[Dragaera] some comments on _The Incrementalists_

[Alexx Kay]

> Spoilers for _TI_ below.
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> Seriously spoilful.
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> Go read the book if you haven't.
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>...  I've already forgotten what "titan"
> means - no, it must mean to spike.

Not quite.  "Titan" means, approximately, mentor.  It would be *common*
for the spike-er to also fill that function, but not necessary.

Odd choice of jargon, that.  Mythologically, when a Titan has offspring,
the Titan either eats them, or is destroyed by them.

> 4. Presumably there weren't always ~200 in the group, but I missed how
> it can grow.  Could Celeste have just made an extra stub and spiked
> someone with it?

Check out my brief exchange with SKZB at
http://dreamcafe.com/incrementalists/ for some partial insight into those
questions.

>I'm also confused about how the last century could
> have been so awful despite benevolent help newly empowered by advances
> in communications - maybe Celeste was busy in 1930 or so keeping the
> group from doing anything in Germany, for example?

A) Making things Better is Hard.
B) Awful by what standards?  Sure, it had lots of unpleasant bits, but it
was, taken as a whole, better than the one before it, which was better
than the one before that, and so on.

> 5. Some of the handling of the developing friendship and romance ("Ren
> laughed, and my heart flipped--flopped") seemed a bit telling not showing,
> though actually it probably wasn't.  Maybe I don't feel enough of a sense
> of Ren's personality.  It's hard to accept her (really anyone) agreeing to
> be spiked - if you're not stronger than a soul that has survived many
> combats, your life effectively ends.  Ok, in her case she's under a geas.
> But then it's difficult to know what's her and what's Celeste - a theme
> of the book, in fact, but also a barrier to feeling for the character.

The romance plot reminded my unpleasantly of Late Heinlein.  "We are In
Love because the Author demands it."

> 12. For me it was a bit hard to read this in the shadow of _Last Call_,
> which is another novel about deep memory, immortality, possession and
> submersion, and Las Vegas (chpater 7 of _TI_ is titled "The Barren [...]
> Wasteland").  I think _LC_ is one of the best sff novels I've read, so
> any other book on similar subject matter is at an unfair disadvantage.

Hm, I should re-read _LC_ soon, that was a great book.

> 17.  Not 17 chapters, or n*17.  I didn't spot Devera - wasn't actually
> looking.

She's in the elevator, next to the family of four.

Alexx

Hello -- I'm in a superposition of states right now,
 but if you'll leave your name and number,
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