Post AmEnWTApmTd049XsNE by tinheadned@dice.camp
(DIR) More posts by tinheadned@dice.camp
(DIR) Post #AmEezXRc5BQe7bBDZw by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-09-21T17:48:48Z
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Anyone else reading "Alien Clay" by Adrian Tchaikovsky? I'm about half-way through. So, no spoilers please. I think it's great and definitely one of the good new SF books. Something about the narrator, the first person feels clunky. The narrator is surrounded by beautiful horrible things... but too cynical to see them. It'd be neat if those scales fell off his eyes. I don't care if it's eating you, seeing an alien world filled with life would be transcendent. Even if it is a prison camp.
(DIR) Post #AmEf4xuz56ZHfzVQ0W by Tak@glitch.taks.garden
2024-09-21T17:49:42Z
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@futurebird đź‘€ new tchaikovsky, you say
(DIR) Post #AmEfDe7g36OKt9a9U8 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-09-21T17:51:19Z
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Though this criticism isn't enough that I'd suggest skipping it. I just feel there is a miss opportunity to glory a bit in the beauty of nature and the universe. Though our protagonist is a reasonable person and believable, he's much more a-tuned to humans and their motives than the crazy natural world around him and it's driving me nuts. The nature would be all that I could think about under such conditions. It's a way to escape after all.
(DIR) Post #AmEfFDJkgIgaKgyfGy by stevoooo@metalhead.club
2024-09-21T17:51:26Z
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@futurebird Finished it last week, and absolutely loved it. Reminded me in parts of Cage of Souls which was also great.
(DIR) Post #AmEfNI1J56cJEZCVZw by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-09-21T17:53:04Z
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@datarama It has a lot of fun with biology and the way that the natural world refuses to conform to structured boxes and taxonomies. It also has some fascists who are pretty typical and disappointing. If only because such people are now familiar types I've seen wandering around.
(DIR) Post #AmEfeHE9HZYzhKJ8Hw by beecycling@romancelandia.club
2024-09-21T17:55:58Z
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@futurebird The audiobook is waiting for me. It can be hard to keep up with Adrian Tchaikovsky releases! Have you read Service Model? That one is lots of fun.
(DIR) Post #AmEfi011DXJhTUwPOS by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-09-21T17:56:48Z
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@datarama Yes, but I read it long ago and just remember enjoying it. Might revisit it sometime...
(DIR) Post #AmEfzJyKGxJaI9wQIy by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-09-21T17:59:56Z
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@michaelgemar Love that animation. And the planet in "Alien Clay" has some of that feel... but again without the sublime... or at least thus far in the story.
(DIR) Post #AmEidKyc9kmstpHk48 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-09-21T18:29:37Z
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OK I need to say a bit more about Professor Arton Daghdev. This man is *consumed* with concern about if the other people in the prison camp think he's a snitch. At first I thought this was just a material practical concern, but it's deeper than that. He wants to be A Revolutionary and I guess respected by those who oppose the fascism they all face. But, at the same time he's deeply cynical and not very impressed by his fellow working man. Disappointed in himself and in others. 1/
(DIR) Post #AmEiyqz6LZogFdly1w by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-09-21T18:33:26Z
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This makes living in his head something of a slog as he spends a lot of time worrying about what other people think about him (very fascinating and alien for me to read) but also sincerely loves or likes people only a little. I think this is supposed to be some realism about how dreary a prison camp would be. That said I'm only half way through and there is room for growth. Maybe he's supposed to be peevish and myopic because of the terrible world he comes from?2/2
(DIR) Post #AmEnWTApmTd049XsNE by tinheadned@dice.camp
2024-09-21T19:24:23Z
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@futurebird sounds like Cage of Souls which I absolutely hated. I like his other stuff...
(DIR) Post #AmEvsXRPOY1nIyKea8 by Archnemysis@mastodon.social
2024-09-21T20:58:00Z
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@futurebird your second sentence is one of the reasons I follow you. You have an infectious ability to “glory a bit in the beauty of nature and the universe.” Haven’t read this, just wanted to send my appreciation.
(DIR) Post #AmIaHf7YYeMo0ISdqC by angry_drunk@union.place
2024-09-23T15:14:52Z
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@futurebird I'm about 1/3 of the way through and it almost seems to me like the narrator is *too* unreliable—and too obsessed with the idea of others perceiving him as a traitor. Like Tchaikovsky is setting up something bigger here. We shall see.
(DIR) Post #AmIdJfRmcEKzSPZNcu by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-09-23T15:48:29Z
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@angry_drunk I’m so glad someone else found his focus on that a little odd. I mean— TBH if you are in a brutal place and oppressed by bastards who torture and maim I don’t think I would hate a “snitch” as much as I might if I thought they had a real choice. That there is a choice not to collaborate is part of the humanity such situations rob from us. To me the great resistance is to continue to be kind to those the system refuses to see anyways.
(DIR) Post #AmIdzUo6Z5uMcWxJuy by Nonya_Bidniss@mas.to
2024-09-23T15:56:23Z
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@futurebird It's on my list!