The Marquis de Leech

Moorcock's actually the author by whom I have read the most individual books (some fifty-six). When he's on form, he's very good - I love Stormbringer. When he's bad, he's very bad - the less said about The Revenge of the Rose, the better. The sad thing is that, as time has gone on, he has increasingly felt the need to hit the reader over the head with his messages. His objections to Tolkien in Epic Pooh might be summarised as "Tolkien has political opinions I disagree with. Therefore, he's bad" - in short, not worth bothering with. Also, if Tolkien's plot holes are an issue, one can get very... thorough... with critiquing Moorcock. But plot holes honestly don't matter to writing, except as insofar the reader notices them. I suspect Moorcock (never one for consistency) would agree. Anyone calling Moorcock the Father of Dark Fantasy clearly doesn't know their genre history very well. Clark Ashton Smith, anyone? Moorcock's biggest contribution was being a forerunner of deconstructionist fantasy (not of Tolkien, but of Robert E. Howard), and introducing various tropes. Soul-drinking swords, for instance. Oh, and the conscious Jungian and Freudian symbolism.

Short story out today: The Last Libation This one was actually written last year, but given the current goings-on in the USA, the timing is awkward.

Interesting that they are critical of Jasper Fforde. To be honest, I've never found his lead character over-sexualised. If the Thursday Next books have a flaw it's that they lack structure, and often degenerate into vehicles for clever jokes, a la a more literary Douglas Adams.

I wouldn't normally share a rejection notice, but this one actually made me smile. For context, it's a magazine's rejection of my genderflipped 1930s Chicago Bluebeard-retelling: It's Bluebeard, mate.

I've had a short story acceptance for a 2000-word insanity-and-Dionysus piece, The Last Libation.

My writing is less energetic than my reading, unfortunately. I am half-way through a sword and sorcery piece, though now that I have put Old Phuul on a solid footing, I need to get back to that.

Just checked... they have now.

Bugger... they seem to have uploaded the non-revised version for some reason.

My sword and sorcery piece, A Breath Through Silver, now revised and reprinted in Bewildering Stories: http://www.bewilderingstories.com/issue849/breath_silver1.html

My hard sci-fi effort, Pink Unicorns Solvable in O(2) Time, will feature as part of a locally-produced anthology of Dunedin speculative fiction, Beyond the City Limits.

I haven't read River of Stars, but it's obviously set in the same world as Under Heaven (a one moon place, rather than the two-moon one).

Back in 2015, I actually acted in a stage production of one of Handke's plays ('Offending the Audience'). I thought the name looked familiar, but was not aware of his political views until now. Rather gives a new meaning to the play's title...

My short story, A Christmas in Bohemia is now out, as part of the Fall/Winter 2019 edition of Infernal Ink Magazine. There comes a time in every author's life when he must look himself in the mirror and remind himself that he has published necrophiliac Christmas porn.

Of all the issues I can think of with Tigana, they're not in the first twenty pages.

Fionavar ain't standard Kay in terms of what came later, but it is certainly an adult work.

Considering that I've read the majority of Kay's output (minus the last three novels and the poetry book), I always thought it rather odd that I had never previously found a book of his I'd enjoyed without reservations. Under Heaven is the first.

I've read Lord of Emperors and Under Heaven so far this month. The prose of the latter is gorgeous, and part of me could not help but grin at certain events - which in another book would be covered in intricate detail - being treated almost as an after-thought.

Agreed. The books are, at heart, the Locke and Jean Show. Anyone else is fair game, but those two? Killing either kills the story.

Lynch deserves special credit here for the fact that he's produced the work in the teeth of depression. I will be certainly buying it when it comes out. I hated Republic of Thieves. So many opportunities for real political shenanigans, gone to waste...

Elizabeth I wasn't the problem, at least until Mary Queen of Scots was out the way. A better example is Henry I. As one historian puts it, "waiting for Henry I to die must have been like waiting for the Bomb."

Sweetrobin is arguably the most eligible bachelor in the realm.

I just remembered. Sweetrobin is still ruling the Vale.

Noblesse oblige ain't modern, and traditional aristocrats have always understood what happens if the poor are treated too badly. I would agree though that tyranny towards nobility in Westeros is treated rather differently from tyranny towards the peasantry. Aerys Targaryen is still remembered fondly by the smallfolk, because his shenanigans never reached them.

Georgians have a distinct fondness for Stalin, of course.

There is, actually. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11665655/Waterloo-200-Its-Britain-not-France-that-has-a-Napoleon-complex.html