Orlion Blight

Oh, I did after you mentioned it just to confirm it was the song I thought it was.I also learned it was written and sung by Bob Geldof (I would know him as playing Pink in the movie The Wall). As for what I'm listening to now? A whole lot of Bob Dylan.

Pretty much. The whole Apocalypse Guard/Skyward debacle has kinda messed up the current expected timeline. I am starting to tell myself to not expect anything new Cosmere wise until 2020.

Titus Groan is fantasy, but a different type of fantasy... like Dickensish-farce that takes place mostly in a castle that covers the size of a small town. This is the most stylish of all the ones I mentioned, and I have been known to say that fantasy has yet to reach the heights of Peake's Titus Groan and Gormenghast. (I say this because I stubbornly keep John Crowley out of fantasy). Perdido Street Station is New Weird Fantasy with some definite horror elements. Maybe a little steampunk, too. The style borrows a lot from Peake, but is more readily accessible. It's more likely you can just pick this up and read it than Titus Groan. Little, Big would be classified as fantasy by pretty much everyone but me. I don't want to deal with choosing who I think created the best work in their field: Mervyn Peake or John Crowley. So I say this is magic realism (and some others do, too!) It's a family history that follows a family for a few generations (three? Four?) and the deal with this family and the area they are in is that they have interactions with fairies (though only the women are usually the ones that can actually catch glimpses.) Space Opera is glam-science fiction. It's written in a frenetic style that evokes lots and lots of run-on sentences that are just fantastic. It's also humorous and somewhat cathartic for our times. I would say it's the most accessible out of all that I've mentioned, and there's an audio version of it!

@officiumdefunctorum Though grim, I'm not sure I would consider Malazan grimdark etiher. Maybe the Kharankas Trilogy. Not anything by Esslemont. As @Ammanas, it is definitely used fluidly. I think grimdark tends to be more cynical than other fantasy works. Things do not work out, all is pain and sorrow...it's kinda taking "gritty realism" and using it as an answer to standard fantasy escapism. Bakker is definitely more of a stylistic writer than Erikson, which is probably a major component of what draws me to the work (I like stylish prose). That said, Bakker is nowhere near the best in this regard, probably because like you said, he's committed to his themes. One's prose cannot soar if it is diving into the Pit of Depravity. To give you an idea of what I mean by stylish prose, here are three examples of various ages: Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake, Little, Big by John Crowley, Perdido Street Station by China Mieville and Space Opera by Catherynne M Valente (that last one came out this year and is fantastic! It's sold as Hitchhiker's Guide meets Eurovision, but I loved it even without being familiar with either of those). Some Glenn Cook is good. I've only read the first Black Company trilogy and enjoyed it. Main issue has more to do with the fact that latter writers will always improve on earlier ones (they should, anyway) so I kinda wanted more then what might be considered mostly bare-bones story telling.

I believe that is why I mentioned it as a matter of type rather than scale (Erikson's grimdark trilogy is fairly nihilistic, I say, but Bakker cranks up the nihilism dial and tears it off). Certainly reader's expectations are different. As grim as Book of the Fallen gets, it still has an optimistic tone. Prince of Nothing starts out with "things are meaningless and we are controlled by circumstances, is there a way out of it? " to, if I'm reading the foreshadowing right, "not now, we gotta to set all that aside to deal with just so much... seed...ah, rust, I caused what I was trying to prevent. " With Erikson, there are several cases where redemption is possible. Damnation is not a permanent state, or even necessarily one that most of the characters are actually in. With Bakker, damnation is permanent and irrevocable... and worse, one might simply and unwittingly be manipulated into it by what comes before. That difference alone would account for why people are fine with the gritty Malazan but not the gritty Second Apocalypse (and that's not even getting into the Tuesday night betrayal and rape!)

Esslemont is a strange beast. It's best to view his work as "complimentary" for the most part. Though his new trilogy has been really fun so far. With regards to Those Books, I think it's funny that I still have not read the Aspect Emperor, and suspect the vast majority of issues are in those books (I recently finished Prince of Nothing and think I've noticed aspects of what's to come. "Oh," I says to myself, "that's a pretty strong reason to start out liking the series and then hating it. It's one thing to have an extended study of the depravity and malleability of Man... quite a different matter if the conflict is from the Platonic Form of Obscenity." I wonder if a similar shift in tone (in type, not in scale) is responsible for the poor reception of the Kharankas Trilogy.

Been an awful lot of non-Malazan talk in the Malazan thread lately

Whom, Mestiv! Solidarity with whooooom! And the protest is more against a what then a whom, or a where....perhaps a why. But the protest is/was against and to raise awareness of structural racial injustice inherent in the US Police Force, particularly against the Black population. Colin Kapernick, the football player credited with starting the trend, has said he choose kneeling during the National Anthem after discussing what he wanted to do with some veteran friends. Kneeling during the National Anthem was formulated to protest while also not disrespecting the Armed Forces. Of course, for many Republicans, anything they don't like is disrespecting the Armed Forces/the Flag/Country/Whatever sob story they can concoct.

Protest and solidarity

Ha! I haven't heard that song since around 1996!

It can be frustrating. It's like, for storm's sake, they are adult novels for adults! Your writing is not superior if you choose not to use swears. Here's a short video that talks a bit of why swears can be fine and why we do it (with swears, of course!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfJ_-YdDYSk

Ambiguity Machines and Other Stories by Vandana Singh

@Slowswift is a Beast!

It's a reason why I have convinced myself that it is ok for Brandon to jump around with what he writes. If that allows him to avoid the depression, writer's block, anxiety or ennui that would affect the timely release of Cosmere novels, so be it! I have serious doubts that Rothfuss will finish Door of Stone. Especially since at this point, there is sooo much pressure and expectation built up that he will not meet.

That's your problem. Anything online is going to focus on the etymology of English, where saying something is Latin or Latin rooted is a legitimate explanation of the root. You would need to find some source exploring the etymological roots of Latin, preferably a dictionary of some kind. So your best bet is a college library.

No Small Beer Press?! Bah!

Precisely! If a spoiler ruins a book, that book is not that good. Or, if all you are interested in is what happens and not HOW it happens, the writer (or reader) did not do their job right.

He has no idea about the layers involved in foreign policy and does not have anyone around that does either. Between those comments and the trade wars, he seems determined to destroy the liberal order that helped shape the US into the power it is today. But knowing that requires reading and thinking and where's the glamour in that?

Sanderson does tend to be generic with romances. My favorite is the Steris-Wax one, but Siri-Susebron is undeniably one of his better ones. Maybe he can only write romance if it's between two people that were forced together and yet grew fond of one another?

Sounds fantastic!

Elantris is squandered potential. There could be something exciting there, and that's what I find appealing. The book, by itself, does not mean much right now. Leaving it without a sequel for so long has been a mistake on Brandon's part in my controversial opining. Warbreaker will have that issue as well. It's better than Elantris, but still suffers the same "this is a standalone, but not really" syndrome Brandon has with alot of his books. That's actually a big reason why I think Emperor's Soul is his best work: it's a standalone that actually stands alone!

Touché!

Star Wars as a whole is revered too much. It prevents alot of folks from enjoying it for what it is.

More emotionally rewarding than the end of Paths of Glory directed by Stanley Kubrick?! I am simply scandalized!

First thing's first, I have yet to read it and I feel like I have a reputation to uphold, soooo... To further clarify, the preceding gif is not actual criticism. Having to surround it with these clarifications seems to indicate that it is also a bad idea, but I got another reputation to uphold