i DO back you on patreon and I haven't been watching these videos even though I pay for them but now? i absolutely have to

I had a similar experience with scotch. Never really liked it until I tried a 25-year scotch last year and I was like '....oh'

cursed images

same re spotify but i DO have faithful last.fm at my back

I agree but as a friend pointed out to me recently when I was on a similar rant, 'ttrpg player' and 'latest d&d edition player' are basically two entirely different hobbies. Playing the game that the online content machine pushes (and which all your friends play) is a box people don't want to leave.

Yeah he clearly loves big dumb space opera as much as his readers do, which I think really comes through in the books. I have never read a Hamilton book I couldn't devour, but I do think his two standalones are my favorites (Fallen Dragon and Great North Road)

I said Fallen Dragon before I read this post 😅Hamilton definitely is one of the kings of the 'not technically super special but hard to put down'

unfortunately Ringo sucks and most of his other work sucks enormously (although I also have a soft spot for the Prince Roger series he co-wrote with Weber - Weber is much better at characters and this helps a great deal)

my first answer was John Ringo's Posleen series, which I have to admit are in many ways bad but I am not guilty about liking them. They are not good because of their badness, but in spite of it. No other modern author has the overlapping grasp of infantry war and scifi tech.

It is hard to say because it depends what you consider mid but perhaps something like Peter F Hamilton's Fallen Dragon? Nothing about it really stands out from the pack except that I absolutely love it to bits

hot damn. this is a great article

they have to learn somehow

my dude Ingold Inglorion

it was my first response also (having just read two versions of the poem in the last month) - one of the really striking things about the iliad to me is just how much every single person except paris wants paris to just give helen back and say he's a big stupid moron who's very sorry

oh nooooooo

I re-read Killashandra a couple months ago. A very strange book. I had entirely forgotten the whole tropical island aspect lol

here for the The Machine Stops reference