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Apocryphal
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I liked it and didn’t find it excessive, but I like sailing and I like reading fiction and history books about sailing, so I am very much atypical.
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I agree with Neil. This felt very much like a slightly earlier version of Buchan’s 39 Steps, or a Hammond Innes novel, which mostly featured workaday people or ne’er do wells, or people trying to hide an ignominious past. Also a bit reminiscent of S…
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I do agree there was verbal conflict, and this also was more intense in the film than the book - maybe because the action was more condensed in the book. But I thought the movie ramped up the tension quite effectively, especially at the beginning wh…
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Very nice - enjoyed that after reading the book. In the film, Davies boat was a gaff-rigged yawl, and Dollman's was a gaff-rigged schooner. Can't remember if they mentioned the boat riggings in the book.
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Sounds interesting.
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What are we doing in August, @clash_bowley
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@BarnerCobblewood I did read the whole trilogy. It left me underwhelmed, and I kept comparing it to Roadside Picnic, which I felt was roughly the same in concept - an alien presence appears in a certain place (The Zone in RP, Area X is The Southern …
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Oh stop. Here’s a list. They are a mix of military history inspired games (In Harm’s Way etc) which are not necessarily about fighting so much as military culture. Then there are a bevy of SF games and settings that, much like Traveller, can be what…
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Snowpiercer did have an internal plot about class from front to back of train. And it was an enclosed environment, like this train. Snowpiercer ran perpetually through a post apocalyptic, snow-laden world; it couldn’t stop or freeze in place. This i…
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According to TV shows about first responders, their lives are basically filled with first-responding and sex - the later of which gamers usually shy away from in games lol. But I do like the idea of a game about dramatic healing instead of fighting.…
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That pretty much confirms what I was thinking - that despite all the hype, there is no actual AI at the moment, and we still might never even see a true machine intelligence (however that gets defined). What we have now should probably not be called…
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Yeah, I’m not sure I buy PKD’s take on it either, but it’s interesting to think about.
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> @NeilNjae said: > That's a question I was considering asking: is the idea of "found family" and community a significant element of the narrative? People in the book are often doing things for others, not themselves. The Crows and …
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This reminded me of a T-shirt I once saw that said: "I may not look like I'm doing much, but on a cellular level I'm really quite busy."
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@BarnerCobblewood I think that depends on who spoke the words, and their context. I don’t recall the exact quote, but I think something similar to this was said toward the end, just when they were deciding whether to break through the barricades - p…
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Yes, sure - probably all of these. Since the train is metaphorical it would easily be swapped out for any enclosed environment which is keeping out an outside environment. A sailing ship or a space ship would do. Putting it in that light, think of t…
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I always like it when chapters get short toward the climax - it gives the feel of momentum. Also especially suitable for a runaway train metaphor. The first time I noticed this writing technique was in our reading of The Windup Girl, lo those many y…
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Here this might mean that (a) industry must go on, or at the end of the book that (b) nature’s reclamation must go on, or that (c) time will go on, regardless of anything else. I don’t think it says much about the characters in the book, except f…
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Nature goes on an endless journey of transformation. The train is just the metaphoric vehicle.
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In my ecological reading of the book, this change represents our eventual capitulation to nature. Sure, we can walk it out for a time, but nature always wins. The efforts of humanity to transform the planet in its own image will be a losing proposit…
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Since these characters all blended together for me, I really couldn’t say I noticed any difference lol.
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Keep in mind it’s a fake name - she would have adopted it knowing what it meant.
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I’d say the crows and the captain represented two arms of authority.
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Lol - no relations stood out to me. Only the roles played by various people. I never thought of relationship as a driver of anything. The train was moving forward regardless. The wasteland was infiltrating the train regardless. I suppose at the end …
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I actually found the lack of definition of names to be quite confusing. Weiwei, Elena, the Captain and the crow were memorable because of their roles. But to me the rest kind of blended together.
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The curious thing, if you look at the map of the train, is that there is gardly enough room for passengers of any class. This whole effort, with walls and armoured trains and captains and crew, and past trains from which lessons were learned, is in …
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I mostly thought it was an ecological fable, so more the first, however I could see a side case for the second interpretation. I saw it as a metaphor for shutting ourselves off from nature, and perhaps a hopeful message for the future- the environme…
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@clash_bowley @NeilNjae @BarnerCobblewood Any comments on this? Some might have already bought Plutoshine and started it, in which case I’d suggest just to proceed among those who can get it.
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Riddle of the Sands is available from the Toronto Public Library as an e-book or as reference only hardcovers (which means you have to sit in the library to read them :rolleyes:) and there's a free Gutenberg e-book edition. There are also a few diff…
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Also not available at my library, it seems. They don't have any books by that author. A search of Amazon.ca only renders Projekt Pluto by that author, in German.