Sci-Fi and Fantasy Thread - SPOILERS

[DancingPanther]

Spoiler

Episode 7 adds context to episodes 1, when Cintra falls. Context to things like Moussack's "destiny may side with us yet" line. Or the time when Ciri looks at the doorway, further showing the destined connection. It's just ****ing awesome

@Beef Invictus

 

[Beef Invictus]

@Beef Invictus

I have a feeling this would make more sense to me if I watched the show.

 

[DancingPanther]

I have a feeling this would make more sense to me if I watched the show.

you're the worst D:

 

[Captain Dave Poulin]

@Chinatown88 this first book in the Liveship trilogy is really good.

 

[ajgoal]

Any good Star Wars book recommendations?

The "Thrawn" Trilogy: Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command by Timothy Zahn were solid. They're also the first written, so if you can't separate the timeline from the new trilogy it might be jarring.

 

[Captain Dave Poulin]

The "Thrawn" Trilogy: Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command by Timothy Zahn were solid. They're also the first written, so if you can't separate the timeline from the new trilogy it might be jarring.

I was hoping someone could vouch for these, because I have always heard that they were good. I really won't have any trouble forgetting the new trilogy, either lol

 

[Beef Invictus]

I was hoping someone could vouch for these, because I have always heard that they were good. I really won't have any trouble forgetting the new trilogy, either lol

Any Zahn is a good bet.

 

[Beef Invictus]

Followed up that TLJ rewatch with TFA.

TFA has not aged well for me. At all. As jarring as the appearance of the magical Sith fleet in Ep 9 was (in terms of it being a "how the f***?" moment), Maz whipping out Anakin/Luke's lightsaber is vastly worse. I can't decide if I hate that the movie itself actually asks "how did you get that" only to tell itself to pound sand, or if I admire the boldness.

The entire superweapon is a poor idea. It's unreasonable to believe a group that is smaller than the Empire could build that thing. It's a bigger project than the Death Star just on scale alone. The Death Star was the size of a small moon and this thing is the size of a planet. And it shatters my ability to suspend disbelief with how it operates. Was Han in the same damned system when he looked up? (If so, that should probably be indicated) How did it work so quickly, even though they show how slowly the beam travels?

 

[Beef Invictus]

Also I really don't buy the "Abrams was retconning TLJ" take for Ep 9 after rewatching. He embraced and reinforced several major concepts.

I scoffed at the "Luke knew who Rey was the whole time" assertion, but rewatching the scene inside the tree where he probes her hard about her identity has more significance now. Whether that's on purpose or an accident, I'm undecided. I don't know how much I believe that Abrams knew Rey was a Palpy the whole time, because presumably that's something he'd tell Rian.

Wrath of Khan is better than all three films.

 

[Hollywood Cannon]

Followed up that TLJ rewatch with TFA.

TFA has not aged well for me. At all. As jarring as the appearance of the magical Sith fleet in Ep 9 was (in terms of it being a "how the ****?" moment), Maz whipping out Anakin/Luke's lightsaber is vastly worse. I can't decide if I hate that the movie itself actually asks "how did you get that" only to tell itself to pound sand, or if I admire the boldness.

The entire superweapon is a poor idea. It's unreasonable to believe a group that is smaller than the Empire could build that thing. It's a bigger project than the Death Star just on scale alone. The Death Star was the size of a small moon and this thing is the size of a planet. And it shatters my ability to suspend disbelief with how it operates. Was Han in the same damned system when he looked up? (If so, that should probably be indicated) How did it work so quickly, even though they show how slowly the beam travels?

Well it was the size of a planet because it was a planet.

 

[Beef Invictus]

Well it was the size of a planet because it was a planet.

Exactly. The entire thing is too much, too over the top. It dwarfs the Death Star, which took the Empire nearly 2 decades to figure out and build. Using Death Star tech to make weapons like we saw in 8 and 9? Hell yes. That makes a whole ton of sense. Hollowing out a planet and enabling it to absorb a star? f*** off. And there's also a hard limit on how much the thing can be used. Stars aren't infinite. How do you aim it? Do you have to wait months for the thing to rotate where it needs to? What if the target is outside the orbital plane?

The scale of ships and weapons in Star Wars has always trended on the larger side in all sci-fi, but Abrams managed to find the size that's too unreasonable.

 

[ajgoal]

I was hoping someone could vouch for these, because I have always heard that they were good. I really won't have any trouble forgetting the new trilogy, either lol

They would have made a good choice for a follow up trilogy. Believable, competent antagonist. Good arcs for each of the main characters. Interesting new characters and races. Highs and lows for the good guys. A well plotted crisis where the reveals make sense and don't come out of nowhere. I might actually re-read them when I finish my current Wheel of Time book.

 

[Captain Dave Poulin]

They would have made a good choice for a follow up trilogy. Believable, competent antagonist. Good arcs for each of the main characters. Interesting new characters and races. Highs and lows for the good guys. A well plotted crisis where the reveals make sense and don't come out of nowhere. I might actually re-read them when I finish my current Wheel of Time book.

Which one are you on?

 

[trostol]

which will be pirated more...Mandalorian or ST Picard

 

[CanadianFlyer88]

Exactly. The entire thing is too much, too over the top. It dwarfs the Death Star, which took the Empire nearly 2 decades to figure out and build. Using Death Star tech to make weapons like we saw in 8 and 9? Hell yes. That makes a whole ton of sense. Hollowing out a planet and enabling it to absorb a star? **** off. And there's also a hard limit on how much the thing can be used. Stars aren't infinite. How do you aim it? Do you have to wait months for the thing to rotate where it needs to? What if the target is outside the orbital plane?

The scale of ships and weapons in Star Wars has always trended on the larger side in all sci-fi, but Abrams managed to find the size that's too unreasonable.

 

[ajgoal]

Which one are you on?

Fires of Heaven, fifth one.

 

[Captain Dave Poulin]

Fires of Heaven, fifth one.

Have you read them before?

 

[ajgoal]

Have you read them before?

No.

You're not wrong about how bad he was at writing women.

 

[Captain Dave Poulin]

No.

You're not wrong about how bad he was at writing women.

Right? It really bugged the **** out of me. I won't give anything away, but the story definitely keeps cooking through book 7, maybe book 8. After that it's still tolerable, but that's kind of where he went off the rails and lost control, around book 8 or so. I hope I'm not dampening your enjoyment at all - people rarely take me seriously, which is completely understandable, so you should be good.

 

[CanadianFlyer88]

No.

You're not wrong about how bad he was at writing women.

It doesn't get better, either.

 

[CanadianFlyer88]

Right? It really bugged the **** out of me. I won't give anything away, but the story definitely keeps cooking through book 7, maybe book 8. After that it's still tolerable, but that's kind of where he went off the rails and lost control, around book 8 or so. I hope I'm not dampening your enjoyment at all - people rarely take me seriously, which is completely understandable, so you should be good.

I was just writing something similar.

Quality dipped after Crown of Swords (#7) for me. Coincidentally, #7 is what got me reading the series in the first place. My grandmother bought me #7 for Christmas one year without asking if I had read any of the previous books. I just decided to read them all to get to #7 at that point.

 

[Captain Dave Poulin]

I was just writing something similar.

Quality dipped after Crown of Swords (#7) for me. Coincidentally, #7 is what got me reading the series in the first place. My grandmother bought me #7 for Christmas one year without asking if I had read any of the previous books. I just decided to read them all to get to #7 at that point.

My memory is so poor that I had to reread from the beginning pretty much every time a new one came out. I must have read the first eight books of that series five times, at least. I finally stopped keeping up with them, then he died, then I let Brandon finish them before I started - from the beginning - and read through to the end. Coincidentally I was on the 8th book when I got to Thailand - I didn't have any kind of TV when I got there, so I split my entertainment between the end of that series and 632 episodes of "One Piece."

 

[CanadianFlyer88]

My memory is so poor that I had to reread from the beginning pretty much every time a new one came out. I must have read the first eight books of that series five times, at least. I finally stopped keeping up with them, then he died, then I let Brandon finish them before I started - from the beginning - and read through to the end. Coincidentally I was on the 8th book when I got to Thailand - I didn't have any kind of TV when I got there, so I split my entertainment between the end of that series and 632 episodes of "One Piece."

I re-read the series 3 or 4 times when some new books came out. No idea why because it didn't add any value for me.

 

[Captain Dave Poulin]

I re-read the series 3 or 4 times when some new books came out. No idea why because it didn't add any value for me.

Can you imagine how good it could have been if someone competent (like Brandon) had taken all those ideas and written it from the beginning?

 

[ajgoal]

Right? It really bugged the **** out of me. I won't give anything away, but the story definitely keeps cooking through book 7, maybe book 8. After that it's still tolerable, but that's kind of where he went off the rails and lost control, around book 8 or so. I hope I'm not dampening your enjoyment at all - people rarely take me seriously, which is completely understandable, so you should be good.

I remember hearing similar when he was still writing them.

After I finish this series, I'll finally dig into Dune. I started the book, then life got in the way. Of course, Scalzi will probably finish his Collapsing Empire series in the interim, so I'll make a detour for that...