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  • (tor dot com) Five Books Featuring Sudden, Unexpected Calamities That C

    From James Nicoll@21:1/5 to All on Wed Nov 29 18:07:25 2023
    Five Books Featuring Sudden, Unexpected Calamities That Change Everything

    The problem with being a protagonist is that many readers do not want to
    read about uneventful days.

    https://www.tor.com/2023/11/29/five-books-featuring-sudden-unexpected-calamities-that-change-everything/
    --
    My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
    My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
    My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
    My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

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  • From Lynn McGuire@21:1/5 to James Nicoll on Wed Nov 29 15:52:03 2023
    On 11/29/2023 12:07 PM, James Nicoll wrote:
    Five Books Featuring Sudden, Unexpected Calamities That Change Everything

    The problem with being a protagonist is that many readers do not want to
    read about uneventful days.

    https://www.tor.com/2023/11/29/five-books-featuring-sudden-unexpected-calamities-that-change-everything/

    I saw The Andromeda Strain movie. Does that count ?

    Just about half of SF fits this category depending on what the actual definition of sudden is.

    Lynn

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  • From Christian Weisgerber@21:1/5 to Lynn McGuire on Wed Nov 29 23:11:46 2023
    On 2023-11-29, Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:

    https://www.tor.com/2023/11/29/five-books-featuring-sudden-unexpected-calamities-that-change-everything/

    I saw The Andromeda Strain movie. Does that count ?

    The book is good, too, if you forgive the deus ex machine ending
    it shares with the movie. The book also provides an explanation
    for the weird effects of the laser gauntlet at the end of the movie.
    In the novel, the security system shoots curare flechettes, so the
    target starts suffering paralysis. This must have been changed
    very, very late to lasers during production of the movie.

    Just about half of SF fits this category depending on what the actual definition of sudden is.

    Indeed.

    --
    Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@mips.inka.de

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  • From Robert Woodward@21:1/5 to James Nicoll on Wed Nov 29 21:45:32 2023
    In article <uk7ukt$t7f$1@reader1.panix.com>,
    jdnicoll@panix.com (James Nicoll) wrote:

    Five Books Featuring Sudden, Unexpected Calamities That Change Everything

    The problem with being a protagonist is that many readers do not want to
    read about uneventful days.

    https://www.tor.com/2023/11/29/five-books-featuring-sudden-unexpected-calamiti
    es-that-change-everything/

    An adventure is something bad happening to somebody else far away.

    --
    "We have advanced to new and surprising levels of bafflement."
    Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan describes progress in _Komarr_. ‹-----------------------------------------------------
    Robert Woodward robertaw@drizzle.com

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to naddy@mips.inka.de on Thu Nov 30 09:22:22 2023
    On Wed, 29 Nov 2023 23:11:46 -0000 (UTC), Christian Weisgerber <naddy@mips.inka.de> wrote:

    On 2023-11-29, Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:

    https://www.tor.com/2023/11/29/five-books-featuring-sudden-unexpected-calamities-that-change-everything/

    I saw The Andromeda Strain movie. Does that count ?

    The book is good, too, if you forgive the deus ex machine ending
    it shares with the movie. The book also provides an explanation
    for the weird effects of the laser gauntlet at the end of the movie.
    In the novel, the security system shoots curare flechettes, so the
    target starts suffering paralysis. This must have been changed
    very, very late to lasers during production of the movie.

    I suppose it depends on what is seen as the ending.

    I see the ending as "hero braves central core and turns key".

    A true deus-ex-machina ending would have the "deus" appear
    undexpectedly and solve everything instantly. The T-Rex-ex-machina
    ending to /Jurassic Park/ had a T-Rex showing up unexpectedly and
    eating the last of the velociraptors (or their larger cousins)
    attacking our heroes, thus ending the /only/ part of the film that
    could be called "original".

    But there is nothing unexpected about finding a working sub-station
    and turning the key; it was set up at the beginning of the story.
    Indeed, having explained the system so carefully, it became
    /unavoidable/ that this be needed at some point. Otherwise, it would
    have been a "loose end that was mentioned once and went nowhere".

    But perhaps you see it as "strain washes out" (film) or "strain
    encircles Earth, ending the space age" (book, IIRC). I don't see a
    "deus", but the first could be considered a fairy-tale ending ("a
    handsome prince kissed Snow White and she woke up"), I suppose.
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

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  • From Christian Weisgerber@21:1/5 to Paul S Person on Fri Dec 1 19:11:26 2023
    On 2023-11-30, Paul S Person <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:

    I saw The Andromeda Strain movie. Does that count ?

    The book is good, too, if you forgive the deus ex machine ending
    it shares with the movie.

    I suppose it depends on what is seen as the ending.

    After the humans have failed to control Andromeda, it just like
    that mutates into a benign form.

    --
    Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@mips.inka.de

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Scott Dorsey@21:1/5 to naddy@mips.inka.de on Sat Dec 2 01:22:58 2023
    Christian Weisgerber <naddy@mips.inka.de> wrote:
    On 2023-11-30, Paul S Person <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:

    I saw The Andromeda Strain movie. Does that count ?

    The book is good, too, if you forgive the deus ex machine ending
    it shares with the movie.

    I suppose it depends on what is seen as the ending.

    After the humans have failed to control Andromeda, it just like
    that mutates into a benign form.

    It mutates into a "benign" form while the humans are still trying to
    control it, but they don't know that has happened because they aren't paying attention to their teletype. It's not all THAT benign since it destroys plastics.
    --scott
    --
    "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

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  • From Jerry Brown@21:1/5 to Scott Dorsey on Sat Dec 2 08:19:44 2023
    On 2 Dec 2023 01:22:58 -0000, kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) wrote:

    Christian Weisgerber <naddy@mips.inka.de> wrote:
    On 2023-11-30, Paul S Person <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:

    I saw The Andromeda Strain movie. Does that count ?

    The book is good, too, if you forgive the deus ex machine ending
    it shares with the movie.

    I suppose it depends on what is seen as the ending.

    After the humans have failed to control Andromeda, it just like
    that mutates into a benign form.

    It mutates into a "benign" form while the humans are still trying to
    control it, but they don't know that has happened because they aren't paying >attention to their teletype. It's not all THAT benign since it destroys >plastics.

    I did wonder if it might mutate again, back into a directly
    human-threatening variant. And immune to high ph values.

    --
    Jerry Brown

    A cat may look at a king
    (but probably won't bother)

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  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to naddy@mips.inka.de on Sat Dec 2 08:42:52 2023
    On Fri, 1 Dec 2023 19:11:26 -0000 (UTC), Christian Weisgerber <naddy@mips.inka.de> wrote:

    On 2023-11-30, Paul S Person <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:

    I saw The Andromeda Strain movie. Does that count ?

    The book is good, too, if you forgive the deus ex machine ending
    it shares with the movie.

    I suppose it depends on what is seen as the ending.

    After the humans have failed to control Andromeda, it just like
    that mutates into a benign form.

    In the film, it is destroyed.

    Apparently, in the book, it migrates to the upper atmosphere and (per [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Andromeda_Strain])

    "The novel's epilogue reveals that a crewed spacecraft, Andros V, was incinerated during atmospheric re-entry, presumably because Andromeda
    had eaten its tungsten/plastic laminate heat shield and caused it to
    burn up."

    So hardly "benign". Just not directly lethal to humans.
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

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