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Then without taking counsel or waiting for the approach of the men of the City, he spurred headlong back to the front of the great host, and blew a horn, and cried aloud for the onset. Over the field rang his clear voice calling: ‘Death! Ride, ride to ruin and the world’s ending!’

And with that the host began to move. But the Rohirrim sang no more. Death they cried with one voice loud and terrible, and gathering speed like a great tide their battle swept about their fallen king and passed, roaring away southwards.

Artist's artstation: https://www.artstation.com/yalun

Source: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/LRyQx0

Source: https://twitter.com/patrick_ganas/status/1658837269170606084?t=hXRKZTiInnU8vbZn-8snYg

From the book Language of the Night:

Critics have been hard on Tolkien for his "simplisticness," his division of the inhabitants of Middle Earth into the good people and the evil people. And indeed he does this, and his good people tend to be entirely good, though with endearing frailties, while his Orcs and other villains are altogether nasty. But all this is a judgment by daylight ethics, by conventional standards of virtue and vice. When you look at the story as a psychic journey, you see something quite different, and very strange. You see then a group of bright figures, each one with its black shadow. Against the Elves, the Orcs. Against Aragorn, the Black Rider. Against Gandalf, Saruman. And above all, against Frodo, Gollum. Against him--and with him.

It is truly complex, because both the figures are clearly doubled. Sam is, in part, Frodo's shadow, his "inferior" part. Gollum is two people, too, in a more direct, schizophrenic sense; he's always talking to himself, Slinker talking to Stinker, Sam calls it. Sam understands Gollum very well, though he won't admit it and won't accept Gollum as Frodo does, letting Gollum be their guide, trusting him. Frodo and Gollum are not only both hobbits; they are the same person--and Frodo knows it. Frodo and Sam are the bright side, Smeagol-Gollum the shadow side. In the end Sam and Smeagol, the lesser figures, drop away, and all that is left is Frodo and Gollum, at the end of the long quest. And it is Frodo the good who fails, who at the last moment claims the Ring of Power for himself; and it is Gollum the evil who achieves the quest, destroying the Ring, and himself with it. The Ring, the archetype of the Integrative Function, the creative-destructive, returns to the volcano, the eternal source of creation and destruction, the primal fire. When you look at it that way, can you call it a simple story? I suppose so. Oedipus Rex is a fairly simple story, too. But it is not simplistic. It is the kind of story that can be told only by one who has turned and faced his shadow and looked into the dark.

What's everyone's favorite standalone fantasy novels? No sequels, no trilogies, just a rare gem in the fantasy landscape.

To start things off, I would say that one of my favorites is "Talion: Revenant" by Michael Stackpole. Really intriguing world and a good storyline, primarily character driven I would say.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/14974738

Anybody who uses the Internet should read E.M. Forster's The Machine Stops. It is a chilling, short story masterpiece about the role of technology in our lives. Written in 1909, it's as relevant today as the day it was published. Forster has several prescient notions including instant messages (email!) and cinematophoes (machines that project visual images).

-Paul Rajlich

Seen on this comment.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/3210298

When Terry Pratchett died in 2015, we thought we’d never again get another story from the Discworld creator. But there were secrets to be unearthed.

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin currently has the rating of 4.44 on Goodreads. The following books are standalones or first books in a series, as it would be unfair to compare it to the last book in a series, for example the fantastic ending to The Faithful and the Fallen series, Wrath, by John Gwynne, which has a Goodreads rating of 4.51.

Unsurprisingly, Brandon Sanderson features three times on this list! I can’t say I agree with any of these titles being “better”, but the all-knowing Goodreads reviewers might just have some interesting recommendations for A Song of Ice and Fire fans.

Some context from Bruce Sterling on the post.

These are the original ten commandments:

1. The criminal must be mentioned in the early part of the story, but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to follow.

2. All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.

3. Not more than one secret room or passage is allowable.

4. No hitherto undiscovered poisons may be used, nor any appliance which will need a long scientific explanation at the end.

5. No Chinaman must figure in the story.

6. No accident must ever help the detective, nor must he ever have an unaccountable intuition which proves to be right.

7. The detective himself must not commit the crime.

8. The detective is bound to declare any clues upon which he may happen to light.

9. The stupid friend of the detective, the Watson, must not conceal from the reader any thoughts which pass through his mind; his intelligence must be slightly, but very slightly, below that of the average reader.

10. Twin brothers, and doubles generally, must not appear unless we have been duly prepared for them.

!fiction@literature.cafe

Basically, the title. Feel free to have a look and join!

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/4813494

Great deal for a highly rated DRM-free collection of fantasy books

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/4711771

At least some of the signs were desgined by Anders Sandberg:

• Warning Signs for Tomorrow

I found the image on Bruce Sterling's Tumblr.

The source is from u/FuckMyHeart's (reddit user) comment, which has a bit more info:

• FuckMyHeart comments on Fringe Science Warning Signs

From the same comment and user:

• zip file containing each symbol as its own indexed png with transparency

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/3764849

First published in Nature magazine, November 1999.

AD 2380: After a painstaking ten-year search, from the Tibetan highlands to the Brazilian rainforests, it’s official — there are no more human beings.

(...)

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Via Ran Prieur - August 9

What have you been reading?

Interestingly, the author of this piece completely fails to mention The Amazing Maurice.

Possibly because this article is completely based on another article from 2021, which is before Maurice came out.