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RichardAbbott
About
- Username
- RichardAbbott
- Joined
- Visits
- 6,170
- 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 have just now added the monthly category for The Red Scholar's Wake, by Aliette de Bodard, chosen by @NeilNjae which will be our April read. Now's the time to set up notification preferences!
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I'll set up the discussion area
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(Quote) They both sound intriguing. It's harder to work out what's going on in The Red Scholar's Wake so that might be a reason for choosing it!
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Looking ahead, we have a current rotation of @NeilNjae in April, me in May, @clash_bowley in June and @Apocryphal in July. However if @BarnerCobblewood or @Michael_S_Miller want to host something somewhen in that span of months please post a messag…
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I have (rather belatedly) added the monthly category for Riddley Walker, by Russell Hoban, chosen by @Apocryphal which will be our March read. Now's the time to set up notification preferences!
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> @clash_bowley said: > Per Wikipedia - which I agree with - "His novels and stories tend to follow one of three patterns: > > Fast-paced, straight adventures in time and space, with an emphasis on lone-wolf, latent superhuman p…
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I've not come across those books either
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That's really interesting and helpful, thanks 🙂. > @Apocryphal said: > 1. The writing. It’s best if it’s straightforward, and the storytelling is linear. I thought Half Sick of Shadows was a good listening experience, enhanced by the Wels…
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> @NeilNjae said: > Then the question is, does the worldbuilding set up interesting stories? It could, but those will be the content of the later books in the series. We didn't see a lot of "things happening in other worlds" in this…
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Here's an article on flooding kindle with books written or cowritten by ChatGPT - not quite the same as the case you mentioned, but not all that different... https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/ai-author-books-amazon-chatgpt-b2287111.html
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A light fun read. I wouldn't go back to it for great prose or interesting structure, but the writing was competent, well edited, and well-suited to its content. Seeing as how I felt it could easily have been longer it clearly didn't bore me! Int…
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Trading Standards would probably insist that the name was changed to DangerTrek or some such! For all the reasons stated elsewhere it makes no sense to pitch it to scientists. It would be more likely as a kind of (very) extreme sport for bored ri…
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At a guess you'd either want to allow your characters to take some stuff with them (maybe with restrictions about size or composition) or else make it easier to build stuff when you got there. Otherwise it's hard to see how you'd make a campaign out…
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> @Apocryphal said: > Make sense? Nope, not really LOL. It probably would have made more sense if it was a team to scientists and engineers evolving their new tech by sending rich MMA clients on death defying adventures! Haha yes MMA test …
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To me it was kind of like cartoon violence or super-hero violence - loads happening but not really affecting the reader. Totally agree about The Orenda, and I think this was because that was much more about the people as individuals who we had got t…
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I didn't feel it was ever meant to be character driven so I never got invested in the characters! You just knew that Infinity was going to survive with difficulty, and that most of the others were red-shirts! I assumed that the whole call-sign thing…
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I was taken aback by the length, mainly because I never saw a physical book so my only clue was the percentage progress marker! But given that it was (if I recall correctly) written retrospectively to provide a start point for other already-written …
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Absolutely brilliant! Thanks so much for mentioning it!
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In the end I was so intrigued I bought it anyway and am very much enjoying it, not least because of the underlying mystery of what is actually going on. It took me a couple of chapters to work out that the chapter names are all apple varieties (many…
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This sounds fun, I've got a couple of books on the go at the moment but must remember this one for later :)
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> @Apocryphal said: > I'm leaning toward Riddley Walker, by Russel Hoban. Let me know if that appeals. Fine by me - I did read it many years ago but would enjoy the opportunity to reread. I like Hoban as an author and his children's books …
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If anyone still has thoughts they want to put out for comment about A Master of Djinn then feel free, but now we're into February we're into @clash_bowley 's choice Infinity: A Bridger's Origin. Any ideas for March @Apocryphal ?
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Though in the steampunk novel you chose a while ago (_The Guns Above_, I think) the heroine was a middle class socially anxious woman constantly worrying that the upper class leaders would belittle her, despite her abilities!
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> @NeilNjae said: > Things would need to be more precise for someone else writing (or creating RPG material) in the setting, but that's not this book. And I hope Clark has something more detailed in his "series bible" so that he doe…
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Also the Qur'an has a number of verses explicitly talking about djinn, some in complimentary and some in dismissive terms. So I guess Islam has always had a mixed relationship with the concept of djinn and their place in the cosmos
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I agree with @NeilNjae on this - I feel the book caught the extent and diversity of Cairo well, but not the bustle and apparent chaos of it
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OK, so general agreement that the magic wasn't well-structured!
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I'd seen a picture so wasn't surprised by gender, but the assistant professorship was new to me. A bit like Arkady Martine who wrote A Memory Called Empire and its sequel, who is actually AnnaLinden Weller and a historian. For quite a while it's bee…
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How about the different levels of interest that the djinn showed in human affairs, ranging from utter disinterest through to collaborative work on big projects and (so we learn part-way through) intimate relationships?