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Wait, what?
Feb. 25th, 2025 12:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
epistlerSeriously, what the hell?
IUDICATUS - A Fractal Noise Spitefic
Sep. 6th, 2024 08:32 pmepistlertorylltales asked me to as a birthday favour and everyone knows you can't say no to one of those.Happy birthday, and enjoy!
( I'm Australian, so I know all about kangaroo courts )
Fractal Noise Spork: Appendix Two
Jan. 5th, 2024 08:57 pmultimate_cheetahThere’s not much to talk about here. This is just the timeline from 2025 to the year Fractal Noise takes place. I really don’t have worldbuilding critiques here, in fact, I think this timeline thing is a good idea to put in, so I’ll just make snarky comments as needed. And maybe some praise, too.
( Read more... )
Author's Saving Throw Failed
Jan. 3rd, 2024 09:17 pmsnarkbotanyaminionnumber2 made me aware of a very interesting Tweet by one Christopher Paolini. Apparently some readers took issue with how the characters told time in Fractal Noise; that is, they noticed things like "oh-eight-hundred" being used to mean 8pm.
There's a pretty glaring problem with this. To illustrate, I think I'll quote from Fractal Noise, Part I, Chapter 2.
Alex tried not to take it personally, but it was personal, and Idris wasn’t wrong. So he clenched his jaw and held his tongue.
“Oh, and one other thing, Crichton. I want you to draft a proposal for the landing party. Best practices, quarantine protocol, how you think we should investigate the site. That sort of thing. Have it on my desk by oh-eight-hundred tonight.”
“Yessir.”
Idris nodded. “We clear?”
“Yessir. Clear as space.”
Spotted the problem? I bet most of you have.
Captain Idris is the Adamura's CO. He's not a civilian, and yet here he is using twelve-hour time. And don't try to give me some line about how clearly he's shifted to twelve-hour time because he's talking to a civilian. Everyone on that ship is a crew member, civilian or not; the CO would be enforcing things like military time to make sure everyone is on the same page and/or to follow regulations.
But wait, there's more! Here's a bit from Part II, Chapter 1.
At 1800 they made camp. Twenty-one klicks from the lander, and nearly to the edge of Beta Zone. Better than Alex expected.
The use of 1800 here is in narration, but considering how the entire book is in close third person, this reads as Alex, a civilian, thinking in 24-hour military time. He will continue to do this throughout the rest of the book. In combination with Idris's "oh-eight-hundred tonight," this basically means that the use of 12-hour versus 24-hour time in the novel is the opposite of what Paolini said in his Tweet.
I also can't help but notice that Paolini's example was an hour off the example from the book. When Minion showed me the Tweet, I didn't even have to check the text to remember that Captain Idris had said "oh-eight-hundred" to mean 8pm. Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but it seems I might remember Paolini's canon better than he does.
Either way, this excuse doesn't fly. I wouldn't call this a critical failure on an author's saving throw, but he definitely rolled a single digit.
snarkbotanyaAll right. Let’s do this.
This chapter marks the beginning of Part 4, “CONSUMMATION.” It occurs to me that a lot of terms that could be used to describe a story’s climax, including “climax,” are weirdly sexual. I’m not sure how to feel about that.
Anyway, we have an opening quote. It’s a continuation of the Chaim Stern quote we got all the way back at the beginning, which, hey, full circle I guess? Whatever. I’m so done with these opening quotes; they’re just here so Paolini can wave his arms and yell, “Look at my learnings!”
I’m not interested in seeing your learnings through regurgitated quotes, Paolini. I’m interested in seeing them through actual application in your writing. Give me some synthesis.
( Reading this book is certainly a test of one's breaking point. )
Next up is Torylltales with the final chapter, Part 4, Chapter II: Apotheosis. I look forward to seeing what words you have in that spork, my friend, because trust me, I am gonna have a lot of words of my own in the comments.
ignoresandraIgnoreSandra
( This was a lot easier with two people. )
Next is Breaking Point with Snarkbotanya
And may God have mercy on her soul.
torylltalesFarcical Nonsense, sorry, Fractal Noise, Part 3 Chapter 1.
Apologies for the delay and formatting issues (especially re. text size) in this one. My laptop died halfway through the spork, so I had to transfer it onto my antique two-laptops-ago backup device running a version of Libre Office that is several versions out of date.
( Read more... )
Next up is Eta Zone with ignoresandra and ultimatecheetah.
ultimate_cheetah( Read more... )
croscorant( 12 pages in this book doesn’t really cover much. They walk, then talk, then sleep. )
sassyelfby( Read more... )
snarkbotanyaWell, here we are. Fractal Noise, Part 2: Confusion, Chapter I: Alpha Zone. We’ve just made it down to the surface of Talos VII. We’re still fairly early in the book, but this chapter is where we really get into some bullshit. What kind of bullshit? Well, just to give a taste, we’ll have some infodumping exposition, way-too-long travel scenes, unnecessary worldbuilding around bodily functions, clumsy philosophical posturing, and at the very end, the introduction of an in-universe event blatantly modeled off one of the worst real-life atrocities I’ve ever read about.
I am going to have words when we get to that. But first, let’s slog through the preceding tedium. Fair warning, friends: this spork is long.
( If I'd had a paper copy of this book, it would have been thrown. )
This chapter spork is 20 pages long in the Google Doc I used to write it. I genuinely feared that I would discover Dreamwidth’s posting limit.
Next up will be epistler with Part 2, Chapter II: Beta Zone.
dryaddryagainChapter 3 takes place in orbit around Talos VII as they prep for the landing mission.
( Read more... )
torylltalesFarty Noise, Chapter 2
Sorry, that was just childish. Anyway, here’s the first truly new section, seeing as chapter 1 was released as a “preview” a few months ago.
