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clash_bowley
About
- Username
- clash_bowley
- Joined
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- Member, Moderator
Comments
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Yes - bland rather than generic - a better word. As for magic, I don't need to know how it works so much as I like self-consistency and the illusion that it isn't just ad-hoc whizz bang. I didn't care that the witch gave up her magic for her man - …
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I think the only thing I might ever crib from this is the only virgins can use magic thing, but I wouldn't make it also sex linked...
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I like this sort of set up, actually. It's the mechanism in my own StarCluster 4 - Saber And World planetary fantasy game - and tons of isekai manga and anime. No problem at all!
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I'm fine with Science Fantasy. That was not a problem. If you listen to my music you know I don't give a rat's ass about genre boundaries...
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I rather like slim pulp books - my favorite author of all is Vance - but even in those slim volumes his settings are far more developed than this. Nothing about the witch world setting held together particularly well, and nothing stood out as non-ge…
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I have no relationship at all with Andre Norton. I had read a couple of her books as a young teen or pre-teen, but they made no impression on me, I have no idea what they were now, and I never looked for more. I do remember back then, looking at the…
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Thanks, Richard! It sounds fascinating! And no book is ever as X as the blurbs imply... :)
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I picked Tripoint because it's very interesting but flawed. That kind of book tends to generate a lot of discussion.
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(Quote) <3
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I love Protector! Great concept! Yes, Niven is the grandfather of StarCluster if Cherryh is the the grandmother... :D
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I understand who he is and where he comes from, but he does feel artificial coming so late in the book without warning.
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(Quote) It's the same thing I deal with all the time as an RPG designer. Core book + supplement, or self contained game. With the StarCluster 4 line I have elected to write games that are complete unto themselves, and always run into the criticism o…
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Generally speaking, I would say so, by the old definition. She doesn't really care if she is thought to be Hard or not, calling what space ships run on fuel, for example, but she uses science well, and her tech feels tight.
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The relativistic effects are not so severe as in Forever War, as they are jumping short distances, rather than going full on STL. Cherryh explores this in Finity's End, where a pregnant crew member is trapped on station during the war, and commits s…
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I believe it is deuterium, heavy hydrogen, and thus the ships use a deuterium-deuterium fusion. if so it is far harder to find than normal hydrogen, and must be refined - probably by some combination of centrefuge, breeding with irradiation, and fil…
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(Quote) I believe you are correct on all counts
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In a sense, yes. Exploration is very difficult - most of the known settled stars were explored by STL before Jump was known, thus you already knew what was on the other end - i.e. food and fuel - before exploring a Jump route. All of this long serie…
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(Quote) Capella is a strange character indeed.
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Patrick is a spy for one faction of the Mazianni, the one time Earth Company navy shattered by the war, and now turned pirate. Signi Mallory's Norway works for Pell and is 'legitimated' as the Alliance Navy. The others are on the run or destroyed. C…
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BTW, Cherryh never gives infodumps like the previous. You learn by inference and experience.
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Downbelow is the hisa (aka downer) name for their planet. It's a quasi-habitable world for humans, who need supplemental oxygen there, just as hisa need lesser amounts of oxygen and use masks when working on the station. The Human name for Downbelow…
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Her name is Beatrice Perrault, Gaby Perrault's aunt. She is the Corinthian's truly excellent pilot, and a prima donna bitch. She is mostly offscreen throughout the story, but omnipresent by implication. Often the unnamed pilot pulls shit with the sh…
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Cherryh was a huge influence on StarCluster, no question! I also wrote a supplement called Merchanters and Stationers which works with StarCluster 4 Free - or any StarCluster 4 game - to really Cherryh-ize the game, but I only give it away to someon…
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(Quote) As have I. (Quote) Yes! That is a book I would be fascinated to read, and why I asked that question.
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(Quote) My mistake! Saby is the NIECE of Christian's mother, and thus Christian's cousin. She is still no blood relation to Tom, however.
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Saby was Christian's mother's much younger sister, IIRC. Thus no relation to Tom.
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I am currently re-reading it again in preparation!
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(Quote) :D
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(Quote) Huh... I read Lost City of Z, and had utterly forgotten the Author's name!
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(Quote) Exactly!