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I stayed up way past my bedtime to read the 9 chapters of Gideon the 9th, only to find out it’s not coming out until September?? I’m very, very excited – great worldbuilding and banter, like you said, so thank you for sharing, I guess, but also, thanks a lot! >=

Aw, whoops, but then isn’t it better for your bedtime that the full book wasn’t available? Hmm? And in my defense, anon….in my defense:

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I mentioned it in the tags, heh.

But yeah, I was so ready to be–well, not let down, exactly, but given a reality check. The book was so lauded and the ratings so high, I was like, it cannot be as good as all that. And it was!

It’s sooooo….different? I know people have said that in their reviews but I was like, they’re just saying that, but it’s just so confidently different? Like it’s just decided this is how things are going to be and we just have to accept it? This is the escape attempt we’re going to land in the middle of, this is the dirt everywhere, this is this planet, this is the incredibly dickish other girl who’s kind of endearing in how young and HOW AMAZINGLY AWFUL SHE IS, like, I wanted Gideon to punch Harrow in the face but also? I love Harrow. 

And then the rest of the story unfolded, in maybe a familiar way after all, I was telling a friend that it’s like the typical manga/anime/YA competition with a bunch of cool characters from cool places going to fight it out, but that is not at all a bad template to use. Basically, it’s really interesting characters with an interesting dynamic in a proven fun scenario. September (!) cannot come soon enough.

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Read the whole first act of Gideon the Ninth!

tazmuir:

So I linked to the first couple of chapters here on this very blog, but time got away with me and I didn’t keep up. Thankfully, my laziness means that you benefit with a masterpost of the whole first eight chapters of Gideon the Ninth!! Click on the read more for the chapters plus illuminating “last episode on Buffy” text which, for some reason, Tor.com let me write!!!

Keep reading

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Exactly! Such lazy writing! We do not need these shitty plots w lesbian/bi girls treating each other like shit! I’m sure they’ll end up going the “lesbian loses her bi gf Bc of her own insecurities” route and it’s so dumb. They’ve previously done some side-eye worthy stuff like Vanessa commenting on dick size & Jess feeling the need to buy a strap on, so I guess the insecurity didn’t come outta nowhere, but the way the plotline was handled & led to a cheating plot was absolute garbage. Ugh

And 100% agree that the writers didn’t need Jess lying to Vanessa to prop up Murphy. Murphy and Jess already had a great friendship. Having a lesbian treat her gf like shit, a girl she supposedly is in love with at that, and saying she could never treat her friend the same way is just gross. Almost as gross as the constant focus on “real” lesbians without acknowledging that bi women exist & aren’t thirsting to be w men when they’re in f/f relationships.

I don’t know if they’ll have Jess and Vanessa actually break up, everyone’s so messy, they might be able to get past it once it’s revealed, which surely it inevitably will be?. But maybe not, this might be the messiest thing someone “good” has done. 

And so messy! I know she has her insecurities, that’s consistent, fine, and it’s not even bad character writing, I just don’t see why it would have led to cheating? We’re meant to think Jess is rattled, sure, and upset about Vanessa dismissing her concerns (which–they had to write Vanessa as suddenly flighty and dismissive too, huh), but she’s such a goody two shoes, this just seemed so contrived. To parallel her guilt about Wesley’s death, I get that, but are we really meant to equate her action of, what, being pressured to have a killer in her trunk for a few minutes and then not calling the cops when he gets hit by a car with cheating? The writing in this ep was definitely more about serving plot than character.

And another anon:

The biphobia on In the Dark this episode is so annoying. I gave them a pass with the strap on storyline, because I thought it felt real and at least Jess’s insecurity was understandable given Vanessa’s comment, but this episode just reinforced the worries I had in the back of my head during that storyline. To me, the main issue isn’t even that Jess is acting biphobic, but that the writing is. They don’t even acknowledge that Vanessa is bi, they act like she can only be a lesbian or experimenting

Yes! That’s the weirdest part, that those are the only two things anyone on the show thinks Vanessa can be. I don’t care if characters act a certain way, that’s actually organic and natural writing. People have different opinions, or even when they know something in their head, their heart feels differently, but if it’s the only opinion presented and there isn’t even an effort made to question that? As I’ve said before, if it’s something that’s already clear cut in real life, cheating is bad, murder is bad, I don’t need that to be called out as bad, but when it’s something hazy, when too many people are ignorant about it, I can’t understand why anyone would reinforce it. 

At this point I’m left to wonder if the writers actually think that themselves, if everything they write is with that approach.

Hell, it’s not even good writing to act like nobody in this group of young people knows what bisexuality is.

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Hi. I know it’s been cancelled but why do you think Madeleine slept on the floor. Notice it happens with both Wren and that sketchy reporter. Thanks again.

Hmm, yeah, when other people are there, but am I misremembering or does she do it when alone too? I mean, I don’t think it’s to get away from her bed partner, I think it’s just how she sleeps on the outside. And my immediate theory, without even thinking much about it, had been that it was because she wasn’t used to a big soft bed anymore.