Zora Longshoreman

vast majority of pregnancy medication is off label - Trump’s totally incompetent medical
”leadership“ has zero understanding of healthcare

This is my first S&S bluesky review and good practice for me to get my thoughts out. I plan to write more as I read more stories this year. Please comment on any interesting depictions of settler colonialism you have seen in the genre or what you thought about "Sometimes Lofty Towers"

This noblewoman, Lady Sil, doesn't really have a chance once it's established that the Indigenous warriors are just all around better fighters. To me, this deflated much of the story's military tension and misses a lot of the dread that emerges from colonial violence against tribal lands

But there is a reason settler colonialism wasn't possible until the 1400-1700s. Medieval kingdoms did not have the bureaucratic capacity to enact this kind of systemic violence. (Check out la paperson's "A Third University is Possible" if you want some introductory theory to settler colonialism)

The main villain of this story is a mid-tier noblewoman who hires a bunch of mercenaries to steal tribal land by force

I will say however, the weaknesses of this novel are its poor understanding of settler colonialism's political economy

The struggle for a free, decolonized Palestine mirrors the struggle of North American Indigenous tribes resisting European settlers that David C. Smith cites as inspiration for the Kirangee warriors

My prediction: stories of reclaiming space and history against settlers will keep appearing in S&S given the current geopolitics and Trump's support of settler-Zionism. Right now, the American military is the main villain to global peace and it works by destroying people's relationship to their land

This allows Smith to layer themes of retreading space: the Indigenous magic system works by awaking dead warriors from old battlefields, the characters discuss and repeat old military tactics, and the protagonists are forced to reflect on their lives by returning to a land of old memories

The protagonist, Hanlin, first fought on the side of the settler colonists trying to rid the frontier of a "savage" tribe. But the book opens with his return to the land to protect it from the newest wave of settlers in order to payback a personal vendetta

"Sometimes Lofty Towers" takes this idea into overdrive. What if a mercenary has literally done this adventure before but fought for the opposing side?

Even a more linear adventure story like “Tower of the Elephant” involves retreading space by careful use of myth and legend. As multiple characters talk about the tower & its threats the reader feels like they have been there several times from several points of view even if Conan only gets one pass

My favorite Conan story is Iron Shadows in the Moon. Conan and Olivia are stuck in an island with threats of pirate gangs, a monstrous ape, and unexplained shadowy statues. As they seek safety the tension between the threats creates multiple pressure points that squeeze the characters

In my opinion, the pleasures of S&S is the retreading of space. This is how authors achieve psychologic depth in what otherwise appears to be paper-thin adventurers

Such thinking collapses genre into tropes

People think “oh, I need to have an evil Stygian temple“ and the characters pass through these set pieces to experience plot

Much of my dissatisfaction with contemporary sword and sorcery is the feeling that we are on the rails of a dungeons and dragons quest

As I dive into fourth wave S&S, the key theoretical conflict in these narratives are whether they draw on “literature of place” or “setting in game design“

The novel opens with three epigraphs, one by Euripides, Shakespeare, and William Butler Yates. To me this immediately shows Smith grasps the progenitors of sword and sorcery much in the way early Weird and pre-Tolkien fantasy writers had deep roots in genre precursors

Alright my sword and sorcery fans, here’s my review and critique of "Sometime Lofty Towers" by David C. Smith, recently republished by Brackenbury books:

The game covers of Pikmin, animal crossing, Tetris, halo 2, Balatro, Faster than light, Zelda Windwaker, Rome 2 total war, and zoo tycoon 2

My 9 games

Nyarlathotep bringing mRNA vaccines to the gibbering masses so the followers of darkness can stay safe from respiratory infection outbreaks

It’s wild to have a faux centrist warn you not to believe the polarized news then learn they just don’t read any news and believe Biden opened the borders for four years

We all know what it means for something to be divine providence but what does "Divine Pawtucket" look like?

@deselinord.bsky.social

@prolixpost.bsky.social your fave sheboygan freak

See also 1987’s alien cop procedural, The Hidden

@meptrsn.bsky.social people lining up for the Thon…

Really loving the recent song “come out ye cowards ICE,” but I think the chorus line “tell your wife how you’ve been working for the fascists” should be replaced with “tell your wife how you take orders from the Epstein class”

This is hella alpha error