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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
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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.
*Picard management tip: Debate honestly. The goal is to arrive at the truth, not at your preconception.
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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
- Gender
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!