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RichardAbbott
About
- Username
- RichardAbbott
- Joined
- Visits
- 6,081
- 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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> @clash_bowley said: > It's mashup of Mowgli and Romulus and Remus that went nowhere. I'd spotted the Romulus/Remus link... it feels like Severian never quite finished the tale
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I enjoyed Severian's comedown when he realised that his glib assessment of the magicians nearly proved fatal! Also the Conciliator is very explicitly linked to Christ. Do you think that the thing which attacked the magician was a notule? I must r…
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The story of your search for the book sounds almost as much fun as the book itself!
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Again I liked the geographic sweep of this section. However, this part even more than the previous made me think that his coverage of ground is infeasibly fast! I don't think he has the experience to move with the indicated speed, especially with li…
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(Quote) Hence, perhaps, the rise of self-publishing books. It not only provides complete control over the content (which, depending on the author, might be a good or a bad thing) but it also encourages cross-genre books. The publishing industry (and…
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BTW Liu Cixin is also the author of The Wandering Earth, which is available for viewing on Netflix (and no doubt elsewhere). The story is kind of absurd in this case as he has compressed about a billion years of stellar development and change into a…
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(Quote) That's a really interesting question, analogous to the one we have in another thread about having the "same" story but told with different underlying motivations / universe assumptions. I also don't really know how to answer it! W…
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Now on my Kindle...
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> @NeilNjae said: > But, relating this to gaming, it would perhaps be more plausible if Mrs Bradshaw had been possessed by some evil entity, or was pursuing occult power, or something like that. But that's a different question thread! Ac…
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Nothing to add but again commenting to see later additions. And since this is the last discussion starter it's a good place to say that I did enjoy the book, though perhaps not for anything to do with the internal structure and characters!
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Nothing to contribute here but I'm commenting so I get to see other people's additions!
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I didn't really find the complexity of the story very credible, with it's quasi-repetition of events over so many years. It seemed a highly artificial construct. Call me simplistic, but I can't imagine how the network of events and betrayals that @N…
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(Quote) Yes, I was exactly like this. I kind of stopped caring about all of them, and (as I have said several times now) just enjoyed the writing.
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Your question reminds me of the old academic joke about a philosophy finals question: Q: Is this a question? A: Yes, if this is an answer. I strongly suspect that this is apocryphal (pace @Apocryphal) and whether the student passed or failed depend…
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The fog - yes. Without some of that, the context left me (as a Brit who has never travelled to California) completely in the dark in that I had no real sense of where anything was in relation to anything else. (Kind of like if I were to say, "s…
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I liked his writing style - it kept me going at speed through the book when I didn't really care much for the characters or plot. It was nice to read an author whio every now and again weaves allusions to classic books and/or phrasing into his novel…
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(Quote) That's my experience too... I have to keep checking back into new categories and adding a checkbox there. So far as I can tell there is no way to default this on for new categories.
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Cool, thanks for the writeup, @Apocryphal
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> @NeilNjae said: > Does it? Or is [the alzabo's] intelligence solely the result of the minds it's consumed? It could well be the case that the alzabo is intrinsically no more intelligent than say a bear. It only becomes intelligent when it…
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I'm with @Apocryphal here... the people in the house basically hung Severian out to dry, and his best chance of survival was to negotiate. And he didn't actively help the alzabo, just promised to keep out of its way. I liked the way that the memory…
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> @Apocryphal said: > LEXICON > As she drew away, the shadow memories of Thecla's old bantering love affairs, played out among the pseudothyrums and catachtonian boudoirs of the House Absolute welled up within me, and I said, "…
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> @Apocryphal said: > LEXICON > Capulus: Here meaning the hilt of a sword. Also means sarcophagus, bier, sepulchre, or tomb. > > Abdiesus: The personal name of the Archon - it means 'one of serves Jesus', which is actually qui…
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(Quote) It's especially interesting which words you include :smile: - from a UK perspective I wouldn't have included trumpery (in another chapter) or raddled, but equally there are probably words that pass me by in obscurity which are obvious to you…
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I thought that the writing in these four chapters was excellent... fluent and well-executed as always, but more than that this time. There was a fine blend of revelation of the past - both the immediate past of Severian, and the longer-ago past of D…
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I'd be happy to read either the first one again, or the sequel
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I'm on 28 just now with a couple of very slow (but interesting) non-fiction reads on the go
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(Quote) I have some thoughts about this but they probably fit better with the next section's discussion
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> @clash_bowley said: > Why does he do this? The author, I mean. What is gained by this technique of skipping important things without notifying the reader and possibly filling in later... or maybe not? I am not familiar with this technique a…
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We all guessed right about Severian's new liaison. However, it's probably important to note that in fact Cyriaca initiated it... he just responded. It all made me wonder if we have been judging Severian by our own moral standards (which no doubt var…
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Great!