ryanm

Set in the 14th century, opening shot is of a braided candle wick. I mean, why not just have Robert strap into an F35 to take on the English? Literally unwatchable.

If you finish Band of Brothers and you're feeling an excess of happiness, then The Pacific is much the same deal. It follows Marines fighting the Japanese over south pacific islands and, true to the subject matter, is unremittingly grim.

1 minute in to episode 1: "wow, it sure would have been a lot cooler to make a dramatic entrance just slightly earlier, and maybe have a go at preventing the murder of three people" ಠ_ಠ

Alright Shatner-and-or-Walken, calm down.

I'd be quite interested in seeing a strict-chronological-order re-edit, I suspect it'd lose quite a lot.

It's a powerful indictment of the use of trial by combat to determine political succession.

In the books the envoys are the elite government shock troops: terrifyingly effective post-human counter-insurgency agents that get the task done and will not care if they destroy everything in the process. Everyone, from planetary governors on down, is scared shitless of the envoys. If you're a murdered rich man and the local police are not the slightest bit interested in solving the crime, it seems reasonable that you'd want an envoy to get things moving.

Come on now! Shear Windu

I might be getting mixed up: my recollection is that he's an apolitical career criminal after leaving the envoys, and completely cynical about all anti-protectorate causes right up to the end of the third book. Immediately before waking up on earth he's being shot to bits by police while preparing for a violent robbery. Dying as the hero of a desperate revolution is a bit of a departure.

Overall yeah - the central conceit of digitising and transferring minds raises interesting questions and is explored pretty well, and the world is imaginative. Just brace yourself for some of the most toe-curling sex scenes ever committed to print.

That stuff is a departure from the books, and I'm not at all convinced by it.

My faith in Gerard's engineering skills is somewhat shaken by the solar panels on his beachfront getaway being pointed away from the sun.

That's how people talk in Edinburgh, eh?