[QuickTidal]

worry, on 26 November 2018 - 06:46 PM, said:

Yep. So if ever you all see me behaving in a regrettable manner, reference QT's post above, think "there but for the grace of God go I," and extend to me maximum sympathy.

----A little more on the book: for as exciting as it would be to see any good adaptation of SE's books, for one reason or another this one felt the most -- by far -- like a movie to me. He's mentioned a few times that when he writes, he is almost like a movie camera watching and weaving through the scene, and it definitely felt like that here. The scene-hopping structure of this was a lot like a blockbuster global disaster movie, but it has the brains of Dr. Strangelove rather than Independence Day (minus the barbed-wire satire, since it plays everything pretty much straight, so that comparison might just be a signal of my limited range of references).

I feel like this would need to be changed massively to be a successful movie box office-wise though. The pacing alone translated exactly as it is would turn it onto SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS type stuff that would fall apart in the medium. But I agree it could be tweaked into something really cool.

Also, if you want the epitome of "camera eye on the proceedings" fiction...you need to read Haruki Murakami's AFTER DARK. It literally opens with an omnipresent "film camera" eye that you see everything through. It's stunningly well done.

[worry]

I dunno. The West Wing lasted 7 season! And I don't know what SE, or anyone here for that matter, thinks of Contact, but I liked it and it was mostly talky, mostly actionless. I do agree that a movie would fill in the blanks with surrounding action and adrenaline, stuff that the reader had to infer, but it wouldn't have to drown out the essence of the book. Arrival and Interstellar (for all its flaws) were strong enough successes. Either way -- and perhaps SE would agree with this, given his nod to it -- the world already gets its fill of ID4s, there's not gonna be a shortage of those. What it needs is more Silent Runnings.

Re: the Murakami, thanks for the rec. I do have a bunch of his books I haven't gotten to on an old Kindle, so I'll fire it up!

This post has been edited by worry: 26 November 2018 - 08:19 PM

[Tsundoku]

I think it could work - and fairly cheaply too - as a bunch of "news stories" run in the background describing the macro, while each of the smaller POVs intros could be split in 2.
As in, the fear/anticipation of violence about to be done, that well-worn rut, the fear of the victims, then ... WTF? Each scene participants realise there's no violence.
Fear transforms to ... a lot of things actually. But a bit of hope, among the "is this a trick?" You don't even need dialogue.

Neill Blomkamp to direct?

[Gorefest]

I am about halfway through the book and am mostly enjoying it. I think it is a very interesting concept and there are some well presented viewpoints and considerations in it. What does rankle me a bit are the sometimes rather drawn-out philosophical meanderings. I didn't mind them at all in the Kharkanas series as they were in tune with the realities and axioms of that world setting. But Rejoice! is set in our reality and, where SE is trying to make Adam come across as a highly knowledgeable intelligence, some of the basic premises that Adam (and other POV characters) uses to build his arguments on feel flawed to me (especially where SE strays into areas that I imagine he has less of a natural background in, such as human medicine. 'Increase in cancer deaths stems from environmental polution' springs to mind, which may be true for some forms of cancer but a far more obvious reason for cancer being more prevalent today is because people live longer due to improved healthcare and hygiene). So although I find the book mostly enjoyable and thought-provoking so far, at times it feels as if I'm sitting in the pub with a slightly tipsy mate who is dishing out a fiery monologue on a topic they are very passionate about but not fully informed on, while I have no way to correct or interrupt them. Rather frustrating at times. Overall a nice read so far though.

[Andorion]

Gorefest, on 30 January 2019 - 10:19 AM, said:

I am about halfway through the book and am mostly enjoying it. I think it is a very interesting concept and there are some well presented viewpoints and considerations in it. What does rankle me a bit are the sometimes rather drawn-out philosophical meanderings. I didn't mind them at all in the Kharkanas series as they were in tune with the realities and axioms of that world setting. But Rejoice! is set in our reality and, where SE is trying to make Adam come across as a highly knowledgeable intelligence, some of the basic premises that Adam (and other POV characters) uses to build his arguments on feel flawed to me (especially where SE strays into areas that I imagine he has less of a natural background in, such as human medicine. 'Increase in cancer deaths stems from environmental polution' springs to mind, which may be true for some forms of cancer but a far more obvious reason for cancer being more prevalent today is because people live longer due to improved healthcare and hygiene). So although I find the book mostly enjoyable and thought-provoking so far, at times it feels as if I'm sitting in the pub with a slightly tipsy mate who is dishing out a fiery monologue on a topic they are very passionate about but not fully informed on, while I have no way to correct or interrupt them. Rather frustrating at times. Overall a nice read so far though.

Since 80% of the book is essentially acting out a philosophical premise I would say that some meandering is unavoidable.

I would also have a different take on the cancer thing. In the developing world a lot of what are considered carcinogens in the West continue to be used indiscriminately. Whether due to corruption, poverty, ignorance or a synthesis of all of these, carcinogens are a bigger hazard.

Take for example plastics - plastic bags or packaging stuff. If you piled those up and set them on fire, in the West the police would probably intervene. Here, its done regularly, in the open, on street corners in residential neighbourhoods.

Take another example - airborne particulate pollution - a level 1 carcinogen according to WHO. The EU sets safe limits as around 40-50 for PM 10 and 25 for PM 2.5.

The city I live in has been averaging a PM count of 300-500 for the last three months. Why? The two leading causes are vehicular pollution as the corrupt inefficient government refuses to enforce emission norms uniformly and the second cause is combustion - literally burning of random substances. I have been having trouble breathing since November.

I felt that SE was quite accurate with a lot of his musings.