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Well, I mean, basic human senses wouldn't even be able to handle most of what was happening, so they might as well throw a SIMULATION in the corner, too. e: wait, the SIMULATION was more of a Feersum Endjinn thing, wasn't it? The Dark One fucked around with this message at 21:13 on Sep 17, 2014 |
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Sep 17, 2014 21:10
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The Dark One posted:Well, I mean, basic human senses wouldn't even be able to handle most of what was happening, so they might as well throw a SIMULATION in the corner, too. Nah, that was in Surface Detail.
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Sep 17, 2014 21:48
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One of my ambitions is to someday create a short film that shows Banks-style ship to ship combat in 4D. Maybe you could show somebody viewing the battle from a distance - "The battle should happen any second now" [empty space], then [a sudden flash of bubble chamber style trails that appear all at once and fade away] "scanners show thirteen destroyed craft" and then a flashback to the slowed down (but still frantic) battle that shows all the poo poo that happened in that eyeblink.
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Sep 18, 2014 00:17
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I figure you could pull it off like this: Ship: "Hold on to your butts (or whatever)" ever so slightly longer scene transition Super crazy, kinetic, high-speed space battle for several tense minutes. and then towards the end the Ship says something like "Now, watch closely; here comes my favorite part" Passenger(s)  "what you you mean favorite part? This isn't happening right now?"Ship:  "What? No, the whole thing only took .04 seconds. Now watch what I do here..."Basically just like near the end of one of the books.* *Leaving it vague, because it was cool as hell to read it.
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Sep 18, 2014 00:57
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a kitten posted:"Hold on to your butts (or whatever)" This is also a fantastic name for a ship.
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Sep 18, 2014 12:32
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Gravitas Shortfall posted:This is also a fantastic name for a ship. Oh man, it totally is. I'm thinking GCU Hold on to Your Butts (or Whatever)
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Sep 18, 2014 18:09
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a kitten posted:Oh man, it totally is. I'm thinking GCU Hold on to Your Butts (or Whatever) A name like that would be perfect for an ROU.
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Sep 18, 2014 19:01
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I love you guys. Hey that's a good ship name too! So if any of you become billionaires you better make The Culture on the screen. Any screen. I think TV would be better just for the time but gently caress it make a movie if you want.
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Sep 18, 2014 19:38
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ZekeNY posted:A name like that would be perfect for an ROU. A very fast picket "people mover," at the very least.
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Sep 18, 2014 20:01
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I've chanced upon this thread and I'm delighted to finally get to ask questions regarding some outstanding plot points that I never quite solved. Without further adieu: Look to Windward. Were there any hints that it was actually a rogue group of minds that attempted to sabotage the hub? Who killed the Leviathan on the gas planet, and why? And who did the brutal "culture" assassin really work for? Matter. Since Djan and Liveware problem all are backed up, the only character to really die in the final confrontation is Ferbin, no? Surface Detail: What was the Unfallen Bulbitian hiding?
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Sep 19, 2014 02:10
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Hold on to Your Butts (And Various Butt Equivalents)
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Sep 19, 2014 02:31
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GenVec posted:I've chanced upon this thread and I'm delighted to finally get to ask questions regarding some outstanding plot points that I never quite solved. Look to Windward was all the Chells I think. Matter...it doesn't matter heh. In my understanding when you back up you still die when you die. Its a copy that is you, but isn't.
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Sep 19, 2014 03:53
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Fragmented posted:Look to Windward was all the Chells I think. Matter...it doesn't matter heh. In my understanding when you back up you still die when you die. Its a copy that is you, but isn't. Kind of. the 'copy' is just as much you. One of your forks lives, the other dies. The problem is that from the moment of the backup on it's every fork for themself - each 'you' created by the backup process diverges. Backup is a good way to ensure that one of your causal descendants lives, but not a good way to make sure none of your causal descendants die.
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Sep 19, 2014 04:09
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General Battuta posted:One of your forks lives, the other dies. The problem is that from the moment of the backup on it's every fork for themself. Fragmented posted:Look to Windward was all the Chells I think. GenVec fucked around with this message at 16:10 on Sep 19, 2014 |
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Sep 19, 2014 16:06
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GenVec posted:But from what I can tell, with a neural lace the backup is instantaneous at the moment of death and capable of hurling your mind-construct across many light years - Surface Detail certainly proves that. So there really is no fork, except in the most extreme cases. Yeah. Anaplian in Matter would've lost time, though, because of the communications blackout inside Sursamaen. So I guess it's a matter of when her neural lace did a proper backup of her mind to the Culture cloud. Although if I recall correctly there's actually a hint that she drops something that might contain a backup before they leave the falls. It always seemed a little off to me that she took Ferbin with her from then on down; he was utterly irrelevant to the operation of the suits, although by chance in the end I guess having warm bodies inside did come in handy in manipulating the Iln.
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Sep 19, 2014 16:15
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Yeah, she buries something in the ice (?) and refers to it as "insurance" but it's never actually followed up. Also, this is maybe probably definitely a sensitive line of inquiry, but how do y'all feel about the idea of another author picking up the Culture series, and if that's something that doesn't sound like total sacrilege to you, who would you want handling it? Reynolds and Brin seem like safe bets for handling the universe well given their respective pedigrees. And I've only read a little bit of Ancillary Justice so far but Ann Leckie seems like she's got the chops for it. I still think it's way too soon for anyone to actually assume Banks' mantle, but it'd be desperately sad if the setting were to just stay dormant forever.
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Sep 19, 2014 16:35
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Someone else writing the Culture wouldn't work. Ten books is enough, it's not like theres unresolved cliffhangers to be answered.
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Sep 19, 2014 16:42
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GenVec posted:But from what I can tell, with a neural lace the backup is instantaneous at the moment of death and capable of hurling your mind-construct across many light years - Surface Detail certainly proves that. So there really is no fork, except in the most extreme cases. From your perspective, you're dead. From everyone else's perspective, "you" are alive at a new location.
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Sep 19, 2014 16:47
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I think a collection of short stories written by other authors as a sort of tribute could work well, as long as they keep it small scale and don't invent anything new. I think Reynolds could write an awesome short story about contacting a new extremely weird civilization, but like I said, they'd have to be short stories without any repercussions to the setting.
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Sep 19, 2014 16:58
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Peter Watts seems to share Banks' fascination for body horror and broken main characters, and he can certainly write mysterious alien mindsets. Not sure his writing has quite the same joie de vivre though.
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Sep 19, 2014 17:05
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MikeJF posted:Yeah. Anaplian in Matter would've lost time, though... I took that as - it is likely that his entire world and civilisation is going to be obliterated, so Ferbin might as well come along and know why, rather than dumbly waiting for it.
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Sep 19, 2014 17:18
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The Culture is finished. Let it rest. Skilled other authors should write from their own thoughts and environment.
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Sep 19, 2014 17:19
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Reynolds' prose is just too perfunctory for the Culture. He's good at big sci fi setpieces and that but he's got no flair, and his characters are dull. I actually think Hannu Rajaniemi might have the chops for it, if anyone were going to give it a go (which I'd be deeply ambivalent about).
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Sep 19, 2014 17:23
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Kevin J. Anderson.
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Sep 19, 2014 17:48
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Is terrible.
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Sep 19, 2014 17:49
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eriktown posted:Kevin J. Anderson. gently caress you for suggesting that, and double gently caress you for beating me to the joke. Brain Herbert.
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Sep 19, 2014 17:50
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eriktown posted:Kevin J. Anderson. We don't speak that name here.
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Sep 19, 2014 17:50
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Strom Cuzewon posted:Brain Herbert. 
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Sep 19, 2014 17:52
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Seriously now: If you strapped me down and threatened to stick a facehugger on me, I'd probably pick Rajaniemi. But I have no desire to see anyone else pick up the universe.
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Sep 19, 2014 17:53
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How about Gene Wolfe ? edit: drat, he's old. Probably no longer writing 
Muurkas fucked around with this message at 18:12 on Sep 19, 2014 |
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Sep 19, 2014 18:06
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Nobody listed here could possibly take up the mantle. Even Rajaniemi is kind of insufferable compared to Banks' contagious joy and effortless charm. Banks was an intrinsic part of his own writing - his voice, his interests, his peculiarities. There is no Culture 'series' the way people talk about The Dresden Files or Star Wars or whatever. It was just Banks having an incredible amount of fun and writing well in a sandbox he preferred. Trying to replace him would just produce something like those Culture fans from Surface Detail.
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Sep 19, 2014 18:14
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General Battuta posted:Nobody listed here could possibly take up the mantle. Even Rajaniemi is kind of insufferable compared to Banks' contagious joy and effortless charm. Banks was an intrinsic part of his own writing - his voice, his interests, his peculiarities. There is no Culture 'series' the way people talk about The Dresden Files or Star Wars or whatever. It was just Banks having an incredible amount of fun and writing well in a sandbox he preferred. The GFCF were hilarious though...
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Sep 19, 2014 18:20
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The only thing I've read that's even sort of close to Banks's vibe is Vernor Vinge with A fire Upon the Deep or A Deepness in the Sky and he hasn't really written anything like that in a LONG time. e: Huh, apparently he wrote a sequel in 2011 called The Children of the Sky (http://www.amazon.com/The-Children-Sky-Zones-Thought/dp/0812579925). e2: Man, some pretty harsh reviews. Murgos fucked around with this message at 19:10 on Sep 19, 2014 |
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Sep 19, 2014 19:05
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Vinge's problem is that about a quarter of each book is really good, and then the other 3/4 is boring shite I don't care about.
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Sep 19, 2014 20:01
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Murgos posted:The only thing I've read that's even sort of close to Banks's vibe is Vernor Vinge with A fire Upon the Deep or A Deepness in the Sky and he hasn't really written anything like that in a LONG time. It's pretty lovely. It ditches the sci-fi almost entirely entirely, and so it's just kind of standard medieval fantasy politicking but with Tines. Which are a rad concept, but do not in themselves a good book make. I agree that A Fire Upon The Deep was very Banksy, what with the basically sublimed AIs in the Transcend and the weird assortment of aliens and things.
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Sep 19, 2014 20:04
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Vernor Vinge is also way different from Banks in terms of politics. That is a large part of what made The Culture so unique and amazing for me.
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Sep 19, 2014 20:59
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I also thought about the anthology idea. In my ideal version they'd all have to be left-wing British SF authors. So Reynolds, Miéville, MacLeod... uh, who else? But also, General Battuta posted:Nobody listed here could possibly take up the mantle. Even Rajaniemi is kind of insufferable compared to Banks' contagious joy and effortless charm. Banks was an intrinsic part of his own writing - his voice, his interests, his peculiarities. There is no Culture 'series' the way people talk about The Dresden Files or Star Wars or whatever. It was just Banks having an incredible amount of fun and writing well in a sandbox he preferred.
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Sep 19, 2014 21:37
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Just have GRRM do it. Then I can have two of my favorite series not have another book ever. But seriously Banks death was horrible, Just let it go with him. He embraced death in his books, I say just let it end. After a 6 season HBO show of course.
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Sep 19, 2014 21:56
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sinking belle posted:Reynolds and Brin seem like safe bets for handling the universe well given their respective pedigrees. And I've only read a little bit of Ancillary Justice so far but Ann Leckie seems like she's got the chops for it. Brin's very much of the humanist bent, but he's also got the perspective of an engineer, that everything can be fixed just-so. He can make some really neat worlds for his stories, like you said, but they wouldn't feel like Banks.
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Sep 19, 2014 22:13
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Speaking of Brin, I've heard good things about the Uplift series, but I found the first book really clunky, and the opening chapters of the second book did even less for me. Does the series get a lot better later, or is Brin just not for me?
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Sep 19, 2014 22:30
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