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RichardAbbott
About
- Username
- RichardAbbott
- Joined
- Visits
- 6,136
- Last Active
- Roles
- Member, Administrator, Moderator
- Games I like
- Sundry, mostly board
- Books I like
- Science fiction, fantasy, some historical fiction
Comments
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I guess the "can I steal a spaceship to get away" subplot might be good for a session or so, but on the other hand it seemed absurdly easy - a couple of hapless untrained guys seemed to overcome the token resistance in short order...
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(Quote) I seem to remember a conversation while we were reading Gene Wolfe together that Vance tends to see a future that becomes increasingly individualistic, but Wolfe where it becomes increasingly collective and groupish?
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(Quote) I felt that too - there was a kind of "um, could I have anticipated that?" feeling
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I don't remember being especially struck either pro or anti by the prose style, and thinking back then I would probably say it struck me as competent rather than stylish.
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I enjoyed the various characters while reading the book but realised that they had made vey little impression on me afterwards, so I would need to look them up again to remember who's who (other than the protagonist and his father, who did leave me …
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That comment makes sense to me - I could believe in the organisation of the society, but not really in the places or the people. So for me it never transitioned into a place that I could believe actually might exist., though the struggles of "t…
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Um, maybe? That hadn't occurred to me at the time of reading but you are certainly right about it being different to his usual (but then, it's a long time since I read any Vance)
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I have to admit I struggled a bit with this story and kept thinking - why is this one considered a masterwork? I kept thinking Emphyrio was only? a Christ-stand-in figure, complete with legends and all, and had trouble seeing it as much more than a …
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(Quote) Another great point - Liu didn't tackle this in the nonfiction parts of this book. However, my impression from his fiction is that while he would accept that scientific advance can result in problems, the answer is better science and social …
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I guess we're just waiting on @clash_bowley then :)
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(Quote) I'm sure there is scope for that - he casually mentions in one article that a magazine, Science Fiction World, (Quote) Regarding your comment (Quote) I think that's fair - he read Jules Verne at an early age, quotes from classics such as A…
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How's everyone doing with Emphyrio? (I've finished it a little while ago). Is everyone ready for @clash_bowley to post some discussion starters?
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Still some discussion ongoing in the Eversion area, but this is also a reminder that March's read is Jack Vance's Emphyrio with discussion led by @clash_bowley
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(Quote) This is a fascinating thought, and of course you're right - any game tends to get stale, even if there are random elements within it (eg position of starting tiles or whatever). For me it also linked into current discussions of AI, along the…
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Discussion area for The Saint of Bright Doors now set up
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(Quote) I'll set up the discussion area in the next day or so
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(Quote) I haven't read either so don't have strong views. Radix looks a lot longer (nearly 500pp), and also seems to be the first part of a very long series, so from a purely pragmatic point of view maybe The Saint of Bright Doors might be preferabl…
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(Quote) I'd forgotten that film but now you mention it I remember enjoying it
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I'm still intending to set this up but the last week or two has been a bit fraught so I'm behind, I'm afraid :(
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(Quote) I'd read Possession a few years back and thought it OK but overly long for what it was trying to do. I've enjoyed The Djinn etc much more
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All: I'm hoping to set up the discussion starters for Eversion this weekend, provided everyone has either finished or decided they're not going to?
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Another interesting quote from A S Byatt's The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye (this time from the title story) (Quote) A lot of this particular story is exploring the world of the Arabian Nights but seen in a modern setting where the protagonist is…
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Oddly enough I came across some ideas that are loosely related to this while reading The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye by A.S Byatt (for the local book club) where one of Byatt's characters is discussing tales from The Arabian Nights (Quote) In pa…
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I'm about half way through the article just now - I'm enjoying it but haven't yet seen any acknowledgement that the novel (which is what most people mean by "a work of fiction that I'm going to read") has only really existed for a little o…
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Discussion area for Emphyrio now set up
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Hi all, looks like chatter about Murderbot is dying down, though please feel free to carry on! This is a reminder, if such were needed, that February's read is Eversion by Alastair Reynolds, with discussion starters to be posted by yours truly just …
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So the current version of the rota is: Feb Me (Eversion) Mar @clash_bowley (Emphyrio) Apr @kcaryths (TBD) May @Apocryphal (TBD) Jun @NeilNjae (TBD) Jul Me (TBD) and so on
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(Quote) Yes that's right
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Apologies all for not getting discussion areas sorted out - we are reopening to guests today which (oddly enough) should mean I have more time for sorting such things out as we can no longer leap into maintenance or last-minute preparation!
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I've had people call Far from the Spaceports libertarian, which kind of took me aback when I came across the comment. I guess it's not a word I use or think of using this side of The Pond.