WHY ARE THE PEOPLE BLUE?.. why are the horses painted? Why is there a helicopter?

Sometimes IO9 your timeliness is beyond compare. I'm currently taking a class called Genre Fiction, and our particular genre is fairytales. Juniper tree is indeed weird, but I have to recommend the collection of modern takes on fairytales - [www.amazon.com] title is a reference to the Juniper Tree story. My favorite…

I read that with an expression of horror on my face, and an "OW!" sentiment akin to when men read about getting kicked in the nadgers.

Steampunk by most people seems to be more aesthetic based than content based. If it has a certain look or descriptive feel, the actual elements are immaterial. Thus why some people put The Diamond Age in the steampunk genre - it has no steampower, no *actual* victorians, and no alternate history stuff, but what it…

Yeah, whatever you say. The purpose of all art schools is to turn out people who create crappy trite art, right?

Arthur C. Clarke references, surely?.. I mean, it was his idea...

Mine doesn't, which is one of the things I like about it. Having a classroom full of cintiqs available is pretty sexy.

I think that's part of why photoshop has such flexibility in terms of pretty much everything - lay it out how you want, set tools to act in a certain way, add plugins or brushes or color palettes, etc. There's also usually about 3 or more ways to access each tool, so how you work isn't dependent on what a programmer…

You get how the two things are not mutually exclusive, right?

Or of the later ones, I found Damia more interesting than the Rowan - given that she struggles with both her own issues *and* the Rowan's.

And being British is somehow bad?

I enjoyed this book immensely. From the comments here I think the main complaint for most people is that this book was not any of his other books. Most authors tend to stick to a specific style, a specific genre or time period, and I think a lot of people are thrown by the stark contrast between books like The Baroque…

I doubt you would find anathem appealing to be honest - I love Neal, would happily put him in my top 3 authors of all time, but Anathem was the toughest read for me. There are interesting ideas, sure, but the plot doesn't really get going until the second half of the book. I'd throw you in the direction of The Big U,…

You would never recommend a book just because it's long? It's shorter than the latest volume of G.R.R.M's a Song of Ice and Fire, and it's shorter than a lot of other fantastic books. Judging something by it's length is literally a matter of choosing less quantity over any kind of quality.. I read the book in less…

I would, but the likelyhood (a) of you fixing anything in my house, when I'm the one with all the power tools, and (b) you stopping complaining are close to 1/infinity. (Physics degree before the art degree)

not just you, I promise.

Women, on the other hand, have long given up on men even caring enough to try and understand us. We recognize the futility of expecting your emotionally stunted and intellectually inferior selves to be able to comprehend the wondrous complexity that is femininity. It's like trying to teach someone without a nose about…

Yeah, Sparhawk and everything.. the Diamond throne was excellent, and I also loved the convoluted bishop voting thing in the second? book in that series

I picture a community within a community kind of like the Amish..

I think that's one of the reasons David Eddings series work well - he tends to write a completed arc in 3-5 books, and then revisit the same characters in a new series with a new arc plot, so you can EITHER have the short version so it's over and done, or if you liked the first arc of books, visit the second, for…