The Seasonal Reading Challenge discussion

15.9 - Shifting Sands

In Forbidden Desert, players are survivors of a airship crash in the desert. In order to win, they must explore a board of tiles to find the broken parts of their vessel and get back to the launch site. At the same time, they must fend off the dual threats of the relentless sun and the looming sandstorm, which risks stopping them in their tracks, or worse - burying them under the dunes.

Choose a desert from the Wiki list of the largest deserts by area and read a book set at least 50% in a nation listed for that desert. For example, if you pick the Kalahari, you can read a book set in either Botswana, Namibia, or South Africa. As we're specifically looking for sandy deserts, the Antarctic and Arctic deserts are excluded for this task. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...

Required: State the desert and the country setting. If the setting is not obvious from the GR book description or metadata, provide a reference.

Reserved

Reserved

There are several deserts on the list that are listed as United States. Does this mean that any book set in the U.S. would work for this task, or, if we choose one of those should the book be set in one of the states listed in the desert description?

Julia wrote: "There are several deserts on the list that are listed as United States. Does this mean that any book set in the U.S. would work for this task, or, if we choose one of those should the book be set i..."


This is an interesting question and if the US does have to be specific states would not each country have to be specific areas ? e.g. Canada is extremely large and has different provinces as does China. I had assumed that just the country would work

Julia wrote: "There are several deserts on the list that are listed as United States. Does this mean that any book set in the U.S. would work for this task, or, if we choose one of those should the book be set i..."

Marie (UK) wrote: "This is an interesting question and if the US does have to be specific states would not each country have to be specific areas ? e.g. Canada is extremely large and has different provinces as does China. I had assumed that just the country would work"

Marie has the right of it, just the country is enough. It doesn't need to be set in the specific state the desert is in - iirc, the Wiki list doesn't actually specify the state/province/county anyway.

If looking for sandy deserts, most of the ones I recognize as sandy are listed as subtropical, so should we pick a desert with that designation or are the other types sandy even though it says cold winter or coastal?

KmarieD wrote: "If looking for sandy deserts, most of the ones I recognize as sandy are listed as subtropical, so should we pick a desert with that designation or are the other types sandy even though it says cold..."

For the sake of simplicity and not over-restricting the task, we're allowing any other kind of desert that's not the Arctic/Antarctic. The wording was more about convenient shorthand than scientific accuracy!

I am looking at A Master of Djinn for this task. GR shows Egypt and that is where the book starts but lists other locations as well. Does anyone know if it is more than 50% set in Egypt?

Robin P wrote: "I am looking at A Master of Djinn for this task. GR shows Egypt and that is where the book starts but lists other locations as well. Does anyone know if it is more than 50% set in E..."

Approved, but if it is not obvious just include a reference.

Robin P wrote: "I am looking at A Master of Djinn for this task. GR shows Egypt and that is where the book starts but lists other locations as well. Does anyone know if it is more than 50% set in E..."

@Robin, it is set 100% in Egypt.

Jen K wrote: "Robin P wrote: "I am looking at A Master of Djinn for this task. GR shows Egypt and that is where the book starts but lists other locations as well. Does anyone know if it is more t..."

Excellent, thanks! It works for a challenge in another group.