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RichardAbbott
About
- Username
- RichardAbbott
- Joined
- Visits
- 6,165
- 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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(Quote) There was some discussion of the guys that both Slipstream and Aerie perceive is the real enemy, viz "the cold dictatorship of that notorious bureaucracy". So whatever minor cultural differences there are between the first two name…
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(Quote) That's a nice connection which hadn't occurred to me
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(Quote) Except, no doubt, to a discerning few :)
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(Quote) I had no idea there were so many zero gee air filled settings around! Must be a popular trope
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(Quote) I almost read Smoke Ring years ago while I was having a Niven fest but never got round to it... perhaps I should look it up again!
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Discussion starters for Sun of Suns now posted...
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I did track down some comments by someone comparing Nights and Alice who felt that in addition to direct links, there were structural ones of composition, eg the use of nested narratives within an overall frame, and the use of fantastic elements to …
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I forgot to say last night, the repeated theme of threatened beheading reminded me of Alice in Wonderland, with is repeated "off with her [their] head [s]". I looked around a bit to find out if people had traced Lewis Carroll's use of Arab…
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More enjoyment, and more confirmation that the Christmas panto version here in Grasmere followed the story more closely than the Disney version! Who'd have thought it? I was struck (again) by how little Aladdin thinks to make use of the lamp for mo…
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Right I'll do discussion starters next weekend (March 1st/2nd)
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(Quote) Sorry to hear that
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(Quote) I'm only planning on us discussing book 1 but if you want to go ahead and tell us all about it, that would be fun :)
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How are people getting on with Sun of Suns? Shall I post discussion starters this weekend or next (ie last w/e in Feb or first in March?)
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(Quote) And the album Aladdin Sane has the track Jean Genie :)
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I found this story quite fascinating, because of both its similarities to and differences from the Aladdin stories I know - mostly of course the Disney version with Robin Williams but other pantomime versions too. By strange coincidence, the amateur…
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Monthly stuff for Titan added now
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My dead tree copy is on its way even as we speak...
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I've just had a quick look and it seems that Titan is available in audio or paperback formats (or hardback) but not kindle. At least in the UK. I'm happy with that but just checking that we all are.
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(Quote) Hm yes some good points. I read Scalzi's disappointment as relating not so much to McCarty's poor judgement as such, but as to his failure to (say) call Scalzi and say something like "hi mate, I can't go into details but you might be ge…
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(Quote) OK let's go with that then. I'll set up the discussion area in the next couple of days
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@Ray_Otus any thoughts for March? If you prefer we can miss you out of the schedule this time until you've got a book you'd really like to read as a group. In which case @clash_bowley are you happy to move Titan up to March instead of April?
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The Scalzi post is very good, I hadn't seen that one before
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I'd seen a brief article about the controversy a couple of weeks ago but nothing in this much depth. I guess I share @clash_bowley 's apparent cynicism about awards in general :)
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(Quote) Fair point. But one feels that even such ripping yarns should have a loose connection to the frame. After all, if we came across a previously unknown 12th century Robin Hood episode, we'd be surprised if it didn't have the wicked Sheriff of …
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Hmmm I found this the weakest (from memory) of all the tales we've had so far. Quite apart from the padding (and leaving aside who it was that introduced this padding) it's kind of repetitious - person rides horse and ends up in random place, prince…
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(Quote) I don't know it at all but the comments about it are positive
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Hi all, still time to comment on The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi if people want, but this is an opportune time to remind folk about February's read Sun of Suns by Karl Schroeder, book 1 in the Virga series, discussion to be hosted by yours truly. …
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I think the father was in the grand tradition of rulers-who-are-pretty-dumb, continued of course in the Disney Aladdin film. I think last week we mentioned the odd disjuncture between the two halves of the story - there are several places where usi…
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(Quote) :o
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(Quote) The only mystery was why Amina took so much longer than (I suspect) pretty much every reader to work out that the agonised Pari was simply trying to tell her to free the marid and reap the benefits :)