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vgr's profile
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
@vgr

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Venkatesh Rao

@vgr

Conversational account. For work follow @ribbonfarm, @breaking_smart, @artofgig. Tweets are 90% vacuous views, apathetically held. Mediocritopian. IKEA builder.

Los Angeles, CA
venkateshrao.com
Joined August 2007

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    1. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Dec 17
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      Finished Iain M. Banks’ Matter last night. Probably my favorite display of writing virtuosity so far. The sheer amount of world-building crammed into a single story... and literally into a single world. Wow. The shellworld idea is a sci-fi narrative engineering masterpiece.

      11 replies 7 retweets 137 likes
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    2. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Dec 17
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      So that’s 4/9 Culture novels finished ✅ Use of Weapons ✅ Hydrogen Sonata ✅ Look to Windward ✅ Matter Next up: Player of Games which I started but abandoned previously. Probably the most inventive and richly imagined (in a baroque way) SF world-building I’ve read ever.

      11 replies 0 retweets 40 likes
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    3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Dec 17
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      Vernon Vinge (Deepness in the Sky) is the only thing I’ve read that seems to be imagined on a similarly lavish scale, and evoke operatic space of similar narrative proportions. Both are galaxy-sized stories for galaxy-sized canvasses. They don’t feel like stretched planet-scale.

      2 replies 0 retweets 26 likes
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    4. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Dec 17
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      By contrast, Asimov’s foundation, despite being otherwise pioneering in the genre, feels like planet-scale narrative stretched to fit galaxy-scale canvas, and the pixelation shows. It is self-admittedly just the decline-and-fall-of-Roman-empire transposed to a space-operatic key.

      2 replies 0 retweets 28 likes
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      Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Dec 17
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      Hyperion (I only read one volume) had the potential despite starting with Canterbury tales sub-planet scale inspiration, but I felt lost its way. Didn’t feel inspired to finish.

      8:32 AM - 17 Dec 2020
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      7 replies 0 retweets 12 likes
        1. Carl Franzen‏Verified account @carlfranzen Dec 17
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          Ever read 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson or Otherland by Tad Williams?

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        1. (wannabe) Ƀreaker of (the Bad) Loops‏ @generativist Dec 17
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          Replying to @vgr

          I'm having so much trouble with Use of Weapons right now. Almost the same trouble I had with The Fall of Hyperion (although this one I'll stick to because I like The Culture way more.)

          0 replies 0 retweets 1 like
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        1. Elliott Noel‏ @SkipperEl Dec 17
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          Hyperion was deeply frustrating and unsatisfying.

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        1. New conversation
        2. Meng Weng Wong‏ @mengwong Dec 17
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          Replying to @vgr

          After Culture I recommend https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Oecumene …

          1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Dec 17
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          Replying to @mengwong

          Why?

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
        4. End of conversation
        1. Michele Bannister‏ @astrokiwi Dec 17
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          Those are probably the most interesting ones. Inversions is good because it makes one play spot-the-Culture among the setting, and Against a Dark Background is interesting b/c of the study in civilisational isolation / despair

          0 replies 0 retweets 1 like
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        1. Nobody Circles The Wagons Like Jordan Schneider‏ @jordanschnyc Dec 17
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          where should I start w him?

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        1. Ethan Hays‏ @ethanhays Dec 17
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          Replying to @vgr

          Book 1 of the Hyperion series built a fascinating world with well-drawn characters and a satisfying conclusion that addressed the big story arcs. I liked it, would recommend Book 2 sort of petered out Book 3 was so bad I quit halfway through Mixed bag

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