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NeilNjae
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- NeilNjae
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(Quote) He did seem like a fairly artificial plot point that turned up to give some oomph to the book and mean there was actually a conclusion. Cherryh could have introduced the "rival Mazianni faction" element much sooner, perhaps when To…
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I like that the setting is small-scale, with most decisions being made by individuals or small groups; there are no huge, sprawling bureaucracies and vast governments here. That makes it good for gaming, as the PCs can be the ones making consequenti…
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(Quote) Niven did something with his "blind spot" appearance of hyperspace, where looking at it for extended periods could send you mad.
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I think this isn't one of her better books. The characters aren't that distinct (they're all suffering from poor anger management), very little happens in the plot, and the climax lacks impact for new readers. (Quote) I think this is a very fair cr…
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Plots are not her strong point. As I said elsewhere, very little actually happened in the book. I think the book would have been better if more had happen. I get the feeling that this was a book written to fulfil a contract, rather than one driven b…
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I liked that it was deliberately unclear whether the incident with Marie and Austin was a rape or not. Marie was certainly in over her head, and reacted badly to the initial sexual encounter. We don't know how much control either of them had over ho…
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We certainly spend a lot of time inside the character's heads. There's very little that actually happens as concrete action, but characters certainly spend a lot of time mulling things over and second-guessing what they could or should do next. Mar…
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I also read just about all of Cherryh's Merchanter books, including Tripoint, so coming back to this universe was like returning to a childhood home. There was certainly a lot of context from the setting that influenced characters and the choices th…
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(Quote) I'm also being forced to use larger and larger pinches of salt when reading the comments. Many of them are so overblown as to make me question the rest. (Quote) I think the comments have made it clear that there's no one definitive collecti…
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One thing that just occurred to me. Dalila may be a thief and general rogue, but she's working within the accepted society. Her goal is not personal enrichment, but the approval of the caliph and equal status with her peers. It's a very safe form of…
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Dalila's story is convoluted, but it's a con! Convoluted stories are a hallmark of the genre. As for just adding random meetings, the fun comes when all those seemingly-random parts come together for the final master plan. That's the hard bit to pul…
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(Quote) By the same token, European folk tales come from a very Christian culture. How much of King Arthur, or Robin Hood, or Grimm's Tales, are devotional in nature? God is called on, people may go to church, but the tales are mostly secular. (Quo…
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I've got loads of Cherryh's Merchanter books on my shelves, and I know I've read Tripoint, but can I find that book anywhere? I've had to order another copy from World of Books. World of Books (now called WoB) was a discovery. They buy books by wei…
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I'm not sure the preference for urban life is a uniquely Mesopotamian thing. I think it's a reflection that these stories are told for and by urban people, and there are plenty of cities in the Islamic world. If you're a middle-class city dweller, t…
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> @Apocryphal said: > So, I think we’re good with Cherry in November, Witch World in December, and have you made a final choice for January @NeilNjae ? _The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi_ by SA Chakraborty.
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> @RichardAbbott said: > Yes, totally - British law as enacted in courts is almost entirely about precedent and analogy with previous cases, so I can easily imagine a court not wanting to set a precedent where they weren't sure about the righ…
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I was misled by the Kindle page count. The book finished at about the 62% mark, and the page counts in the ToC were way off for the notes. That meant I was surprised by just how quickly the court martial was resolved! Yes, anti-climactic, but that's…
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Captain Cheap was certainly out of his depth, far more concerned with adhering to the appearance of duty than care of anyone around him. Grann tried to depict Bulkley as a more capable leader, taking steps to preserve lives over following orders. Bu…
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I think the competing narratives were very effective. They made the Royal Navy decide to sweep the whole thing under the rug when it came to the court martial. That resulted with a very unsatisfying ending from a dramatic point of view, but what can…
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I think the general adherence to regulations, and the maintenance of order, came down to people considering what would happen after any rescue. They didn't want to rescue themselves and then get hanged for mutiny on their return. If discipline had …
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I've not read many (any?) survival stories. I've read a few naval adventure stories, such as the Hornblower books. However, I've not read a great many "popular history" accounts of navies and survival. So not a great deal of comparison. T…
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(Quote) That was the idea. And it's not in conflict with @BarnerCobblewood 's idea. The women's house is a place where "normal" rules don't apply, where the "normal" social order is upended (promiscuous women, the caliph in hidin…
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I don't think I've read any Norton, so now is a good time to start!
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(Quote) By my reading, he really didn't. There was a lot happening between the bathing and the arrival of the dervishes, and the porter is now recovering from all his exertions.
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(Quote) It seems to be a novella comprised of connected short stories / vignettes. That would fit into some of the less mainstream games (Microscope?) (Quote) It's obviously set up for a series of books, but she's not written the rest yet! And it's…
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The reason for suggesting prize winners is because I don't have any other books I'm keen to read! But if the consensus that that being a Hugo winner isn't sufficient to make a book a candidate for here, let's go with that. So, a few alternatives. O…
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For Becky Chambers, I thought Small Planet was rubbish. Her second book, Closed and Common Orbit, was really good though. I've read a couple of Vernon aka Kingfisher books, but the lighthearted ones, and really enjoyed them. As lots of people have …
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(Quote) Can I unpack this a bit? Are you saying: * these stories are deliberately constructed in the jātaka tradition, or * these tales have adopted similar forms as they have a similar purpose (convergent evolution), or * interpretation of jātaka …
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I'm thinking maybe Nettle and Bone, the most recent Hugo winner, or A Psalm for the Wild-Built (and maybe the sequel, as they're both novellas), or The Windup Girl as a solarpunk-type novel.
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(Quote) Do we want to rejig the reading schedule so we do one top-level story per week? That may be quite a lot of reading. If we extend the time between discussions, might we lose momentum?