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Apocryphal
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As we get older, it’s quite possible we’ll increasingly be unable to read certain things. The UK limited run show called Adolescence, which is currently getting a lot of attention, features a coded use of emojis among the school kids in the show tha…
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There’s a passing mention of Cixin Liu being heavily influenced by the Strugatsky brothers in the Lost Transmissions book I’m reading. Which might logically mean he’s drawn more on the Russian tradition than the American one. And maybe this extends …
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Looks like I'm up in May Here are two books I'm considering: * Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrrison Or * The Terminal Experiment by Robert J. Sawyer Both are SF set on Earth. The first is a classic by Harry Harrison about overpopulation and …
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Hmmm, ok. You could take a look at this maybe. I haven’t read it myself, as I don’t really like rules for these kinds of things, but I understand it covers things like status and reputation, as well as wealth: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product…
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Yes, Tekumel is largely predicated on the idea of outsiders finding their way in a Byzantine and alien culture. But you could use almost any setting for this if you don’t mind using a shipwreck scenario - crew crash lands on a strange planet (Jor…
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Be careful about that - my understanding is that the Prometheus Award is given to books that explore Libertarian themes - not necessarily convey some 'libertarian messaging' (like it's subliminal mind control). Prometheus awards have also been given…
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:D
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I don’t remember that particular discussion, but I’d say that in Vance’s books, most of the characters try to twist the system to their personal advantage. Clash has read more and comment further.
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Russia commits atrocities against its own people all the time. The Russians mostly just shrug and say ‘what can you do?’ The latest I’ve heard is that injured and otherwise ‘useless’ soldiers are made to crawl across fields like human minesweeper…
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This point about the vocabulary is generally considered a feature of Vance. Fans love him for his vocabulary. A similar thing can be said for Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun, which in many ways was inspired by Vance’s Dying Earth novels.
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I've always found Vance's cultural constructions to be inspiring, and as someone who likes to use such elements in my game worlds to call attention to the absurd in our world, I really appreciate Vance's efforts to do the same. I do like this plot …
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I enjoyed it, and I've enjoyed all of Vance's books read so far, except maybe The Languages of Pao. He's certainly a playful and creative writer in addition to being a good prose stylist, though that didn't come out as strongly in this novel as it d…
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I did mostly think they were interesting enough. Some, like Floriel and Nion, felt like they had lives outside of the plot. A few others, like Ghyl's first girlfriend who blows his costume later, really only seemed like plot elements. Others, like t…
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I wouldn't call it shallow - the whole economic system thoroughly infused the centre part of the book and I thought it was pretty well done. Like any short SF novel, you really only get a glimpse of the alien culture, but it's a narrow and deep focu…
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I definitely thought it worked, and I'm interested in reading more of this kind of thing from Vance. I suppose it felt more Dickian than Vancian to me, which is by no means a criticism.
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So, I quite liked the book, first off. It was quite unlike any other Vance novels I've read so far, largely thanks to it's tone. However, the whole Emphyrio connection was probably for me the weakest part of the book. I never quite got why he was s…
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That’s all quite interesting with respect to the Chinese SF scene. It makes me think there’s enough scope to write a whole book about SF in China and include more authors and their opinions. It left me wondering, though, how much exposure Liu has ha…
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Finished a while ago as well.
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I was wondering what you meant by computer game structure, but now I understand. It is a very interesting observation.
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I missed this thread as I was avoiding the forum until finishing Eversion. Seems the decision is already made, but no preference on my part anyway - never heard of the first so I don't know anything about it. I do have a copy of Radix and want to re…
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Yeah, I could see that too, but would not be excited enough to try it. Might be more interesting if each 'version' was run by a different GM.
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I still don't understand it.
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I mostly answered this in Q2, but essentially I agree with how Barner put it. The characters felt like placeholders for a conceit, and the conceit wasn't all that interesting.
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I thought the pacing was fine. I didn't find the book all that interesting, but that was a content issue, not a pacing issue.
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I actually didn't really find any of the characters engaging. Their naming was a big one for me - the names seemed to thrown together, like pulled out of a phone book. Murgatroyd? Heavens! Also the prose itself was really not engaging. I kept compar…
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I just finished - took a long time. Not because it was a difficult book, but mostly I've been too preoccupied with the news to focus, and this books was just not engaging enough to draw me in. Like Neil, I found it rather boring. It wasn't all that …
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The only Byatt book I have is Ragnarok, and I haven’t read it yet.
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I’m about 1/3 in - still going. But don’t let that hold you back
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Before even reading the article I thought it probably coincided with the rise of nationalism, which in itself is myth-making about good guys and bad guys. Canada has been described as a post-national country, but the conservative movement thinks thi…
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👉*snooze*