Flights of Fantasy discussion

Our sci-fi selection for July is The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross.

Please remember to mark any spoilers by using the spoiler tag -- type < spoiler> your spoiler here < /spoiler>, without the spaces. Posts containing unmarked spoilers may be deleted.

So, I'm kinda digging this BUT the techno-babble is driving me to distraction. If I end up DNFing this it will be due to the techno-babble.

I have listened to this as an audiobook. And yes, it is distracting. I thought maybe that was because it was audio, but perhaps not?

By the way, (view spoiler)[at some point they go to Amsterdam, which is fun for me, because I recognise the places they go, although he utters the names in a very British twisted way. But as I do not particularly like Amsterdam (or the other Dutch city mentioned, Rotterdam) I am pretty happy that evil portals are opened there!! (hide spoiler)]

Anyway I did end up liking it!

Not sure if The Concrete Jungle is also included in this group read? It was part of the audiobook, so I listened to it anyway. I think I did not get much of this book, even more distracting, but somehow I like the endings which give me a good feeling. And I end up giving more stars ;)

The Concrete Jungle is part of my book. I planned to read it.

So I'm almost at 50%. I really like the plotting ideas but I'm sure there's a lot going over my head. There are some interesting snarky parts, too.

The biggest issue is still the techno babble. There's so many weird combos of words and descriptions of theories that I don't really get.

but I love the idea of people like Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory being drafted. Sheldon as a secret agent. Fun.

^You might like Rule 34 more than The Atrocity Archives although the first person narrative in Rule 34 drives some people batty. The techno-babble is a little less over the top in it from my memory.

I'm stuck at the little side books for the Atrocity Archives series and I'm not sure I'll end up finishing it.

Homeinmyshoes wrote: "^You might like Rule 34 more than The Atrocity Archives although the first person narrative in Rule 34 drives some people batty. The techno-babble is a little less over..."


Ugh. First person. Not really my thing but...

^I wasn't sure about the first person as I was reading it, but on finishing the book it made complete sense. It was not a book that should have been written in anything but first person. Definitely part of what made me love the title as much as I did.

Homeinmyshoes wrote: "^I wasn't sure about the first person as I was reading it, but on finishing the book it made complete sense. It was not a book that should have been written in anything but first person. Definitely..."

I'm willing to try it at least once!

I read this a little bit ago, and at first had trouble following it and almost DNF'd, but after a bit it started making more sense and came together in a way I really liked!

Maggie wrote: "I read this a little bit ago, and at first had trouble following it and almost DNF'd, but after a bit it started making more sense and came together in a way I really liked!"

That's good to know! I'm often getting bogged down in the technical but I haven't thrown in the towel cause I can tell there's something there.

I bought my husband the audio and he's complaining of it, too.

Maggie wrote: "I read this a little bit ago, and at first had trouble following it and almost DNF'd, but after a bit it started making more sense and came together in a way I really liked!"

Yes, that is also what I thought! The last half, or maybe it was only the last quarter, I liked a lot!

So, my husband and I were talking about this one last night and he's really complaining now.

O_o

He says he can't understand 50% of what's being talked about (the tech) and he's amazed I've managed to push so far. He really wants to chuck the whole thing. :-(

I'm at about 47% and (view spoiler)[it looks like they think there's Nazis involved and they've already managed to kidnap Mo. (hide spoiler)] I feel like it's trying to get good but every time I get in the groove I get pulled out again due to the techno-speak.

I listened to this on audiobook and I don't understand what people find so distracting about the "techno" babble. A lot of it is fantasy-tech with no real explanation, just there to sound good. The rest is fairly basic name-dropping of different technologies, almost no discussion of how the stuff actually works (view spoiler)[ the most in-depth monologue is about the nuke, and even that is pretty basic stuff (hide spoiler)]. To me, the techno-speak in this book was very well done. If people remember Daemon from a couple of months back, that, in my opinion, was a book with excessive techno-babble that was done in a very poor way.

EDIT: I should probably mention that I have an education in IT, and i generally find technology fascinating and fun to learn about.

Øystein wrote: "EDIT: I should probably mention that I have an education in IT, and i generally find technology fascinating and fun to learn about."

LOL


I wish I had a background in IT.