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Thread: The Book Thread
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2024-04-22, 11:04 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2020
Re: The Book Thread
It's an interesting point, because the Vlad Taltos series sort of fell into this and sort of didn't, even early on when it was more in love with the criminal underworld. Even then, Vlad is repeatedly betrayed (up to the point of being assassinated I think at least once) and repeatedly screwed over, but there's also just enough opportunity there that you can see how someone who didn't have a lot of options might go into it and somehwat prosper.
He does have some friends who remain loyal...but almost none of them are simple criminals. And as time goes on, you see a lot more about how abusive the criminal underworld is, not just to its members, but also to its victims. And this is a comparatively well-run organized crime group, not the less organized kind...
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2024-04-23, 01:07 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2007
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- San Antonio, Texas
- Gender
Re: The Book Thread
Inside the Organization, I can only think of one character still around who he considers a friend... Kragar. He had some loyal employees, but most of them died in one conflict or another... Sticks comes to mind, and Glowbug was at least loyal, though I wouldn't call him a friend.
Outside the organization? He's pretty much got the top of the Empire on his side... two Dragonlords, Sethra Lavode, and even the Empress seems moderately fond of him (though I don't think they'd be called friends, either). Eventually, he makes nice with the Organization, even.
I read somewhere that Steve's tone changed after the death of a friend due to some crime or another, but I haven't confirmed that.The Cranky Gamer
*It isn't realism, it's verisimilitude; the appearance of truth within the framework of the game.
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2024-04-23, 02:04 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2020
Re: The Book Thread
I've heard that to and there's a source of uncertain validity here: https://mindstalk.net/brust/psych.html
discussing that history.
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2024-04-23, 05:12 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2007
- Location
- San Antonio, Texas
- Gender
Re: The Book Thread
The Cranky Gamer
*It isn't realism, it's verisimilitude; the appearance of truth within the framework of the game.
*Picard management tip: Debate honestly. The goal is to arrive at the truth, not at your preconception.
*Mutant Dawn for Savage Worlds!
*The One Deck Engine: Gaming on a budget
Written by Me on DriveThru RPG
There are almost 400,000 threads on this site. If you need me to address a thread as a moderator, include a link.
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2024-05-07, 11:00 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2013
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Re: The Book Thread
After bouncing off it twice, I finally powered through The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin. As with everything else of hers that I've read, it was evocative, meditative, lushly written and peopled, and felt entirely unlike anything else I've read.
Spoiler: Minor plot stuffI particularly loved the sections in the Undertomb and the Labyrinth. It's a testament to her writing ability that she created such an overpowering sense of dread with so few elements to work with: a young teenager wandering dark corridors with very little actually "happening" would feel quite boring in a lot of writers' hands, but it gripped me completely here. When they finally escaped the tombs at the end, I actually felt my chest unclench with relief and realized how powerful the sense of dread and dark had been.
It's a relentlessly optimistic and idealistic book, and the ending is almost beat-for-beat the cliché of "we have to use the power of friendship to defeat the Concept of Darkness", and yet it works. It feels organic and relatable, and when Sparrowhawk talks about the power of trust, I actually believe it, because we've spent the whole book seeing this young girl become more and more isolated and helpless. She considers using the darkness and isolation as a weapon against him, but ultimately uses it to protect him, and then she finally relinquishes the only tiny amount of power she has in the world for the chance that a less terrible world exists somewhere else. It was done so cleanly I barely noticed the pieces coming together until the very end.
Okay, took my lit professor hat off now. This book was gumming up the rest of my reading list so I'm hoping to capitalize on the momentum. I picked up something promising called Lady Hotspur at a garage sale over the weekend and that's next on my list. Will report back -- soon, hopefully!
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2024-05-12, 08:26 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2009
Re: The Book Thread
I've finally gotten back to reading a physical book after a while, and after a string of non-fiction, I finally broke into Mistborn Era 2 with Wax and Wayne.
I blew through the first one pretty fast. It's classic Sanderson- likeable characters, tight plot, lots of fun and action. At the same time, there's plenty of nuance and genuine character to things to keep it from being mere pulp. I saw a couple of the big twists coming, but that's not really a problem in a well-written story. Right now I'm in the second book, still building up to whatever "bigger things" this is going to turn into.
I do appreciate that, so far, the book doesn't suffer from escalation syndrome. Wax is nowhere close to being as powerful as Vin, which lets the series stay grounded.
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2024-05-12, 09:02 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2020
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- United States
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Re: The Book Thread
I have been reading "Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons" by Ben Riggs which is about the TSR years at D&D. It's interesting as it covers the time when I first got into and was really active playing TTRPGs. It focusses on a lot of business details that I was unaware of at the time.
One thing I found surprising is how many talented writers and artists left TSR due to poor management decisions and an unwillingness to pay people what they were worth. For example, Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis left TSR after writing the best selling Dragonlance Chronicles and Legends trilogies after not being given a relatively minor pay increase. Then the CEO threatened to sue them at a convention...
Anyways, it's an interesting read though perhaps not for everyone.
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Yesterday, 11:15 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2008
Re: The Book Thread
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Yesterday, 12:01 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2013
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Re: The Book Thread
I'd known nothing about the management and ownership conflicts of the TSR era until my wife got me the Art & Arcana D&D coffee table book a few years ago. It mostly focuses on how the iconic monsters and artwork came to be, but it also gives some hints about how seat-of-their-pants the early publications were (i.e. many iconic monster looks happened because of the children's toys they essentially kitbashed into monster figurines, lots of the old artwork was tracings of Conan-era artwork, etc). They hint very vaguely at turmoil within the companies -- lots of "X and Y 'had a falling out' and then Y left" -- but of course, since this is a licensed D&D product, they keep the history discussions pretty diplomatic.
I'd be interested in a more gloves-off exploration of the era, though I have to admit the book's description blurb on that page you linked sounds pretty close to a "hit piece," especially this section...
...managers and executives sabotaged their own success by alienating their top talent, ignoring their customer fanbase, accruing a mountain of debt, and agreeing to deals which, by the end, made them into a publishing company unable to publish so much as a postcard.
Does it read like it's written by someone with an axe to grind? I don't mind tell-all, dirty-laundry types of books, but I've found that if it feels like an author is overzealous I quickly start questioning their claims, even when I want to believe them.
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Yesterday, 12:52 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2010
- Location
- Gridania, Eorzea
- Gender
Re: The Book Thread
Finished reading The Expanse last week. Overall liked it, even if it did drag on in places (Books 5, 6 and a lot of 7 could've been trimmed down), but was still a compelling read. Characters were quite well done, and interesting. Would've liked more of the weird alien bits over the humans are bastards to each other, yet again, and still. Particularly with how interesting the alien bits were.
To give myself a sci-fi break, read through The Cabin at the End of the World. Which is a wildly tense ride of a book. Purposely ambiguous on some points, but that just makes it all the more thought provoking. Not an emotionally easy read, but definitely worth a look if you like thrillers.
Now I'm onto Endymion, and my only complaint is not having read this sooner in my life. Very glad I have a copy of Rise of Endymion, cause I'll be starting that soon as I finish this one.
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Yesterday, 10:01 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2007
Re: The Book Thread
Recently tried it; got through book one and two, stalled on three. Book two I only got through because I found the old lady amusing, and when the new cast of PoV in three had absolutely no-one of her calibre I simply could not push to keep reading. Always a danger to stories with rotating characters. Yes, Holden is still there, but between not being all that interesting by himself without Miller to bounce off of, and that his characterisation in two was all over the place (justified, but all over the place), I found myself not giving a damn about the plot.
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