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NeilNjae
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Comments
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As I said elsewhere, Montgomery is a parasite. He contributes nothing to anyone and exists only to drink. I think he's meant to show the bestial nature of some people, while M'ling shows how some "lesser beings" can become almost human (an…
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I think Moreau isn't doing "evolution" but "eugenics". It's about deliberate improving of a race. I don't recall Moreau espousing any religious views; instead, he's the epitome of the amoral scientist. Moreau is vivisecting becau…
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I read the animals as victims, and I think it was intended that way. The novel also a blatant justification for all the worst aspects of colonialism. These poor benighted animals were raised to person-hood by the painful intervention of the white ma…
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I think Prendick thought he was in a thriller, but no one else was playing along. Virtually all the characters were friendly towards him. They were variously damaged and/or evil, but few were hostile. I think Wells did a good job creating and mai…
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Sorry, missed that! It's now at https://www.ttrpbc.com/discussion/618/june-choice-a-memory-called-empire/p1?new=1
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Nice to see Priest being eco-friendly before it was call, reusing this story for The Islanders. I'll admit, I didn't read it deeply. I think it lacks some impact from both being the second time I read it, and the lack of even the sliver of context …
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Another story from 1978. To me, that context is important. To me, this isn't a story about sex, it's a story about war and its after-effects. Violence was inflicted on Winho and the effects contineu, the damage increasing over time. Violence was in…
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I might add the third book to my TBR pile. You know how it goes...
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I'm struggling to read much more into this story than a Cold War allegory. Two indistinguishable side, separated by a wall, the soldiers young men manipulated by the distant rich. The notion of walls in people's minds as well as the physical aspects…
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I looked up, and this story was originally published in 1978. That makes sense, as the notion of two large powers glowering at each other over a wall is very reminiscent of the border in East Germany and East Berlin. I think we're meant to assume t…
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I liked the introduction to the vortex. It's an interesting idea that the world has no time zones: it's the same local time at every place in the world. The chapter serves the purpose of saying that this is not our world, and also the notion that th…
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(Quote) Wasn't there something at the end where Alex was executed, flayed, and the skin used to intimidate Catherine? I'll admit, I was skipping the book at that point so may have the details wrong.
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There are lots of stories to tell about war and intrigue, but I don't think you need the Aztec empire to tell them. The key reason for the setting is to ask what would happen if Europe (especially Britain) was the subject of imperialism rather than…
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The world-building seemed solid and I liked how we didn't have large chunks of exposition shoved down our throats. It probably helped the worldbuilding that it wasn't explained in detail: if Evans had said more, where would have been more opportunit…
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In the first part of the book, there was a nice feeling of suspicion and second-guessing. I don't know what Bevan was eventually revealed as, but he was set up as either a double agent or a mole for the Aztecs.
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I thought the world-building was interesting. The AH diversion point seemed to be Cortez joining forces with the Aztecs and therefore the Spanish conquest never happening. The technology was mostly described at the right level of detail: mostly it j…
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I'm sorry to say, I didn't find the pace improved. Just after posting my comment the book did the bombing of the large greenhouse and picked up for a bit. But then it went back to "self-centred and entitled person sits in room" and I start…
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Maybe not people, but... landmarks? shops? neighourhoods? And, relating this back to gaming, there are different ways to present and use maps in RPGs. One is the precise, realistic method with distances and angles. The other is the node-and-connect…
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I think we see how it works.
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(Quote) Is that another feature of the Archipelago's genesis? There's the semi-exotic Mediterranean islands opening up to UK tourists. There also the backdrop of the two rival imperial powers of USA and USSR, each with a web of client states, fighti…
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(Quote) I don't think that we should care about "authors." The entries span loads of space and time, and Priest doesn't call attention to any of the non-story authors. I don't think it's a useful line of investigation. Priest could have ma…
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Art and artists is something I rarely include in my games, and I should include it sometimes for variety. It's an interesting motivation for a villain: they're not evil, just want to express themselves. For setting, this may make an interesting com…
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I preferred the unabashed short stories to the collections of guidebook entries. In the stories, there was some connection to the characters which made me more interested. It was difficult to care about people like Bathurst and Yo because we only he…
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Harking back to Q1 and the difference between guidebook and travelogue. Priest I think is more interested in presenting a travelogue of the Archipelago, full of impressions and feelings; but has presented it as a guidebook, full of emotionless facts…
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The Islanders is neither a guidebook nor a travelogue: it's a long-ish work of fiction that adopts some of those conceits. Is it a novel? I don't know enough about the definitions to give an answer. I think there's plenty of filler in the book. I s…
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I read Dream Archipelago ages ago and really liked it. I can't remember much about it, apart from the appearance of thrymes in one story. I'll be happy to read it again, and a novel that follows. I think The Islanders was a bit of an experiment in …
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Let's go for A Memory Called Empire. We've got a good track record of everyone here liking recent, popular, Hugo-winning novels!
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(Quote) In that case, is this chapter an attempt at unity? Yo finally relaxes and shares a moment, the people listening to her song do so as a whole. Is this where Priest shows us what units the Archipelago?
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About metaphors, I agree with Richard that this relationship, like I think all the others in the book, is devoid of any real connection. There's no generosity or nurturing in it. No-one becomes more as a result of a partner. And even if we take the …
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So, the tunnelling is just a metaphor for sex. How dull. Yo goes around fucking islands until she gets "properly" fucked herself. I was expecting a bit more. Yo and Oy were caricatures, cipher characters in a fairy story about opposites o…