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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) I think that's a fair point - there seemed to be legal pressure on the crew to conform to local regulations at the towns they visited, and magical pressure to act or not act in particular ways, but I don't recall any religious pressure being…
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(Quote) I'd be up for that - I really enjoyed his writing style and attention to detail
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It's one of the reasons I like indie publishing - a writer can turn a book into a series or not, just as he or she sees fit, without having a publisher pressurising with "of course we'll need book 2 by December and book 3 by June next year"…
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This conversation has been helpful to me and stimulated a few thoughts. 1) @clash_bowley if you were going to write an RPG I'd strongly recommend Tim Severin as mentioned in other discussion threads - there's a host of fascinating stuff about ship …
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(Quote) Haha :) Perish the thought...
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Yes, I wasn't sure about Falco - his European origins seemed kind of forced to me, and didn't really make much difference to his conduct or beliefs. He could just as easily have been a powerful-but-malign vizier, or a magician, or a half-djinn witho…
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That's the one! I read it before Christmas and really enjoyed it. Tim Severin is one of those guys like Thor Heyerdahl who wants to try things out in practice, constructing ships in as authentic way as possible to see for real how journeys might hav…
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The theme of entrapment an interesting perspective, but it sort-of requires one's definition of being trapped to slide very loosely to and fro, perhaps to the point where one is just making things fit with a predefined idea? For example, Al-Dabaran …
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It's also been interesting for me having just read The Sinbad Journey which I have rattled on about in our Nights discussions. That had quite a lot of discussion of the maritime cultures around the Indian Ocean and their sundry religious and social …
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I guess my feelings were sort of in the middle. I was never at serious risk of giving up, though I did wonder from time to time if the book was too long. But I wasn't gripped by it in the way @clash_bowley describes. I did enjoy reading it in parall…
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I've finished it!
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Just 35 of the tales huh! That would be an interesting piece of work to understand, though I strongly suspect you'd need to be very familiar with the historical development of Arabic and other languages to follow it closely.It reminds me a bit of th…
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I liked this story! And am looking forward to reading the next part - yes, I managed to restrain myself from reading straight on... One of the striking features is how aspects of the story - for example our sudden introduction to the Pari - connect …
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(Quote) Yup you're right, they are individually quite long so we'll just tackle Sun of Suns for Feb :)
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Discussion area set up for Sun of Suns
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I enjoyed these again, but I wasn't convinced that the incomprehension was gender based. To me it came over more like the bafflement of a non-magician trying to come to terms with the magical abilities and preferences of someone they had assumed was…
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> @Apocryphal said: > (Quote) > The individual books come hardback or trade paperback, and are between 300 and 400 pages each - so it might actually just be you breezing through things! I guess a testament to how much you like it. Fair…
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> @clash_bowley said: > (Quote) > I got way behind because of one thing or another and it looked like I was just too far behind. They're pretty much all separate stories so it doesn't matter if you skip some sections! I can't see there…
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(Quote) I'll set up the new discussion area early next week but have currently reverted to reading The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi
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(Quote) Hm that's weird. They must be pretty small pages in the print edition :) I whipped through 1/6 of the compilation of the first two books pretty rapidly while deciding on it. But if it gets burdensome we can stop after just the first one. Let…
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I enjoyed these tales again, though in places they seemed to cover similar ground to what we've had before. I guess that's inevitable really! I wasn't sure about Ali Khawaja being the prototypical detective story - it seemed to me more along the li…
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All: for February's read I'm thinking the first two of Karl Schroeder's _Virga_ series of novellas (presupposing we haven't read them before my time?). Schroeder is a Canadian writer currently living in Toronto. The _Virga_ books are all set on (or …
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I was about to put out a mild nag about February's book chooser making a choice, but I've just realised that actually it's down to me... I'll give it some thought. Meanwhile the January book is The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi+ by SA Chakraborty, s…
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I had a vague idea that the character names might be significant in terms of the story, but I'm no longer convinced: Ali Baba = Great Leader Qasim = Generous / charitable Majana (from Murjana) = Little Pearl Ah well. If I'd been choosing the names t…
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I like the link with The Hobbit :)
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I have to admit that I knew nothing about Marjana before reading this! As was indicated in one of the comments, in most Western versions of the tales women are relegated to distraction or decoration rather than being agents of the action. I mean, ho…
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I came across some notes that Andre Norton made in 1979 about the origins of the whole Witch World saga (including maps :) ) which bear copying here from https://andre-norton.com/works-of-a-master/series-of-a-master/the-witch-world-saga (Quote) (I…
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BTW here's the cover for the Kindle version that I have been reading, attributed to Matt Forsyth (Image)
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It seemed to me, albeit with far less experience than any of you folk, that the background / setting is one that gives enough detail to allow a potential player to choose one of several character types. So instead of choosing wizard / warrior / elf …
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(Quote) I think this is another symptom of the time of writing of the book - Andre Norton tends here (and in some of her other books) to switch viewpoint character quite abruptly. This practice is nowadays more frowned upon, going by the name "…