Comments on: Decelerora http://pah2.golding.id.au/2009/09/10/decelerora/ an unwashed mass Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:05:34 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: plok http://pah2.golding.id.au/2009/09/10/decelerora/#comment-2946 plok Sat, 26 Sep 2009 09:35:49 +0000 http://pah2.golding.id.au/?p=3573#comment-2946 I would've been sharper with Stross about this one, though I do like him...but he's got a certain tendency that sometimes forces me to compare him with Mark Millar, which is that he paints himself into a corner, and then just as you say he has to incant his way out. Altogether it's too full of slick pose-y stuff I don't care about, as well as science shortcuts, flung jargon, and general offhanded philosophical faits accompli that leave me very irritated with him in that special Larry Niven way: "oh, well all you have to do is get a couple kazillion pounds of neutronium and spin it up to half-c...and presto, your problem's solved! More Irish Coffee, please." Thank you so much for explaining to me how very easy it all is, Larry, now pardon me as I have to go scream swearwords into a bag. I don't know. I like Stross a lot (much more than Millar!) (more than Niven too!) but all the casual talk about Turing Oracles and such does not quite become gonzo cyberpunk poetry, and so it leaves me unsatisfied at the end of the book when it is simply explained to me that the good guys rocked their way out of that pickle due to how awesome they are. Teethgrinding: if it was supposed to be a lighthearted romp (that's the way it read as individual stories on first publication) it'd be fine and fun, but it obviously isn't really supposed to come across that way as a sustained narrative, clearly there is something here that you the reader are intended to believe in enough that you can cheer for it, and that part sours all the rest of it. He's done it a couple times now, where the science just slips away from him, and all that's left is a big earnest flourish that only works if you excuse it. The fun is fun, but somewhere under it all is this weird Wired-era political bias that's really frustrating to slog around in. He's done much better story fix-ups than this. And, he's also done much worse economics, so...there you go, I guess. I like the guy, though. I would’ve been sharper with Stross about this one, though I do like him…but he’s got a certain tendency that sometimes forces me to compare him with Mark Millar, which is that he paints himself into a corner, and then just as you say he has to incant his way out. Altogether it’s too full of slick pose-y stuff I don’t care about, as well as science shortcuts, flung jargon, and general offhanded philosophical faits accompli that leave me very irritated with him in that special Larry Niven way: “oh, well all you have to do is get a couple kazillion pounds of neutronium and spin it up to half-c…and presto, your problem’s solved! More Irish Coffee, please.” Thank you so much for explaining to me how very easy it all is, Larry, now pardon me as I have to go scream swearwords into a bag. I don’t know. I like Stross a lot (much more than Millar!) (more than Niven too!) but all the casual talk about Turing Oracles and such does not quite become gonzo cyberpunk poetry, and so it leaves me unsatisfied at the end of the book when it is simply explained to me that the good guys rocked their way out of that pickle due to how awesome they are. Teethgrinding: if it was supposed to be a lighthearted romp (that’s the way it read as individual stories on first publication) it’d be fine and fun, but it obviously isn’t really supposed to come across that way as a sustained narrative, clearly there is something here that you the reader are intended to believe in enough that you can cheer for it, and that part sours all the rest of it.

He’s done it a couple times now, where the science just slips away from him, and all that’s left is a big earnest flourish that only works if you excuse it. The fun is fun, but somewhere under it all is this weird Wired-era political bias that’s really frustrating to slog around in. He’s done much better story fix-ups than this. And, he’s also done much worse economics, so…there you go, I guess.

I like the guy, though.

]]> By: Rose http://pah2.golding.id.au/2009/09/10/decelerora/#comment-2706 Rose Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:48:56 +0000 http://pah2.golding.id.au/?p=3573#comment-2706 Uh oh. I just half an hour ago came home from the library with <em>Accelerando</em> because I read <em>Saturn's Children</em> last night and had read this was better. I did like <em>Halting State</em>, though it had its flaws. Uh oh. I just half an hour ago came home from the library with Accelerando because I read Saturn’s Children last night and had read this was better. I did like Halting State, though it had its flaws.

]]> By: Christopher Miles http://pah2.golding.id.au/2009/09/10/decelerora/#comment-2705 Christopher Miles Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:03:26 +0000 http://pah2.golding.id.au/?p=3573#comment-2705 Ouch! Ouch!

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