The Not a Book Club Club discussion
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It's in the little details
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by
Dara
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Jun 14, 2013 07:02PM
That's what keeps pulling me back into this universe. The detail is so substantial and thought out. Like how people who grew up in different strength of gravity have different body shapes and how language evolved.
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I agree - the way acceleration and gravity are handled in space and how that affects combat on the actual ships is nicely done. Little things like how blood splatter looks in low g or no g and how injuries can get a lot worse in no g because fluids can't drain off etc.
I love the details, how Corey lays out what spin gravity feels like compared to thrust or planet gravity. I really like the ship battles; I get the sense of "I'm in a bubble and someone is trying to pop it." In Leviathan Wakes, the part aboard the Donager where they were locked in a room and listened to the rounds hitting the ship reminded me of depth charge scenes from Das Boot, as a hull breech pretty much had the same consequences for the crew. Again with LW, I also like when, during the vomit zombie scene on Eros, the air is described as smelling like roast beef and acid. I mean, who looks at people being puked on and turning into brown goo and goes, "hmm, what would that smell like?" These guys apparently. I will definitely read more from them.
Okay, this one's a bit out of left field. This should probably go in characters, but I felt that this made a better detail.I like how Cohen was written. Let me explain: I am blind, and I am a stickler for realism when it comes to characterization, particular when the character is blind. When Cohen showed up with dark-excuse me-opaqued sunglasses, I got kinda nervous. When his sunglasses turned out to be a sonar imaging device, I got doubly so. I remember thinking, "crap, he's going to be Geordi la Forge meets Daredevil or something."
But, as we all know, this was not the case. Cohen sold out the crew to Melba and used his sonar image of her to accidentally confuse them into thinking that she was Julie. That was it. He was just...there. He screwed people over for money. He wasn't too strong, too weak, he wasn't a symbol or metaphor for anything. He was just kind of a d*ck.
There were some definite flaws with this book, but that was not one of them. Again, I know this is a very weird take on a character who really didn't matter much to the plot of the story, but once again, Corey came through with some down-to-Earth details. And I have to say, I love the change in Amos' Point of view about throwing a blind man out of an airlock. Your personality will trump disability sooner or later.
I know this book wasn't much of a hit, and this group has moved on to others, but I just wanted to share that.

