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Apocryphal
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This is, btw, my first Culture book. I did read The Algebraist once many years ago, but I seem to recall that's not a Culture novel.
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I think I'd be tempted to inject a level of antagonism between the humans and the minds. That would probably make it very 'unculture' like, but I think I'd find it satisfying if there was some hidden agenda that the players somehow glommed onto and …
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Definitely Gurgeh. For some reason also the priest who kept asking Gurgeh if he would yield. The drones ran together for me a bit.
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As an interesting (perhaps) aside, a biblical scholar on another forum I attend tells me that 'morality' is what God has decreed via the bible, and that Ethics are what humans have conceived of, because on some level they struggle to accept the bibl…
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I find this compelling in some ways. One thought is spurs is "what if the minds are really just a single mind which uses multiple points of contact to connect with the human race". The MIND then, is a supreme being with different aspects (…
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I have mixed feelings. In the end, I think the big-picture reveal of the story being about Gurgeh being both a game master and a game pawn to be interesting. I'm not sure that the journey to get there was all that interesting. It might have been mor…
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Most of the games seemed a little light-weight, to me. More like games of chance, or like checkers - not all that compelling. Azad, though, I kept thinking was more like a role-playing game, or maybe more like Sid Meier's Civilization, which I thoug…
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There don't seem to be a lot of rules - it sounded like humans could do more or less whatever they wanted to. And yet everyone's getting along? That sounds pretty utopian. The spin that @NeilNjae puts on it that humans are basically the pets of the …
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@NeilNjae I think it was one of the very first things I picked up on and commented on. I tend to prefer well crafted works like Middle Earth, but I don’t inherently mind these scenery worlds in some contexts. Oddly, though, in some reviews, people a…
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I’m a little less concerned with ‘literary fiction’ as a ‘type’ in opposition to genre fiction. I think we all understand that we want to read SF, Fantasy, and so on. The real question is, do we want to read SF, fantasy, historical fiction, etc that…
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BTW, I found an article online called "Layered Themes in The Broken Earth" which I am itching to read - but it warns upfront that it contains spoilers and not to read until after having read the series. So I haven't read it and decided not…
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> @WildCard said: > Yes, I will pick a book for April and lead the discussion. When does the selection need to be made? For an April book we usually announce in Mid March, read during April, and start discussion at the end of the month (or…
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(Quote) Maybe they're trying for twins! :D
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@NeilNjae I'm guessing you weren't expecting quite so much battle with this series, and I know that can be disheartening - especially when it seems like the members who most liked the book have perhaps dropped out of the discussion, leaving you with…
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Fascinating, thank you! I’ll add this book to the wish-list.
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I’m finished.
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I’m not so sure. I feel like my more literary choices have not been that welcome, and people (on the whole) prefer high adventure. Mind you, that opinion was formed in the earlier club years and we have a different mix of people now. But I’m haunted…
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Speaking for myself, I don’t think I’m any stranger to literary fiction, though I’m not what I would call a scholarly reader and definitely benefit from reading that kind of analysis. As a club, I don’t think we are strangers to literary writing, ei…
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I'm not sure how much I have to say about these, either - Richard covered my thoughts well. I did not get that Hoa and the diamond-toothed woman were stone eaters. Was that mentioned in the chapter (and I missed it) or do you know it from your previ…
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I enjoyed the chapter with the obelisk - I am curious to learn more about this obelisk and the thing inside. It occurred to me, thinking back the movie Return to the Planet of the Apes, that an ancient nuclear missile might be construed as an obelis…
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@RichardAbbott But we do know that Essun has changed her identity more than once in her past, which I took to be a clue. And we also know that Essun story takes place after the earth ending cataclysm, but the others seem to be before it, which is my…
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I forgot to mention: my current pet theory is that Damaya, Syenite, and Essun are all the same person - Damaya the youth, Syenite the young adult, and Essun the mature adult.
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Thanks for posting these. Chapter 10 - I really liked this one. I've now gotten used to the second person. I'm reconciling this by thinking that I'm reading a letter has written to Essun - so the author is addressing Essun, not me. Which also helps…
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Hi @MARCC I can't say for sure. I know the publisher is planning to kickstart it within the next few months, so I would guess that it will be available by the end of the summer. You can use it to run a straight historical campaign, if you like, or…
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> @dr_mitch said: > I know there were Britishisms but I was oblivious to them. Still, I agree it's a very British book. I wonder what will happen in the series when Americans are introduced. They will make it seem like there wasn’t really …
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Well, there’s Tommy, of course.
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Did you read The Graveyard book with us? Gaiman had all the Jacks in there - every man jack of them.
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@clash_bowley That sounds like a pretty broad range of activities. But I would hazard that the casual player would never be able to recreate it from their imagination - they would have had to have been exposed to the library of books that you have i…
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@RichardAbbott Ha, no worries. I suppose in retrospect all I really liked about the interlude was that it gave a clue as to why this crazy world was as it is. I agree the islands comment was silly. I didn't feel the interlude was really addressing m…
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Sadly, your players aren't club members, so your reticent self will have to do. :-) What kind of situations did you get up to over the course of those 30 sessions? How much was naval action, how much terrestrial? What excuses did you find for the P…