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clash_bowley
About
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- clash_bowley
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Comments
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The characters were sterotypes, with no real effort to make them more.
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I liked the book, but thought everything but the writing was underdone. It had the depth of a potato chip, but if you're looking for potato chips, they work as advertised. It was mostly vaguely disappointing, with no surprises.
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Laumer was mostly known for three series. Bolo- an immensely popular series about giant robot tanks which never appealed to me, but which is still going on with other writers; Retief another very popular funny, satirical series about an interstellar…
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Keith Laumer's Imperium series is what I think of as the classic parallel worlds universe. In that series, travel between timelines was discovered on an alternate earth where the American revolution never happened, and Britain ruled the earth. They …
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Bought!
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(Quote) OK, then we are actually in full agreement. ;)
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That may be because Iblis is not a rebel angel, but an Ifrit who rebelled against Allah.
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(Quote) True, but she was certainly no downtrodden underclass woman! :D
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(Quote) The only *punk that is about the downtrodden rising up is Cyberpunk. The others have nothing to do with that. usually in Steampunk, for example, the heroes are usually members of the upper classes, if not downright noble. It's all about styl…
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(Quote) Oh, I don't think it hurt anything. You are right there! The book isn't about how magic works. Desn't mean it was well-structured, though! :p
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Djinn are like humans, and can follow any faith. Many are Muslim, but many are Christian and Jewish as well. The vast majority of Djinn are held to belong to one of those. These three faiths were called Religions of the Book, and Islam holds that al…
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I think so...
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I hope to God that's so, Richard!
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(Quote) That is traditional with Djinn. Some avoid humanity, some mingle with humanity, and some mingle even closer.
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I looked up the author. P. Djeli Clark is the pen name of Dexter Gabriel, Assistant Professor in the History Dept. of the University of Connecticut. I had assumed that the author was female, but I am not surprised that he is a historian.
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(Quote) It's a *punk story - Magipunk X Steampunk X Clockworkpunk all fitted together. Boiler Plate Eunuchs are because they are slaves, like eunuchs, and boilerplate because they are mechanical. There are airships and mechanical AI created by Djinn…
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Yes! I thought much the same*! Clothing was vital to Fatma, and it was how the world revealed itself to her! Deft touch! Nice catch Neil! * Meaning I noticed and liked how the characters' clothing was always well described - I didn't take it as far…
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This would be an interesting source to use as a possible future for the Outremer setting. I would not use the magic. I love running police procedurals and am quite good at it, so that would not be off the table as a possibility.
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The magic was absolutely unsystematized and arbitrary. She decided to make it mysterious and unknowable, which is cool, but there should be some framework behind it all to my mind. In my case it was the one aspect of this book that felt arbitrary to…
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Agree entirely with Apocryphal here! This was very well handled, and I wish there was more of it handled this way in fiction.
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I found the large cast effective. I liked all the characters, and enjoyed their interactions.
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It was in the run up to the War to End All Wars, so early 20th century, Apocryphal! I loved the setting! There was a lot of realistic detail and it felt right to me! I could dive down deep in that setting! Definitely could see Cairo as a world capi…
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Enjoyed it very much! I got swept up in the story and had to pace myself, or I would have finished too early. Loved the various djinn, and found the main characters very entertaining. The plot was intriguing, though I suspected the ultimate culprit …
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(Quote) Bah! I finished... some other book we did... didn't I? B)
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I'm ready! Finished yesterday!
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(Quote) Thank you, Richard!
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(Quote) :D
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OK, then! Like the Becky Chalmers series, or Cherryh's Alliance-Union series. That works! I will go with this book then. Should be fun!
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Well, I thought it was the first book of a series... I guess this should also work, as there won't be any references to things that haven't happened yet... And after all, I liked The Han Solo movie ... B) ...
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how about this? Looks interesting! Infinity: A Bridger's Origin