I’m still reading through #ThreeBodyProblem, up to the 1980s, and another new book on my …

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.

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After listening to the audio version, I re-read Final Crisis…

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

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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

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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.

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Three-Body Problem ch 22

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

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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?

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I love the idea of using NPCs to simulate a computer in-game. It reminds me …

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

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Finished listening to the Graphic Audio adaptation of FInal Crisis. It actually flows better than …

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

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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.

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Now that I’ve gotten through another cycle of the VR game story, it’s become more …

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

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Interesting that he started with the game idea. That explains why it’s so …

@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.

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One of the weird things about the Final Crisis audio book is that it incorporates …

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

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In Final Crisis, the Anti-Life Equation is able to compel the surrender of free will. …

In Final Crisis, the Anti-Life Equation is able to compel the surrender of free will. Those who have submitted spout slogans about how it justifies anything, how it’s so much easier than the struggles of life and love.

It’s insidious, because in some ways it *is* easier to offload tough decisions to a schedule, a policy, a leader, etc. The brain likes taking shortcuts around cognitive load. But people want to be *able* to make choices when they want to.

#amreading #comics #psychology

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Another interesting thing about Final Crisis is how much damage Darkseid does just by existing. …

Another interesting thing about Final Crisis is how much damage Darkseid does just by existing. He doesn’t do any traditional super villain things in the entire story. No battles, no plotting. He just sits on his throne, yaking advantage of a battle he already won, imposing his will on an entire planet. He spends most of the story sitting on an underground bunker, but his presence presses down on the whole world.

#amreading #comics

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I’m also listening to the audiobook of Final Crisis, which is adapted from the novelization …

I’m also listening to the #audiobook of Final Crisis, which is adapted from the novelization rather than directly from the #comicbook. It fixes a lot of the choppiness and sparseness that made the original hard to follow at times. Narrative fills in which details you need to glean from the artwork.

And of course having it all together avoids the problem of delays between chapters that plagued the original release, though that’s true of the collected edition too.

#comics #dccomics

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But wow, I’m really seeing the parallels with Dark Knights: Metal even more strongly than when I was just comparing to memory.

Barbatos, like Darkseid, takes over the world between issues, and we jump to a handful of heroes mounting a desperate resistance. The lynchpin of the multiverse – conveniently the main DC Earth – is in danger of being pulled “downward” into an unending hell.

They’re a lot more alike than any of the Crisis events are to each other or to Metal.

#comics #DCComics

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Oh, can’t forget fighting twisted versions of the heroes. Except in Final Crisis, it was the actual heroes having been brainwashed, not expendable alternates.

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Three-Body Problem ch5-7

Three-Body Problem ch5-7:

The mystery, the questions about the nature of fundamental laws of physics (i.e. are they actually fundamental?), and the countdown have all been fascinating.

I’m up to the introduction of the VR game that lends its name to the title, and for the first time I feel like the story is getting bogged down.

I know it’s symbolic. I figure it’s a way to get ideas across to the players without discussing them openly. But it’s still dragging.

#sffbookclub #amreading #books

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It’s a weird mindset to imagine, and it’s interesting to compare to the more familiar present-day culture in the next few chapters.

@vector It’s a weird mindset to imagine, and it’s interesting to compare to the more familiar present-day culture in the next few chapters.

I did a double take on the idea of banning teaching relativity for ideology…but then I remembered we’ve got the same problem with people trying to block teaching evolution here in the US.

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