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RichardAbbott
About
- Username
- RichardAbbott
- Joined
- Visits
- 6,082
- 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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(Quote) I suppose one might speculate that the pre-Death scientific exploration included attempts to deliberately mutate creatures, so that the possibility was already active. But I don't think Lanier gives any such suggestion.
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(Quote) In a strange quirk of coincidence, I have just been rereading Lensman, in order to get my occasional fix of space opera...
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(Quote) As I recall, it was human biological research gone awry, rather than war or external threat.
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Well, Hiero has regular times of prayer, especially in crises (which, admittedly, many people do whatever their faith or lack of it - as has been said, "there ain't no atheists in foxholes") and also at day's end. He appears to have habits…
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Does Hiero get anywhere close to your part of Canada?
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The main thing seemed to me that Agia (who had previously seemed to be an ally for Severian) turned out to be on the opposing side, and Dorcas (who we knew nothing about) seems to be on his side. For me that put a rather different complexion on Agia…
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OK, I am putting up some discussion starters now... it's a holiday weekend here in the UK so plenty of time to sit back and enjoy chatting about Hiero's Journey...
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Intending to post discussion starters later today (Friday) so people can join in as they please.
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The antlers would be a problem...
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(Quote) I've been meaning to say that this - like the print version - is excellently done. Thanks so much :smile:
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(Quote) In passing, I rather enjoyed the snide comments about a race that hadn't realised that the plane's lift could come from the body shape and need not come from its wings
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(Quote) Yah... none of this nonsense about the post not getting through on time...
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Hi all, a point of curiosity here. Way back before we even began the reading, @dr_mitch said "...the author makes deliberate use of archaic words to invoke an exotic effect, and they're deliberately obscure ones. He does this rather than invent…
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> @clash_bowley said: > The deer finally found its way here! I will attempt to keep up! Great news... I'm intending to post discussion starters towards the end of this week so hopefully people can join in next weekend
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btw, in Deuteronomy 34 the word represented in Shadow of the Torturer ch21 as "The Compassionating" is the divine name YHWH, typically regarded as coming from the verb to be and hence with root meaning something like "the existing one…
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These chapters seem to me to be heavily laced with biblical references, as well as Theoanthropos. The passage read in the Jungle Garden house is the death of Moses (Mount Nebo, overlooking the Jordan Valley, recounted at the start of Deuteronomy). …
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(Quote) That'll be your trained deer again :smile:
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(Quote) According to Etymology Online, the English verb "speculate" was a late 16th century back-formation from the noun speculation, which itself is attested from the 14th century. The root of that (apparently) is Latin speculari, from sp…
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A couple of things to add to my earlier comment: 1. The reflected light thing sounds like a really cool idea for an FTL drive that is very different from other ideas I have read. On the whole I suspect that the idea of mirrors will repeat a lot (as…
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What a fabulous review! Thanks
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I am finding the narrative gaps bizarre, and keep wondering if they are deliberate or just show poor reconstruction after editing (which can happen to anyone). For example, the issue @dr_mitch mentioned about whether Severian and Thecla were inti…
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Maybe I should have included thriller writers like Hammond Innes or Alistair Maclean as well as Fleming and LeCarre! I've read lots of Maclean but, oddly, no Innes. Maybe a monthly choice sometime?
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I had a thought about the book, triggered by these chapters, which made me kind of review my thoughts about the whole tale to date. First, I contrasted the kind of dying world presented by Jack Vance and Gene Wolfe. In Vance, the people in the worl…
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Great news!
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The saros period (getting on for 18 1/2 years) is very important for understanding the relationship between sun and moon (ie not just eclipses), and is implicitly built in to most ancient stone circles. It turns up there by way of indicating the mos…
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Just spent a happy time reading through parts of this and must say again what a great production job you did of it @Michael_S_Miller ! My other half was equally impressed and commented what a great record it is of some wonderful discussions :smile:
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Another curiosity I found out - about Earth, but it would apply to pretty much any planet - is that rivers near the equator flow uphill. This is an effect of the component of net gravity due to rotation, meaning that the surfaces of equal gravity do…
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Nice pics!
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It felt quite uniform without much in the way of highs and lows, which I guess is entirely appropriate for a book about a very high gravity planet with little by way of surface features!
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Another typical failure is the power of networked (and hence cloud) computing - most older SF authors assumed that computers would have to just get bigger and bigger in order to be more powerful, and totally missed the opportunities of doing things …