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NeilNjae
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The comments remind me of two things. The "world is magic" is similar to how things work in Glorantha. Communities and their bonds are just as much entities as heroes and dragons, and both affect and can be affected by magical and mundane …
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Good thoughts about names. Yes, I liked how the mages were referred to by their homes, as a way of de-humanising them in that scene. They weren't really participants in the events of Ogion's death.
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That interpretation of Handy seems entirely consistent with what's in the book. It could well be the interpretation we're meant to have.
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(Quote) I think it's a transition from a stable but unhappy state to a better one. After all, Gont was in large part controlled by selfish lords and powerful gangsters. The assertion of "rule of law" should improve things, even if the tran…
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It was more his role in the book. Handy was involved in the initial attempted murder of Therru, but he's the one who tried to get help for her. And why was he trying to kill an infant dragon in the first place? He spends the rest of the book pursuin…
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(Quote) This is very true. The world, and the power structures in it, are shaped by men. The malign power of Aspen, Handy and Spark. The benign power of Ogion and Lebannen. There's nothing in the book to suggest that this will change, only that wome…
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(Quote) And in the UK. They need to be sheltered against south-facing walls, but they grow and fruit here.
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I'm not sure. It's a very personal story. We spend a lot of time inside characters' heads, especially Tenar's. It's about how people come to terms with change. Because it's so intropective, it fits the form of the novel. I'm not sure how to translat…
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You're right, it's a very personal book. It's about how people are changed by the great deeds they've done in the past. It's something that's rarely done in adventure fiction: what comes after the "happily ever after". One thing I liked a…
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There were some mentions of Tehanu in the le Guin documentary I mentioned the other day. Le Guin said that Wizard of Earthsea was "a wash" when it came to feminism and issues, and that it took her twenty years to find Tenar's story. It's q…
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I'm not too sure that names were an important part of this story. Ged went by the name of Hawk (rather than Sparrowhawk) because he wanted to distance himself from his life as a mage. Tenar did something similar, being known as Goha while married. T…
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There's a lot about women coming into power, and men losing theirs. Tenar comes into some ability with magic. Therru changes from crippled girl to maturing dragon. Ged comes to accept his new position of partnership with women. Aspen, the mage, refu…
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How about Ceres? There are recent stories that it may contain reservoirs of liquid water (or maybe not). It also has bright spots in some crater floors, which are ice deposits. Perhaps one of those could be an ice shell placed over an ocean, as you …
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Energy will be a concern. You're under an opaque atmosphere far from the sun, so solar power is out. Burning hydrocarbon isn't a great source, as you need to expend energy to liberate the oxygen from water, only to burn it and turn it back into wate…
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We're scheduled to discuss Tehanu starting this weekend. How about we aim to talk about The Stone Sky after that discussion has finished?
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I'm happy to read a book that's been adapted. What book are you thinking of? Does it have a film that everyone would know?
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Thanks for that!
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There'd be no surface. Brown dwarfs are between very large gas giants and stars. Just like there's no surface on Jupiter or the Sun, there'd be no surface on a brown dwarf. But there'd be plenty of scope for life in the warm clouds. The Algebraist …
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(Quote) I certainly am! I've just about finished a re-read of Dune, so I'll start on Stone Sky after that.
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Finished it as well. I can certainly tell that le Guin was older when she wrote this one, and that her concerns had changed. Should make for some interesting discussion!
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(Quote) I think that's a Descended from the Queen game, based on the storytelling game For the Queen. I've only played the basic For the Queen, but it seems like a good basis for games of this kind: exploring situations that are about feelings and a…
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(Quote) I agree with that. The description of the book, and the reviews about it, all suggested it was going to be a good book and one I'd enjoy. I was disappointed with the execution here, but not the intent. And while I'm here, I'm all for the cl…
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(Quote) Amen to that! A great potential setting, full of wonder and struggle. I tried running a game in 1840s Mysore, but it collapsed for external reasons after a few sessions.
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The nerd-culture example of this is most superhero comics. All sorts of people have written stories for existing characters. There are plenty of stories with Sherlock Holmes and James Bond, written by different authors. Both also have derivatives a…
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Thanks folks. That's settled. Space Opera it is. Life is beautiful and life is stupid.
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(Quote) The comedy is in the style of Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. If you like that, you'll probably like Space Opera; if not, probably not. Does that help inform your choice?
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I second the recommendation of Tim Powers, and the Falco books. I mentioned the Flashman books in a different thread, but they're not to everyone's taste. Sharpe and Hornblower also feature historical figures and historical events.
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I'm not a great fan of steampunk: the colonialist entitlement is too strong for me. A great reaction to it is Renegade Jennys and Boilerplate Jacks a sadly-unfinished steampunk game about the people at the bottom and edges of society, trying to surv…
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What bits of setting exposition I read at the beginning seemed sensible extrapolations from the real world. When you start looking at history in detail, all these fascinating little bits come to the surface. The Flashman books are great for this. Th…
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Paraphrasing Ryan Dancey, it was 20 pages of story packed into 350 pages. (The writing.) (Oh dear.)