Musings/Träumereien/Devaneios

"The thin curve [when Ye was watching a waveform on a screen supposedly from an alien civilization], rising and falling, seemed to possess a soul."

Metaphor only takes me so far...When I’m reading a supposedly hard SF book I must put into action my non-suspension-of-disbelief-hat. That’s the only way I can read this kind of SF. I’ve heard from some friends of mine, that some books are all metaphor when the physics part of them are utter crap…. Excuse me? It's like saying, "look here, this is my universe, but try not to concentrate too much on it, look at all the beautiful metaphors I wrote instead." Don’t tell me this is me being pedantic. One thing is getting the physics right from scratch, the other thing is to do the extrapolation stuff the “right” way. In this case, base physics is quite off base, i.e., dead wrong in several key areas of the book. They’re so wrong that I only finished it because I wanted to pin-point the rest of the so-called errors. I know, I’m mean…The above-mentioned example is one of the most glaring examples. A wave form where one’s able to see something behind it just by looking at it! Even with poetical license in play, this is quite a bit of a stretch. I could mention another examples, but this one is one of the most obvious examples in showing that Cixin’s storytelling leaves a lot to be desired.

If you're into crappy SF, read on.