Chapter 2Paragraph 11.3 "The Core was the central cluster of chambers that held, respectively
, the main and backup fusion reactors, the central computers serving the entire compound
, and the security area leading to the sole tunnel that eventually
gave onto the vertical shaft leading to the surface." I'm not totally sure about this, but see what you think: 'The Core was the central cluster of chambers that held, respectively: the main and backup fusion reactors, the central computers serving the entire compound and the security area leading to the sole tunnel, which eventually leads to the vertical shaft leading to the surface.'
Paragraph 11.5 "Their backs were to the two men seated at the card table
twenty feet away." Metric ~= 6 metres (though you write 'meters')
Paragraph 11.5 "as they watched a pair of tiny
sea-horses cavorting around and through the holes in a coral reef replica." sea-horses is generally written 'seahorses' according to
WikiPedia. Concerning the population of the tank, I found this interesting: "Animals sold as "freshwater seahorses" are usually the closely related pipefish, of which a few species live in the lower reaches of rivers. The supposed true "freshwater seahorse" called
H. aimei was not a real species, but a name sometimes used for Barbour's and Hedgehog seahorses. The latter is a species that can be found in brackish waters, but not actually a freshwater fish."
Paragraph 11.5 "
Zebra fish, some of them genetically modified glowers, darted to and fro." Did you mean
Zebrafish?
Paragraph 11.6 "Finally, satisfied, he slipped off a rather special ring and laid it on the table, then went over to a vending machine and
spent five credits on a deck of playing cards and a set of poker chips." Remembering the groups later struggle to come to grips with the use of money, maybe 'used five credits to get...' would be more reflective?
Paragraph 11.8 "I mean, here we are at the end of our racial rope, dying like
poisoned rats in a maze, and yet someone’s worried about what other people are saying?" They don't poison rats and put them in a maze, do they?? What about rats trapped on a sinking ship?
Paragraph 11.9 "He’s taking precautions to prevent a ‘poor
outcome.’” Should be 'poor outcome'."?
Paragraph 11.11 "Sethra, stacking poker chips of different
values into piles" Would 'denominations' be better?
Paragraph 11.17 "In addition to the standard implant, he was outfitted with a sidearm, and a pair of neutralizer grenades hung
from the other side of his belt, opposite the gun’s holster." Not totally sure about this, but wondered about something like: 'In addition to the standard implant, he was outfitted with a sidearm, and a pair of neutralizer grenades, which hung from his belt on the opposite side to the gun’s holster.'
Paragraph 11.18 "Chief of Security to Shaft Access Tunnel. Who’s on patrol
, there?” he sent out via his communications console. "
he sent out via just doesn't sound right to me... Would you consider something like: 'Covington depressed a button on the communications console, "Chief of Security to Shaft Access Tunnel. Who’s on patrol there?”' But it may just be me
Paragraph 11.20 "There is
one anomaly to report" Am I right in thinking that Matteo was killed because he identified the anomalies caused by the radiation disc non-maintenance? Covington seemed to have planned to kill him previously (though the “Damn it!” in 11.54 seems to indicate that he was hoping he would have forgotten), so there must have been previous anomalies that he'd discovered... so I didn't know if it would have been better to have a clue in there somewhere, like 'one more anomaly' or 'another anomaly'?
And if that was the non-maintenance, would not the bulkhead been opened?
What's the difference between the communications console and chiming? Or maybe none? It seemed that the communications console was recorded / official but the internal chiming was less so?? I was assuming that the communications would have been saved, and therefore needing deleting??
Paragraph 11.24 "It pissed him off that she’d not made contact with him,
socially, in over a month." Socially doesn't seem right... or am I just thinking it's general society type social? Could it just be 'It pissed him off that she’d not made contact with him in over a month.'? I'm not sure what value 'socially' adds??
Paragraph 11.29 "Around the card table,
the four people were in discussion, and not the garden variety chatter that always accompanies group pastimes." I wondered if it should be 'the' because they were already introduced earlier in 11.23??
Paragraph 11.29 "but her other purpose in being here at this particular time was to be ready to provide
backup, should her boyfriend Byron and the others
get caught by the chief of security... So while the other four plotted,
she kept an eye surreptitiously on the man throwing darts, and the two people in the swimming pool." Those two bits don't really agree... what about: 'but her other purpose in being here at this particular time was to flank the group and provide interference if required...' (how's that for a non-american?
)
Paragraph 11.30 "but also facilitates the actual transfer of
the consciousness into the simulation." Should it be 'the' consciousness, as referring to the user's consciousness rather than general??
Paragraph 11.35 "or we might as well wave a flag and say ‘Here we are!’" I think there's a missing comma: "or we might as well wave a flag and say, ‘Here we are!’"??
Paragraph 11.43 "“Did you guys get some details worked out?” she asked sleepily. “Yes,” Byron replied. “We’ll make our move soon. Be ready for Sethra’s chime.” I didn't know if they would have been more careful about bugs? Especially after his questioning of Sethra in 9.13 'He hesitated, glanced around the small living space. “Are you sure your cubicle is secure?”'
Paragraph 11.56 "He received an acknowledgment signal from android A32N-6, in response to which he
flipped a switch causing the security cameras in that corridor to continue to increment their chronograph but to loop the past five seconds of video until he toggled again." I'm thinking that a security system would not have a simple switch to do the opposite of what it's designed to do? What would the [built in] purpose of a looping video + incrementing time? Seems like something that would have to be implemented surreptitiously?
