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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   15629 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 19, 2022

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Perhaps I was too harsh to the book, I think the huge praise it got and the relatively flat beginning threw me for a loop. I only finished about a fifth before setting it down.

On the whole, there is a general theme of throwing the reader into the deep end of some massive cultural and technological differences. If you enjoy subtle clues and tricky empathy leaps, it's a really good book.

I'm actually pretty okay with getting thrown into the deep end of a world, Malazan Book of the Fallen is my favorite speculative fiction series by far. If I had to pinpoint it, I'd say my main issue is that the world doesn't seem to make sense from a technical perspective, for instance the massive tech difference between the Radch and the Nilk, and the whole AI needing human bodies thing. I suppose it could be explained away as social issues, but I am generally pretty skeptical of galaxy spanning civilizations with godlike technology still having colonies where people have to perform a ton of manual labor, and have little to no real infrastructure.

Well, the tech difference is at least partly because this is an empire that conquers first and develops later, right? It's located somewhere in the same space as colonial Britain or ancient Rome. Conquest is definitely the main idea, and then assimilating the conquered peoples into your high tech, highly "cultured" society is also important, because that's how you keep the empire stable, but it takes longer.

I never really thought about the conditions that would lead to the usefulness of human ancillaries, I have to admit. I mostly took that part for granted. Some of the ships/AIs do have discussions later on about the relative merits of humans and robots, and they seem to subjectively prefer the former, possibly because the former has subjectivity. I don't really remember if the whole thing was actually explained in any depth, though, and I can see it being something that varies in plausibility depending on the reader. I guess that's true of a lot of world-building, in that there are always going to be things that work better for some people than others.

Well, the tech difference is at least partly because this is an empire that conquers first and develops later, right? It's located somewhere in the same space as colonial Britain or ancient Rome.

I more meant the Radch people on these backwaters (and in Ors). They have no implants, no real changes in their day to day tech (like phones/VR/AR type deal). It boggles the mind that after many millenia and conquering an entire galaxy, the military upper crust of this society is just like... a 21st century human. Totally breaks immersion for me.

Peter Hamilton's Commonwealth Saga is a great explanation of how to do this better. Also Gravity Dreams by L.E. Modesitt jr.

I never really thought about the conditions that would lead to the usefulness of human ancillaries, I have to admit. I mostly took that part for granted.

This is probably where I diverge most from what other people are saying about the book. It is so far beyond what I consider realistic it's basically a deal breaker unless it's addressed early and well.

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