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Messages - Skar

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136
Books / Re: review: Kris Longknife Mutineer
« on: June 09, 2008, 09:14:06 PM »
Compensation. 

Someone, somewhere in that publishing agency knew that the book was not that good and went the extra-mile on the cover to try and salvage the investment through impulse buys.

I must say that Nessa's description made it sound like a liberal (global warming is man made, women can do everything a man can do BETTER, soldiers are sad if there's no war, pampered rich kids could succeed with minimal effort in the military, blah blah blah) screed. 

Science fiction is all about speculation but when it comes to women in combat I have very little patience these days.  Putting women into combat as though they were men works about as well as having open flame on the asteroid in that armageddon movie, or tilting gravity on star ships in the Star Wars films. 

Good science fiction lets you postulate what would happen if...something...and the rules that we know to govern the world still apply.  Making women soldiers act just like men with different plumbing is a pointless political gesture.

There are ways to make women in combat roles work.  One of those ways is NOT simply making the military gender-blind.

I haven't read the book.  From Nessa's description, I don't plan to.

137
Movies and TV / Re: review: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
« on: May 29, 2008, 05:13:34 PM »
With all due respect to the Gibbs brothers, I thought Caspian was a much better watch.  Indy and the Crystal Skull crossed my personal "Campy" line early and way too often.

138
Movies and TV / Re: review: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
« on: May 29, 2008, 05:42:28 AM »
Well, having been pilloried for my opinions about the first of the current narnia installments (as well as, admittedly, my smug and insultingly condescending attitude about the same)  I hesitate to voice my opinion on this one. But here goes.

I bloody loved it.  It was great.  I haven't read the book in some time so I was free from any angst over departures.  The actors, this time, did a fine job.  The CGI was incredible.  The plot was coherent and not impeded by stupid things.  The fighting was good to watch instead of painful.  The "jokes" fit nicely into the context. The "magical moments" were not drawn out past there usefulness. Reepicheep, my favorite character in the books by far, was treated well and not made into a jarjarbinks.  I was incredibly pleased.  Bravo.

139
Books / Re: Discuss
« on: May 01, 2008, 08:43:11 PM »
An article that seems to be germaine to this discussion.

140
Books / Re: Rowling Sues over "Harry Potter Lexicon"
« on: April 29, 2008, 04:08:31 PM »
Quote from: Fellfrosch on April 29, 2008, 04:15:59 AM
Cool, now retell the plot of The Matrix so it sounds like the New Testament.
Yeah, that's kind of the point...

141
Books / Rowling Sues over "Harry Potter Lexicon"
« on: April 29, 2008, 02:56:53 AM »
Orson Scott Card had this to say:
Quote
Rowling, Lexicon, and Oz

Can you believe that J.K. Rowling is suing a small publisher because she claims their 10,000-copy edition of Harry Potter Lexicon, a book about Rowling's hugely successful novel series, is just a "rearrangement" of her own material.

Rowling "feels like her words were stolen," said lawyer Dan Shallman.

Well, heck, I feel like the plot of my novel Ender's Game was stolen by J.K. Rowling.

A young kid growing up in an oppressive family situation suddenly learns that he is one of a special class of children with special abilities, who are to be educated in a remote training facility where student life is dominated by an intense game played by teams flying in midair, at which this kid turns out to be exceptionally talented and a natural leader. He trains other kids in unauthorized extra sessions, which enrages his enemies, who attack him with the intention of killing him; but he is protected by his loyal, brilliant friends and gains strength from the love of some of his family members. He is given special guidance by an older man of legendary accomplishments who previously kept the enemy at bay. He goes on to become the crucial figure in a struggle against an unseen enemy who threatens the whole world. ...

Thoughts?

142
Books / Re: Discuss
« on: April 11, 2008, 05:22:34 PM »
Quote
Basically, there is no base-line in human behavior to what a person (child or adult) can handle. Some people are very resilient and others are very fragile. There is an average and, of course, lots of outliers.

This very uncertainty informs a lot of the discussion on censorship ratings and so on.  I see two basic stances.  The first is the "we must protect the children" stance that is closely related to the "we must protect everyone" stance (which I find to be anathema.)  The second is the "we should inform" stance which boils down to making it easier for people to protect themselves.

Since you have that variety in what people, child or adult, can handle, the only person really capable of making the decision is the responsible guardian. (adults are there own guardian)  Therefore the only good reason for a ratings system is to inform with the intent of helping responsible adults make good decisions.

I think I'd be comfortable with a two tier system.  Still classify the books according to age group, YA, Adult, etc... to make it clear who the intended audience is.  Then add a second classification that is informed by the content.  I think that might cut down on the manipulation of content to achieve a particular rating, though not eliminate it entirely, and still provide a useful level of information.

143
Everything Else / Re: I can has lolcats?
« on: April 03, 2008, 05:48:41 PM »

144
Brandon Sanderson / Re: Official Fan Art Thread **Don't create new threads**
« on: February 28, 2008, 12:23:36 AM »
Dude, that's just cool.

145
Suggestions Box / Re: Attention Photoshoppers: Help request
« on: February 05, 2008, 06:24:52 PM »
Cool. 

I myself didn't scan anything in because I wanted the pic to repeat well and I didn't have a lot of time to spend on it.  I took Spriggan's original background image, applied a water color filter to give it some texture, gaussian blurred it a bit,  added a bit of noise, lowered the contrast settings, made it about 60% transparent with a white background, and applied the sharpening filter a few times.

In case anybody was interested...

146
Suggestions Box / Re: Attention Photoshoppers: Help request
« on: February 05, 2008, 05:22:29 PM »
Very nice White.  How'd you do it?

147
Suggestions Box / Re: Attention Photoshoppers: Help request
« on: February 04, 2008, 11:15:07 PM »
?


148
Eric James Stone / Re: Premature Emergence
« on: February 02, 2008, 12:16:24 AM »
Rock on dude.  You're on a roll.  Baen's Universe, Tor's anthology of IGMS, the Pulitzer...

You shopping any novel length works around yet?

149
Brandon Sanderson / Re: A moral dilemma(slight MB2 spoilers)
« on: February 01, 2008, 04:17:24 AM »
There is something to be said for making common cause with fellow humans against ravening monsters.  Since this hypothetical commander would have responsibility for the humans in the city, though, he'd have to be awfully sure that the humans he was saving were truly making common cause with him in return.  If he can't be sure that they are, it would simply be a choosing between leaving/betraying the humans outside the wall or leaving/betraying the humans inside the walls.

150
Brandon Sanderson / Re: what does kelsier look like?
« on: February 01, 2008, 12:10:36 AM »
I can never get a real handle on what a character looks like unless the writer manages to slip in a really good description of him.  So, when someone asks what a character looks like I try to think what actor I could imagine playing them well.  In this case, I say Christian Bale.  Perhaps someone has already suggested that, I can't remember.  Christian Bale would make an excellent Kelsior IMO.

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