The Realism of Our Times: Kim Stanley Robinson on how science fiction works

Re:The Realism of Our Times: Kim Stanley Robinson on how sci... by throw1234651234 on Friday July 23, 2021 @11:42AM (#27931970)

I know what you are talking about, despite being on the opposite end of that spectrum. Snow Crash / Diamond Age are cyberpunk/post-cyberpunk ala Gibson and completely different from Stephenson's other books.

I couldn't even get through Cryptonomicon, and Jack Shaftoe did not strike me as a believable genius, nor his story. Anathem kind of strafed the line - it had SOME character development, and SOME action, but was mainly world-building / intellectual exploration. Stephenson's other books fall too far on that spectrum for me.

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Re:The Realism of Our Times: Kim Stanley Robinson on how sci... by arethuza on Friday July 23, 2021 @11:46AM (#27932022)

Are you by any chance referring to "Bobby" Shaftoe the WW2 Marine Raider or his ancestor King of the Vagabonds, L'Emmerdeur, Half-Cocked Jack, Quicksilver, Ali Zaybak, Sword of Divine Fire, Jack the Coiner...

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Re:The Realism of Our Times: Kim Stanley Robinson on how sci... by the__alchemist on Friday July 23, 2021 @05:48PM (#27936006)

This gentleman, by whatever named you call him, is perhaps my favorite Stephenson character. I hated him after the first book... it felt too difficult to related to his decisions and mistakes, but loved him by the end.

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Re:The Realism of Our Times: Kim Stanley Robinson on how sci... by the__alchemist on Friday July 23, 2021 @05:46PM (#27935979)

I can't remember a single character from Anathem, but its world and some of the scenes are burned into my connectome.

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