[January Talking Meme] - "Read any good books lately?"

"Read any good books lately?" for chaila

This is a really good question where I realized… that I haven’t actually bee reading a lot of mainstream original novels! Looking through my book history, I realized, maybe I should have a reading log because I don’t remember what I’ve read this year. I’m flipping pages in my kindle trying to find books I’ve read… fortunately, its not all empty handed!

• Kara no Kyōkai translations | Empty Boundaries, a trilogy of Japanese Light Novels by Kinoko Nasu, is a supernatural mystery novel about Shiki Ryogi with the unusual ability to ‘see’ death lines of any being.
• I also re-read a few novels from Fuyumi Ono’s Twelve Kingdom novels translated by Eugene Woodbury, about a schoolgirl dragged into a fantasy setting that leads to a really fascinating character study because Fuyumi Ono isn’t afraid to make her lead main character unlikable, and then to have her heroine grow stronger and kinder at the end.
• This is a sort of re-read, I read the compiled book version of Shadow Unit, it’s originally a web novel and a sort of but not really filed off the serial numbers supernatural version of CBS’s hit show Criminal Minds. I’ve read this before it came out as novels but stopped reading and forgot about it until I had a sort of Criminal Minds renaissance. So, if you think you can’t make your virtual series of your own favorite show into an original series, I point to Shadow Unit.
• Amazon.com: Gemsigns ((R)evolution Book #1) (9781623654672): Stephanie Saulter: Books, an original novel series that I haven’t actually finished reading yet but must be here because it has all sorts of interesting ideas and really an interesting book overall! This book was recommended by dealanexmachina.

In 2018, I plan to re-read the Percy Jackson series and the other series in the universe, we’ll see how things go! I’ll certainly do a book log this year, and hopefully I have a lot more written down for next year’s meme!

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[January Meme] January 3 - "Shaw has probably mentally aged due to the simulations"

"You mention that shaw has probably mentally aged due to the simulations - I'd love to hear your thoughts on how she handles that/how it affects her, if you have any?" for canadianwheatpirates

This is a really awesome question!

I can only approach this from a storytelling perspective and I don’t know if this is something that anything would change with Shaw outwardly. I think to everyone else, she’s Shaw but internally there might be a disconnect to what she feels like her age is and what her physical age is, if that makes sense? Like someone on a constant jet lag, except its a time lag.

It would be interesting in the context of how Shaw would interact with the Machine. It would be interesting on both sides IMO since I think both TM and Shaw are used to listening, and this time since TM took it upon herself to take on Root’s personality, she would be speaking more, idle musings and connections.

If you’ll permit a bit of straying off the question, I think that Shaw’s experiences in a simulation has in a way changes the way she thinks— I mean, POI is Modern Day Sci Fi, so why not add a little more sci-fi into it? What if now, Shaw’s thought processes can be almost computer like?

I keep thinking of the Farscape fanfic, In the Company of Ghosts by KodiakkeMax where in the fantastic AU world, where Aeryn Sun is changed in a completely different way that she can do what she calls ‘dual track’ thinking:

Dual track mode, as she called it. There were more than two tracks, but the main flows seemed to be set in two different paths, and the rest of them were minor thoughts only, not the great rushing strands of consciousness.

Track One: It hadn't been fear.

Thoughts flowed like water, twisting like a rope through her consciousness. Not fear. She didn't understand it, but she didn't have to, at the moment. She merely had to remember, so she could study it later.

For now, she still had tasking.

Track Two: Find the lab. The Scarran on the ground had been neutralized. But what had he been doing here? What had the scoutship come to collect?

Sidetrack: He had fought the Scarran, even when cornered. She could have handled it, but he had taken his destiny into his own hands. She expected no less.

Focus. Find the lab now, remove all evidence. Her eyes tracked as she ghosted through the corridors, searching for movement. Darwa would be setting down at the second entrance and moving to intercept. Their pincer tactics would flush out most of the individuals who had contacted the Peacekeeper party.

She was not surprised when her comms beeped. "Captain Sun?”

I don’t think Shaw would go as far as that, but I think it does give her a different perspective and she can probably track or get the gist of how an ASI thinks based on her 7000 plus experience with Samaritan trying to change her mind and trick her.

I really wish we could explore that more, the fallout or, as Root would have called it, a bonus feature and not a bug, a new skill Shaw develops. Shaw already showed she has the capacity to think picture, now she can add in the details as well.

Honestly, why can’t fanfic just write themselves, I’d love to read a story about that right now!

Shaw has one of the most interesting and coherent arcs in season 5 and it’s always sad that there was no time to really follow through on that.

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