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San Francisco, 9:13 AM
Sun Nov 8
10 posts in the last 24 hours
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08/31/09
08/31/09
The protagonist is the last of a race of shapechangers that has been working against The Culture, which is like Star Trek's Federation only way whacked out. It is controlled by powerful artificial intelligences called Minds. The Culture is at war with the Iridians, big three-legged bug guys, really tough and religious zealots too. One of these Minds has been lost in a space battle before it could be turned on and the race is on to find it.
Banks is great for the jaw dropping set pieces and can be very funny to boot. You'll read about space-pirates, a cannibal cult, a cruise ship so big it could use the Titanic for a life raft, an artificial world like Niven's Ringworld or Halo, a game where players manipulate each others emotions and bet with the lives of volunteers, and so much much more.
I really like this book. Banks wrote it when he was still fairly young and some people think it lacks the finesse that maturity gave his later books. I still say check it out!
I hope this helps and welcome you to io9. Have fun.
08/07/09
08/07/09
As great as Alan Moore can be, he is by no means infallible. Yes, the glorious League of Extraordinary Gentleman was butchered into a nauseating, gooey pulp, but V for Vendetta was an improvement over the sometimes aimless and kind of dull book.
I'm excited to see more from the director that made V better than Alan Moore did. (never read this book, but I'm very curious now)
08/06/09
I can't still fathom the concept of the Envoy Corps. So they're badass elites specially trained to fight in any sleeve their minds beamed into. How? What sleeves? what if the bad guys just destroy the sleeve storage facilities, or simply turn of the needlecast installation?
Despite having only limited understanding of Japanese language and culture, Morgan keeps trying to shoehorn these elements into the novels. Fail.
Kovacs (and everybody else) is so angry and cussy, like, ALL the time. Every other sentence is fuck this and cunt that. Tiresome after five pages. Why is he so emo? I get it, broken family, dead comrades, corrupt bosses, battlefield massacre blah blah. But please! I yearn for a more stoic hero with the composure of somebody who's over 12.
That being said, I have high expectations for the movie, and if the director can at least mitigate some of my personal pet peeves above, I'll be happy. Sorry for my own emo rant.
08/07/09
08/06/09
I'd feel a lot better about it if it could be arranged for Kovacs himself to provide the consequences for a poor adaptation :-)
08/06/09
08/06/09
08/06/09
08/06/09
I mean, McTiegue is okay--he doesn't seem to shy away from non-blockbuster aspects of the work.
I'm curious, anyway.
08/06/09
casting will be very difficult. i'm not sure who they're going to find that can pull off the interior monologues that kocacs' character will almost certainly require, much less how they're going to handle the resleaving thing visually.
08/06/09
@tetracycloide: Interior monolgues did you say?
08/07/09
08/06/09
08/06/09
08/06/09
I knew that when I commented, but never let the facts get in the way...
08/06/09
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08/07/09
08/07/09
08/07/09
08/01/09
...could it?
07/31/09
07/31/09
All I know is that 3D in its current form is shit. I hope Avatar comes out with a non-3D version, else I dont think I could stand to watch it.
08/01/09
Cameron spent the better part of a decade redesigning how a camera shoots 3D for his future films.
How this will look on screen, who knows, but the first commercial film to use his new system is going to be Avatar.
08/01/09
08/01/09
But to answer your original question, yes it will be in 2D
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/41244
07/31/09
07/31/09
And yes, I have seen the Battle Angel anime, and was quite disappointed. It lacked the punch that the source material delivered. That, and IMO they changed too much of the story.
07/31/09
That OVA was garbage. Story was trash that butchered the source material, and the voice cast (both japanese and american) were cringe-worthy.
08/01/09
I mean, okay, compared to the manga it was that bad. But if you saw it on it's own, you might not think it was so terrible! I wound up seeing it before I picked up the manga, so I was happy with the OVA, and it was only after I started the manga did I realize exactly how deeper the story really was.
I think all of the projects around that time (Patlabor, Appleseed, the list goes on from those associated studios) tended to do that for some reason.
07/31/09
07/31/09
???
07/31/09
07/31/09
That was my reaction as well. Dushku has the look too, plus the athletic skills, but she really cannot act. Maybe Cameron could whip a performance out of her.
07/31/09