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Apocryphal
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I thought this bit from that last chapter, p.535 in my book, was probably the crux of the whole thing: (Quote) In the above, I think you could substitute 'culture' for language, and 'politics' for translation, and probably get the gist of her messa…
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Interestingly, religion and the nature of the divine do not poke their heads into this novel even once, I don't think. We have this whole 'rational' magic system (which I think we all agree isn't really rational) that works without the hand of God.
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Yes, it felt too long to me, and there was an entire section (Act 2, I think) that I thought could have been chopped out almost entirely. Also, in terms of writing, I mentioned before that the use of modern terms and phrases kept throwing me out of…
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I would say it's not really about 'the world we live in now' as it is about 'the world we've always lived in, and likely always will.' There always have been (and always will be, unless maybe we reach post-scarcity) people who are more powerful and/…
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Honestly, both felt like plot points to me, rather than real things (due to my looking behind the curtain, as mentioned elsewhere).
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Yes, it really wasn't very interesting as a study of colonialism - kind of ham-fisted. The question of empire (and class distinction, and 'us vs them' in general can be quite interesting, but what makes it really interesting is to acknowledge that t…
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So, here's an interesting thing. While I was reading this book, I was also listening to another book called The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr. This book is about the aspects of a story that makes it pleasing to the reader, and it should be c…
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Although I didn't need to break up the read, I am not opposed to this in principle, and especially if it helps others join the adventure. However, this makes it hard to answer the question "did my opinion change?" Thinking back, I believe…
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What is meant by "the plot was telegraphed"? She wrote the word 'stop' instead of using periods?
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Nice work getting the accents on an English keyboard!
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Looks good!
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Richard then Barner, I think.
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What’s up for January?
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What’s a ‘native speaker’? Someone who learned the language at age 2 from their uneducated parents, rather than at 22 from a university? Why would that matter? Also, both King Charles and Ron Charles the Newfoundland fisherman are native English spe…
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At the end of Act 1, Robin faces a test of whether he will stay loyal to his adopted and imperfect Babel community or join Hermes (a perhaps more sinister community). At the end of Act 2 that question is put to him again under different parameters. …
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>@RichardAbbott said: >in our world the various sources of cuneiform tablets in the near east only really became available for study and decipherment from the middle of the 19th century onwards. So for example the real understanding of Akkadi…
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I did like the writing overall, too, but for one thing, which I would rather save to the end to discuss.
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I’ll refrain from comment, except to say: interesting speculations!
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In general I think the book is longer than it needs to be and there are some sizeable chunks that could have been removed, esp. in part 2. So I guess that means I think the story could have unfolded quicker. But I didn’t mind the pace of the writing…
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I think it’s more ‘colonialism’ in general than specifically the British Empire. Kuang is American so I’m sure this is as much about them. The contrast rings true enough.
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Yes, Robin is definitely lonely at first. It’s probably important to isolate him, which is maybe a discussion for the end. I think there‘s a lot of path not taken to explore. Why Robin is male is interesting. I don’t know, but would be interested to…
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It’s definitely one of the key tensions in the book, especially later.
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Nope, doesn’t seem to be. So I’m not quite clear if ITA the words that channel the magic inherent in silver, or the silver chat channels the magic inherent in words. Maybe the former makes more sense. The conceit about finding the matching pairs …
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Not so much silver as magic, right? The silver is just a vehicle for the real magic, which is in the power of words. Maybe I’d better check to see if this is a question elsewhere before saying more.
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I have finished it and have much to say but most of that is on the latter part of the book. My feelings for the first half are not far off Barner’s, though I think I enjoyed it more in the beginning. It is a bit preachy and gets more so, I’d say. It…
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I’ve never heard of them. In fact, you often mention SF authors I’ve never heard of, so perhaps they don’t all make it over the pond. Or maybe it’s just the shape of my circles.
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Doubtful it’s a coincidence. To the other question, Saberhagen has The Third Historian say in the intro (which might not have made it into the kindle, but see my pictures in the intro thread) that the only thing that saved everyone was the fact th…
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It’s a good question. I’d guess a combo of nuclear threat with the fear of machines/robotics taking over. The idea of putting the fate of humanity into something that could not conceive of God and therefore had no moral guidance. Maybe there’s a lat…
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It was a bit of of an odd thing, maybe something to make the Carmpans seem mysterious. I think the characters only speculated it was a prophecy, which probably means it was. Anyway, it’s probably safe to assume he’ll die eventually :-)
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I quite liked the writing overall, and I thought it was probably better in the later stories. And, I think, there was enough conceptual stuff going on, as a start. He only took up writing in 1960 at the age of 30, so these were generally pretty earl…