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Post by Andy Turnbull on Jan 31, 2018 13:47:21 GMT
The Time-Travelling voodoo cult from Lawrence Miles' Doctor Who books are currently being published by Obverse Books in case interested folks were not aware. obversebooks.co.uk/product-category/factionparadox/Now ages ago under previous publisher Mad Norwegian Press we had The Book of the War. Now finally we have The Book of the Enemy. A bit of the blurb - The Great Houses hold chains that bind time and space. They are the Namers and the Makers, of all that is. Their power is incalculable. And they are at War. But the nature of their Enemy has always been shrouded, in mystery, in enigma, perceived through mirrored labyrinths seemingly constructed as much by the Great Houses as the Enemy. Why? Perhaps now the secrets of the Enemy can be revealed. Or perhaps not. Experience the ravaged memories of those who have met them in War. It's edited by Simon Bucher-Jones, who Miles shared his ideas with. obversebooks.co.uk/product/the-book-of-the-enemy/ |
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Post by blueshift on Jan 31, 2018 15:39:35 GMT
In the early 00s, Simon Bucher Jones helped me write a fanfic about Yartek
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Jan 31, 2018 19:30:21 GMT
In the early 00s, Simon Bucher Jones helped me write a fanfic about Yartek You mean Yartek, Leader of the Alien Voord. Andy |
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Post by blueshift on Jan 31, 2018 19:40:38 GMT
In the early 00s, Simon Bucher Jones helped me write a fanfic about Yartek You mean Yartek, Leader of the Alien Voord. Andy His section was entitled "The Penis Mightier Than The Voord" |
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Jan 31, 2018 20:41:44 GMT
Do you still have this fanfic?
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Post by blueshift on Jan 31, 2018 20:44:48 GMT
Do you still have this fanfic? Bits of it. I'm sure Mark Clapham wrote a chapter too but I can't find it |
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Post by legios on Jan 31, 2018 21:31:25 GMT
Now ages ago under previous publisher Mad Norwegian Press we had The Book of the War. Now finally we have The Book of the Enemy. I think I shall be chucking in an order for that. Given I have a well-thumbed copy of The Book of The War sitting on the shelves in the corridor here. [Yes, there are bookshelves in the corridor - they staunchly refuse to move anywhere sensible no matter how the architecture is reconfigured. (Apparently my abode is in a huff because I meddled with the architectural settings whilst she was in a Rocco mood...)] Karl |
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Post by The Doctor on Jan 31, 2018 21:50:16 GMT
My only experience with Obverse Books so far has been their 'has to be seen to be believed' utterly demented Dalek language book but at some point I must try their fiction. Daleks are real, you see.
-Ralph
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Feb 5, 2018 19:43:23 GMT
So far it's an interesting book.
Different from The Book of the War. Once finished I might reevaluate my theories as to who THE ENEMY is.
Andy
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Post by blueshift on Feb 11, 2018 19:14:54 GMT
So far it's an interesting book. Different from The Book of the War. Once finished I might reevaluate my theories as to who THE ENEMY is. Andy Come on Andy, spill, who is THE ENEMY? |
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Feb 12, 2018 18:56:45 GMT
I haven't finished reading it yet.
Andy
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Post by blueshift on Feb 12, 2018 19:03:53 GMT
I haven't finished reading it yet. Andy Is it the spiders? |
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Feb 25, 2018 18:27:32 GMT
So far it doesn't look like it's The Spiders.
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Post by blueshift on Feb 25, 2018 18:35:58 GMT
So far it doesn't look like it's The Spiders.  |
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Feb 25, 2018 18:36:29 GMT
Sorry chum.
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Post by The Doctor on Feb 25, 2018 19:16:08 GMT
I am finding it hard to accept that the Faction Paradox concept is now 20 years old!
-Ralph
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Post by blueshift on Feb 25, 2018 19:20:23 GMT
I am finding it hard to accept that the Faction Paradox concept is now 20 years old! -Ralph *Chokes* |
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Post by The Doctor on Feb 25, 2018 19:21:19 GMT
Yup. Alien Bodies was published late 1997.
-Ralph
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Post by blueshift on Feb 25, 2018 19:24:48 GMT
Yup. Alien Bodies was published late 1997. -Ralph Oh godddddddddddddddddddddd |
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Mar 2, 2018 8:35:35 GMT
So last night I finished The Book of the Enemy. Wisely it eschews doing a handbook the way The Book of the War does, but instead has a collection of short stories and esoteric fiction, arranged around excerpts of Great Houses information and propaganda. Giving it that in universe feel. The stories, they are all interesting, no real standouts in terms of excellence however, the last substantial story, a look at fiction through the lives of three people well four technically - Alan Moore, J.K. Rowling and Grant Morrison and Mark Millar - they all have different names but it is clearly them. Anyone with any knowledge of comics can pick up all the details - it is tedious. I suspect someone unfamiliar with them might be engaged, but I suspect that a vast proportion of the readership will be familiar. Shame to drop a turd at the end of the book. So The Enemy...let's take this to the spoilers. From FP's origins in Doctor Who, we've speculated who The Enemy was - from it being the Tardises/Timeships themselves, to it being the future Earth/humanity that was unmade when Rassilon/The Great Houses anchored the Spiral Politic/fixed the Web of Time. My reading of The Enemy is slightly changed by the book, it's not the future but what was actually taken by the Houses imposing order. The central thread is about fiction and being made and unmade. In one tale you have a Sherlock Holmes and Watson who exist and then are revised into being fictional this happens to them both in the story, there is a book which if you read, reads you and you then are part of it's pages and become fiction. There are teases of The Enemy in terms of being perhaps an individual or collective.
When The Houses anchored the Spiral Politic they set the rules and made reality what it was. The Enemy to me is the reality/realities denied by this interference in the natural order.
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Sorry Matt, it's not Spiders although they are mentioned in one of the tales.
Going back to the BBC books, It has me wondering afresh who the black skinned man from Alien Bodies was, as it feels now to me that he very much is The Enemy or some representative of them. |
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Post by legios on Mar 4, 2018 21:58:03 GMT
Went to pick up a copy of this earlier this weekend... Unfortunately it appears to be sold out both with Amazon and Obverse, at least in physical form. Considering getting the ebook version from Obverse instead. I'd have rather had the physical on my shelves, but it might tide me over until/in the hope there is a reprint.
Interesting take on The Enemy. And one that would actually fit a lot of its observed characteristics in other places across both the Faction Paradox franchise and its ancestry in Doctor Who. Fits well with the nature of Horror in "This Town will Never Let Us Go" (hinted to be a literal corporate identity). You've got me mulling over my own assumptions about The Enemy now.
[\spoiler]
Karl
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Dec 26, 2018 13:13:24 GMT
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Dec 26, 2018 22:28:51 GMT
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