aickmanwill.bsky.social
Destiny will call the lightning
Down from heaven, roll its thunder
371 posts
173 followers
123 following
Regular Contributor
Active Commenter
comment in response to
post
Nobody is saying you can't or shouldn't like these books. But attempting to categorize them as avant garde in any way is objectively divorced from reality. A book doesn't have to be everything to all people to have merit.
comment in response to
post
By the time Eye of the World came out the territory you're describing was already so well-worn that people were writing articles about the bootprints. Le Guin's Tehanu--which critiqued that very good-witch/bad-wizard subversion as regressive binaryism in another form--came out the same year.
comment in response to
post
I never see anyone discuss Rats and Gargoyles! A fascinating exercise in fiction that *almost* works--a cathedral built entirely of 91° angles.
Locked Tomb I gave up halfway through book 1. Not for me. The tone was like snorting crushed glass.
Etched City is great. What people wish Mieville was.
comment in response to
post
I just missed out on the Jason miniseries as a kid because my dad rented it thinking it was the Harryhausen one. On realizing his mistake he swore and took it back sight unseen.
comment in response to
post
Because you haven't played Simon the Sorcerer Pinball
comment in response to
post
And Pinball
comment in response to
post
Your whole argument boils down to siamangs being somehow more "authentic" than orangutans. That's literally it. It's like arguing with a craft beer dork every time this comes up--you're just pissed that my project has mass appeal and yours doesn't. Just enjoy being niche, dude. It's not a contest.
comment in response to
post
What piece is this excerpt from? I'd love to read the full thing
comment in response to
post
And now with sudden swift emergence
Come the hooded women, the hump-backed surgeons,
And the Scissor Man
comment in response to
post
My favorite too, no question!
comment in response to
post
I'm torn on reading it at all, since all indications were that she didn't intend for it to be published and mainly wrote it for those very personal reasons, with the estate (cynically in my view) shoving it out after her death as some "Lost Book of Gormenghast." Puts a sour taste in my mouth.
comment in response to
post
"Guynes Alone: A Voice in the Critical Wilderness" The monograph writes itself
comment in response to
post
comment in response to
post
I missed this in the morning and I'm glad, because I'd have gotten nothing done all day knowing I had to wait to read it. Only a couple hours now!
comment in response to
post
"Taffy was a Welshman, and like so many of our visitors from around the world, he had a great time in San Francisco!"
comment in response to
post
Always thought their tourism board could do wonders for Corona Heights with a "Come see the Pale Brown Thing!" ad campaign
comment in response to
post
I'm happy for you but disappointed at the same time because I first read that as "Judge Dredd"
comment in response to
post
Oh yeah, I totally get it! I just mean that it's one of those books where you don't necessarily figure out how you feel about it one way or the other until you've made it a certain amount of the way in.
comment in response to
post
I think that's close to how long it took for things to click for me as well. Up til the late sections it was mostly the strength of the prose that carried me, but there were long stretches where I had no strong urge to pick the book back up. Looking forward to your piece!
comment in response to
post
I definitely played Two of a Kind because it was posted there! Today's biggest adventure developers are overwhelmingly people whose names I learned there and on the AGS forums. What a loss for everyone that so much publicly available history of the genre's progress is just gone now.
comment in response to
post
I think I started reading those forums more than 20 years ago! Was never a prolific poster, but there was so much that happened there over the years to shape the genre's development. Sadly I wouldn't be surprised if everything else from the old days gets axed in the near future as well.
comment in response to
post
It's heartbreaking. It was such a nexus of community effort, this single resource where decades of work and knowledge were available for common use. I don't think the current adventure game world would be what it is if AG hadn't existed.
We're doing our best at AG Hotspot to keep the fire burning.
comment in response to
post
comment in response to
post
I don't know why they didn't just adopt the same tag format on this site! Would've made everything a lot easier for everyone
comment in response to
post
tallstorygames.bsky.social
comment in response to
post
If you ask me the whole thing is sheer beauty
comment in response to
post
Much more than a few of us! There was a mass exodus of the writing staff a few years ago when AG's then-owner fired Jack Allin, the editor who'd been the site's beating heart. Jack and Josh have done a great job building something new at the Hotspot in a pretty short amount of time.
comment in response to
post
The decline started in 2022, when Ivo Teel, the (now-previous) owner, unceremoniously axed Jack Allin, the editor-in-chief for almost 20 years, because he didn't want to pay him anymore. Most of us on the writing staff left after that, and Adventure Game Hotspot was created to fill the void.
comment in response to
post
I've heard that one! It blindsided me
comment in response to
post
I have a story about the Augean stables, but it's pretty dirty
comment in response to
post
Oh come now, he's fine once you manage to pull his teeth out of your shin
comment in response to
post
Well, if it takes shape I certainly look forward to reading it!
comment in response to
post
Seeing somebody else express this independently after this long feels how I imagine it would to glimpse a sail on the horizon after becoming stranded on a coral reef