Random’s Comments (group member since Apr 30, 2009)

Random’s comments from the Beyond Reality group.

Dawn wrote: "We should do the opposite question and figure out if we like any books, that most people don't seem to like, or at least has super low ratings."

That could be fun. :)

Well everyone seems to love is a strong phrase as I am not aware of any book everyone loves. :) But I do have a high spread between my rating and the average, where I have rated it very low.

Lets toss out Perdido Street Station
The author spent so much energy basically going "Look at me, aren't I weird!" and put next to no energy on plot and characterization. I often describe it as icing slathered on a cake of sawdust. There is no substance. Its basically a really had horror movie with some gold paint splashed on randomly.

Second would be The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
There's basically no plot, no characterization. The characters sometimes do some amazingly creepy crap and its touted as diversity.
Plus the "bad guys" are cardboard cutouts with the words "I am a bad guy" splashed hastily on them. There is pretty much 0 depth. We're talking more shallow than a kiddie pool with no substance.

I'm gonna toss in a third of The Iron Dragon's Daughter
I can't give much detail as to why since I read the book about 30 years ago. On the last page I screamed and threw it out a second story window.

I keep thinking there should be a few, but I've been struggling to think of anything.

Red Seas Under Red Skies had a significant portion on the sea, but I'm struggling to remember anything more than vague details.

Finished Black Ops
Cliffhanger!!!!!!!!!!

Starting Zero Hour

That just so happens to be one of my main niches. I fully admit to being a very narrative driven person so I am drawn to games with a good narrative. Plus, I have been a gamer since the 80s and so have had the privilege of playing so many of them and seeing them evolve over time.

I'll toss out my current top favorites where I feel narrative plays a big role.

I am currently on my 3rd play through of Dragon Age 4: The Veilguard. Quite literally. Behind this browser window I am sitting on the save screen while I try to finish eating a rather late breakfast.

I've been a very long time fan of Bioware games (dating back to the original Neverwinter Nights) as I feel they do a really good job of mixing story with game play and I have been a rabid fan of the Dragon Age franchise since the first game came out.

The stories are interesting, companion characters are well done, and we are seeing the wrap up of story lines that have been going on since the first game. Kind of like reading a series of books, but with the ability to make some of the choices yourself.

Honorable Bioware mentions: Mass Effect, Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic. This last one is highly recommended if you are a Star Wars fan though it is an older game.


Next up on the list, Balder's Gate 3.
Larian Studios ascended to a top tier game developer with the release of BG3.
Outstanding in so many ways. What I found exceptional here were the companion characters. Not only do they each have their own story lines, but they feel fleshed out and react and adapt to the players play style.

While so many cRPGs have you playing the hero and the game is the hero's story, BG3 is a story of survival, and you can be hero, or villain, or anything in between and your companion characters can flex and adapt their own responses based upon your own choices in the game. I can't even imagine the amount of effort they put into this.

I also have to give major kudos to the actors. Some really excellent acting.

I'm still planning out my Dark Urge play through.


Witcher 3 by CD Projekt Red
They really made a name for themselves with the Witcher franchise and built on the Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski. The games take place after the book series but has made use of some of the events in the books.
I'm curious where the next game will go.

But cRPGs aren't the only narrative heavy games. There's also the good old Adventure game classics. There are so many, so I'll only mention the ones that have stuck in my mind.
Sam and Max
Broken Sword
Day of the Tentacle
Full Throttle
The Longest Journey

Their stories are simpler than modern games, but they were the forerunners to their modern versions such as
Broken Age
Life is Strange
Tell Me Why
where the story is really the entire point of the game.

You also have the very narrative heavy style found in Telltale games such as Tales from the Borderlands, A Wolf Among Us, Batman, and similar.

What I have found most interesting as the years go buy is game developers are branching out and mixing game genres more and more. I think because of this, we are seeing story become more important across the board. Many players are no longer quite as content to just mindlessly grab a gun and blow things up like they used to.

Shel wrote: "And we can't forget Marvin, the Paranoid Android"

Oh, and Eddie, the ship board computer. :)

Is Murderbot an AI? It has a human brain.

Finished Trouble on Paradise
Starting Black Ops either tonight or in the morning.

Finished Paradise and will be starting Trouble on Paradise in the morning.

Name: Skippy the Magnificent
Rank: Asshole First Class
Catch Phrase: Trust the awesomeness
Source: Expeditionary Force series

"I swear, when I find the cat video that broke my poor little submind . . . "
"its not the cat's fault Skippy"
"You sure about that?"
"Absolutely. This is the internet you're talking about, right? Come on, the odds are it had to be a porn video"

Reviving an old thread.
Both seasons of Pantheon are now officially available on Netflix and I highly recommend it to any SF lovers.

There also sounds like there is going to be a Season 3, but I haven't the slightest clue where that might go.

Dawn wrote: "Random wrote: "Exactly, until you understand where that fear is coming from, why it matters so much, what someone else is actually worried about, not what they tell you, but what they actually feel; you can't come to any agreement, or consensus, or find any common ground.."

I spent a number of years in customer support roles.

What someone tells you is the problem and what the problem actually is are often quite different. Without asking questions and understanding the need, you often spend time spinning your wheels and making no progress.

There was one customer where we went back and forth for like a month.
He'd say, "My problem is X"
I'd look at X and all the data around it and see absolutely no problems. Everything looked good.

He would get mad and frustrated because he felt no one was paying attention to him. I was mad and frustrated because I felt like he wasn't listening to me

Eventually I asked him to just send me a picture.
And there it was, as obvious as day. Y was his problem, not X, but he had not been able to communicate it well.

Once we had identified the correct problem, we were able to address it rather quickly.

Dawn wrote: "That getting stuck in one way of thinking is not a good way to view the world, or life. That we need to keep learning, but with critical thought, not just wholesale acceptance.."

I agree. I feel understanding someone else's point of view is important. Otherwise all you get is two groups screaming at each other that the other is wrong.

If you understand that view point, even if you don't agree with it, you can then find ways to create change that others would be willing to accept.

It kind of ties in to one of my quotes from Barrayar

“The really unforgivable acts are committed by calm men in beautiful green silk rooms, who deal death wholesale, by the shipload, without lust, or anger, or desire, or any redeeming emotion to excuse them but cold fear of some pretended future. But the crimes they hope to prevent in that future are imaginary. The ones they commit in the present — they are real.”
Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold

If you don't understand the fear, you can't convince them that it is imaginary.

Heck, if you don't understand the fear, you may not even be able to get them to listen to you.

Dawn wrote: "I often wonder if a lot of people don't retire because they don't know what they would be without the job?.."

That's one I will never understand, though I know people who say they wouldn't know what to do with themselves.

I, however, would have more ideas on what to do than I could do in a lifetime or two. The only thing that hampers me from doing as much as possible starting right now is the lack of money to pay for it all. :)

Love the quotes. My favorite.


“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
― Aristotle, Metaphysics

Finished SpecOps and will be starting Paradise in the morning.

Goodreads has a Quotes function that I make some very active use of.

Shel wrote: "My favorite is a classic from Lord of the Rings:
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost."

I haven't read LoTR for a long time now, but I remembered that poem by the second line. Its a good one.

And you guys are making me seriously crave a reread of Blindsight.

“This is how you communicate with a fellow intelligence: you hurt it, and keep on hurting it, until you can distinguish the speech from the screams.”

Forrest wrote: "Happy to have read your Susanna Clarke quote earlier this week. The book is very quotable—hoping to finish it in the next few days."

Its a great quote for an introvert :D

Kathi wrote: "Random wrote: "“We all come into the story half way through, we all catch up as best we can, and we're all gonna die before it ends.”
Blindsight by Peter Watts"
Ooh, I like this one!."

I really enjoy this book. A lot of good concepts in it, but no one ever seems to be able to get past the vampire to discover what its actually about.

Kathi wrote: "And this one… pertinent these days, IMO.."

Jingo was published 28 years ago.
I guess it goes to show that humanity never actually learns from its mistakes.

Um, we might be here all day.
I'm going to warn you now. Terry Pratchett and Loid McMaster Bujold feature prominently. And sorry for the length. :)


“Life with a cheat code isn't life. Our existence isn't something to be engineered or optimized for the avoidance of pain. That's what it is to be human - the beauty and the pain, each meaningless without the other.”
Recursion by Blake Crouch


“We all come into the story half way through, we all catch up as best we can, and we're all gonna die before it ends.”
Blindsight by Peter Watts


“And no practical definition of freedom would be complete without the freedom to take the consequences. Indeed, it is the freedom upon which all the others are based.”
Going Postal by Terry Pratchett


“One step at a time,” Vorkosigan returned grimly, “I can walk around the world. Watch me.”
Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold


“But you ain't part of it, are you?" said Granny conversationally. "You try, but you always find yourself watchin' yourself watchin' people, eh? Never quite believin' anything? Thinkin' the wrong thoughts?”
Maskarade by Terry Pratchett


“It was so much easier to blame it on Them. It was bleakly depressing to think that They were Us. If it was Them, then nothing was anyone's fault. If it was us, what did that make Me? After all, I'm one of Us. I must be. I've certainly never thought of myself as one of Them. No one ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. We're always one of Us. It's Them that do the bad things.”
Jingo by Terry Pratchett


“Guard your honor. Let your reputation fall where it will. And outlive the bastards.”
A Civil Campaign by Loid McMaster Bujold


“Supposing there was justice for all, after all? For every unheeded beggar, every harsh word, every neglected duty, every slight... every choice... Because that was the point, wasn't it? You had to choose. You might be right, you might be wrong, but you had to choose, knowing that the rightness or wrongness might never be clear or even that you were deciding between two sorts of wrong, that there was no right anywhere. And always, always, you did it by yourself. You were the one there, on the edge, watching and listening. Never any tears, never any apology, never any regrets... You saved all that up in a way that could be used when needed.”
Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett


“It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.”
The Last Continent by Terry Pratchett


“Don't wish to be normal. Wish to be yourself. To the hilt. Find out what you're best at, and develop it, and hopscotch your weaknesses. Wish to be great at whatever you are.”
Labyrinth by Lois McMaster Bujold


“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.”
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf


“The dead cannot cry out for justice; it is a duty of the living to do so for them.”
Diplomatic Immunity by Lois mcMaster Bujold


“I have a scholar's love of silence and solitude. To sit and pass hour after hour in idle chatter with a roomful of strangers is to me the worst sort of torment.”
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke


“The older you get, the more voices you get in the back of your head.”
American Elsewhere by Robert Jackson Bennett


“The really unforgivable acts are committed by calm men in beautiful green silk rooms, who deal death wholesale, by the shipload, without lust, or anger, or desire, or any redeeming emotion to excuse them but cold fear of some pretended future. But the crimes they hope to prevent in that future are imaginary. The ones they commit in the present — they are real.”
Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold


"You go on. You just go on. There's nothing more to it, and there's no trick to make it easier. You just go on."

"What do you find on the other side? When you go on?"

She shrugged. "Your life again. What else?"
Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold


“Never throw the first punch. If you have to throw the second, try to make sure they don't get up for a third.”
Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson


“I prefer to be proved wrong than to live in error.”
A Darkling Sea by James L. Cambias


“Them as can do has to do for them as can't. And someone has to speak up for them as has no voices.”
The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett


“Since no one is perfect, it follows that all great deeds have been accomplished out of imperfection. Yet they were accomplished, somehow, all the same.”
Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold


“There are no wrong turnings. Only paths we had not known we were meant to walk.”
Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay

Shel wrote: "and instead went back to Maud with An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed, the second set of octogenarian serial killer stories. Just as fun as the first set."

I admit, I've been curious and just finished An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good
Its cute and obviously a spin off from a larger mystery series for the author.

I have to admit, part of me has fantasized about doing some similar things when people have really annoyed me. :D