Archiving my Twitter, Facebook and other social network activity
The latest episode of the #LesMiserables Reading Companion podcast covers the amazing scene where Eponine single-handedly stares down 6 hardened criminals and wins.
As always, their analysis turns up some really interesting connections with other parts of the book – like the fact that Eponine channels both Javert and Thenardier, the two main antagonists, but uses their traits to act heroically.
https://readlesmis.libsyn.com/ep40-iv8i-v-the-dangers-girls-face
#books
@trini Wow. I don’t remember how much it got into that in the one book I read, but I imagine that would really start grating on me after a while.
I do remember him telling a story at a convention about late in the first book’s publishing cycle discussing “wait, the monarchists are the good guys, and the Republic of Haven are the bad guys. How do we fix this?” And they found a page where they could add “People’s” without messing up the page proofs.
I was already numb to any interest in reading Heroes in Crisis. Having read the list of confirmed deaths in the first issue alone, I’ve changed my decision from “maybe pick up the trade if reviews are good” to “nope.”
I’m tired of any character who isn’t currently headlining a book being one editorial decision away from cannon fodder.
And I’m tired of comics repeating story beats just to repeat them without looking at what made them work (or not) in the first place.
This sounds amazing: BOOM is going to be doing graphic novels based on The Magicians (the books, not the TV show), starting with an OGN next summer focusing on Alice: her life before Brakebills and the events of the first book from her POV.
I’m not familiar with artist Pius Bak, but writer Lilah Sturges is a perfect choice.
Boom! Studios Brings Lev Grossman’s THE MAGICIANS to Comics
THE MAGICIANS: ALICE’S STORY original graphic novel is slated for release by the publisher in July 2019.
I found this old post I wrote on how Marvel or DC would have milked Lord of the Rings as an “event” comic book, with tie-ins, spin-offs, and character spotlights…
…and realized it’s not that far off from what the Hobbit movies actually *did*.
What If…Lord of the Rings had been an “Event” Comic?
@lapis Ugh. I was afraid of that. It’s an actual stereotype: There are people who believe that food allergies are just being exaggerated to get attention or special treatment. Which of course makes it harder to get them to accommodate the medical condition. That may be less of an issue with peers, but in a restaurant setting, or adults at a school or daycare, or someone helping out with food at an event, it can easily set someone up for real harm.
@naga Some of the catastrophes, I can go with. But one big enough to create a new moon? The planet would have basically been sterilized.
I also wondered about the secrecy of incoming communication with Red Coast 2. Surely other SETI projects would have picked up the signals, whether they could decode them or not.
I’m seriously impressed by the concept of the sophon. It’s one of the most overpowered pieces of impossible tech and yet it’s a simple extrapolation from string theory – and making use of known quantum effects gives it a lot of other abilities that handily explain the mysterious happenings early in the book.
#ThreeBodyProblem #SFFBookClub #amReading
@lapis @zephasaurus_hex
Some of the #comics I’ve read on that list:
Daytripper is amazing.
I quite liked the original Elfquest.
Fun Home is really good.
Planetary is a fascinating exploration of superhero/scifi tropes, but works best if you know the references.
Transmetropolitan is really good, but not everyone’s cup of tea.
Sandman is epic, but start w/the 2nd collection & go back for part 1 if you like it.
Astro City is a great reimagining of superheroes, hopeful & standing on its own.
@lapis @zephasaurus_hex To clarify with Sandman: It took 8 issues for the series to find its voice. So while the first collection establishes the setting and characters, it’s a very different tone from the rest of the series.
@lapis @zephasaurus_hex Oh, and Hark! A Vagrant! is a lot of fun also, especially if you like literary and historical humor. It’s a collection of unrelated comic strips rather than an ongoing story.
I’ve started listening to the Graphic Audio adaptation of 52, and I can’t get over Booster Gold’s totally surfer accent, dude.
“Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius” – *That’s* the Borges story I was reminded of about halfway through Three Body Problem!
I’m still reading through #ThreeBodyProblem, up to the 1980s, and another new book on my must-read list has come out. I think I’m going to skip September for #SFFBookClub, catch up on the pile a bit, then depending on what the October pick ends up being, either come back to the club selections at that point or pick up Dark Forest.
After listening to the audio version, I re-read Final Crisis, Rogues Revenge & Superman Beyond, plus read some of the tie-ins for the first time.
– Superman Beyond is essential.
– Submit (Black Lightning/Tattooed Man) adds a lot by showing the personal impact of the event, plus fills in plot.
– Resist (Checkmate) broadens the scope but can be skipped. (I do like using the captive villain AIs as a way to get around the ALE’s control of communication channels)
#AmReading #comics #FinalCrisis
Rogues Revenge was in the works before Final Crisis, and it shows. It still works as Rogues: Rebirth, but now I think the FC connections hurt more than they help.
Revelations is a much tighter story that weaves in and out of issues 2 & 3 (if not seamlessly), picking up the Crime Bible & Vandal Savage and showing the early stages of Darkseid’s takeover. I didn’t read it originally, but I’m glad I finally got around to it.
#comics #FinalCrisis #AmReading
I didn’t re-read Requiem. I still haven’t picked up Rage of the Red Lanterns. (I’d forgotten the Alpha Lanterns were involved in Final Crisis.)
I also didn’t re-read Legion of Three Worlds, which IIRC has nothing to do with Final Crisis except Superman passes through it between Superman: Beyond and his return to Final Crisis when Braniac 5 shows him the Miracle Machine. (3 versions of the LSH, none of which were the one that I actually followed).
I do want to re-read Multiversity now, though.
I don’t quite buy the game as a recruiting tool.
They’re supposedly all about replacing human society with the aliens’ (one way or another), but the game doesn’t tell you much about that society except that it’s persistent, can hibernate for eons, and coming for us.
It conveys key facts about their environment and biology, but doesn’t present a culture to emulate. Unless it’s in the chapters Wang misses?
#SFFBookClub #ThreeBodyProblem #AmReading #books
Or is the vagueness itself part of the appeal? Anyone dissatisfied with the world as it is can project their own ideals onto the aliens?
I love the idea of using NPCs to simulate a computer in-game. It reminds me of the working CPU models made in Minecraft with redstone, except more creative because NPCs aren’t designed for circuitry.
I also like the way the author mixes up the narrative structure, with documents, a personal statement, and of course the game interspersed with the regular narration.
#sffbookclub #books #amreading
Yesterday, I was cringing at the pronunciation of “Ultima Thule” in the audio adaptation of Final Crisis. Today I discovered (by accident) that they were pronouncing it right, and I’ve been pronouncing it wrong for years. 🤦♂️
Finished listening to the Graphic Audio adaptation of FInal Crisis. It actually flows better than the comic, especially toward the end, when the comic starts fragmenting the narrative (which is great metatext, but there’s a lot of “what just happened?”). Scenes are fleshed out, and the multi-flashback structure of the last chapter is made linear instead.
#amreading #comics
A lot of that is probably the novelization it was based on (it credits the story only to Greg Cox, with no mention of Grant Morrison or any of the artists, which seems a shame), but I don’t think it would work well as a book.
The voice acting, music and sound make up for a lot of the lost visual punch and visual structure of the story, and it needs more than just the words.
Now that I’ve gotten through another cycle of the VR game story, it’s become more intriguing. Presumably we’re going to work through a bunch of cosmological models as it goes on.
I’m also really curious as to how the trick with the cosmic background radiation is supposed to have been managed.
And of course, is the countdown really leading to something, or is it, as Shi suggests, just a way to mess with Wang’s head?
#amreading #sffbookclub #books #scifi
@naga @rixx Interesting that he started with the game idea. That explains why it’s so narrative rather than interactive, though.
I’m reminded of Eifelheim (Michael Flynn), which is split between modern-day historians and the aftermath of an alien spaceship crashing near a tiny village in the midst of the Black Death. In that case, it started out only as the historians’ search, and was later expanded to include the direct narrative of the village.
One of the weird things about the Final Crisis audio book is that it incorporates *some* of the tie-ins, but excludes the one that sets up Mandrakk. Scenes showing what’s happening to Batman in the Evil Factory are included, and all of the Black Lightning/Tattooed Man story from Submit…but nothing from Superman Beyond. It (or the novelization it’s based on) actually replaces the Monitor who recruits Superman with Braniac 5, sending him off to L3W but not including it!
#comics #amreading
