Yeah, except this isn't a pulp detective novel. It starts as one, but then turns into a weird SF crossover with characters who are reading the book itself to find out what happens next. That's some crazy Pomo genre-bending shit right there, and not something you can imagine pitching to a publisher of dimestore popular…

Yeah, except this isn't a pulp detective novel. It starts as one, but then turns into a weird SF crossover with characters who are reading the book itself to find out what happens next. That's some crazy Pomo genre-bending shit right there, and not something you can imagine pitching to a publisher of dimestore popular…

He's right about Prague. You don't have to go very far out of the centre before you hit horrible Soviet sprawl.

He's right about Prague. You don't have to go very far out of the centre before you hit horrible Soviet sprawl.

Maybe that’s what ‘fixed points’ are – areas where there’s been so much paradox generated that you can’t touch them.
 
It would make sense that lots of them are important moments in Earth’s history – it’s made pretty clear that limited forms of time travel are pretty widely available to non-Time Lords, so you’d almost…

Maybe that’s what ‘fixed points’ are – areas where there’s been so much paradox generated that you can’t touch them.
 
It would make sense that lots of them are important moments in Earth’s history – it’s made pretty clear that limited forms of time travel are pretty widely available to non-Time Lords, so you’d almost…

Can we just have a little moan about the book. What is it? Where was it published? Was there much of a market for pulp detective/SF crossovers until fairly recently? And given that its plot appears to cover about forty minutes of telly, is it either a) 10 pages long or b) descriptively padded to a point that David…

Can we just have a little moan about the book. What is it? Where was it published? Was there much of a market for pulp detective/SF crossovers until fairly recently? And given that its plot appears to cover about forty minutes of telly, is it either a) 10 pages long or b) descriptively padded to a point that David…

I think the Doctor actually calls her ‘Amy Williams’ during the farewell scene, doesn’t he? It’s fleeting, but suggests that he understands that choice as well as she did.
 
Also fleeting, but telling – Amy calls River ‘Melody’ and addresses her in an openly maternal manner, effectively acknowledging that she’s a Pond.…

I think the Doctor actually calls her ‘Amy Williams’ during the farewell scene, doesn’t he? It’s fleeting, but suggests that he understands that choice as well as she did.
 
Also fleeting, but telling – Amy calls River ‘Melody’ and addresses her in an openly maternal manner, effectively acknowledging that she’s a Pond.…

Where they went doesn't seem like that much of a mystery. We know she works for a detective fiction publisher - and that she's at the sort of level where she can just arrange to have an afterword printed in one of the books that they publish. She says that they 'lived well'and the headstone indicated that they died…

Where they went doesn't seem like that much of a mystery. We know she works for a detective fiction publisher - and that she's at the sort of level where she can just arrange to have an afterword printed in one of the books that they publish. She says that they 'lived well'and the headstone indicated that they died…

I always thought that was part of Alphas meritable commitment to pseudoplausibility in terms of how the powers work. ‘Ranged’ effects raise questions about the medium through which the influence is transmitted, the forces involved etc.

I always thought that was part of Alphas meritable commitment to pseudoplausibility in terms of how the powers work. ‘Ranged’ effects raise questions about the medium through which the influence is transmitted, the forces involved etc.

So, The git-wizard returns. And the world, hopefully, shrugs.

So, The git-wizard returns. And the world, hopefully, shrugs.

Or the Dunning-Kruger effect. The hell of it is, his big skill is clear, lapidary, immediately convincing prose. Great for narrative, dangerously seductive to both author and reader when building an argument on underinformed foundations

Or the Dunning-Kruger effect. The hell of it is, his big skill is clear, lapidary, immediately convincing prose. Great for narrative, dangerously seductive to both author and reader when building an argument on underinformed foundations

I’m aware I’ve quite down on Stephenson here and in other posts, so I should point out that he’s an extremely entertaining artist – it's just that the closer you look at what he actually does, the more you keep stumbling across awkward, bordering-on-unpleasant tics and tropes that suggest a slightly whiffier underside…

I’m aware I’ve quite down on Stephenson here and in other posts, so I should point out that he’s an extremely entertaining artist – it's just that the closer you look at what he actually does, the more you keep stumbling across awkward, bordering-on-unpleasant tics and tropes that suggest a slightly whiffier underside…