Malazan Empire: polishgenius - Viewing Profile - Malazan Empire

Finished The Republic of Memory, by Mahmud El Sayed, which I mentioned to amph in the movie thread the other day.

It's good shit and I recommend it, but it is irritating that nowhere on the (online) packaging/blurb etc is it mentioned that this is the first of, at least, a duology, if not a series.

Still: good shit, political SF on a generation ship with a distinct Arabic slant (based in part on the Arab Spring). There's a very strong character-reacting-to-culture component to this, strong characters in general, and good politicing. It isn't anywhere near as mind-mending in its actual SF as the marketing bumph seems to think, but that's not on the author and it doesn't make it less of a book- it's just not that weird compared to some generation-ship SF or political epic SF.

Oh yeah I read the second book of this a few weeks back, forgot to update. Took me longer than I thought to get to it, but hey ho.

Continues to be good shit. The beginning was a little dicey




Anyway, good shit.

Nah, he's not, I don't think he's conservative (despite appearing on Critical Drinker- I hold that against him, but I don't think he actually knew who CD was). He's just obvlivious to the world to a painful degree.

I haven't seen the entire Critical Drinker segment so I could be wrong but when I combine the quotes there with others he made a few years ago, I don't think his claim is that there wasn't any politics/social commentary in old Star Trek- it's that when he was a kid he just ignored or didn't see it and he doesn't think it needs to be included now to feel like classic Star Trek. It's still a terrible take, don't get me wrong, but it's the take of someone who genuinely thinks he doesn't write social/political commentary himself when his most recent book that is now a movie is about the world working together to solve a major climate crisis.


Of course if others see his comments in another light I don't blame them.

Picked up two volumes of Absolute Green Lantern and the second volume of Absolute Flash, so I'm pretty much caught up with the Absolute comics that are out in trade now (the shop didn't have Martian Manhunter volume 2, but it's possible it's just not out yet, it only finished in floppies a few weeks ago I think).



Anyway

Flash is still fun, don't get me wrong, but apart from the art which is amazing (Nick Robles giving some John Cassaday vibes), it's the weakest story of the lot, I'd say. It just doesn't really do anything that makes it feel different in the way all the others do- like, all the others do tricky things with the mythology/symbology of their heroes plus with the supporting cast, but this doesn't really. Just 'make it more depressing' isn't enough, coz Wally West in the main universe has been through some shit, it's not really any worse than his normal life. Also: the way it re-imagines Thrawne is disappointing, since it leaves him impersonal rather than history's greatest hater. The Rogues are fun, but the re-working here is basically just 'they're the Suicide Squad now', followed by 'they're the secret six now', which is entertaining but not a big reach.

It's worth a read, but of all the Absolutes it's definitely the least essential.Though there's one hint at a re-do of Mirror Master that does make me want to see what they do with him.


Green Lantern is almost the opposite, being a total reworking of the Green Lantern mythos from the ground up. As a result it's very dense, since a lot of the pagetime is spent with both the characters and us figuring out what is going on and how it all works. It does this cleverly by framing it as police/detective/spywork, so it's plot driven not just expodumps. But it also has a very strong feel for Superhero Stuff. in particular it's balancing like four levels of villain, all of whom are great fun and fit right in. Like, there's some almost 'Darkseid is' level buildup to one of the villains, a couple more around that also getting buildup, and an Earth-based villain doing his shit too. And still because emotions are still key to how it all works, it needs and has strong character drama to drive the plot forward, so there's a lot going on.

It's really good. I might put it alongside WW as the second-best tier behind Martian Manhunter, though it's a slower burn and I'm glad I waited till two trades were out.







I also got the third volume of The Power Fantasy. Note for those who wait: the story is not complete but these volumes ie issues 1-16 are potentially a good jumping on point, since a major arc finishes and the next half of the story is gonna be kind of a new thing.

Anyway: it's really fucking good, the writing is super smart and the art from Caspar Wijngaard is incredible. Just get it.

QuickTidal, on 09 July 2026 - 06:00 PM, said:

To be honest I do think he's got a point to an extent. Sure, realistically the Dune culture may not be literally MENA/Arabic, but it is very definitely coded that way. In particular the Fremen are based in large part on the Bedouin, but more broadly part of the basis of the story is an oil exploitation allergory and I do not think it is at all a coincidence that Herbert chose to use Arabic cultural codifiers for the people being exploited. I don't think the story can or should escape its influences and themes in that respect, regardless of the actual logical consequences of that amount of time.



I don't think it holds the film back from being great - and there are more influences than just Bedouin so it isn't as simple as that- but I do think it'd have been good to have more specific MENA representation in lead roles.

This was in particular focus in film 1 because of the way Villeneuve chose to make the Fremen language much less specifically Arabic than the book (iirc precisely because it's been so long so it wouldn't be that close) and yet has Yueh just straight up speaking Mandarin. That was disrespectful. Like it's one or the other my guy.


Like I say, it isn't film-ruining, I think they're absolutely great movies, but I think it's a valid critique.


Unrelatedly except tangenially: amph, have you read/had eyes on the recent SF debut The Republic of Memory by Mahmud El Sayed? It's not similar to Dune (it's a generation ship political SF thing) and I've only started really so I can't speak to its overall quality yet, but it's compelling early and, well, I bring it up coz it's very Arabic. It got great reviews.

QuickTidal, on 09 July 2026 - 03:26 PM, said:

Yeah I watched the first 10 minutes or so and sorry, but it's rubbish. Despite playing it tonally as 'both sides are equally silly har har' there's a definite 'conservativism is just wanting to preserve the original meaning and progressive adaptations are meaningless' thing, but on top of that, the idea that there are no new stories is idiotic. It'd be idiotic even if you only considered movies, it's even more idiotic when you compare the huge range of new stories being created in books, games, and television. He's pretty much literally only talking about what's being created in the big studio machines, and even then his point is garbled (how does the Gunn Superman movie dilute meaning from Superman? What are you talking about, man?).