island in the sea of time
- Thread starter Moglwi
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allanpcameron
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Its OK. As you say it gave its name to all the ISOT TLs. I read the trilogy, and certainly you get the impression the last book was "I'm really bored with this now, how can I end it quickly". Persevere, don't persevere, if you're not enjoying it, what is the point? It is meant to entertain.
Anyway that's my tuppenceworth.
Anyway that's my tuppenceworth.
Yeah, that ending was very cheap. I wanted t see a climactic battle in Walkeropolis, dammit!
Though I suppose Odysseus sword fighting with a Nazi to become King of Achaea made up for it...
A couple of the characters have what amounts to Get Out of Jail Free cards, allowing them to get away with stuff that would, in any realistic situation, cause them serious problems.
Alston's first disciplinary action is to drag a Coast Guardsman behind the Eagle during an ocean crossing. That's within weeks of the Event. None of her officers or NCOs have an issue with this (as opposed to a more conventional confinement, followed by passing him off to the Nantucket legal system when they get back).
Ditto with the second book, where they have a dude walk the Gauntlet, made solely of female* troops hitting him with brass-buckled belts. That's wildly crazy for several reasons.
This pops up again in the Emberverse, where Havel (in particular) engages in really poor Leadership tactics (such as off-the-cuff punishment beatings) that would likely cause (even just potentially) one or more of his more influential supporters to intervene. You never know what will set some people off, even people who have been strong supporters up until then....but Alston and Havel never worry.
*-Stirling is a very female-friendly author. Which is awesome. Unfortunately, he sometimes elects to demonstrate this by having what amounts to "Teach Men a Lesson Month", where some dude is subject to some draconian punishments (usually administered by a woman**, just to ram the point home) because his offense was against a women....or having several female characters engage in rather crudely sexist dialogues that would be unacceptable if the genders were switched.
**-in the case of the Gauntlet, the dude was punished for slapping a woman around....by being beaten with brass-buckled belts by 30-odd women (backed by largely male authority and armed guards). I don't know what kind of lesson that was supposed to ram home...
Alston's first disciplinary action is to drag a Coast Guardsman behind the Eagle during an ocean crossing. That's within weeks of the Event. None of her officers or NCOs have an issue with this (as opposed to a more conventional confinement, followed by passing him off to the Nantucket legal system when they get back).
Ditto with the second book, where they have a dude walk the Gauntlet, made solely of female* troops hitting him with brass-buckled belts. That's wildly crazy for several reasons.
This pops up again in the Emberverse, where Havel (in particular) engages in really poor Leadership tactics (such as off-the-cuff punishment beatings) that would likely cause (even just potentially) one or more of his more influential supporters to intervene. You never know what will set some people off, even people who have been strong supporters up until then....but Alston and Havel never worry.
*-Stirling is a very female-friendly author. Which is awesome. Unfortunately, he sometimes elects to demonstrate this by having what amounts to "Teach Men a Lesson Month", where some dude is subject to some draconian punishments (usually administered by a woman**, just to ram the point home) because his offense was against a women....or having several female characters engage in rather crudely sexist dialogues that would be unacceptable if the genders were switched.
**-in the case of the Gauntlet, the dude was punished for slapping a woman around....by being beaten with brass-buckled belts by 30-odd women (backed by largely male authority and armed guards). I don't know what kind of lesson that was supposed to ram home...
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Everyone has his or her own tastes, and I consider the ISOT series Sterling's most satisfactory and enjoyable work...far better than its obverse, the Emberverse. But if you aren't enjoying it, put it down. No point in reading entertainment fiction that doesn't entertain you, after all.