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NeilNjae
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I don't think the story format was anything unusual. It was a fairly chronological retelling of a sequence of events in Fetter's life. The biggest surprise was the change from third-person to first-person narration at the end. I liked that it overtu…
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I didn't pick up that it was close to Buddhism, but it's obvious now you mention it. I think the standard view of Buddhism in British pop culture is all about monks and meditation, and we get to hear almost nothing about what Buddhism is like as an …
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I also liked it. It had a real sense of South Asia that was refreshingly alien to my jaded Eurocentric experience. But that's probably for another question. The book didn't prompt deeper thoughts in me, or change my world-view: the concerns of the …
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How about The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks for June? It's from last year, it's had good reviews, and is on my TBR pile already.
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Yes, the idea of a stable of NPCs that illustrate different lives. That's good for a game. The notion of "us Vs them" for the gap between nobles and commoners was the central point of the novel. But generally, I thought the action was too …
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The main thing I got from the setting was the attitude of the people. They were living in what seemed to me to be an oppressive society, but most people accepted it as inevitable. There was very little attempt at resistance or agitation to change th…
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At least this book wasn't full of rape, unlike the other Vance books we've read here. Yes, it was sombre, and that was something that continued into the conclusion. Even the overthrow of the nobles didn't lead to much change in the tone. It did end…
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I agree with the other comments. The legend connection became important in the end, but it was almost as if Vance tacked it on to the main story of following Ghyl's life. I'm not sure if it's covered in other questions, but there was very little set…
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I also finished it a while ago. I actually managed to finish a club pick!
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The first time meeting the characters was fun, but I didn't notice any particular change in them from cycle to cycle.
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No.
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I didn't finish the book, but I'll comment on what I did read. I didn't mind that the story was repetitive. As Clash says, Groundhog Day is a fun film. What I didn't like was that there there was very little different between each repetition. Some …
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I'm finding it very dull. The first half of the book is little more than the cover blurb. It seems like Reynolds wrote some derivative mix of Inception and Solaris, but by missing out the good bits of both.
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I've battled my way to just over half way through Eversion and ... does it get any better? I can find very little to redeem this book. It's unlikely to be the first Reynolds book I finish.
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(Quote) I think that's a fair summary. The books are like confections. Those are great things to have on occasion, but a diet of nothing but confection is not a good idea. I think the books are great. They're not profound literature, but I think it …
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(Quote) Good point. I think the difference is that those devices aren't people, so it's more like "using force" rather than "violence", in that hacking a bot doesn't hurt a person. As for the violence against people, Murderbot d…
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I think this could be an interesting solo or one-on-one game, where the PC is a Murderbot-alike. I don't think the setting has a great deal distinct to offer for the more traditional group-based games.
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I think it's fairly clear that Murderbot has affection for people, especially its clients. Murderbot is quite emotional, even if it's not to familiar with those emotions let alone how to display them. The rest of the characters are mostly fairly sh…
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Personally, I'm mystified why Wells had this aspect of the setting. I can only suppose that the lack of criminal law and central authority allows more scope for her to tell the stories of a murderbot.
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I think the level of security in the book fulfils the same role as Doctor Who's sonic screwdriver: it allows the protagonist to get to where the fun action is, rather than us either having pages of description of bypassing systems or the protagonist…
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(Quote) that raises the very thorny issue of whether intelligence and sentience and sapience are different words for the same thing, or quite different kinds of things With my "day job" hat on, the only people who care about the differenc…
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Without having a chance to think about the issues raised in this thread, the in-fiction justification for SecUnits having intelligence was that the intelligence is needed to innovate, especially in anticipation of (and response to) threats from huma…
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> @kcaryths said: > > On a second reading I only thought more of the first book. I read the entire series and got a little tired of them by the end, but that's pretty standard of most series I think. Yes, I can see that happening. Eve…
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Murderbot questions are up. Have at them!
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Here's an interview with her, covering the first book. It contains major spoilers for that book and some smaller ones for later in the series. https://www.newscientist.com/video/2436358-martha-wells-i-didnt-know-how-non-neurotypical-i-was-until-mur…
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I read it a while ago and enjoyed it. However, it was a while ago and I can't remember all the details. I remember it being a multi-layered book, with quite a lot happening to different aspects of the characters. There's also, IIRC, quite a bit of c…
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A general comment: I'm sorry, but I just bounced off this book almost immediately. I tried a couple of times, but always found myself skim-reading after only a couple of pages. Adams loves the sound of his own voice, and I just couldn't wade through…
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(Quote) That's my understanding.
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How about The Murderbot Diaries? They're novellas, so we might be able to fit in the first two (115 pages, 149 pages). Or perhaps we just want a light month
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> @Apocryphal said: > Do we think we can dispense with the whole faux-napoleonic thing for a while now? We’ve had three this year (two with wooden air ships and one with dragons substituting for ships)? I'll second that.