What a waste

d=me · January 12, 2004, 00:38

So it is Michael Ely. Well I got to say something after I read his first book. It was one of the books I've read that I can't find a linear way to criticize it. It was totally garbage. The whole thing is a mess, all the sides were making decisions that seemed to come out a random movement generator. The tides changes as the writer wants without any major events like the missions in Red Alert 2 and I can fore shadow almost all of the outcomes of the plans and strategies (like ambushes). The whole scene is a alpha centauri based GI Joe book. The soldiers are like cobra's units or clone troopers and gets ambushed, raided, or whatever so easily that I can ake over all factions in 1 year after planet fall. The whole time frame is messed up. Events halts for other events because the writer wrote a lot crap to take up pages and can't fit all the events in one time frame properly. Mishael Ely is such a scam and wasted me thirty bucks and many hours and took the place of the offical novel series about the superior game which some body else had the chance to write something a lot better. I suppose you've made some money so good for you.

Sarxis · January 12, 2004, 02:12

What are you talking about? Is this a SMAC book?

d=me · January 12, 2004, 02:31

Yes it is.

Lazerus · January 12, 2004, 13:27

me thinks somebody is a Lal fan

d=me · January 12, 2004, 18:56

No, I'm against Lal. I'm saying that the war should be won easily by Santiago (I can think of many strategies right now).
And tons of other problems in the book

sammy1339 · January 12, 2004, 22:40

I believe it is supposed to be Deirdre who puts an end to Santiago, if you follow the in-game quotes, but the book has things happen differently. Deirdre is useless in that series. I believe the first time you see her it starts off by talking about how saggy she's getting and then has her act like an embarrassed schoolgirl as she asks a naked prettyboy jackass to leave her bedroom. I don't know about you, but that was not really how I thought of Deirdre at all.

Besides that, the writing itself is God-awful (which is slightly worse than downright awful and much worse than middling awful, which is about the same as lousy, but not quite as bad as Vogon awful.)
There is no question that the Michael Ely series should be shot. (Yes, the series, not the man. I am not a violent person.) In fact, if anyone owns a gun and the series, will you please shoot it? It would give me peace of mind.

Frankychan · January 12, 2004, 23:36

Quote:

Originally posted by Lazerus
me thinks somebody is a Lal fan

Well, I would have to agree that the first one was pretty junk. The second one was beautiful. I love how he portrayed Yang in it as well as the decrepit Deidre.

The last one.....well, let's just say that I liked the twists and how the thing ended

d=me · January 13, 2004, 01:28

Just to say one thing that I thought of. Santiago could just stationed her troops outside UNHQ and set up a bad neighbour. Sparta Command can function normally under the protection of her elite guards that she pulled back. I forgot what they were but I remember it starts with a M. She could also pull her laser rovers back to Sparta Command if she dosen't want to assult UNHQ. What about the peacekeepers? They've been blockaded! No energy means no research, no minerals means no production, no more contacts with other factions means no more trade. And if Santiago shell his farms from what's called Sol Ridge, Lal is screwed! And if she keeps her motars firing, half of UNHQ will not be there anymore in a couple of hours! If she didn't want to move at all, (maybe fearing land mines) she can just park her troops there for a year and the peacekeepers will run out of food! It's in the bag! What happened in the book? She stormed UNHQ! What an idiot, she got into the firing range of the peacekeeper's marksman on the walls! Now they have an advantage over the Spartans by shooting first!

I'll put more about parts that I find illogical later, if you didn't understand any part of my first post please tell me. I'll be happy to clearify it for you.

And to sammy 1339, apparently I live in Canada and I am 15 which means I don't have a gun so you'll have to find someone else to fulfill your dream. (don't you own the book?)

Bella Hella · January 13, 2004, 11:15

oh, come on; it's an entertaining read. ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!?

some parts may seem illogical, but it's one person's interpretation of events that could take place in the SMAC universe, and the human emotions and actions involved. i don't have a problem with it, and took the books for what (IMO) they were - fiction based on a game i like. i found them a good read. i particularly liked the ending of the last book - pretty heavy. i guess the point is that it's just one person's interpretation of stuff that could happen. it's not a blasphemous translation of the bible or something.

and, hey, at least jar-jar didn't make an appearance.

d=me · January 14, 2004, 01:50

Michael Ely's books are possible to happen, but is only a special case and not the norm. A special case is ok if it's deep and represents a philosophical idea, a pattern of history, or a perdiction about the future. If it dosen't have any of these elements, then it got to be interesting and have very quick paced development (although I only like realistic stories). Michael Ely's centauri dawn does not have any of these things in it. It is possible as in the solid geometrical space constructed with an infinite number of points. The enemy fires at one area, the guy that's supposed to win moves to another and shoots back. (With what ever speed not disscussed in euclidian elementary geometry) But this is not even a intresting special case (some of the geometrical ones are really intereasting) this is boring action. The time frame is messed up, it's like movement of shapes, luckily in elementary geometry time and speed is not discussed, it's possible. But this scenario does not represant anything or follow any pattern. During actions, the time freezes, and there is no turn like in chess. The author writes what ever he wants and put a lot of conversations and thoughts and extremely detailed actions to take up the pages. Is the enemy not moving? Even in chess the moves are in sequence. Michael Ely also seems to try to look smart by using uncommon words like tepid and when he thinks that one word is impressive (did he just looked it up in the thesaurus?) he used it again several times (although it barely fits in the sentence) in one paragraph.

Shai-Hulud · January 14, 2004, 03:02

I actually have similar feelings about the books d=me. Althought I can't express it quite so...interestingly

. I just felt that the soul was missing, nothing much happened and this experience is just getting stronger as the time passes. And, after reading fan fiction "Joe", I must say that maybe someone else should have written those books in the first place.

d=me · January 15, 2004, 00:33

Yes, nothing much happend. There's supposed to be a lot of intresting stuff because the factions dose not represent normal people! They are on the extreme edgs of the philosophical polygon. There is a heptagonal table and the factions sits around the table at the edges; the ones beside each other are closer in their views and the ones at the opposite ends are enemies. How can the first book be so boring? (I bought all 3 books for over $30 and sold them for $4 after I read centauri dawn what a waste)

ps: A heptagon dosen't have extact opposite edges but we can squeeze the shape right? (people change right?)

Shai-Hulud · January 15, 2004, 03:06

Actually, I thought Centauri Dawn was perhaps the best one, since after reading it I still had some positive expectations for the rest...so it was definitely a good thing you didn't continue reading the latter two books.

d=me · January 16, 2004, 01:11

Quote:

Originally posted by Shai-Hulud
Actually, I thought Centauri Dawn was perhaps the best one, since after reading it I still had some positive expectations for the rest...so it was definitely a good thing you didn't continue reading the latter two books.

If the spartans had followed my camping stragety, they could have won with almost no losses. (even if the peacekeepers tried to break the seige, the spartans still have the advantages of numbers, better training and the defensive advantage.)