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Apocryphal
About
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- Apocryphal
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Comments
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Why yes, I think so.
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I have a hardcover already - ‘complete Binti’ with 3 novellas, runs about 300 pages. Haven’t read it yet.
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Sounds good - and thanks for thinking of me wrt the slow read - that hadn't occurred to me!
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I have no preference. I suspect Burn After Running is out for good. As a group, we're getting smaller - though 6 is still not bad.
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You can see the rhyming pattern by the little kneeling guy with arm upraised.
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Another thing: Neil pointed out early on that all the main characters in this collection were not islanders, which suggested the islands were only a place you came to. One theme of this story is that the islands are also not a place you can settle d…
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> @WildCard said: > I love you guys, and I’ve been reading almost everything. Ditto!
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Me too, obviously. I wouldn't hold out for anyone other than the current regulars.
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I wondered about that bit of innuendo, too. I thought the cavalcade of islands that the soldier described felt like something of a summation. A bit of a preamble to ‘concluding remarks’, perhaps. Also, yes, the 3000 years and ‘the islanders’ …
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Personally, I would just start the new rotation with September, and continue with picks by members. Since it seems like we’re down to 5 pickers, maybe we have room to stretch out with some longer works (giving a longer book 2 months?). Of the tw…
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Thanks, Richard!
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Like both of you, I was disappointed in the ending. There were so many loose threads, and it is difficult to tie the themes together. With respect to the watcher/watched dichotomy, there isn’t really a final punchline. My initial response was the sa…
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(Quote) Like a Russian Doll, is how it's often described.
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Cuneiform signs often have multiple meanings, and when a text that was intended to be read one way could also be read in a second, supporting, way, it was thought to have more divine weight, as it were. For example, during the early dynastic period,…
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I think you should pick a book YOU like. You're only here for one book, usually, so make it count. You seemed quite disappointed when you didn't like Blake Crouch, for example, so I'd suggest trying to make the most of your time with something you k…
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Yes, I also thought about the similarity with The Magus.
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I agree it all felt… constructed. Not an organic unfolding of events, but a manufactured tale. I suppose that means I didn’t ‘find it convincing’ but on the other hand, I’m not sure Priest was trying to convince me of anything. The idea of a gard…
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I think cultures snd political structures are things that are bound to repeat through the life of human kind, but not languages. We haven’t evolved so very far from Sumerian and Akkadian culture and rulership. We still have kings blessed (if not app…
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It’s an interesting play. I suppose we see similar conflicts in the real world. The narrative of Chine, for example, or North Korea, in their homelands vs the narrative of their ex pats abroad. Right now we are experiencing a reconciling of the Narr…
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The answer is probably to capitulate, but there are no guarantees. Egyptian culture largely survived Assyrian, Persian, and Babylonian control, but eroded under Greek and Roman. I think the religious revolutions had more effect than the political co…
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The cultures were absolutely my favourite part and I found this quite inspiring, though I could never quite get a satisfactory answer to why we had Aztecs in space. Luckily I was able to handwave this. The question of viewpoint is interesting. I’…
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While I absolutely loved the cultures described in the novel, I didn’t come away with a single memory of the physical aspect of the city, so I’m going to go with inadequate on that front. Generally speaking, I liked the writing and thought it was…
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I much prefer hearing Richard talk about poetry to reading the actual poetry, so I guess this is a win for me.
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Three Seagrass, Mahit, Nineteen Adze, and Yskander had the most potential as characters - the first three because we spent the most time with them, and the later because he was a dark horse for most of the novel and had some unusual circumstances to…
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I remember from a previous read finding one of the stories particularly creepy, and I think it might be this one. Since I can’t remember how it ends, I’ll just have to wait and see. > @NeilNjae said: ‘Not only is Graian a visitor to the island…
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Much like a dream…
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@dr_mitch has a ready-made scenario he would run which I've never played in, and being a better GM (I expect) he'd be the best candidate for this. Plus he has a handy set-up for online gaming already :-) A TTRPBCon would be a fun little thing, I th…
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Yes, it's by @Apocryphal AND by @dr_mitch - an at long last released today. It's a 'Mythic' setting centred around the old city of Babylon at the time of Hammurabi (most famous for his code of laws). The default start year is the end of 1765 BC and…
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@WildCard Thanks for the comment - I always find your views fascinating. Sounds like you're drawing a distinction between 'Meaning' in the world (i.e. an intent or message from God), and 'meaning' in the text (what the author had in mind and possibl…
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Ok - I’m easy either way.