Most stories where there is a "chosen one" destined to save the world/galaxy/humanity are rarely executed well. There are a few notable exceptions. There is the Elric saga, in which case "the chosen one" is destined to destroy the world as a way to keep the balance of law and chaos. There is Paul in Dune, …
Category: fiction
Irony: A Little Dab Will Do Ya
Irony is a powerful tool for a storyteller. The juxtaposition of two unexpected things can create whole stories. Carrie: An awkward teenage girl with a crazy evangelical mother gets bullied at school but she has the power of telekinesis and gets back at her tormentors using that power. Irony can create a fascinating character. There are …
In a World…
I went about half way through a creative writing BFA program. It was wasted on me. It was not wholly a waste of money and time, I learned some important lessons. I learned that I loath literary fiction. The professors who teach it and the people who read only literary fiction will tell you that …
Story is A Physiological Experience
Human understanding of our own brain function is very rudimentary. Even though the science has progressed, we still don't know very much about what happens when we watch a film, read a book or have a story told to us. I am very fascinated by the biological response to story and I believe that as …
RIP Gene Wolfe
Gene Wolfe passed this week. His most well known work, The Book of The New Sun has had a impact on how I think about fiction and gaming. An important lesson I learned is that fiction doesn't have to be "fun." It's a challenging work to read and take in. In decades to come, academics will …
The Entertainment Business is Hard
If someone I know has good taste tells me, "Fonda Lee's books are really great, you should read them." Then I probably will. I might anyway, she's published by Orbit, one of my favorite publishers. She was nominated for a Nebula and won a World Fantasy Award for best novel. They typically don't hand those …
Glen Cook’s _Black Company_
One of my favorite fantasy writers is Glen Cook. I will do later posts about some of his other, lesser known works and focus this post on The Black Company novels. They follow the exploits of the "last of the free companies of Khatovar", a mercenary company perpetually in an ugly dilemma. The first …
Grumpy Wizard 