My wife and I only watched Discovery because of how obsessed she is with Stamets. As a hardcore trek fan, I was very disappointed.

If you think Wolfe is a wearwolf, check out his story "Innocent."

I liked how ambiguous the setting was. Is it London or New Orleans or New York or Chicago or Seattle? Certainly wasn't LA. How this story and Goodbye to All That both start with the protagonist drinking at a bar is a great mood setting. I assume Lion has the same beginning. Leads perfectly into how dark and macabre the story is. Everything is awful and dirty and gross. I'll check out anything in this world. Next up is The Lion that Stalks by Night.

@G.L. McDorman If you're just writing something like Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, I'm more than down.

I just read Forlesen for the first time, and I'm pretty sure Ligotti read it back in the 70's and based his entire idea of fiction off of it. Interesting how two technical writers are the best at writing horror.

@G.L. McDorman I somehow missed this comment when you wrote it. With how short attention spans are now a days, real quality short fiction will have it's come back. The age of the brick fantasy novel and their unfaithful Netflix adaptions will soon be over. Mr. Budda should post up a sample of his work. Here. Why not! Also on payday I'm buying your Mercy book. I'll post a thorough critique thereafter.

I actually don't know what passive voice is or what a noun is or who might publish my crap. I'll just try to read more.

My wife started reading "My Work is Not Yet Done." She's a book folder so I've been watching her and preparing for the worst.

lol I should probably finish Anathem before I comment or read any comments here. I don't know, I'm a few hundred pages in, and then I heard someone mention this theory, and than on the page I noticed maybe three words that I haven't seen outside of Wolfe. But I don't know.

@G.L. McDorman I also prefer to get liquored up before I have to kill.

When you're done with the entire book, check out the Rereading Wolfe podcast, they put out an insane but probably correct theory about the whole book. I have it on good authority that Glenn and Brandon, and Craig and James, have already decided the location in which they will settle their differences, with violence.

I might have missed something, but I don't see how her concluding thoughts were related to anything before it. A lady is a slave, and her child, which is likely conceived through rape, has a chance to become nobility, and that somehow gives women agency? And the debate over this issue is in between two men? Where does the agency for women come in? Whenever the topic of Islamic slavery comes up, there is a bit too much whataboutism. I've had discussions before about if dying from castration or on the boat over from Africa is worse. It's crazy. Islamic slavery was awful, American slavery was awful, Roman slavery was awful, Russian slavery was awful, Japanese slavery was awful, Viking slavery was awful. Why give a damn what form it takes! Sorry if I'm missing the point of the discussion. While I might disagree with her conclusions, I'll gleefully listen to any episode shes on in the future.

The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories is his best collection. Besides one or two, most of the stories in there are sci fi. And most of them will make you cry.

The joke I was going for is that this would be a story that would win a Hugo. I changed the name to Vernes to show that the name of the president in the story wasn't made up, that this story isn't a parody in whatever universe it was written in. I was greatly inspired by this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4RuB3gT8t0 Sorry that the first story submitted here was just terrible. I'll try again. I did forget to mention that the kid never had a girlfriend, that's an amateur omission on my part.

I'm going through the series for the first time right now. It might just be because I done ain't got none of that book learnens, but I didn't really dig this story. I didn't hate it, I just don't get what the big deal is. Again, maybe it's my lack of book learnens. I didn't think the previous one about cats was too cool, either. I should read your blog before I barge in here with me complaints.

Seriously, you're so obsessed with Belgium, why don't you marry it? This would be like if I went on and on about Oregon. Actually, I really liked the parts of Oregon I've visited.

@brouwpieter Why are you so obsessed with Belgium!

I've thought of your last point a lot and have tried to work in into a story myself. There is a big theme in weird of everything being absurdly grotesque. Lovecraft, CAS, Mieville, Ligotti, etc etc, tend to present the world as fundamentally disgusting. Which it is, of course, from every perspective besides the highest, most symbolic interpenetration. But after awhile that gets to be boring. There is also a real, pronounced terror in everything being great and beautiful, everything simple and ordered and easy. Imagine Holland as one giant Disneyland. Where all choice is stolen from you by life being perfect. It seems like suffering and a lack of suffering is equally miserable to the human animal. Have characters that live under the oppression of knowing right when the bus is going to show up, that no matter what they do none of their mistakes will have any real consequences.

This is my first time reading through, maybe this changes later, but I got the impression from the first comic that it was meant as a way to show what wasn't going to happen later. The first story was a quick way of defeating any treat that occultists might pose. Much like how Stephenson novels begin with characters in the genre of his last novels being killed off.

@G.L. McDorman My daughter tried to put ketchup on mac and cheese last night. I shut that right down!