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| ItCotCK; Who Read It? | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Apr 10 2008, 02:45 PM (691 Views) | |
| SladeJack | Apr 10 2008, 02:45 PM Post #1 |
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The Grand SladeJack
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After one of the most intense prolonged anticipations of a book release in my life, I finished ItCotCK in two weeks about a week ago. I thought it was pretty good but not quite so exciting as TSP. I was hoping that it would give proper resolution to the questions raised in TSP but it barely touched them, and when it did it just opened new ones. In fact the big, exciting revelation about the Lords of Creation really sort of cropped up out of nowhere. I hope I can be forgiven for pulling a Gizzi and feeling, in the face of a complete and utter absence of any Evidence, that Stirling's lack of conclusion was meant to leave room for as-yet unannounced sequels. I read the books not for their plot, though, but for their setting. Here too I find I preferred TSP. I guess a sparsely-populated desert world where life-sustaining resources need to be economized and everyone is pissed off because of it is less thrilling than a romp through a prehistoric jungle where beautiful women ride dinosaurs. I recognized a fair number of tributes to ERB and no doubt missed many more. So now I'm reading ERB's Carson of Venus books to see if I can pick out after the fact any similar cribs in TSP. |
| When you wipe your ass, make sure you wipe it really well. | |
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| Custer | Apr 10 2008, 04:00 PM Post #2 |
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Resident Kamikaze Warrior
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I haven't read it, or any of Stirling's books for that matter, so I can't offer much in the way of discussion here. However IIRC TR is currently reading through the book. Mitro might have, too, but he's been busy lately. |
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| Jake Featherston | Apr 10 2008, 09:26 PM Post #3 |
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Landowner
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Obligatory "It Cock?" joke. Anywho, Stirling's Dies the Fire held my interest briefly. He has a knack for making annoying characters like the Wiccans. And this is AFTER HT's The Darkness character "Viscount Valnu". |
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| SladeJack | Apr 11 2008, 12:57 AM Post #4 |
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The Grand SladeJack
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Yeah, nothing against Stirling but my interest is very much limited to LoC. The rest all seem--I don't know. Sort of smartass, somehow. |
| When you wipe your ass, make sure you wipe it really well. | |
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| TR1 | Apr 11 2008, 10:51 AM Post #5 |
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Heir Presumptive
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ItCotCK will be my third Stirling book. I read its prequel, and then gave The Peshawar Lancers another go, completing it this time. While I enjoyed them, one thing I have discovered is that I have a hard time connecting to his characters. They always seem just a little distant. |
| "Nobody's gay for Moleman." - Hans Moleman | |
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| Makkabee | Apr 11 2008, 11:03 AM Post #6 |
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Count
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I really enjoyed his Nantucket books, found the Draka stuff too dreary, and enjoyed The Peshwar Lancers as a bit of adventure fluff. |
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| TR1 | Apr 11 2008, 11:06 AM Post #7 |
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Heir Presumptive
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I did give the first Draka a go. I agree on the dreary, plus the finale of that series is so widely known that I couldn't quite see the point. As an aside, given how much time and energy has been spent on that series, suggesting it has a substantial fan base, I find it strange that Draka is out of print. |
| "Nobody's gay for Moleman." - Hans Moleman | |
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| SladeJack | Apr 11 2008, 11:17 AM Post #8 |
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The Grand SladeJack
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With just the Lords of Creation as my standard, that and the Nantucket short story in First Heroes, I won't disagree about the characters being unsympathetic. The main ones are flattish, and the secondary ones seem to have major character traits that just pop out of nowhere some day, and often then disappear again later on. They get really upset about something, and in the next scene they're completely over it. Also their background information often seems cliche. |
| When you wipe your ass, make sure you wipe it really well. | |
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| alchemist | Apr 11 2008, 11:43 AM Post #9 |
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Serf
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I only read his Draka stuff, where it's basically lesbain South African Nazis take over the world; so I think I 'll pass. Also you can find an anthology of the Draka trilogy in print, it just doesn't have all of the apendices. |
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| TR1 | Apr 11 2008, 11:48 AM Post #10 |
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Heir Presumptive
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Leaving out the appendices seems like a bad idea-Stirling makes very good use of them in his other works. I wish HT would adopt that technique. |
| "Nobody's gay for Moleman." - Hans Moleman | |
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| Custer | Apr 11 2008, 11:50 AM Post #11 |
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Resident Kamikaze Warrior
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Didn't HT have election results at the end of GOTS? What kind of facts does Stirling use in his? |
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| TR1 | Apr 11 2008, 11:57 AM Post #12 |
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Heir Presumptive
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He did. Well, the LoC books, he begins each chapter with a mock entry from Encylopedia Britannica which gives a nice nutshell history of everything up to the present of the novel. In TSK, for example, he alerts us to the fact that Mao died in the late 1950s, and Zhou Enlai set a course of reform, that sort of thing. In TPW, he spends a few pages at the end of the book explaining how the comets hit the earth, what the initial response of the worlds' governments was, the history of the royal family in India from the POD to the novel's present, how the English language had changed with most of England moving into India, etc. A less awkward method of filling in the gaps than having characters sit around talking politics or history, which HT prefers. |
| "Nobody's gay for Moleman." - Hans Moleman | |
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| alchemist | Apr 11 2008, 04:00 PM Post #13 |
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Serf
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ou can find them online though, I'm pretty sure that's there a reference to them on the trilogy's wiki page. |
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| JP_Morgan | Apr 11 2008, 04:07 PM Post #14 |
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Serf
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I really like Stirling books. I read the Domination of the Draka, the Peshawar Lancers, and Conquisidores, and thought that they were all very good books. But I have to agree on the flat character development. I'll probably get around to ITCocCK this summer when term ends. |
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You curl your toes in fun as you smile at everyone -- you meet the stares. You're unaware that your doings aren't done. And you laugh most ruthlessly as you tell us what not to be. But how are we supposed to see where we should run? Jethro Tull-Thick as a Brick. | |
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| Makkabee | Apr 11 2008, 06:24 PM Post #15 |
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Count
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The end of The Stone Dogs (the final book in the Draka trilogy) has an essay about some of the historical background, events of the alternate timeline, and how Stirling developed the tech. I actually enjoyed the essay a lot more than the novel. |
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9:15 AM Jul 11