2019-08-22 08:11
Woken up at 2:20am last night by my phone reminding me that if I go to some website I have been selected for a prize. Calendar event spam: a new low in the shittiness that is spam.
Still plowing through The Book of the Long Sun, into the 3rd volume now. Still have no idea how it connects to the New Sun books. Still lots of skipping ahead in time and then slowly filling in what happened. I think it mainly works in the context of this book because of how Silk the protagonist has spent a large portion of the narrative injured in different ways and occasionally unconscious. The gaps in the narrative time help mirror the gaps in his consciousness and also the overwhelming events happening to him.
Each of the volumes has been starting with a list of characters, and reading it in volume 4 I noticed how much the descriptions give away elements of the plot that haven't been revealed in the book. Not only does it list characters that haven't shown up in the narrative yet, but also a few major character reveals that I don't believe were at all clear up to that point. For instance there are a couple reveals about character parentage that seen very important to the plot that get spoiled. I don't quite get the impetus of such a thing and why Wolfe would do that.
Had a few more ideas for my Stars Without Number game in the shower this morning, as I slowly piece together the characters' backgrounds (the game started with them having no memories). But it's also the type of ideas that I need to work into the game as playable. It's one thing to decide "x player was on the run because y happened", but it's another thing to figure out how that creates a playable situation I can throw at the characters during a session. Once again, questioning my previous decisions about starting this game. Once again, thinking I should have just stuck with what I was doing previous, or really, I should have just stuck with our very first campaign, as that one seems (in retrospect, admittedly) to have had the best vibe and the simplest set-up.