There was a Thor comic where the young Thor meets a shield maiden who is as crazy as he is. She fights, drinks, and parties as hard as he does. They are happy together for many years, and then Loki comes along and asks Thor to go on a brief adventure. Thor and Loki go off for a few weeks and then return. But sly Loki knew that the realm they had gone to ran on a different time, and years had passed. Thor’s love had died alone, waiting for him to return.
Reminds me of William Adams the first english Samurai. He had a wife and two kids at home in England, but got stranded in Japan in the 1600s after a shipwreck. He was not allowed to leave the country for a whole decade, but gained employment and trust from the emporer as an advisor. He did send money and letters home to his family using East India merchants, but they never saw him again and his wife died in the same year as he did, thousands of miles apart
Neat! That sounded very similar to the character John Blackthorne from James Clavell’s novel Shogun, and turns out that’s who the character is based on.
The Voices from the Past youtube channel does a good job reading excerpts from his diary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keGQPzOd7lA
Ursula le’guinn wrote a novel with this premise!
Semley’s Necklace. A lovely entry in a lovely collection.
One of my favorite things about the Wind’s Twelve Quarters are her notes on gender and pronouns regarding the Left Hand of Darkness and Winter’s King. The way she has to invent words to describe what’s commonplace to us now is fascinating.
It’s similar to this old Macintosh demo I fall asleep to sometimes. Words that are so normal now are foreign and need explaining. I love a good time capsule.
Ursula is okay, but here are a couple of broads who knock her for a loop.
Joanna Russ was one of the first ‘out’ science fiction writers. If you want an adventure, try ‘Picnic On Paradise.’ Or get deeper with ‘The Female Man’
https://bookshop.org/beta-search?keywords=joanna+russ
Suzy Mckee Charnas. ‘Walk To the End of the World’ is ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ raised to an infinite power. After the War, the elites were locked in fallout shelters. Eventually the males decided that it was all the women’s fault. Now centuries later, all the women are slaves.
https://bookshop.org/beta-search?keywords=suzy+mckee+charnas
what a weird way to respond
No I mean about this premise. It was a fairytale where all the magic was just relativity and the protagonist was too much of a dumbfuck aristocrat to understand when anyone tried to explain.
No love for Nancy Kress?
Had to look her up. I think I might have started one of her books and noped out. I’ll check my library.
But now I’ll throw you two more.
Robyn Bennis.
https://bookshop.org/p/books/by-fire-above-robyn-bennis/82ed3b400af9da8e
Airships fighting in the Napoleonic Era. The only fantasy element is that they have access to helium. She does a magnificent job engineering her armada.
Tanith Lee.
https://bookshop.org/beta-search?keywords=tanith+lee
She basically invented weird fantasy. Neil Gaiman stole all his best stuff from her.
I think I might have started one of her books and noped out. I’ll check my library.
Beggars in Spain was my first intro to her, and Ej-Es (free to read link) sticks out in my mind.
She explores ethics/politics in sci-fi along with female sexuality, though more old school. People have said she’s got Ayn Rand vibes, but she’s not, some of her characters take on those characteristics so that she can tear them down later.
Also: Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice series is amazing. Gender/politics/individualism/collectivism all mixed together into a plot at breakneck speed where the characters are described more by what they say and do, than how many limbs and genitals they have
I got Nancy Kress confused with Ann Leckie. I started Ancillary Justice and wasn’t impressed.
Looks like we don’t overlap much, but that’s cool.
Enjoy your holidays
Oh shame. I knew it took me ~10 pages to get into the flow of her writing, and I struggled up til then at which her style suddenly ‘clicked’ for me and I was hooked
In terms of interest overlap: tentatively ask, thoughts on Andy Weir?
The Female Man is hella transphobic.
The Female Man was written in 1975.
Sorry that a book written fifty years ago isn’t up to date in its approach.
Why should the date matter?
Have you ever had a conversation with anybody over fifty years old?
Do you think that you’ll feel exactly the same about everything you believe fifty years from now?
Just Loki being a hilarious prankster, ruining two people’s love for shits and gigges.
TIL I’m a dwarf
You’d probably like Vintage Story. So much time sculpting blocks.
I mean, I don’t carve but I make things and get completely absorbed and lose track of time, then gain track back, ignore it and keep working
Nobody ever accused Legolas and Gimli of being straight.
I mean, I might.
In the books, they talk a great deal about their favorite elf women.
None of it would be out of place for a gay couple with some bi tendencies - but it is enough that I wouldn’t assume either is exclusively gay.
I remember Gimli talking about Galadriel, but who did Legolas talk about?
If I recall correctly, they argue about whether Galadriel or Arwen is the more beautiful (more or less around the time of Strider’s wedding).
Ah, that was Gimli and Eomer. (Just read it a few weeks ago!)
His legless LEGO lass
They spend TT planning their honeymoon, and then spend so long on it that it asks until after Aragorn and the hobbits’ kids die of old age
Being a dwarf sounds alot like my ADHD
“My blade was forged by drwarven smiths with autism, so you know it’s good”
“With all the enchantments known to man”
Except dwarves and elves hate each other in almost every lore
wow itd be like romeo and juliet
Only an abomination like Ragmar the Beardless could
So like a regular married couple?
Sometimes I wonder if boomers know divorce is legal in most of the world.
I got a dog for my husband.
It was a fair trade.
Dwarf gonna carve the sides, not the strikeface which will get damaged and does it’s job better when flat.
You are using subpar metals, brother. And the intricacy of their carvings will be delicate, nearly flat, so as not to disrupt functionality.
They said “a single” face so probably not the strikeface.
the strikeface which will get damaged
That’s advanced dwarven smithing.
Etch your logo into the strikeface so customers leave your stamp on their foes like it’s a calling card.
Today I realized that elves and dwarves represent different locations of the neurodivergent spectrum.
I’d be fine with the dwarf disappearing for 36 hours and forgetting I exist.
Anyone who has not seen the Fantasy High episode where they just dunk on elves the whole session owes it to themselves to watch it
Ahh… this brings us to the nature of the hair she shared…
checks out.
