gunkreads

[gunkreads]

Slowly working through Gideon the Ninth, and once I finish this book and get my thoughts together, it’s so over for y’all

#gtn is a Very Particular Style of book

[gunkreads]

Personally, I interpreted it as pretty much limitless power that's functionally not very influential because Rand doesn't want to use it that way.

I don't believe there's much of a limit to what he can do, and I think the reason that works out is that he's been so completely destroyed by power that he's no longer capable of using it for anything but small, isolated acts. He COULD prevent someone's death--hell, I wouldn't balk too hard at saying he could resurrect people--but he might not even think to do it.

Really, I think the questions of "what can he do" and "what would he do" are inextricable here. I assume he basically retains some or all of his ability to grab threads of the Pattern from the Last Battle, but the whole POINT of the that fight was his revelation about how important free will is. I'd say he's technically able to warp reality on a scale far beyond the maximum potential of channelling, but pretty literally can't do it because the process of earning that power made him fundamentally unable to use it.

Okay giant spoilers for the ending of Wheel of Time

So like- what do you guys think the limit of Rand’s new ability is? He can’t channel anymore but in its place is like- some strange ability to warp the pattern. We see that he can will his pipe lit but what wise do you think he can do? Do you think he can manipulate minor things like his pipe, something that doesn’t have a large effect on the pattern as a whole or do you think he can do major things like will a person to die. Now this isn’t a discussion of whether or not he’d actually do something like that just a theoretical discussion on what exactly the ability he received was and what it can do.

#wheel of time #rand al'thor #wheel of time spoilers

[gunkreads]

someone should tell the Wheel of Time guy that it's called a "clock"

[gunkreads]

ok but do the wind and weather patterns in wheel of time bother anyone else or is it just because i’m a meteorologist

i read about the heat wave and i think “hot damn that must’ve been one hell of a ridge”

yeah ok it’s because i’m a meteorologist

anyway i’m using my silly degree to write fanfiction

#*chanting* fantasy meteorology. fantasy meteorology #wheel of time

[gunkreads]

I love you “unlikeable” female characters I love you rude girls I love you mean women I love you girl interpretations of the “Asshole with a Heart of Gold” trope I love you women who get labeled Cold and Unfeeling I love you girls who lash out I love you women who lie I love you female characters who make people mad just by existing

#begging people on my hands and knees to read Baru Cormorant #<- EVERYONE READ MASQUERADEEEEEEE

[gunkreads]

Both of those are really awesome and i'm having trouble deciding which one is funnier

the problem with reading baru cormorant is that many other things are not as good as baru cormorant

[gunkreads]

imagine being the most devout little freak nun in the world and you have to watch God have a threesome with two of your mean coworkers at the dinner table. that happened to my friend harrow nonagesimus

[gunkreads]

#moiraine/bayle #<-words from a guy who's straight up lying #but wouldnt it be funny

[gunkreads]

ok im really curious do you guys have books you consider your "white whale"? as in books you keep telling yourself oh yeah i really want to read that, but you keep not reading it?

#unfortunately this book for me is Moby Dick #also Hyperion

[gunkreads]

I'm not sure either but Mat seems to have this effect on older women where they look at him and go "somebody wife this guy STAT"

Mother Guenna is the resident shipper on deck, but I can’t tell if she’s pulling for Mat/Elayne or Mat/Egwene

#wheel of time #mat cauthon

[gunkreads]

I really love the scene in TDR where Perrin works with the blacksmith in Tear. I love that he immediately starts making something to compliment what the blacksmith is working on, and that he offers to do whatever is needed, just for the joy of creation. The whole scene is so cozy, a reprieve to heal from the chaos before jumping right back in.

#HEY I SEE IT #i love this scene too #nothing to add #wheel of time #perrin aybara

[gunkreads]

oh, shit, just checked my watch and it's time to read one of my favorite WoT fics again!

I'm a few weeks past the curve, but learning the Dónal Finn got cast in a West End production of Hadestown got me thinking a lot about a Mat/Tuon retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice. So, uhhh, here's that!

Thank you as always to @highladyluck for being my MatGPT and for betaing. Someday I'll learn to spell ashandarei, promise <3

#wheel of time #wot fic

[gunkreads]

My hobbies include reading, writing and doing neither of those things

[gunkreads]

so we go arm in arm into the dismal halls of our own minds to try to do it our fucking selves

the problem with reading baru cormorant is that many other things are not as good as baru cormorant

[gunkreads]

I had some time to kill at the library the other day and sat down for about 60 pages of The Shadow of What was Lost by James Islington. I've been eyeing it for a year or two because of its rad title and cover. I got about 30 pages in before I kinda looked up at the ceiling and went "Hmm. This is just Sword of Shannara again."

I think it's a lot better than that, but it feels structurally pretty similar. I think the thing that failed to hook me on it was the odd drop in stakes and scale between the prologue and the first chapter. Usually, with big fantasy stories that start in media res of some epic confrontation, you drop back down to the most normal shit in the world, but this book's first few chapters are so all over the place in terms of stakes that I couldn't even pin down what I should be worried about. After that, kicking off the adventure with a slightly worldly buddy and a fully ignorant protagonist was... well, I hate to act like unoriginality ruins a story, but the novelty and good execution that DO exist in the beginning only barely outweighed the derivativeness.

I think I dropped it off when the guys get kidnapped from the inn, and while that was really where I was hoping Islington would throw his big curveball, I had stuff to do and needed to leave the book. I might revisit it someday, but I'd be very curious to hear what fans of this series have to say about what makes it good. Execution of well-known tropes? Novel ideas? Compelling character arcs? I didn't sit with it long enough to see, but those all seemed possible.

#the shadow of what was lost #the licanius trilogy

[gunkreads]

#youre pumping industrial quantities of frog-gaying chemicals #not literally of course i kow you'd never willingly alter an ecosystem like that #but i believe your tuonposting has effects roughly analogous to frog-gaying

[gunkreads]

This may have happened and I just didn't notice or see it, but I really wish there'd been a point in Cyberpunk 2077 when Johnny was going nuts about Arasaka and you had a dialogue option to say "Y'know, maybe, like, Militech is behind this one?"

#cyberpunk 2077