Yesterday I went to see Ironman with a friend and really enjoyed it - it's a very entertaining movie. However I was very suprised to see that their bitchin' computers were labeled Dell (you can see it when Pepper leaves Jeff Bridges' office). I understand product placement and all that, but WTF? I can just figure Stark on the phone with their helpdesk, "yes, yes, a superhero iron suit... I pay with Visa, yeah... oh, I get a free printer with it? Aaah, your Supersaver Summer Deal, of course... Great! Thanks!"
As for books, I've finished reading The Dreaming Void a few days ago and I didn't like it very much. It only has two decent characters (Aaron and Troblum), aside from the old characters from Pandora's Box and Judas Unchained that make cameo appearances. Besides, Hamilton should do everyone a favour and stop writing about sex, he's really crap at it. The dream chapters were bog standard boring fantasy - I wanted to read science fiction, not all that crap. I like the guy, he's written good books in the past (like the Neutronium Alchemist) but this is not it - and the rest of the trilogy isn't even out yet.
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This blog is linked to my weekly comic, "the noob", which is the story of Ohforf'sake - naming error at creation - in the virtual online world of Clichequest (although most of the time I don't talk about the comic at all).
7 comments:
I also think that Hamilton is a very gifted writer, but his books are just too long. His extremely good short stories ("Sonnie's Edge" from "A second chance at Eden" is my favorite) show that he's capable to write dense stories, but the mass market obviously dictates otherwise.
I find it curious that you mention the "Neutronium Alchemist" as good, because I liked the first (two) books ("The Reality Dysfunction") much better. This whole series would make one really good book of at most 1200 pages, unfortunately it's bloated to three times that length. Lucky were the days when authors were forced by the publishers to keep things short :D
Ah, that's just me getting confused - I meant the trilogy, not the third book only. Like you, I preferred the first two. Since we are on topic, I strongly advise NOT to read Greg Egan's "Schild's Ladder". I generally love SF books but this is the dullest stuff I've read in ages. Absolutely not engaging. Too bad because the ideas are good, he just sucks at making you give a shit about the story.
Hi Gianna
I am a regular reader of your comic but I never spotted your blog before. Since I have just finished "The Dreaming Void" I guess I have to comment.
I am a huge fan of Hamilton, in particular the Nights Dawn stuff. I also felt that Dreaming Void was a bit of a let down.
I can live with the fantasy dream bits, I do read fantasy, but I just felt the whole book was very slow moving. 700 pages in and not much had happened.
I do think that things perked up in the last few chapters. Enough for me to want to continue the series.
I am currently reading Kevin Anderson's Seven Suns saga. If you are an SF purist you might hate it but if you are looking for a rollicking good space opera you couldn't do better.
Hi gianna, been reading your comic from start and I gotta say It's the best thing ever and I couldnt possibly think of anything else that could compete with ohforf :)
Love it all and whatever you do, don't stop with "the noob" comic!
/reader from sweden
Gianna,
If you haven't encountered his work yet, for pure SF joy and goodness, check out Iain M Banks (The M is important - without it is straight fiction).
His work is astonishingly brilliant. I recommend that you start either with Consider Phlebas, or The Algebraist. Phlebas is the "first" (chronologically) Culture book, which is what he told me he writes when he "can't think of anything better".
The Algebraist is a stand-alone example of what he can produce when he does think of something better. :)
Against A Dark Background is also worth a read, but I hesitate to suggest it as a first exposure.
I personally liked Dreaming Void and the dream sequences (though I don't read very much fantasy so haven't got much to compare it to).
From space opera I'd suggest reading up on Alastair Reynold's Revelation Space novels. They work quite well independently as well but if you read the in order it is quite nice series. Reminds me of Asimov's original Foundation books.
You're so right about product placement! and I'm not even talking about sellout movies such as "I Robot" where Will Smith - in a length of 5 minutes - advertises Dos Equis beer, Vintage something shoes from back in 2006, VCR, BMW and many others.
I'm talking about an all-time superhero like Spiderman, drinking and thus endorsing Dr.Pepper, using Master Card etc etc....
Horrible! but I guess that's how you make a diference between whored-out movies/shows ( pardom my French) and real ones : no Dr.Pepper in Battlestar Galactica, just Cylon toasters ^^
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