Kingdoms and Galaxies
Mar. 3rd, 2021 07:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearThis week, we played a game called Kingdom Builder, where you place houses on a map of different terrains, according to rules that change depending on what cards are drawn at the start of the game. It's very simple - each turn, you have to place at least three houses on the map and you get points based on how well you achieve certain objectives. But, of course, it's a lot more complicated than that, since a random card each turn restricts what kind of terrain you can place your houses on, and you have to place next to your existing houses if possible. That makes it very difficult to get points if one of the achievements is to place houses in all four corners of the map. Plus, it's hard to join towns together when other players are putting their houses right in the path of where you want to go. You can collect cards that give you special powers to break the placement rules, which can help, but it's not always easy to know how best to deploy them to maximise your points. I wasn't entirely sold on the game the first time we played it, but the second time around was really interesting and I very much enjoyed trying to fulfil all the requirements. It made it a lot easier, playing online, since the computer always highlighted the legal moves - I can imagine it would be tricky figuring that out on a physical board. I'd definitely like to play this again.
This week, I also finished listening to the audiobook of the new Becky Chambers book, The Galaxy and the Ground Within. It's set in the same series as the other Wayfarer books, but there's only one repeat character, someone who was only on the periphery of the first book. It's about a disparate group of travelers, who all get trapped in what is basically a space motel, after an incident with the planet's satellites stops them from leaving when they originally intended. They are all members of different alien species (there is actually only one human character in the whole book, I think, and she's only in one, brief scene) and they all have different assumptions and prejudices that make them suspicious of each other to begin with.
The book is a very thinly veiled treatise on imagining other people complexly, appreciating that other people may have different needs that have to be accommodated, but that we're all people underneath and should also be treated with respect and understanding, and not expected to represent the whole of any group we may be a member of.
There's very little in the way of plot - it's really more a collection of conversations between different combinations of the characters, allowing them to learn things about each other and come to a greater understanding of what problems and challenges they each face and have to deal with.
But, it's beautifully written, the characters are all fascinating and wonderful, I loved the development of the various relationships between them all, and it totally made me cry - more tha once. Chambers evokes her interplanetary settings brilliantly and depicts deep emotion very effectively. Her characters are incredibly varied but utterly engaging and very easy to invest in, regardless of their physiology or background. Plus, her books are brought to life so well by the excellent audiobook narrator. I desperately want to live in the Wayfarer universe and will be very sad if this is the last time I get to visit.
This week, I also finished listening to the audiobook of the new Becky Chambers book, The Galaxy and the Ground Within. It's set in the same series as the other Wayfarer books, but there's only one repeat character, someone who was only on the periphery of the first book. It's about a disparate group of travelers, who all get trapped in what is basically a space motel, after an incident with the planet's satellites stops them from leaving when they originally intended. They are all members of different alien species (there is actually only one human character in the whole book, I think, and she's only in one, brief scene) and they all have different assumptions and prejudices that make them suspicious of each other to begin with.
The book is a very thinly veiled treatise on imagining other people complexly, appreciating that other people may have different needs that have to be accommodated, but that we're all people underneath and should also be treated with respect and understanding, and not expected to represent the whole of any group we may be a member of.
There's very little in the way of plot - it's really more a collection of conversations between different combinations of the characters, allowing them to learn things about each other and come to a greater understanding of what problems and challenges they each face and have to deal with.
But, it's beautifully written, the characters are all fascinating and wonderful, I loved the development of the various relationships between them all, and it totally made me cry - more tha once. Chambers evokes her interplanetary settings brilliantly and depicts deep emotion very effectively. Her characters are incredibly varied but utterly engaging and very easy to invest in, regardless of their physiology or background. Plus, her books are brought to life so well by the excellent audiobook narrator. I desperately want to live in the Wayfarer universe and will be very sad if this is the last time I get to visit.
