What are you reading in 2026?

Paul Farquhar · 2026-03-10T11:06:01+0000

Parmandur said:
Because everyone else in the world is also, in the end, like a gaggle of chickens running around with their heads cut off.

I thought it was supposed to be fantasy?

Parmandur · 2026-03-10T11:12:32+0000

Paul Farquhar said:
I thought it was supposed to be fantasy?

Jordan took his fantasy pretty seriously as a method to convey his experience of the world: he was a military veteran, who then went to University before becoming a government employee as a scientist, and a religious Anglican and a Freemason.

His experience of institutions is very much reflected in the venial insanity of every single institution in these books.

The Aes Sedai in the first two books versus subsequent books are very much his read of "what the world thinks Freemason are like" versus "this is what the Freemason are like".

TwoSix · 2026-03-10T14:03:28+0000

Retros_x said:
But it didn't felt like an intented theme, it felt more like an inconsistency to how they are portrayed in the first two books. I can't imagine how they build the influence they are supposed to have when they act like in book 3.

Institutions corrupt over time.

Parmandur · 2026-03-10T16:33:24+0000

TwoSix said:
Institutions corrupt over time.

In the second set of books, when the Dragon begins his public reign, they found new institutions that get corrupted pretty much immediately.

Reynard · 2026-03-10T17:41:41+0000

I picked up but haven't started yet If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies.

No reason. Certainly not any current events...

Parmandur · 2026-03-10T19:13:34+0000

Reynard said:
I picked up but haven't started yet If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies.

No reason. Certainly not any current events...

To be even more blunt, I would recommend Robert O. Paxton's "The Anatomy of Fascism" as an informative and explanatory read.

Ralif Redhammer · 2026-03-10T19:56:07+0000

Reynard said:
I picked up but haven't started yet If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies.

No reason. Certainly not any current events...

Me too! I just heard about it listening to the Dystopia Now podcast... which I've been listening to for no particular reason, not at all.

Eyes of Nine · 2026-03-11T01:34:27+0000

Library wants Stone & Sky back, most recent book in Rivers of London series that they have (maybe most recent, period).

I've decided to risk library fines and the squinting scorn of the librarian to keep it through to the weekend and read it.