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RichardAbbott
About
- Username
- RichardAbbott
- Joined
- Visits
- 6,443
- Last Active
- Roles
- Member, Administrator, Moderator
- Games I like
- Sundry, mostly board
- Books I like
- Science fiction, fantasy, some historical fiction
Comments
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I thought the themes were the strongest part of the story - it's good to see ideas about memory, its transience and ability to become lost and subverted being explored. I couldn't really say much about gaming, but surely it would be difficult to GM?…
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Where in England or Britain do any of us think it was set? The terrain didn't make much sense to me at all, either in southern or northern regions (my guess would be southern or possibly eastern, if only because that's where most of the Saxons were …
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I don't know how old any of us group members are, but at age 63 I couldn't relate to these "old" people! With the echoes of dementia running through the story they felt more like 80-something year-olds... and how many 80-something year-old…
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I have flicked through the comments by Neil Gaiman and Ursula LeGuin and I suppose in some measure I share them. Interesting though that some folk consider this fantasy as opposed to historical fiction (maybe historical fantasy?) - to me this shows …
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I have to admit to being disappointed and frustrated with Buried Giant :) I had read it a few years ago and was rather hoping that I would like it more on a reread, but sadly not. I'm not yet sure which of your discussion starters is most suitable …
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Fine by me
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(Quote) Maybe we should read The Buried Giant who fell to Earth? :)
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Hello everyone, still a little bit of chatter going on about Ancestral Night but this is a reminder that the August choice is The Buried Giant, with discussion to be led by @BarnerCobblewood.
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(Quote) Which in a slightly off-the-point way links to DS9 again - the war between the Federation and the Dominion might be seen as one between a society that at least claims to be diverse and made up of diverse individuals, as against one which is …
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(Quote) Let us know how it goes :)
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You could probably argue that she has taken current ideas and projected them into the future - for example same-sex partnerships (Haimey and Niyara), non-sexual small intimate groups (Haimey, Connla and Singer), or human-AI pairings (same three). If…
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Not sure if this is Bear posing the question or me - if you have any sort of unifying galactic organisation, do all localised differences tend to be obliterated over time? It's a question we face now as you travel round England or Europe (or presuma…
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An interesting point - I have never really given much thought to whether songs are written first or third person, but it's a perfectly valid comparison.
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(Quote) For the record, I also liked them, but it's clear that lots of readers and reviewers didn't :)
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I can understand a distinction being made between "artisanal" and "mass-produced" products, but even the most prolific author cannot possibly mass-produce new titles! So yes, I agree that all books are artisanal in that sense. Th…
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I hadn't realised until doing the discussion area that he also wrote The Queen's Gambit, which I enjoyed a while ago on Netflix
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The Man who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis now set up in the monthly discussions area - now's the time to set up notifications for it! I have also added the blurb about it as a discussion.
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PS are we allowed to all sing David Bowie songs together while reading it? :)
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Sounds cool, I'll set it up in the monthly selection area
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(Quote) Is it possible that Bear was writing in a kind of mimetic style - the writing (being 1st person narration) is subdued because it is mirroring Haimey's emotional perspective, which itself has been flattened a) by the rightminding she does to …
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I read Machine after finishing Ancestral Night and enjoyed it a lot - there are one or two allusions to the first book but it is in no way a sequel. She goes even more to town on variety of life forms in it, and deals a lot more with the central org…
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I think you're right - the plotline was not the main focus of the book, but rather the two experiences 1) of lifeforms in general living in that particular universe and 2) Haimey in particular coming to terms with the big shifts in her internal worl…
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In odd synchronicity, I read today that Stephen King has been testifying as an expert witness opposed to the proposed merger between Penguin Random House and Simon and Schuster, on the grounds that it would be bad for competition in the industry (ht…
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(Quote) I think you're right as regards human structures - I was getting muddled up with the occasional references into diverse alien groupings.
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(Quote) I think she had had her sexual-response emotions turned off, but everything else left "running" with the expectation she would control responses herself via rightminding. But regarding sex and intimacy she no longer trusted herself…
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(Quote) There's a lot about Haimey's reading habits and them being rooted in 19th century literature - is there a sense in which she (Bear, not Haimey) is trying to write a 19th century novel? Though this would go against the idea in another thread …
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(Quote) I think it was Woody Allen who said something like "I wouldn't want to be in a club that would have people like me in it" - only this time applied to books :) But yes, I agree with that. Someone at the local book club here in Gras…
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(Quote) I guess rightminding is powerful stuff :)
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(Quote) Maybe: * Diversity of species and consequent customs and expectations, with an effort to recognise unique perspectives where they don't conflict with others - ie they don't [EDIT] eat [/EDIT] each other :) * The existence of outside groups …
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I hadn't thought of comparing with Long Way to a Small Lonely Planet but it's a good connection.