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Nov. 18th, 2023
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Nov. 18th, 2023 01:33 pmHonestly, “past civilizations were so much greater” is my biggest beef with the fantasy genre. On Earth, “great” societies tend to be soaked in blood.
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Nov. 18th, 2023 05:33 pmSome surprisingly compelling world and character building in the lesbian romance novel How to Get a Girlfriend (When You're a Terrifying Monster). The Endless is pretty clearly patterned after an unknowable Lovecraftian horror, yet its nature and its Sisyphean motives become understandable, and it even has a sort of one-entity ecosystem as parts of it break off and get eaten again.
Edit: I wasn’t initially sold on How to Get a Date With the Evil Queen. How to Get a Girlfriend is something new to the horror genre, but if you did that to fantasy, I figured you’d just end up repeating Dark Lord of Derkholm.
I underestimated the author, though. I thought the question of this series would be why is this genre like this? It ended up being much more focused: what drives this creature to do what it does? The Endless continually loses pieces of itself and has to claim them back, so the only thing it knows how to do with things that aren’t itself is devour them. The Spell is based in loss of others, and the desire to hold time still to not lose anyone else.
There are beings in other stories that function equivalently to the Spell, e.g. the Tradition in Tales of The Five Hundred Kingdoms, but they’re infantile at best and non-sapient at worst. The Spell is the first time I’ve seen one used as an actual character.
Edit: I wasn’t initially sold on How to Get a Date With the Evil Queen. How to Get a Girlfriend is something new to the horror genre, but if you did that to fantasy, I figured you’d just end up repeating Dark Lord of Derkholm.
I underestimated the author, though. I thought the question of this series would be why is this genre like this? It ended up being much more focused: what drives this creature to do what it does? The Endless continually loses pieces of itself and has to claim them back, so the only thing it knows how to do with things that aren’t itself is devour them. The Spell is based in loss of others, and the desire to hold time still to not lose anyone else.
There are beings in other stories that function equivalently to the Spell, e.g. the Tradition in Tales of The Five Hundred Kingdoms, but they’re infantile at best and non-sapient at worst. The Spell is the first time I’ve seen one used as an actual character.