I was born in 1984, and for most of my life, stories with black and white morality—in other words, stories about the struggle between good and evil, with good guys who are good and bad buys who are bad—have been considered unfashionable and out of style. This is especially true of fantasy, where grimdark has… Continue reading In Defense of Black & White Morality
Tag: good and evil
The Grand Conspiracy, Part 1: Malice or Incompetence?
Remember the time before the pandemic, when “conspiracy theory” was still a dirty word? It still is in some quarters, but for many of us the term is now closer to “spoiler warning.” After all, what are we supposed to believe: that Epstein hung himself with a bedsheet that couldn’t hold his weight, from a… Continue reading The Grand Conspiracy, Part 1: Malice or Incompetence?
2019-09-19 Newsletter Author’s Note
This author’s note originally appeared in the September 19th edition of my author newsletter. To subscribe to my newsletter, click here. It’s September, which means (among other things) that it’s time to revisit my business plan and update it for the next year. Every January 1st, I print out a new and revised copy of… Continue reading 2019-09-19 Newsletter Author’s Note
Will A Song of Ice and Fire stand the test of time?
A while ago, I wrote a blog post titled Why I don’t like George R.R. Martin, in which I laid out some of the issues I had with the Song of Ice and Fire series, and why I decided not to read past the first book. That post has been getting a lot of traffic… Continue reading Will A Song of Ice and Fire stand the test of time?
Extra Sci-Fi S3E4: The Return of the King
Okay, I think the folks at Extra Credits got it wrong with this one in a really big way. Gollum didn’t redeem himself. That’s the entire point. Redemption is an important and very Christian theme of Lord of the Rings, but so is the problem of evil. Several comments on the video point this out:… Continue reading Extra Sci-Fi S3E4: The Return of the King
Would you kill baby Hitler?
So the March for Life happened recently, and Ben Shapiro did a live show where he used a thought experiment about going back in a time machine to kill baby Hitler to make a pro-life argument. His argument was that you shouldn’t kill baby Hitler; instead, you should raise baby Hitler in a more loving… Continue reading Would you kill baby Hitler?
Son of the Black Sword by Larry Correia
This was a damn good book. One of the best epic fantasy books I’ve read. I started listening to it on the Baen Free Radio Hour, where it’s currently being serialized, and decided to pick up a copy. It did not disappoint. This book reminds me of Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn, in the sense that it… Continue reading Son of the Black Sword by Larry Correia
Trope Tuesday: Knight in Sour Armor
What happens when the knight in shining armor realizes that war is hell and he lives in a crapsack world? When everything he believes about morality and honor is shattered? Does he suffer a heroic BSOD and become a shell shocked veteran? Does he cross the moral event horizon and become the one who hunts… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: Knight in Sour Armor
Playing with Tropes: Pragmatic Villainy
So as part of my effort to blog more often, I’ve decided to bring back the trope posts. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, perhaps you remember the Trope Tuesday series that I used to do. Those were mostly just a rehashing of each trope’s tvtropes page, with a bit of commentary at… Continue reading Playing with Tropes: Pragmatic Villainy
Trope Tuesday: Eagle Squadron
You’ve got your standard mercenaries: hired guns who fight for money. Then you’ve got your fighting for a homeland types: mercenaries (usually) who used to have a cause to fight for, but now all they’ve got is each other, and maybe the hope that someday they’ll find a new homeland to replace the one they’ve… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: Eagle Squadron