Countdown to 2025 - #3 - Best SF & Fantasy books ever (my Top 3)

Countdown + Scifi books + Fantasy books

You may have noticed that a large part of this blog consists of nothing but SciFi and Fantasy book reviews. I'm 58 now, and I've done nothing but reading SF and Fantasy over the last 40 odd years. There has been the occaisional side trip into other genres, but in the end I always return to my roots 😇 So, what are the best books I've ever read?

Farewell Dilbert... Good Riddance Adams

Column

In one fell swoop Scott Adams pretty much killed his primary source of income: Dilbert.

That's... sad. Not because I like Scott Adams. In fact, I never liked him much with his borderline Trump adoration, and the smug way he presents himself as the all-knowing. This time he went one step further and basically dug his own grave by publishing a near racist rant that's simply over the edge. As a result, a 100+ newspapers kicked him and his cartoon out.

Boomers and Zoomers, the Alphabet Mafia, and the Cancel Culture

Column

I'm not a boomer. It's a close call, but a boomer I am not. However I strongly dislike the term. It's not used as a group-name, it's used as an insult. As in, 'Look at that boomer, he's too old to understand.'

Am I? Or is there a somewhat bigger problem? Before you start taking aim and fire away, please understand that this post is not about enforcing my view on the rest of the world, it's actually the opposite. I ask those who ARE enforcing THEIR view to please consider that opinions may differ. So... ready to be insulted? Here we go...

Book And Chapter Sizes... in words

Writing + Reference

The optimal chapter size is driven by your audience and publication platform. The size of the book is just all those chapters together. Too little words and people are going to be unhappy. Too many words and they'll get bored.

This means you either have to adjust your chapter size to the target, re-chapter before publication, or simply don't give a damn 😁

The reader's first impression, or 'what comes before the plot'

Writing

You're an aspiring author. And your work just... sucks. Potential readers run away with polite excuses, and it seems they can't understand your great vision. Fear not! You can get better, or at least better than me 😁

It's not that hard. But before you craft wonderful plots, believable characters, and encompassing worlds, you might want to have a quick peek at the basics, and what kind of first impression your work will leave behind.

Writing is hard

Column + Writing

For the whole of my life, I've been dreaming about becoming a writer. I never thought I would ever write in first-person present tense. But actually, the longest (if not the best) story I've written so far is in first-person present tense. Scary.

Sebastian de Castell - Spellslinger / Shadowblack / Charmcaster / Soulbinder / ...

Book Review

The first book clearly starts out as a YA, but by the end of book 6 we've partially left YA territory. Young (not so magical) boy mage flees his family and wanders the outlands, accompanied by an drawling Argosi, a squirrel cat, and hunted by all.

But boy, are these good! All 6 of 'm.

D&D Forgotten Realms Maps Comparison

RPG

Comparing different versions of a map of a fantasy world?!?

Pretty useless, this, but hey! I always wanted to do this, so when I had a little moment of nothing better to do (actually, lots of other important things to do, but I just wanted to do something useless, for once 😅)...

Dungeons & Dragons - 20 years later... (Dutch)

RPG + 5e in NL + Dutch

Na een jaar of 20 (!) nauwelijks gespeeld te hebben was het afgelopen week zo ver: ik heb (eindelijk) weer een keertje Dungeons & Dragons gespeeld.

Dat was wel even wennen, maar eerlijk gezegd: voor herhaling vatbaar! Volgende week weer!

Top 5 'never give up' inspriational books, movies, songs

Movies + Books + Fantasy

Monika’s Dapper contribution triggered some soul searching, and I discovered I cannot help myself: I’m motivated to a fault... And not always towards the proper goals as my employers can attest 😌

For those moments I'm not motivated I always have some ‘uppers’ at hand… Obviously, they had to be SF / SciFi / Music related… so here is my top 5 (and a bit)... 

Amber DRPG

Column + RPG + Mindmap

I must have been talking about role-playing games, and especially the Amber Diceless RPG, in the past.

For years I planned to go and play again, but I just never got to it. But I'm old and if I don't start playing again, I probably never will…

Why this sudden realization?

Diana Wynne Jones - Archer's Goon / Fire and Hemlock

Book Review

Today, that's Archer's Goon by Diana Wynn Jones.

Somebody once told me it's a parody on Zelazny's Amber series, but I do not entirely agree. Well, there were some similarities, like all those ultra-powerful brothers and sisters quarreling and plotting all the time. There's also the main character who lost his memory, but that is where the similarity ends. And there are enough other things in the book make you smile. Not bad... not bad at all.

Philip Pullman - The golden compass / The subtle knife / The amber spyglass

Movie Review

I'm impressed (and a little disappointed but that might be because I was expecting something else, not because the story was bad). I also would like to mention that I am one of the few people who actually liked the movie?

Zelazny - A Night in the Lonesome October

Book Review + Amber

With Halloween approaching I thought it would be a good moment to re-read A Night in the Lonesome October.

Late Roger Zelazny has always been one of my favorite authors. He's mostly known for the Amber series, but he did write some other great stories as well. For some reason he's not that popular, but most of his books are quite good and have aged fairly well.