The Sword and Laser discussion

I'm not sure this is worth a new topic, but I'll post it anyway: what exactly was the Shining mechanic? My impression is that the women brightly glowed, indicating they had some sort of high potential, however (a) the glowing seemed to be inconsistent ((view spoiler)[at one point someone gives away their location around a corner because they are shining so brightly, however at the same time Kirby is able to shadow Harper despite also apparently glowing like a lightbulb? (hide spoiler)]) and (b) if the girls are destined to die ((view spoiler)[Kirby doesn't save anyone; by killing Harper she just restarts the cycle (hide spoiler)]), what exactly makes them special (other than being victims)?

In any event, I'm not really sure why this is classed as science fiction; to my mind, the hand-waving ((view spoiler)[and literal ghost in the machine (hide spoiler)]) means this is straight-up fantasy.

Hand waving Time Travel is a time-honored tradition.

I think they were just extraordinary women that advanced progress in history?

Did they though? Unless I missed it, the only one that seemed to be doing anything significant was the biochemist.

What is significance? Each one represented a victory for women in her era. Some big, some small.

I liked Zora. It was a nice short story in itself.

I still struggle to see why each one was different enough from any other woman in her era to justify them shining. The story would have been just the same if the killings has been completely random. The shining almost seems like it exists purely to give the book a title.

I guess my overall problem is that the supernatural trappings seemed largely superfluous to the story. Once you get past the (view spoiler)[ghost-powered (hide spoiler)] time travelling abilities of the house, everything else just boils down to a guy randomly killing women in a gruesome manner.

Even the investigation doesn't really add much since (view spoiler)[they never actually discover anything that leads them to the killer; all that happens is that eventually he conveniently turns up at her work, so she can follow him and kill him (hide spoiler)].

I think I must have missed some significant plot points, otherwise to me this seems a high concept idea that has been lightly fleshed out into story. If I hadn't already returned it to the library, I'd be tempted to read it again to see what I'm missing.

Steve wrote: "I think I must have missed some significant plot points, otherwise to me this seems a high concept idea that has been lightly fleshed out into story. If I hadn't already returned it to the library, I'd be tempted to read it again to see what I'm missing."

This is the exact same problem I had with the other Beukes book I read, Zoo City. The writing itself was really good, but her magic system - if it can even be called that - makes absolutely no sense. Even anything-goes Fantasy needs to have *some* internal consistency.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

That spoiler about the house is a good insight actually. Maybe the book is just a great premise and a quick read with a literary style, and some interesting bits of history. I think the characters are good. I’m not a fan of a lot of flashbacks or a villian pov.

John (Taloni) wrote: "What is significance? Each one represented a victory for women in her era. Some big, some small."

That was my assessment as well.

I enjoyed this book for the characters and the writing but yeah, the world building is definitely on the hand wavey end of the spectrum. If you prefer your science fiction and fantasy to be more realistic and/or systematic then this isn’t the book for you.

I read all the shining stuff as the deluded projection of a disturbed and homicidal mind. To me, the time travel was the only thing that made this SF at all.

I can't recall: were they referred to as "shining" before Harper encounters the radium dancer?

Was the Radium Girl the first Shining Girl? Get it?

It significantly predates the radium dancer in the book, but here are some inspirations:
https://www.str.org.uk/radium-dances/
https://orau.org/health-physics-museu...
https://orau.org/health-physics-museu...

Loïe Fuller was an American actress and dancer who is now best known for her pioneering of theatrical lighting techniques. In 1902 she wrote to Marie Skłodowska Curie and Pierre Curie to ask for their help in making a costume for her new dance, which would include ‘butterfly wings of radium.’

Aaron wrote: "It significantly predates the radium dancer in the book, but here are some inspirations:
https://www.str.org.uk/radium-dances/
https://orau.org/health-physics-museu......"

The references seem to imply that this is all just an urban legend and never actually happned the way described in the book. They bring up one point that was my first reaction when reading this. The cost of enough radium to cover her whole body would have been prohibitively expensive