Penny Arcade - Comic - Hail mary

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Penny Arcade - Comic - Hail mary

Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.

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YeOldeWizard

This is pretty legit criticism of Weir's writing - ever since The Martian, his books just recycle Watney's character with different names attached, like he's trying to strike gold twice with that same formula.

Bropocalypse

Writers are desperate for success and legitimacy

zepherin

Bropocalypse wrote: »

Everyone is desperate for success and legitimacy

dennis

zepherin wrote: »

Bropocalypse wrote: »

Everyone is desperate for success and legitimacy

Or, at least, a similar percent of people no matter how you divide them. And at certain point(s) in their life.

At this point, I'm just desperate for a night where I don't do the cooking. And a legitimate night's sleep (e.g. where I don't have to wake up to pee 30 minutes before my alarm clock goes off).

Darkewolfe

If you hadn't been struck by any major total innovations in your work, but did have some fun ideas in the wheelhouse you'd already explored, and doing them would net you a few million bucks, you'd be willing to retread some ground every couple years.

Cristoval

Hrm, curious about this one. Andy Weir's strong suit is describing scenarios and building a "realistic" setting for hardcore science stuff to happen. He is absolute crap at writing humans though, and could not make it through his last book because of it. One dude stuck alone in space talking to himself does not sound like it plays to his strengths?

dennis

Comic title is now "Weir Science".

Hahnsoo1

Cristoval wrote: »

Hrm, curious about this one. Andy Weir's strong suit is describing scenarios and building a "realistic" setting for hardcore science stuff to happen. He is absolute crap at writing humans though, and could not make it through his last book because of it. One dude stuck alone in space talking to himself does not sound like it plays to his strengths?

If you liked "The Martian", you'll probably like "Project Hail Mary". "The Martian" was, essentially, one dude stuck alone on Mars talking to himself. The Ground Control moments in "The Martian" are basically replicated in the form of flashback chapters in "Project Hail Mary" (and some other spoiler-y events that I'm not going to get into). But both books pretty much have a similar "I'm gonna use math and science to MacGuyver my way out of problems" vibe while still being a brisk and easy read that doesn't get too mired down in the details.

TheSchaef

What I see here is an opportunity for casting directors to correct past mistakes and cast Alan Tudyk as the dry-witted super-astronaut.

TheSchaef

YeOldeWizard wrote: »

ever since The Martian, his books just recycle Watney's character with different names attached, like he's trying to strike gold twice with that same formula.

We also like to call that Ernest Cline Syndrome. He's a one-trick pony with the disadvantage of being a C- writer rather than the solid B+ writer that Weir is.

This is right about the time I drop a plug for Daniel Suarez, who writes some pretty fantastic techno-thrillers, with the bonus of changing subjects from book to book: Daemon and Freedom TM were about world domination by an ASI; Kill Decision focused on drone warfare; Influx, reductively, is about a shadow group that controls and bottlenecks the advancement of technology in the public square; and Change Agent examines gene manipulation technology. I haven't read one yet that I've disliked.

MichaelLC

TheSchaef wrote: »

What I see here is an opportunity for casting directors to correct past mistakes and cast Alan Tudyk as the dry-witted super-astronaut.

He's a botanist stuck on Jupiter.
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."

RatherDashing

I mean, how many times has John Mcclane been in the wrong place at the wrong time? At least Bourne's issues were all born (see what I did there) out of the same central issue in all three movies (there were only 3 Bourne movies, right? Right. Glad that's settled). But no, despite all the times he has saved the world, John Mcclane doesn't go through adventures because he's infamous or anything. He just literally happens to be nearby when bad stuff happens. Over and over again.

H3Knuckles

Well to be fair, the third DH movie has McClane at his job as an NYPD officer in his own city, being targeted by a relative of the villain from the first film (there's a little more to it than that, but those're spoilers and not really relevant to the point that Die Hard With A Vengeance isn't guilty of the coincidences you're pointing out).

TheSchaef

MichaelLC wrote: »

He's a botanist stuck on Jupiter.
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."

He should get an Oscar just for that elevator pitch.

Bropocalypse

Hm. Philosophically speaking, since it doesn't really have a solid surface, would someone be stuck ON Jupiter, or IN Jupiter?

Showsni

Tycho's description in the news post reminds me of Card Hunter. Is that still a thing? Or did it die with Flash?

Tofystedeth

Card Hunter still exists. There's a Steam version and apparently they're working on mobile and Unity ports.