The jump was huge for me... They haven't actually moved to the +5,000 years part yet, but the plot is actually moving now, and I'm into it. Thanks Truman How far are you?
Go as far as you can then make the jump when/if you're about to call it. I'm saying this before the jump. He still spends wayyyy too much time on literally everything, but at least it's driving the plot forward.
This is literally the entire purpose of editors. I mean the guy spent 2-3 times as much length describing the Russian Luk thing than he did in using it for the plot.
Right at 15% as of this morning, but about to head out on a trip involving 4 flights in the next 3 days so I should knock out a decent portion if I can stay interested. So far I agree with the other criticisms regarding the over explanation of shit. Seriously, if rocks are going to fall from the sky let's get to it. If he wanted to over explain shit, he could have given us pages of description of the space sex..
I'm 50% through and I'm done. I can't fathom having to sift through 350 more pages that could be done in 100 or less. I love reading and usually look forward to reading time most days. I've found myself finding reasons not to read since I got into this book. That isn't normal for me so I'm done. I'll read spoilers to see how it ends up.
I agree completely, Blackterno. I am throwing in the towel. This book is a chore to read -- bummer, because I wanted to like it. Heading off to Europe today, so I doubt there will be much reading before the end of the month and I won't be on the boards much. However, I'll go ahead and start Cartel next.
Just finished Endurance and Spoiler how could they have not been more skeptical of the other group when they called for help? it's the first thing i thought of. it's a trap :ackbar:
65% I made it through the Ymir chapter by starting to skim whenever things got over the top technical. When we deviated from actual story and started talking about how hoses coupled together I found myself reading the first and last sentence of each paragraph to keep things moving, which seemed to help. This guy would have a pretty good novel on his hands if he wasn't such a total nerd. I didn't. I had assumed the title had to do with the seven parts of the moon when it first divided
I'm about halfway through Hard Rain Spoiler I'm listening on audiobook so I sometimes zone out and think about other things when he is getting super technical, some of the techincal parts I enjoy though. JBF just showed up, seems like I'm meant to hate her, hopefully though her character evolves because there is enough shit going on without a power hungry bitch roaming around
I haven't read a page of the book, but I still read this thread every time it gets bumped. Posts make me laugh.
70% done, but one development I have a big problem with is Spoiler how the races stayed so pure over 5,000 years of living in fairly close quarters. A generation is what? 25 years? It seems like fairly early on, especially around the time that there were enough males to allow some good old heterosexual fucking to commence that there would be enough co-mingling that people would cease to be identified by their "Eve" ancestor. Certainly it would be next to impossible to keep such a high degree of genetic segregation over 1200 generations. After the jump I was kind of expecting everybody to look like Drake
~55% Spoiler So it has picked up a lot, there has been a lot less huge blocks of physics explanations, I know they start back but I've been enjoying it while it lasts. I would be enjoying it even more but what I previously posted about is coming true. JBF is being a massive cunt. Really didn't want it to go down this road. Now Marcus is dead and you know she's going to jump on this opportunity. Tecla was just meeting with her and I really wished she had buried her (Tecla) knife in her (JBF) chest. Oh well, hopefully the conclusion of that particular plot line will make me happy.
Since I quit the book I forgot to add my disappointment that the story didn't include Tekla in a fem Dom scenario having sex with Moira.
Finishing up Shantaram now and then I'm in on the club for the next book ty TMB for motivating me to read more
I'm really liking it, still not even half way through as I had a couple weeks where I slacked - but it's been great so far.
at 90% Spoiler Nothing that has happened since the jump is interesting to me. I saw the reveal with Dinah's father's descendants coming a mile away, but when I left for work this morning I had just read the first couple of references to "The Pingers". Seriously is taking the direction that they're going to try to convince us that the people from Ivy's fiance's sub survived underwater for 5,000 years? Except that the seas were almost completely dry iirc The Blackfish if I recall correctly you're right around the White Sky/Hard Rain, correct? Highlight of the book for me.
86% Spoiler Just ran into the read headed earth people. My first thought was the descendants of Dinah's family (almost called her Eve Dinah) which it seems is Doc's theory too. Really weird that Aida created a sub race of Neanderthals but I like his character. No surprise that my least favorite descendant is the Julian.
My exact Goodreads review for this book. 3/5 stars (probably generous). "There's a good book in there somewhere. I think."
Movie rights just got picked up. Ron Howard directing it. Movie could be really good if they do it right. As we said, there's a good story in there somewhere.
Definitely. They won't be able to add the physics textbook portion into the movie even if they wanted to. Movie could be excellent.
I just finished this book. Holy shit what was the point...that was brutal. 2.5/5 Ron Howard might make something out of that shit show. Some really enjoyable parts, but the other stuff...wow...
Over a year late, but I just finished this a few weeks back. I thought it was a great book. I echo some of the posters thoughts about the overtly technical detail, but that's what Stephenson is known for. He puts a ton (and I mean a ton) of research into the actual "real science" pieces of the novel. That's truthfully what "hard" science fiction should be. He comes from a an engineering/physics background and used to do that for a living before become a writer full-time. Sometime the tech stuff is way overboard and doesn't make for a good novel, but I respect him trying to inject serious realism into the genre. I'd love to see a sequel taking place entirely in the future time frame.
Honestly I think the movie is going to be awesome. Pulling out all of the actual plot from the pages and pages of science should make for an entertaining film.