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Peadar

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    What Are You Reading? Second Quarter, 2023

    in Literature

    Posted

    13 hours ago, Wilbur said:

    But there are far worse options than the British, who at least built some infrastructure and installed some legal systems that had the facsimile of a rule of law.

    That is certainly what their PR would like you to think, sure. I mean, we're all here speaking their language, reading their books and their accounts of history. For example, in the "Nine Years War" fought in Ireland in the early 1600s, 80% of surviving sources are English.

    As somebody who comes from the only country in the world that has a smaller population now than it did in the 1850s, we got to see how things like "Rule of Law" can be weaponised for grinding other cultures out of existence so that, generations later, there is nobody to speak up for them when others say, "At least the British weren't as bad as X or Y. I mean, if they were so awful in Tasmania, why aren't the extinct Tasmanians complaining? If the torture camps set up in Kenya in the 1950s with specially designed castration devices were so bad, then why aren't they part of the school curriculum in the same way the much earlier Belgian depredations in the Congo are?"

    An excellent book to read if you genuinely want a different perspective is Shashi Tharoor's Inglorious Empire. 

    Having said all that, I have to agree that Babel did indeed read like revenge porn. I don't blame the author for feeling that way, but if the bad guys in a story lack complexity or basic humanity, everything else suffers too. They were human beings with enormous power over others and it's pretty rare in human history that such a position is not exploited with ruthless selfishness.

    Official Blatant but Honest Self Promotion Thread

    in Literature

    Posted

    I am excited to say that for the first time, the books of The Bone World Trilogy are all available as matching ebooks!

    Get them from the links below. Get them before they run out, although... well, running out is not really possible. But getting them is definitely a thing of joy. At least for me.

    Warning: violence and trauma. Too much for the more gentle among you. An off-stage sexual assault is also hinted at.

    The links give a choice of buying options -- so far that’s just smashwords for epub readers, or amazon for kindle users.

    Thanks to all of you and to your families and friends and pets.

    https://geni.us/theinferior

    https://geni.us/thedeserter

    https://geni.us/thevolunteer

    Is that blatant enough for this thread? ;) 

    Amazing Book Deals: The Third

    in Literature

    Posted

    15 hours ago, Seli said:

    The sale seems to extend to continental Europe as well. Amazon netherlands even manages to get down the price to €0.49 (some weird automation hiccough I think)

    Glad to hear it! I think the rest of Europe gets the UK edition, which is why you get the same (or lower!) price. Thanks for that :) 

    Guy Gavriel Kay

    in Literature

    Posted · Edited by Peadar

    Tigana is very heavily influenced by Italian history and culture, while A song for Arabonne looks to be heavily influenced by Provence.

    Oh, forgot to add favourites:

    1)Lions

    2)Tigana

    3)Sarantine Mosaic

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