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Apocryphal
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Comments
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Thanks, Richard. I started reading this... The setting is quite distinctive, and the style is somewhat as well. It's not quite like anything I've read before, so I'm finding it quite interesting.
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@NeilNjae Thanks for bringing this to our attention - another great passes. I myself don't know Wolfe's work well enough, but my re-reading of The Shadow of the Torture has given me a new appreciation for his writing. I actually have quite a few of …
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@Ray_Otus Hey, hey, now. It wasn't a joke, per se, it was an observation that amused me. @NeilNjae speculated about the maintenance of the roads, and Clash pointed out they were unmaintained. Then you said 'But if they were maintained' (like the two…
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@clash_bowley I think you're breaking the rules of improv, LOL.
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Another thing about the roads - road projects are usually initiated to make it easier for armies to move quickly across the homeland to respond to threats. Here we have the opposite - roads that are being left fallow to make it harder for rebellion …
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My first impression of Talos was that he was a mountebank, and Baldanders his brawny accomplice. Something about him doesn't add up. Where was he last night, for example? He's also very clever - one gets the feeling he's always a step ahead. This do…
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(Quote) When push comes to shove, there's always still the ability to hope. Even the person falling from a cliff still hopes to have their fall broken by a bush, a pool, or their boss. And hopelessness is also similarly unaffected - look at all the …
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LEXICON (and thoughts inspired by it) (Quote) Lictor: Latin, as all the titles seem to be - An officer in ancient Rome, attendant on a consul or magistrate, who bore the fasces and was responsible for punishing criminals. Thrax also has a meaning -…
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Could be, though I have to say that "I danced and hunted boar" sounds a lot less probable to me than "I danced and flirted with boys". 'Pursued the peccary' sounds a lot like 'pursued the pecker', after all.
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LEXICON Only a small one, this section. (Quote) Paphian: a prostitute, from Greek Paphos, the mythical birthplace of the goddess of love on the island of Cyprus. (Quote) A peccary is a wild pig. In Arizona they have wild pigs called javelinas, wh…
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Well, that describes my experience with this one.
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(Quote) When pigs fly makes sense.
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In Chapter V we learn that the Feast of Holy Katharine is one of the most important days to the Torturers. It's interesting, though, that their patroness is a saint who was resistant to torture. From Wikipedia: (Quote) "Of the trail of ink the…
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LEXICON (Quote) Lansquenets is a French spelling of German 'Landsknecht' mercenary soldiers. (Quote) Fulgorating: Resembling lightning; -- used to describe intense lancinating pains accompanying locomotor ataxy. (Quote) Khaibit: from Egyptian myt…
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(Quote) Here a reference to snows - Urth is a cold place. each point of ice seems like the Claw of the Conciliator (a gem, and also the name of book 2 in the series). A triskele is a symbol with tri-symmetry, sometimes represented as three running …
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Interesting.
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LEXICON (Quote) In Zoroastrianism, Amesha Spenta (Avestan: Aməša Spəṇta) is a class of divine entities literally means "Immortal (which is) holy." Later Middle Persian variations of the term include the contraction 'Ameshaspand' as well a…
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@clash_bowley How so?
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Could do. I've never read any McIntyre before.
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Finally got to open mine today - looks great! Even the photographs in the interior rendered quite well.
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Can you explain further?
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Wool by Hugh Howey was also an internet serial before being published as a novel.
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Zelazny’s Lord of Light?
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I’d certainly be willing to read another by a different author. I liked the world itself, and thing an even harder story (one that used hard sociology as well as physics might be interesting. Whether I could write one is another matter. Not sure i c…
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The scenes between Barl and the flyer ambassador were the highlight for me. Also Lackland and his crewmates interacting with Barl. The engineering problems were a bit dullsville, but I liked the social problem solving.
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I too chuckled at the slide rules. It certainly doesn’t bother me that someone failed to predict the future. The prevalence of computing and mobile phone use is probably the single most unanticipated technology from the 50s and 60s.
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No surprise, and the repetitive nature is something of a tipoff. We found that with James Whites sector general and with Van Vogts Space Beagle, too. The repetition tends not to work for me, but episodic fiction I’m quite fine with, as long as the g…
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I thought the flyer ambassador, Lackland and some his crew were the most interesting. The aliens were surprisingly human, but I guess xenopsychology wasn’t really what Clement wanted to explore. Compare to Mievilles Embassytown.
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In general I enjoy hard sf, though this book really felt like it was written by an engineer As a thought exercise about solving a matter of physics, and I find that a little dull. There was very little human condition here, unlike most of the other …
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looks like a list of United Nations delegates.