this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2025
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A lot of people are watching it, but I ducked out after episode two. I read the books and I felt like it was overly broad in comparison.
The TV adaptation rushes through the story, and doesn’t take its characters seriously. The books aren’t really a broad comedy like the show. For example, the books were more respectful of gender and sexuality. It wasn’t played for laughs except as the bot’s perspective of how he didn’t relate to it or understand the point of it. Same with a lot of the other characteristics of the humans. The humans in the book aren’t actually bumbling idiots, that’s just how the bot perceives them. I felt like the show was missing the point.
I did enjoy how the tv show portrayed “sanctuary moon” though.
If you haven’t read the books, I recommend them. There’s only like one real clunker in the set.
Absolutely fucking yes w.r.t. the characters being stupid in the show. In the books, the people from Preservation are incredibly competent.
TV SHOW AND BOOK SPOILERS
As an example, book Mensah would NOT have had a fucking panic attack dragging a sensor up a mountain alone because she would not have been foolish enough to put herself in that situation. Book Mensah does not take needless risks. She only does inadvisable things when her moral code requires her to do so.Mensah and the other preservation folks are acting too much like the corporates. The books show you that living under a corporate boot makes you stunted and limited because that's a natural consequence of the profit-focused environment they create. Preservation cares about people, so the people from there are well rounded and don't do stupid things quite as often.
It's really hurting my enjoyment of the show. Why can't we have competence porn like we used to with shows like TNG and DS9?
Which did you feel was the clunker?
“System Collapse” (book 7). It was later in the series and it just felt like the second half of one of the books or something. Like filler, or a book written to fulfill a contract.
Hmm, yeah, that one's maybe not as strong, though I kind of look at Network Effect and System Collapse as one story (confusing because there's a book in between them, but that one chronologically comes before Network Effect). I liked it, but agree it's not as strong.