼   ► also Sokolov's as well like he's a [TS]

◼   ► strong second player he cums in you [TS]

◼   ► think at some of these Russian heavies [TS]

◼   ► me totally stereotypical and he is [TS]

◼   ► remarkably resourceful he's addy is [TS]

◼   ► somehow a decent man even though his [TS]

◼   ► former Spetsnaz not even though he kills [TS]

◼   ► people [TS]

◼   ► he has the keys the kind of guy that's [TS]

◼   ► always in books of this sort he has a [TS]

◼   ► kind of honor a co-designer whole yeah [TS]

◼   ► something's obviously with the soul [TS]

◼   ► yeah it's not exactly pretty goal [TS]

◼   ► because he's doing things that are [TS]

◼   ► logical and sensible his big problem he [TS]

◼   ► doesn't kill people out of anger he [TS]

◼   ► kills them out of necessity to protect [TS]

◼   ► the client or protect himself and to [TS]

◼   ► further the mission and he's and his [TS]

◼   ► dynamic with ivana right where he's like [TS]

◼   ► slowly certifying this guy pretty sure [TS]

◼   ► that he's actually going crazy and [TS]

◼   ► trying to like figure out how do we get [TS]

◼   ► out of this situation because there's [TS]

◼   ► the people above on of we're going to be [TS]

◼   ► really pissed off when they find out [TS]

◼   ► what happened [TS]

◼   ► how are we going to get out of this [TS]

◼   ► saves from three days of the Condor [TS]

◼   ► moment in there where Sokolov's like [TS]

◼   ► well they want me to go out to this ship [TS]

◼   ► but this is not always goes they tell [TS]

◼   ► you to go to the ship something goes [TS]

◼   ► wrong they shoot you [TS]

◼   ► she never know she never knows no Olivia [TS]

◼   ► never knows what happened to me somethin [TS]

◼   ► went wrong it's like I'm not going to do [TS]

◼   ► the thing they tell me to do I thought [TS]

◼   ► he was gonna die there [TS]

◼   ► there is no way he was gonna die he he [TS]

◼   ► knew it [TS]

◼   ► yeah I know yeah the one hand you think [TS]

◼   ► he's like oh he's too clever for that [TS]

◼   ► but on the other hand you like I mean [TS]

◼   ► people died in this book right and so it [TS]

◼   ► would have been out of the question for [TS]

◼   ► him to be like well he served his plot [TS]

◼   ► purpose you know maybe he's gonna bite [TS]

◼   ► it here he doesn't mean that's nice no [TS]

◼   ► but it's nice to have that tension right [TS]

◼   ► like there's too many too many like [TS]

◼   ► action movies where it's like what this [TS]

◼   ► is the hero he can't die obviously right [TS]

◼   ► you know he's the protagonist we're [TS]

◼   ► going to see him through all the way to [TS]

◼   ► the end but whenever you know an author [TS]

◼   ► doesn't mind killing off their [TS]

◼   ► characters as we've seen several times [TS]

◼   ► earlier in the book you you get a little [TS]

◼   ► worried for the characters that you kind [TS]

◼   ► of like right because you're not sure [TS]

◼   ► they did easily they could kill them off [TS]

◼   ► I can't believe nobody has mentioned [TS]

◼   ► show [TS]

◼   ► gore yeah I said I don't like this [TS]

◼   ► pronouncement drunk or the Hungarian [TS]

◼   ► Hungarian hacker rather lovely villa to [TS]

◼   ► love Lord kilgorn he's loved Lord I like [TS]

◼   ► all the secondary characters in this in [TS]

◼   ► this wonderful look well I and then [TS]

◼   ► chocolate is another good example of [TS]

◼   ► somebody who's like kind of seems like [TS]

◼   ► well as he comes in with the bad guys [TS]

◼   ► maybe he's important maybe not and then [TS]

◼   ► turns out to be another very major [TS]

◼   ► character and i love i love the Triad [TS]

◼   ► that he force with he forms with you she [TS]

◼   ► and Marlon right like you know where [TS]

◼   ► they're on the ship and they're likely [TS]

◼   ► candidate the engineer and yeah i love i [TS]

◼   ► love that sort of unlikely pairing the [TS]

◼   ► deal is everybody is incredibly [TS]

◼   ► pragmatic you notice that in this book [TS]

◼   ► there are few insane people like [TS]

◼   ► Abdullah Jones and and it off but [TS]

◼   ► everybody else is like okay problem [TS]

◼   ► happening how do I get out tonight huh [TS]

◼   ► well you know moose and squirrel have [TS]

◼   ► chosen scroll a bomb final logo want the [TS]

◼   ► bomb how do I get out alive [TS]

◼   ► I jumped through a window Abdul Jones [TS]

◼   ► may be insane because he's a terrorist [TS]

◼   ► but he is very practical as well right [TS]

◼   ► here lyrics talking like he's one more [TS]

◼   ► very smartly pregnant in fact he is so [TS]

◼   ► business like that one of the things I [TS]

◼   ► really enjoyed about his scenes where he [TS]

◼   ► gathers the various the various guys [TS]

◼   ► first company's initial crew and then [TS]

◼   ► he's got the ones who are sort of like [TS]

◼   ► the one of the terrorists and be [TS]

◼   ► together like well I BTW if if they ever [TS]

◼   ► call me I'm in Canada but if they ever [TS]

◼   ► call me for a job I'm there knowing that [TS]

◼   ► nobody's ever called him and then he [TS]

◼   ► calls them into like oh okay all right [TS]

◼   ► for the garage haha he's he's but he's [TS]

◼   ► kind of like sociopathically charming [TS]

◼   ► right like he's got net but he's [TS]

◼   ► professional and what strikes me is that [TS]

◼   ► some of the people he's working with or [TS]

◼   ► not and you can sense a he he hates them [TS]

◼   ► right just like they don't I got to use [TS]

◼   ► the ladies like you got your lucky its [TS]

◼   ► hard to find good help right I don't [TS]

◼   ► know there's like Rapids B&C players [TS]

◼   ► he's got the razor was killed with a CD [TS]

◼   ► by the way but he's got right he's going [TS]

◼   ► to make sure she's got yellow shirts [TS]

◼   ► well I also likes I can't remember who [TS]

◼   ► describes him as this I think it's [TS]

◼   ► either a either Sheamus or Olivia but [TS]

◼   ► someone points out that he's not likely [TS]

◼   ► he's not a martyr right [TS]

◼   ► he thinks he's too thinks he's too [TS]

◼   ► valuable right you keep saying he'll [TS]

◼   ► wait for them the right moment but it's [TS]

◼   ► never the right moment you get the [TS]

◼   ► impression he's kind of maybe kind of a [TS]

◼   ► coward like it in deep inside and sort [TS]

◼   ► of like thinks he's really smart but [TS]

◼   ► he's also kind of untouchable and then [TS]

◼   ► he sort of slowly sees his plans all [TS]

◼   ► fall apart even though they're very [TS]

◼   ► carefully laid and he's devoted all [TS]

◼   ► these time to the men in one monkey [TS]

◼   ► wrench in the plan and everything goes [TS]

◼   ► to hell yeah you know what i would say [TS]

◼   ► there's other arc of the story which is [TS]

◼   ► that I think what I think one of the [TS]

◼   ► things that I'm he's playing with his he [TS]

◼   ► creates these remarkable like I would [TS]

◼   ► argue in the past that used to have a [TS]

◼   ► couple of good characters in a [TS]

◼   ► Stephenson book and everyone else sort [TS]

◼   ► of window dressing and it's everything [TS]

◼   ► in the service of the plot and you know [TS]

◼   ► there's a lot of movie mannequins around [TS]

◼   ► in this he's developed only a few really [TS]

◼   ► good simultaneous plots and a whole [TS]

◼   ► bunch of really great characters and [TS]

◼   ► sort of moves them all around the board [TS]

◼   ► so sometimes you have things like the [TS]

◼   ► video game being predominant and your [TS]

◼   ► focus on very plot e sorts of things [TS]

◼   ► understand the way of the world he's got [TS]

◼   ► this whole thing going on we're trying [TS]

◼   ► to the wharf realignment on the side and [TS]

◼   ► then you've got all the stuff where it's [TS]

◼   ► very strongly character-driven like this [TS]

◼   ► is not how you would imagine someone [TS]

◼   ► would write the scene but this is how [TS]

◼   ► would probably play out like Azula and [TS]

◼   ► Abdullah stuff where she actually [TS]

◼   ► respects her because she's on her AGame [TS]

◼   ► right she's somebody who if she were [TS]

◼   ► inside he'd be absolutely pleased to [TS]

◼   ► have you know working with him so one of [TS]

◼   ► the things that are this that did remind [TS]

◼   ► me of other neal stephenson stuff you [TS]

◼   ► mentioned the boat there are there are [TS]

◼   ► segments one of things i always liked [TS]

◼   ► about him and especially the baroque [TS]

◼   ► cycle is there there are segments of of [TS]

◼   ► the books he writes that he willfully [TS]

◼   ► commits to and that they they take on a [TS]

◼   ► life of their own and they're not that [TS]

◼   ► important to book and he could just move [TS]

◼   ► things along and say you know suffice it [TS]

◼   ► to say they were on a boat and a boat [TS]

◼   ► scene struck me as that it's like it [TS]

◼   ► suddenly we're in a totally different [TS]

◼   ► book which is there are people and [TS]

◼   ► they're stuck in a boat and they have no [TS]

◼   ► gas and they're drifting in the South [TS]

◼   ► China Sea and that none of them know how [TS]

◼   ► to be on a boat and they don't know [TS]

◼   ► and that was great and it's so you know [TS]

◼   ► again that's like a whole very well [TS]

◼   ► first off it's practically life of pi [TS]

◼   ► but it's it's there you know and he [TS]

◼   ► commits to it and and those characters [TS]

◼   ► and we've invested in you know that he [TS]

◼   ► doesn't get that shirt ripped and I feel [TS]

◼   ► I felt like that when they when they [TS]

◼   ► crash-land the jet in in canada in the [TS]

◼   ► snowy back reina de yeah and they had [TS]

◼   ► and they find a you know like I'm [TS]

◼   ► disused you know shut down like mining [TS]

◼   ► camp and they're there for a while and [TS]

◼   ► then they been and then the guys come [TS]

◼   ► back and they've killed some people and [TS]

◼   ► stolen there's there there's smoke truck [TS]

◼   ► or whatever and then they use that that [TS]

◼   ► was fully committed to in a way that i [TS]

◼   ► really like how he can kind of take the [TS]

◼   ► set pieces and compartmentalize them and [TS]

◼   ► and really commit to them so that you [TS]

◼   ► get engrossed and and it's really you [TS]

◼   ► know i said this about a few authors [TS]

◼   ► that i really like it feels like that [TS]

◼   ► could be a whole books worth of an idea [TS]

◼   ► and he just tosses it off as you know a [TS]

◼   ► couple hundred pages inside this or a [TS]

◼   ► hundred pages inside this thousand-page [TS]

◼   ► book [TS]

◼   ► well that's the same thing with the with [TS]

◼   ► the word realignment I mean ready player [TS]

◼   ► one you know would have fit neatly [TS]

◼   ► inside a few chapters of this book in [TS]

◼   ► terms of the amount of plot [TS]

◼   ► sophistication and the length [TS]

◼   ► yeah yeah ready player one through five [TS]

◼   ► importantly that's the thing that [TS]

◼   ► strikes me about Stephenson having read [TS]

◼   ► 2.55 of his novels I is oriental decimal [TS]

◼   ► places well i know well as iphone pages [TS]

◼   ► but it's interesting because a lot of a [TS]

◼   ► lot of the time when i was reading this [TS]

◼   ► book and then we're not was also reading [TS]

◼   ► snow crash and now cryptonomicon it [TS]

◼   ► feels like if he had wanted to this [TS]

◼   ► could very easily been a george RR [TS]

◼   ► martin let's write five or six books [TS]

◼   ► about this topic but Stephenson phone [TS]

◼   ► seems to find a way to craft a coherent [TS]

◼   ► narrative over the course of one book [TS]

◼   ► that doesn't necessarily feel like he [TS]

◼   ► should be chopping it up into segments [TS]

◼   ► which I find interesting is a lot of [TS]

◼   ► mechanisms running I think that's the [TS]

◼   ► thing is he's a he's an incredible [TS]

◼   ► watchmaker in his worst books the hot [TS]

◼   ► springs go out of control and destroy [TS]

◼   ► the inside your kind of left with like [TS]

◼   ► what the [TS]

◼   ► like the end of cryptonomicon i will not [TS]

◼   ► spoil it for you ready I'm left going [TS]

◼   ► like there were a lot of plots and they [TS]

◼   ► all unraveled at the end I never felt [TS]

◼   ► like a Stephenson's worse problems while [TS]

◼   ► he was bad attending yeah always been [TS]

◼   ► bad endings [TS]

◼   ► he's all like he's gotten he's gotten [TS]

◼   ► better i mean i think i think baroque [TS]

◼   ► cycle through an M through 3d he's shown [TS]

◼   ► progress in each of those I was not [TS]

◼   ► horribly disappointed at the end of this [TS]

◼   ► is like it's what i would say obviously [TS]

◼   ► it was like 40 disappointed culminates [TS]

◼   ► in a huge climactic fight right like you [TS]

◼   ► know just exactly what you expect to get [TS]

◼   ► a nice little day newmont at the end [TS]

◼   ► where it sort of wraps up what happens [TS]

◼   ► to the characters in case you're curious [TS]

◼   ► that's right and and that's that like [TS]

◼   ► you know he's I think you know knowing [TS]

◼   ► when to stop has always been his problem [TS]

◼   ► and I think either he's got a you know [TS]

◼   ► an editor who's like hey Neal you got [TS]

◼   ► plenty here this is good wrap it up or [TS]

◼   ► he's just sort of figured out like oh [TS]

◼   ► yeah I've come to the end here I was [TS]

◼   ► really impressed about how the [TS]

◼   ► ridiculous amount of plot and the [TS]

◼   ► ridiculous amount of characters kind of [TS]

◼   ► came together at the end because you [TS]

◼   ► really you have them coming from all [TS]

◼   ► angles you even have Marlon yuxia you [TS]

◼   ► have them winding up in the same place [TS]

◼   ► in Iowa it's just impressive how how he [TS]

◼   ► makes the travels and the fact that like [TS]

◼   ► through this entire book I had no clue [TS]

◼   ► what was going to happen next [TS]

◼   ► couldn't even fathom it I assumed like [TS]

◼   ► with the terrorists all right they're [TS]

◼   ► going to get to Canada and maybe the US [TS]

◼   ► but the rest of the characters no idea [TS]

◼   ► well he you find that later again if you [TS]

◼   ► if i have the gumption someday to read [TS]

◼   ► this book i have read and then I think [TS]

◼   ► two or three times and there are lots of [TS]

◼   ► breadcrumb see plants when officers [TS]

◼   ► tried before shot to win but she [TS]

◼   ► realized this like going back and [TS]

◼   ► looking a little bit like oh yeah you [TS]

◼   ► know back there in the first scene he's [TS]

◼   ► planting the seed you know yeah he was a [TS]

◼   ► of Richard was a drug runner he figured [TS]

◼   ► out this great way to get through the [TS]

◼   ► border without having to build its own [TS]

◼   ► tunnels and so you know over that period [TS]

◼   ► of time it's like you realize oh that's [TS]

◼   ► where his brother settle to sort of the [TS]

◼   ► black black black sheep of the family [TS]

◼   ► the one is really far out there and as [TS]

◼   ► you go along you realize these [TS]

◼   ► converging all of these crumbs to the [TS]

◼   ► resort in the north side of this tunnel [TS]

◼   ► and the homesteading people the [TS]

◼   ► fundamentalist on the south side and you [TS]

◼   ► can sort of feel it all sort of coming [TS]

◼   ► together and it's going to all pass [TS]

◼   ► do that through that tunnel one way or [TS]

◼   ► the other looks like a GPS right you [TS]

◼   ► know point and you've no point being [TS]

◼   ► that you have no idea what route it's [TS]

◼   ► actually going to take so here's my [TS]

◼   ► here's my highfalutin analysis of this [TS]

◼   ► which is I was struck by how much of [TS]

◼   ► this book is about people being [TS]

◼   ► culturally out of place it in in a in a [TS]

◼   ► foreign culture or out of alignment with [TS]

◼   ► their culture and i'll just run off a [TS]

◼   ► few examples you have the war of [TS]

◼   ► realignment which is all about people [TS]

◼   ► forming cultures and drawing lines [TS]

◼   ► between themselves that that actually [TS]

◼   ► comes out of this universe built by d [TS]

◼   ► squared which is then a lived-in by [TS]

◼   ► Skeletor who does not really have the [TS]

◼   ► same he doesn't really match it but on a [TS]

◼   ► personal level you get zula who is a an [TS]

◼   ► African child adopted by white people in [TS]

◼   ► in America you've got Abdullah Jones who [TS]

◼   ► is a I believe in african descent [TS]

◼   ► Welshman who converts to Islam and [TS]

◼   ► becomes a jihadist you've got Olivia who [TS]

◼   ► is an Englishwoman of Chinese descent [TS]

◼   ► which allows her to be turned into an [TS]

◼   ► operative for mi6 in Asia even though [TS]

◼   ► she's very English you've got Richard [TS]

◼   ► and Richards brothers who are both sort [TS]

◼   ► of like disaffected from culture the [TS]

◼   ► brothers are totally cut off from [TS]

◼   ► american society basically living in [TS]

◼   ► this homestead Richard is cut off from [TS]

◼   ► his family you know you've got it goes [TS]

◼   ► on and on the these where where so many [TS]

◼   ► people and so many situations in this [TS]

◼   ► book are about people who are not i mean [TS]

◼   ► on one level it's just they're not quite [TS]

◼   ► what you'd expect they're not quite [TS]

◼   ► they don't fit the mold but I think [TS]

◼   ► that's purposeful that that a lot of [TS]

◼   ► this almost everybody in this is [TS]

◼   ► somebody who is that what you show is [TS]

◼   ► from another part of China and has and [TS]

◼   ► culturally is complete [TS]

◼   ► really different from where she ends up [TS]

◼   ► and and she's missing lines like [TS]

◼   ► everybody in this book is a round peg [TS]

◼   ► strut that stuck in a square hole you [TS]

◼   ► and you get this with be scared Scotty [TS]

◼   ► squared and skeletor you already sort of [TS]

◼   ► mentioned d squared C squared the whole [TS]

◼   ► land and well and nobody's going to tag [TS]

◼   ► d squared is never as d square never [TS]

◼   ► play the video game and your is getting [TS]

◼   ► dragged and totally invested in there to [TS]

◼   ► build up contingency legions and [TS]

◼   ► skeletor doesn't know this highfalutin [TS]

◼   ► literary work because he's a whole pack [TS]

◼   ► and he gets dragged into this thing with [TS]

◼   ► arguments about apostrophes right right [TS]

◼   ► but anyway I think I think it's good you [TS]

◼   ► know I think Stephenson is that that's [TS]

◼   ► certainly an undercurrent here is that [TS]

◼   ► the these are all about people who are [TS]

◼   ► in who are not sort of what you'd expect [TS]

◼   ► in the role that therein and a and i [TS]

◼   ► love that I i think that i think that's [TS]

◼   ► great but I i think it's got to be the [TS]

◼   ► most obvious examples being sulla and [TS]

◼   ► Abdallah Jones who are not if they're [TS]

◼   ► not from where they're from and that [TS]

◼   ► some says something about that's part of [TS]

◼   ► their character and I think that's [TS]

◼   ► really interesting [TS]

◼   ► I mean but in database root for writing [TS]

◼   ► it creates tension right because they're [TS]

◼   ► different from all the people around [TS]

◼   ► them and that creates conflict and [TS]

◼   ► that's what drives the plot forward [TS]

◼   ► everybody's in that situation in this [TS]

◼   ► book that's why I think it's more than [TS]

◼   ► just him structuring it for conflict i [TS]

◼   ► think that he's he's trying to do this [TS]

◼   ► on purpose to have it this this book is [TS]

◼   ► in some way I think about being somebody [TS]

◼   ► who's out of place right down to the [TS]

◼   ► fact of somebody who doesn't understand [TS]

◼   ► an MMO can't really understand what's [TS]

◼   ► going on inside the MMO because they are [TS]

◼   ► not they don't fit in the culture it's [TS]

◼   ► all a cultural misfit even though even [TS]

◼   ► though the Russian even Ivana is kind of [TS]

◼   ► like broken he his bosses don't you know [TS]

◼   ► he's not behaving properly he doesn't [TS]

◼   ► fit in anymore and sokoloff doesn't [TS]

◼   ► really fit anymore because he's got this [TS]

◼   ► job but he doesn't really clearly he [TS]

◼   ► doesn't really fit what they're asking [TS]

◼   ► him to do which is it goes on and on it [TS]

◼   ► and it i just kept being fascinated by [TS]

◼   ► finding that every single person views [TS]

◼   ► themselves as being like disaffected [TS]

◼   ► from the the job they're in or the [TS]

◼   ► culture there in or they're different in [TS]

◼   ► some way you know and i I just I I [TS]

◼   ► that was that's my that's my take on it [TS]

◼   ► I don't like to talk about some of the [TS]

◼   ► characters we didn't like or like you [TS]

◼   ► know there are some characters that were [TS]

◼   ► disposable like Peter I think Peter the [TS]

◼   ► boyfriend as my boyfriend is great [TS]

◼   ► because he's sort of unlikable when you [TS]

◼   ► meet him and you figure well you know [TS]

◼   ► the character development [TS]

◼   ► we're gonna learn to understand why we [TS]

◼   ► should like him it's like no he's kind [TS]

◼   ► of a jerk he makes really bad decisions [TS]

◼   ► and they get worse and worse and finally [TS]

◼   ► he when he's killed i gotta say i love [TS]

◼   ► the fact that Ivana is like [TS]

◼   ► indifferently at times a gentleman and [TS]

◼   ► he thinks doula is worthy of respect [TS]

◼   ► because of how she comports herself and [TS]

◼   ► her intelligence and he even off despite [TS]

◼   ► being in this situation where he's crazy [TS]

◼   ► and he's lost all this money from the [TS]

◼   ► consortium he represents that is chasing [TS]

◼   ► to China he still trying to defend that [TS]

◼   ► notion so Peter is killed [TS]

◼   ► not because Peter did something wrong or [TS]

◼   ► croston he's killed because Yvonne up is [TS]

◼   ► offended that Peter has left his [TS]

◼   ► girlfriend chained by yvonne off [TS]

◼   ► downstairs to die and Peter should be [TS]

◼   ► there [TS]

◼   ► why does Peter steal the credit cards [TS]

◼   ► that gets him in this also he's got he's [TS]

◼   ► behind it's a mortgage thing days under [TS]

◼   ► these underwater he's underwater and [TS]

◼   ► he's worried he's gonna lose his loft [TS]

◼   ► and by extension that means that you [TS]

◼   ► can't run the thing is doing its like [TS]

◼   ► it's it's not that well defined but i [TS]

◼   ► think it's sort of supposed to be this [TS]

◼   ► like a bad reason [TS]

◼   ► well you haven't had a very casual thing [TS]

◼   ► instead of borrowing money from people [TS]

◼   ► selling it [TS]

◼   ► filing for bankruptcy is like when I [TS]

◼   ► used to do this I know how to do it [TS]

◼   ► I'm going to do one last haul my last [TS]

◼   ► job that I retire and causes everything [TS]

◼   ► else to happen [TS]

◼   ► yeah a sort of blend you do blend is the [TS]

◼   ► other thing is the thing that set this [TS]

◼   ► all in motion of course is Peter on the [TS]

◼   ► one hand then Richard who completely [TS]

◼   ► essentially innocently spreads rindy the [TS]

◼   ► virus so that it it triggers this event [TS]

◼   ► Peters callousness the casualness of can [TS]

◼   ► you give me a USB stick he hands in one [TS]

◼   ► and then that's where everything goes [TS]

◼   ► right don't forget don't forget Wallace [TS]

◼   ► in there to write the match has been lit [TS]

◼   ► a fleeting character who and yet we've [TS]

◼   ► got that chain right Wallace gives way [TS]

◼   ► to Avon of gives way to Jones you know [TS]

◼   ► and sort of you know everything goes [TS]

◼   ► downhill from there [TS]

◼   ► I like Wallace though as as briefly as [TS]

◼   ► we see him as well as long as you last [TS]

◼   ► yeah yeah I was surprised that the ex [TS]

◼   ► we killed by the mob the monster who is [TS]

◼   ► also the gamer I do kind of enjoy that [TS]

◼   ► enjoy that there is a rent like i enjoy [TS]

◼   ► that sort of bizarreness that bed comes [TS]

◼   ► with this fact that like you know at the [TS]

◼   ► view hand-waving oh it's a game it's [TS]

◼   ► really popular more popular in World of [TS]

◼   ► Warcraft and the people that we see [TS]

◼   ► playing it include the bookkeeper for [TS]

◼   ► the mob basically we get the name is [TS]

◼   ► Kelly realize it shames yeah the CIA [TS]

◼   ► operative I was thinking even just a [TS]

◼   ► throwaway character that Richard sees in [TS]

◼   ► the diner and he looks over he's like a [TS]

◼   ► coffee shop out visiting Skeletor right [TS]

◼   ► and there's a guy playing t rain and so [TS]

◼   ► he calls up you know his buddy at the at [TS]

◼   ► the office and says oh yeah how many [TS]

◼   ► people are logged on from this diner [TS]

◼   ► whatever like we got the impression that [TS]

◼   ► there's people out there in the middle [TS]

◼   ► of no Missouri or wherever he is [TS]

◼   ► visiting this guy who are playing this [TS]

◼   ► game this game is huge i can we talk [TS]

◼   ► let's talk about the word realign middle [TS]

◼   ► because I think that's an extremely [TS]

◼   ► interesting development in here which is [TS]

◼   ► to say basically they end up so like any [TS]

◼   ► you know game of this sort of a sort of [TS]

◼   ► you know promulgated on the idea that [TS]

◼   ► we've got good we got your characters [TS]

◼   ► and evil characters whether it's by A&E [TS]

◼   ► or something like warcraft you can be on [TS]

◼   ► the enzyme and all the sudden you know [TS]

◼   ► there is this sort of interesting [TS]

◼   ► realization that it doesn't really make [TS]

◼   ► sense because the people who are quote [TS]

◼   ► unquote evil aren't doing anything [TS]

◼   ► particular different from the people at [TS]

◼   ► work photon quote good so it's an [TS]

◼   ► arbitrary distinction actually says the [TS]

◼   ► same coin but they need it right because [TS]

◼   ► it makes the tension it makes the [TS]

◼   ► conflict in the game and so this war of [TS]

◼   ► realignment is shifting from instead of [TS]

◼   ► it being about good versus evil [TS]

◼   ► it's about something very different and [TS]

◼   ► I think you know without sort of delving [TS]

◼   ► directly into it i think it's about [TS]

◼   ► taste right now that's what it kind of [TS]

◼   ► comes down and it emerges from it it [TS]

◼   ► emerges from the game it's not intended [TS]

◼   ► by the game and it emerges from the fact [TS]

◼   ► that the game is being played by human [TS]

◼   ► beings who have differences and [TS]

◼   ► different worldviews that go way beyond [TS]

◼   ► picking when you set up the game well [TS]

◼   ► i'm going to be evil because I want to [TS]

◼   ► be one of those cool characters that's [TS]

◼   ► only available in evil [TS]

◼   ► well I think it kind of reflects on the [TS]

◼   ► game itself because when you think about [TS]

◼   ► the the reason why terrain was created [TS]

◼   ► in the first place is Richard basically [TS]

◼   ► says well you know why was popular and [TS]

◼   ► that's great but this basically gives us [TS]

◼   ► a way to monetize all [TS]

◼   ► these chinese gold farmers and make gold [TS]

◼   ► farming an actual legitimate profession [TS]

◼   ► see already you have that where the [TS]

◼   ► Americans are playing the game for [TS]

◼   ► completely different reason than the [TS]

◼   ► rest of the cut the rest of the world so [TS]

◼   ► you already have that imbalance and to [TS]

◼   ► bring in even more well you have the [TS]

◼   ► people who want to play the game as d [TS]

◼   ► squared envisioned it you know with you [TS]

◼   ► know with all old costuming and correct [TS]

◼   ► colors and things like that and then you [TS]

◼   ► have and and and this is a real tension [TS]

◼   ► with a lot of online games where it's [TS]

◼   ► like there's the people who want to play [TS]

◼   ► for the like the role-playing story [TS]

◼   ► elements and then there are the people [TS]

◼   ► that were there to play you know a [TS]

◼   ► hack-and-slash game and don't care [TS]

◼   ► really except the stories just there as [TS]

◼   ► a crutch right you know the world is [TS]

◼   ► there's a crunch and then there's the [TS]

◼   ► other people who are just really into [TS]

◼   ► everything that's that's you know [TS]

◼   ► created by that world and and that's a [TS]

◼   ► very I think that's a very real [TS]

◼   ► distinction in you know a lot of games [TS]

◼   ► that exists today and so it's kind of [TS]

◼   ► fascinating to see that taking on like [TS]

◼   ► what if those were to become the [TS]

◼   ► factions and I mean I don't know is [TS]

◼   ► there is there an implicit sort of class [TS]

◼   ► warfare almost between them [TS]

◼   ► given the representations that we get of [TS]

◼   ► like Donald and Devin you know as the [TS]

◼   ► two polarizing figures [TS]

◼   ► oh it certainly seems like adequately oh [TS]

◼   ► one of them lives in a castle and the [TS]

◼   ► other was in the trail [TS]

◼   ► yeah good point it's an excellent like [TS]

◼   ► they're both kind of majestic [TS]

◼   ► infrastructures in their own ways [TS]

◼   ► well and they're both kind of jackasses [TS]

◼   ► right i remember reading a remembering [TS]

◼   ► lord of the rings and then sort of [TS]

◼   ► Shannara and you know if I refined [TS]

◼   ► childhood recollections right so there's [TS]

◼   ► different kinds of things like sort of [TS]

◼   ► Shinar like yeah there was a mythos i [TS]

◼   ► think i got develop more but it was [TS]

◼   ► really like a big hack him up [TS]

◼   ► it was much more of a hack them up [TS]

◼   ► Vision Quest you know broad strokes [TS]

◼   ► thing versus you know for like a book [TS]

◼   ► created in order to enshrine languages [TS]

◼   ► with a grammar that a cut cambridge dawn [TS]

◼   ► had developed and attracts different [TS]

◼   ► people some people want first-person [TS]

◼   ► shooters that they just kill lots of [TS]

◼   ► stuff and I mean penny arcade the comic [TS]

◼   ► is constantly full of basically that [TS]

◼   ► tension between this is a really subtle [TS]

◼   ► game and look we have these scrolls and [TS]

◼   ► plant that kills y'all kill John [TS]

◼   ► and that's I think that's a constant [TS]

◼   ► tension between the sophistication of [TS]

◼   ► some aspects of game design and this [TS]

◼   ► desire to be highfalutin you know here's [TS]

◼   ► a virtual environment which we could do [TS]

◼   ► anything so why we just shooting people [TS]

◼   ► but it's like the constant arguments [TS]

◼   ► that we get over whether or not video [TS]

◼   ► games are art right you know Roger Ebert [TS]

◼   ► i know has delved into that pool and a [TS]

◼   ► variety of other people as well but is [TS]

◼   ► that idea is it is there some sort of [TS]

◼   ► higher can it can it reach a higher [TS]

◼   ► realm or is it just about killing people [TS]

◼   ► or is there are inherent in the idea of [TS]

◼   ► something even if it's just about [TS]

◼   ► killing people like you know that again [TS]

◼   ► this could be a whole book and yet it's [TS]

◼   ► sort of ends up being falls by the [TS]

◼   ► wayside as Randy progresses i have to [TS]

◼   ► say that I one thing i like about this [TS]

◼   ► novelties i'm assuming because of the [TS]

◼   ► way Neal Stephenson works that I learned [TS]

◼   ► a lot this was a day after school [TS]

◼   ► special about the Russian mob and [TS]

◼   ► chinese people living in different parts [TS]

◼   ► of the country and British Columbia's [TS]

◼   ► byways and highways you know what he was [TS]

◼   ► writing long features for wired like I [TS]

◼   ► believe he traveled around the world [TS]

◼   ► possibly twice once to follow [TS]

◼   ► fiber-optic and where it was being built [TS]

◼   ► in weird places like the middle of [TS]

◼   ► indonesian jungles and and another time [TS]

◼   ► we followed container ships you know [TS]

◼   ► like what it was the unit of container [TS]

◼   ► and how its developed and where they go [TS]

◼   ► and I feel like this is kind of the [TS]

◼   ► equivalent equivalent of that but it's [TS]

◼   ► the he went the the the detail is so [TS]

◼   ► refined [TS]

◼   ► I don't believe he made it up everybody [TS]

◼   ► here played massively multiplayer games [TS]

◼   ► before and not massively I'm not that I [TS]

◼   ► heavily now I mean I played games that [TS]

◼   ► have that multiplayer element the same [TS]

◼   ► serve you know like an MMORPG minus the [TS]

◼   ► first and that's not what you say I've [TS]

◼   ► played World of Warcraft once or twice [TS]

◼   ► alright wow I I'm i love you i have a [TS]

◼   ► little bit i played in the beta of world [TS]

◼   ► of warcraft which I realizes now since [TS]

◼   ► that was when my son was in utero that's [TS]

◼   ► like seven years ago now that their 7th [TS]

◼   ► anniversary i believe Josh my wife [TS]

◼   ► played that much more than me actually [TS]

◼   ► and then and then she had a baby and [TS]

◼   ► then there were two children and that [TS]

◼   ► was that for World of Warcraft but sort [TS]

◼   ► of a lot more time we did play at some [TS]

◼   ► and and and that gave me enough of a [TS]

◼   ► perspective on it I think 22 to get [TS]

◼   ► it's about but I wonder what that would [TS]

◼   ► be does this book make as much sense do [TS]

◼   ► you feel if you've never really played [TS]

◼   ► those games do you feel as if you [TS]

◼   ► understand what they're about by reading [TS]

◼   ► this doesn't have that kind of tour you [TS]

◼   ► know I'd feel speaking as someone who's [TS]

◼   ► never played an actual MMO but has [TS]

◼   ► played a lot of other games i think [TS]

◼   ► there's stuff that translates even in [TS]

◼   ► that two other you know from other sorts [TS]

◼   ► of gaming or for other interactions with [TS]

◼   ► people it there are very recognizable [TS]

◼   ► ideas in here and it's not a huge [TS]

◼   ► stretch in you you know especially [TS]

◼   ► someone who's universe kind of in gaming [TS]

◼   ► culture like I'm familiar enough with [TS]

◼   ► the tropes and thing and an element so [TS]

◼   ► that make up an MMO to sort of recognize [TS]

◼   ► them here and it seems pretty clear you [TS]

◼   ► know that this is a pretty accurate [TS]

◼   ► description of what goes on and it's not [TS]

◼   ► hard to extrapolate you know the kind of [TS]

◼   ► people that you're going to run into [TS]

◼   ► people like you know the trolls right [TS]

◼   ► who are there to just sort of do you [TS]

◼   ► know cause havoc to a certain extent and [TS]

◼   ► and proper rivers understand right yeah [TS]

◼   ► the griefers and you know all that I [TS]

◼   ► mean that's really interesting and I [TS]

◼   ► think I think what's fascinating to me [TS]

◼   ► about the world of T rain as its [TS]

◼   ► described is the sort of key that [TS]

◼   ► Richard hooks into in coming up with it [TS]

◼   ► which is let's take gold farming and [TS]

◼   ► legitimize it and and build our game [TS]

◼   ► around it right and not only do that but [TS]

◼   ► like you know basically in order to make [TS]

◼   ► sure that it works [TS]

◼   ► duplicate the exact same sort of [TS]

◼   ► structures that we deal with in real [TS]

◼   ► life if you had to farm gold what makes [TS]

◼   ► sense i mean it's if you if you're going [TS]

◼   ► to produce that kind of a game you need [TS]

◼   ► that kind of a structure to back it up [TS]

◼   ► you can't just randomly put gold there [TS]

◼   ► because somebody is going to figure out [TS]

◼   ► the algorithms and Exploited right but [TS]

◼   ► you wouldn't have to explain that in a [TS]

◼   ► book write and say like all the others [TS]

◼   ► golden shows up with you get into how it [TS]

◼   ► works and it's fascinating [TS]

◼   ► I've never done an important either so i [TS]

◼   ► have no idea how they play but I didn't [TS]

◼   ► feel I don't feel lost in the [TS]

◼   ► environment but i have to say i like [TS]

◼   ► again Stephenson is accuracy the fact [TS]

◼   ► that technical details were accurate was [TS]

◼   ► awesome especially after reading ready [TS]

◼   ► player one with impossible you know [TS]

◼   ► verizon see [TS]

◼   ► whatever crash yes and it's it borders [TS]

◼   ► on precondition I i like um one of the [TS]

◼   ► things that always struck me about about [TS]

◼   ► world of warcraft is the do you know [TS]

◼   ► where your character died is unlike him [TS]

◼   ► in a ready player one when your [TS]

◼   ► character dies and they're dead and you [TS]

◼   ► gotta start over [TS]

◼   ► yeah that would really haha umm you go [TS]

◼   ► into like a limbo state and you go back [TS]

◼   ► to where you were uh you know the last [TS]

◼   ► time off [TS]

◼   ► yeah you gotta go to run as a ghost and [TS]

◼   ► go back to you know it's you're [TS]

◼   ► basically a time penalty when you die [TS]

◼   ► and so I love how you know it's got its [TS]

◼   ► got a death mechanism and it's got an [TS]

◼   ► idol mechanism where Richard when he has [TS]

◼   ► taken a viewers when ya when he richard [TS]

◼   ► has taken by abdullah Jones and and [TS]

◼   ► dragged it basically across the border [TS]

◼   ► you know the last thing we see is his [TS]

◼   ► character which is the basically the god [TS]

◼   ► of terrain is it just auto walking back [TS]

◼   ► jogging back to his home i love that [TS]

◼   ► little detail [TS]

◼   ► yeah I i want to read my my favorite [TS]

◼   ► little passage from this book which i [TS]

◼   ► think you may be fine surprised about [TS]

◼   ► what part of this book it's from but it [TS]

◼   ► just made me laugh and it's so absurd [TS]

◼   ► and it's it describing so so donald d [TS]

◼   ► squared the the highfalutin cambridge [TS]

◼   ► Don who has his castle on the Isle of [TS]

◼   ► Man's he it says surrounded himself with [TS]

◼   ► toadies who are basically Society for [TS]

◼   ► Creative Anachronism type people and [TS]

◼   ► he's living as a consultant to a [TS]

◼   ► high-tech company he's living in a [TS]

◼   ► castle that is trying to be immaculate [TS]

◼   ► immaculately medieval so what happens if [TS]

◼   ► you want to contact him and and they've [TS]

◼   ► worked it out and this is my favorite [TS]

◼   ► passage which was like this so the email [TS]

◼   ► pipeline network like this down and [TS]

◼   ► Douglas the primary city of the Isle of [TS]

◼   ► Man the girlfriend of one of the [TS]

◼   ► medievalists who dwelled in a flat there [TS]

◼   ► i happen to rather like tampons would [TS]

◼   ► read these squares email as it came in [TS]

◼   ► filter out the junk and print out a hard [TS]

◼   ► copy of anything that seemed important [TS]

◼   ► and zip it up in a waterproof messenger [TS]

◼   ► bag when it came time to walk her dog [TS]

◼   ► she would stroll at the waterfront [TS]

◼   ► promenade until she reached the wii [TS]

◼   ► elephant train station its northern end [TS]

◼   ► where she would have [TS]

◼   ► the bag to the station nation with later [TS]

◼   ► handed over to the conductor of the [TS]

◼   ► narrow-gauge electrical train that wound [TS]

◼   ► its way from there up to the interior of [TS]

◼   ► the island at a certain point along the [TS]

◼   ► line it would be tossed out onto the [TS]

◼   ► sighting and later picked up by d [TS]

◼   ► squared is gamekeeper who would carry it [TS]

◼   ► up the hill and place its contents on [TS]

◼   ► the desk of the in-house troubadour who [TS]

◼   ► had translated into medieval on sea [TS]

◼   ► chicken and then sing and or recited to [TS]

◼   ► d squared at mealtime the lord of the [TS]

◼   ► manor within dictate a response that [TS]

◼   ► would follow the reverse route back down [TS]

◼   ► the hill to the girlfriends laptop and [TS]

◼   ► the internet [TS]

◼   ► oh wow it's a wonderful guy that might [TS]

◼   ► have been the most unrealistic part of [TS]

◼   ► the entire but I don't know some people [TS]

◼   ► actually it's correct their lives to be [TS]

◼   ► more like that larry ellison is built [TS]

◼   ► some kind of Japanese reconstruction on [TS]

◼   ► top of a little pop in woodside so yeah [TS]

◼   ► in order to get an email to larry [TS]

◼   ► ellison like me to send in just a few [TS]

◼   ► actions you actually have to assassinate [TS]

◼   ► three people to send email larry ellison [TS]

◼   ► it's pretty takes a big toll so be [TS]

◼   ► careful as I realize that's ridiculous [TS]

◼   ► but I mean there are lots of directors [TS]

◼   ► great it's like great detail but that's [TS]

◼   ► it so he's created his own kind of [TS]

◼   ► physical tr8 right space created this [TS]

◼   ► this replica of an age that never really [TS]

◼   ► existed [TS]

◼   ► why go into the internet when you can [TS]

◼   ► just buy a castle exactly but I love [TS]

◼   ► that when they need he goes into the you [TS]

◼   ► know into T rain he doesn't have shoes [TS]

◼   ► right but he doesn't need to buy them [TS]

◼   ► because they cost of these like I waste [TS]

◼   ► money on shoes I don't you choose here [TS]

◼   ► and that's fascinating know that I mean [TS]

◼   ► that's an interesting point right [TS]

◼   ► because the you this is this guy who who [TS]

◼   ► who insists upon you know authenticity [TS]

◼   ► right very similar to do like he wants [TS]

◼   ► to look real and yet when he goes into [TS]

◼   ► the game it's I don't want to waste [TS]

◼   ► money on shoes he has very little [TS]

◼   ► respect for the game at first right but [TS]

◼   ► it right and that's fascinating because [TS]

◼   ► it's a divergence and not you know he's [TS]

◼   ► a snob right like that's essentially [TS]

◼   ► what he is he looks down on all of this [TS]

◼   ► and so it's funny though that he forsake [TS]

◼   ► his own principles to a certain extent [TS]

◼   ► once he gets immersed in that world [TS]

◼   ► what's interesting to me there is he's [TS]

◼   ► completely snobbish about the game until [TS]

◼   ► Richard basically is like hey look you [TS]

◼   ► can earn money here you can pay for all [TS]

◼   ► these wonderful things that you [TS]

◼   ► I'm putting in your castle and you can [TS]

◼   ► help us build a world your knowledge of [TS]

◼   ► this culture is valuable [TS]

◼   ► right i mean but that essentially [TS]

◼   ► undermines to a certain extent right [TS]

◼   ► like because this whole thing is you [TS]

◼   ► know he didn't last and / yeah exactly [TS]

◼   ► exactly mr. I mean that six-shot you can [TS]

◼   ► sell out and make money but go right so [TS]

◼   ► we're back to that and so he's kind of [TS]

◼   ► saying that the taste is kind of a low [TS]

◼   ► in the end right you know like he [TS]

◼   ► doesn't you know he doesn't necessarily [TS]

◼   ► the only run skin deep [TS]

◼   ► well you know and if he's he's a Don [TS]

◼   ► who's running a food made money ready [TS]

◼   ► fantasy novels who's already sold out [TS]

◼   ► right I really didn't see it that way [TS]

◼   ► right [TS]

◼   ► he you know he think he like Tolkien [TS]

◼   ► he's come up with the language and you [TS]

◼   ► know the whole society and culture you [TS]

◼   ► know he's kind of like you kind of pic [TS]

◼   ► from is that guy who desperately wanted [TS]

◼   ► to be you know respected academically [TS]

◼   ► but even though he really secretly [TS]

◼   ► wanted to write all this like trashy [TS]

◼   ► fantasy so I want to talk about the end [TS]

◼   ► of the book because it does end in a [TS]

◼   ► hail of bullets and uh I don't read a [TS]

◼   ► lot of books that end with this much [TS]

◼   ► gunplay and there's like a lot of [TS]

◼   ► detailed I I thought it was strange that [TS]

◼   ► he was thinking uh experts on ammunition [TS]

◼   ► and and and weaponry in the [TS]

◼   ► acknowledgments but no no it i see why [TS]

◼   ► because it's incredibly detailed in it [TS]

◼   ► and I just wanted to know what you guys [TS]

◼   ► thought about the action sequence at the [TS]

◼   ► end we've gotta chase we have a couple [TS]

◼   ► different groups coming through the [TS]

◼   ► mountains there's a helicopter that gets [TS]

◼   ► shot down by a guy and then somebody [TS]

◼   ► blow something up but then there's our [TS]

◼   ► should go to your booby traps in tunnels [TS]

◼   ► and there's a UH exchange of gunfire on [TS]

◼   ► a hillside or around like a guy was on [TS]

◼   ► anymore mind grabbing his chest [TS]

◼   ► yeah and then and then there's the [TS]

◼   ► there's that you know the shack and then [TS]

◼   ► the houses in the settlement and their [TS]

◼   ► the terrorists coming down from through [TS]

◼   ► the air coming through the tunnel [TS]

◼   ► another the other terrorists were coming [TS]

◼   ► up the street into the neighborhood and [TS]

◼   ► I mean he has so many pieces and it's [TS]

◼   ► messy and but it's it is exciting [TS]

◼   ► um you know it's not what i expected i'm [TS]

◼   ► just wondering what you guys thought of [TS]

◼   ► that the the end because the ending [TS]

◼   ► drops all pretense of being about you [TS]

◼   ► know p whatever we've said this book is [TS]

◼   ► about it and in many ways it just comes [TS]

◼   ► down to people with guns getting in the [TS]

◼   ► right position so that they can shoot [TS]

◼   ► other people try mean I I've little I've [TS]

◼   ► read a lot of tom clancy I've heard a [TS]

◼   ► few I've read a few tom clancy's and [TS]

◼   ► there are some tom clancy's that that [TS]

◼   ► kind of you know the kind of read like [TS]

◼   ► this it and you know it it's very [TS]

◼   ► reminiscent of that and yet somehow I [TS]

◼   ► you know maybe I maybe I just maybe [TS]

◼   ► myself and caught within that war of [TS]

◼   ► taste and and wanted to be better than [TS]

◼   ► that but I mean it is gripped write the [TS]

◼   ► unit's gripping it's page-turning and I [TS]

◼   ► think you know he does a very good job [TS]

◼   ► of sort of not only making it just about [TS]

◼   ► what the hail of gunfire but also you [TS]

◼   ► know we do have some some relationship [TS]

◼   ► stuff going on in these last few pages [TS]

◼   ► because we have you know Richard [TS]

◼   ► thinking he's basically you know he's [TS]

◼   ► toast [TS]

◼   ► he's just happy that you know he got the [TS]

◼   ► Sula back and happy that she'll survive [TS]

◼   ► you know if he doesn't make it out and [TS]

◼   ► we get you know a number of other [TS]

◼   ► characters who just sort of are working [TS]

◼   ► towards some other goal and we get there [TS]

◼   ► their relationships and interactions [TS]

◼   ► with some of the other characters and I [TS]

◼   ► i was surprised in the end that I [TS]

◼   ► thought more of the characters that we [TS]

◼   ► liked we're going to bite it and in fact [TS]

◼   ► the only one who really the old we lose [TS]

◼   ► to right and they're both kind of minor [TS]

◼   ► characters I mean not in there you know [TS]

◼   ► importance but in their screen time [TS]

◼   ► yeah well i was i was kind of I thought [TS]

◼   ► he did such a great job i was far more [TS]

◼   ► interested i should say in the kind of [TS]

◼   ► the t-brain aspect of this because I [TS]

◼   ► thought it was so interesting and [TS]

◼   ► original and I was kind of disappointed [TS]

◼   ► when it i could it was there is a clear [TS]

◼   ► shift into ok now it's just going to be [TS]

◼   ► a thriller [TS]

◼   ► I mean it's a well-written thriller but [TS]

◼   ► I was hoping I thought the book could be [TS]

◼   ► so much more [TS]

◼   ► it was good but I wanted to be like [TS]

◼   ► amazing and I just kind of thought it [TS]

◼   ► ended kind of like a cliche [TS]

◼   ► well that was that was my feeling when [TS]

◼   ► they made the turn is that I started to [TS]

◼   ► think I wonder if this really is him [TS]

◼   ► realizing that cory doctorow did a whole [TS]

◼   ► book about gold farmers and and [TS]

◼   ► an MMO it you know in China and i also [TS]

◼   ► will do something different [TS]

◼   ► well i should point out you having for [TS]

◼   ► the win which I don't like to think I [TS]

◼   ► don't think there was a minority opinion [TS]

◼   ► at the time or only one also read it for [TS]

◼   ► the wind has you know Chinese American [TS]

◼   ► people and other strange nationalities [TS]

◼   ► spring the globe and conspiracies and [TS]

◼   ► mafioso and things being kicked down and [TS]

◼   ► people being killed unexpectedly in the [TS]

◼   ► middle of the book it's a big shaggy dog [TS]

◼   ► story to a very different kind of want a [TS]

◼   ► lot more political than this because I'm [TS]

◼   ► not sure there's a only the moral of [TS]

◼   ► this story is there don't live it [TS]

◼   ► don't be a terrorist on the left one [TS]

◼   ► killed exactly don't be late again vs [TS]

◼   ► you vs well I mean I did the family [TS]

◼   ► themes are august i think our are part [TS]

◼   ► of it that that you've got not just the [TS]

◼   ► family and the fourth rest family that [TS]

◼   ► have a lot of differences but in the end [TS]

◼   ► you know I know it's hokey but they that [TS]

◼   ► that is one of the messages here is like [TS]

◼   ► people pull together and they may have [TS]

◼   ► some differences but in the end you know [TS]

◼   ► the you stick with the people who matter [TS]

◼   ► to you and you see these different oddly [TS]

◼   ► paired people come together and you know [TS]

◼   ► that's sort of a theme of it but it's [TS]

◼   ► not exactly something kind of deep an [TS]

◼   ► earth-shattering you know the other one [TS]

◼   ► is that everyone wants to belong to [TS]

◼   ► something right so right all those [TS]

◼   ► outsiders exactly all the characters are [TS]

◼   ► looking for some connection which is [TS]

◼   ► also kind of cliche but you know it's a [TS]

◼   ► theme in lots of stuff and and we do end [TS]

◼   ► up with a lot of them paired off at the [TS]

◼   ► end right which I thought was a little [TS]

◼   ► little it turned into a little bit until [TS]

◼   ► I guess Shakespearean combinational [TS]

◼   ► couples everywhere [TS]

◼   ► yeah everybody's getting married at the [TS]

◼   ► end except for except for Richard a lot [TS]

◼   ► of love story hiding inches thousand off [TS]

◼   ► there is but not i mean not one that [TS]

◼   ► really makes any sense [TS]

◼   ► no it's mostly gen hey we're all I mean [TS]

◼   ► it's like okay so Olivia who i love i [TS]

◼   ► actually think is a really great [TS]

◼   ► character one of the funny things about [TS]

◼   ► Olivia's when she said on her mission [TS]

◼   ► she specifically told basically please [TS]

◼   ► don't have sex with anybody which is [TS]

◼   ► like hey wow that's what I'm just a lady [TS]

◼   ► is she makes equipment like James Bond [TS]

◼   ► gets to you and how come I don't ya at [TS]

◼   ► what I mean she's the most i like their [TS]

◼   ► relationship the best out of all the [TS]