SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion
This topic is about
Medusa Uploaded
What Else Are You Reading?
>
"Medusa Uploaded" by Emily Devenport (BR)
I had to start this thread, because I accidentally read the first chapter today, and it was crazy! I'm so starting this as soon as possible. I want to start right now, but I'll try to finish my current book first.It's like murderous Murderbot with tentacles and music :D
I'm pretty excited about it but I want to squeeze Skyward in first!
Anna wrote: "I had to start this thread, because I accidentally read the first chapter today, and it was crazy! I'm so starting this as soon as possible. I want to start right now, but Ill try to finish my curr..."Yay, sounds intriguing!
I've read six chapters and it's definitely looking like a fun, easy read. I don't love the style of jumping around in time, but it's not impossible to follow. I prefer to have clear indications when we're jumping to the past, preferably with a year in the title or some other unmissable clue. It's not trying to fool you, but you have to figure it out for yourself every time, and at least in the beginning, it feels a little jarring.
Oooh wait for me!! Not really cause I have a good chunk of Skyward left but...
Haha, I'm reading three things at the same time, so I'm not speeding through this one, probably.
I can't remember who else was joining this one?
The music is starting to bug me, and I thought surely someone's created a playlist, and yes they have:http://www.emsjoiedeweird.com/2018/07...
https://open.spotify.com/user/davidcc...
I think this was in chapter 6, but could also be earlier. No later though.(view spoiler)
I wish I'd thought to look up the music earlier. I did think about it but I was too lazy to find each piece, I mean there are so many mentioned!
edit: I doubt the audiobook has the music, but how cool would it be if it did!
I'll be starting this one tomorrow hopefully. Still got about 30% of Blackfish to finish.
I plan to join in, but won't be until the 22nd at the earliest.
I'm going to try to join, but it won't be until at least the 22nd.
Kaa wrote: "I'm going to try to join, but it won't be until at least the 22nd."Which one first, Medusa or Lathe? Those are the next two coming up for me. I was planning on Lathe first because it's shorter, but it's nice to sync up with others when possible.
If most people aren't starting til the 22nd, I might squeeze in something shorter before then.
@Ariana: Lathe first, I think.
I plan to join around Jan 22nd
Well I finished, I had to. It'll take a while to wrap my brain tentacles around this one! I do know that I'll be jumping on the next book as soon as it comes out. No cliffhangers, but I'm intrigued.
Yeah the author said that the books in this series are going to effectively be stand-alones, so that's encouraging.
I wouldn't say they're standalones, although obviously I haven't read the next one yet. This one has a satisfying ending, so you could stop here, but I wouldn't recommend starting with the second book, because the story continues.edit: The blurb for the sequel contains major spoilers for this book, but I just read it and it's definitely a sequel, not a standalone companion.
I'm only going by what the author herself said on the book's page. "It's a stand-alone book set in the same universe as the upcoming sequel. So it would be more like watching one season of a TV show (one that doesn't end on a cliff-hanger.)"
I know, I read that too. But after I read the blurb for the sequel, I definitely think it's a sequel, not a standalone companion. The same protagonist continues the story from where book one left off, that's not a standalone. To me standalone means that you could start with any book, that there is no reading order.But you could read book one as a standalone. You'll probably want to read the sequel, though :D
I think it just depends on how she writes the sequel. The Dresden books involve the same protagonist, and are generally chronological, but are written in a way that you can pick up any one and read it. Yes, things happened before that you'll want to know, but Butcher in particular spends a great deal of time rehashing and summarizing for those who may not have read the earlier ones (to the books' detriment, I think. It got rather tedious.) In the end, they're self-contained stories.
Perhaps that's all she meant. Typically when I think of a sequel I'm thinking of a continuation of a previous adventure, not a new adventure with the same characters.
Yeah I can't really argue about this until we get the sequel. Not that I particularly want to argue :D, just that it was a surprise to me to finish the book and read the sequel blurb, because I was expecting them to be more standalone than they seem. Based on exactly what you quoted.
Lol I actually signed up for Spotify so I could listen to that playlist. It doesn't seem like it's required to enjoy the book, but what the hell. I will say right off the bat that there are a few things about the story so far (9% in) that are bugging me. The first, which to be fair happens with a lot of spacefaring sci-fi, is that I just cannot grasp what the ship looks like. I know at least part of it rotates to simulate gravity, and I know it's kilometers long, but is it like tube-shaped? Or is the rotating section just part of it?
The other thing is that, (view spoiler)
There is a little more of the ship later, but not a detailed description. My mental image of it kept changing, and I mostly tried to focus on a smaller part at a time. That and the jumping around in time did sometimes make it a bit of a mess, but it's not too bad.The music, there are some that get mentioned a lot, and I'd recommend listening to those when they pop up for the first time. One is "Canon in D", and I think there's a reason why the author chose a very slow version to put on her list. So I'd go for that one instead of the Spotify one. The other one is "The Enchanted Lake", and specifically the part mentioned on the author's blog. Most others don't play a huge part, although some of the early parts felt like movies with the majestic music, I could imagine it very clearly. Mainly those parts with the Planets Suite (Saturn/Jupiter/Neptune). But it's not necessary for the story. I think all of the things the author has chosen to tell us via music could've been done with words, and it mostly is. The music just adds to it.
About 17%. For some reason it's slow going, even though so far I really like it. As interesting as the plot is, I've kind of decided that I just want this book to be John Wick in space.
Ok I’ve gotten a few chapters in: its interesting, different enough from anything else I’ve read in recent years that I think I’ll be happy to go along for the ride. Prologue/first lines are good teasers!
I get the book from the library on Thursday, so I won't be too far behind
41%. 1. I am growing concerned that there are too many mysteries to resolve. The scope of the story keeps getting bigger. It is very much turning into an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink type of book.
2. This book rains triggers. Seriously, I don't really have any, but this is the first book I've read in a while that made me uncomfortable for those who might.
3. Kind of a weird connection, but I'm starting to get an American Psycho vibe here. (No spoilers for the end of American Psycho....if you know it you know what I'm talking about.) I know it won't turn out that way, but right now in the story that's just what it feels like.
4. But #3 has again reminded me that I'm a thoroughly untrusting reader. I see misdirection and red herrings everywhere. Every rug is waiting to be pulled out from under me. It makes the journey far more interesting, but the destination something of a letdown. I'm jumping at noises and peering nervously around corners, and the house isn't even haunted.
Joon wrote: " I know at least part of it rotates to simulate gravity, and I know it's kilometers long, but is it like tube-shaped? Or is the rotating section just part of it? "There are some [rather blurry] description, from which I surmise roughly cylindrical shape that rotates around the central axis. Maybe it is broader in the middle, but this maybe just effect of perspective:
"If you’re a high-level Maintenance technician, your universe is more expansive, because you spend some time on the outer hull of the ship. You can see the galaxy wheeling; you can even see other galaxies. If you perched on a high point at the midway, the ship would seem to pinch toward vanishing points if you looked at the engines on one end and then at the sensor array on the other."
Imagine a book that is nothing but plot twists. This is that book.51%. This book feels way longer than it is, and is taking me longer than I had hoped.
The pacing feels off. Too much is happening, too many revelations coming too quickly, before we've really had time to chew on them or grow to care about those involved. The subplot with the (view spoiler) in particular is frustrating. It just doesn't feel like it has the impact it should have. Oichi is too blase about it. She should be CATATONIC by this point in the story.
It's starting to feel.....lazy. Which is patently unfair, because I am really loving this story. But if you read enough Brandon Sanderson, you start to become sensitive to the weight of plot twists. They're like jump scares in horror movies. Sure, they work, and very occasionally they're used perfectly, but more often they just feel like a lazy gimmick used to cover up a lack of effort on the part of the writer.
At the same time though, now that I'm starting to get a bigger picture of what has happened, what the story is about, it does seem pretty awesome. But the author has a lot of balls in the air right now, so there's a lot riding on the ending.
Through part two - it just keeps getting deeper and twistier! I’m enjoying it still. Well is enjoy the right word when there is quite a lot of dark happenings in this world? Better to say I have no urge to read anything else.
Joon wrote: "But the author has a lot of balls in the air right now, so there's a lot riding on the ending."I am feeling similarly. A little more than halfway through, and really enjoying all the mysteries floating around, but REALLY hoping they come together into a satisfying ending.
(view spoiler)
I'm having a lot of fun with this so far.
I almost posted when I was around the 50% mark that so many things had already happened and been seemingly resolved that it felt like I'd already finished the first book and was onto the second. I do think the end was satisfying, but I am left with questions for the sequel. All in all, it felt like much more happened and was revealed than in a typical read, but looking back, I'm not sure if it's true. The pacing was very tight in any case, not really a dull moment.
83%. Still nowhere close to any resolutions.This is gonna have to be one of those stories where all the pieces fit together at the same time, right at the end.
I'm pissed that it took this long for the author to introduce (view spoiler).
And I'm also reminded of a narrative technique I ****ing HATE, and which has been getting thrown about quite a bit in the last bit of this book.
It's the "little did I know" narrative gimmick. Where the narrator says something ominous like "....that could be trouble. I didn't realize at the time how right I was..."
I hate going into scenes expecting trouble. But that's all I'm getting now it seems.
Joon wrote: "I'm pissed that it took this long for the author to introduce (view spoiler).And I'm also reminded of a narrative technique I ****ing HATE, and which has been getting thrown about quite a bit in the last bit of this book.
It's the "little did I know"..."
Right there with ya on both counts!
I finished it and I feel cheated. The introduced concepts are mostly neat, but they remain inchoate, while the author runs for the next shiny thing like a kid, who discards old toy when sees a new one, repeating the process again and again.Things which left me fuming:
Blackmail (view spoiler)
Revolution (view spoiler)
Nemo (view spoiler)
Gennady (view spoiler)
I'll stop fuming for now, but the list of my grudges goes on :)
Oleksandr wrote: "I finished it and I feel cheated ...Gennady (view spoiler)"
I would say that Americans (Wikipedia tells me the author is American) are in general bad at distinguishing between former Soviet republics, probably because of the rhetoric during the Cold War. I still catch myself thinking "Soviet" when I mean "Russian," and I wasn't even alive for most of the Cold War. This is, of course, no excuse for not doing your research as an author, or for not being aware of world events, just to say that I feel like this type of mistake is sadly common.
So I quite enjoyed this, even though, as others have mentioned, it was totally all over the place. I'm am with Joon that in the last 1/4, there was way too much of "I didn't know then that..." and similar narrative techniques that were very irritating. But I did find it engaging and fun, and there was always another mystery around the corner.
I am also with Oleksandr, in that (view spoiler)
I need a little help with one of the plot points at the end: (view spoiler)
That said, I really enjoyed this over all.
Anna wrote: "re: Nemo [spoilers removed]"Ok, well at least that's something. Thanks!
Done. Some thoughts, including reactions to Anna, Oleksander & Ariana's points:(view spoiler)
Now that I'm done, I have no idea why the author would call this a "stand-alone". I mean, it has an ending, but very little is "resolved". Questions are answered, but they just brought up new questions. I'm glad it's only a six-month wait until the next book is out.
I still haven't started this, because I needed a break from books with (view spoiler) trigger warnings, but I'm considering it now. Would I be happier waiting until book two is out and reading them together?
Kaa, I wasn't mad at the ending, I don't feel it was cliffhangery, but there are questions left unanswered. It makes a difference when you know it's coming, but I was pretty shocked by the content you said you want to avoid, so if you're feeling at all like you can't take it right now, maybe wait?Joon, good call about the DNA, I didn't even think of that option!
The one thing I will say about those triggery scenes (very light spoilers)(view spoiler) In any case, whether you want to read it now or in six months just depends on how anxious you get about the next book in a series. For me, six months isn't too bad. If it were a year or longer, I'd definitely say wait. But this seems the kind of book/ending where it's nice to have a little time to stew.
Now let's get those tentacles moving!