Author Topic: EP340: Golubash (Wine-Blood-War-Story)  (Read 22649 times)

Grumpoid

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Reply #50 on: September 02, 2012, 12:50:12 PM
Green Patches with a downbeat ending.
You will be assimilated - resistance is futile
waiting for the albatrosses

Think that covers it.

I started with this one by reading the comments first, probably shan't do that again. From the comments I reckoned "not my sort of thing - next" and didn't bother with it.
Then found a reference to it on another website as their favourite story of the year, so I gave it a go.

Loved the first bit. I liked the language, the quietly understated ridiculing of the wine jargon, (even if the river was a bit too much like the river in Ian Watson's rather brilliant Book of the River). What I liked was the telling the story between the lines, the slow build. Very nicely controlled. Then we got to 2390 (or thereabouts, I'm not going to look it up) and suddenly the reaching structures topple, becoming unconvincing (The Cola navy and the Vinquisition) willing suspension of disbelief simply evaporated in a puff of "Huh?". The prose became opaque and uninteresting (to me, if you loved it fine, I'm happy for you) I struggled through to the end, like when someone you know quite well is telling a long, long, joke in a bar, and you knew the punchline five minutes ago but still have to sit and listen with your cheeks propped up into a polite but slightly uncomfortable smile.

I suppose if you've never heard of Asimov, never seen an episode of STNG with the Borg in it, or read Who Goes There, or seen The Thing, then these ideas may seem fresh.

She's a very good writer, but I think she ran out of steam, interest and ideas about halfway through this one.

Curate's Egg for me.




jaddle

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Reply #51 on: November 03, 2012, 05:22:15 PM
I really didn't like listening to this one - maybe the narrator was at fault, but more likely it just doesn't fit in audio very well. I always check the forums though, to see what other people thought, and I'm glad I did! After seeing that so many people loved this one, I went back and read it, and really quite liked it! I'm just posting this in case anyone else reads the forum the same way I did - I definitely recommend reading the story instead of listening to it.