https://www.ign.com/articles/brandon-sanderson-exclusive-interview-mistborn-movie-wheel-of-time

IGN: As an author, do you have any sympathies with George R. R. Martin potentially not being able to finish Game of Thrones — especially since George has described his mental health issues recently?

.

Sanderson: Absolutely. I implore people, in this discussion, to remember the person.

George R. R. Martin is one of the greats of our genre, and in my every interaction with him, he’s treated me with kindness – even when I was a nobody. He truly is the great patriarch of the fantasy genre, and has done a great deal of work fostering new talent, helping the community, and offering advice and support when needed.

At the same time, writing can be a lonely profession, and we all know the difficulty of a book that just WILL NOT work. I’ve been fortunate that books like that have always been side projects for me, ones I can abandon without it causing too many ripples in my career. …

I’ve read that GRRM haven’t seen a horse in person when writing his series, and tried very hard to circumvent writing about them (okay, this is apparently a fake meme stemming a satirical article about it).

Occasionally I stumble upon the signs that an author does not go outside, but still tries to write it, and it shows. In a recent novel (no names) three teenagers have a task to survive in a forest with minimal tools provided. They are mildly superpowered, but not superhuman, just somewhat fit teens. They manage to hunt an adult male boar with wooden sticks and some kung fu (!), then they eat the meat which they just roast, no other preparation involved, not a mention about the toughness and smell of it. Then they proceed to hunt female boars with juveniles, which they judge more docile (OMG!) and they manage to trap them in pits (that reminds me of an old book that had this as a comedic trope, where a bunch of engineers who knew nothing of wildlife attempt it and of …

I’m looking for the most badass “warrior” in fantasy. Basically someone who constantly rises to the occasion, kick some ass, hand out some epic moments, and maybe even inspire others to do the same.

Whether he/she is a knight, a soldier, a duelist, or just someone who likes to fight, who comes to mind?

I think someone like Darrow from Red Rosing is the epitome of who I’m looking for. Let me know!

Hi r/fantasy,

Eleven years ago I was fortunate enough to land a publisher for my debut novel, The Library at Mount Char. A couple of weeks ago I followed up with an unrelated novel, Blacktail.Blacktail is an episodic quest novel, written entirely from the perspective of animals.

When Blacktail, the last wolf of the north woods, suffers a series of tragedies at the hands of men he decides “enough is enough” and decides to take revenge.

On the advice of the house cat sorceress known as Old Kitty Mother, Blacktail sets out to the south in hopes of waking the Forest God. Surely that one can end the tyranny of men?

Wackiness, as they say, ensues.

I live in the Atlanta, GA suburbs with my wife and first reader, Heather. Until fairly recently we shared the house with seven dogs. Observing the dogs colored the writing of Blacktail pretty significantly, and a few of their stories ended up in the manuscript.

I’m happy to answer questions about Blacktail, Mount Char, …

I love interesting, unique settings in my fantasy and now I’m specifically curious about some of the more memorable cities.

Which ones stand out when you think about it? What made them memorable or interesting? Was it a cool location? Did it have some type of specific theme/tone? Was there magic?

I’m watching Arcane rn and I love the combination of magic, the vertical levels of the city, and just the overall aesthetic. Any cities that have a similar vibe?

Let me know that you think, thanks!

I have been sitting here for a week trying to recover from the ending of The Wheel of Time, and I finally think I have gathered myself enough to talk about it. I want to preface this by saying that normally I like to share reviews for one single book, and I have done that for The Wheel of Time in the past, but over the time it took me to finish this series I got too far ahead of myself. I kept extensive notes for individual reviews, but I felt that this would be an easier way to offer an assessment of the series as a whole. One day I will probably go back and reread everything and share my thoughts from a fresher experience, but for now I am just going to talk about the series overall. With that being said, I will not share any major spoilers. It is almost impossible to talk about a series this large without acknowledging a few minor ones, so please keep that in mind going in. As I have done with my other reviews, I will provide a TLDR summary for you guys at the end, along with …

>Naomi Klein’s new book starts on a mountaintop with two “faithful men gathering an audience to share their vision”. It’s a vision of a paradise city, gated at every entrance, no need for weapons there, everyone in it rich. One of the men has tears in his eyes as he describes its beauty. The opening scene of End Times Fascism, co-written with Astra Taylor, is not a metaphor, however. The men are Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff. The year is 2026, the mountain is Davos. The paradise city will be called New Gaza.

Having a hard time with identifying with a lot of female characters I come across because so many of them share this trope of independent women. They are either tough fatherfuckers, emotionally cold or generally simply masculine.

I am in need of soft, kind, warm, friendly female characters. That does NOT exclude high intelligence, strategic thinking and does NOT include being passive and a pushover.

I’d be really grateful for some good recommendations, I’m starving over here.

Here’s one example I really liked: Cheng Xin from Three Body Problem.

The Rouse by China Mieville came out yesterday, and from reviews it looks like it could be impressive for even for him.

And it’s 1260 pages… ugh. I guess this is an ereader only book.

Lightspeed has struggled with keeping the lights on after Amazon ended their magazine subscription system. They are doing a Kickstarter:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lightspeedmagazine/help-fund-lightspeed-year-17-and-nightmare-year-15

I’ve written before about some of the quality pieces in Lightspeed. It’s been around for some time now and was the place where authors I now think of as Old Guard like N K Jemisin and Ken Liu got early attention. Consensus around these parts was that 2025 was a weak year for the magazine, but I think 2026 has been pretty good, including a new collaborative project with Dartmouth University that’s led to a solid piece by Hugo Winner Max Gladstone and this Justin C Key piece that’s a nice mind-bending unreliable narrator work.

The options on the Kickstarter seem limited, especially compared to the Locus Kickstarter that happened a few months ago. I’m wary that this one might not pass. I really hope so and not lose …

Going down a rabbit hole about the history of SF, I started reading about authors’ responses to the Vietnam War. I didn’t know that the pro- and anti-war camps declared themselves in facing paid advertisements in the 1968 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction.

Images of the ads can be seen here, though the names are easier to read transcribed at this website, which also has links to articles contextualizing and analyzing this split.

All of my favorite authors–Dick, LeGuin, Delany–are on the anti-war side, along with non-favorites that I enjoy like Asimov, Bradbury, Ellison, and Russ [edit to add Roddenberry].

On the pro-war side, no surprise to find Heinlein and John Campbell (influential editor of Astounding Science Fiction), but some other notable names are Vance, Niven, and Poul Anderson.

From the author that brought the absolute mind@#%& of a story, Blindsight, and its equally dizzying Echopraxia, comes a new anthology of dystopian science-fiction short stories. Fold Catastrophes will take every “what if?” of your sci-fi nightmares and stretch it to its gritty, dark, very logical, and scarily… possible edge!

Like many that are eyeing Fold Catasrophes, my exposure to the maniacal genius of Peter Watts was when I dove face first into Blindsight. A nigh horrific leap into discussions about consciousness and the grim price of survival, Blindsight challenged every mental fiber of my young mind, as Watts bent my psyche into the darker side of sci-fi/space operas. Did I mention Blindsight has an eerie psychic vampire? Because, why not, right? While I enjoyed what Blindsight represented, my younger brain could not fully appreciate its value. After reading Fold Catastrophes as a more mature reader, not only do I appreciate the concepts explored in Blindsight more, but also …

Hola reddit, I’m Diego Luna. You may know me from films/tv like Andor, Y tu mamá también, Narcos: Mexico, Rogue One, The Terminal, Friday, Open Range, Milk, etc.

I’ve recently directed, co-written, and co-star in ASHES, which premiered at Cannes earlier this year and is now playing at TIFF.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtL1x2ECJ6M

Synopsis: Lucila, 21, moves to Spain with her brother to reunite with their mother who left 8 years ago. Facing discrimination and family duties, she struggles to find independence while dealing with her past wounds.

TIFF Screening Info: https://tiff.net/films/ashes

AMA! I’ll be back later today, Monday ⁹⁄₁₄, to answer questions.