A year ago today I took a look at the first novel in E.R. Eddison's divisive Zimiamvia trilogy: MISTRESS OF MISTRESSES. It's a fascinating and frustrating read and works best in the context of the whole, strange, frustrating trilogy.

The newest essay in my Ballantine Adult Fantasy reading series takes a look at Lord Dunsany's THE KING OF ELFLAND'S DAUGHTER (1924), a meditation on what happens when we invite the magic of Elfland into our world.

An oldie, and hopefully a goodie, from last week: my essay on Dunsany's nigh-immortal novel THE KING OF ELFLAND'S DAUGHTER:

A year ago today I took a look at the first novel in E.R. Eddison's divisive Zimiamvia trilogy: MISTRESS OF MISTRESSES. It's a fascinating and frustrating read and works best in the context of the whole, strange, frustrating trilogy.

This is a great movie, a Soviet Ostern (a Western set in the USSR's Eastern frontiers) about oil and colonialism. We watched it in Russian class and had to memorize the film's iconic song, which I still sing from time to time!

First, if you haven't had a chance to check out the book yet, hie thee hence! It's open-access, which Vaughn fought very hard for; but if you are able to support the work of this phenomenal scholar, that would be much appreciated as well. www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

A critic’s job is not to tell you whether or not you should see a movie.

Weir did an interview with one of the most notorious right wing YouTubers whose whole thing is being against wokeness and "the message." Weir went on to say he doesn't write "the message" b/c stories don't need politics. He knew what he was doing going on The Critical Drinker. It's not a psy op...

This was beautiful

The newest essay in my Ballantine Adult Fantasy reading series takes a look at Lord Dunsany's THE KING OF ELFLAND'S DAUGHTER (1924), a meditation on what happens when we invite the magic of Elfland into our world.

It's b/c Melania recognizes, in the bland, emotionless, soulless "intelligence" of the robot, a little something of herself.

I've been a bit slow getting to the next Ballantine Adult Fantasy book (Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter), but in the meantime, I've got plenty of past writing on the series. The Dunsany piece should be out before the end of this week.

Doing some background research on Lord Dunsany (specifically the fact he was injured by the IRA during Easter Rising b/c he went to Dublin to help the British army) and I came across Edward James's wonderful blog project to collect info about sff writers and WWI. Great resource!

When in danger, it slows down time around her, taking over her body to dispatch threats. Cover illustration for DIADEM FROM THE STARS by Jo Clayton (DAW) 3/3 www.michaelwhelan.com/galleries/di...

Philippe Caza

Happy Victory Over Sauron day. Here's my favorite LoTR quote to celebrate: “The rule of no realm is mine, neither of Gondor nor any other, great or small. But all worthy things that are in peril as the world now stands, those are my care. And for my part, I shall not wholly fail of my task,

Again, this is a great review with some good insights on how sf publishing in the 1970s-1980s fits into Brier's larger history of the literary fiction discourse around prestige.

I said this at a publishing workshop recently, but it bears stating publicly: Most* edited collections are better as journal special issues and most* edited collection chapters are better as journal articles. *not yours, of course!

This is 100% Zionist bullshit that's trying to muddy the waters among language-sensitive lefties.

I really enjoyed this review essay by @denniswise.bsky.social. Somehow I did not know it was by him (the app I save things to for later reading sometimes forgets to pull that info) but by the end -- a great discussion of the sff book market -- I was thinking, "man, I bet Dennis would love this."

After a year, I've finally finished working through Thomas Burnett Swann's 16 fantasy novels. Here's my essay on his last novel, CRY SILVER BELLS, a fitting end to his career published more than a year after his death from cancer in 1976. What a ride it has been discovering this brilliant writer!

A year ago, I wrote this essay on Thomas Burnett Swann's THE TOURNAMENT OF THORNS, a medieval historical fantasy novel featuring unicorns, crusade-obsessed teenagers, unrequited queer desire, and incredibly convincing moments of horror:

A year ago, I wrote this essay on Thomas Burnett Swann's THE TOURNAMENT OF THORNS, a medieval historical fantasy novel featuring unicorns, crusade-obsessed teenagers, unrequited queer desire, and incredibly convincing moments of horror:

Judith Butler explained these losers decades ago and they're too mediocre to realise it

When the "support the troops" liberals from the Bush years run up against Trump's draft dodging, suddenly Vietnam becomes a noble, manly, heroic exercise in service of democracy.

Still waiting for someone to write the book on American sf and Mormonism... ...and still very willing to publish that book!

I've said it before: I genuinely consider it a moral imperative that people my age and up bang the drum about what the Internet used to be so those younger know that there's nothing inherent about what it is now. The Internet doesn't have to be this; its culture can and has belonged to people.

I really enjoyed this review essay by @denniswise.bsky.social. Somehow I did not know it was by him (the app I save things to for later reading sometimes forgets to pull that info) but by the end -- a great discussion of the sff book market -- I was thinking, "man, I bet Dennis would love this."

My partner always gets me into shows by watching them in the background while I'm doing other things. It's dangerous for her, because I inevitably become invested and then she has to watch them with me. She recently got me into DAWSON'S CREEK and boy do I fucking love this show.

If you're using genAI in any capacity to get your PhD, you shouldn't be getting a PhD.

This is funny because you can walk into just about any dumpy restaurant in the South and "everything we make atop a baked potato" is gonna be on the menu

The magic of rerun syndication in the sweet spot of linear TV (the 1970s-90s). There’s a great, dare I say classic, book about it! 🙂 bookshop.org/p/books/reru...

If you are using AI, you are not a writer. You are not an artist. And I do not buy her claim than an "acquaintance" used AI to edit the book, so that she just happened to wind up with a final product that "unknowingly" had been touched enough by AI that a publisher figured it out.

Everyone who winds up drunk at a Waffle House thinks they teleported there. It's the only way to get there.

▶️ Please enjoy this wonderful interview with Oliver by James Mills! Our editor was kind of a great mix of punch drunk, passionate, and having had a beer right before they started. 🍺 youtu.be/RrhVHBSBK-E

I don't really feel like the press coverage of the metaverse implosion honestly captures the access tech press' role in propping up Mark Zuckerberg's fake innovation mythology if you go back and read "journalism" from this era, 97% was indistinguishable from advertorial

Blessed be the authors who follow the book manuscript preparation guidelines to the T the first time around and submit production-ready files that do not need to be fixed! I've yet to figure out what it is that separates those who "get it" from those who really struggle to follow the guidelines.

Again, Buterlian jihad when?

Herman Melville on moderates, all the way back in 1857:

Mood for 2026, (the artist is Ainsley Drew, on Instagram)

That's funny, cuz he was so terrified of Vietnam-style ground combat in Vietnam that he spontaneously developed bonespurs.

Coming to you, the reader, in early 2027!

‘the later dune books are too weird to adapt to film’ oh come on. you don’t want to see a woman cum from watching duncan idaho climb a cliff? you don’t want to see chairdogs and hypnobongs? weak

This has unironically been on my list to find and watch.

Okay but what if Trump was personally criticizing you as an official act in his capacity as president?

it's cool when a legal thing happens because lawyers will quote a transcript with HOLY SHIT THE JUDGE BODIED HIM and the transcript will be like "there appear to be irregularities in counsel's filing"

I also find myself surprised at just how much of a *banger* The Return of the King is compared to The Two Towers, which felt like I had to struggle hard to get through, but RotK just whips by and feels like an exciting, living text compared to its predecessor.

Holy shit, bb. Here we are! Here we goooo! VROOM VROOM that's that AI production getting AT IT

On reread, two characters I really appreciate in The Lord of the Rings, who I think play interesting roles that make the world feel a little more fleshed out in The Return of the King (compared to The Two Towers, which feels thin as hell), are Beregond and Imrahil.

I love working with brilliant designers to come up with awesome covers for our books at Lever Press, like this new cover for Gregor Dobler's Otium: An Anthropology of Work, Freedom, and Common Ground in the Global Economy (available this October).