Mark > Recent Status Updates

This is already so weird lol

the dialogue can be a pretty millennial cringe tbh

"Middle-aged, maybe thirty-five..."

😬😬😬😬

Weirdly Christian. Lots of unnecessary preamble. So far, re-examining Christian morals really needs to become a major theme, otherwise and this will be mostly putting lying to the police about as morally dubious as joining the Hitler youth.

First couple stories were very grim and gruesome. Near of Kin was strangely (for Butler) skippable.

Marco confirmed to own a Sega CD

Wayne 😭😭😭

I started rolling my eyes when they mentioned doing ecstasy and have not stopped rolling them since. Everything that you would expect to happen happens and it's so fucking lame.

"it's good to have economic inequality because otherwise people would be too bored" is certainly a take

This has an interesting philosophy on death, but man does it feel at times like it's written by some libertarian who read one too many Rational Fan Fictions where all the characters exist just to "solve" morality. I can see the romance coming a mile away and he's already to leaning way too hard into degrowth rather than actual philosophy/theology or a take on death-positivity.

"Publicar" jumped out at me as 2deep4u. Oh, an omnipotent AI has solved injury? Yeah it just reinvents Uber lol. Woke animal rights activists hate zodiac? They actually ruined counting years.

I like that this is an AI story without being the played out "what if consciousness?" It reminds me of Star Trek important ways instead: paradox of a utopia and a near future obsessed with contemporary N. America/Europe.

Some of the political "intrigue" is very im14andthisisdeep and beginning to stretch disbelief. Finally more of the mystery is being moved forward during part 3 after treading water for the entirety of part 2.

it's kind of a joke to compare any post-apocalyptic thing to Fallout but this is literally the twist of Fallout 1 blown out to the entire premise

I always find novelists, particularly sff novelists, to be laughably bad at writing about music. It's history, geography, psychology, and its own thing all wrapped up in one; do your research or don't write it. The idea that on a distant future planet, the only surviving music from Earth would be Gregorian chant and grindcore or that their appeal would map so easily to modern-day Westerners' taste is incredibly dumb.

Yikes, I feel like the plot is only just now getting started. I get it's a pastiche, one of a style I'm not particularly familiar with, but oof that doesn't excuse the pacing.

I actually don't mind the footnotes at all. I expected much worse but I think they only enhance the story if anything.

Yikes, I feel like the plot is only just now getting started. I get it's a pastiche, one of a style I'm not particularly familiar with, but oof that doesn't excuse the pacing.

So far, too much time talking about WWI, its repercussions, and the decline of the German mark, all while subtly (though probably not intentionally) justifying Germans' extreme xenophobia post-WWI. The first part has felt completely superfluous and could have been summed up with "the German mark faced hyperinflation in the aftermath of WWI." Which is FINALLY the interesting part: why art became a holder of value.

Collins built up a lot of good will in the first two books. She had a lot to say about the de facto social castes that form from wealth inequality, the abuses of those in positions of power when they exploit the politics of fear, and the pitfalls of vapid overabundance.

But so far, this book's philosophy is "ackshually it's both sides" and that kinda blows.

"68%"

this book is long lol

Hoo boy I got to some totally great "both sides r bad" stuff. I hope that ends pretty soon.

I'm still not sure why everybody is a dragon? It just seems like a contrived way to shove cannibalism into a story. I can't tell what the point even is since they act exactly like humans otherwise. I mean god they just talked about taking the train and wearing hats.