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| MWIH Spoilers; Spoiler thread | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jul 23 2008, 09:12 AM (1,228 Views) | |
| SladeJack | Jul 25 2008, 11:34 PM Post #16 |
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The Grand SladeJack
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Oh it's not bad. There's a bit of a spy thriller thing going on, even though all the progress happens off-stage. Seeing how modern terrorist tactics can be adopted to the old technology is kind of interesting. My biggest objection isn't related to the McGraw cunt, though; it's that the story is like Star Trek: introduce a new character whom the main characters treat as one of their own, someone who starts to show importance, and he'll be pushing up a daisy just as you get used to having him around. |
| When you wipe your ass, make sure you wipe it really well. | |
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| Custer | Jul 26 2008, 12:09 AM Post #17 |
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Resident Kamikaze Warrior
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Hmm, maybe 90% of the book. And I wouldn't call the Iraq parallel "bad." |
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| SladeJack | Jul 26 2008, 01:45 AM Post #18 |
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The Grand SladeJack
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The home front stuff is bad because HT is trying to force one era's behavior into another's patterns. The stuff in Germany, not so much. It's close enough to Iraq to be recognizable but there are significant differences that make it interesting: the fact that the resistance is loyal to the memory of the fallen dictator, the presence of multiple allies who, if not at cross-purposes, are not coordinating against the common threat. My favorite scenes are Bokhov's because the Soviet reaction, aside from actually being in character of the party reacting, makes sense. "You killed one of our guys after you captured him? Here are four severed heads from guys we captured. Try that again and you'll get eight." The way to fight those people is, I believe, overwhelmingly brutal retaliation for violence and equally noticeable rewards for cooperation. The citizens of this town have led our men to the safe house of the local resistance cell? Great, let's rebuild and reopen their school. They put together a posse and nabbed the ex-SS officer who's been coordinating among cells? Let's open a factory here so everyone in that posse doesn't have to sit on their asses begging for handouts anymore. You won't see many carrots among all those Soviet sticks, or among the French, but at least they've got half the equation. The Anglophones, they're showing neither carrots nor sticks. They're just rudderlessly stumbling around. I suppose HT might be trying to make a point about Coalition handling of Iraq, but it's out of place. These are two countries that have experienced combat officers coming out their asses, and OSS and MI5 are just coming off dozens of campaigns to set up insurgencies all over the world. They should have learned some useful lessons there. Here's one, why don't the Anglos fill their zones with Dutchmen, Belgians, Danes, Norwegians, and so on? If both the French and Russians are so eager for revenge that they embrace the chance to stick it to the Germans despite the danger that entails, it stands to reason that the other former occupied countries would be, too. And we did that OTL, by the way--I've got some sort of distant cousin who served in the US section of soon-to-be West Germany during his time in the Norwegian Army. That even allows the US and Brits to play the good cop: send the continentals to meet out punishment, then have the people being punished sigh in relief when they see an Anglophone, and see how eagerly they cooperate in exchange for having the dogs called off. |
| When you wipe your ass, make sure you wipe it really well. | |
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| SladeJack | Jul 29 2008, 05:59 PM Post #19 |
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The Grand SladeJack
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I got in the mail today a signed copy of MwIH set aside at one of the book signings by someone who guessed I'd appreciate the gift. They guessed correctly, though now I rather wish I hadn't run out and bought the book on my own dime last week. Now a question: That dopey guard who let the truck full of alleged tampons into the American town to blow up and scatter radium hither and yon--Does anyone really believe he would do that? As soon as I read about that I thought "What a fucking moron!" Now granted one gets unduly suspicious because every scene that involves extras receiving shipments that's worth writing is not what it seems, I'm sure that for every one of them a hundred or even a thousand legit shipments are received--But you've got a guy who's not saying a word, is communicating via pantomime--that's extremely suspicious, especially since it should get you thinking about language and should lead you to test to see if he shows signs of understanding other English phrases. Blowing up 2 1/2 ton trucks is a favored MO of these people. Security should be extra tight around this village (and by the way who would want to move their wives and children into this version of Germany anyway?) Taken alone, any of these factors should have been enough to persuade him to take a peek into at least one randomly-chosen crate. |
| When you wipe your ass, make sure you wipe it really well. | |
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| MapleLeafs4Ever | Jul 29 2008, 09:32 PM Post #20 |
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Landowner
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Took a look at a copy at a bookstore today. Price is $(US) 27 / $(Cdn) 32. The two currencies have been roughly at par for the last eight months.
Fuck this shit, I'll wait until the Public Library gets it. |
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| SladeJack | Jul 29 2008, 10:12 PM Post #21 |
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The Grand SladeJack
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Hmm. Odd. They've raised the price of books in general, which is horrible because I probably spend more on books in the course of the year than anything else, so it's not like they're just sticking the old price stickers on it. You're getting ripped off, all right. Can you get around that via online shopping? |
| When you wipe your ass, make sure you wipe it really well. | |
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| TR1 | Jul 30 2008, 10:09 PM Post #22 |
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Heir Presumptive
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Finally have it. Fuck YEAH! (I also got Clavell's Noble House) |
| "Nobody's gay for Moleman." - Hans Moleman | |
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| MapleLeafs4Ever | Jul 30 2008, 10:42 PM Post #23 |
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Landowner
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I just checked amazon . ca They list it for $(Cdn) 20.16 but I am so pissed off I will not bother. Probably $(US) 15.00 on amazon . com <_< Grumble, grumble, mutter, mutter. :angry: |
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| SladeJack | Jul 30 2008, 10:45 PM Post #24 |
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The Grand SladeJack
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I object to Clavell on the grounds that his series of novels on Japanese history includes one set immediately before and one set immediately after my favorite period thereof, with nothing during that period. That and the covers of the book are far enough apart to make Tolstoy, Michener, Mitchell, even Dickens himself run out of the room screaming. Next on my list is Scott Fisher's Axis of Evil World Tour. Actually I've got two MwIH copies now. Enjoy your one. |
| When you wipe your ass, make sure you wipe it really well. | |
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| TR1 | Jul 31 2008, 02:18 PM Post #25 |
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Heir Presumptive
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Granted, but I have to say, I found Shogun and Tai-Pan extremely readable. I've taken twice as long to finish books with half the pages of those two. So is your favorite period the Tokugawa Shogunate then?
So far, so good. HT seems to have re-evaluated how he has his characters talk a bit--the "I won't tell you your wrong" style has lessened considerably (that might just be because the NKVD agent's profanity is so damn funny) |
| "Nobody's gay for Moleman." - Hans Moleman | |
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| SladeJack | Jul 31 2008, 04:13 PM Post #26 |
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The Grand SladeJack
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"So is your favorite period the Tokugawa Shogunate then?" It begins with the Meiji Restoration and ends with World War II. 1868-1945. Gaijin (my introduction to the series) was set in 1862 and King Rat was set in 1945. So my period got skipped. During this period Japan did all sorts of horrifying, stomach-churning, contemptible, atrocious things. But there's so much drama and pageantry to it, too--absolutely perfect for historical fiction. And also many lessons, positive and negative, for rapidly-developing military powers to learn from. "So far, so good. HT seems to have re-evaluated how he has his characters talk a bit--the 'I won't tell you your wrong' style has lessened considerably (that might just be because the NKVD agent's profanity is so damn funny)" The dialogue's gotten better but I think it still has a ways to go. I felt the same about OA and BtG. There's much, much less repetition. The only instance I can think of are the three or four times that Jerry Duncan reflects on the fact that if a Congressman decides Washington is more important than his home district he will be recalled to the latter. |
| When you wipe your ass, make sure you wipe it really well. | |
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| TR1 | Aug 3 2008, 03:33 PM Post #27 |
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Heir Presumptive
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Finished it. Pretty good book. It's depressing subject matter didn't make it the most "enjoyable" read, but it was a solid HT effort. HT definitely was running down on 191 there, wasn't he? |
| "Nobody's gay for Moleman." - Hans Moleman | |
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| MapleLeafs4Ever | Aug 3 2008, 10:07 PM Post #28 |
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Landowner
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Okay, I have been reviewing the new articles and sub-articles on the Turtlewiki and see the "German Freedom* Front" managed to truck bomb St. Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey. How in the world did they managed to cross the Channel with two trucks of explosives and do the deed? * Freedom, how meta-twee! :lol: |
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| SladeJack | Aug 3 2008, 10:39 PM Post #29 |
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The Grand SladeJack
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I thought the book was all right but its pace was far off--it's business as usual, Truman and Martin are in a deadlock over the budget, then all of a sudden the funds are cut off and we've got to leave now! That McGraw cunt's movement was steadily building but still had far to go, then everyone's talking about how successful she was even as they put her out to pasture. Adenauer's death brings everything vis a vis setting up a German democracy screeching to a halt, then all of a sudden the CDP and SDP are ready, and have their own police force. A lot of things get hinted at, disappear, and resurface 200 pages later--better that than never coming up at all, though, as happened with so many 191 themes. Also the scope was too narrow. Japan was defeated on the OTL schedule and in the OTL manner. Occasional mentions of the fact that the KMT is getting its ass kicked. Also appears there will be no Israel but that's just a throwaway line. India's getting ready to rise up in revolution--that's huge!--but even less on that than on the other. Given HT's purposes in writing this I suppose I shouldn't have expected this, but I was really hoping he'd step back and show us how the world was looking with the superpowers who were polarizing it into Cold War camps preoccupied and no doubt interested in making sure that lids are kept on everything, as opposed to encouraging their clients to push available advantages. As for the 10,000 pounds of TNT just showing up in London--good question. An inside man seems as likely a possibility as any--a BUF man, someone who just took a bribe, or maybe even IRA. |
| When you wipe your ass, make sure you wipe it really well. | |
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| alchemist | Aug 5 2008, 12:31 PM Post #30 |
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Serf
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Why doesn't Israel exist ITTL? |
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Fuck this shit, I'll wait until the Public Library gets it.


9:17 AM Jul 11