clash_bowley
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Comments
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(Quote) The Scooby-Do version? :D
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(Quote) For emphasis!
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if I were writing the story, Jonathan would have died by Dracula's Women, and Mina and Lucy would have beaten him alone, with the coaching of Van Helsing. The other men were merely sources of information. After defeating Dracula, they would have rea…
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OMG - the comparison to Perelandra - one of my all time favorites - is brilliant. I'd never seen it before, and the parallels are very close. Dracula was also not inherently supernatural, but became horribly corrupted - this is the wrongness I spoke…
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I am agreeing with both Richard and Apocryphal here. The religious trappings work here because religion is magic, and so is Dracula. Apocryphal's mention of Peter Watt's Blindsight as a modern vampire story is spot on - that book was terrifying, and…
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Scary? No. Creepy? Yes. Creepy is little things that are somehow 'wrong' and slowly build up overtime, and which throw off our innate mental footing. Dracula is very good at that. I also agree with Neil that the epistolary nature of the book prevent…
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(Quote) This was recommended by Albert Bailey, friend, plasma physicist, and frequent game design collaborator. He designed Lowell Was Right with me and said there were strong echoes of that game in the book.
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(Quote) https://www.amazon.com/Arabella-Mars-Adventures-Ashby-ebook/dp/B0CPWD6M9R/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= Looks like a clockwork punk story, with elements of my Volant, In Harm's Way Napoleonic Naval, and Lowell Was Rig…
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Dracula is an old friend - I've read it five or six times now. I'm ready whenever...
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I've never read it, so probably not...
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IIRC it was the Brides of Dracula... ;)
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I didn't identify with anyone in the book. No one seemed real, just animatronic constructs designed to spew forth various positions. Obviously, I am utterly alone in this.
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I can't comment here. I felt I would rather read the back of a cereal box than the book and stopped after trudging half way.
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I got the Ulysses link, but not the Grouper link. Merou is a common enough last name that I have run into it before. I did not think of him as a viewpoint character, as I found it impossible to identify with him.
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I knew they were apes right away, and thought it was a bad frame story. I didn't read the book to the end so I did not know they were mentioned again.
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I wouldn't. I didn't like the heavy-handed allegorical nature of the book and only made it half way through. I had thought I had read it way back in the sixties as I remember buying it, but I don't think I did now, as nothing was familiar except thi…
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(Quote) MacAlpin became King of Dal Riada first, then the Picts, but he ruled as King of the Picts. Perhaps he was a scion of both royal families, and inherited the titles at different times. It's rather murky... (Quote) IKR? I too believe it to be…
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I read it several times, but the last was perhaps 20 years ago, so I would be up for it!
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(Quote) The Kingdom of Dal Riada and the Kingdom of the Picts united under Kenneth MacAlpin to form the Kingdom of Alba in the mid-800s, though Mac Alpin was still styled King of the Picts. MacAlpin then began the process of assimilating the other c…
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Well Pictland + Dal Riada == Scotland, so they definitely gelled with the Celts there!
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(Quote) And if this is Arthur retold, where's the vision of what could be? Bingo!
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(Quote) The latter
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(Quote) It's been a minute since I read that last.
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I think the subject matter could be the basis of a very interesting game if it were handled correctly. Certainly any roleplayer worth their salt would demolish the obsessive brooding darkness with hilarious hijinks and innate silliness.
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The sudden ending bothered me in an 'I was left hanging, now we'll never know..." sense, but far stronger was the relief that I didn't have to read more of this story. Thank God this was written before fantasy novels were required to be Family …
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I did not enjoy reading this book. It grated and felt lifeless, sullen and angry and hopeless. I could not bring myself to care whether any of the characters lived or died. The constant use of archaeologisms for effect merely distracted me from the …
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I agree most with @RichardAbbott's take. If anyone in this story made me feel empathy it was a few of the lesser characters, but probably if they had been fleshed out they would have been just as dour and bleak as the main characters.
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I addressed this in my comment on Q1, I think, so I will not repeat it.
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Interesting! The historical references to Picts do not mention this, so probably it is a manifestation of English racism. Thank you.
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The responses kind of moved off from the question here, but I feel that is most likely because Apocryphal's response nailed the probable cause right away, and was generally accepted. For the record, I didn't think of that, and do agree with Apocryph…