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NeilNjae
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- NeilNjae
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Comments
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I can't see why it would be considered SF. If it's a novel of first contact, it seems to be a failed attempt at contact. We have no idea what Canary thinks of the people she's interacting with, and she seems to have no lasting effect on anyone she i…
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If it's a Wizard of Oz analogy, who is the wizard, and who would be the wicked witch?
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There's an enigma at the heart of both stories, so that's similar. But Roadside Picnic has a lot more on how the Zone has changed the world around it. That's both the wider world, and the impact on the lives of those who enter the Zone, and their cl…
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I'm sorry to say I didn't enjoy it. If it hadn't been a book club read, I'd have given up on it quite soon. I wasn't sure what the novel was trying to say. There was certainly a reflection on how racism was overt in the 1870s, and there was a sympat…
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Interesting that the Pelerine priestess regarded the Claw merely as a large gem, sacred merely for its symbolic link to the Conciliator. Not only had it shown no supernatural ability to her, but none in the Pelerine Order had any memory of any super…
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Not only is Severian in the war zone, but he's in the care of the Pelerines. Will they recognise him? Will they realise he has the Claw? Will Severian return the Claw?
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(Quote) He's still wearing his cloak, which is more of an icon of his guild. But it's still an astute observation that he's moving on from his development, and losing the tokens that defined it.
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(Quote) I've recently read it, and loved it. There is a reason why it won so many awards. (A Hugo for each novel in the trilogy and a Nebula.) I think it would stand up to some detailed analysis of a Slow Read. There are some good themes in there, b…
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I'm still not overly sure why Severian decided to kill Baldanders. Was it just as petty as because Baldanders threw the Claw away? And there's the aside on different approaches to the truth of reality, and whether they're incompatible. Not too sure…
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The Moorcock Elric books could be interesting: I've not read them yet. Illiad, Odyssey, and perhaps Beowulf would all be good. Dune would have enough depth to keep us going for a long read. I've tried Gormenghast and Long Earth, and didn't really…
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(Quote) Especially given the cacogens' comments to "think carefully about what we haven't told you and what we haven't shown you." (Quote) Yes indeed. Good questions, which I'd like answered as well!
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(Quote) This setup was the impossible thing that motivated the whole story, so I could accept it as being the Big Idea that made the story possible. The only thing the high-tech chair requirement did in the story was ensure that there was a limit t…
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(Quote) Well, it was kind of a response to @BarnerCobblewood 's comment about entertainment being the modern opium of the masses; I was making an allusion to the soma of Brave New World. But, it's a good and classic book, so perhaps we should read …
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(Quote) Very much my thoughts too. The curation here means it's very rare we read anything bad. Things may not be to my taste, but that's a very different judgement.
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(Quote) So what would the end-state of the Recursion tech be? Let's assume it takes half a million quid to build one, and you need technology that only exists from the year 2000 onwards. The price-point's low enough that even small groups (or wealth…
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(Quote) Apropos of nothing, has the club read Brave New World?
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(Quote) I think it's conservatism. People find something they enjoy and want to stick with it, over trying new stuff and running the risk of not liking it. It's not an irrational desire: why risk your precious time on something you're likely to hat…
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(Quote) I don't think that's a fair criticism of this book (though it is appropriate for too many books in this genre). Only Helena has an exceptional intellect. Barry, as an investigator, is one who stumbles across the situation. Yes, his first ins…
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(Quote) But did they? To the person going through the experience, they had a painful few minutes then got better. They "died" in the same way that a Star Trek transporter kills and disintegrates the people it moves.
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(Quote) That was interesting, and how he doesn't seem to regret the passing of the old Severian. But he doesn't describe it as growth, just a change in his makeup. But what to make of the juxtaposition of his transformation with the transformation o…
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(Quote) To be fair, SF has a long tradition of stories with lots of big ideas and dull, unengaging characters. But yes, I think in the interview that @BarnerCobblewood mentioned, the author said that the cop was in a similar emotional/life-experienc…
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(Quote) I've just realised I completely missed the recent move towards this performance art: the streaming crowd! (That's mainly because I don't have the patience to watch them.) But is the increase in capturing the performance of RPG play changing …
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(Quote) So then what's the relationship between the game designer/author, the publisher, the fan community, and the people at the gaming table? Who is, or should be, central to the RPG hobby? And what about the value of RPG books themselves, and th…
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(Quote) If Severian is destined to become the Autarch, father of his people, is little Severian his first subject? If so, is elder Severian a good ruler? Should he have anticipated the danger of the ring, or was he right to allow the child to have s…
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(Quote) There wasn't much space in the book for us to explore the characters' personalities: they were generally driven by events to move quickly through decisions. But I think that's pretty standard for thriller type books. Another issue was the i…
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Not much to add about the book's ending. I agree with @RichardAbbott that the chair is likely to be rapidly rediscovered, in one form or another, which would reopen the whole history-rewriting issue. As for gaming, just about all my gaming is at MK…
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I'm with @dr_mitch in finding no difference between indie and corporate TTRPG producers: they're just about all "indie", with only a precious few people actually making a full-time living from the games. One of the problems of low barrier…
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Going back to the book, was it about dementia? Dementia was the motivation for one character, but I don't think the game was really about that. It was more about how our memories define us, and how our different memories of the "same" even…
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I think good fiction needs to be about something, to elevate it above a simple sequence of events: it needs to say something about people, or contemporary issues, or something like that. However, it's easy to lose sight of that in RPGs. It's very e…
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I think there's a couple of aspects to this question. One is about time travel, and the other is a wider point about narrating events out of order. The book could have followed Helena's subjective timeline from the start, only introducing Barry whe…