Help offset server costs by donating. This is totally optional. Any overages will go to library fines or new books.
NeilNjae
About
- Username
- NeilNjae
- Joined
- Visits
- 1,880
- Last Active
- Roles
- Member
Comments
-
(Quote) Interesting then that the monks weren't developed more, to illuminate the importance of written texts to record things outside fallible human brains. Why did Ishiguro do that?
-
(Quote) Given that the "truth" of the son is revealed at the very end of the book and not developed, I'm inclined to take it as face value: a literal son who died from disease.
-
(Quote) Beatrice dies of cancer; Axl continues to live. But their love is sufficiently strong that they will remember each other in the afterlife, when Axl eventually dies. They'll remember their love, even if they don't remember all the events in t…
-
(Quote) That's an interesting thought. It seems like Camlann hasn't happened in this book, so perhaps Axl is Arthur, Beatrice is Guinevere, and the son could be a metaphor for Camelot. That could equate Wistan with Mordred, and hint at the battle to…
-
One can understand good stories as having three elements. There's the external, "procedural" actions that take place, the sorts of things that can be observed and recorded: a dungeon crawl, a conversation. Actions and obstacles. There's th…
-
Axl is our viewpoint into the allegory, giving us insight into how people forget their past actions in order to move on with their lives, and how those actions come back to haunt them. Some of those actions, like the ethnic cleansing of Saxons, need…
-
I think many "nerd" types are deeply conservative. Some of that is restricted to the adoration of "canon" and the urge to specify all the loose ends in a setting. It has its uglier side too: witness the controversy about casting …
-
I think it's meant to be set somewhere from Midlands to South West. But I agree, the geography doesn't match anything actually in that area. But then again, the book's not about "realism" as "allegory", so I don't much mind. This…
-
I think this book should be read as "allegory" rather than "story". It's not a retelling of events that happened (or could have happened). It's a collection of vignettes that point to a theme of memory and forgetting. Once I rea…
-
I've finished, so ready when you are.
-
But then, what counts as "family" as distinct from "friend" or "crewmate"? I associate "family" with "caring for children" so I didn't consider the Haimey, Connla, Singer group to the a "family&…
-
(Quote) All very true. She's written a second novel in the same universe, called Machine. I may pick that one up, especially as it's got a good dose of medical drama included.
-
That's a good observation. Haimey did experience first-hand the effects of maladjusted people, with the bombing. But she didn't know about it when she was having those discussions. Would the book have been better if she'd had those revelations earli…
-
You could easily read Haimey's final transformation as being an allegory for trans "awakening": she consciously decided the person she would be, going beyond the social role she was groomed for (by her clade and then by the court). But wid…
-
(Quote) I think Bear likes 19C novels, and has enough love of good literature to want to draw on them. Perhaps that was a goal she set herself in writing? And just because she's taking care to ensure the book is commercially successful, it still nee…
-
I think it's a reflection on the commercial side of genre publishing. There's not much money in any one book, so authors have to keep churning them out, and making sure they sell in large-enough numbers, to pay the bills. Some authors (e.g. Charles …
-
We both missed rightminding, psychological alteration of people to make them more social. Or, from the perspective of the Synarche, make people sufficiently social that they can get along, without freeloaders or worse.
-
Looking at Bear's bibliography, she's got a varied output. She doesn't have a single, hugely successful series to build a career around. Instead, she seems to spend her time writing books in the currently-fashionable style.
-
I think there was plenty gameable in the book. The Synarche would make a good setting: enough control to make a base, and enough freedom on the fringes for adventure. The notion of having to justify the use of additional resources with the communist…
-
I'm not too sure any of them were mentally or culturally different from the humans, except perhaps the Ativahika. (I think Cherryh's Chanur books have some of the best space-opera aliens). Then again, we didn't really spend much time with them, apar…
-
I think the only "alternative" group was the clade, and that was presented as a constricting cult, as you say. Were there other family structures?
-
I liked the description of Singer, but I did wonder a bit about how the three of them managed to get along so well in such a small space over a long time. Perhaps there was some mental adjustment going on? The stations were well-described, with the …
-
I'd have liked a bit less explanation of things, or at least more artful explanations. I've already said that I glazed over at some of the wodges of exposition. Saying that, I don't think there was much I was really confused about in the book. Not …
-
It was fine! It made the book personal and immediate. IIRC, Karen Memory (by the same author) was also first-person. I think the first-person narration helped when it came to Haimey uncovering her past. When we had those revelations I, as a reader, …
-
I think that's accurate. There's some great world-building behind the setting and events in the book, and I'm glad we had some of that explained. On the other hand, more than once I skipped over yet another block of exposition. I think that ideally …
-
I've previously read Karen Memory and really enjoyed that (a cracking good steampunk adventure romp). I liked this book! She's taken inspiration from the "hopepunk" style of Long Way to a Small Lonely Planet and similar. In this one, we ha…
-
I started late, but catching up fast!
-
(Quote) What things from the book are informing the game? Anything you'd like to share?
-
Were the Freaks born into the martial arts world? I didn't get that impression. I thought they still worked hard to develop their skills, but it's a more "folk hero" style than the formal, high-class teaching of the monks. If you will, it'…
-
(Quote) I suspect the names are made up. Even if they weren't, I'm not sure readers would be expected to know all those moves, across many different styles, by name. And I think the names are rather too flowery to be "real". Back when I di…