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The stories are cool. Superpositional meanings are cool too, but one can enjoy and appreciate Wolfe's art without them. These theories may inform but do not really add or enhance t…
23 Oct 2011, 22:14
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New Sun, Long Sun, Short Sun = Solar Cycle. I personally found "The Wizard Knight" to be below Wolfe's usual quality. Or maybe I just really hated Abel as a protagonist. Either w…
12 Oct 2011, 21:04
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The Scottish Play, if you please. I'll not have you bringing ill fortune on us all. yvt, LH…
10 Oct 2011, 00:42
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Papa Gene would't have it any other way.…
12 Aug 2011, 05:28
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The Elric books (ANY Moorcock, for that matter) is in a different time zone than Goodkind's trash. Moorcock was a very subversive counterculture figure in the 60s and 70s and his…
11 Aug 2011, 16:47
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Also, NPR only seems more intellectual because its competition is pop music and "morning shows" run by two aging burnouts named Jack Dingo and Toadstool. Sent from my iPhone…
11 Aug 2011, 16:12
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All civilization is a popularity contest. I just wish smart things were more popular than pablum. Sent from my iPhone…
11 Aug 2011, 15:44
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This has shaken my faith in the correctness of democracy. I mean, would it be SO terrible to force people into good literature gulags? Eighteen hours a day, reading away, lulled t…
11 Aug 2011, 15:09
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I didn't like those. In theory, I like steampunk, but I am yet to find something that really does well within the genre rather than just try to pander to fans of it. I know Vande…
10 Aug 2011, 03:31
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I have found a few Wolfe works "preachy," but it doesn't bother me any more than Mieville's preachiness, even though I agree more with Mieville than Wolfe. I suppose because Wolfe…
07 Aug 2011, 03:54
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Yes. Got those two confused. Sent from my iPhone…
06 Aug 2011, 04:44
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Looking back at my choices, I have discovered an interesting fact about my moral philosophy. I am ready to absolve cosmic entities of moral guilt/evil because they transcend human…
05 Aug 2011, 16:20
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What about Arioch? Sure, he's "evil," in the sense that he wants chaos, but isn't that in keeping with his nature? I guess I never saw Arioch as really immoral or twisted, just... …
05 Aug 2011, 16:11
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If I pretend they don't exist... then they don't. I thought of another, sort of. Yod in Sean William's "Books of the Change/Cataclysm." And, I suppose, his servants like Jibreel …
05 Aug 2011, 15:59
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Gross. Inspector Glokta in the First Law trilogy is a villain of sorts. Same for Bayaz, who I still like. Not Khalul though. I know this isn't literary, but Emperor Palpatine i…
05 Aug 2011, 15:46
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Stand on Zanzibar is one of my favorite books ever. A monument of literature, with an inventive perspectiveless style that perfectly presages modern information overload. I can't s…
04 Aug 2011, 18:46
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Not necessarily. They are classics. I just couldn't get past the cultural context in which they were written. They felt like a 1940s-50s cop show aboard spaceships. Vaguely, unsett…
04 Aug 2011, 15:47
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Yes to the more personal bit. I felt the first book tried to hard to be "The Black Company." the characters were all automatons without a hint of Croaker's charm or Lady's earnestn…
04 Aug 2011, 03:47
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See, I've tried to read the Malazan books multiple times and just can't get into them. And I listened to Anathem as an audiobook, which may have helped. Stephenson's use of philoso…
04 Aug 2011, 03:32
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I went with 1. Book of the New Sun 2. Gentleman Bastards (Lies of Locke Lamora) 3. Prince of Nothing 4. Song of Ice and Fire 5. Chronicles of Amber 6. Conan 7. Black Company 8. El…
04 Aug 2011, 02:09
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I've read Harry Potter. Entertaining pop stuff. Well-crafted, but LeGuin's work is transcendent. Even her Earthsea novels (which are pale shadows of her SF) are better than Rowling…
02 Aug 2011, 23:33
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I have a love/hate relationship with Rothfuss' work. On the one hand, Kvothe is an interesting character, and I like his setting. On the other hand, Kvothe is less introspective th…
28 Jul 2011, 15:55
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I thought for sure "The Left Hand of Darkness" would make it. Sent from my iPhone…
28 Jul 2011, 15:33
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If you want, I may still have some hot coals from the 4th. I don't know what slow-smoked mesquite crow tastes like, but as a Texan, I firmly believe barbecue improves all meat dish…
06 Jul 2011, 15:57
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Yeah, those are their new books, not the best all-time list. A best list with Ms. Merciel on it should still be suspect. I liked her first novel, but it was not brilliant and indul…
05 Jul 2011, 22:48
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I added Bakker and Vance for you. Sent from my iPhone…
23 Jun 2011, 02:16
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Jordan, it was my #1 of 5. Sent from my iPhone…
22 Jun 2011, 18:23
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As best I can recall, there is tenuous Biblical support for the idea of an Antichrist as an evil Jesus type. 2nd John or something mentions many "anti-Christs" arising, in the sens…
25 May 2011, 18:59
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Folk metal is a huge genre. It's practically Finland's major source of pop art. Sent from my iPhone…
23 May 2011, 19:20
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Shirtless guy in a mask with a sword sounds more like "how to end up as a sex offender suspect" than "cool costume idea." Sent from my iPhone…
23 May 2011, 19:09
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I recall several characters saying that the New Sun will kill Abaia, and certainly the Megas have an interest in the New Sun, which possibly implies that the architects of the New …
12 May 2011, 17:58
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I find it odd that someone would assume Wolfe gets more praise than Vance. Certainly when triple-A authors put out a Wolfe-inspired short story collection somewhere along the line…
10 May 2011, 15:19
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This is just demonstrably false to boot! Vance's prose, his diction, and his writing style are highly distinct from Wolfe's. I mean, the only line of intersection is that they ea…
10 May 2011, 05:22
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Judea? Sent from my iPhone…
21 Apr 2011, 16:42
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I would say rather that God, as the first cause of all things, is the cause of evil as well as good, and while men are good at identifying little-e evil (the bad things that happen…
13 Apr 2011, 14:01
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Silk is arguing that the Outsider is not an occasionalist God. He doesn't control everything, and permits Evil (as a concept and metaphysical whole) because in the end Evil serves …
13 Apr 2011, 00:03
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No, my characters are not like me. I can only imagine what I would be like as a literary character. A bookish, somewhat awkward lawyer with a penchant for self-deprecation and sar…
09 Mar 2011, 17:26
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I don't write aliens or elves or dwarves or any of that. Although it does raise some questions. Is there a universal male or female experience across different species or worlds?…
09 Mar 2011, 17:00
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I tend to write (almost exclusively) male protagonists and narrators. Because I am male. I don't have any direct, subjective experience of being female. I do not think I could wr…
09 Mar 2011, 15:27
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The modern usage of materialist as ontological naturalist/physicalist is an unfortunate hangover of a terminology shift. Two hundred years ago people that believed only in physica…
11 Feb 2011, 16:17
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I've not read it, but a leader assuming power legally and trying to ressurrect the tyrannical system of government that once had two powers opposing each other? Sounds a lot like …
10 Feb 2011, 20:44
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SF to me has no significant differences from "literary" fiction. Sure, there are stylistic conventions and structural differences, but those are there in the difference between a …
07 Feb 2011, 02:44
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Literary fiction is entitled to its pretensions. That is, after all, what distinguishes one made up story from another sufficient to call it "literary." Sent from my iPhone…
07 Feb 2011, 00:38
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No, these things happen about once every two months or so. It will be followed by a three week lull. Sent from my iPhone…
05 Jan 2011, 17:58
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Admittedly, I'm not much of a writer, but if I gave my wife a knife to kill herself and later ate her brain to gain her memories, I think she'd just as soon not have me put her in …
05 Jan 2011, 15:55
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It may just be me, but I always assumed Sev's mask was a black/fuligin hood like medieval executioners wore. Sent from my iPhone…
04 Jan 2011, 20:46
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Gaiman's novels are hit-or-miss. "Neverwhere" is decent enough, but way too much of a "faerie story" for me, just like "Stardust." "American Gods," however, is a damn fine novel.…
04 Jan 2011, 17:54
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I always envisioned the Citadel as a real 1980s-ish version of "rockets," e.g., not the sleek futurist curves of the 50s and 60s, but rather blocky, industrial, girder-laced monstr…
04 Jan 2011, 17:52
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'twas the night before St. Catherine's, and all through the halls Not a torturer was stirring, even Gurloes... Sent from my iPhone…
25 Dec 2010, 00:52
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Mieville and I probably agree on quite a bit politically, but I have only found a few of his stories palatable. Then again, while I can respect his talent and prose, I just find a…
20 Dec 2010, 03:15
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