Jlawrence’s Comments (group member since Mar 08, 2010)

Jlawrence’s comments from the The Sword and Laser group.

Just watched it. Yeah, it was a great idea executed very poorly. I agree that Jermaine was pretty amusing as Chevalier, and that the title sequence was great (I even recognized one of the covers, from the Harlan Ellison-edited book 'Medea: Harlan's World'), but overall I found it mediocre to painful.

I thought the illicit romance story trailer shown before the Yeast Lords premier was funnier than all the film's attempts to depict amusingly-bad scenes from the Yeast Lords movie. Bummer!

Using your own blood as part of a political statement definitely makes an impression!

I know practically zilch about Thailand's present situation or its history, but this book has stirred my interest in it. In his acknowledgements at the end, Bacigalupi says his future version of Thailand "should not be construed as representative of present-day Thailand or the Thai people."

However, I am curious about how much of Thai history may have inspired the complex situation of Bacigalupi's future Thailand, its power structures (the royal family, the monks, military, etc), and the route it took to remain independent and survive the collapse of the world around it, while at the same time not becoming beholden to the calorie companies (there are hints of this connection to Thai history in a speech one of the characters gives near the end of the book - I'll refrain from quoting it to keep this from being spoiler-y).

So I'm now intrigued by Bacigalupi's list of suggested authors for reading about Thailand.

Just finished it, and I agree, Jenny, Bacigalupi definitely provides an opportunity for further exploration of what New People could become, through Gibbons' offer to Emiko at the end - it could range anywhere from New People just establishing their own separate communities to a truly New People-dominated world, as you've suggested.

And there's also a rich possibility of exploring the catastrophes the world went through and different societies' reactions to those catastrophes, like you're talking about, Rick. The book gives you enough information to have a grasp of what happened before, but there's a lot of history just hinted at that could be expanded upon.

So yeah, I think he could move either forward or backward in time with this world he's set up, and I'd be interested to see him do that in short story or novel form.

Man, that's exciting. A lot of the choices are startlingly close to how I imagined the characters looking, too.

Paul, yeah, if you watch any of the HBO series True Blood, you'll see why HBO should have no problem with the mature content of Game of Thrones. ;)

I haven't read that Gibson book, but it certainly looks Gibson-y! :)

"These are his thoughts as he turns over Pracha's card, as his own heart closes in on itself, like a block of stone falling inward, as though the center of himself is plunging down a well, dragging all his innards with him, leaving him hollow."


Not a *fun* line, but a powerful one.

aldenoneil wrote: "I have heard tell that seeing films in Real or Dolby 3D does make a difference (at least vs. the less-than-ideal IMAX 3D). I can't say myself, however, as I'm impervious.


I've heard that too (and I feel like IMAX 3D would be obnoxiously overwhelming even if I could see it properly).

Does 3D just have no effect on you, or does it actually cause headaches, etc.?

Mike wrote: "Vance wrote: "My problem is figuring out what books to add to my list now that I have joined! I can't possibly add every book I have ever read, even if I could remember them, so I think I am going..."

When I first joined Goodreads several years ago, several friends and I competed to go through our physical book collections and add them to our 'read' Goodreads shelves. There was also a good bit of noticing someone adding a book you'd read & going 'Oh yeah, I read that, too!'. So that spurt of competition helped with the initial cataloging. ;)

Other than a sword-and-laser shelf, a re-reads shelf, and a 'Abandoned but Tempting' shelf (Eye of the World is there haha), I just use the standards: read, currently reading and to-read.

Ah, cool, I'll check out The Hunt for Gollum, too. Once you translate into US dollars (it was a UK production), the Born of Hope people actually had about $40,000 (apparently a big chunk of it being Madison's life savings) - but still, very impressive even on that budget. I agree, it's inspiring to see what passionate and dedicated fans can create these days.

While reading Windup Girl, I'm attempting a run through the Joss Whedon comic book continuations of his TV series -- Buffy Season 8, Angel: After the Fall and Serenity: Those Left Behind, as well as Daniel Boorstin's The Discoverers, which is fascinating but which I'm only reading in bursts.

After the Whedon run, I plan to return to Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Legacy series, and maybe dive into the Sookie Stackhouse books.

I'm excited to see what Red is like, myself. :)

On 3-D-ness, it used to be that 3-D film had no effect on me, but I tried out Avatar 3-D (not Imax) and it worked! This might have to do with the technology improving since the last time I tried, which was Jaws 3D. ;) I still wonder if I'm getting the full 3-D sensation others might be, as I have a right-eye dominant condition, but it *was* 3-D-y, floating ash and jelly fish creatures and all. It was tiring on my eyes (I would *not* like to try the IMAX 3D version), but I didn't get a headache or anything.

This means I can attempt Tron Legacy in 3D, which lights up my little geek heart. But I do have reservations about all big films rushing to do 3D as well.

I absolutely gobbled it up - found it a fascinating combo of thriller and extrapolation of current-and-near-future technologies. It's sequel, Freedom, however, did not have that page-turner effect on me -- I still found it interesting, but I did not zoom through it like I did with Daemon.

Yeah, I forgot to mention that - the entire film is available for viewing online! It used to be on YouTube as well, but now seems to "officially" be on that ExposureRoom site, and Dailymotion.

Oh, totally, I wasn't imagining the discussion leader being the only one starting topics - I think everyone should feel encouraged to do that. But a discussion leader could be useful if discussion of a particular book is flagging, or if it's someone who has a special interest in the book (maybe they've done a lot of reading about the book).

On the other hand, maybe a discussion leader would be a superfluous role if activity level is high anyway...

A very impressive fan-made film (made for about £25,000) depicting the story of the Rangers of the North and Aragorn's parents, a generation before the events of The Lord of the Rings.

http://exposureroom.com/members/Actor...

Kate Madison, who plays Elgarain (a character I developed a bit of a crush on) in the film, produced and directed. Lots of production information, etc. here: http://www.bornofhope.com/Welcome.html

So I've seen a complaint here and on the io9 forum (they're reading the same book) about how the kink-spring factory defies known physics. I actually had an issue following the entire process of the kink-spring formation clearly enough to grasp exactly what Bacigalupi was envisioning, but it does seem the amount of stored energy a spring ideally ends up with should be a physical impossibility.

Generally I'm more forgiving of scientific gaffes in science fiction films than in science fiction books, but in this case, there are two things that made the factory not bother me. First, the goal of the factory being efficient is described as a mad pipe-dream by Anderson, so it's not like the book presents it as a miracle energy source - rather it's presented as a ridiculous project that serves as good cover for other goals. Second, the book's very vivid atmosphere makes me buy into its world in general even if it may be more surreal than scientific.

But I should mention I'm also still at the beginning - further on I might find scientifically-objectionable things that bother me much more.

What about you? Did the factory bother you? How much bending of science do you accept in your science fiction? Can other factors always make up for scientific gaffes?

I think that could work well. I don't think I'd want to do it for The Wind-Up Girl (even though I'm sure I'll start some related posts), but it's highly likely there'll be future discussions I'd be interested in leading.

Veronica wrote: "Jlawrence wrote: "Sounds intriguing! I vote yes!"

Plus, it stars Jermaine from Flight of the Conchords as the legendary fantasy author ;)"

OMG then I think it is REQUIRED viewing! :D

Sounds intriguing! I vote yes!

Great! :D