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actual message sent by me to my partner right now after reading chapter 50 of Harrow the Ninth

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i really want to like Terry Pratchett's books

I've heard so many people speak so positively about Discworld over the years, and about Pratchett in general. Everything I know about him makes him seem great and I love a lot of the ideas in his books, but I'm still waiting for the penny to drop on actually liking the books.

so far I've read Good Omens, Mort, and I'm now about 130 pages into Small Gods.

I think I find it very difficult to get into the books because they feel jarring and stop/start with the quickly changing between scenes and perspectives. Going from one short scene to another, or in some cases just having one really short section that lasts less than a page or two seems to stop the momentum for me. The omniscient narration then also probably contributes to this since when I'm reading a longer section in one setting, I'm still not as in a character's perspective as I would be in a first person or even third person limited narration. It's one of those things that I don't think is inherently a negative, but isn't really working for me? There are so many things about the tone of his books that I find really unique and irreverent and fun and funny, but which are more enjoyable in the small moments than in the overall. And I imagine that this exact feature is something that other people enjoy! But I just think it might continue to limit how much I can enjoy his books.

I'm still enjoying Small Gods so far, and I'll keep reading, but with Pratchett being so well-loved, if I don't like his writing, I want to know for myself why and I think I'm honing in on it. Obviously I don't need to enjoy any author just because they're popular, but there seems to be so much pointing towards me enjoying him outside of the actual novels themselves.

Would love to know what any Pratchett fans think of the books I've mentioned!! And if they're not for me, do you think I'm maybe just not into Pratchett's writing? I've tried to give him a good shot with multiple different books. Also I've been interested in maybe any of the adaptations of his work since my issue is more with the specific formatting of his books.

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The reason I’m so glad they had Rand refuse to leave Rhuidean without Moiraine and also then have him carry her out in his arms is because it truly cements how important they are to each other even when they’d rather the other was not.

To Moiraine - Rand represents her mission, her duty, the color of her Ajah, the burden on her back. She forgets the man (the boy) he is and simultaneously fears the man he is. Because until she met him, all he was to her was a plan, a path forward, the reason she gave up everything that could have made her happy and instead dedicated herself to Saving The World. But now he lives and breathes in front of her and she is at a loss. Rand is a person, with thoughts and feelings and free will, and he comes with all the naivety and wisdom being a person comes with. She does not know what to do with him. She does not know how to handle him. She fumbles. She’s too hard on him. Too soft. Too mysterious. To forthcoming. So Rand does not trust her, even when she finally tries letting him set the pace. The damage is done.

To Rand - Moiraine is the cause of his world ending. She is the reason he will never marry Egwene and have children. She is why Mat is forever cursed, why Perrin is forever another, why Nynaeve and Egwene are now the women they once were told were the women of nightmares. She is why he ever questioned his father, his birthright. And then he is told that he is no longer himself and does not belong to himself, but is instead a tool to save or break the world. There is no one who can guide him or teach him or help him with the burden of his power. He is the most powerful being in the world and the most powerless. He is alone. He is responsible for all. So of course he balks, of course he pushes back, of course he cannot implicitly or blindly follow Moiraine. She expects everything of him, says she knows the way things must be, but he is the one who has to walk the path.

And yet…

They need each other. They do understand each other in a way no one else ever can. Not Lan. Not Egwene. Not Lanfear. They share the burden of turning The Wheel. Their hands are on the spokes and they are pushing and pulling, trying to set out on course. The storm rages, the shadow rises, the dawn comes, and they must go on. That is all there is to it.

So Rand will not leave without Moiraine; and Moiraine will not leave Rand to his own.

They are threads woven together that may split and fray but they will never break from one another.

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I can't get over how every Becky Chambers book is some flavor of "strangers not understanding each other but making an effort to be kind to each other anyway", it's so beautiful and it's making me cry :((( there's hope in the universe 🥲

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I made a video of the DEFINITIVE reading order which is SERIOUS, there are NO JOKES HERE nuh-uh, this is a very serious topic

*edit: for clarification reasons, this is a joke. It's for fun. For giggles. To make my friends have a nice little laugh. And to get more ideas for incredibly incorrect reading order suggestions. Like Aelia saying just read New Spring. Inspired.

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THE IS WHEEL WEAVING

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THE WHEEL OF TIME SEASON TWO | Official Behind the Scenes Look

the royal emo besties are back and better than ever

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Casually asks ‘who domesticated grain in your fantasy world?’ but while ripping her shirt off with a WWE stage and a roaring crowd just behind and slightly to the left. 

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#Nynaeve being Nynaeve | Requested by Anon

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telling everyone who will listen to go read Fonda Lee's Green Bone Saga.

here's Kaul Hilo <3

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Wheel of Time book 3. Or, as I like to call it: Mattrim Cauthon's Funky Fresh Crime Spree

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I’ve seen the Ursula K LeGuin quote about capitalism going around, but to really appreciate it you have to know the context.

The year is 2014. She has been given a lifetime achievement award from the National Book Awards. Neil Gaiman puts it on her neck in front of a crowd of booksellers who bankrolled the event, and it’s time to make a standard “thank you for this award, insert story here, something about diversity, blah blah blah” speech. She starts off doing just that, thanking her friends and fellow authors. All is well.

Then this old lady from Oregon looks her audience of executives dead in the eye, and says “Developing written material to suit sales strategies in order to maximize corporate profit and advertising revenue is not the same thing as responsible book publishing or authorship.”

She rails against the reduction of her art to a commodity produced only for profit. She denounces publishers who overcharge libraries for their products and censor writers in favor of something “more profitable”. She specifically denounces Amazon and its business practices, knowing full well that her audience is filled with Amazon employees. And to cap it off, she warns them: “We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words.”

Ursula K LeGuin got up in front of an audience of some of the most powerful people in publishing, was expected to give a trite and politically safe argument about literature, and instead told them directly “Your empire will fall. And I will help it along.”

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Hey do like pop music, sci-fi books, or video essays? Okay, what about Irish accents and funky haircuts?

Well if you hate all of them will you at least check this out so my mom will finally think I'm cool? Okay thank you.

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i just finished the song of achilles and I’m sure that this is a lot of people’s reaction, but please refrain from speaking to me until I am okay again (maybe will never happen)

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Rand, Mat, and Perrin: How They Deal With Things

Rand: I don’t like this but sometimes life is just the way it is. We can only accept things and move on.

Continues to angst and obsess over said thing with disturbing intensity for seven books.

Mat: I hate this thing so I will avoid it at all costs. 

Heads directly for the thing, puts it in his pocket and carries it around for the rest of the story. Will deny if confronted.

Perrin: I do not like this thing. I have decided that I will not think about it.

Successfully never thinks about the thing ever again even though he probably should.

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Mosscap to celebrate A Psalm for the Wild-Built winning a hugo :)

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Kaul Shaelinsan, the Weather Man of No Peak <3

loved these books so much fonda lee is insane