The last poster wins

[Thor.]

this was aired on tv, and yes we do have a lot of aka tubes and pipes.

 

http://www.ideacityonline.com/talks/daryl-oster-talk/

 

the word is spreading, Elon Musk is to far behind right now, Good that he is in with the concept though. Et3 has to many Investors.

Edited July 31, 2013 by Thor.

[billyro]

What was the book???

 

The Grave Thief, book 3 of the Twilight Reign. I pretty much only finished it out of sheer boredom, because it wasn't that great.

[brokenergy]

My head hurts

[Ironman5000]

WTF?! Just woke up with a massive scratch down my arm!

 

Oh well, morning

[slayerpaul]

http://i.imgur.com/CtZT6hE.gif

[Ironman5000]

:laugh:

[Vindekarr]

Billy-I've had something like that happen to me recently.

 

I'm reading through War Hammer 40,000 right now. It's a book adaptation of a 1980s series, and for the most part, it's actually really enjoyable. A lot of it is written in first-person, there's some fantastic characters, and the universe is one of the most cohesive and well rendered sci-fi worlds I've ever had the pleasure of reading. The series I'm currently on has four writers who all have their own styles. Three are really, really good. One(James Swallow) has this dark, gritty gothic style that probably fits the setting best, one(Dan Abnett) does really great character and plot, one(Aaron Bowden) has an almost lyrical writing style that's just a pleasure to read. And one is an idiot.

 

See, the problem is, four books. Each writer wrote one. Swallow wrote a dark, gritty, gothic tale about brotherhood betrayed and vengeance. Abnett wrote a tight, complex, compelling story from the opposite side of Swallow's. Bowden drove it towards the conclusion, and with three absolutely terrific sci-fi authors all working the strings together, you got the sense the conclusion would be AWESOME. A certain villain in War Hammer once said "hope is the first step on the road to disappointment" and that's exactly what happened here. Three great books as lead up, then this other guy steps in, and it's all "ooohh, hey, PLOT DEVICE! ooohh, let's make HIM a traitor for NO reason, oooh, let's undo all THIS complexity, oooh, let's add a crappy love story" I mean, for god's sake. WHY let a GUEST AUTHOR do the conclusion? he should go back to ruining Star Wars. I am disapoint.

 

EDIT: You know what was really stupid? the romantic bit. Seriously. An Astartes is essentially only 20% human. The remaining 80% is either robotic grafts or alien DNA. They're not human. Their brains are mostly computer. They're about as emotive as a brick wall. They don't even sleep. So writing an Astartes romance sub-plot is like writing a love story between a Moose and a flying Taco from the future. In the context of this sci-fi, it makes about the same level of logical sense.

Edited July 31, 2013 by Vindekarr

[billyro]

Billy-I've had something like that happen to me recently.

 

I'm reading through War Hammer 40,000 right now. It's a book adaptation of a 1980s series, and for the most part, it's actually really enjoyable. A lot of it is written in first-person, there's some fantastic characters, and the universe is one of the most cohesive and well rendered sci-fi worlds I've ever had the pleasure of reading. The series I'm currently on has four writers who all have their own styles. Three are really, really good. One(James Swallow) has this dark, gritty gothic style that probably fits the setting best, one(Dan Abnett) does really great character and plot, one(Aaron Bowden) has an almost lyrical writing style that's just a pleasure to read. And one is an idiot.

 

See, the problem is, four books. Each writer wrote one. Swallow wrote a dark, gritty, gothic tale about brotherhood betrayed and vengeance. Abnett wrote a tight, complex, compelling story from the opposite side of Swallow's. Bowden drove it towards the conclusion, and with three absolutely terrific sci-fi authors all working the strings together, you got the sense the conclusion would be AWESOME. A certain villain in War Hammer once said "hope is the first step on the road to disappointment" and that's exactly what happened here. Three great books as lead up, then this other guy steps in, and it's all "ooohh, hey, PLOT DEVICE! ooohh, let's make HIM a traitor for NO reason, oooh, let's undo all THIS complexity, oooh, let's add a crappy love story" I mean, for god's sake. WHY let a GUEST AUTHOR do the conclusion? he should go back to ruining Star Wars. I am disapoint.

 

EDIT: You know what was really stupid? the romantic bit. Seriously. An Astartes is essentially only 20% human. The remaining 80% is either robotic grafts or alien DNA. They're not human. Their brains are mostly computer. They're about as emotive as a brick wall. They don't even sleep. So writing an Astartes romance sub-plot is like writing a love story between a Moose and a flying Taco from the future. In the context of this sci-fi, it makes about the same level of logical sense.

 

Oh yeah, I can imagine how much that would have sucked. So much build up of awesomeness and then someone comes and craps all over it. They should have alternated between authors in the final book, or at least collaborated on various sections and whatnot. I dunno about handing it over to some other guy. Reckon he'd have gotten the ok from the other guys?

 

The Twilight Reign books were a bit different in their unsavoury (3rd book) conclusion. For starters, the main character dies in the most brutal way, severing the plot of everything that came before it because he was the "chosen one". Not to mention that there are probably 30 side characters, most of whom only have a paragraph each and are then forgotten about, and the only two interesting characters were the main character and this other assassin guy. I ended up just skipping whole chapters so I could at least read something relevant to the story and actually entertaining. All the other dribble just succeeded in stretching out the story for no apparent reason, and then they hit you with such an unsatisfactory demise to the main character that I just can't be bothered to read anything that entails it.

 

And if you want to have romance in a story, at least touch on it once in a while, eh? There was a crap load of build up to it and then it just fades into the background.

 

I want some more good books like the final Song of Ice and Fire book, or maybe the next chapter of the Demon Wars. :(

[Vindekarr]

Yeah, I know the feeling. A fairly long while back I was reading a book called Eisenhorn which was what initially got me into War Hammer. As gothic horror sci-fi goes, it was perfect, if a little unusual. It was split into three "books" which each were stand-alone(and great) novels, but when you read them together, slotted neatly into one grand conspiracy and then ended with a grand crescendo. And then the writer re-visited it a few years later and added a second spin-off(Ravenor) franchise that actually managed to do everything the originals did, but better.

 

For me Eisenhorn is everything a Sci-Fi needs to be. Great characters, good plot, lots of smaller sub-plots, and an ending which wraps them all up properly, leaving nothing undone. It also just makes a sort of subjective sense to a reader. Characters act, age(it DOES span over a hundred years), and change as you'd expect them to within the context of their lives. It's not predictable, but neither does it make bizarre plot decisions or force ridiculous plot mechanics. Some times the bad guys do win, and when that happens, good guys die, including main characters. Many writers shy away from this, Abnett instead uses it as a vehicle to alter other main characters and set up later plots. It's beautifully done.

 

It's writing like this that keeps me reading 40,000. It's one of those universes that on face value, has nothing of worth. It's derived from a needlessly bloody '80s war-comic. But it's the writers that have made it compelling. Some of it's writing-certainly in quality, and often in theme and feel as well, are just a lot better than other sci-fis I've read. It's certainly a lot better than Star Wars, which often feel like poorly edited fan-fics.

[billyro]

Yeah, I know the feeling. A fairly long while back I was reading a book called Eisenhorn which was what initially got me into War Hammer. As gothic horror sci-fi goes, it was perfect, if a little unusual. It was split into three "books" which each were stand-alone(and great) novels, but when you read them together, slotted neatly into one grand conspiracy and then ended with a grand crescendo. And then the writer re-visited it a few years later and added a second spin-off(Ravenor) franchise that actually managed to do everything the originals did, but better.

 

For me Eisenhorn is everything a Sci-Fi needs to be. Great characters, good plot, lots of smaller sub-plots, and an ending which wraps them all up properly, leaving nothing undone. It also just makes a sort of subjective sense to a reader. Characters act, age(it DOES span over a hundred years), and change as you'd expect them to within the context of their lives. It's not predictable, but neither does it make bizarre plot decisions or force ridiculous plot mechanics. Some times the bad guys do win, and when that happens, good guys die, including main characters. Many writers shy away from this, Abnett instead uses it as a vehicle to alter other main characters and set up later plots. It's beautifully done.

 

It's writing like this that keeps me reading 40,000. It's one of those universes that on face value, has nothing of worth. It's derived from a needlessly bloody '80s war-comic. But it's the writers that have made it compelling. Some of it's writing-certainly in quality, and often in theme and feel as well, are just a lot better than other sci-fis I've read. It's certainly a lot better than Star Wars, which often feel like poorly edited fan-fics.

 

That. So much that. I absolutely love stories with this. Tons of books could benefit with some thought put into these kinds of things. It's very similar to A Song of Ice and Fire, and everyone knows how much of a success that series turned out. One of the main hooks was

Eddard being executed in the first book

and it was like, BOOM! But it just made the story more interesting.

 

Isn't it nice when authors put that little bit of extra thought into their books?

 

I need more to read, but I've exhausted a lot of them. :sad:

 

 

EDIT: Argh, I want to use BTB's Enhancements Mod for Morrowind, but I also want to use Better Morrowind Armour. Why can't they just be compatible?

Edited July 31, 2013 by billyro