I get maybe 45 minutes to play steam on a weekday and a little more than that on week-ends , is civ the type of game where someone like me with little to no freetime can just jump on for 45 minutes and extract reasonable entertainment from it ?
Indonesia is the FOURTH most populated nation on the planet and is a pretty big country filled with a lot of resources
Yet geopolitically it's pretty much irrelevant on the global stage
Why is this so ?
The Wall- ASOIAF , its the only thing keeping the Others at bay from annihilating all life not just on Westeros but the world
The Blackwall - Cyberpunk 2077 , the blackwall is an AI that Humanity employ's to keep other hostile/rogue AI from annihilating the net and quite literally hacking into and killing people . The hostile AI in question are less ChatGPT and just genuine Lovecraftian abominations
I'm not asking for specifically Sci-fi or books with Hyperion's vibe but one's with a similar narrative structure . An anthology that connects together based on one common element that shows itself differently in each character's story
Really enjoyed the different stories in Hyperion and how they connected to the Shrike in their own ways
I'll go first
I think Rikke is a Mary Sue and a massive disappointment as a character . It's not like Abercrombie can't write woman (Savine and Monza were great) , but Rikke is just......so fucking flat as a character and I feel like her victory over Calder only happened cause Calder had to be lobotomized by the plot
Genuinely some of the most interesting worldbuilding i've seen . Really love how eldritch and terrifying AI are portrayed in the verse
Imo Dark worlds have fallen off sharply since chapter 2 , the dark worlds of chapter 4 and 5 are much better artistically but feel....really dead ? Like chapter 2 feels like a truly alive city with filled with lots of independent darkners with their owns "lives" due to the little tiny NPC's and life that fills it . Chapter 3 doesn't do it as well but things like the 3 mikes brought out a lot of charm
Chapter 4 and 5 are more egregious . Chapter 4 has like....two????? Interesting Darkners and while the art and vibe is immaculate the actual dark world feels a bit dead . Chapter 5 is even worse since the darkners have no relevency outside of a few joke's and don't feel like characters at all . Outside of the flowers and Pink there is nothing around in here .
Complementary hot take : I think the designs for some of the flowers suck . Yellow and Green look like something an amateur would cook up . Genuinely so fucking bad , Aqua isn't any better but she's a "so bad it becomes good " for me . Seth and Flowery are fine and I have no clue why only those two were the one's given detailed sprite work . Blue and Orange are fine....I guess
1.Wisdom Of Crowds was a bad book , not a bad Abercrombie book or a bad first law book but just straight up poorly written
2.Rike was a Mary Sue who unlike Savine or Monza has neither an interesting personality or shows any true skill , most of her "victories" require the plot to just lobotomize her enemies
Yes I know you can't place modern nationalist concepts on the past . What I mean more is when did they start to consider India their "true home" or for better words start to identify personally with the people and the land of India
Probably one of the most unique books i've ever read in my life , New Crobuzon stands as a mess of dozens of random concepts and idea's thrown around haphazardly AND IT WORKS ! This book has some of the best world building i've ever seen (dare I say better than more mainstream works like Stormlight Archives) , New Crobuzon has cactus people living in a massive glass dome , steampunk chatgpt , a workers union made up of frogs and by god does it all end up together to form a believable and truly alive world ! The characters were decent but I disliked how Lin got thrown out halfway through the book just to get lobotomized at the end , sure its a depressing book but her arc could have been handled better . I did not care for Derkhan . Isaac was my favorite character , cool guy . before the final few pages I would have boldly claimed that Yagarakh was my favorite but uhh finding out he's a rapist really killed the mood , cool one from Mieville tho did not expect that .Mieveille feels like a much better worldbuilder than a fantasy author
Some of my problems with the book . I love good prose but Mieville felt like he grabbed a dictionary and just starting vomiting out its contents into the book . I almost always get what the author wants me to imagine or feel when describing a location or character but Mieville's verbose and honestly poorly structured prose genuinely made go "What the fuck are you trying to tell me" several times through the book . The pacing is also really weird and is just a bit slow .
Overall it was a pretty fun book , much better than The City and The City (being the only other book of his i've read) .
Solid 8.5/10 book
People have really just forgotten that the crux of a good fantasy story is its characters and plot . So so many people will blow apart a story for "bad worldbuilding" and not explaining the elfish finance system or some bullshit like that .
"Oh Sanderson has such detailed worldbuilding !" Sanderson can't write good characters to save his life , the entire story feels like reading a Wikipedia article instead of an actual story . Worldbuilding is a derivative of the character and plot , focusing on it in a vacuum is insanely stupid . Sanderson's characters are bland and paper thin , his prose is robotic and this directly brings down the value of his worldbuilding because we the reader interact with the world as some sort of third party observer instead of being an active part of it . The whole thing adds up to be dead and sterile
Look at GRRM , his worldbuilding is amazing ! Is it because it has no contradictions and is insanely realistic ? No...not really there's a lot of holes in his work . But 99% of readers won't notice because GRRM centers his worldbuilding on an extremely interesting and complex cast of characters with STUNNING prose . GRRM lets you join the characters in the world itself , you are there with the wind , the forests and the villages of Westeros . You are not merely "the reader" but right there alongside our heroes in there journey . The world never feels like set dressing but instead feels alive and well.
Joe Abercrombie has basically zero worldbuilding in his books , what little we do get is given by an extremely unreliable narrator . His magic system is literally just random bullshit go . If you were to ask the average internet "fantasy snob" all of this should up to an boring and stupid story . What we get at the end is one of the greatest set of characters in modern fantasy along with some absolutely entertaining book . Abercrombie's first law is extremely popular because most people really don't give a shit about "le complex worldbuilding" , creating a realistic financial system or weather pattern is going to provide exactly zero benefit to the enjoyment of the story .
TLDR: Lots of people confuse good worldbuilding with good writing and its lead to an insanely snobbish view on fantasy works where "things aren't explained"
Edit : I don't hate Sanderson , the post may have been a bit meanspirited but I think his books are really fun at the end of the day . I just mentioned him since he is basically the patron saint of the "modern day worldbuilder" .
The Morgenthau Plan was a proposal to weaken Germany following World War II by eliminating its arms industry and civilian industry. This included the removal or destruction of all military and civilian production plants and equipment across the former Reich, as well as the deportation of millions of Germans to various labour camps across the allied territories
(SPOILERS AHEAD)
I honestly went in thinking i'd hate the book due to its writing style but the one sentence thing was only extremely grating at the start but slowly just faded away and became.....good ? Like the lack of a comma does wonders in building up a sense of being suffocated which shines forth in the books extremely detailed gore ! Your never given a moment to breath and I found it amazing
The prose is also one of the best i've ever seen , there were moments where I just took pictures of the text due to how fucking good it was . Bagger is also an extremely well written and multi-layered protagonist for such a small book and I loved seeing all his layers and interactions . He genuinely feels like a real person ! The side cast is a bit on the weaker side , Veck was cool and a bit tragic but Godspeed and Popkins were cliche and Arno serves really no purpose to the story beyond being Baggers emotional rock
The scene where the Angel shows Bagger the soul-ammo-war machine factory thingamajig (this section is extremely wordy and is a singular passage making it intentionally very hard to read) was amazing even thought I really had no clue what was going . The Angel overall was cool but i'm not Christian so I probably missed something here and there . The Angel also being revealed to be a demon/hellspawn was a cool twist , after doing some research it seemed pretty obvious for anyone familiar with the religion but again i'm Christian so it was a complete shock lmao .
The vibe is amazingly done , the vivid descriptions of the trench's of France in their apocalyptic gory detail and done very well thought I sort of felt it was a bit excessive at times (but im not a ww1 soldier what do I know lmao)
Overall extremely good book and the Pulitzer was deserved !
(SPOILERS AHEAD)
I honestly went in thinking i'd hate the book due to its writing style but the one sentence thing was only extremely grating at the start but slowly just faded away and became.....good ? Like the lack of a comma does wonders in building up a sense of being suffocated which shines forth in the books extremely detailed gore ! Your never given a moment to breath and I found it amazing
The prose is also one of the best i've ever seen , there were moments where I just took pictures of the text due to how fucking good it was . Bagger is also an extremely well written and multi-layered protagonist for such a small book and I loved seeing all his layers and interactions . He genuinely feels like a real person ! The side cast is a bit on the weaker side , Veck was cool and a bit tragic but Godspeed and Popkins were cliche and Arno serves really no purpose to the story beyond being Baggers emotional rock
The scene where the Angel shows Bagger the soul-ammo-war machine factory thingamajig (this section is extremely wordy and is a singular passage making it intentionally very hard to read) was amazing even thought I really had no clue what was going . The Angel overall was cool but i'm not Christian so I probably missed something here and there . The Angel also being revealed to be a demon/hellspawn was a cool twist , after doing some research it seemed pretty obvious for anyone familiar with the religion but again i'm Christian so it was a complete shock lmao .
The vibe is amazingly done , the vivid descriptions of the trench's of France in their apocalyptic gory detail and done very well thought I sort of felt it was a bit excessive at times (but im not a ww1 soldier what do I know lmao)
Overall extremely good book and the Pulitzer was deserved !
I honestly went in thinking i'd hate the book due to its writing style but the one sentence thing was only extremely grating at the start but slowly just faded away and became.....good ? Like the lack of a comma does wonders in building up a sense of being suffocated which shines forth in the books extremely detailed gore ! Your never given a moment to breath and I found it amazing
The prose is also one of the best i've ever seen , there were moments where I just took pictures of the text due to how fucking good it was . Bagger is also an extremely well written and multi-layered protagonist for such a small book and I loved seeing all his layers and interactions . He genuinely feels like a real person ! The side cast is a bit on the weaker side , Veck was cool and a bit tragic but Godspeed and Popkins were cliche and Arno serves really no purpose to the story beyond being Baggers emotional rock
The scene where the Angel shows Bagger the soul-ammo-war machine factory thingamajig (this section is extremely wordy and is a singular passage making it intentionally very hard to read) was amazing even thought I really had no clue what was going . The Angel overall was cool but i'm not Christian so I probably missed something here and there . The Angel also being revealed to be a demon/hellspawn was a cool twist , after doing some research it seemed pretty obvious for anyone familiar with the religion but again i'm Christian so it was a complete shock lmao .
The vibe is amazingly done , the vivid descriptions of the trench's of France in their apocalyptic gory detail and done very well thought I sort of felt it was a bit excessive at times (but im not a ww1 soldier what do I know lmao)
Overall extremely good book and the Pulitzer was deserved !
(SPOILERS AHEAD)
I honestly went in thinking i'd hate the book due to its writing style but the one sentence thing was only extremely grating at the start but slowly just faded away and became.....good ? Like the lack of a comma does wonders in building up a sense of being suffocated which shines forth in the books extremely detailed gore ! Your never given a moment to breath and I found it amazing
The prose is also one of the best i've ever seen , there were moments where I just took pictures of the text due to how fucking good it was . Bagger is also an extremely well written and multi-layered protagonist for such a small book and I loved seeing all his layers and interactions . He genuinely feels like a real person ! The side cast is a bit on the weaker side , Veck was cool and a bit tragic but Godspeed and Popkins were cliche and Arno serves really no purpose to the story beyond being Baggers emotional rock
The scene where the Angel shows Bagger the soul-ammo-war machine factory thingamajig (this section is extremely wordy and is a singular passage making it intentionally very hard to read) was amazing even thought I really had no clue what was going . The Angel overall was cool but i'm not Christian so I probably missed something here and there . The Angel also being revealed to be a demon/hellspawn was a cool twist , after doing some research it seemed pretty obvious for anyone familiar with the religion but again i'm Christian so it was a complete shock lmao .
The vibe is amazingly done , the vivid descriptions of the trench's of France in their apocalyptic gory detail and done very well thought I sort of felt it was a bit excessive at times (but im not a ww1 soldier what do I know lmao)
Overall extremely good book and the Pulitzer was deserved !
Personally it's the scene where Robb is proclaimed King In The North , genuine chills every single time
I mean the foundation has millions of employee's , hundreds of years of experience and is extremely militarized
An XK-class scenario is also something they expected to happen and had prepared for so considering all of this how much of the foundations strength survived ?
It takes maybe a couple minutes for it to regenerate and open again after closing , its completely random and I can't find any "trigger"
This thing nearly nuked my computer as it opened up while I was playing CS
Its so fucking annoying