The Incomparable

00:00:00 ◼   ► this episode of the uncomfortable is [TS]

00:00:01 ◼   ► sponsored by audible the best place to [TS]

00:00:03 ◼   ► find audio books online go to audible [TS]

00:00:06 ◼   ► podcast.com slash and comfortable to [TS]

00:00:10 ◼   ► learn [TS]

00:00:16 ◼   ► the incomparable number 151 july 2013 [TS]

00:00:22 ◼   ► welcome back to be uncomfortable this is [TS]

00:00:26 ◼   ► a an episode that I'd like to say i look [TS]

00:00:28 ◼   ► forward to for most of the year but i [TS]

00:00:31 ◼   ► think the most accurate thing is that it [TS]

00:00:32 ◼   ► takes me several months to prepare for [TS]

00:00:34 ◼   ► this episode because this is the episode [TS]

00:00:37 ◼   ► where we read and comment on the [TS]

00:00:40 ◼   ► nominees for the hugo award for best [TS]

00:00:42 ◼   ► novel and there are five nominees every [TS]

00:00:44 ◼   ► year which means some of us read all 5 [TS]

00:00:46 ◼   ► some of us read are not gluttons for [TS]

00:00:48 ◼   ► punishment only read some of the five [TS]

00:00:50 ◼   ► books that are nominated for for the [TS]

00:00:52 ◼   ► human award for best novel representing [TS]

00:00:54 ◼   ► the best in science fiction and fantasy [TS]

00:00:55 ◼   ► and related jon renau long-form fiction [TS]

00:00:59 ◼   ► for the year so we did it again we've [TS]

00:01:02 ◼   ► done this the last couple of years and [TS]

00:01:05 ◼   ► we're back so joining me on this journey [TS]

00:01:07 ◼   ► to read novels that were nominated for [TS]

00:01:10 ◼   ► awards bye-bye fans are my guest dan [TS]

00:01:15 ◼   ► morgan hi dan welcome back i Jes and [TS]

00:01:17 ◼   ► I've read by my calculations 3.73 of [TS]

00:01:21 ◼   ► these novels [TS]

00:01:22 ◼   ► alright fair enough we'll get into that [TS]

00:01:24 ◼   ► in more detail in a bit [TS]

00:01:26 ◼   ► Glenn Fleischman is also here Glenn good [TS]

00:01:28 ◼   ► to have you back on his delight to be [TS]

00:01:30 ◼   ► here and I believe I've read about 4.3 [TS]

00:01:33 ◼   ► of the novels which is my highest score [TS]

00:01:35 ◼   ► ever in these episodes [TS]

00:01:36 ◼   ► wow there's some serious bragging going [TS]

00:01:38 ◼   ► on Monty actually is also here Monty at [TS]

00:01:40 ◼   ► one point opted out because we were [TS]

00:01:42 ◼   ► going to record this a couple weeks ago [TS]

00:01:44 ◼   ► and then we didn't want he said just [TS]

00:01:46 ◼   ► wait i will read them how many did you [TS]

00:01:48 ◼   ► read Monty i read three of them and i [TS]

00:01:51 ◼   ► liked about one in three quarters haha [TS]

00:01:54 ◼   ► alright and Scott McNulty my partner in [TS]

00:01:58 ◼   ► crime who who tends to read all 5 I [TS]

00:02:00 ◼   ► assume you read all five right Scott I i [TS]

00:02:03 ◼   ► have read all 5 much like you but i have [TS]

00:02:06 ◼   ► read all 5 all the way through every [TS]

00:02:08 ◼   ► bitter bitter age do you know there were [TS]

00:02:11 ◼   ► some pretty bad and I want to argue that [TS]

00:02:14 ◼   ► these represent the best in science [TS]

00:02:16 ◼   ► fiction and fantasy of the year because [TS]

00:02:18 ◼   ► we do you want to argue for or us [TS]

00:02:21 ◼   ► I'm arguing again [TS]

00:02:22 ◼   ► let's see hey I have a meta argument i [TS]

00:02:25 ◼   ► want to discuss later about that nature [TS]

00:02:26 ◼   ► of what is the best but we can talk [TS]

00:02:28 ◼   ► about that later [TS]

00:02:28 ◼   ► alright let's go through the books first [TS]

00:02:30 ◼   ► and then maybe we can get meta at the [TS]

00:02:32 ◼   ► end i also have a6 book that i'm going [TS]

00:02:34 ◼   ► to mention what I mean nominated for a [TS]

00:02:36 ◼   ► nebula warden is very good much better [TS]

00:02:38 ◼   ► than any of these books actually and [TS]

00:02:40 ◼   ► Scott agrees with me I i know in advance [TS]

00:02:42 ◼   ► because he's been raving about it or he [TS]

00:02:44 ◼   ► agrees somewhat with me [TS]

00:02:46 ◼   ► so what this is but yes just increase [TS]

00:02:50 ◼   ► your heat i read a book from last year I [TS]

00:02:53 ◼   ► like I don't think that this is my [TS]

00:02:54 ◼   ► editing method with the incomparable is [TS]

00:02:56 ◼   ► that I declare things to be fact if [TS]

00:02:58 ◼   ► there later proven wrong i remove all [TS]

00:03:00 ◼   ► traces of my decoration and they're [TS]

00:03:02 ◼   ► clever i am never wrong [TS]

00:03:04 ◼   ► alright so we should start with the two [TS]

00:03:07 ◼   ► books that we've covered previously [TS]

00:03:10 ◼   ► showing that we do have a nose for [TS]

00:03:12 ◼   ► nominal works of some of some kind of [TS]

00:03:17 ◼   ► two of these books we've done episodes [TS]

00:03:19 ◼   ► about already haha [TS]

00:03:21 ◼   ► john scalzi is booked redshirts was [TS]

00:03:24 ◼   ► covered in detail in episode 201 of the [TS]

00:03:27 ◼   ► incomparable titled insular nervous fear [TS]

00:03:30 ◼   ► where we talked about his a very [TS]

00:03:33 ◼   ► interesting kind of meta discussion of [TS]

00:03:35 ◼   ► red shirts on a spaceship that is [TS]

00:03:39 ◼   ► remarkably like the USS enterprise which [TS]

00:03:41 ◼   ► turns out is actually inside a TV show [TS]

00:03:45 ◼   ► and that's why the plots that their [TS]

00:03:47 ◼   ► lives are revolving around make very [TS]

00:03:50 ◼   ► little sense so we talked about this a [TS]

00:03:53 ◼   ► little bit uh Glen and Scot were on that [TS]

00:03:57 ◼   ► show dan and Monty I have you both red [TS]

00:04:02 ◼   ► red shirts i have all right so why don't [TS]

00:04:04 ◼   ► you guys let's start with Monty tell me [TS]

00:04:07 ◼   ► tell me what you thought of Richard's I [TS]

00:04:09 ◼   ► liked the middle part at the beginning I [TS]

00:04:13 ◼   ► thought the middle part where they [TS]

00:04:15 ◼   ► realize they were in a TV show and went [TS]

00:04:16 ◼   ► to earth where the TV show is being [TS]

00:04:18 ◼   ► produced that yes that at the beginning [TS]

00:04:21 ◼   ► when they were purposely running into [TS]

00:04:25 ◼   ► all the tropes i thought was kind of [TS]

00:04:28 ◼   ► obvious and boring and there's about 80 [TS]

00:04:30 ◼   ► pages after the end of the book when [TS]

00:04:33 ◼   ► scalzi wonders often into some weird [TS]

00:04:36 ◼   ► writing exercises that I didn't care for [TS]

00:04:38 ◼   ► it all to kodys yeah the code as I felt [TS]

00:04:42 ◼   ► were completely extraneous to the actual [TS]

00:04:44 ◼   ► story and hug me up bug me a lot because [TS]

00:04:48 ◼   ► i thought i was finally done [TS]

00:04:50 ◼   ► kind of like one of those codes as i [TS]

00:04:51 ◼   ► recall just because I felt like there [TS]

00:04:54 ◼   ► was some humanity in it that maybe was [TS]

00:04:55 ◼   ► missing from all of the winking and [TS]

00:04:57 ◼   ► nudging that had been going on before it [TS]

00:05:00 ◼   ► that that up but it was a an abrupt [TS]

00:05:02 ◼   ► tonal shift to suddenly have it be like [TS]

00:05:04 ◼   ► hey remember those funny jokes about [TS]

00:05:07 ◼   ► those guys who died they were real [TS]

00:05:08 ◼   ► people and people mourn their passing [TS]

00:05:10 ◼   ► the goat cheese but i'd finally gotten [TS]

00:05:13 ◼   ► to the point where i was accepting the [TS]

00:05:14 ◼   ► winking indulging I was like all right [TS]

00:05:16 ◼   ► I've been enjoyed this book on its own [TS]

00:05:17 ◼   ► self referential level right fine [TS]

00:05:21 ◼   ► it's too late to make it tried them make [TS]

00:05:24 ◼   ► me start caring about these guys [TS]

00:05:26 ◼   ► yeah yeah I can see that dan I know you [TS]

00:05:28 ◼   ► had this book on your bookshelf for a [TS]

00:05:30 ◼   ► long time I didn't and I and I read it [TS]

00:05:32 ◼   ► and I enjoyed it i'm a fan of skulls [TS]

00:05:34 ◼   ► these work in general this this seems to [TS]

00:05:35 ◼   ► me to fall pretty clearly into the he's [TS]

00:05:38 ◼   ► got a couple different veins of writing [TS]

00:05:40 ◼   ► i feel like i'm so i really like his [TS]

00:05:43 ◼   ► stuff in the in the old man's war [TS]

00:05:45 ◼   ► universe and we talked about the human [TS]

00:05:46 ◼   ► division also a recent polycast this [TS]

00:05:49 ◼   ► strikes me very much of reminding me of [TS]

00:05:51 ◼   ► a the androids dream which is another [TS]

00:05:53 ◼   ► book he wrote his well your novels yeah [TS]

00:05:55 ◼   ► he writes he's not necessarily quite as [TS]

00:05:59 ◼   ► successful as someone like Douglas Adams [TS]

00:06:01 ◼   ► or terry pratchett when it comes to just [TS]

00:06:03 ◼   ► sort of being like I'm just gonna do [TS]

00:06:04 ◼   ► total surrealist humor he does something [TS]

00:06:07 ◼   ► that I i think a little bit it's still [TS]

00:06:09 ◼   ► kind of grounded in a plot and it still [TS]

00:06:12 ◼   ► has like a dramatic side to it but it's [TS]

00:06:15 ◼   ► also kind of if you sort of take a step [TS]

00:06:17 ◼   ► back holy ridiculous the same time and [TS]

00:06:21 ◼   ► entertaining especially as someone who's [TS]

00:06:24 ◼   ► you know watched a lot of star trek in [TS]

00:06:26 ◼   ► the past it's definitely hits those [TS]

00:06:28 ◼   ► chords and the metafictional stuff is is [TS]

00:06:30 ◼   ► I didn't just like it to the extent that [TS]

00:06:32 ◼   ► Monty did I thought it was fine and I [TS]

00:06:34 ◼   ► mean it's also i find you know we're [TS]

00:06:37 ◼   ► talking about now and i read it two or [TS]

00:06:39 ◼   ► three months ago and i found i forgot [TS]

00:06:42 ◼   ► most like I remember what I remember the [TS]

00:06:44 ◼   ► sort of general outlines of it but if [TS]

00:06:46 ◼   ► you ask me like I had to look up a [TS]

00:06:47 ◼   ► wikipedia page remember the names of the [TS]

00:06:49 ◼   ► characters which I guess makes sense [TS]

00:06:51 ◼   ► because they're red shirts but yeah it's [TS]

00:06:53 ◼   ► a super light but yeah there were [TS]

00:06:56 ◼   ► characters in the book they were kind of [TS]

00:06:57 ◼   ► in well I remember the the wife of the [TS]

00:07:00 ◼   ► guy who died [TS]

00:07:02 ◼   ► oh yeah well I don't know yeah maybe [TS]

00:07:05 ◼   ► that's just because i was at the end or [TS]

00:07:07 ◼   ► maybe it's because I again I I cared [TS]

00:07:09 ◼   ► about that it would suddenly was sad [TS]

00:07:11 ◼   ► these guys were all died right so I mean [TS]

00:07:13 ◼   ► I you know I give it a thumbs up but I [TS]

00:07:16 ◼   ► don't know if I would call it my my [TS]

00:07:17 ◼   ► favorite you know sci-fi novel or the [TS]

00:07:19 ◼   ► best sci-fi novel of the year [TS]

00:07:20 ◼   ► yeah I thought it was a pleasant [TS]

00:07:22 ◼   ► diversion kind of a fun read [TS]

00:07:26 ◼   ► I would not have guessed that it would [TS]

00:07:28 ◼   ► be nominated for anything except that [TS]

00:07:32 ◼   ► John Scalzi has a lot of people on the [TS]

00:07:34 ◼   ► internet who liked him a lot [TS]

00:07:35 ◼   ► I think I think you've hit on something [TS]

00:07:37 ◼   ► your mom hey yes that's a cream i think [TS]

00:07:40 ◼   ► possibly possible awards are a [TS]

00:07:43 ◼   ► popularity contest is that what you're [TS]

00:07:45 ◼   ► suggesting [TS]

00:07:45 ◼   ► turns out it's true especially the huge [TS]

00:07:48 ◼   ► well not especially but Hugo's by design [TS]

00:07:50 ◼   ► right you can [TS]

00:07:51 ◼   ► they're voted for by fans so obviously [TS]

00:07:55 ◼   ► if if you who have $65 or more writing [TS]

00:07:57 ◼   ► so that does that does remove a lot of [TS]

00:08:00 ◼   ► people from the running [TS]

00:08:01 ◼   ► yeah my core audience only has like [TS]

00:08:03 ◼   ► twenty bucks that's why I wanted to work [TS]

00:08:05 ◼   ► there are only uh only 1113 ballots cast [TS]

00:08:10 ◼   ► also for the best level this year so [TS]

00:08:12 ◼   ► they're not a lot of sample size [TS]

00:08:15 ◼   ► yeah nostril you feel I feel like you [TS]

00:08:18 ◼   ► should be able to mobilize pretty head [TS]

00:08:20 ◼   ► about that you really want they did and [TS]

00:08:22 ◼   ► there how many people really read again [TS]

00:08:24 ◼   ► we're getting a little metal already but [TS]

00:08:25 ◼   ► how many people really read enough [TS]

00:08:27 ◼   ► novels to be able to pick five and [TS]

00:08:31 ◼   ► savings to the best five in the sauna [TS]

00:08:33 ◼   ► and the answer is scott is the only [TS]

00:08:35 ◼   ► person i know they might be able to do [TS]

00:08:37 ◼   ► that might be able to do that unless [TS]

00:08:39 ◼   ► you're a professional reviewer working [TS]

00:08:41 ◼   ► for some public yeah exactly instead [TS]

00:08:42 ◼   ► what happened is your fan and you ready [TS]

00:08:44 ◼   ► obviously and and six of them were by [TS]

00:08:47 ◼   ► people you're a fan of anyway and you [TS]

00:08:49 ◼   ► nominate them and red shirts with a very [TS]

00:08:50 ◼   ► high-profile book high enough for us to [TS]

00:08:53 ◼   ► put it on our list and do an episode [TS]

00:08:55 ◼   ► about it and yeah I think you read I [TS]

00:08:58 ◼   ► think you read one book because you're a [TS]

00:08:59 ◼   ► fan of [TS]

00:09:00 ◼   ► someone on this list and you nominated [TS]

00:09:02 ◼   ► also and that's how it gets onto yeah I [TS]

00:09:05 ◼   ► think that's I think that's a part of it [TS]

00:09:06 ◼   ► this is this is part of the I mean this [TS]

00:09:08 ◼   ► is what every awards not just the hugo [TS]

00:09:10 ◼   ► awards oscars are like this i mean there [TS]

00:09:12 ◼   ► are lots of things like that were you [TS]

00:09:13 ◼   ► you people who are more visible are [TS]

00:09:15 ◼   ► going to have a better chance of being [TS]

00:09:16 ◼   ► that doesn't mean doesn't guarantee if [TS]

00:09:18 ◼   ► Richards had been a disappointment for [TS]

00:09:20 ◼   ► scholars fanbase it would have got [TS]

00:09:22 ◼   ► nominated but he has a fanbase and [TS]

00:09:25 ◼   ► that's really liked it and they [TS]

00:09:26 ◼   ► nominated the power-law curve in action [TS]

00:09:29 ◼   ► and the Wil Wheaton audiobook I know is [TS]

00:09:31 ◼   ► very popular with people so i think that [TS]

00:09:33 ◼   ► that it channels into the insular [TS]

00:09:35 ◼   ► nervous fear like we talked about an [TS]

00:09:36 ◼   ► episode 201 where there's this whole [TS]

00:09:38 ◼   ► culture of people who are pals with each [TS]

00:09:41 ◼   ► other and promote each other stuff and [TS]

00:09:43 ◼   ► and that's powerful that that's a [TS]

00:09:45 ◼   ► powerful marketing tool it's true and [TS]

00:09:47 ◼   ► there's nothing there's nothing wrong [TS]

00:09:48 ◼   ► with that and there's nothing wrong with [TS]

00:09:50 ◼   ► the as long as you come into the Hugo's [TS]

00:09:52 ◼   ► knowing that and and writing these books [TS]

00:09:54 ◼   ► that's fine when i first started doing [TS]

00:09:57 ◼   ► this I didn't really understand how the [TS]

00:10:01 ◼   ► Hugo's work so I just assumed that the [TS]

00:10:04 ◼   ► they were you know this is the best book [TS]

00:10:06 ◼   ► of the year in science fiction and [TS]

00:10:08 ◼   ► fantasy based on some kind of you know [TS]

00:10:10 ◼   ► laws of the universe right and so when I [TS]

00:10:13 ◼   ► am ready to crunch the numbers exactly [TS]

00:10:15 ◼   ► these in the old Hugo tron 5008 products [TS]

00:10:19 ◼   ► the best book I believe they have the [TS]

00:10:21 ◼   ► frozen brain of Hugo Gernsback who [TS]

00:10:23 ◼   ► actually then they asked he's not dead [TS]

00:10:26 ◼   ► he's not that's a lie i but i mean there [TS]

00:10:28 ◼   ► are ways to run a word contest in which [TS]

00:10:30 ◼   ► you are it's not that you're requiring [TS]

00:10:32 ◼   ► everyone to watch your read everything [TS]

00:10:33 ◼   ► and even the Academy Awards I know those [TS]

00:10:36 ◼   ► are also of course the popularity [TS]

00:10:37 ◼   ► contests but there's this issue of if [TS]

00:10:39 ◼   ► you were in an industry and your part of [TS]

00:10:42 ◼   ► it and you read and observing your you [TS]

00:10:45 ◼   ► know your message to the media then you [TS]

00:10:47 ◼   ► may have a better sense of picking which [TS]

00:10:49 ◼   ► the best one is or the best then you get [TS]

00:10:51 ◼   ► the nebula whatever you know yeah yeah [TS]

00:10:53 ◼   ► we're definitely the best fan podcast by [TS]

00:10:57 ◼   ► us specifically well that's been proven [TS]

00:11:01 ◼   ► by science i mean i'm pretty confident [TS]

00:11:03 ◼   ► I'm pretty comfortable taking her second [TS]

00:11:04 ◼   ► wards are completely valid by the way [TS]

00:11:06 ◼   ► just so ya know somewhere in every way [TS]

00:11:08 ◼   ► in the neutral every source alone and we [TS]

00:11:11 ◼   ► know it because it [TS]

00:11:12 ◼   ► of that one of the fastest of sciences [TS]

00:11:14 ◼   ► that your results be repeatable and we [TS]

00:11:15 ◼   ► won for best fan who might cast fan / [TS]

00:11:19 ◼   ► news / something general podcast that [TS]

00:11:22 ◼   ► was that just rolls right off your [TS]

00:11:23 ◼   ► tongue there Jason admit it so much [TS]

00:11:26 ◼   ► suffice to say the category included a [TS]

00:11:28 ◼   ► slash and parentheses but we won that [TS]

00:11:30 ◼   ► and we were nominated again this year [TS]

00:11:32 ◼   ► which again scientifically proves that [TS]

00:11:34 ◼   ► they know what they're doing and [TS]

00:11:36 ◼   ► therefore proves that we are great [TS]

00:11:38 ◼   ► incidentally don't vote for us in a [TS]

00:11:40 ◼   ► podcast about science because we don't [TS]

00:11:43 ◼   ► know anything about that you lose but of [TS]

00:11:46 ◼   ► all the many many many awards of one [TS]

00:11:48 ◼   ► this is the only one yes [TS]

00:11:50 ◼   ► so anyway red shirts you know I I'm am [TS]

00:11:53 ◼   ► agreeing with you guys I think it was [TS]

00:11:56 ◼   ► fine and kind of funny and as a Star [TS]

00:11:58 ◼   ► Trek fan i liked a lot of those [TS]

00:12:00 ◼   ► illusions and I like the idea that they [TS]

00:12:02 ◼   ► were you know that scholars playing with [TS]

00:12:05 ◼   ► that you expect it to be the single joke [TS]

00:12:08 ◼   ► book and it's got some more twist up its [TS]

00:12:10 ◼   ► sleeve like Monty said that leads that [TS]

00:12:12 ◼   ► interesting middleware they're dealing [TS]

00:12:13 ◼   ► with a writer on the TV show and because [TS]

00:12:15 ◼   ► this thing about writers kind of [TS]

00:12:17 ◼   ► freezing up when they realize these [TS]

00:12:19 ◼   ► decisions they're making likely for [TS]

00:12:21 ◼   ► drama are affecting real people in a [TS]

00:12:23 ◼   ► parallel universe somewhere and I we [TS]

00:12:26 ◼   ► don't want to kotas i thought was was [TS]

00:12:28 ◼   ► nice although a lot of fun about up [TS]

00:12:30 ◼   ► total shift so yeah I i would not read [TS]

00:12:32 ◼   ► this book and say oh man this is better [TS]

00:12:34 ◼   ► be on that Hugo list but I didn't hate [TS]

00:12:36 ◼   ► it i liked it i thought it was fine i [TS]

00:12:38 ◼   ► just thought it was kind of light and [TS]

00:12:40 ◼   ► funny and breezy and not anything that I [TS]

00:12:44 ◼   ► thought this is a meaningful book that [TS]

00:12:45 ◼   ► I'm gonna be remembering 10 years from [TS]

00:12:47 ◼   ► now i agree with you Jason completely oh [TS]

00:12:49 ◼   ► well the feedback episode people will be [TS]

00:12:51 ◼   ► very angry at that I igers well though [TS]

00:12:55 ◼   ► the only thing I described as after i [TS]

00:12:56 ◼   ► read it i thought well this is getting [TS]

00:12:57 ◼   ► nominated for a human [TS]

00:12:58 ◼   ► oh yeah but because of the policies not [TS]

00:13:00 ◼   ► because i work right [TS]

00:13:02 ◼   ► yeah Kara yeah well I mean yeah it hits [TS]

00:13:04 ◼   ► all the all the right notes [TS]

00:13:06 ◼   ► let's move on and I mentioned the other [TS]

00:13:08 ◼   ► book that we covered in a previous [TS]

00:13:10 ◼   ► episode I look these up so I can refer [TS]

00:13:12 ◼   ► all of our interest to them episode 117 [TS]

00:13:15 ◼   ► titled intergalactic fedex which was [TS]

00:13:18 ◼   ► about lois mcmaster Pujols latest [TS]

00:13:21 ◼   ► installment in the Vorkosigan saga which [TS]

00:13:24 ◼   ► we like and we've done [TS]

00:13:25 ◼   ► uh we did a whole podcast about the [TS]

00:13:27 ◼   ► earlier books in the series episode 24 [TS]

00:13:29 ◼   ► way on way back in 24 called my word is [TS]

00:13:32 ◼   ► foreclosed again and these are really [TS]

00:13:34 ◼   ► fun books and this was the latest and [TS]

00:13:37 ◼   ► it's a little different cause it's not [TS]

00:13:38 ◼   ► about miles or miles parents it's about [TS]

00:13:40 ◼   ► his cousin eivin and i as we said that [TS]

00:13:44 ◼   ► at the time back in December and that [TS]

00:13:47 ◼   ► was a podcast with Dan Scott and ran on [TS]

00:13:49 ◼   ► it [TS]

00:13:50 ◼   ► I this is a I thought this was one of [TS]

00:13:53 ◼   ► the best for cosine books in quite a [TS]

00:13:55 ◼   ► while and was again like Richards kind [TS]

00:13:58 ◼   ► of light and funny but i liked it i I [TS]

00:14:01 ◼   ► thought it was better than her last two [TS]

00:14:02 ◼   ► or three again i'm not sure i would say [TS]

00:14:05 ◼   ► it has the weight or meaning or anything [TS]

00:14:07 ◼   ► to be at nominee but every for cosecant [TS]

00:14:09 ◼   ► novel ever seems to have been nominated [TS]

00:14:10 ◼   ► for a hugo or so okay we'll do that [TS]

00:14:13 ◼   ► again the land and Monty you weren't on [TS]

00:14:16 ◼   ► that episode did you guys read it [TS]

00:14:18 ◼   ► yes I've never made it through a [TS]

00:14:21 ◼   ► varicose again [TS]

00:14:22 ◼   ► ok try to even try alright fair enough [TS]

00:14:24 ◼   ► to Glen Gillman tell us your tell us [TS]

00:14:26 ◼   ► your thoughts about what I've never read [TS]

00:14:28 ◼   ► any of them although i've heard you guys [TS]

00:14:29 ◼   ► talking about there's something a little [TS]

00:14:31 ◼   ► daunting about when someone's created [TS]

00:14:32 ◼   ► this world this massive set of novels [TS]

00:14:34 ◼   ► you like if I go down that you know that [TS]

00:14:37 ◼   ► path there's a lot to read which is [TS]

00:14:39 ◼   ► great but it's also using sort of [TS]

00:14:41 ◼   ► daunting to figure out where you started [TS]

00:14:43 ◼   ► describing my 2010 Glenn I when I swear [TS]

00:14:46 ◼   ► I read that's ten of these do right now [TS]

00:14:49 ◼   ► well there's a diagram in Captain for [TS]

00:14:51 ◼   ► patrols the lights it's like here's how [TS]

00:14:53 ◼   ► the books related i'm like oh my god [TS]

00:14:55 ◼   ► this is like worse than taken any any [TS]

00:14:57 ◼   ► book with a diagram that sometimes but [TS]

00:14:59 ◼   ► that's so with no background I barely [TS]

00:15:01 ◼   ► even know what the universe is about [TS]

00:15:03 ◼   ► picked it up and I thought it was a [TS]

00:15:06 ◼   ► lightweight but enjoyable by I could [TS]

00:15:08 ◼   ► also tell if I bujold is a terrific [TS]

00:15:11 ◼   ► writer she tells a good story she paints [TS]

00:15:14 ◼   ► characters in sort of broad strokes that [TS]

00:15:16 ◼   ► are ok and sometimes she goes in and [TS]

00:15:18 ◼   ► then does the detail work to refine them [TS]

00:15:20 ◼   ► a bit but this was sort of a like a [TS]

00:15:22 ◼   ► silly slightly buffoonish story where [TS]

00:15:25 ◼   ► everybody's kind of happy in the end [TS]

00:15:27 ◼   ► more lesson Lee you know so i thought it [TS]

00:15:30 ◼   ► was I thought it was enjoyable did not [TS]

00:15:31 ◼   ► for me have the half [TS]

00:15:32 ◼   ► of what i would expect from a hugo award [TS]

00:15:35 ◼   ► nominated novel but I didn't read the [TS]

00:15:37 ◼   ► other novels that were not nominated [TS]

00:15:39 ◼   ► this year of all to read the ones that [TS]

00:15:40 ◼   ► were kind of light on the side by side [TS]

00:15:42 ◼   ► in the last year or last year's you know [TS]

00:15:44 ◼   ► children and so I didn't you know I [TS]

00:15:48 ◼   ► wouldn't you know this isn't a dune [TS]

00:15:49 ◼   ► right i mean this isn't something of [TS]

00:15:50 ◼   ► that nature and it's not like a [TS]

00:15:53 ◼   ► hitchhiker's guide either and you don't [TS]

00:15:54 ◼   ► get those every year I realized but this [TS]

00:15:56 ◼   ► seemed like with red shirts pretty [TS]

00:15:57 ◼   ► lightweight to be put in this category [TS]

00:15:59 ◼   ► alongside books like that that have been [TS]

00:16:01 ◼   ► nominated in the past I just don't know [TS]

00:16:03 ◼   ► if this year was a weaker or stronger [TS]

00:16:05 ◼   ► than usual and we're seeing weaker [TS]

00:16:07 ◼   ► titles nominate yeah I it's uh she gets [TS]

00:16:09 ◼   ► nominated every time she's got a book [TS]

00:16:11 ◼   ► and she's won several times so it [TS]

00:16:14 ◼   ► definitely is one of those things where [TS]

00:16:16 ◼   ► it's almost it would be shocking if I if [TS]

00:16:18 ◼   ► a crucial book didn't get nominated cryo [TS]

00:16:21 ◼   ► burn which i think is in almost every [TS]

00:16:24 ◼   ► way an inferior except maybe the last [TS]

00:16:27 ◼   ► five pages and inferior book to capital [TS]

00:16:30 ◼   ► for patrols Alliance you know it got [TS]

00:16:32 ◼   ► nominated and this is a that I think [TS]

00:16:35 ◼   ► this is much better but that's what I [TS]

00:16:36 ◼   ► would say about it is is by bujold [TS]

00:16:38 ◼   ► standards i think this is a this is the [TS]

00:16:40 ◼   ► best uh your cousin book she's written [TS]

00:16:43 ◼   ► in years and other stuff is more the the [TS]

00:16:45 ◼   ► main novels are more serious right like [TS]

00:16:48 ◼   ► lots is like murderface literally very [TS]

00:16:50 ◼   ► very that some of them are very [TS]

00:16:52 ◼   ► adventurous and some of them are are [TS]

00:16:53 ◼   ► more comedy of manners like oh yeah [TS]

00:16:56 ◼   ► because they seem to keep referring to [TS]

00:16:57 ◼   ► genocides all over the place it's like [TS]

00:16:59 ◼   ► well they're funny Genesis yeah there's [TS]

00:17:02 ◼   ► a lot I mean there's there's war novels [TS]

00:17:03 ◼   ► there's murder mysteries it kind of runs [TS]

00:17:05 ◼   ► all the the genre like sort of across a [TS]

00:17:08 ◼   ► bunch of genres and monitor cloudy okay [TS]

00:17:10 ◼   ► I'll tell you this having read this book [TS]

00:17:12 ◼   ► i'm like i'm actually highly inclined to [TS]

00:17:14 ◼   ► seek out other novels because it's clear [TS]

00:17:16 ◼   ► she writes and I'll get some advice [TS]

00:17:17 ◼   ► about which ones to go through but but [TS]

00:17:20 ◼   ► it was so that in that sense it was a [TS]

00:17:21 ◼   ► good good agreed to short short version [TS]

00:17:24 ◼   ► for me is that they this series starts [TS]

00:17:27 ◼   ► with two books that were published i [TS]

00:17:30 ◼   ► think many years apart but most lot lot [TS]

00:17:33 ◼   ► of them were written together generally [TS]

00:17:35 ◼   ► publishes an omnibus called Cordelia's [TS]

00:17:37 ◼   ► honor but it's actually two books shards [TS]

00:17:39 ◼   ► of honor and Barry are which are about [TS]

00:17:41 ◼   ► miles for coast against parents meeting [TS]

00:17:43 ◼   ► and I think I do [TS]

00:17:46 ◼   ► best thing to do is just to start with [TS]

00:17:47 ◼   ► those two books I'd that's what i did [TS]

00:17:48 ◼   ► and i thought they were great and then [TS]

00:17:50 ◼   ► you can get into the miles books as well [TS]

00:17:52 ◼   ► after that so I read them [TS]

00:17:53 ◼   ► chronologically by continuity instead of [TS]

00:17:55 ◼   ► by publishing date and that's everything [TS]

00:17:58 ◼   ► that comes in definitely anything by [TS]

00:18:00 ◼   ► continuity but i'm having a rather [TS]

00:18:02 ◼   ► enjoyed well I mean a couple of the [TS]

00:18:04 ◼   ► later ones are not not-so-great [TS]

00:18:05 ◼   ► diplomatic immunity is to me the weakest [TS]

00:18:08 ◼   ► in the entire series from the sort of [TS]

00:18:10 ◼   ► main novels perspective you know it but [TS]

00:18:12 ◼   ► it's not good series and you'll enjoy it [TS]

00:18:14 ◼   ► all and all good and it's fun it's not [TS]

00:18:16 ◼   ► one of those things also where you get [TS]

00:18:18 ◼   ► to the end of a book and think that [TS]

00:18:19 ◼   ► you've been short-changed and I there [TS]

00:18:22 ◼   ► you have to buy the next book to get the [TS]

00:18:23 ◼   ► rest of the story it's not like that it [TS]

00:18:25 ◼   ► sits there all self-contained plus [TS]

00:18:27 ◼   ► there's kind of continuity that runs [TS]

00:18:29 ◼   ► through them so I do recommend them just [TS]

00:18:31 ◼   ► good writer house captain for patrols [TS]

00:18:33 ◼   ► full text of the treaty Alliance title [TS]

00:18:35 ◼   ► though is that good or should i skip [TS]

00:18:37 ◼   ► that one [TS]

00:18:37 ◼   ► I pass on that on all all that material [TS]

00:18:40 ◼   ► yeah that's not so good Upton captain [TS]

00:18:42 ◼   ► for accounting well before we move on to [TS]

00:18:44 ◼   ► the three that we haven't we haven't [TS]

00:18:45 ◼   ► talked about yet i'd like to talk for a [TS]

00:18:47 ◼   ► moment about our sponsor [TS]

00:18:49 ◼   ► oh it's that time and strangely our [TS]

00:18:52 ◼   ► sponsor is incredibly relevant to this [TS]

00:18:54 ◼   ► episode because our sponsor is [TS]

00:18:56 ◼   ► audible.com the leading provider of [TS]

00:19:00 ◼   ► audiobooks the best place to find audio [TS]

00:19:02 ◼   ► books online you can sign up [TS]

00:19:05 ◼   ► I and you get a you get a free month [TS]

00:19:08 ◼   ► which means you get a free book you got [TS]

00:19:11 ◼   ► audible podcast.com slash incomparable [TS]

00:19:15 ◼   ► that simple audible podcast.com slash [TS]

00:19:18 ◼   ► and comfortable to learn more i was [TS]

00:19:19 ◼   ► looking I believe every Hugo nominated [TS]

00:19:21 ◼   ► book that we're going to be talking [TS]

00:19:22 ◼   ► about is on audible of course like i was [TS]

00:19:26 ◼   ► saying with the nervous fear john scalzi [TS]

00:19:28 ◼   ► book redshirts read by wilwheaton now [TS]

00:19:32 ◼   ► Jason I'm going to be going on a [TS]

00:19:34 ◼   ► five-hour road trip this weekend [TS]

00:19:35 ◼   ► interests recommend i get an audio book [TS]

00:19:38 ◼   ► well it depends it do you enjoy books [TS]

00:19:41 ◼   ► and and life [TS]

00:19:45 ◼   ► yes I'm wiser careful i'm bid on the [TS]

00:19:47 ◼   ► other do enjoy words and the sound of [TS]

00:19:49 ◼   ► words in your ears as you drive [TS]

00:19:52 ◼   ► that's the best place I like sounded [TS]

00:19:53 ◼   ► that the sound of round is in your ears [TS]

00:19:56 ◼   ► yes good alright well then i do [TS]

00:19:57 ◼   ► recommend it now I wouldn't recommend [TS]

00:19:59 ◼   ► that [TS]

00:19:59 ◼   ► you listen to one of these books that [TS]

00:20:00 ◼   ► you've already read because that unless [TS]

00:20:02 ◼   ► you really enjoyed it but for fans of [TS]

00:20:06 ◼   ► wil wheaton from TVs Wesley Crusher hehe [TS]

00:20:10 ◼   ► red red shirts captain for patrols [TS]

00:20:13 ◼   ► Alliance which we we just talked about [TS]

00:20:14 ◼   ► that that's available unabridged is the [TS]

00:20:18 ◼   ► audiobook just wil wheaton reading [TS]

00:20:19 ◼   ► silently to himself the book you [TS]

00:20:22 ◼   ► occasionally here and go haha pretty [TS]

00:20:24 ◼   ► produced by john cage that's the [TS]

00:20:26 ◼   ► accompanying video shot usually chuckles [TS]

00:20:29 ◼   ► there's a coming up we're going to be [TS]

00:20:32 ◼   ► talking about some other books they are [TS]

00:20:33 ◼   ► available mirror grants blackout for [TS]

00:20:35 ◼   ► example you can listen to it it as we're [TS]

00:20:38 ◼   ► going to get to in a moment blackout has [TS]

00:20:41 ◼   ► two narrators and so the book on the [TS]

00:20:43 ◼   ► bridge again has to readers so you can [TS]

00:20:47 ◼   ► adjust the series of clicks and whistles [TS]

00:20:48 ◼   ► you can get ahead shipping perspective [TS]

00:20:50 ◼   ► throw the Christmas there they're all [TS]

00:20:52 ◼   ► they're all up there on audible.com and [TS]

00:20:54 ◼   ► we thank them for being a sponsor and [TS]

00:20:57 ◼   ► you could try it out so is this is the [TS]

00:20:58 ◼   ► leading provider of audiobooks on the [TS]

00:20:59 ◼   ► internet you can sign up and try try it [TS]

00:21:03 ◼   ► out for free to start and get a book and [TS]

00:21:06 ◼   ► give it a listen and they're very nice [TS]

00:21:08 ◼   ► people who have a huge catalogue of [TS]

00:21:10 ◼   ► audio books online lots of great stuff [TS]

00:21:12 ◼   ► every book practically that we've talked [TS]

00:21:14 ◼   ► about in the history of the podcast has [TS]

00:21:16 ◼   ► usually unabridged version on audible so [TS]

00:21:20 ◼   ► again to sign up and and try your free [TS]

00:21:24 ◼   ► trial and learn more about how you can [TS]

00:21:26 ◼   ► sign up for audible this is the magic [TS]

00:21:27 ◼   ► URL that makes us happy and makes them [TS]

00:21:29 ◼   ► happy for sponsoring us it's audible [TS]

00:21:32 ◼   ► podcast.com slash incomparable and [TS]

00:21:35 ◼   ► thanks again to audible for sponsoring [TS]

00:21:37 ◼   ► the incomparable who was what should we [TS]

00:21:41 ◼   ► do next [TS]

00:21:41 ◼   ► uh let's talk about let's all throw [TS]

00:21:44 ◼   ► celebrity dress maybe we should quit [TS]

00:21:45 ◼   ► while we're at it let's talk about [TS]

00:21:47 ◼   ► throne of the crescent moon by solid on [TS]

00:21:49 ◼   ► off-net let's talk about that yeah this [TS]

00:21:51 ◼   ► uh I i thought this was pretty good so [TS]

00:21:53 ◼   ► let's let's who Scott do you remember [TS]

00:21:56 ◼   ► anything about this but I remember that [TS]

00:22:00 ◼   ► it struck me as a cool D&D campaign that [TS]

00:22:05 ◼   ► someone wrote down haha [TS]

00:22:07 ◼   ► well and I thought it was entertaining [TS]

00:22:09 ◼   ► but I didn't really think I was [TS]

00:22:12 ◼   ► surprised that was nominated for [TS]

00:22:14 ◼   ► anything I was not disappointed that it [TS]

00:22:16 ◼   ► was nominated but I was surprised so [TS]

00:22:18 ◼   ► this i thought this was a fun book let [TS]

00:22:20 ◼   ► me explain a little bit about what this [TS]

00:22:22 ◼   ► is it's a fantasy adventure it's very [TS]

00:22:25 ◼   ► Arabian Nights this is in a kind of [TS]

00:22:27 ◼   ► unnamed place that is is either in the [TS]

00:22:31 ◼   ► Middle East or it's in a middle-eastern [TS]

00:22:33 ◼   ► analog there are some references to [TS]

00:22:36 ◼   ► places that we might assume to be Europe [TS]

00:22:38 ◼   ► in Asia and there's a there's a guy [TS]

00:22:42 ◼   ► who's basically the fighter of uh of [TS]

00:22:46 ◼   ► supernatural things he sort of a and [TS]

00:22:50 ◼   ► he's old and grizzled but he's he's I [TS]

00:22:52 ◼   ► couldn't decide whether he was sort of a [TS]

00:22:54 ◼   ► an Arabian Nights Fox Mulder or an [TS]

00:22:58 ◼   ► Arabian Nights buffy the vampire slayer [TS]

00:23:00 ◼   ► because actually this felt to me like a [TS]

00:23:02 ◼   ► fairly standard supernatural or or the [TS]

00:23:05 ◼   ► supernatural brothers honestly Dan to me [TS]

00:23:08 ◼   ► it seemed like the plot wasn't the way [TS]

00:23:10 ◼   ► it was something I've seen before it was [TS]

00:23:12 ◼   ► almost like the trappings where the [TS]

00:23:14 ◼   ► thing that was interest most interesting [TS]

00:23:16 ◼   ► about it that it was in this middle [TS]

00:23:17 ◼   ► eastern setting and it was less familiar [TS]

00:23:19 ◼   ► to me than any episode of Buffy or [TS]

00:23:21 ◼   ► supernatural it was like they took a [TS]

00:23:23 ◼   ► regular fantasy novel which is in kind [TS]

00:23:25 ◼   ► of a vaguely Western European medieval [TS]

00:23:27 ◼   ► right venue changed it to a vaguely [TS]

00:23:31 ◼   ► middle-eastern venue [TS]

00:23:33 ◼   ► yes and because we haven't seen that a [TS]

00:23:35 ◼   ► million times it feels fresh and new [TS]

00:23:37 ◼   ► pressure i liked the character I mean I [TS]

00:23:40 ◼   ► the main character I I thought [TS]

00:23:41 ◼   ► particularly again if you're comparing [TS]

00:23:43 ◼   ► it to a lot of the typical fantasy [TS]

00:23:46 ◼   ► novels that we read you don't have your [TS]

00:23:47 ◼   ► young strapping hero right you had your [TS]

00:23:49 ◼   ► old slightly decrepit hero yeah but it [TS]

00:23:52 ◼   ► is master and apprentice right and he's [TS]

00:23:54 ◼   ► the I seen enough of this crap I'm two [TS]

00:23:58 ◼   ► months from retirement investment about [TS]

00:24:01 ◼   ► one less collar to make and then i get [TS]

00:24:02 ◼   ► that he's got his young idealistic [TS]

00:24:04 ◼   ► sidekick [TS]

00:24:05 ◼   ► I I certainly saw to a dnd prism like [TS]

00:24:08 ◼   ► the old guy while he's the cleric and [TS]

00:24:11 ◼   ► he's got a paladin who's holier than [TS]

00:24:13 ◼   ► thou and then they meet the fighter lady [TS]

00:24:16 ◼   ► wow it's funny because I i happen to [TS]

00:24:18 ◼   ► know that the the [TS]

00:24:19 ◼   ► that Saladin ran my D&D campaign with an [TS]

00:24:23 ◼   ► acquaintance of my kool so I know he i [TS]

00:24:25 ◼   ► know he plays DVD release has run deeply [TS]

00:24:28 ◼   ► and cracked the code my god I mean who [TS]

00:24:31 ◼   ► didn't start out writing writing novels [TS]

00:24:33 ◼   ► versions of their d campaigns not me [TS]

00:24:36 ◼   ► well and then the party argued for three [TS]

00:24:38 ◼   ► hours or four would pay for the pizza [TS]

00:24:41 ◼   ► don't egg lat a glass vision with dark [TS]

00:24:43 ◼   ► here eating out of the sand some great [TS]

00:24:47 ◼   ► stuff in it but it was was a novella or [TS]

00:24:50 ◼   ► maybe a short story that just kept going [TS]

00:24:52 ◼   ► on and on and on the payoff was sort of [TS]

00:24:54 ◼   ► terrible and they had set up kind of [TS]

00:24:57 ◼   ► weave together a bunch of different [TS]

00:24:59 ◼   ► things were supposed to enjoy the sort [TS]

00:25:01 ◼   ► of coincidence or whatever and it's like [TS]

00:25:02 ◼   ► ah you know that your if it had been we [TS]

00:25:06 ◼   ► have been nominated for Best novella or [TS]

00:25:07 ◼   ► short story this year we probably have [TS]

00:25:09 ◼   ► talked about it relatively positively as [TS]

00:25:11 ◼   ► something that was fresh that that [TS]

00:25:12 ◼   ► presented as a new viewpoint wasn't [TS]

00:25:15 ◼   ► rehashing a lot of the common fantasy [TS]

00:25:17 ◼   ► myths brought in you know some [TS]

00:25:18 ◼   ► interesting unique elements in a few [TS]

00:25:20 ◼   ► strong characters but as a novel it just [TS]

00:25:22 ◼   ► it was too thin [TS]

00:25:23 ◼   ► I you know it's interesting i read well [TS]

00:25:26 ◼   ► taking a break from one of the other [TS]

00:25:27 ◼   ► humans i read that some of that some of [TS]

00:25:30 ◼   ► these cup of some of his short stories [TS]

00:25:32 ◼   ► including one that is set in this world [TS]

00:25:34 ◼   ► with the same characters it's about the [TS]

00:25:36 ◼   ► first meeting of the master and the [TS]

00:25:38 ◼   ► apprentice and I enjoyed that I mean it [TS]

00:25:40 ◼   ► was a pretty quick read it was nice [TS]

00:25:42 ◼   ► short story but it was um I i think i [TS]

00:25:44 ◼   ► think there's some meat on those [TS]

00:25:45 ◼   ► characters the directions and yes well [TS]

00:25:47 ◼   ► they we may have seen some of that type [TS]

00:25:49 ◼   ► of stuff before I still found it [TS]

00:25:51 ◼   ► intriguing and entertaining and let me [TS]

00:25:53 ◼   ► tell you compared to some of the other [TS]

00:25:55 ◼   ► books [TS]

00:25:56 ◼   ► yeah yeah ipi page through this one [TS]

00:25:59 ◼   ► pretty pretty at a pretty good clip [TS]

00:26:01 ◼   ► I thought it was kind of a mistake to [TS]

00:26:02 ◼   ► have a cool Robin Hood type character [TS]

00:26:04 ◼   ► and then not spend a lot of time with [TS]

00:26:06 ◼   ► him because he's more fun than the [TS]

00:26:08 ◼   ► stuck-up kid but also the strongest [TS]

00:26:11 ◼   ► element is that really horrible thing we [TS]

00:26:13 ◼   ► are the spoiler alert goes off before we [TS]

00:26:15 ◼   ► even start the episode right spoiler [TS]

00:26:17 ◼   ► harm's way [TS]

00:26:21 ◼   ► this the creepy thing of the beginning a [TS]

00:26:24 ◼   ► lot of the chapters where that guy is [TS]

00:26:25 ◼   ► being you know essentially killed alive [TS]

00:26:28 ◼   ► then boiled his head remover like that [TS]

00:26:30 ◼   ► is very strong and horrifying and [TS]

00:26:32 ◼   ► compelling and he keeps the suspense up [TS]

00:26:34 ◼   ► and then the actual thing is oh he's [TS]

00:26:36 ◼   ► like a sergeant and all his men will [TS]

00:26:38 ◼   ► respond to him is like really that's the [TS]

00:26:40 ◼   ► whole payoff of that yellow thing [TS]

00:26:42 ◼   ► oh I was actually the most disappointing [TS]

00:26:44 ◼   ► things the novel the whole climax I i [TS]

00:26:46 ◼   ► really liked I mean I say that it's got [TS]

00:26:49 ◼   ► these trappings and otherwise it seems [TS]

00:26:50 ◼   ► pretty standard [TS]

00:26:51 ◼   ► I like the trappings I like that the the [TS]

00:26:54 ◼   ► Prince kind of comes and goes and he's [TS]

00:26:56 ◼   ► he's too powerful character almost it's [TS]

00:26:58 ◼   ► not his story but he you know that he's [TS]

00:27:01 ◼   ► gonna cause he's going to cause some [TS]

00:27:02 ◼   ► trouble but at the end you know you do [TS]

00:27:05 ◼   ► end up in this situation where there in [TS]

00:27:06 ◼   ► this palace and it's it's like it's [TS]

00:27:10 ◼   ► almost like a runaround Aurora are far [TS]

00:27:12 ◼   ► swear their various rooms in their [TS]

00:27:14 ◼   ► various doors that open and don't even [TS]

00:27:16 ◼   ► stuff and I I had trouble with geography [TS]

00:27:19 ◼   ► and I i I just I thought really it all [TS]

00:27:22 ◼   ► ends up to this that they run back and [TS]

00:27:24 ◼   ► forth in a bunch of rooms and there's a [TS]

00:27:26 ◼   ► throne and I mean it's in the title [TS]

00:27:27 ◼   ► there's some buttons or whatever and it [TS]

00:27:30 ◼   ► just it seemed it did seem kind of [TS]

00:27:32 ◼   ► abrupt and that the fact that although [TS]

00:27:34 ◼   ► we've been leading up to the moment [TS]

00:27:36 ◼   ► where the guy takes over all the [TS]

00:27:37 ◼   ► soldiers and that was kind of cool [TS]

00:27:39 ◼   ► it was a whole long way to go for that [TS]

00:27:41 ◼   ► one little thing that pill that's that [TS]

00:27:44 ◼   ► happens so so yeah I like I mean I i can [TS]

00:27:47 ◼   ► say that it's bog-standard and then it's [TS]

00:27:48 ◼   ► got this interesting trappings you know [TS]

00:27:50 ◼   ► but the trappings were the best part I [TS]

00:27:51 ◼   ► like that and I did like the main [TS]

00:27:53 ◼   ► character I like that he's grizzled and [TS]

00:27:54 ◼   ► that he's world-weary but he just has to [TS]

00:27:56 ◼   ► do this and he's you know he's had [TS]

00:27:58 ◼   ► enough of this crap but it doesn't [TS]

00:27:59 ◼   ► matter he still got to do it because [TS]

00:28:01 ◼   ► nobody else will I liked all of that [TS]

00:28:03 ◼   ► about it and don't forget the madam with [TS]

00:28:06 ◼   ► the heart of gold [TS]

00:28:07 ◼   ► oh yeah i mean that and I know what was [TS]

00:28:09 ◼   ► surprising again not not not that [TS]

00:28:12 ◼   ► different from a character you might see [TS]

00:28:13 ◼   ► in george RR martin except that the the [TS]

00:28:15 ◼   ► setting but the fact that she's got this [TS]

00:28:17 ◼   ► that this guy is this this pious guy and [TS]

00:28:22 ◼   ► he's sort of sort of yeah i know it was [TS]

00:28:25 ◼   ► again I i thought the characters were [TS]

00:28:27 ◼   ► interesting it was just more than I was [TS]

00:28:28 ◼   ► realizing as i read it that it was not [TS]

00:28:30 ◼   ► anything I hadn't read or seen on TV [TS]

00:28:33 ◼   ► before except that the [TS]

00:28:35 ◼   ► setting was was you know a different [TS]

00:28:37 ◼   ► culture than we're used to but I didn't [TS]

00:28:40 ◼   ► just like it I I a spoiler alert i think [TS]

00:28:42 ◼   ► i like the best of the five [TS]

00:28:44 ◼   ► yeah if you actually could have been a [TS]

00:28:46 ◼   ► doctor who episode with small changes to [TS]

00:28:48 ◼   ► i did like the shifting povs in the [TS]

00:28:51 ◼   ► finale where they kind of let the action [TS]

00:28:54 ◼   ► move you from one character to another [TS]

00:28:56 ◼   ► where this character is out of the [TS]

00:29:00 ◼   ► action so now another character has to [TS]

00:29:01 ◼   ► step in and he takes over the narrative [TS]

00:29:04 ◼   ► is also having said that I'm getting [TS]

00:29:06 ◼   ► pretty sick of novels that insist on [TS]

00:29:07 ◼   ► multiple point of view characters right [TS]

00:29:09 ◼   ► i want to mention there's two other [TS]

00:29:11 ◼   ► novels of people like this kind of [TS]

00:29:13 ◼   ► approach these two of the ones that i [TS]

00:29:15 ◼   ► really like that are announced the [TS]

00:29:16 ◼   ► number of years old one is Shiva 3000 [TS]

00:29:19 ◼   ► which is a sort of fantasy sci-fi novel [TS]

00:29:22 ◼   ► that takes place in a universe in which [TS]

00:29:24 ◼   ► all of india's gods may or may not exist [TS]

00:29:26 ◼   ► it's a really great read from I think [TS]

00:29:29 ◼   ► 1999 I've read it multiple times and the [TS]

00:29:32 ◼   ► other one is I cannot recall the title [TS]

00:29:34 ◼   ► of it maybe we can put in the show notes [TS]

00:29:35 ◼   ► and find myself somewhere it's a book in [TS]

00:29:38 ◼   ► which greek science is actually way the [TS]

00:29:41 ◼   ► world is run so the university center of [TS]

00:29:43 ◼   ► interlocking Spears the music of the [TS]

00:29:44 ◼   ► spheres if you throw something through [TS]

00:29:46 ◼   ► space it throws in a straight line and [TS]

00:29:48 ◼   ► then the velocity is gone it plummets to [TS]

00:29:50 ◼   ► the ground and it's a beautiful [TS]

00:29:52 ◼   ► intricate story told in that in which [TS]

00:29:54 ◼   ► different cultures combined and they're [TS]

00:29:57 ◼   ► different worldviews are actually all [TS]

00:29:58 ◼   ► the gentlemen in this universe and it's [TS]

00:30:00 ◼   ► a really beautiful II told story so [TS]

00:30:02 ◼   ► there are ways to tell that kind of [TS]

00:30:04 ◼   ► different point of view in which magic [TS]

00:30:06 ◼   ► or some kind of combination science and [TS]

00:30:07 ◼   ► magic are different and you can do and I [TS]

00:30:09 ◼   ► think really rewarding Lee so am i right [TS]

00:30:12 ◼   ► in there oh no so Scott and I read [TS]

00:30:16 ◼   ► blackout as we've read the other two [TS]

00:30:17 ◼   ► books in the series the newsflash series [TS]

00:30:19 ◼   ► by merit grant which is a pseudonym for [TS]

00:30:21 ◼   ► urban fantasy writer shot and McGwire [TS]

00:30:24 ◼   ► but Monty you read it too didn't you [TS]

00:30:26 ◼   ► yes I read blackout and I had not read [TS]

00:30:28 ◼   ► either of the other two and Glenn did [TS]

00:30:30 ◼   ► you read it too i was actually making my [TS]

00:30:33 ◼   ► way across the desolate plains of the [TS]

00:30:36 ◼   ► novel and in tweeted about it i think [TS]

00:30:38 ◼   ► and i was given permission by you and [TS]

00:30:40 ◼   ► Scott to stop [TS]

00:30:41 ◼   ► I still read about Iran I was shamed me [TS]

00:30:44 ◼   ► into reading it now i know that's how I [TS]

00:30:46 ◼   ► work [TS]

00:30:46 ◼   ► that's how I read about a third of it [TS]

00:30:49 ◼   ► and was despairing it was told I was off [TS]

00:30:52 ◼   ► the hook so I i stopped at Point with [TS]

00:30:54 ◼   ► grateful that Marie I didn't want to be [TS]

00:30:55 ◼   ► the one responsible for that [TS]

00:30:58 ◼   ► yes I couldn't live with it alright so [TS]

00:31:00 ◼   ► we read so famously we read two years [TS]

00:31:02 ◼   ► ago we read feed and our are short [TS]

00:31:05 ◼   ► review of feed was don't read feed [TS]

00:31:07 ◼   ► because it wasn't very good it was very [TS]

00:31:08 ◼   ► well written and this is a series set [TS]

00:31:10 ◼   ► its it's in the future after a zombie [TS]

00:31:12 ◼   ► apocalypse but not a complete apocalypse [TS]

00:31:14 ◼   ► it's sort of a zombie inconvenience more [TS]

00:31:16 ◼   ► than anything else [TS]

00:31:17 ◼   ► electricity is still functioning there [TS]

00:31:19 ◼   ► seems to be so there's slightly it's [TS]

00:31:20 ◼   ► just that there are lots of dead zones [TS]

00:31:22 ◼   ► and a lot of people die dammit now [TS]

00:31:23 ◼   ► nobody can have big pets because i think [TS]

00:31:25 ◼   ► the episode when we talk about feed was [TS]

00:31:27 ◼   ► called zombie Marmaduke because if you [TS]

00:31:29 ◼   ► get a big enough dog it can turn into a [TS]

00:31:31 ◼   ► zombie but small dogs don't turn into [TS]

00:31:33 ◼   ► zombies and there are bloggers and [TS]

00:31:36 ◼   ► bloggers tell the news like it is man [TS]

00:31:38 ◼   ► and they post things on the internet and [TS]

00:31:39 ◼   ► they fight the power mandar but you have [TS]

00:31:42 ◼   ► to be licensed to be a blogger yeah you [TS]

00:31:44 ◼   ► got a contentious make sense yeah that [TS]

00:31:46 ◼   ► doesn't that's not how blogging works [TS]

00:31:48 ◼   ► there's an unfiltered unfettered [TS]

00:31:50 ◼   ► internet that's available all the time [TS]

00:31:51 ◼   ► everywhere with no maintenance required [TS]

00:31:53 ◼   ► for cellular towers or anything to it's [TS]

00:31:54 ◼   ► pretty incredible that's yes there's [TS]

00:31:56 ◼   ► also ultra luxury hotels available [TS]

00:31:58 ◼   ► really there are removing their forget [TS]

00:32:01 ◼   ► the zombies [TS]

00:32:02 ◼   ► yeah well that's behalf of the books do [TS]

00:32:04 ◼   ► that basically you have to do you have [TS]

00:32:06 ◼   ► to be there so in the first book the [TS]

00:32:07 ◼   ► main character Georgia Mason dies toward [TS]

00:32:11 ◼   ► the end split sorry no monumental why [TS]

00:32:15 ◼   ► are you listening [TS]

00:32:16 ◼   ► well thats not not as much of a spoiler [TS]

00:32:18 ◼   ► as we thought at the time though haha [TS]

00:32:20 ◼   ► first line of blackout is her dying yeah [TS]

00:32:23 ◼   ► so so she dies and i thought that was [TS]

00:32:25 ◼   ► the best thing in the book because it [TS]

00:32:27 ◼   ► was at least a bold move by the the [TS]

00:32:29 ◼   ► writer to do that but we didn't like [TS]

00:32:30 ◼   ► Scott I didn't like the book and then we [TS]

00:32:31 ◼   ► didn't like the sequel deadline in which [TS]

00:32:35 ◼   ► is told by her brother and she and her [TS]

00:32:38 ◼   ► brother had that their adopted and they [TS]

00:32:39 ◼   ► have this creepy relationship which is [TS]

00:32:42 ◼   ► never really kind of I think I think [TS]

00:32:44 ◼   ► outwardly stated is is more than [TS]

00:32:47 ◼   ► brother-sister they are adopted after [TS]

00:32:49 ◼   ► all it's not entirely incest but it's [TS]

00:32:52 ◼   ► creepy is creepy so in so in in at the [TS]

00:32:56 ◼   ► end of deadlines we discover that [TS]

00:32:57 ◼   ► there's a [TS]

00:32:59 ◼   ► clone of Georgia who has come back to [TS]

00:33:01 ◼   ► life [TS]

00:33:02 ◼   ► what I and and all and i remember very [TS]

00:33:04 ◼   ► clearly Scott saying don't talk so much [TS]

00:33:07 ◼   ► about her dying in that book because [TS]

00:33:08 ◼   ► you're gonna be disappointed [TS]

00:33:10 ◼   ► uh so-so in blackout we have an [TS]

00:33:13 ◼   ► alternating set of narrators we got [TS]

00:33:15 ◼   ► Shawn and Georgia clone Georgia as as [TS]

00:33:19 ◼   ► she figures out where she is and why [TS]

00:33:21 ◼   ► she's a clone and he drives around [TS]

00:33:24 ◼   ► because there's conspiracies their stuff [TS]

00:33:28 ◼   ► to do something about mosquitoes but you [TS]

00:33:30 ◼   ► don't really seem to care that much and [TS]

00:33:32 ◼   ► doesn't make any sense it yeah really [TS]

00:33:35 ◼   ► doesn't say like they have all this [TS]

00:33:37 ◼   ► great incredible security at the place [TS]

00:33:39 ◼   ► where the mad scientist is doing the [TS]

00:33:41 ◼   ► research except Tommy's just get in [TS]

00:33:43 ◼   ► there get in because they only have them [TS]

00:33:45 ◼   ► in there they do good protocol and sing [TS]

00:33:47 ◼   ► like roaches just getting it's covered [TS]

00:33:49 ◼   ► with everyone because others [TS]

00:33:50 ◼   ► oh and don't forget don't forget he [TS]

00:33:52 ◼   ► can't be infected with the zombie virus [TS]

00:33:53 ◼   ► for sorry can be only gets a little sick [TS]

00:33:55 ◼   ► he's actually coming suddenly he Shaun [TS]

00:33:58 ◼   ► Mason is is is immune to zombie listen [TS]

00:34:02 ◼   ► you have to take antibiotics to make [TS]

00:34:03 ◼   ► some sick but it does not make a zombie [TS]

00:34:04 ◼   ► and that doesn't even really play into [TS]

00:34:07 ◼   ► the plot where know you think it would [TS]

00:34:09 ◼   ► such a thing no it's like a vampire [TS]

00:34:12 ◼   ► hunter can become a vampire because he [TS]

00:34:14 ◼   ► already is part of that you get Glen is [TS]

00:34:16 ◼   ► lending money you guys didn't read the [TS]

00:34:17 ◼   ► other two books right right now okay [TS]

00:34:19 ◼   ► you see you maybe not yeah probably not [TS]

00:34:21 ◼   ► yeah you made me off this will shock you [TS]

00:34:24 ◼   ► I thought this was by far the best of [TS]

00:34:26 ◼   ► the three yes i agree here i want to [TS]

00:34:29 ◼   ► take one side but no matter which is I [TS]

00:34:32 ◼   ► by far [TS]

00:34:33 ◼   ► Shane is only Prince John I think shawna [TS]

00:34:36 ◼   ► and shawna I liked one of the short [TS]

00:34:38 ◼   ► stories she wrote that was nominated for [TS]

00:34:40 ◼   ► Hugo the cell end she's yes I like that [TS]

00:34:43 ◼   ► one very much i read multiple times [TS]

00:34:44 ◼   ► she's extremely funny and kind and I [TS]

00:34:47 ◼   ► didn't even know it was her when i first [TS]

00:34:49 ◼   ► started following on Twitter recently [TS]

00:34:50 ◼   ► when the issue came about sort of [TS]

00:34:52 ◼   ► feminist issues she's really interesting [TS]

00:34:54 ◼   ► funny person I sort of feel terrible [TS]

00:34:56 ◼   ► because this the stuff is terribly [TS]

00:34:58 ◼   ► terribly written if it's a very popular [TS]

00:34:59 ◼   ► so there's no reason she will change [TS]

00:35:01 ◼   ► what she's doing and she's ridiculously [TS]

00:35:03 ◼   ► productive she's the Glen fleischmann of [TS]

00:35:06 ◼   ► science fiction/fantasy writing when you [TS]

00:35:08 ◼   ► throw quality of the [TS]

00:35:09 ◼   ► Gigi's Glenn you're talking like yes I [TS]

00:35:12 ◼   ► did that's called branding right there [TS]

00:35:14 ◼   ► that isn't that is insulting you [TS]

00:35:17 ◼   ► you did it yourself i'm in terms of [TS]

00:35:19 ◼   ► quantity quantity relentlessness and [TS]

00:35:22 ◼   ► she's the lex friedman of glory its [TS]

00:35:25 ◼   ► habitat that's pretty good with ya now [TS]

00:35:27 ◼   ► I'm sure she's a lovely lovely perfect [TS]

00:35:30 ◼   ► this is just a terrible it's terrible [TS]

00:35:32 ◼   ► nothing I feel like it almost is [TS]

00:35:34 ◼   ► fanfiction that fan fiction it's it's [TS]

00:35:36 ◼   ► something that desperately need an [TS]

00:35:37 ◼   ► editor and shouldn't have been printed [TS]

00:35:39 ◼   ► I almost wonder if this was something [TS]

00:35:41 ◼   ► she wrote earlier in her life and [TS]

00:35:43 ◼   ► brought it out of a cold out of a trunk [TS]

00:35:45 ◼   ► novel and and put it under a pseudonym [TS]

00:35:49 ◼   ► and then and and it sold well yeah I [TS]

00:35:52 ◼   ► don't know that's just pure speculation [TS]

00:35:53 ◼   ► on my part so so here's the thing I've [TS]

00:35:56 ◼   ► been [TS]

00:35:56 ◼   ► i wiII Scott my kind of were famously [TS]

00:35:59 ◼   ► among listeners to this show about how [TS]

00:36:02 ◼   ► we beat me to death and it's very rare [TS]

00:36:04 ◼   ► that we find something and we kick it to [TS]

00:36:07 ◼   ► death it does happen occasionally man of [TS]

00:36:09 ◼   ► steel the Avengers with Andy and and [TS]

00:36:11 ◼   ► some other things that we've done where [TS]

00:36:12 ◼   ► we've kicked him to death but uh I have [TS]

00:36:16 ◼   ► to say I think I maybe have figured out [TS]

00:36:18 ◼   ► why i don't like these books mean yes [TS]

00:36:21 ◼   ► the plots don't make sense [TS]

00:36:23 ◼   ► uh characters aren't good i had no idea [TS]

00:36:25 ◼   ► why they did what they did at the end of [TS]

00:36:27 ◼   ► them with the writing is not very good [TS]

00:36:29 ◼   ► at science is Ben there's a moment I i [TS]

00:36:32 ◼   ► mentioned a weird relationship by the [TS]

00:36:33 ◼   ► way I i think i even maybe I should [TS]

00:36:36 ◼   ► bring up my kindle notes about this [TS]

00:36:37 ◼   ► there's a moment in this book where I [TS]

00:36:43 ◼   ► think she seriously expect us to be [TS]

00:36:46 ◼   ► shocked when we discover that Shauna [TS]

00:36:49 ◼   ► Georgia have a sexual relationship that [TS]

00:36:51 ◼   ► they had their entire life where I [TS]

00:36:53 ◼   ► remember my armor Scott I talking when [TS]

00:36:56 ◼   ► we were in the midst of reading feed [TS]

00:36:59 ◼   ► about how creepy the twins were because [TS]

00:37:01 ◼   ► they were totally all buying each other [TS]

00:37:03 ◼   ► and all over each other twins or or or [TS]

00:37:05 ◼   ► brother and sister and I thought this [TS]

00:37:06 ◼   ► year is this really really a revelation [TS]

00:37:09 ◼   ► of any kind of shocking [TS]

00:37:11 ◼   ► yeah it's clear from reading the book i [TS]

00:37:13 ◼   ► mean i just read this book and I thought [TS]

00:37:15 ◼   ► that was what's going on [TS]

00:37:16 ◼   ► his crown I kept forgetting whether they [TS]

00:37:18 ◼   ► were brother and sister or husband and [TS]

00:37:20 ◼   ► white i had to go back and check out [TS]

00:37:22 ◼   ► their adopted this effort leads not so [TS]

00:37:25 ◼   ► they're not genetically related so it's [TS]

00:37:26 ◼   ► not technically incest like I said [TS]

00:37:28 ◼   ► that's our episode title that's the next [TS]

00:37:32 ◼   ► book and serious not technically incest [TS]

00:37:36 ◼   ► by programs either i misunderstand it [TS]

00:37:38 ◼   ► misunderstand this or or she has an [TS]

00:37:42 ◼   ► opinion of her readers that is vastly [TS]

00:37:45 ◼   ► different from my opinion as a reader [TS]

00:37:46 ◼   ► because i would like to well if you read [TS]

00:37:49 ◼   ► these books you're not that discerning I [TS]

00:37:52 ◼   ► wasn't sure force 3 and I you know I it [TS]

00:37:55 ◼   ► they are you know they're mindless reads [TS]

00:37:58 ◼   ► right and like zombies hey you know go [TS]

00:38:00 ◼   ► ahead read your it's your time but [TS]

00:38:02 ◼   ► they're not very good if you like [TS]

00:38:03 ◼   ► zombies I say don't read these books is [TS]

00:38:05 ◼   ► not if you like this could be like [TS]

00:38:07 ◼   ► bloggers and you like government [TS]

00:38:08 ◼   ► conspiracies man who can be unbearably [TS]

00:38:10 ◼   ► one over by the bloggers then read these [TS]

00:38:13 ◼   ► books is that they're zombies content is [TS]

00:38:15 ◼   ► really low [TS]

00:38:16 ◼   ► what is what is the CDC doing all this i [TS]

00:38:18 ◼   ► don't okay so the villain of the piece [TS]

00:38:20 ◼   ► is the Centers for Disease Control there [TS]

00:38:22 ◼   ► in the evil the most evil organization [TS]

00:38:24 ◼   ► that is he wanting to hoard all [TS]

00:38:27 ◼   ► knowledge about the zombie the [TS]

00:38:29 ◼   ► kellis-amberlee virus which causes [TS]

00:38:30 ◼   ► zombie-ism because reasons because evil [TS]

00:38:35 ◼   ► reasons hilaria reasons yes uh and so [TS]

00:38:38 ◼   ► the heroes are some other three letter [TS]

00:38:40 ◼   ► acronym government organization that's [TS]

00:38:42 ◼   ► fighting a sec so yeah so bizarre the [TS]

00:38:46 ◼   ► oversight Department of the division of [TS]

00:38:48 ◼   ► government ecological over stairs are [TS]

00:38:50 ◼   ► ridiculous climax in the white house [TS]

00:38:52 ◼   ► that could now never conceivably happen [TS]

00:38:55 ◼   ► in the White House where the president [TS]

00:38:56 ◼   ► is running around and my biggest problem [TS]

00:38:59 ◼   ► in there are a lot of problems with this [TS]

00:39:01 ◼   ► is my biggest one is so there's this [TS]

00:39:03 ◼   ► whole point where they clone [TS]

00:39:04 ◼   ► what's-her-face George yeah and it's a [TS]

00:39:07 ◼   ► very important plot point anything okay [TS]

00:39:09 ◼   ► well they've done this for a reason and [TS]

00:39:11 ◼   ► it should be a good reason right and it [TS]

00:39:13 ◼   ► is an incredibly stupid reason they [TS]

00:39:16 ◼   ► spend millions and millions and millions [TS]

00:39:18 ◼   ► of dollars to clone her because the vice [TS]

00:39:21 ◼   ► president the president is being held [TS]

00:39:22 ◼   ► captive by the CDC the bike rack is the [TS]

00:39:25 ◼   ► only way that he can get them out is by [TS]

00:39:28 ◼   ► cloning this dead blogger [TS]

00:39:29 ◼   ► so the dead bloggers can tell the public [TS]

00:39:31 ◼   ► and the CDC because the the public will [TS]

00:39:34 ◼   ► not trust anyone else and then the CDC [TS]

00:39:36 ◼   ► will be forced to release the president [TS]

00:39:38 ◼   ► you missed something that Scott you [TS]

00:39:39 ◼   ► missed something because they're the the [TS]

00:39:41 ◼   ► CDC's evil plan is to perfect the clone [TS]

00:39:44 ◼   ► so she's exactly Georgia and then once [TS]

00:39:46 ◼   ► they perfected the back it off a little [TS]

00:39:48 ◼   ► bit so that she's not perfect they're [TS]

00:39:51 ◼   ► going to use the perfect Georgia clone [TS]

00:39:52 ◼   ► to sell the concept of clones to [TS]

00:39:55 ◼   ► millionaires or something or something [TS]

00:39:57 ◼   ► good yeah it's this month but then but [TS]

00:40:00 ◼   ► then at the climax at the climax they're [TS]

00:40:02 ◼   ► like okay where we have to save the [TS]

00:40:05 ◼   ► president so let me make a phone call [TS]

00:40:06 ◼   ► and then I'd ok the president saved what [TS]

00:40:08 ◼   ► why did you bother clone Georgia so I [TS]

00:40:13 ◼   ► haven't said the thing the thing that I [TS]

00:40:14 ◼   ► think rubs me rose me wrong about these [TS]

00:40:16 ◼   ► books more than all of this because the [TS]

00:40:18 ◼   ► reason i said this was the best is I [TS]

00:40:19 ◼   ► feel like her I feel like her individual [TS]

00:40:23 ◼   ► like action set pieces were better in [TS]

00:40:30 ◼   ► this than the first 2i thought that this [TS]

00:40:32 ◼   ► was this was a much more capably written [TS]

00:40:34 ◼   ► book in that way but what what really [TS]

00:40:39 ◼   ► drives me crazy and it's been throughout [TS]

00:40:40 ◼   ► these books is there's a lot of it's [TS]

00:40:44 ◼   ► just bad style i think is the thing that [TS]

00:40:46 ◼   ► offends me the most is that with all we [TS]

00:40:47 ◼   ► said about the ridiculous plot it's not [TS]

00:40:50 ◼   ► pleasant to read I could forgive a lot [TS]

00:40:51 ◼   ► of it was enjoyable to actually read the [TS]

00:40:53 ◼   ► words but there's so much repetition so [TS]

00:40:56 ◼   ► much and insistence on details and the [TS]

00:40:59 ◼   ► donation can I get you a couple of a a [TS]

00:41:02 ◼   ► canonical right now yeah that would i [TS]

00:41:04 ◼   ► would really enjoy opening a coke every [TS]

00:41:06 ◼   ► time I'm gonna get you a coke and I [TS]

00:41:07 ◼   ► think that I think coke might be sweet [TS]

00:41:10 ◼   ► while you're doing that Glenn I'm going [TS]

00:41:12 ◼   ► to jam my thumb on a zombie virus [TS]

00:41:15 ◼   ► detector reader and what happens you see [TS]

00:41:18 ◼   ► when that happens is needles bite into [TS]

00:41:20 ◼   ► my thumb and then the blood comes out [TS]

00:41:22 ◼   ► and then I wait as the light goes from [TS]

00:41:24 ◼   ► red to green to red to green to red to [TS]

00:41:26 ◼   ► green to red to green oh green I'm say [TS]

00:41:29 ◼   ► so i gotta send it on my thumb here [TS]

00:41:31 ◼   ► before you get that can cook for you so [TS]

00:41:32 ◼   ► i have to do that first before as well [TS]

00:41:34 ◼   ► then haha so you jam your thumb in there [TS]

00:41:36 ◼   ► and the needles go see because this is [TS]

00:41:38 ◼   ► what happened or is that comes that that [TS]

00:41:40 ◼   ► this information is repeated every few [TS]

00:41:43 ◼   ► pages [TS]

00:41:43 ◼   ► is across all three books the same names [TS]

00:41:46 ◼   ► something with the state it's a nonsense [TS]

00:41:48 ◼   ► places you don't need zombie scanner and [TS]

00:41:50 ◼   ► all the plants so those details that are [TS]

00:41:51 ◼   ► unnecessary and and then things that [TS]

00:41:55 ◼   ► don't make sense and you know again [TS]

00:41:56 ◼   ► that's it is stylistically I think this [TS]

00:41:58 ◼   ► these books are a failure plus the plots [TS]

00:42:00 ◼   ► are nonsensical so I don't know she has [TS]

00:42:02 ◼   ► a following she's a huge fan base [TS]

00:42:04 ◼   ► Sean Maguire got nominated for like [TS]

00:42:06 ◼   ► seven Hugo's or something this year [TS]

00:42:07 ◼   ► she's in the podcast categories in the [TS]

00:42:09 ◼   ► short story categories in the novella [TS]

00:42:11 ◼   ► cavities in the novel category [TS]

00:42:13 ◼   ► she's all she's I think she's in some [TS]

00:42:14 ◼   ► other categories she's all over the [TS]

00:42:16 ◼   ► place and that's great because she's got [TS]

00:42:17 ◼   ► fans who love her [TS]

00:42:18 ◼   ► I hope they love her for some of her [TS]

00:42:21 ◼   ► other works that are presumably better [TS]

00:42:23 ◼   ► than me is because all three of these [TS]

00:42:25 ◼   ► books are awful and I was generous with [TS]

00:42:27 ◼   ► this one on goodreads I gave it two [TS]

00:42:29 ◼   ► stars instead of one [TS]

00:42:31 ◼   ► it's so funny because I people usually [TS]

00:42:33 ◼   ► accuse us you know we starting the [TS]

00:42:35 ◼   ► specifics about something people like [TS]

00:42:37 ◼   ► what you have an animus against this [TS]

00:42:38 ◼   ► author something it's like no I've got [TS]

00:42:40 ◼   ► nine of us have anything against I know [TS]

00:42:42 ◼   ► nothing about this it races all about [TS]

00:42:44 ◼   ► these are really terrible i mean i know [TS]

00:42:46 ◼   ► that this is a really terrible thing I [TS]

00:42:48 ◼   ► read it was so bad I could not I did not [TS]

00:42:50 ◼   ► want to finish it went well didn't have [TS]

00:42:51 ◼   ► to i did not i have to really specific [TS]

00:42:55 ◼   ► things i did not like about this book [TS]

00:42:57 ◼   ► lay upon us one is everybody is so [TS]

00:43:00 ◼   ► quickly at every opportunity [TS]

00:43:03 ◼   ► it's like a joss whedon fanfic kind of [TS]

00:43:05 ◼   ► thing where it was especially because [TS]

00:43:07 ◼   ► she keeps talking about somebody named [TS]

00:43:08 ◼   ► buffy who I never saw because she's not [TS]

00:43:10 ◼   ► in this book yes she dies in the first [TS]

00:43:12 ◼   ► book she's just she's really in hacker [TS]

00:43:14 ◼   ► who as Scott pointed out since God is an [TS]

00:43:17 ◼   ► IT professional encrypted the most [TS]

00:43:21 ◼   ► valuable database on earth with like a [TS]

00:43:23 ◼   ► four-letter password [TS]

00:43:25 ◼   ► yeah like her name is really good here a [TS]

00:43:28 ◼   ► couple of things people actually say in [TS]

00:43:29 ◼   ► this book at incredibly tense moments [TS]

00:43:32 ◼   ► could we go with a slightly less out [TS]

00:43:35 ◼   ► worthy doomsday weapon next time okay [TS]

00:43:40 ◼   ► that's it no more mr. nice heavily-armed [TS]

00:43:43 ◼   ► really pissed off journalist Beck's [TS]

00:43:48 ◼   ► frowned clearly half-asleep bats [TS]

00:43:50 ◼   ► yeah you know flap flap squeak squeak [TS]

00:43:53 ◼   ► works for Dracula [TS]

00:43:56 ◼   ► we come in peace i called more quietly i [TS]

00:43:59 ◼   ► added for Beck's benefit i have always [TS]

00:44:01 ◼   ► wanted to say that I think that's when [TS]

00:44:04 ◼   ► they're taking the vice-president [TS]

00:44:05 ◼   ► hostage [TS]

00:44:06 ◼   ► you don't say that then you can't be [TS]

00:44:08 ◼   ► that quickie of all the time anyway [TS]

00:44:11 ◼   ► she's either theory she's an incredibly [TS]

00:44:13 ◼   ► good programmer and shut down the road [TS]

00:44:15 ◼   ► software that this is one of the first [TS]

00:44:17 ◼   ► round [TS]

00:44:18 ◼   ► ok so here's my explanation for these [TS]

00:44:19 ◼   ► books is is that uh huh and I do have [TS]

00:44:22 ◼   ► one its it reads to me like somebody [TS]

00:44:28 ◼   ► who's pictured a a movie in their head [TS]

00:44:31 ◼   ► and is literally just writing down the [TS]

00:44:34 ◼   ► dialogue and writing down the camera [TS]

00:44:36 ◼   ► movements and writing down the yeah you [TS]

00:44:40 ◼   ► know it what they're seeing on the [TS]

00:44:41 ◼   ► screen and so every time somebody stick [TS]

00:44:45 ◼   ► their finger in the reader she has to [TS]

00:44:47 ◼   ► explain what the finger thing is and and [TS]

00:44:50 ◼   ► but that's how it feels to be the [TS]

00:44:52 ◼   ► dialogue especially is painful because [TS]

00:44:53 ◼   ► there's so much of it and it's so rep [TS]

00:44:56 ◼   ► repetitious and pointless and and [TS]

00:45:00 ◼   ► there's no sense uh in the entire book [TS]

00:45:03 ◼   ► of compression she doesn't understand [TS]

00:45:06 ◼   ► that if you have five characters and [TS]

00:45:07 ◼   ► they need to go somewhere that's four [TS]

00:45:10 ◼   ► rooms away that you don't need to [TS]

00:45:12 ◼   ► describe them opening each door stepping [TS]

00:45:15 ◼   ► through each room what's in each room [TS]

00:45:16 ◼   ► opening the next door until they get to [TS]

00:45:18 ◼   ► the next room in these books every [TS]

00:45:20 ◼   ► single thing that could happen from one [TS]

00:45:22 ◼   ► end to the other and every word that [TS]

00:45:25 ◼   ► every character might say or think is [TS]

00:45:27 ◼   ► detailed and it's that's not good [TS]

00:45:31 ◼   ► writing doesn't need to have that good [TS]

00:45:32 ◼   ► writing you just end up in the next room [TS]

00:45:34 ◼   ► and as you the writer does shorthand to [TS]

00:45:37 ◼   ► say well and when they got to that room [TS]

00:45:39 ◼   ► this is what happened that's important [TS]

00:45:40 ◼   ► and this book has no sense of importance [TS]

00:45:42 ◼   ► and not importance of scenes they're all [TS]

00:45:45 ◼   ► just they're all just frames at 24 [TS]

00:45:48 ◼   ► frames per second in the movie in the [TS]

00:45:50 ◼   ► writers head as far as i can tell a [TS]

00:45:52 ◼   ► brilliant thing that douglas adams wrote [TS]

00:45:53 ◼   ► in i think in the third or fourth [TS]

00:45:55 ◼   ► hitchhiker's guide book about where said [TS]

00:45:57 ◼   ► you know readers you might have a [TS]

00:45:58 ◼   ► question about the things I leave out [TS]

00:46:00 ◼   ► and he goes things like for instance if [TS]

00:46:01 ◼   ► i were to tell you about our thursday [TS]

00:46:02 ◼   ► and our sister gets up he scratches one [TS]

00:46:05 ◼   ► side then he gets up he does this hold [TS]

00:46:06 ◼   ► eat something and it's all a question of [TS]

00:46:08 ◼   ► whether Arthur [TS]

00:46:08 ◼   ► actually has sex with with venture [TS]

00:46:10 ◼   ► church but it's very funny thing of like [TS]

00:46:12 ◼   ► what it would be like for a writer to [TS]

00:46:14 ◼   ► write all the details excruciating Lee [TS]

00:46:16 ◼   ► what actually happened i think that's [TS]

00:46:17 ◼   ► what you described yeah but this is a [TS]

00:46:19 ◼   ► whole book of that trilogy for you put [TS]

00:46:22 ◼   ► your finger on trilogy really more than [TS]

00:46:24 ◼   ► a book another thing i did not like Oh [TS]

00:46:26 ◼   ► Monty yes or I to other specific things [TS]

00:46:29 ◼   ► ok but what is at the beginning I was [TS]

00:46:31 ◼   ► gonna shout or even the horse but I got [TS]

00:46:34 ◼   ► here zombie have sweet kill hooks to [TS]

00:46:36 ◼   ► beat up I've just got this 1i I made you [TS]

00:46:38 ◼   ► read it you should talk as long as you [TS]

00:46:40 ◼   ► need to get out i'm listening at the [TS]

00:46:42 ◼   ► beginning of each chapter there's other [TS]

00:46:47 ◼   ► descriptions of what happened and that's [TS]

00:46:49 ◼   ► weird because a lot of time it's by the [TS]

00:46:52 ◼   ► same person who's the first person [TS]

00:46:54 ◼   ► narrator of these things yes but now [TS]

00:46:56 ◼   ► they're going to give us excerpt from [TS]

00:46:58 ◼   ► their lawyer and haha where unpublished [TS]

00:47:01 ◼   ► blog published on log and they have [TS]

00:47:04 ◼   ► dates drafts that's not a thing these [TS]

00:47:06 ◼   ► people are taking time to write this [TS]

00:47:08 ◼   ► stuff down that was what I wondered is [TS]

00:47:10 ◼   ► when did they have time to write the [TS]

00:47:12 ◼   ► unplugged published blog entries during [TS]

00:47:15 ◼   ► this adventure who is time to write [TS]

00:47:17 ◼   ► unpublished blog entries if it's a blog [TS]

00:47:20 ◼   ► if you don't publish it [TS]

00:47:21 ◼   ► finally there's just one sentence that [TS]

00:47:23 ◼   ► really bothered me [TS]

00:47:25 ◼   ► it's describing the Fox would lose the [TS]

00:47:28 ◼   ► ludicrously colorful psychotic character [TS]

00:47:33 ◼   ► they run into it was very weak me the [TS]

00:47:35 ◼   ► senses [TS]

00:47:36 ◼   ► oh yes as she claimed her hands over her [TS]

00:47:38 ◼   ► ears i saw that she was holding a nasty [TS]

00:47:41 ◼   ► look he's a nasty-looking snipers pistol [TS]

00:47:43 ◼   ► first i'm not sure the snipers pistol is [TS]

00:47:46 ◼   ► i think most laborers use rifles but [TS]

00:47:48 ◼   ► forget that [TS]

00:47:49 ◼   ► yeah she's for clamping her hands over [TS]

00:47:51 ◼   ► her ears while holding a sniper's pistol [TS]

00:47:55 ◼   ► isn't she just gonna knock yourself out [TS]

00:47:57 ◼   ► or something we can only hope she's [TS]

00:47:59 ◼   ► crazy money she's crazy just crazy stuff [TS]

00:48:01 ◼   ► like that cause she's crazy but she's [TS]

00:48:03 ◼   ► supposed to be holding the pistol on [TS]

00:48:05 ◼   ► them and said she's alright yeah alright [TS]

00:48:08 ◼   ► she got three him it's not early [TS]

00:48:10 ◼   ► it's what we're saying is it's not good [TS]

00:48:12 ◼   ► read it good but what it if you're going [TS]

00:48:15 ◼   ► to read it [TS]

00:48:16 ◼   ► listen to it on audible thank you two [TS]

00:48:18 ◼   ► narrators read any two pages of it [TS]

00:48:22 ◼   ► you got the whole thing yes lots of [TS]

00:48:24 ◼   ► redundancy is lots of we don't let's be [TS]

00:48:25 ◼   ► antsy and then lots redundancy [TS]

00:48:28 ◼   ► alright let's move on i've said i've [TS]

00:48:31 ◼   ► saved for fifth Kim Stanley Robinson is [TS]

00:48:34 ◼   ► 2312 the winner of the nebula award for [TS]

00:48:38 ◼   ► best science fiction novel of the year [TS]

00:48:40 ◼   ► this is 2312 is set in the sometime in [TS]

00:48:46 ◼   ► the early 23 hundreds the German sherlyn [TS]

00:48:50 ◼   ► um so I've been waiting like five weeks [TS]

00:48:54 ◼   ► to make that joke haha and you abused [TS]

00:48:57 ◼   ► your self-pity ideas and it's sadly [TS]

00:48:59 ◼   ► accurate because it's not exactly set [TS]

00:49:02 ◼   ► it's a it's Grand Tour kind of novel [TS]

00:49:06 ◼   ► it's it's got scenes on Mars and Mercury [TS]

00:49:09 ◼   ► and earth and in the outer planets and [TS]

00:49:12 ◼   ► the moons of jupiter and saturn and [TS]

00:49:14 ◼   ► asteroids and it tells it this far [TS]

00:49:19 ◼   ► future story it tells of there's a plot [TS]

00:49:22 ◼   ► and there's also lots of detail of sort [TS]

00:49:25 ◼   ► of the future of of human society and [TS]

00:49:28 ◼   ► culture and I think as somebody who read [TS]

00:49:31 ◼   ► the red blue green Mars trilogy which I [TS]

00:49:34 ◼   ► enjoyed quite a lot actually [TS]

00:49:36 ◼   ► by Kim Stanley Robinson it seems to [TS]

00:49:39 ◼   ► maybe be set in the same universe he [TS]

00:49:41 ◼   ► sort of soft petals the Mars stuff and [TS]

00:49:45 ◼   ► that led me to believe that it probably [TS]

00:49:46 ◼   ► is the same or at least similar universe [TS]

00:49:48 ◼   ► to that I don't know [TS]

00:49:50 ◼   ► and this is yes this is one lots lots o [TS]

00:49:54 ◼   ► awards so when I talked about this book [TS]

00:49:57 ◼   ► with Glenn Glenn said that he had [TS]

00:49:58 ◼   ► started reading it was so furious that [TS]

00:50:00 ◼   ► he put it down and we had to coax him [TS]

00:50:02 ◼   ► into reading the rest of it which I [TS]

00:50:04 ◼   ► think he did and dan dan you read [TS]

00:50:06 ◼   ► stretch most of this right i I'm about a [TS]

00:50:10 ◼   ► hundred and fifty pages from the end a [TS]

00:50:12 ◼   ► lot wait a long time to say something [TS]

00:50:14 ◼   ► about this classy something with us know [TS]

00:50:15 ◼   ► when I started so i'm a long time Kim [TS]

00:50:18 ◼   ► Stanley Robinson fan I even would refer [TS]

00:50:20 ◼   ► to as ksr as his fans too i read the [TS]

00:50:23 ◼   ► red-green-blue Mars ones and thought [TS]

00:50:24 ◼   ► some of the best science fiction since [TS]

00:50:26 ◼   ► dune since the first do not the sequel's [TS]

00:50:28 ◼   ► tremendous scope tremendous scientific [TS]

00:50:32 ◼   ► insight great characters ability to [TS]

00:50:35 ◼   ► create you [TS]

00:50:35 ◼   ► verse to deal with characters over the [TS]

00:50:37 ◼   ► span of a century [TS]

00:50:38 ◼   ► I read other novels and short stories [TS]

00:50:41 ◼   ► read written and read nonfiction is [TS]

00:50:44 ◼   ► written looking forward to this [TS]

00:50:45 ◼   ► i bought this from amazon in hardcover [TS]

00:50:47 ◼   ► the moment came out pre-ordered it [TS]

00:50:49 ◼   ► picked it up and started reading it and [TS]

00:50:51 ◼   ► I thought I'd had a brain aneurysm and [TS]

00:50:53 ◼   ► in fact I wrote an article for The [TS]

00:50:55 ◼   ► Economist's package blog about how I [TS]

00:50:57 ◼   ► scored double check whether i'd actually [TS]

00:50:59 ◼   ► had a stroke or seizure because i [TS]

00:51:01 ◼   ► started reading it I thought this is [TS]

00:51:03 ◼   ► terrible the writing is flat the [TS]

00:51:05 ◼   ► characters are uninspired the science is [TS]

00:51:07 ◼   ► bad this camp that by the there's [TS]

00:51:10 ◼   ► instantaneous communication without an [TS]

00:51:12 ◼   ► answer was always like a distant and I i [TS]

00:51:14 ◼   ► actually thought is something wrong with [TS]

00:51:16 ◼   ► me because it can't be wrong with Kim [TS]

00:51:18 ◼   ► Stanley Robinson is genius [TS]

00:51:20 ◼   ► he's been all this great stuff and the [TS]

00:51:21 ◼   ► end of course it's it's not me it's him [TS]

00:51:23 ◼   ► and I think I overreacted a little bit [TS]

00:51:26 ◼   ► because when i came back to watch just [TS]

00:51:28 ◼   ► timed that does not sound like you [TS]

00:51:30 ◼   ► doesn't sound I do anything under [TS]

00:51:33 ◼   ► reacted but I came back to it and my [TS]

00:51:35 ◼   ► opinion is is is it's still I don't like [TS]

00:51:38 ◼   ► it and we can talk about it was like [TS]

00:51:40 ◼   ► forth but it's not as horrible seem [TS]

00:51:42 ◼   ► excited such high expectations from [TS]

00:51:44 ◼   ► anything you would write because it's [TS]

00:51:45 ◼   ► never disappointed me in the past and i [TS]

00:51:47 ◼   ► thought this was another sprawling [TS]

00:51:48 ◼   ► wonderful installment in his work and it [TS]

00:51:50 ◼   ► is not but I didn't finish the whole [TS]

00:51:52 ◼   ► thing [TS]

00:51:52 ◼   ► this is great because i'm on the [TS]

00:51:53 ◼   ► entirely opposite spectrum of Glen in [TS]

00:51:56 ◼   ► terms of going into this which is then I [TS]

00:51:58 ◼   ► red red mars maybe I don't know 10 15 [TS]

00:52:02 ◼   ► years ago and found it dull didn't read [TS]

00:52:06 ◼   ► any other books Nets here using did not [TS]

00:52:08 ◼   ► do not remember that we're all of them [TS]

00:52:10 ◼   ► not liking it and I went into this and i [TS]

00:52:14 ◼   ► also found stop there are a couple [TS]

00:52:17 ◼   ► things I every once in a while I mean [TS]

00:52:20 ◼   ► okay [TS]

00:52:21 ◼   ► it takes about a hundred and fifty pages [TS]

00:52:22 ◼   ► before you hit a plot and that to me is [TS]

00:52:24 ◼   ► the problem number one right like [TS]

00:52:26 ◼   ► there's there's there's there are people [TS]

00:52:28 ◼   ► like you sort of start out with this [TS]

00:52:30 ◼   ► character who's died and the main [TS]

00:52:32 ◼   ► character who is her brand on [TS]

00:52:35 ◼   ► yes and so on certain supposed to take [TS]

00:52:37 ◼   ► over her work [TS]

00:52:38 ◼   ► it's not clear with that work is there [TS]

00:52:40 ◼   ► are lots of other people involved it's [TS]

00:52:41 ◼   ► not really clear what they're doing [TS]

00:52:42 ◼   ► either and it takes about a hundred [TS]

00:52:44 ◼   ► fifty pages before somebody tries to [TS]

00:52:46 ◼   ► blow up a city on Mercury her city [TS]

00:52:47 ◼   ► before [TS]

00:52:49 ◼   ► I was like ok now we finally cut into [TS]

00:52:51 ◼   ► the point of this story at which point [TS]

00:52:54 ◼   ► you with and spend 1 240 bitches like [TS]

00:52:57 ◼   ► dawdling around and dr. King's point as [TS]

00:53:00 ◼   ► a stronger i want to read i will read [TS]

00:53:03 ◼   ► the thing i'm reading this and and I i [TS]

00:53:05 ◼   ► agree that it's like with is going said [TS]

00:53:08 ◼   ► it's flat except every once in awhile [TS]

00:53:10 ◼   ► little stuff pokes through and I'm [TS]

00:53:12 ◼   ► amazed that it's like i start to get [TS]

00:53:14 ◼   ► like you know maybe like wipe away the [TS]

00:53:16 ◼   ► dirt you're like oh I'm trying to see [TS]

00:53:18 ◼   ► what he was going for it so i want to [TS]

00:53:19 ◼   ► read the one line that made me laugh out [TS]

00:53:21 ◼   ► loud a lot and it's in one of the lists [TS]

00:53:25 ◼   ► chapters their these breaks breakouts [TS]

00:53:27 ◼   ► where they have like lists or extracts [TS]

00:53:29 ◼   ► from other pieces of work or whatever [TS]

00:53:33 ◼   ► yeah there's a list where they have a [TS]

00:53:34 ◼   ► list of all the different types of [TS]

00:53:36 ◼   ► terrariums these artificial structures [TS]

00:53:39 ◼   ► they've built and here's all the [TS]

00:53:42 ◼   ► different types of trends they had and [TS]

00:53:44 ◼   ► this was my favorite was the st. George [TS]

00:53:46 ◼   ► a social terrarium in which the men [TS]

00:53:48 ◼   ► think they are living in a mormon [TS]

00:53:49 ◼   ► polygamy was going to consider it a [TS]

00:53:50 ◼   ► lesbian world with a small percentage of [TS]

00:53:52 ◼   ► male lesbian that made me laugh that [TS]

00:53:55 ◼   ► made me laugh and I was like wait am I [TS]

00:53:58 ◼   ► reading this book rock because maybe [TS]

00:54:00 ◼   ► this book is supposed to be funny and I [TS]

00:54:02 ◼   ► have come across have come across a [TS]

00:54:05 ◼   ► couple of things subsequently that that [TS]

00:54:06 ◼   ► were actually amusing or like you know [TS]

00:54:09 ◼   ► made me chuckle a little bit we did john [TS]

00:54:11 ◼   ► scalzi write this book is this not an [TS]

00:54:13 ◼   ► entire medical resilient material may be [TS]

00:54:16 ◼   ► but I can't quite i mean i don't really [TS]

00:54:20 ◼   ► understand maybe I'm not very good at [TS]

00:54:24 ◼   ► transcription happen after overtime so [TS]

00:54:27 ◼   ► you also have the Straits a little bit [TS]

00:54:29 ◼   ► perplexing i was on the boing boing [TS]

00:54:32 ◼   ► podcast which I I thanks to glen [TS]

00:54:35 ◼   ► presumably the only reason they asked me [TS]

00:54:38 ◼   ► is glad recommended me with a sci-fi [TS]

00:54:40 ◼   ► writer run as a mom who is so he has [TS]

00:54:44 ◼   ► written some really interesting stuff [TS]

00:54:45 ◼   ► that maybe we'll talk about in a future [TS]

00:54:46 ◼   ► podcast he and he loved 2312 and i have [TS]

00:54:50 ◼   ► to admit i said i don't i don't okay [TS]

00:54:52 ◼   ► it's good for you I I you know you are a [TS]

00:54:56 ◼   ► smart guy in a science fiction writer [TS]

00:54:57 ◼   ► but it just I i have a hard time [TS]

00:55:00 ◼   ► understanding the [TS]

00:55:01 ◼   ► love for this Scott you know what you [TS]

00:55:04 ◼   ► what is your take on on 2312 as you [TS]

00:55:07 ◼   ► remember it I know you've got the [TS]

00:55:08 ◼   ► probably been months since Iran's book [TS]

00:55:10 ◼   ► and it has been a while but i will say [TS]

00:55:12 ◼   ► that I this is the book that i have [TS]

00:55:14 ◼   ► voted 4-2 win the ok conflict here we go [TS]

00:55:18 ◼   ► yeah it's true but I mean I can [TS]

00:55:20 ◼   ► understand how people can hate it as i [TS]

00:55:21 ◼   ► was reading it and like I really like [TS]

00:55:22 ◼   ► this but I understand why people don't [TS]

00:55:24 ◼   ► like it at all [TS]

00:55:25 ◼   ► there's an unlikable character for large [TS]

00:55:27 ◼   ► portions of the book you have no idea [TS]

00:55:29 ◼   ► what's going on [TS]

00:55:30 ◼   ► it is rambling there are weird chapters [TS]

00:55:34 ◼   ► with just lists and fragments of texts [TS]

00:55:36 ◼   ► these are not things that make a book of [TS]

00:55:39 ◼   ► all that likable but for me this [TS]

00:55:42 ◼   ► combination really worked well because [TS]

00:55:44 ◼   ► of there's this kind of the stroke right [TS]

00:55:46 ◼   ► that humanity when you reach a certain [TS]

00:55:48 ◼   ► level of technological advancement [TS]

00:55:50 ◼   ► people just get bored and there's [TS]

00:55:52 ◼   ► nothing to do and that's kind of what i [TS]

00:55:55 ◼   ► thought was the kind of the the Swan the [TS]

00:55:58 ◼   ► main character who is kind of all she's [TS]

00:56:00 ◼   ► haha horrible person she's not a nice [TS]

00:56:02 ◼   ► person but she's interesting is because [TS]

00:56:04 ◼   ► i was just nice she's also dumb and does [TS]

00:56:06 ◼   ► lots of dumb things she does some very [TS]

00:56:09 ◼   ► dumb thing so she's bored and so she [TS]

00:56:10 ◼   ► says hey I know what I'll do I'll inject [TS]

00:56:12 ◼   ► this alien bacteria into my system and [TS]

00:56:15 ◼   ► see what happens right and so the answer [TS]

00:56:17 ◼   ► is a bad things happen right so she that [TS]

00:56:20 ◼   ► although it also saves her life [TS]

00:56:21 ◼   ► potentially to do you want accident yeah [TS]

00:56:23 ◼   ► so we don't know what's happening right [TS]

00:56:24 ◼   ► and then there's this other guy who [TS]

00:56:26 ◼   ► likes her for some reason and but it's a [TS]

00:56:29 ◼   ► frogman or whatever I can be brought [TS]

00:56:31 ◼   ► about a war on with a w was a war on [TS]

00:56:33 ◼   ► barham mrnas named thousand times i can [TS]

00:56:36 ◼   ► remember [TS]

00:56:36 ◼   ► yeah he falls in love with her but she [TS]

00:56:38 ◼   ► is really incapable of love so edgy and [TS]

00:56:41 ◼   ► uses him and he like walks for like six [TS]

00:56:44 ◼   ► months under the surface of mercury to [TS]

00:56:46 ◼   ► save her life and she's kind of like [TS]

00:56:47 ◼   ► whatever you can walk a little faster [TS]

00:56:50 ◼   ► that seems for me was reflected out the [TS]

00:56:52 ◼   ► entire novel heels [TS]

00:56:54 ◼   ► yeah speak speaking of people of Robert [TS]

00:56:56 ◼   ► compression yeah [TS]

00:56:58 ◼   ► oh my true but I thought that was the [TS]

00:56:59 ◼   ► point of it right it was and and tell me [TS]

00:57:02 ◼   ► that you don't need it but that was the [TS]

00:57:05 ◼   ► point he was making he was trying to [TS]

00:57:06 ◼   ► make you feel like the web how those [TS]

00:57:08 ◼   ► characters [TS]

00:57:09 ◼   ► accomplished and I i can agree that with [TS]

00:57:12 ◼   ► you that it might not work well I will [TS]

00:57:15 ◼   ► argue at work because it was in fact [TS]

00:57:16 ◼   ► boring but I thought that was the whole [TS]

00:57:18 ◼   ► way and as and I also i really like the [TS]

00:57:23 ◼   ► facts are there there's this big city on [TS]

00:57:26 ◼   ► Mercury that's on the track the opposite [TS]

00:57:28 ◼   ► has to get out of the sun's way and I [TS]

00:57:30 ◼   ► thought I would bring it this is stupid [TS]

00:57:32 ◼   ► because who would ever live on this kind [TS]

00:57:34 ◼   ► of a precarious situation and I know [TS]

00:57:37 ◼   ► something's gonna happen to the track [TS]

00:57:38 ◼   ► and then I thought well people do live [TS]

00:57:41 ◼   ► at the base of volcanoes people with [TS]

00:57:43 ◼   ► ever so it's kind of makes sense that [TS]

00:57:46 ◼   ► when you get to this kind of [TS]

00:57:47 ◼   ► technological arrogance you're not sure [TS]

00:57:49 ◼   ► why not live in a moving city on Mercury [TS]

00:57:51 ◼   ► what could have I would be way more [TS]

00:57:53 ◼   ► impressed had I not seen that exact same [TS]

00:57:55 ◼   ► device in a 2-3 zone Star Wars novel 20 [TS]

00:57:57 ◼   ► years ago mom [TS]

00:57:59 ◼   ► well I probably read that novel but i [TS]

00:58:01 ◼   ► don't remember the other thing that got [TS]

00:58:02 ◼   ► me though was you know obviously even [TS]

00:58:05 ◼   ► forget all that i mentioned i was [TS]

00:58:06 ◼   ► describing life I got brain damage was [TS]

00:58:08 ◼   ► because the the science didn't work and [TS]

00:58:11 ◼   ► he's a serious researcher of science and [TS]

00:58:13 ◼   ► reason to Mars books one of the things [TS]

00:58:15 ◼   ► that's nice about them is the ecological [TS]

00:58:18 ◼   ► geological like there's so much in there [TS]

00:58:20 ◼   ► that is accurate self-consistent and you [TS]

00:58:23 ◼   ► learn a lot about Mars as it is now in [TS]

00:58:25 ◼   ► fact ring them it's got that hard [TS]

00:58:27 ◼   ► science really tries to not do things [TS]

00:58:29 ◼   ► that are impossible then you get this [TS]

00:58:31 ◼   ► thing and he even States a number of [TS]

00:58:34 ◼   ► times i've talked about redundancy good [TS]

00:58:35 ◼   ► gravy but he states seemingly number of [TS]

00:58:37 ◼   ► times that you can have quantum [TS]

00:58:39 ◼   ► computers but they can't untangle the [TS]

00:58:41 ◼   ► quantum entanglement far enough to lose [TS]

00:58:44 ◼   ► coherence you can't get very far apart [TS]

00:58:45 ◼   ► the elements so you can make an ansible [TS]

00:58:47 ◼   ► which is a great device word coined by [TS]

00:58:49 ◼   ► Ursula K Le Guin in I think left hand of [TS]

00:58:52 ◼   ► darkness one of the early books for a [TS]

00:58:55 ◼   ► device that basically it's the it's the [TS]

00:58:57 ◼   ► MacGuffin on the government's the forget [TS]

00:58:59 ◼   ► the deus ex machina you need in science [TS]

00:59:01 ◼   ► fiction as you have communicators that [TS]

00:59:03 ◼   ► are very far apart and they can talk [TS]

00:59:04 ◼   ► together instantly because stuff and [TS]

00:59:07 ◼   ► there should not be any ansibles in this [TS]

00:59:09 ◼   ► universe and yet people talk to each [TS]

00:59:11 ◼   ► other seemingly instantaneously without [TS]

00:59:13 ◼   ► any explanation and they also travel [TS]

00:59:16 ◼   ► across the breadth and length of the [TS]

00:59:18 ◼   ► solar system including out of the plane [TS]

00:59:19 ◼   ► of the elliptic in seemingly [TS]

00:59:21 ◼   ► ridiculously small amounts [TS]

00:59:22 ◼   ► time without any explanation it doesn't [TS]

00:59:25 ◼   ► need an explanation that's good let's [TS]

00:59:27 ◼   ► party that's well everything is better [TS]

00:59:29 ◼   ► exactly but he he has just enough [TS]

00:59:31 ◼   ► science in it the ebay is just enough [TS]

00:59:33 ◼   ► science in it that you expect him to [TS]

00:59:34 ◼   ► offer here i'm gonna wave my hands [TS]