At a minimum, I think the whole "overlay" thing should have been left out
What!? Ach, du lieber Gott! The story can't be told without that!
Singulatarians shouldn't have been able to build an FTL drive, so Alistair should have stayed on Srillium.
There wasn't anything left to tell on Srillium that wasn't an entirely new story/novel.
Failing that, if the ending was supposed to imply that they're doomed, they could have left the alien museum ship knowing that Aldra's sun was going to explode any minute, and there was no time to get away, just go back to Aldra to wait it out...
That's pretty close to the actual ending, isn't it? How does the element of the sun exploding any minute make the ending non-wimpy? And the idea wasn't that their doom was certain, the whole point - which ties in with the title - is that it is uncertain.
By the way: why is it called "Wĭthûr Wē" (why the title, and why the diacritics?)
It's a phonetic spelling. Reread the last paragraph for a hint...
Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under - Mencken
And no British crap about the proper pronunciation of the 'wh' sound either! ;-)
I grabbed a Kindle version off Amazon.
The book is great. Lost about an hour in it last night. My only contention is, the Kindle formatting is absolutely wretched. You could probably find an inexpensive editor off Odesk or something to clean it up a tad (if you have any hand in it).
Otherwise, it's awesome. I'll probably end up buying the hardcopy just to have.
AngelRS: I grabbed a Kindle version off Amazon. The book is great. Lost about and hour in it last night. My only contention is, the Kindle formatting is absolutely wretched. You could probably find an inexpensive editor off Odesk or something to clean it up a tab (if you have any hand in it). Otherwise, it's awesome. I'll probably end up buying the hardcopy just to have.
The book is great. Lost about and hour in it last night. My only contention is, the Kindle formatting is absolutely wretched. You could probably find an inexpensive editor off Odesk or something to clean it up a tab (if you have any hand in it).
Thank you! Glad you're enjoying it.
I was just made aware of the Kindle formatting problem recently, and a gentleman was kind enough to offer to fix it. As soon as I have a better version I will get that uploaded to Amazon. Sorry about the issues!
Not sure what you mean by that...if you're talking about the "hw" sound some people use, that's far more common among Americans.
Paul:Not sure what you mean by that...if you're talking about the "hw" sound some people use, that's far more common among Americans.
I was just joking around. "Officially", wh is pronounced differently from w... it has changed like the word couple. ;-)
As for the "true" wh sound, that's not common at all among Americans. W and WH are pronounced the same way. Maybe Gore Vidal and three others try to preserve the sound, but that's about it.
Except that the 'w' pronunciation is the standard pronunciation these days. Only in American dictionaries do you find 'hw' even given as an option. 'Couple' without 'of' is considered substandard even in American usage (whatever web sites you found that say otherwise notwithstanding, most Americans do consider it sloppy or outright wrong, you never see it in print from American publishers, etc.)
(I could comment on the other end though: normal non-American pronounciation would give 'wĭthə' rather than 'wĭthûr' [:)])
According to Wikipedia, 17% of Americans distinguish them (and basically nobody else), so it's Gore Vidal and about 52 million others :)
Finally finished the MCAT and got a chance to start on this. I've read 9 chapters and it's very good so far.
Zizzer:Finally finished the MCAT and got a chance to start on this. I've read 9 chapters and it's very good so far.
I'm glad you're enjoying it! I hope your MCAT went well. That's for med school, right?
Yup! I had no life for the first month of my summer break.
I've made it to chapter 39 now, and it's still really good. I'll be sure to recommend it to my friends
30 chapters in a day!? Voracious! I appreciate the recommendations. Hope you enjoy the rest!
I finished it and was very impressed! I don't know why people on this thread didn't get hooked until page 100 or so. I found the beginning great (maybe it was because I had never read any libertarian fiction though).
Thanks for reading! I'm glad you enjoyed it.
I've had people go both ways on the beginning. I like it when a book takes a little time to introduce and establish at the beginning, especially if it is a long book. Other people like to get things moving. No one ever wrote a book that pleased everybody.
I got a new "liker" on the facebook page. I don't know if that was you, but if not feel free to join us. And if you're on goodreads I'd LOVE the support.
Thanks again!
First post here, lurk these boards occasionally.
Just had to say my piece. Bought the book and thought it was fantastic. I especially enjoyed how each part seemed to have its own atmosphere. The third part was truly a fitting ending to the story, I wasn't sure at all how it was going to go but it was a greatly satisfying conclusion. Def will be recommending it to people in the future!
Thanks so much for the purchase and read! It's immensely satisfying to know you have entertained someone (after five years of work!).
I'm glad you enjoyed it. I'm working on another sci-fi novel right now; should be out in a year and a half or so. I hope you get a chance to take a look at that one.
Take care!
Hm...I'm considering reading this after I finish The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (100 pages in right now).
I bet it's great!
I hope you do read and enjoy. You can get a free PDF file here, as well as a link to the hard copy on Amazon.
You can also get a Kindle version for $3.99 on Amazon.
Enjoy TMiaHM too. Great book!
I downloaded the free PDF version (converted to ePub and am reading it on my Nook)--if I wanted to compensate you specifically, what is the best avenue? I.e. what do you suppose is the best for you and exposure?
I'm not super far in yet (p85) but I've enjoyed it thus far. Thanks for your hard work.
BiPolarMoment: I downloaded the free PDF version (converted to ePub and am reading it on my Nook)--if I wanted to compensate you specifically, what is the best avenue? I.e. what do you suppose is the best for you and exposure? I'm not super far in yet (p85) but I've enjoyed it thus far. Thanks for your hard work.
Thanks for the read! Everyone is free to read with no obligation to pay. If you wanted to compensate me, you could say nice things about it on the internet! A nice Amazon review or a nice Goodreads review would be wonderful, worth more than the money from a purchase, frankly. I also love seeing my rank momentarily jump up on Amazon, so if you were thinking monetary compensation, the Kindle is only $3.99.
But really, don't be too worried about compensation. I just love the fact that peopel are reading and enjoying my book.
And according to a lot of opinions, it gets better soon after page 100. I hope you enjoy! And thanks!
Eh, minor thing I noticed, at one point someone says "Today is Tuesday, we won't see you until Monday" or somesuch. Is that intended?
I don't see anything written in Swardster's response. Does anyone else?
Anyway, thanks at least for the bump!
The Aldran week, because the days were so long, is composed of Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. This was never explicitly stated; it was something someone could conclude from hints in dialogue. It is possible, however, that in editing the book before publishing I removed some important hints.