Authors that did not do the research!

The Professor

The Professor

I've been rereading Anathem and was quite annoyed (again) at the disparity of the author Neal Stephenson's accuracy for the book's background.
While the maths and linguistics seem reasonably researched the massive inaccuaracies concerning atoms were glaring.

While I could understand every spec-fic needs some suspension of belief in order to be entertaining (indeed I would say it is almost necessary for stories in general) basing a major plot point on something that a bit of research would show not to be the case is astounding.

I can't say too much more on what I dislike without giving spoilers I am quite annoyed that a writer would research some parts fairly well and then completely ignore other aspects.

So any other books / authors that you feel show up as not having done the research? (ignoring anything marked as obsolete by advances).
Anyone given a planet 2 moons and then not shown the varying tides? etc.
 

Nekromans

Thande said:
Can you be more specific about the atoms thing and white it out for spoilers?
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Without going into plot-spoilers, the book features a technology based around "newmatter" - matter that could only have naturally existed in a world where the universal constants were different. It's usually only slightly different, but different enough to have new and odd properties, and to clash with oldmatter chemistry. There's stuff like a laser which has slightly the wrong colour, thereby identifying its source as not being oldmatter; newmatter food, which can't be digested by people with oldmatter bodies; and newmatter oxygen, which doesn't bond properly with oldmatter haemoglobin, causing breathing issues.

And as for the two moons, Tatooine has three moons and yet we never hear a thing about its tides!! :mad:
 
Thande

Thande

Donor
Nekromans said:
And as for the two moons, Tatooine has three moons and yet we never hear a thing about its tides!! :mad:
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Well, it's not as if there's any water for them to affect ;) Or was that the joke you were implying and now I've spoiled it by explaining it? :eek:

That was one of the more obvious bits of Dune ripoffery in Star Wars...
 

Nekromans

Thande said:
Well, it's not as if there's any water for them to affect ;) Or was that the joke you were implying and now I've spoiled it by explaining it? :eek:

That was one of the more obvious bits of Dune ripoffery in Star Wars...
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I almost want sand-tides. Sand is basically grainy water, right? Great sandy oceans with big horrible monsters lurking... in... Dammit. Somehow I managed to make Tatooine MORE of a Dune ripoff.
 
The Professor

The Professor

Nekromans said:
Without going into plot-spoilers, the book features a technology based around "newmatter" - matter that could only have naturally existed in a world where the universal constants were different. It's usually only slightly different, but different enough to have new and odd properties, and to clash with oldmatter chemistry. There's stuff like a laser which has slightly the wrong colour, thereby identifying its source as not being oldmatter; newmatter food, which can't be digested by people with oldmatter bodies; and newmatter oxygen, which doesn't bond properly with oldmatter haemoglobin, causing breathing issues.
:mad:
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Adding to this it is specifically said that as the newmatter atoms have their nuclei put together differently they therefore have different chemistry.
I first assumed this meant nuclei with strange and charm-based nucleons rather than regular protons & neutrons and thus handwaveable with regards to their chemical interactions but this is contradicted later by interaction with [people from ATLs]
 

ULTRAGOTHA

You're conflating Newmatter with, hmm, for lack of a better term Othermatter.

Spoilery white stuff

Newmatter was created on Arbre by Arbreans. Othermatter wasn't created by anybody. It's the way atoms &ct were assembled in the other universes by their origin events.

Newmatter interacts with Arbreans just fine. Othermatter, not having an origin in the Arbrean universe, cannot interact well with Arbreans.

/Spoilery white stuff

I don't know if I agree with the physics of that. (I don't have to. It's well within the purvue of SF speculation.) But it's more consistent than you're painting it.


I'm new to the board. Does one need to continue spoilery white stuff for books published in 2008?

Though if you haven't read Anatham, get thee to a Library at once! I adore that book.
 

Iamwinterborn

ULTRAGOTHA said:
I'm new to the board. Does one need to continue spoilery white stuff for books published in 2008?

Though if you haven't read Anatham, get thee to a Library at once! I adore that book.
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Anathem is not what I would consider "mainstream" or even a "must read AH" book, so it's reasonable to assume a lot of people have not read it.

Also, unless the thread title specifically metions "spoilers" or is otherwise a thread clearly containing spoilers, it's polite to white it out.
 

Finn

Nekromans said:
Without going into plot-spoilers, the book features a technology based around "newmatter" - matter that could only have naturally existed in a world where the universal constants were different. It's usually only slightly different, but different enough to have new and odd properties, and to clash with oldmatter chemistry. There's stuff like a laser which has slightly the wrong colour, thereby identifying its source as not being oldmatter; newmatter food, which can't be digested by people with oldmatter bodies; and newmatter oxygen, which doesn't bond properly with oldmatter haemoglobin, causing breathing issues.

And as for the two moons, Tatooine has three moons and yet we never hear a thing about its tides!! :mad:
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But Anathem does exist in another universe.
 
Alex Richards

Alex Richards

Donor
Tocomocho said:
Dan Brown.

Everything. Everytime.
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The basic lapses in geography are the worst. The bit where they attempt to drive the American Embassy from the Louvre (which clearly had to be forced as the Embassy is literally just off Place de Concorde), has the duo apparently drive up and down the Champs Elysee three times.
 
Petike

Petike

It would be easier to list those who at least do some research. ;) :D

Ken Follett really outdid himself when he wrote Pillars of the Earth. In his own words : "I did research Gothic architecture !" But other than that, he has no clue on what life in medieval England was like.
 

Finn

Nekromans said:
Yes, but the technology is the same regardless of the universe - it allows you to create matter that should only have existed in other universes.
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I don't understand. You agree that Anathem does not take place in our universe, then you complain that the technology works in a way that does not work in our universe.

This is clearly artistic license, I think Neal Stephenson is aware that the newmatter would not work in our universe.
 
The Professor

The Professor

Finn said:
I don't understand. You agree that Anathem does not take place in our universe, then you complain that the technology works in a way that does not work in our universe.

This is clearly artistic license, I think Neal Stephenson is aware that the newmatter would not work in our universe.
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It's not that the technology is in a different universe, it's that "othermatter" is able to function in different universes in exactly the way it functioned in its own!
ie if NS is assuming that matter is separate from spacetime and contains its own physical rules as properties of matter (which is implied by the plot) rather than the properties of matter being dependent on spacetime it is in then its interactions with other-universe-matter should be a lot more dramatic than the astoundingly weak interactions shown!
 

wietze

Harry Harrison in his AH civ war series, bad research and ignoring the time it takes to move (like a union monitor ship that travels from charleston to new orleans in a day /1200 miles).

she should have stayed at SciFi lol
 
Vingilótë

Vingilótë

Petike said:
It would be easier to list those who at least do some research. ;) :D

Ken Follett really outdid himself when he wrote Pillars of the Earth. In his own words : "I did research Gothic architecture !" But other than that, he has no clue on what life in medieval England was like.
Click to expand...

And the kicker? He was already a cathedral-phile when he started writing the book. I don't imagine he needed to do very much new research.
 
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