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clash_bowley
About
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- clash_bowley
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Comments
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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…
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The unrelenting brutality of the setting - embraced as normal by both sides - made me think of both current Grimdark settings and the role playing game FATAL. A fascination for nastiness for nastiness' sake and complete lack of humor or frivolity. I…
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Ruan is a male name in Irish, it means 'red', and is the same word as 'roan', the red horse coloring. I actually was using it in my current Magitech Kingdom playtest campaign, before I read harkfast. 'Harkfast' is, I am totally sure, made up by Rae.
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"Time and tide wait for no man..." The Dragon service takes this a step or seven further. The other dragons were born into this culture, so it is a part of them, and only Temeraire sees it from the outside. Laurence can see the Dragon Ride…
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(Quote) Temeraire is the Noble Savage, who does not see the Emperor's new clothes at all, and remarks on it, but then he is a savage, however noble...
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(Quote) In the Aubrey-Maturin novels the two principals call each other 'dear' all the time. I just think men weren't afraid of showing affection to their friends back then.
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(Quote)
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Most D&D and Warhammer is done with figures. I have never run a game that way.
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I developed my game based solely on the ideas in the book we read, the first in the series. I had not read any of the sequels - there were none yet IIRC. The In Harm's Way series of games are military RPGs, and this was based on the military aspects…
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I loved the oiginal, and thus I read many of the following series, enjoying them less and less as they went on, to where I just dropped it before the conclusion.
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(Quote) Bingo
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This is a case of "... write the story as you would want to do it, then go back and remove the first chapter or two". Novik did not want to write about the long species war and skipped it.
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Agree with Neil here across the board