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RichardAbbott
About
- Username
- RichardAbbott
- Joined
- Visits
- 6,361
- 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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> @clash_bowley said: > (Quote) > No. Firm and decisive does not equal might makes right. It all depends on the nature of the crisis. If I was on a ship trying to avoid torpedoes coming at me, I'd want just one person making snap decis…
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I talk a bit about dissociation in my thoughts on the next couple of chapters in book 2... they might be relevant here?
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(Quote) Yes, that makes a lot of sense. If there are a lot of cultural allusions in The Fifth Season and its successors, they are going right past me. Which leaves me in a position simply trying to come to terms with it as a piece of writing, and ge…
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I guess Schaffa was bound to come back... an antagonist who is indestructible... I wonder what he's been up to all these years, and my guess is that he has founded a School for the Eradication of Orogeny from Young Children. which coincidentally we…
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(Quote) Like you, I cannot remember children being tackled in any depth in any Culture novel. It seems very much a place for adults, and independently-minded ones at that. (Quote) Funnily enough I read The Blue Adept last year as well, partly to se…
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(Quote) To me, the explicit statement that she had two children in the prologue, when actually she had three, is a pretty clear sign of deception. It reads far too much as an attempt to stop the reader guessing that the several women were the same. …
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(Quote) Yes, some great points here, thanks! When we started reading The Book of the New Sun it seemed to me that Gene Wolfe wanted to write about a far-future society which was extremely institution-focused, in contrast to Jack Vance's Dying Earth …
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(Quote) That'll be the hydroelectric train running on polymer tracks...
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> @clash_bowley said: > (Quote) > You do realize this is very possibly lies... I find it highly amusing that he somehow went straight to this place and arrived substantially before Essun without encountering and passing her, while she was…
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(Quote) I kind of feel this is another science word which is brought in as a veneer. "Satellite" in the astronomical sense can easily mean a natural one as well as an artificial one. However, a pre-telescope world (and I don't recall that …
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That is a seriously comprehensive post about the book @Apocryphal :)
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I got hung up in salmon mode again - Jemisin is clearly trying to introduce more "science words" in this book, eg polymers made an appearance early on. But (if this were a realistic society) I don't see that polymers can exist without a th…
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I've started reading on Kindle, so a page number is not so helpful... a section / chapter break would be much more helpful. So I can work with "the end of the second part of Stone Telling's story"... though I don't promise not to read beyo…
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A fine pic, on a fine day! I've often thought when passing there that if I'd come up from Rome I would like the Hardknott Pass on a day like this, but not so much when the icy winds are whistling down the pass, and the frozen fog is seeping into you…
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Having not heard of Eveling before now, I did some searching and rapidly found https://esmeraldamac.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/eveling-cumbrias-faery-king-and-celtic-god/ which others might enjoy. I particularly liked the connection between Ravenglas…
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Many thanks all for your thoughts and comments, very much appreciated :)
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Hi all, just a quick catch-up note for folk in TTRPBC, by way of apology for not turning up at the virtual pub yesterday. I ended up going through a lot of the formal process yesterday following my father's death just over a week ago - not at all…
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Hi all, just a quick catch-up note for folk in TTRPBC, by way of apology for not turning up at the virtual pub yesterday. I ended up going through a lot of the formal process yesterday following my father's death just over a week ago - not at all…
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(Quote) As a matter of interest, when you run procedurals, how do you tackle the issue which came up in another thread about getting the players to be aware of and stick to the rules of procedure?
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> @NeilNjae said: > (Quote) > Very true. I think the only time he really takes initiative is when he realises there's a mole in his investigating team. His handling of the conflict between the Thameses happens mostly off-screen. It wou…
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(Quote) Please don't be sorry... I for one wanted to hear a bit more about Liminal and the choices you had made. With "the supernatural elements having a strong sense of place", are you saying that, for example, the various river deities …
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(Quote) That's a really interesting point. I'd say that Grant has a definite personality, but not strong in the sense of dominant or abrasive.
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That's interesting, I hadn't heard of that one before
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Something that comes out a little bit in this book, and more so in the next, is that the relationship between the rivers has been made more complicated by millennia of human activity - rivers canalised for transport, tributaries linked up by artific…
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I guess you could say Sherlock Holmes was a maverick loner, but I agree, most British cop stories highlight the bright guy or girl ably supported by a committed team
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I think the Tyburn / Folly thing is one of the items that @NeilNjae referred to as laying pipe for another book
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Some crosscross-cultural interpretations... Yorkie bars (a particularly large and chunky chocolate bar) were originally advertised as "not for girls" with the implication that not even all blokes would be able to tackle them... only rea…
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Discussion starters now posted in the appropriate group area! Only a day later than I originally intended...
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On a trivial point, I think this will be #88 not #87 :) Either way, I now have the book.
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(Quote) Hah! What a tease... And those of us reading on kindles can't look it up :)