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RichardAbbott
About
- Username
- RichardAbbott
- Joined
- Visits
- 6,361
- 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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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?
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A good spread of responses! As well as the other two in the Cairo series I got myself _The Black God's Drums_ which is set in an alternate historical New Orleans, complete with a lot of what I assume is authentic dialect. Not being well up on C19…
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Discussion starters for A Master of Djinn are now posted...
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> @clash_bowley said: > I'm ready! Finished yesterday! Let nobody say that @clash_bowley never finishes a book :)
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All: how are we getting on with A Master of Djinn? If all OK I will post the starter discussions in a couple of days
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Some interesting stats there @Apocryphal and as expected I see a lot of familiar titles in your list :) In terms of book format the vast majority are kindle for me - I think I listened to just five audiobooks last year, mostly in short bursts while…
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All: I have added the monthly category for February's Infinity: A Bridger's Origin and added in the cover blurb. I also did the blurb post for this month's A Master of Djinn as I discovered that unaccountably I had forgotten to do that...
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(Quote) The main spoiler was that we all felt the title was basically clickbait, and should have been "12th century BC: the century when something big happened in the ancient world of Late Bronze societies, but we're not exactly sure when or to…
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I'll set up the discussion area then