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RichardAbbott
About
- Username
- RichardAbbott
- Joined
- Visits
- 6,360
- 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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It's a problem for an author to try to describe multiple languages all in English, and US English at that, especially here, where the concept is that they differ so much as to reshape their whole culture. In a film or TV show you can do this through…
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I don't think that in this story, Vance was interested in realistic world-building - rather, he wanted to set up a collection of artificial constructs to pit against each other, represented by the languages. Indeed, this artifice (IMHO) took over th…
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The situation (not just the treatment of women, but other areas of abuse very widely) occurs a lot in historical fiction, and is the subject of a lot of conversation amongst authors there. Take for example slavery, forced marriage, institutional cru…
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(Quote) And where's the guy in all-over black?
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There's also a definite article of faith (on the author's part, taken for granted by the characters outside of Planet Earth) that life wil always and invariably find a way to develop and thrive in the most difficult and improbable circumstances. A d…
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(Quote) Done
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> @WildCard said: > No apology necessary. Like I said, I wasn’t involved in that slow read, and it sounds like everyone who involved was okay with the arrangement. Sounds fine to me. Also, this slow read was the only time we've done such a…
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(Quote) yes, I totally agree with you here - I just assumed that it was something which was so much key to the plot that one just had to suspend disbelief or not read the book at all! I suppose you could look at the idea as being a central absurdity…
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Try https://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/the-fellowship-of-the-read/24504488 That's the link @Michael_S_Miller posted ages ago and it seems to be still live
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(Quote) Yes, it seems slightly odd to do reverse order announcements. But when we know for November, and when there's a category set up, I'll add details. And hi also from me @Ray_Otus :)
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I have no particular preference and will go with whatever decision is made
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@Apocryphal I can put together some intro blurb for the December choice as and when you are ready...
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BTW total kudos to @NeilNjae for selecting a book which has triggered such a stimulating and wide-ranging discussion.
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> @NeilNjae said: > (Quote) > I think we can make some steps towards that. Do you make mistakes while playing, or is the performance technically good? Is the technique itself any good? How well does your part fit with the rest of the ense…
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> @Apocryphal said: >...It's the risk that makes combat interesting enough to focus on. There's much less risk involved in singing a song, so it doesn't really make sense to slow it down and focus on the details. I don't think the presence of…
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(Quote) No, and that was the problem. Those of us who thought in such terms generally agreed what kind of construction deserved "style points", while those who were, as @clash_bowley put it "viciously tactical players who win 9/10s of…
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(Quote) Yes, that's a fair point, which I hadn't really thought about. Which set me wondering why I think of Pandemic as qualitatively different? I suppose it's partly because it is a board game, which (as a rule, and excluding things like Diplomacy…
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(Quote) Yup, I can identify with all of that...
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> @NeilNjae said: > 2. Art > ... How can we represent this artistic struggle in games, and make it compelling for the players? > We had a loosely similar situation when family games of the various "Railways of the World"…
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Just temporarily thinking about board games as opposed to role playing, has anyone in the group played pandemic - I played it a few times a couple of years ago, rather before it became topical, and it was the first game I'd come across which was exp…
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(Quote) Eurovision has been going since 1956 and so vastly predates the various "xyz country's got talent" shows (it even predates me :) ). But it has never interested me as an event, and I share your view on the musical quality of the va…
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I guess the classic division is plot - character - setting (which last we often refer to as world-building here). I certainly don't think a book has to have all of these, and some authors excel at one of the three, and let the others just bobble alo…
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Everyone knows that only Grey Elves play soccer... true elves always play cricket...
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Something that struck me along these lines is that, whilst there were no overt religious structures in the book at all (so far as I recall), the quest for the transcendent / the numinous is what it's all about. On one purely physical level you ca…
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Enjoying the debate, nothing to contribute here!
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I have to admit that any political references kind of passed me by (rather like the pop-culture ones of your first discussion starter). Looking back, I think my main impression was of a kind of verbal exhaustion as I read through it... the endless s…
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Like others, I enjoyed the sheer diversity and range of aliens... it was like going back to EE (Doc) Smith with his "life is everywhere, and most of it's pretty weird" motif, except that the weirdness went far far beyond anything Smith mig…
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For me, zany rather than funny. Douglas Adams is definitely laugh-out-loud material for me, but this wasn't. Wild and crazy, certainly, but not funny in the way Hitchhikers Guide et al are. Pop culture references slid by me, I'm afraid. I'm enoug…
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> @Apocryphal said: > Also, who knew Elrond drove a mini-van? We've all gotta move with the times...
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Thanks!