site banner
PaperclipPerfector  4mo ago (text post)   2390 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for December 29, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

2
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I've been reading a lot lately. Largely because I'm taking two weeks off from work, and I don't just want to be reading on my phone all the time in front of my daughter. Yay paper books.

Read the first of Blaine Lee Pardoe's Land&Sea series. I think it's specifically typeset as Land&Sea and not Land & Sea or Land and Sea. Go figure. I thought I'd give it a try after Catalyst Game Labs did him dirty, and he was one of the last active Battletech authors I still enjoyed. Victor Milan having died, and Michael Stackpole, Robert Thurston and William H Keith having moved on, rarely to return.

It's OK. His schtick worked better in a more alien setting of Battletech. In a near future Earth, his characters just don't act like people I'd expect on this Earth to act. It's also front loaded with like 8 character introductions, with about 10 pages each, back to back to back (to back to back to back to back to back). With little in the way of overall plot happening, and none of the characters nor the world being interesting enough to carry it. That said, by the time I finished it, I immediately ordered the sequel. So I suppose it redeemed itself by the end.

Then I read Vermis II. I didn't enjoy it as much as Vermis, which was almost entirely world building in the format of a Nintendo Power style game guide for an CRPG that never actually existed. The sequel actually has a main character of sorts, which made it a far more ordinary, if still unorthodox in it's presentation, graphic novel of sorts. More akin to a hint guide, like for Pool of Radiance, that is written in character as a PC's journal. Still, it lacked many of the made up random encounter tables, primitive maps, or character stats that the original had, and fired my imagination far less.

Having finished that, and not wanting to read Berserk in front of my child, nor the last volume of The Cimmerian, I plucked Manifold: Space off my bookshelf. It had been sitting there since probably 2007 unread. There is actually a funny story about this one. In the 90's I read this magazine called Science Fiction Age, and several of the stories it published were quite memorable to me. Among them was this "Saddlepoint" series. I forgot all the details over the years, and at one point began executing some google-fu as best I was able to piece the fragments I did remember into something actionable. Anyways, I eventually found out the author of those stories was Stephen Baxter and ordered three of his books. Manifold: Time, Manifold: Origin and Manifold: Space. I read Space last, and as it turns out, it's actually the novelization of those short stories I remember.

It's fucking wild, and takes place from the "future" of 2020, written in 2000, and extends until about 8000 AD I think? It gets fuzzy towards the end. I actually had no idea it would cover that much ground. It starts with Humanity discovering alien activity in the asteroid belt, and going out to meet them. I expected that meeting to be the climax of the story, 2001: A Space Odyssey style. Instead it's about the first 50 pages, and after that it's off to the races. Very high concept, and frankly rather depressing seeing humanity's imagined ups and downs over about 6000 years. The narrative pops in every few hundred years. Sometimes the things that happened during the last narrative chunk mattered. Sometimes the implacable march of time and entropy wiped them away. I have about 40 pages left and I highly recommend it. I miss when speculative fiction was this straight forward, instead of shoving current year nonsense into very nook and cranny.

I didn't enjoy it as much as Vermis, which was almost entirely world building in the format of a Nintendo Power style game guide for an CRPG that never actually existed

I was going to claim that nobody would read something written like that, but evidently you are haha.

God knows I would love to dump my undirected worldbuilding, but I had to take pains to gussy it up as a novel. I suppose if you're famous-lite with an existing audience, you can get away with it.

I have no idea who the artist for Vermis is. A buddy of mine turned me onto the first one, and it hit all the right notes for me. Dark, retro, a unique horror-Nintendo-vaporwave art style. I have no idea how he found out about it, but he floats though all sorts of TTRPG communities I only hear about when they fuck up.

Summoning up the faux anger...

Why didn't you post about Vermis when my wife was pestering me for Christmas present ideas?!?

Bookmarked for when Hollow Press gets back to the office.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats