Talk:The House of Daniel

Finally! This sounds like a hoot. TR (talk) 02:06, October 1, 2015 (UTC)


 * Hmm, the title must be a riff on the House of David. I'm kind of shamefaced not to have thought of that. Turtle Fan (talk) 02:43, October 1, 2015 (UTC)


 * I can't say that I've heard of them before now. Google has been fairly helpful. TR (talk) 02:52, October 1, 2015 (UTC)


 * They were an interesting footnote in the game's history. I don't recall whether they made the Ken Burns series. Turtle Fan (talk) 03:16, October 1, 2015 (UTC)

It also echos "The House That George Built" which is a take-off of "The House That Ruth Built". "Book of Ruth" and "Book of Daniel" are both Old Testament Books hence "House of Ruth" and "House of Daniel". ML4E (talk) 20:06, October 1, 2015 (UTC)


 * That's true. I was thinking that Daniel and David were both first-tier Israelite heroes, so the founders of the commune might have chosen the one just as easily as the other. Turtle Fan (talk) 21:44, October 1, 2015 (UTC)

Publishers Weekly Review
Unlike the Fallout review, the PW review of this one is pretty positive (except for the "fantasy elements could be removed without changing anything" part). TR (talk) 00:50, March 4, 2016 (UTC)


 * I'd forgotten about this one. I'm looking forward to it now. I'm glad the paranormal is superficial; I don't need another TCotTSD with my baseball story. Turtle Fan (talk) 05:23, March 4, 2016 (UTC)

Steven Silver liked it
Just another FYI. TR (talk) 02:25, March 7, 2016 (UTC)


 * Seems like it would be up his alley.


 * Both reviews have mentioned zombies. I fucking hate zombies. The Haitian mythical figures had some mystique and allure to them, but Romero turned them into creatures that inspire revulsion rather than honest fear, and ever since, more and more lazy writers have ripped off that already-dodgy premise, in painfully repetitive fashion, till the badly overused cliche has become the worst thing in fiction. I'm glad HT is obviously resisting the temptation to have them destroy the social order for the lulz, but I really wish he'd left them out altogether.


 * Ironically, modern movie and TV zombies are more like folklore vampires. Instead, we get old world counts (and sparkles apparently). ML4E (talk) 19:14, March 7, 2016 (UTC)


 * Having read a few accounts of those old vampires, I can see why Stoker and so many others felt the need to punch them up a bit. (Obviously, the Twilight people went way too far in the wrong direction.) Their zombie-like tendencies were not lost on me, but they were isolated threats that would stalk a Slavic village here and there, not a zillion carriers of a pandemic that brings the global economy to its knees. Seriously, where's the appeal in that shit, let alone appeal that's strong enough to launch a thousand different iterations of the exact same story? But I digress. Turtle Fan (talk) 02:30, March 8, 2016 (UTC)


 * The references to zombies sound like the voodoo style ones, as they work in the mills for free or something. TR (talk) 04:43, March 8, 2016 (UTC)


 * That wouldn't be so bad. Turtle Fan (talk) 05:21, March 8, 2016 (UTC)


 * Actually, I can't help wishing it was just a straight historical fiction. T would have been deadly boring without the other-worldly beings, and TCotTSD, well, I thought it was deadly boring anyway, but clearly it stood or fell on the magical elements; but it sounds like this would have worked perfectly as straight hi fi. Telling a baseball story is the point, and if THTGB and TS&tR are any indications, HT's up to the task of writing a good baseball novel. And it's been a long time since I read a good baseball novel. (Actually, come to think of it, the last two I read both had supernatural elements of their own, which they engaged a bit too strongly; both were worse for it. One of the great ones, Darryl Brock's If I Never Get Back, had a supernatural event at the basis of its premise, but never built on it or explained it, and was stronger for that.) Turtle Fan (talk) 07:45, March 7, 2016 (UTC)


 * I wonder if that decision is more about marketing? Obviously HT can write pure historical non-fantastic fiction, but since he's "expected" to write genre fiction by his audience/editors/publishers etc., he may have decided to throw the fantasy elements in for his brand. TR (talk) 04:43, March 8, 2016 (UTC)


 * It could be. Turtle Fan (talk) 05:21, March 8, 2016 (UTC)

It's Out
My Fire just auto-downloaded. Unfortunately, I can't imagine I'll find the time to read it till we're well into the summer, at which point it will have to compete with other new releases I'm somewhat more excited to read. Turtle Fan (talk) 05:09, April 19, 2016 (UTC)


 * Same here, but I may get to it in the next week or so. Thanks to a new job, I am now residing in a one-bedroom with no television while Mrs. TR is some 180 miles away.  I do seem to find time for reading.  TR (talk) 05:36, April 19, 2016 (UTC)


 * Thanks to a new job, I'm residing in a one-room apartment with no TV as well, and while I've got no wife to be away from, it's the most solitary living situation I've ever had. Yet somehow the pace of my reading has slowed to a crawl. I don't at all understand it. Turtle Fan (talk) 06:08, April 19, 2016 (UTC)