Are Scalzi's books deeper than pure entertainment? Yes Do they raise questions about the human condition, our treatment of others, the role of governments, etc.? Yes
Though I think you might be selling RAH a little short. Yes - he preached - but just because his books didn't actually ask the questions themselves doesn't mean he didn't inspire the reader to ask those questions.
The funniest sci-fi I've read in years was The Android's Dream - also by Scalzi. It's not just humour - there is a lot more going on but the humour that is there is the stuff that I think Douglas Adams really excelled at creating - very silly and ironic at the same time. Sometimes biting but never mean spirited.
Science fiction and funny are not all that easy to pull off I think - at least based on some of the failed attempts I've read.
Yes - I do stuff like that all the time - unintentionally by the way.
Re:Know the end? Big deal...
on
Zoe's Tale
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· Score: 1
I don't get worked up about it - but I've read reviews of other books where they basically explain Scalzi's book in terms of which Heinlein that it matches.
This Zoe's Tale Review wonders if "...Scalzi has perfected some kind of occult ritual to allow the spirit of the late Grand Master to possess his body."
This Last Colony review says that it is really 2 books in one - one of which is The Tunnel in the Sky. Which I really can't agree with and think it is only the Heinlein tie in that made them go there.
So it's out there and I thought it was worth throwing in my thoughts on it - in case anyone had read those types of reviews and might appreciate a different opinion.
Re:"Young Adults"
on
Zoe's Tale
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· Score: 2, Informative
Dude - I don't make the terms up I just use them. And for many of them I doubt that their tastes are a lot different than yours - but the reality is that marketing to them may require reigning in certain elements more easily found in 'adult' fiction. This is a book that could safely make it into a school library in the U.S. - I think. (You never know sometimes.)
Re:Old Man's War and Last Colony
on
Zoe's Tale
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· Score: 2, Interesting
I wouldn't go that far. In fact - I think not putting it into play would be ignoring a very obvious capability that someone would design into that kind of equipment. Especially a government like the one we find in these books.
From the article I think the estimate shipping at 6 million but that's included in the 42. I don't know if NASA will take paypal - but I am quite sure paypal would be happy to take your millions.
I've seen it go both ways. I've seen unions keep out of control employers in check and I've seen unions become a parasite on the employee and employer even sometimes ultimately killing off the employer and then the jobs it was created to protect.
I think it gets especially nasty (in my US based work experience) when government gets involved and forces people to be in unions and gives the unions too much power. I think there is some truth to this being a part of the problem with American auto manufacturers and many of the problems in Michigan.
I tend to agree with you about term limits, if for no other reason the fact that politicians almost universally oppose them. How bad can they be if that is the case?
I had some run ins with store managers that had napoleon complexes and the union got my back. I could never have worked for the union though because they had to spend a lot of time trying to help people who deserved to get fired keep their jobs.
But it was a time and place when the employers really didn't care if they kept you or not and didn't want to give us decent insurance and the union helped that to happen - so I felt they provided more pros than cons. But it's easy for it to tip the other way.
She's brutal with that. She got beat once- and then played in practice mode until she could whip everybody in the family. Really all I've got left is Mario Kart double dash - but nobody wants to play that any more. I just race the console.
It's cool though. She's just very competitive and I'm not. But my vocabulary isn't too bad - I thought scrabulous was a real opportunity to dominate. I was very mistaken.
It's interesting that every single person in the article is against it except for a dnc congressman. The end of the article says he bemoans the lack of union growth. Why would he be concerned about union growth? Why would he be so concerned about union growth that he would try and take steps to lower the bar on organizing groups of people who probably don't even want it? Oh yeah - money. This is why I hate politics. This has nothing to do with serving people it is all about finding revenue streams to fund their next election. Maybe they can get the rest of the country to be like the state of Washington and force people into unions, fire the ones that wont join and rack up plenty of contributions that way.
I was a union member for a number of years. (UFCW) Fortunately it was in a right to work state and it was my choice. And fortunately it was possible to relatively private about joining or not joining. None of this harassment that can come in other environments. Unions are just like employers - they are good to keep in check against one another but I think it is a mistake to think they are purely for the employee. They quickly fall to Pournelle's Iron Law. This whole affair is a marked reminder of that fact.
I don't think the Republicans are any better for what it is worth - but I think at least the discussion on what this is all about out to be frank rather than draped in a bunch of spin. Being cautious about unions is not being anti employee.
My wife absolutely crushes me every time we play. It was bad enough when she dominated me in physical sports but this is too much. I was really hoping they would get shut down.
This article about Job's not doing the keynote says the worries this is generating about his health are hurting Apple stock. Is there any other company with it's perception of viability so closely linked to a single living individual? I'm unaware of any right now. It's makes this whole thing pretty interesting. He is a human and can't live forever, regardless of how his health is right now. It seems maybe they have seen that with the earlier rumors about his health and have realized they need to start building a transition while he is still around so the company wont take as big a hit when he is gone.
Or maybe it is all much more mundane than that - but I've never seen this type of announcement gain so much press before. It's on every MSM news outlet as well as all the tech sites.
Yep - great game in a format a lot of teen gamers will already know. I love playing it and the ability to download new scenarios and make your own is pretty cool. It is very well done - and a lot of fun.
I thought I had seen that - I just did a quick skim back through the book and maybe I was mistaken. It does say she's a highschool junior - which would probably be older than 15 - 16 or 17 maybe. I'm not sure of the age Japanese children start grade school.
You can do the math - teens are stupendously bad drivers compared to much of the rest of the population. Fortunately due to the financial component - it's not hard to collect a lot of information on accidents.
In Orlando, Florida I have Brighthouse high speed - no other services. In Phoenix, Arizona I did the same with Cox - though eventually I picked up their phone service too since it was a good deal, but initially I only used them for internet.
Actually works - that was kind of the point of the MS SQL Server illustration. It's pointless to ship something that is broken - but for some reason it happens with open and closed projects.
Every book review (other than fiction) brings up this question, which basically boils down to "Why buy a dead-tree book?" and that really is irrelevant to whether or not the book is any good - so I ignore it in the review. I prefer to have books on hand for certain things. Some people don't.
As to the value of the book with regards to the on-line documentation- that's a pretty subjective question too. I'd say that in the reference portions they are probably about the same - but in the tutorial type material that the book brings together some helpful material that in my experience can be had on line but needs to be pulled together from a multitude of places. Then one needs to start sorting through what is applicable to the version on hand, what is accurate, etc. This book saves that work. And this still ties in to the personal preference of using a book or not. I use numerous 'dead tree' resources when I'm working - some electronic documents printed out and some books. That style works best for me and I feel confident guessing this is true for more than an insignificant amount of people.
Paid advertisement requires that some form of payment was exchanged. I do not work for Sun, slashdot, O'Reilly or Amazon. I did not receive any kind of compensation for writing the review beyond the satisfaction of doing so. So that accusation fails - there was no payment involved here.
I can't answer for the folks who run slashdot - but I can answer for myself. I love books. I love to read them. I enjoy writing reviews too - it's a fun hobby. I started doing so because I would read book reviews here and thought it would be fun to try it myself. I appreciate the book reviews posted here by others because it is information in which I am interested. I tend to buy books, probably at a rate that is higher than the average consumer where I live. This makes the reviews a valuable resource in my estimation.
And since you seem to be struggling in this regard, CNN, NBC (though there's are more mixed into other areas rather completely on their own - here's another for you), CBS (yes - via AP but I think they do news.) and BBC.
And finally - you can filter book reviews off your front page. So I'm thinking your a troll or maybe having a bad day. But relax - chill out and don't get upset about this. "Garbage" is certainly going overboard. I'd suggest a fun read to help you chill out. "Zoe's Tale" by John Scalzi is a good one. I'm hoping to type up my review this week if you want to know more about it.
Slashdot Mirror
Are Scalzi's books deeper than pure entertainment?
Yes
Do they raise questions about the human condition, our treatment of others, the role of governments, etc.?
Yes
Though I think you might be selling RAH a little short. Yes - he preached - but just because his books didn't actually ask the questions themselves doesn't mean he didn't inspire the reader to ask those questions.
The funniest sci-fi I've read in years was The Android's Dream - also by Scalzi. It's not just humour - there is a lot more going on but the humour that is there is the stuff that I think Douglas Adams really excelled at creating - very silly and ironic at the same time. Sometimes biting but never mean spirited.
Science fiction and funny are not all that easy to pull off I think - at least based on some of the failed attempts I've read.
Yes - I do stuff like that all the time - unintentionally by the way.
I don't get worked up about it - but I've read reviews of other books where they basically explain Scalzi's book in terms of which Heinlein that it matches.
This Zoe's Tale Review wonders if "...Scalzi has perfected some kind of occult ritual to allow the spirit of the late Grand Master to possess his body."
This Last Colony review says that it is really 2 books in one - one of which is The Tunnel in the Sky. Which I really can't agree with and think it is only the Heinlein tie in that made them go there.
So it's out there and I thought it was worth throwing in my thoughts on it - in case anyone had read those types of reviews and might appreciate a different opinion.
Dude - I don't make the terms up I just use them. And for many of them I doubt that their tastes are a lot different than yours - but the reality is that marketing to them may require reigning in certain elements more easily found in 'adult' fiction. This is a book that could safely make it into a school library in the U.S. - I think. (You never know sometimes.)
I wouldn't go that far. In fact - I think not putting it into play would be ignoring a very obvious capability that someone would design into that kind of equipment. Especially a government like the one we find in these books.
From the article I think the estimate shipping at 6 million but that's included in the 42. I don't know if NASA will take paypal - but I am quite sure paypal would be happy to take your millions.
amazing how offense free that is. that had to take a bit of effort.
I've seen it go both ways. I've seen unions keep out of control employers in check and I've seen unions become a parasite on the employee and employer even sometimes ultimately killing off the employer and then the jobs it was created to protect.
I think it gets especially nasty (in my US based work experience) when government gets involved and forces people to be in unions and gives the unions too much power. I think there is some truth to this being a part of the problem with American auto manufacturers and many of the problems in Michigan.
I tend to agree with you about term limits, if for no other reason the fact that politicians almost universally oppose them. How bad can they be if that is the case?
I had some run ins with store managers that had napoleon complexes and the union got my back. I could never have worked for the union though because they had to spend a lot of time trying to help people who deserved to get fired keep their jobs.
But it was a time and place when the employers really didn't care if they kept you or not and didn't want to give us decent insurance and the union helped that to happen - so I felt they provided more pros than cons. But it's easy for it to tip the other way.
She's brutal with that. She got beat once- and then played in practice mode until she could whip everybody in the family. Really all I've got left is Mario Kart double dash - but nobody wants to play that any more. I just race the console.
It's cool though. She's just very competitive and I'm not. But my vocabulary isn't too bad - I thought scrabulous was a real opportunity to dominate. I was very mistaken.
It's interesting that every single person in the article is against it except for a dnc congressman. The end of the article says he bemoans the lack of union growth. Why would he be concerned about union growth? Why would he be so concerned about union growth that he would try and take steps to lower the bar on organizing groups of people who probably don't even want it? Oh yeah - money. This is why I hate politics. This has nothing to do with serving people it is all about finding revenue streams to fund their next election. Maybe they can get the rest of the country to be like the state of Washington and force people into unions, fire the ones that wont join and rack up plenty of contributions that way.
I was a union member for a number of years. (UFCW) Fortunately it was in a right to work state and it was my choice. And fortunately it was possible to relatively private about joining or not joining. None of this harassment that can come in other environments. Unions are just like employers - they are good to keep in check against one another but I think it is a mistake to think they are purely for the employee. They quickly fall to Pournelle's Iron Law. This whole affair is a marked reminder of that fact.
I don't think the Republicans are any better for what it is worth - but I think at least the discussion on what this is all about out to be frank rather than draped in a bunch of spin. Being cautious about unions is not being anti employee.
My wife absolutely crushes me every time we play. It was bad enough when she dominated me in physical sports but this is too much. I was really hoping they would get shut down.
There may be many - but so far 2 have been mentioned - 1 of them repeatedly and they don't even make anything.
This article about Job's not doing the keynote says the worries this is generating about his health are hurting Apple stock. Is there any other company with it's perception of viability so closely linked to a single living individual? I'm unaware of any right now. It's makes this whole thing pretty interesting. He is a human and can't live forever, regardless of how his health is right now. It seems maybe they have seen that with the earlier rumors about his health and have realized they need to start building a transition while he is still around so the company wont take as big a hit when he is gone.
Or maybe it is all much more mundane than that - but I've never seen this type of announcement gain so much press before. It's on every MSM news outlet as well as all the tech sites.
It doesn't matter why - they don't need more distractions.
Yep - great game in a format a lot of teen gamers will already know. I love playing it and the ability to download new scenarios and make your own is pretty cool. It is very well done - and a lot of fun.
I thought I had seen that - I just did a quick skim back through the book and maybe I was mistaken. It does say she's a highschool junior - which would probably be older than 15 - 16 or 17 maybe. I'm not sure of the age Japanese children start grade school.
You can do the math - teens are stupendously bad drivers compared to much of the rest of the population. Fortunately due to the financial component - it's not hard to collect a lot of information on accidents.
In Orlando, Florida I have Brighthouse high speed - no other services. In Phoenix, Arizona I did the same with Cox - though eventually I picked up their phone service too since it was a good deal, but initially I only used them for internet.
Actually works - that was kind of the point of the MS SQL Server illustration. It's pointless to ship something that is broken - but for some reason it happens with open and closed projects.
Just dealing with the reality of the situation my friend. I agree with your sentiment completely.
Every book review (other than fiction) brings up this question, which basically boils down to "Why buy a dead-tree book?" and that really is irrelevant to whether or not the book is any good - so I ignore it in the review. I prefer to have books on hand for certain things. Some people don't.
As to the value of the book with regards to the on-line documentation- that's a pretty subjective question too. I'd say that in the reference portions they are probably about the same - but in the tutorial type material that the book brings together some helpful material that in my experience can be had on line but needs to be pulled together from a multitude of places. Then one needs to start sorting through what is applicable to the version on hand, what is accurate, etc. This book saves that work. And this still ties in to the personal preference of using a book or not. I use numerous 'dead tree' resources when I'm working - some electronic documents printed out and some books. That style works best for me and I feel confident guessing this is true for more than an insignificant amount of people.
Paid advertisement requires that some form of payment was exchanged. I do not work for Sun, slashdot, O'Reilly or Amazon. I did not receive any kind of compensation for writing the review beyond the satisfaction of doing so. So that accusation fails - there was no payment involved here.
I can't answer for the folks who run slashdot - but I can answer for myself. I love books. I love to read them. I enjoy writing reviews too - it's a fun hobby. I started doing so because I would read book reviews here and thought it would be fun to try it myself. I appreciate the book reviews posted here by others because it is information in which I am interested. I tend to buy books, probably at a rate that is higher than the average consumer where I live. This makes the reviews a valuable resource in my estimation.
And since you seem to be struggling in this regard, CNN, NBC (though there's are more mixed into other areas rather completely on their own - here's another for you), CBS (yes - via AP but I think they do news.) and BBC.
And finally - you can filter book reviews off your front page. So I'm thinking your a troll or maybe having a bad day. But relax - chill out and don't get upset about this. "Garbage" is certainly going overboard. I'd suggest a fun read to help you chill out. "Zoe's Tale" by John Scalzi is a good one. I'm hoping to type up my review this week if you want to know more about it.