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NeilNjae
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- NeilNjae
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Should NATO have intervened in Kosovo, or Yugoslavia, or Syria, or Iraq? None of those was an existential threat to NATO countries, but the humanitarian imperative was clear. Should the UK and US governments press China to implement more human right…
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It's obviously not a problem for the Culture because the Culture is being successful. I think it rests on what the Culture is for. It's not about expansion, efficiency, or other such capitalist-inspired value judgements. If that were the case, the M…
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(Quote) That's the one I was thinking of. I think the times when the Mind tells Gurgeh to switch languages from Marain to Azad and back to Marain is the most obvious way it's manipulating him. And you can imagine the conversations between the SC Mi…
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Yes, it's a communist utopia. No-one wants for anything, and people are free to concentrate on the important things, like playing games, writing poetry, and hobby-building GCVs. On the other hand, the Minds are so far above humans (and most drones)…
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I've not actually read the book this month (I lent my copy to someone, and the reservation at the library hasn't come through yet...), but. One thing that struck me from my last read. Who is the "player" referred to in the title? What gam…
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(Quote) That just shows I should pay more attention to my betters! (Quote) I think the world has verisimilitude because it hews close to a series of tropes and touchstones about the world. They all make sense in isolation, but when we try to put th…
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(Quote) Thinking about it more, I've come to the conclusion that Jemisin simply doesn't care about the world being objectively coherent. I think she wants a world that has enough verisimilitude to allow the characters to act in meaningful ways, and …
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How about something very _un_literary for May? The Eurovision Song Contest is over 12–16 May. The book Space Opera is basically "Eurovision in Space." It's a joyous book, fluff with a heart (you can read my review). If we read the book in…
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(Quote) A good article, thanks! Yes, it's full of spoilers for the whole trilogy. I've made a note to remind us of it when we get to the final recap. And @Apocryphal , thanks for the concern about the nature of the discussions we're having. It's ap…
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Multiple replies ahead! (Quote) Syenite's been "ordered" to have a child. The child is the goal, not the sex. Alabaster offered to refuse his part in the conception, and Syenite declined because she's the one who would take the blame, and…
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I'm happy to try some more literary books. One of the things I like about this group is the variety of books we read, and I'd like to see that continue.
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(Quote) The counter to this is "repesentation matters," and it can be important for fiction to feature a range of characters that reflects the population that reads it. It can be important that trans people, or gay people, or disabled peop…
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(Quote) People don't necessarily conceive at the first attempt. And anyway, the journey from Fulcrum to Allia was about two weeks, so they've been together about four weeks or so.
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(Quote) Is that what's going on in the relationship? I thought what's happening is that the Fulcrum leadership have told Syenite to have a child by Alabaster, and she decided to go along with that (for her own future prospects). Alabaster is continu…
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(Quote) Then it seems like I'm revealing my own lack of breadth in my reading, and projecting that onto others. It wouldn't be the first time I've made that mistake! (Quote) I think this will be an interesting point to come back to, at the end of t…
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(Quote) There were medieval universities (Karueein, Bologna, Oxford, Cambridge). But we know this world has telegraphs and asphalt roads, even if we've not seen power sources other than muscle (but Syenite makes a reference to a "master geneer,…
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(Quote) Let me expand on this, because I'm sure it comes across as hostile when I really don't mean it to be. When reading the literary notes on Brave New World, I was really surprised by how much of a different perspective the notes' author had on…
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(Quote) We know they had some way of paying for accommodation on their way to and from Allia, so perhaps they're using those funds. And given they've got telegraphs, I'm sure they've got some way of transferring funds from place to place. (Quote) G…
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(Quote) I get the impression of a world similar to Western 18th or 19th century. Some large cities, advanced and complex societies, but a lot of basic living arrangements in the country; and that country is most of what we've seen. I don't think we'…
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I'm enjoying the speculation about how the three stories are connected, but I'm not going to say anything to confirm or deny any ideas. As for @RichardAbbott 's comments on bullying, I agree with most of them. Most bullying is just people being mea…
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(Quote) Available from..? Don't be coy!
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(Quote) Indeed! Having such a list of missions would be an important part of the game, as the rest of the fiction hangs off what happens with these. @clash_bowley , is the game available from somewhere?
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Relating this to gaming: how do you make this gameable without having things bogging down into endless fiddling around with numbers? Where's the gaming fun in maintaining the trim levels in an attack on an enemy convoy? Taking inspiriation from The…
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Military games are difficult for me, because of the focus on the mission success, and the chain of command. Recently I played a Star Trek game (where I was the ship captain) and ran a game of The Watch. In the Star Trek game, I tried (not always suc…
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I'm with @Apocryphal : I didn't notice it being particularly British, but then I probably wouldn't. I'd be interested to hear what people thought was so British about it!
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I found all the characters interesting and distinct, and well drawn. There were some good examples there of how to have a cast of competent characters, all good at their jobs, but still very much people. This is the sort of thing I find difficult to…
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I liked most of them, mainly because of how it affected the tone. It was somewhat a boy's own adventure book, but the inclusion of the fiddly engineering aspects kept the book a little grittier. Knowing that the characters had to keep in mind all th…
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Not much to add here, but would the "sub-culture" (groan) have been as apparent had we not seen alternatives? We start with Harry not fitting into the surface navy way of doing things, and we see how the Kiwi navigator slowly becomes accep…
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I didn't like the occasional wodge of unnecessary exposition, such as the several pages of the thought process of the ship officer, when he was deciding what to do about Harry request to transfer to submarines. The romance side story of Harry's gir…
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The idea of a close-knit community, isolated, and with a mission, is one that works. It's very similar to other military fiction, with surface ships (Hornblower) or "special forces" (Sharpe). The submarine setting in particular emphasises …