SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion
Members' Chat
>
No One Asked Me!
date
newest »



Any depiction of life on a drilling site is usually hilarious with far too few people on site" I did enjoy the scene on one of the made for TV movies where a shark was in a fresh water bayou and the people on the barge rig, drilled it to death. Totally unrealistic

Despite the probability that they've been shot through their lung, brachial plexus, and various bony bits, depending on how high/low/lateral/medial the author/filmmaker has decided to place the bullet.
I'm not a paramedic, or a doctor, but a physiotherapist. However, we have a really good grasp of anatomy and physiology.
Also, all the above for knee injuries.

AND this person printed out a MapQuest map.
Much cringe. Like a 70 year old wrote it or something.

My husband hates it when there’s anything about nuclear power or accidents on television. He’s a nuclear scientist. They get so much wrong and perpetuate fear.

LOL! Funny thing about that... ;)

But my current pet peeve is with a certain narrator who believes that the naval rank of ensign (or the identifying flag of the same name) rhymes with "swine". It doesn't; it rhyme with "chin".
"EN-sin"
(And in other nautical news, it has been a very long time since "boatswain" has sounded anything like it is spelled. He or she is not a "boat swain", it has been shortened over the centuries to be "bosun")
"BO-sun"
I would like to be a beta/sensitivity reader for French and joual (Québécois) dialogue, current day working-age women, and scenes with lawyers. I have yet to see a book written by an anglo get Québécois right, and if there's a lawyer involved I get my mouth guard out because I know I'll be grinding my teeth.


don't forget that pronunciation varies from country to country and location to location within a country. In the US, apricot, herb, aunt, tomato, coyote and quite a few other words differ by region.
UK to US has derby, clique, leisure, progress and quite a few other words
US and Canada have progress, about, process, pasta and other words
even place names and personal names might vary quite a bit from country to country. In Texas, they don't pronounce San Jacinto correctly but someone in Arizona does.

Oh yes - and they should get a professional to check their fake laws if they include them. I was put off right away by Six Wakes's terrible future laws at the start, full of muddy, unclear wording, loopholes and contradictions.
This is something I adore about Sanderson: he actually checks everything with experts and the demographics he writes about: Kaladin has to treat a wound? He checks with a doctor. YA novel with female lead? He sends the early drafts to female teenagers to tell him what he got wrong and how to do it better. Space shuttles appear? He asks engineers if his designs make sense. Just shows so much humility and the earnest desire to always deliver the best possible work that immerses everyone.
Becky wrote: "And then that person picked up the phone to call the hotel they found and make the reservation"
If he worked for a big company and was using a special corporate rate that actually makes sense, since even today, most hotels (at least in Europe) only give you the special discount if you're able to tell them the correct number/password on the phone to confirm you really are from that company and then lower the price manually, there's usually no automated way to do this. But if he wasn't using a corporate rate then yes, there would be zero need to call anyone.


Yes! Naive as "knave" or chaos as "cowse" have both been... Memorable.

If he worked for a big company and was using a special corporate rate that actually makes sense, since even today, most hotels (at least in Europe) only give you the special discount if you're able to tell them the correct number/password on the phone to confirm you really are from that company and then lower the price manually, there's usually no automated way to do this. But if he wasn't using a corporate rate then yes, there would be zero need to call anyone."
It was not. The character (a woman) was an independent investigator making a reservation only for herself. I'm familiar with corporate rates as well, but it wasn't actually the call that annoyed me more than a minute twinge in that the character barely likes interacting with people she knows, let alone strangers... It was more that she was able to find the exact hotel she needed, in mere minutes, that was located near a specific other place, neither of which she had addresses for, apparently on a site where that would have been INCREDIBLY hard to do.
She'd have been better just googling it than using the site she was described as using.

The most flawed assumption is that Brazil speaks Spanish, wrong! In Brazil people speak Portuguese, even if some people learn Spanish/English as a second language, and seeing Brazilian characters in books swearing in Spanish is quite annoying.

If he worked for a big company and was using a special corporate rate that ..."
Ah, gotcha! Yes, that sounds very unrealistic!

Just in general, many stories get the process of developing and testing medical interventions wrong. It takes a long time to go from something that works in cell cultures to something that can be used in living humans, and a lot of treatments never bridge that gap, but you'd never know that from all of the miracle cure storylines out there.



you'd like this series:
Bruno, Chief of Police
the cooking does take a while and they often prepare something and put it aside to heat it up later. It's what makes that mystery series so interesting. The author, while not French, has lived in the region for quite some time


Things that are climbing related, e.g. characters saving each other from certain death-by-gravity by pulling them up with nothing but arm strength. This is in most..."
I'm guessing no one will sit down and watch Die Hard with you! (I have to bite my tongue hard while watching Top Gun.
And, since I have ranted off-topic into not-books, I can no longer listen to Don't Stop Believin' since someone pointed out that travelling south from downtown Detroit takes you across the river into Windsor, Canada.

Things that are climbing related, e.g. characters saving each other from certain death-by-gravity by pulling them up with nothing but arm strength. ..."
You are free to once again listen to Don't Stop Believing...
Just a city boy
Born and raised in South Detroit
He took the midnight train goin' anywhere
He's going anywhere but South Detroit, not south FROM Detroit. ;)

Things that are climbing related, e.g. characters saving each other from certain death-by-gravity by pulling them up with nothing but a..."
I see... but where, then, was the mythical South Detroit where he was born and raised? The Scarborough Fair suburb of Camelot, perhaps?
lol. I have things like that. I liked it fine (unlike Journey, who is largely on my "never have to hear about again" list) and then I get a thought in my head about it and it's just not the same.
I think the most recent one is another song "Feel It Still." I had this whole idea about what it meant and then the lyricist was just like "idk man, it sounded cool" and now I'm disappointed to the point I don't really want to keep listening to it.
I think the most recent one is another song "Feel It Still." I had this whole idea about what it meant and then the lyricist was just like "idk man, it sounded cool" and now I'm disappointed to the point I don't really want to keep listening to it.
Books mentioned in this topic
Bruno, Chief of Police (other topics)Tensleep (other topics)
What skills or education do you have that you always see done incorrectly in books, and wish authors would consult you about?