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Originally Posted by Jellby
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And it's fun when you see these thin crescents in movies with stars inside the obscured portion  |
LOL
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Originally Posted by Gaurnim
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Ea, it's too bad that this prevented you from enjoying the story, as Martin has created a very interesting setting.
I feel that it depends on the goal and advertised genre of the book.
If a book is hard sci-fi, it HAS to be solid and scientifically credible. There shouldn't be much suspension of disbelief at play, in fact, it should mostly consist in accepting the author's hypothesis about scientific progress.
If a book is *simple* science-fiction without claims of scientific accuracy, then I am much more flexible.
I think I'm even more permissive with fantasy, especially for magic-based stories.
In the end, for me it's more about internal consistency than about compliance with an external set of rules.
The author might have to explain important discrepancies, though, either in the foreword, a footnote or integrating it within the story.
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I don't think it was *only* the flint mountains, I have to admit I found it a bit dense with regards to politics. It was part of it.
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Originally Posted by Lo Zeno
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I'm not accusing, mind you, I'm just throwing food for thoughts: I remember reading, years ago, a fantasy saga set in a hollow world where gravity didn't pull towards the center of the planet but towards the planet's crust, so that those who lived "inside" the hollow world "walked on the roof" so to speak.
The "external" shell of the world still had mountains and oceans, even thought it would be geologically impossible as well.
This, absurdely, never threw me off. What I felt really distubing, and what kept pushing my suspension of disbelief hard, was that two of the main characters could block a zweihander (huge germanic two-handed sword) blow using a rapier. Which, if I tried when I practiced medieval fencing, would have caused my arm to be chopped off by the zweihander.
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I know - and you have just given a great example of a similar situation.
I've just read Jasper Fforde's "Thursday Next" series (again), and I don't even think that world is properly consistent within itself, but all that is different is so crazy that it's easy to accept. The devil is in the detail