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RichardAbbott
About
- Username
- RichardAbbott
- Joined
- Visits
- 6,057
- 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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I liked the little group of scientists studying the Bright Doors and would have liked more about them. I couldn't really get interested in the group putting on the play, and the kind of political posh group were (I think intentionally) quite dull. A…
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I liked the Doors concept, especially since (as I mentioned elsewhere) they were left unexplained and all-but-unused for large parts of the book. That got me speculating on their origins - were they, for example, some relic of the transformation of …
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I particularly liked the growing revelations about Mother-of-Glory and thought that that particular unfolding was one of the strongest features. By way of contrast, I never really felt that I learned much about the Perfect-and-Kind, and he remained …
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It certainly made a change from the large numbers of monolithic religion/culture that one comes across. I liked the idea of being thrown in to the mix of perspectives, though at the same time I'd be hard-pressed to describe to anyone what the exact …
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Top level - I liked it, and found the intricacy of social detail very absorbing. To have a society so stratified by multiple layers of race, language, history and other dimensions was both bewildering and fascinating. Other thoughts - it was a slow…
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Funnily enough I just downloaded a sample of this so sure, fine by me
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Discussion area for The Terminal Experiment now set up. Current state of rota play is: Apr @kcaryths The Saint of Bright Doors - coming up very soon! May @Apocryphal The Terminal Experiment Jun @NeilNjae (TBD) Jul Me (TBD) Aug @clash_bowley (TBD)…
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@Apocryphal said: (Quote) I thought the coded emoji bit was one of the most interesting side-plots of the series! I don't know enough about filming to be struck by the much-hyped single-shot camera technique, and I found some of the story-telling q…
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All: a quick reminder of the current state of play of the rota... Apr @kcaryths The Saint of Bright Doors May @Apocryphal being decided as we speak Jun @NeilNjae (TBD) Jul Me (TBD) Aug @clash_bowley @BarnerCobblewood if you have a title in mind to…
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A philosophical thriller sounds cool to me :)
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As I recall from Tekumel, although social reputation was crucial, it wasn't encoded in the rules but left to the GM to implement as they saw fit. This typically meant that in the first instance you had to get some recognition from your temple, and/o…
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(Quote) I did years ago - my impression was that the rules and the intention thereof was that The State was supposed to be utterly unmovable and so you either lived strictly by the social mores and conventions, or you made sure you weren't caught, w…
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(Quote) Yes that captures my thinking too - I couldn't see what his motive was, nor what he thought the story was really about.
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(Quote) :D
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An author may not personally have libertarian views but yet write a book exploring a libertarian society or themes (or any other society for that matter).
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I guess the "can I steal a spaceship to get away" subplot might be good for a session or so, but on the other hand it seemed absurdly easy - a couple of hapless untrained guys seemed to overcome the token resistance in short order...
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(Quote) I seem to remember a conversation while we were reading Gene Wolfe together that Vance tends to see a future that becomes increasingly individualistic, but Wolfe where it becomes increasingly collective and groupish?
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(Quote) I felt that too - there was a kind of "um, could I have anticipated that?" feeling
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I don't remember being especially struck either pro or anti by the prose style, and thinking back then I would probably say it struck me as competent rather than stylish.
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I enjoyed the various characters while reading the book but realised that they had made vey little impression on me afterwards, so I would need to look them up again to remember who's who (other than the protagonist and his father, who did leave me …
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That comment makes sense to me - I could believe in the organisation of the society, but not really in the places or the people. So for me it never transitioned into a place that I could believe actually might exist., though the struggles of "t…
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Um, maybe? That hadn't occurred to me at the time of reading but you are certainly right about it being different to his usual (but then, it's a long time since I read any Vance)
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I have to admit I struggled a bit with this story and kept thinking - why is this one considered a masterwork? I kept thinking Emphyrio was only? a Christ-stand-in figure, complete with legends and all, and had trouble seeing it as much more than a …
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(Quote) Another great point - Liu didn't tackle this in the nonfiction parts of this book. However, my impression from his fiction is that while he would accept that scientific advance can result in problems, the answer is better science and social …
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I guess we're just waiting on @clash_bowley then :)
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(Quote) I'm sure there is scope for that - he casually mentions in one article that a magazine, Science Fiction World, (Quote) Regarding your comment (Quote) I think that's fair - he read Jules Verne at an early age, quotes from classics such as A…
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How's everyone doing with Emphyrio? (I've finished it a little while ago). Is everyone ready for @clash_bowley to post some discussion starters?
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Still some discussion ongoing in the Eversion area, but this is also a reminder that March's read is Jack Vance's Emphyrio with discussion led by @clash_bowley
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(Quote) This is a fascinating thought, and of course you're right - any game tends to get stale, even if there are random elements within it (eg position of starting tiles or whatever). For me it also linked into current discussions of AI, along the…
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Discussion area for The Saint of Bright Doors now set up