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A comment on Why octopuses are building small “cities” off the coast of Australia (2017). Parent comment

Re:Why octopuses are building small “cities” off the coast o... by Frotag on Sunday May 28, 2023 @04:10PM (#36107303)
I like the author (read through a few of his other series) but it gets a little tiring how often he switches between perspectives. Each perspective is a different plotline and they all tie together in the finale but it feels like a 50-100 page story is being stretched into 300.

Especially since the dialog can be a bit boring imo (each character has some quirk and all their lines / actions tend to be predictable when taking this into account). IIRC, the Children of Time books aren't so bad in this regard (less drama, more reverse-engineering alien tech), but I definitely think the newest book for The Final Architecture kinda suffers from this.

But yeah nonetheless I really enjoy how creative the world building / overall plots are and would definitely recommend his stuff to anyone who likes sci-fi.

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Re:Why octopuses are building small “cities” off the coast o... by jorvi on Sunday May 28, 2023 @11:27PM (#36110310)
Sounds like he’s been heavily inspired by Vernor Vinge’s “Zones of Thought” trilogy.
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Re:Why octopuses are building small “cities” off the coast o... by essentialfloss on Monday May 29, 2023 @01:06AM (#36110872)
Which, whole it suffers from some of the same issues, has some great world building and creative ideas.
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Re:Why octopuses are building small “cities” off the coast o... by essentialfloss on Monday May 29, 2023 @01:08AM (#36110884)
Which, while it suffers from some of the same issues, has some great world building and creative ideas.
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Re:Why octopuses are building small “cities” off the coast o... by pschuegr on Tuesday May 30, 2023 @08:01AM (#36123778)
thankyou.gif

Nothing turns me off an author who can write prose well faster than switching perspectives every chapter - you're throwing out one of, if not _the_ biggest advantage of long-form narrative : the ability to get deeply into the head of a character.

I had to stop reading Cloud Cuckoo Land because of this. And while I'm shouting into the void, this goes for you too, TV/movie producers:

Just tell the damn story straight. If you can't do that and make it interesting, you need a better story.

[ Parent | on HN ]