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RichardAbbott
About
- Username
- RichardAbbott
- Joined
- Visits
- 6,077
- 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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Apologies for absence but with the government's announcement today I am currently sorting out issues with, and the next few weeks of, the actual pub. Please raise a virtual glass for me when it's open :)
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what's the difference between A, B and C? Where do the retiring geeks congregate? :)
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I've had it on preorder since last August or so :)
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> @clash_bowley said: > @RichardAbbott - I told you before that I think of this as a comic book without pictures! It works, salmon brother! BTW, Trigan Empire is a great example! :D > I devoured it weekly as a child, and check out htt…
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I guess the big question remaining is when and why Syenite left Meov and changed her name. My guess from Hoa's comments is that Corundum died in such a way that A considered S responsible. In passing, "Corundum" is not a very auspicious na…
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> @WildCard said: > The hexagonal shaft under Allia goes all the way down to the core. That’s a deep shaft! Powerful deadciv tech. > > Syenite directly links it to the garnet obelisk, which makes me think I’m right about the Pit bei…
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For those who really want to get into it, here's a recent UK Government recruiting poster... they did a whole series with captions "be a force for..." which I thought went pretty well with the book :) (Image)
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(Quote) I like this analysis and the lateral approach to the writing: however I think that biological metaphors are a very long way from Jemisin's thinking. We have seen almost no interest in the plant life of this world. However, I think that what …
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Perhaps the defining point of the story, underlining all that we have talked about world-building: ...Ykka... ...'it's all working now...' ...You grope for the words, fail. 'How?' Ykka laughs, shaking her head. 'I have no idea. It just works.' And…
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(Quote) Which made me wonder about Olz Hap, the girl who Gurgeh beat but cheated in the process. Was SC testing both to see which would be more suitable to send? And did Gurgeh's inclination towards wanting to win by unfair means promote his chances?
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(Quote) That's a really interesting point which I had missed. Presumably getting Gurgeh to do it - which is surely a high-risk plan - has the advantages of a) plausible deniability if things go pear-shaped, and b) a way of getting an agent in to the…
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(Quote) How very cool. Back in the day - and we're talking in the days when you brought all the data to a desktop and did the algorithmic stuff there - I used to write AI code. In subsequent jobs I could never spend as much time as back then, but st…
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> @dr_mitch said: > I suspect the Minds take a long view as well. Will thinks be better in the immediate aftermath? Probably not. Will things be better in say a hundred years? Probably yes. > Your comments reminded me of the rather la…
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> @NeilNjae said: > (Quote) > Perhaps we should read a le Carré / Smiley book soon, as a comparison on how to portray espionage? And perhaps a Flemming / Bond book as a contrast? That's a good idea. Another option is one of Alistair Mc…
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(Quote) More than that, I think. In the first conversation he and Syenite had about it, he said "Stonelore changes all the time... every civilisation adds to it; parts that don't matter to the people of the time are forgotten... some old tablet…
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(Quote) I was thinking of this one... Campaign for North Africa... not that I've ever played it (Axis and Allies was quite enough for me)
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> @clash_bowley said:. > (Quote) > Haha! Metal? Metal is useless! It rusts! All metals! 'Rusting' is a swear word! Clever, no? Give up your dreams of metal and use your sessapinae! Oh man, I'm trying not to be a salmon, but those littl…
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> @clash_bowley said: > BYW, Azad was such an 80s game! The book was first published 1988 so Banks was right up to the curve :)
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> @Apocryphal said: >... It might have been more interesting to have more of a Vancian or Wodehousian spin in the middle, with Gurgeh stumbling from one crisis to another. He had something of that - the episode where they try to get covert…
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Ch16: I think (but am not sure) that Antimony is different from the stone eater in the damaged obelisk. Did they communicate? Or did Antimony just rescue Alabaster and Syenite? How much time has passed? In passing, the island boats are wooden and …
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> @Apocryphal said: > 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. I think The Algebraist is supposed to be set before the Culture came into being. Tha…
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> @Apocryphal said: > .... Especially if we consider that The MIND might be insane. Which was sort-of the premise behind Consider Phlebas (but without the interlinking of all Minds)
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(Quote) Love it :)
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Keen to hear what others say - also how in a game context would you keep things in balance? What stops you just being able to ask a Mind how to solve the problem?
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Lots! Gurgeh himself, and the Emperor Nicosar stood out, but to the extent that they were drawn I found most of the second-tier characters also engaging and credible
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I suppose the Culture would argue the case on the basis of inequality - between the three genders for one thing (expressed very poignantly by the female player Trinev), but also between different social and cultural groups. I don't think that the Cu…
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Seems to me that one of the post-scarcity features is that both people and Minds have become accustomed to this situation, to the point where it doesn't bother either group. It's almost as though there are two Cultures, one for each. Player of Game…
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Hard for me to say as I have read it many times over, and enjoy it all the more each time. Speaking personally, I don't think the Flere-Imsaho reveal was a great surprise. What got me this time was the ever-increasing depth of the Empire, together …
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Not being an active game player at present, I found the descriptions incredibly absorbing and vivid. I'm interested to hear what real players think... As an addendum, I was totally involved in Gurgeh's emotions at the several points where he knows …
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It's certainly post-scarcity, and people can broadly do whatever takes their fancy with almost no restrictions. The conflicts are almost entirely "round the edges" ie with unintegrated groups such as the Empire of Azad here, which typicall…