[0] Tiresome but not neccessarily unrealistic. I could definitely imagine aliens in real life constantly flaunting their pop culture knowledge, but it would also be tiresome in real life.
Fri Sep 08 2006 20:08 Calculating God:
I liked this book a lot, and I recommended it to Sumana as well, which I think covers a pretty big chunk of your possible science fiction readership. The best thing was its relentlessly mundane treatment of alien contact (though the way the aliens flaunted their pop culture knowledge got kind of tiresome[0]). The second best thing was the Burgess Shale. But the second half of the book kept upping the ante in increasingly disturbing shock-twists, eventually turning into this big Arthur C. Clarke thing, and that wasn't what I was interested in. The plot held together well, despite some hurtful American-stereotyping (sniff).
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