D&D General No One Reads Conan Now -- So What Are They Reading?

[Bedrockgames]

Video games are big there, I think. Women are into them too, but not quite as much so. Socially it still seems more acceptable for dudes to be super into that and spend a ton of time on them. Although some women definitely do as well.

I don't know about it being socially more acceptable. I know plenty of women who play video games (whether it is console or games on the phone). I think there is actually a lot more social pressure on guys to be productive and earn for a household (and playing video games too much is seen as counter to that). That is changing but if you are guy I do think that expectation is still there. I think it is much more common for guys who play too many video games to be called losers for example, than for women to be called that for the same thing

 

[nyvinter]

I really liked Katherine Kerr's original Deryni books. Very grounded in medieval historicism, as that was her area of scholarship before becoming an author. Her fantasy take on a quasi-Welsh kingdom has a realistically powerful Catholic church, for example, and chapter headings usually include an applicable verse from the Bible. The first five or six Kelson books I really enjoyed and consider worth revisiting.

Katherine Kurtz you mean. Kerr is the Deverry books and they're two different persons.

My personal favourite is Patricia A. McKillip. Amazing language and even in her LotR-inspired The Riddlemaster of Hed trilogy it's a very different mood and themes compared to most — still. And she expects you to stick around and have patience with the story, she will not explain things right away.

 

[The Firebird]

Well, one of the appeals of the first book is the ambivalence about whether Paul is a heroic figure. In large part his moral virtue rests on his desire to refuse the messiah title and the power which derives from manipulation of a people through cynical myth-making. But when he eventually decides to embrace that, he's functionally rejecting his moral high ground. Of course, the books after the first one are less ambiguous.

Yeah, I agree. The reason Paul is interesting as a character, and the reading of him as purely a cautionary tale doesn't land, is because he isn't just cynically manipulating a prophecy. He actually has the goods. He does have the power to see the future, and to shape it, and to do that in a way that delivers on the Fremen's goals. He's caught up in the flow of history more than directing it; he simultaneously is the most impactful figure in world history and has no agency.

 

[Dioltach]

Speaking of women authors...

Also Elizabeth H. Boyer, although her books are almost impossible to get hold of now. In the 1980s she wrote a series of fantasy books called "The Isle of Skarpsey" or "The World of the Alfar" that take place essentially in Iron Age Iceland, with a parallel world of elves.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I think there is actually a lot more social pressure on guys to be productive and earn for a household

This has always been the case. It doesn’t explain the change.

I would suggest that the expectation of a having a “household”, i.e. a nuclear family, has fallen drastically, leaving youngsters with nothing to do apart from play video games.

 

[Mannahnin]

Not just nods, head bangs. Paks is straight up a paladin, there's a druid, and no doubt I've forgotten a lot. (Been thirty years.)

Oh yes. Master Oakhallow rules. Plus clerics (the Marshals of Gird, mostly). Plus some seriously evil dark elves later in the series worshipping a spider goddess. Plus the town of Brewersbridge is basically a re-skinned Hommlet, an an adventure she gets involved in there is very similar to the moathouse from T1.

Kurtz. Kit Kerr writes a different set of books, and I think they're grrrrreat.

Katherine Kurtz you mean. Kerr is the Deverry books and they're two different persons.

Thanks! Yes, brain cramp.

I don't know about it being socially more acceptable. I know plenty of women who play video games (whether it is console or games on the phone). I think there is actually a lot more social pressure on guys to be productive and earn for a household (and playing video games too much is seen as counter to that). That is changing but if you are guy I do think that expectation is still there. I think it is much more common for guys who play too many video games to be called losers for example, than for women to be called that for the same thing

Dudes do get called out on it if they overdo it and neglect other parts of their life, sure. And some people condemn almost any hobby activity as childish. That's always been a thing.

 

[Mannahnin]

Yeah, I agree. The reason Paul is interesting as a character, and the reading of him as purely a cautionary tale doesn't land, is because he isn't just cynically manipulating a prophecy. He actually has the goods. He does have the power to see the future, and to shape it, and to do that in a way that delivers on the Fremen's goals. He's caught up in the flow of history more than directing it; he simultaneously is the most impactful figure in world history and has no agency.

Yes, but "delivering on the Fremen's goals", apart from the terraforming of Arrakis to turn it into a livable place, is here very much a case of "be careful what you wish for". A life of war (galaxy-spanning genocide) as the god emperor's devoted servants isn't the one I'd want for my kids.

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

My personal favourite is Patricia A. McKillip. Amazing language and even in her LotR-inspired The Riddlemaster of Hed trilogy

I could be wrong, but I think it's more like both Tolkien and McKillip were inspired by the same Norse legends. (Certainly Riddlemaster doesn't read a bit like Lord.)

 

[Scribe]

This has always been the case. It doesn’t explain the change.

I would suggest that the expectation of a having a “household”, i.e. a nuclear family, has fallen drastically, leaving youngsters with nothing to do apart from play video games.

Now theres a topic that could absolutely go off the rails.

For my part, I read, mostly thanks to Dragonlance, and so my son read because I shared my love of Fantasy books with him as a kid.

He went through a gamer phase, as we all do, but is now doing a lot more reading again.

As usual, I think its down to parents being allowed and willing to parent, and keeping ruinous influences at a minimum (good luck these days).

 

[nyvinter]

I could be wrong, but I think it's more like both Tolkien and McKillip were inspired by the same Norse legends. (Certainly Riddlemaster doesn't read a bit like Lord.)

She was very explicit that it inspired her to write it, but also she wasn't going to do a carbon copy because that would not have been her.