A happy Lord of the Rings Day to you! (Previous editions: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2014) Every year I pen a commemorative piece about Lord of the Rings, and share something about the books and films that I think about nearly every day week. This year, I don’t have the strength, thanks to the workloadContinue reading “Lord of the Rings Day”
Tag Archives: Steven Erikson
The calculus of creative discipline
Every moment of a science fiction story must represent the triumph of writing over world-building. World-building is dull. World-building literalises the urge to invent. World-building gives an unnecessary permission for acts of writing (indeed, for acts of reading). World-building numbs the reader’s ability to fulfil their part of the bargain, because it believes that itContinue reading “The calculus of creative discipline”
Happy Lord of the Rings Day!
The Malazan Book of the Fallen fantasy series exhibited a rabid yet desirable iconoclasm, through which its author Steven Erikson elucidated every trope of epic fantasy and then shit on it. I came out of reading the series feeling like nothing could surprise me anymore except some other Erikson fare. The man himself might notContinue reading “Happy Lord of the Rings Day!”
Happy Lord of the Rings Day
On this day, let’s read a chapter or two from the trilogy and remember what an enlightening experience reading the books was.
Some notes and updates
Four years of the Higgs boson, live-tweeting and timezones, new music, and quickly reviewing an Erikson book.
A happy Lord of the Rings Day to you
The LotR trilogy made for the first modern great epic fantasy, its guiding light so very bright that even those who came after struggled to match its success.
Lord of the Rings Day
March 25 is Lord of the Rings Day. Why do I remember the date?
In the Valley of Drums…
For lack of a more sensational beginning: Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen fantasy fiction series is the best piece of writing I have ever encountered. Erikson’s experience as a archaeologist and an anthropologist is brought to bear in every line of the 10-book epic, producing a tale that is vigorously gripping yet mercilessly sophisticated.Continue reading “In the Valley of Drums…”