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Stirling's "Sky People"
Topic Started: Dec 30 2007, 03:35 AM (1,098 Views)
Custer
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I got out-Custered. Nobody, but nobody ever outcusters me.
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TR1
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I'm sure I didn't out-Custer you.
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Custer
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I don't even know what the shit "outcuster" means, so you're right, likely tell.
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TR1
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Custer
Dec 30 2007, 04:44 AM
I've been outdone in bleakdom. :huh:

Ok, this implies that bleakness is your defining characteristic. Thus, by coming up with a bleaker scenario than you, I "out-Custered" you.

However, I don't think bleakness is your defining characteristic.

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Custer
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It could be, for all you know. I could be a bigger pessimist than SM Stirling (who, sources tell me, was banned from AH.com, though I don't think it was for bleakdom).
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TR1
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Quote:
 
It could be, for all you know.


If so, you hide it pretty well.

Quote:
 
I could be a bigger pessimist than SM Stirling (who, sources tell me, was banned from AH.com, though I don't think it was for bleakdom).


Oh? Why was he banned?
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Custer
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TR1
Dec 30 2007, 05:00 AM
Quote:
 
I could be a bigger pessimist than SM Stirling (who, sources tell me, was banned from AH.com, though I don't think it was for bleakdom).


Oh? Why was he banned?


The story is sort of a legend in the online AH global community.

AH.com wiki
 
Stirling:

Author of the ‘acclaimed’ Draka series. Poster-book for all tech wankers. See also joatsimeon.

Bannation: He was apparently banned for comments he made relating to genocide against Muslims some years ago, which Ian dug up. His banning is a controversial issue amongst AH.commers.


Hmm, maybe it was bleakdom after all.
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Bignate
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TR, the books you refer to are "Dies the Fire" and "The Protector's War." The premise is that some unknown alien race caused both Nantucket to go back in time and the rest of the world to lose all technology. There is a follow-up that came out recently. I haven't read it and forgot thew title. On the whole it's not a bad read. without technology the best "good guy" survivors are a group of Wiccans, The "bad guys" are an evil medieval history professor who tries to set himself up as the emperor or "protector" of North America and the inner city gangs he surrounds himself with as his "nobles."
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The Guy from Fiji
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Bignate pretty much got it in a nutshell. I wrote a longer review back on Custerland 1.0 on the whole trilogy if anyone wants to read that one.

TR let me know how you like The Sky People. I agree that it is much more upbeat than many of Stirling's works (though the Nantucket Trilogy was fairly positive.), and I think he has created a very interesting world that could be explored in many more novels.

I'm in the dark with Custer on why Stirling was banned. What happened?
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Makkabee
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I really enjoyed the Nantucket series and would love more sequels to that. The "technology dies" companion series was just a really unappealing concept for me so I never bothered with it.

The Nantucket books are not depressing, by the way. You might want to give them a whirl, TR, they're more in the Connecticut Yankee tradition (well, Massachusetts Yankee in this case) of de Camp's Lest Darkness Fall, Flint's 1632niverse, etc.

Although The Peshawar Lancers started off from a fairly grim (and rather strained) premise the story itself wasn't particularly downbeat and worked on an old fashioned good vs. evil adventure romp level.
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The Guy from Fiji
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Makkabee
Dec 30 2007, 02:42 PM
I really enjoyed the Nantucket series and would love more sequels to that. The "technology dies" companion series was just a really unappealing concept for me so I never bothered with it.


Yes, "The Change" series had several aspects that I didn't enjoy. Stirling apparently felt that without gunpowder, democracy cannot exist (as someone aptly put it on Custerland 1.0, "...this would come as a surprise to the Romans..."). In the second and third books we find that all the city-states who try to claim some aspect of the old stars and stripes tend to be corrupt. When it comes out in paperback, I do want to read the first book of the next trilogy (taking place about 20 years after the first 'Change' trilogy). It appears to involve a journey beyond the Pacific Northwest, and based upon the map in the hardcover, I'm interested in how Stirling depicts the couple of 'Republics' present in the interior of the former USA.
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Custer
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The Guy from Fiji
Dec 30 2007, 01:24 PM
I'm in the dark with Custer on why Stirling was banned.  What happened?

Earlier in 2007, someone posting on AH.com under the username "joatsimeon@aol.com" got banned by Ian for advocating genocide against Muslims.

That username is evidently SM Stirling's email address. Google it and you'll find a bunch of hits linking directly to him.

Furthermore, a poster on DW told me that he had emailed the "joatsimeon@aol.com" address and warned the user that Ian and his inner circle were talking smack about him (Stirling). The user who uses "joatsimeon@aol.com" went to AH.com and posted the post that got him shitcanned.
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The Guy from Fiji
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Ah, I see. I'd heard hints about Stirling getting some flak for anti-Muslim comments, I didn't realize that this was the same event.
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TR1
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Yes, I'd heard similar allegations.
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Makkabee
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This surprises me a great deal -- Stirling treats Muslims very fairly in his writing (the Nantucket trilogy, The Peshawar Lancers and his Belisarius in SPAAAAACE!!! series with David Drake have all featured positive Muslim characters). A "kill 'em all" attitude just flat out doesn't fit with the way he writes.

Something's fishy here.
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