TLIAD: Bombard the Headquarters!

Japhy

Banned
Very good TL, I would have loved to see how exactly Lin's coup unfolded after Zhou and Zhu are killed though

Its a TLIAD Jack, just forget about it. :p

Pretty much Lin did not have the charisma or loyalty to actually get the army to kill their officers, especially when no one in the army was really ready to believe that Zhou and Zhu had killed Mao. It was all over rather rapidly at that. Under a week.

At least Bo's kid didn't end up with life in prison ITTL.

Bo Xilai went to prison for life in 2013. The timeline ended in 1971. I'm not even going to be able to suggest what does or does not happen in China that far down the road.
 
Bo Xilai went to prison for life in 2013. The timeline ended in 1971. I'm not even going to be able to suggest what does or does not happen in China that far down the road.
Oh I was just saying that he's probably safe since he's the premier's son which is probably off limits in the ol' PRC,
 

Japhy

Banned
Eh, dystopian China timelines are a dime a dozen.

Dystopian China's aren't even that. I'd say at least 2/3rds of timelines in the Cold War that have anything happen in China at all end them with mass slaughter for the sake of shock value or letting the Nuclear Genie out of the bottle.
 
Well that was quite a romp. At least it didn't come to Instant Sunshines. *whew*

I mean, you can be from Yanbian but that barely means you must represent it. The person could have participated in the Long March or something, and thus was part of the larger Old Guard members.
My basic question was whether there were prominent CCP members who were Korean-Chinese.

I think all of them went to North Korea when it was founded. And got purged by Kim Ill-sung.

Brilliant! I am writing a counterinsurgency thesis about Vietnam and Taiwan. I agree It probably wouldn't work, but would love to see KMT try something Latest gossip is Biao may have had friends in the young china party, a kmt front. Keep it going@

The Chinese Youth Party is actually not a KMT front, although it has little influence in Taiwanese politics because of the Martial Law.

Dystopian China's aren't even that. I'd say at least 2/3rds of timelines in the Cold War that have anything happen in China at all end them with mass slaughter for the sake of shock value or letting the Nuclear Genie out of the bottle.

Probably because Mao's China was a lot like Kims' Korea back then.

Marc A
 
So this was amazing. You're probably the best writer in A1900, your conveyance of complex machinations and - simultaneously - live action sequences with guns and bombs and what-have-you is second to none. Far superior to the loquacious rambles I produce.

Particular highlights included the gradual emergency of the monster that was Lin the Younger, as well as the clever - almost filmic - brief introduction of Zhang as a somewhat pathetic, doomed, but totally unsympathetic figure (because of his past actions), and then the use of that same figure to illustrate that the purges have in fact begun. That could have come from a screenplay.

The use of Deng as a minor viewpoint character - which I commented on when I started reading this the first time around - really paid off, in a way I hope Peter Mandelson's appearances in Lavender were effective.

And - of course - Zhou's final moments. There was a smile on my face, too.

I've been meaning to read this for a long time, and I'm glad I finally did. Well done, Japhy. Or should I say 'Well Shit'?
 

Japhy

Banned
So this was amazing. You're probably the best writer in A1900, your conveyance of complex machinations and - simultaneously - live action sequences with guns and bombs and what-have-you is second to none. Far superior to the loquacious rambles I produce.

While I'm utterly humbled by this, I have to admit I certainly don't feel this way about my own work. Looking it over again I feel like the whole project was overly rough, and that there's a real gap between what I wanted to say, what I pictured in my head and the final project that came out. And while I've spent probably too much of my life reading pulp detective novels which have rubbed off on my writing, I'd much prefer to aspire to your own work. A story about people is IMO always preferable to guns and gore.

Particular highlights included the gradual emergency of the monster that was Lin the Younger, as well as the clever - almost filmic - brief introduction of Zhang as a somewhat pathetic, doomed, but totally unsympathetic figure (because of his past actions), and then the use of that same figure to illustrate that the purges have in fact begun. That could have come from a screenplay.

And here I was afraid I was shoehorning the start of the Purge and the elimination of various characters and cheapening it.

The use of Deng as a minor viewpoint character - which I commented on when I started reading this the first time around - really paid off, in a way I hope Peter Mandelson's appearances in Lavender were effective.

Now I wont try to act polite on this: Mandelson's appearances in Lavender were utterly fantastic. You built a man in a handful of sentences. My use of Deng as a sidelined loser was nowhere close to that. No, no, no. They were no where close to each other, I made, like I did with most of the characters in this, a caricature.

And - of course - Zhou's final moments. There was a smile on my face, too.

It would have been better if I'd talked about the hope that radio messages got out / that the orders to find "proper" prisoners to bring out would work better / Memories of the "Bad Old Good Old Days".

I've been meaning to read this for a long time, and I'm glad I finally did. Well done, Japhy. Or should I say 'Well Shit'?

I'll be totally honest, I don't know why anyone reads the stuff I write here or elsewhere. But it is nice to know you do, and that you get some enjoyment out of it.
 

Japhy

Banned
I have an announcement to make!

Hey thats my job...

This has pretty much already leaked out on other threads and on the website but, I'm happy to steal thunder from Meadow and Roem and announce the coming publication of Bombard the Headquarters!: The Deluxe E-Book Edition with Sea Lion Press.


All Credit to Lord Roem for his excellent cover which one disgraced ex-mod refereed to as the "Bomb the Forbidden City App cover."​

The book features a few new scenes, more rewritten scenes which lend to creating a more cohesive narrative, and some authorial add-ons. Its pretty much worth reading. Hope you guys enjoy it. It should be out some time in September.
 
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That's an awesome cover. I like the covers of all the Sealion Press books, but that's definitely the best. Is there a name for that style of art?
 
That's an awesome cover. I like the covers of all the Sealion Press books, but that's definitely the best. Is there a name for that style of art?

I've got no idea. I did this one (as I have done for the majority of them) but I'm not sure if it deserving of a sobriquet...

...urh, Roemist-Tindaleism?
 
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