Sci-Fi Group Book Club discussion

This is the discussion thread for the second book of the month, or group read, for December. Please remember to use the spoiler tags where necessary. The other group read topic for this month (City) can be found here.

Don't forget, the author has stated that he will provide Kindle editions of the book to the group in exchange for honest reviews here on GR. Here's everybody's chance to join in on a monthly book read without having to worry about hunting down a copy. Unfortunately, I don't have a Kindle, so I won't get to participate (but remember me when you get the audiobook version available ;) ). I'll leave the co-ordination on how distribution will work up to Gregory and Greg to organize...I'm just the instigator >:)

But remember to be fair...if you do receive a copy, please be respectful to the author and actually do the review...who knows, maybe if this works out well and word gets around, more of these opportunities will appear.

PSXtreme wrote: "Don't forget, the author has stated that he will provide Kindle editions of the book to the group in exchange for honest reviews here on GR. Here's everybody's chance to join in on a monthly book r..."

I don't have a Kindle either but a PDF version would work for me.

I have it on my Kindle

I will offer up to 50 free mobi files in exchange for a rating/or review on Amazon and Goodreads. Simply email me at gregory.ness@yahoo.com. If I get at least 5 requests for epub I'll also furnish up to 10 epub versions for rating or review. I'm ok to share up to 5 pdfs. :) :) G

I already got it. Is it 6 chapters long?

No... that is an old version.

How do I get a copy of the new one Gregory?

Email me at gregory.ness@yahoo.com Mobi ok? G

yes thanks

I'll be starting Antioch very shortly, Greg. Thank you for making a copy of it available to me. :)

Glad to Greg. Hope you have a great New Year! G

I meant to post here sooner. I read the first chapter a few days ago but reading has been slow for me simply because of the seasonal festivities and family obligations. I'm also marking papers....

So far, it's an interesting read, particularly that scientists have become the targets of an angry public whose jobs are becoming increasingly automated due to advances in technology. I think the short time-frame in which this happens - in the eight years from now leading up to 2025 (notwithstanding the public mood that swept Trump to office and the probability of his having two terms) - might not be good in future-proofing the book. That is to say, what will readers from 2025 onwards think of the book?

But this is only the first chapter and my first impression.

Greg wrote: "I meant to post here sooner. I read the first chapter a few days ago but reading has been slow for me simply because of the seasonal festivities and family obligations. I'm also marking papers.... ..."

Thanks! That is a fair point regarding a risk I took. I'm also hoping I can get longevity from the parallel story. :) G

I must say I prefer reading the second chapter. The first chapter was a bit slow apart from the torture (which I did not really like). I prefer reading about Agrippa and his adventure in Egypt.

Thx Damon!

Alexandria starts out with Agrippa then cycles. I think as you get further in the chemistry between the future and the past gets more interesting and makes the 1st chapter more relevant. G

The Splayer was interesting to read about - if gruesome! Was this something you saw on a visit to Prague, Greg?

Greg wrote: "The Splayer was interesting to read about - if gruesome! Was this something you saw on a visit to Prague, Greg?" No. Was a creature of imagination. I wanted to depict the horror of the Inquisition, etc and introduce a character to a later chapter. The notion that Orthodoxy was taking over and attempting to extract the arms and legs of a movement... G

Gregory wrote: "Greg wrote: "The Splayer was interesting to read about - if gruesome! Was this something you saw on a visit to Prague, Greg?" No. Was a creature of imagination. I wanted to depict the horror of the..."

Ahhh OK. There were some horrible torture devices in the past so it seemed authentic enough. :)

When visiting Prague I avoided the torture tours and focused on the temples/churches, the Klementinum, etc. and the great food. I enjoyed the alchemy museum in the Little Quarter. :)

Gregory wrote: "When visiting Prague I avoided the torture tours and focused on the temples/churches, the Klementinum, etc. and the great food. I enjoyed the alchemy museum in the Little Quarter. :)"

I have yet to visit Prague but would like to do so at some stage - it's a fascinating historical city!

I went the first time to visit with our daughter who studied at Charles University. Loved it so much that the rest of our family returned a few months later.

I'm back reading this again and am in chapter two. I liked the transition, through Roy's dreams, back to Caesar's approach to the harbour at Alexandria. The story about Roy/Marcus Agrippa looks like it will be interesting, especially if he gets access to the library there.

One thing I'm a little confused about is the flipping back and forth between two versions of Agrippa's friend's name - Octavius and Octavian. Is this intentional or is it an editing issue?

OOPS! Octavian is his name and Octavius his family name. Should definitely be noted for potential confusion. :) Thanks! G http://www.roman-empire.net/emperors/...

Ahhh! So that's who he is!

Then to make matters worse he comes Augustus Caesar. :) G

LOL Yes. And many emperors after him used 'Augustus' as a title, although the Byzantines would go on to use 'Caesar' as a title distinct from the imperial dignity, often reserved for a high-ranking prince in the imperial family (even though they were predominantly Greek.....).

It gets even better: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octavia...

I like how you are connecting the Armana heresy to the Jewish mystics. Is that going to be a major theme?

Moses as Ramose... a senior advisor to Akhenaton. Pretty much covered in Antioch... now advancing to Roman history and the evolving relationship between Agrippa and Herod etc. then onto the Pantheon. G

It was funny to read about ayahuasca in a news article in yesterday's New Scientist - online here under a slightly different title - after reading Roy Swenson and Michael Hammer's references to it during their conversation in Prague!

I liked the interesting suggestion (on the part of Samia) about the origins of Thoth. I'll be keen to see if this comes up again later in the book.

I'm also intrigued about the software that automatically searches for reports and then creates annotated scientific profiles with links to other sources in a fourth-tier cloud. It reminds me a little bit of a program developed by a New Zealand firm a decade or more ago which could be used to search for terms you give it by crawling the Web for them. Of course, it would've been very crude compared to what is proposed in Antioch as it only gathered links to possibly relevant pages that it happened to find in a seemingly ad hoc way.

A couple of points on the writing (and forgive me for nit-picking): there are occasionally terms used anachronistically by people living at the time of Julius Caesar, such as 'Dynastic Egypt', 'hashish' and 'ancient world', though they would make sense in the near-future portions of the text. I guess it can be difficult to keep track of terminology like that when going back-and-forth between two different time periods. Similarly, it was a bit jarring to read one of Agrippa's thoughts about Samia with the author's interpolation incorporated into this same thought: 'I would like to lift her kalasiris (cotton dress) and have her here, on this finely etched floor.' Surely, Agrippa would have simply thought 'cotton dress', especially as his mind was not on the finer details of the local nomenclature of vestments at the time. ;)

Thanks Greg! The word for assassin comes from hashishan or those who were high on hashish... and the Greeks used Gyptos instead of Khemet.... and ancient world was their perspective on Egypt before the Persians/Greeks. I think its fair game to know a little about what an Egyptian dress might be called. Part of what I set out to accomplish was the feeling that from Agrippa's vantage point... their ancient world was earlier. That is, Alexandria was an old city still modern compared to Memphis. etc. The Ptolemy's were practicing archaeological exploration into the ancient world for them. :) G Thanks! G

Also- you'll run into the "burning bush" later in Antioch: http://www.collective-evolution.com/2...

G

Gregory wrote: "Thanks Greg! The word for assassin comes from hashishan or those who were high on hashish... and the Greeks used Gyptos instead of Khemet.... and ancient world was their perspective on Egypt before..."

I agree with you that there would have been a knowledge of the antiquity of some cities relative to others - that some were 'ancient' but I'm not sure about the use of the term 'ancient world'. I suppose it's possible the term might've been used in the ancient past but it still seems 'modern' to me.

My point about the Egyptian dress was not objecting to the use of the Egyptian term for it per se but about placing your definition of the word within Agrippa's thoughts about what he'd like to do with it. In other words, it looks like Agrippa is defining the word for himself but why would he do that? I think the name of the dress and its definition should have appeared a little earlier as descriptive text - when Samia greets Agrippa in that interlude. Also, is it likely that Agrippa would have known the Egyptian name for this outfit when this was only his second day in Egypt?

Great point Greg! I slipped the name into the wrong place. Will keep in mind for next edition. I do think that the Romans considered themselves modern at the time, especially compared to the Egyptian Pharaohs and there were active archaeological projects in those days. I intentionally sought to give the reader a sense of modernity while in ancient Rome... to perhaps see parallels with our modernity... have things changed much? :) G

Gregory wrote: "Great point Greg! I slipped the name into the wrong place. Will keep in mind for next edition. I do think that the Romans considered themselves modern at the time, especially compared to the Egypti..."

I see where you're coming from and you may very well be right about how Romans perceived themselves as being the epitome of modernity at the time so I'll concede the point. :)

Thanks Greg! And when I update Antioch you might see a certain cotton dress mention altered. :) G

Gregory wrote: "Thanks Greg! And when I update Antioch you might see a certain cotton dress mention altered. :) G"

LOL OK