{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/3870",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 3870,
    "subject": "Recommended authors",
    "messages": 3,
    "voices": 3,
    "first": "2003-03-02T13:21:13+00:00",
    "last": "2003-04-19T07:56:51+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0303-2998@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "jismulkstis",
        "address": "jismulkstis at att.net"
      },
      "date": "2003-03-02T13:21:13+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Recommended authors",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I strongly recommend Iain M. Banks Culture novels:\n\n\nConsider Phlebas\nUse of Weapons\nExcession \nInversions \nLook to Windward\n\nWhile stylistically unlike Gene Wolfe, Iain M. Banks writes\nnovels about the moral ambiguity that comes with wielding \nvast power.   He can also be very dry, sarcastic, and funny, \nbut these are in no way humorous novels.  The Culture is a \ndetailed, well thought out society and his books are better\nat creating the old \"sense of wonder\" (especially Excession)\nthan anything I've read in many years.\n\nYou have to like a world where the spaceships are far more\nintelligent than their passengers and give themselves names like \n\"Honest Mistake\" and \"Ethics Gradient\".\n\nThose who are hooked on a more medieval setting should \ntry \"Inversions\".\n\nI'd like to know what others think of Banks, but this \nmay not be the appropriate forum. \n\nMuskrat"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0303-3005@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Thomas Bitterman",
        "address": "thomasbitterman at netscape.net"
      },
      "date": "2003-03-03T14:57:27+00:00",
      "subject": "RE: (urth) Recommended authors",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0303-2998@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "jismulkstis at att.net wrote:\nWhile stylistically unlike Gene Wolfe, Iain M. Banks"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "[...]\n\nHe's not just stylistically unlike Wolfe, their worldviews\nare diametrically opposed.  Banks and Wolfe probably shouldn't\nshake hands, lest some sort of literary explosion take place."
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "I'd like to know what others think of Banks, but this \nmay not be the appropriate forum. "
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Obligatory Wolfe note:  I'm convinced that Banks is making an\nallusion to Wolfe in _Excession_.  (My copy is at home, so I'll\njust draw an outline.)  The ship's interior is hemispherical,\nand there is a bright line that rotates around to make day and\nnight.  Banks describes it as a giant jump rope, with the ship\nat play forever.  It's such a brilliant twist to the Long Sun\nit's hard to believe Banks didn't have it in mind."
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Muskrat"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "__________________________________________________________________\nThe NEW Netscape 7.0 browser is now available. Upgrade now! http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/download.jsp \n\nGet your own FREE, personal Netscape Mail account today at http://webmail.netscape.com/"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0304-3237@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Dave Rolsky",
        "address": "autarch at urth.org"
      },
      "date": "2003-04-19T07:56:51+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: (urth) Recommended authors",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0303-3005@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "On Sun, 2 Mar 2003 jismulkstis at att.net wrote:\nI strongly recommend Iain M. Banks Culture novels:"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "[snip]"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "While stylistically unlike Gene Wolfe, Iain M. Banks writes\nnovels about the moral ambiguity that comes with wielding"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Ok, this thread is ancient but the general topic is still being discussed\nso ...\n\nActually, I do think Iain Banks and Wolfe have some stylistic\nsimilarities, primarily in that both seem to enjoy setting complicated,\nelaborate sets of clues while playing with your head.  Banks seems to do\nthis more through formal structures, as in Feersum Endjinn (probably my\nfavorite Banks novel), where he rigidly alternates chapters in cycles of\nfour, one for each narrating character, each of whom has a distinct voice.\nThe trick in the book is figuring out the timeline of each character,\nbecause it's not purely sequential.\n\nHe also does some fun timeline tricks in Use of Weapons.\n\n\n-dave\n\n/*=======================\nHouse Absolute Consulting\nwww.houseabsolute.com\n=======================*/"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}