This was really good. My only (very small) gripe was that the acting was stilted. Other than that, it was absolutely enjoyable.

Looks like the consensus is…yes, give it another go (though a few warned that, yeah, it may not be all people promise).

Alright, once I can afford it and things stabilize I think I will. Thanks for the input!

Thank you for your honesty. 😆 I kinda had that reaction recently when I saw free Andromeda episodes on YouTube. Checked one out to see if it’s as good as I remembered and…hardly. 🤣

Oh, no, it’s not that. I mean, the special effects definitely didn’t age well, but I focus on the story, the suspense. I’m someone who can easily get wrapped up into what the characters are thinking/feeling/etc. With the right director, writer, and crew at the helm, you can have a sci fi show with two people in a room having an intense political discussion and have it be good.

Oh, yeah, for sure. And no, worries, I’m not discounting world building. I realize that most shows these days have a world building phase where not a lot happens. But in the end the world building should lead to something exciting. I tried to turn my mom onto the Expanse (one of my all-time favorite shows) but she said she gave it a go but couldn’t get interested. 😅

Nice! Thanks.

In the novel I’m writing this occurs. Someone from 2004 is transported to a planet in the year 240,000. She learns the language, but she can’t quite get the dialect down because humans have evolved different facial/vocal muscles by this point.

Obviously it’s in writing so I can get away with not having to explicitly define the accent. 😅

Exactly.

“I’m ready to start Monday. Just need to restart my health insurance with–”

“Oh, we already chose that for you.”

“Um…okay…well, at least I can go back to my gym on Tues–”

“No worries, through our wellness plan we’ve already selected a gym for you. We even pre-signed you up to a spin class.”

“I’m more of a bench-press person any–”

“We’ve started your retirement account, too.”

“Um…thanks?”

I had a hero of a physics professor who figured out that new editions of textbooks just mixed up the number of the exercises, so he advised students that they could just order previous versions of the textbooks and he’d provide the “key” for how the questions were shuffled.

Toilets.

I just use your neighbor’s garden and blame it on my cat.

Probably gonna anger both sides here, but I see both private insurance and single-payer healthcare as equally-evil scams. Why not focus on driving down costs of healthcare (i.e. EVERYTHING) so that you throw a couple bucks at the receptionist to cover your surgery then check to see if you have enough for a post-surgery soda?

Yup, BandCamp all the way. Once you buy a song you own it, you can play it anywhere you darn well please. Even if BandCamp goes under, no worries, still got my music.

Same with DVDs. Yeah, I’ve definitely gotten movies I regret purchasing, but I think long-term it’s more economical.

Workplace benefits.

Really? What’s the benefit? You’re taking money out of my paycheck to restrict my choices?

And aren’t you a business anyway–you know, an organization whose purpose is to MAKE MONEY, not coddle people.

OK; that’s starting to make sense. Thanks.

I’m a feeler so I definitely look for emption. I don’t necessarily have to feel empathy toward a character, but I want to feel something—angry, sad, exhilarated, inspired, motivated.

It seems like so much sci fi focused on whether a story as too much / not enough technobabble, too much / not enough world building. Some of the best sci fi I enjoyed was terrible in the world-building department but was so emotionally gripping I didn’t care. (Spin and The Sparrow come to mind, but I’m sure their are others).

A close second is if there’s a metanarrative about current events or themes. Like how 1984 saw the rise of a surveillance state decades before the internet became a thing. Or Fahrenheit 451, which, ironically, is a banned book.

Good suggestions! Yeah, I’m one of those folks that likes nuance, so anything that science fiction-y is totally fine. One thing I like to read (and write, since I also write short stories) is exploration of the fantastical. Something out of the ordinary to give a different perspective on the human experience.

I’m not against libraries. It’s just that I prefer reading physical books. But with a library it’s a lot of stress to remember the due date (although I usually finish books long before the due date), and it does make me slightly uncomfortable that the library keeps a record of every book read (I’m sure it sounds paranoid, but I also know on here I’m in good company. lol). While my reading material isn’t anything noteworthy it just makes me uncomfortable.

So I prefer raiding Good Will or bargain book stores for secondhand books. No due date, no record that I bought it (since I pay in cash, although I’m sure if you’re really desperate you can look at security cam footage when I bought the books and cross-reference). But since I can’t afford that I figured I could make do with digital books until I can afford to buy books again.

Bookmarked!

Thanks. I did read one of his novels a while ago (not i-robot, but I forget the name of it). I was kind of bored by his novel, TBH. But if I may give it a second go at some point.

Thanks, I’ll look into those.