The series was good at the beginning, before it REALLY shifted into sci-fi political intrigue. (I think I just have a thing for entering without any assumptions, so maybe that’s why the first book always hits harder.)

Basically, in the post-mortal future, the most ethical and intelligent people are chosen to be Scythes, whose job is to control the population in an immortal world overseen by a perfect AI. However, being a Scythe means being completely exempt from normal law and the mentioned perfect AI, along with access to anything they want. You can see why this might be an issue. Eventually, some of the newer Scythes turn out to be not-so-ethically-minded, and results in a power-grab and the fight for morality.

Anyways, it seeks to answer what is right and what is not, from a perfect AI bending or breaking its own rules, possibly for personal reasons, but always for the greater good, to a moody vigilante justifying his murders and a back from the dead flat-out crazy Scythe seeking to exterminate as many people as possible, no matter what rules he has to break or who he has to kill.

The theme is present, but the mood is arguable, with a noticeable slow and rapid introductions after the first book; it doesn’t feel like the same world anymore. Perhaps this is intentional, but it feels like the second and third books were made post-haste, shifting from a world just like our own to a mythical futuristic setting.

All in all, 3.5/5, but if I were rating the first book alone, 4/5. The first book stresses the morality of being in charge of controlling population and killing in kindness, in comparison with a person who just doesn’t care, and that makes it worthy of reading. The next two however just don’t have the same feeling, and instead it turns into a race to obtain the secret weapon to stop the bad guy.

I am so tired of fiction. I guess… the experience of novels I don’t like just makes me not want to even touch another book. Yet another investment of so much time and energy, all into something that I might not even like. Ugh.

And yet, who knows? Is that gambling or adventure?

Just finished Foucalt’s Pendulum. That’s some batshit novel writing there. It was a little long, and I was waiting for the end, but when it finished it hit hard in the heart.

Basically, these three editors for a publishing house take a delve into the occult, and slowly lose control over their boundary between theory and reality, even though it’s plain even to them that their madness is their own invention. As they follow the Templars to the Rosicrucians to the Assassins, they collect all of their “connections” called the Plan, all based off of a piece of paper discovered by a natty old colonel, and able to reshape history in its form. However, one of the editors shows off the secret and gets kidnapped by the theoretical secret society, while another contracts cancer, and the last becomes the narrator of the story.

It’s interesting to see how the editors, logical, haughty, and inscrutable become madmen putting together any coincidence they can find, until all they can see is the Plan, even in the most basic machines. In the cancerous editor’s case, he believes that in re-writing history, his body has learned to re-write itself, killing him in the process. The piece of paper is a merchant’s receipt, but in the eyes of believers, it becomes a treasure map. And even though the truth is obvious, the believers must cling to believing; they are addicted to the search. For the frustrated people who search endlessly, if they find something, they were right all along. The search gives meaning to a meaningless life.

The conclusion that the narrator ends with is that the search for the answer is more important than the answer, and if you were to tell the believers, they wouldn’t believe you. So they invent their own searches for an impossible answer, which proves itself. If the answer were found, it wouldn’t be the right answer. Therefore the search must be true.

So don’t go searching for the impossible, when it’s already in front of you. “I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.”

(But isn’t that what a Templar would say?")

Speculative economics is shaped like a boat. It works, until everyone rushes to one side of the boat and it tips over.

Then whoever was waiting for the keel looks like a genius.

Human behaviour.

It’s so awe-inspiring to walk through a maze of words and feel the dedication of so many people who have given pieces of their lives and knowledge away. Lifetimes of words.

The immense beauty of wondrous dreams is captured by boring people. What a perfect form of torture!

Human Fighter (Newest)

Metal Iron Priest (Older)

Unnamed Metal Eldar

I know it isn’t a popular thought, but do people remember what “greenhouse gases” do? A greenhouse traps heat which allows plants to grow, not die. And when there’s too much heat, there are more plants, and what do plants do? Turn CO2 into O2. Earth naturally balances.

I learned once that people had a problem with frogs, so they brought tigers, and all they did was make more problems. If you don’t let a fire burn once in a while, you get forest fires. What I’m saying is, humanity tends to unbalance what was already balanced, by leaning too heavily to the opposite side.

Or maybe I’m just a pyromaniac who doesn’t care about the environment.

It’s a pity our lives are so short; we don’t live long enough to realize human behaviour behaves in cycles. Our perception is faulty, any illusionist knows that. We’re so focused on reaching the horizon we don’t notice that the world is round. The Reign of Terror, the October Revolution… COVID? But this time, it looks like the rich cabal are pulling the strings.

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing me I wasn’t God.

Technology quickens life. Sometimes improved, sometimes endangered, but always quickened. I think we’re reaching the point where technology moves faster than we do.

Then it becomes not whether you can move quick enough, but where you decide to.

I am now an expert on writing small RPGs. That’s how it works, right? You spend some time doing something, and then you decide you’re an expert. And then you learn something new. Anyways, I just wanted to say, and perhaps take a stance, on why rules light rpgs can be as good as, if not better than, more “crunchy” rpgs.

First off: the weight of your book does not determine how good it is. (Although, a heavy book is a good indication. Thank God they printed something NICE!) Just because you have a couple hundred thousand words more doesn’t mean it’s any better. In fact, I prefer shorter entrees, because by God I don’t want to read your massive brick of a manuscript before I can even PLAY your game. Time is worth money, and the more time I spend playing, not reading, the happier I am. Additionally, with a shorter amount of pages to work with, the mechanics must be streamlined to function effectively, and forces writers to focus on the important parts of the game.

However, crunchy games do have their place, and can be useful and effective – appropriately, without the bloat that tends to creep into such works. Also notwithstanding the other possibility of misunderstanding, as with so many rules, it can be easy to misunderstand or forget an important rule or process. But forgetting all that, crunchy games can allow players to craft intricate characters with precision and detail, and can cover many more examples and special cases than a one-page document. A well-made, large-scale game can accurately portray a massive space opera or epic fantasy without losing detail in the same way as smaller documents, and reward players for clever character creation in the way that a short, blunt game never could.

So, it really comes down to what kind of brush you want to use. Smaller games paint in bold strokes, while crunchier games use a smaller, more detailed brush, but both can be masterpieces. I prefer a shorter game, because I can’t keep digesting your massive tomes without issue, but I would be glad to eat my words.

P.S. - I’ve probably forgotten something important. Also, everyone has their own preferences, there is no right or wrong. Ciao!

I feel regret for an era I never entered.

Depression is the zeitgeist, patience my better mentor.

If I said I wasn’t happy I’d be lying,

Because it’s good to be alive,

good to say goodbye,

good to nevermind

the ways that I could die.

Watching the times go by behind glass mime-like,

my silent rhymes grind from a mind on sidelines.

Is it better to be off-kilter or self-centered?

Guess it doesn’t matter, won’t be filtered or self-censored.

Setting up Paypal, and Co.: surprisingly easy. Good things don’t usually come so easy. Stick around and see, I guess.

On the other hand, I am interested in opening an online bookstore soon, so that might be happening. Sorry for keeping y’all in the dark!

It’s been dead awhile, with moving… again. However, your hero returns– with a Buy Me a Coffee account and the ability to Pay What YOU Want! Hooray for slavery to the machine, but all the better if you can help me get off it.

Ciao, Lotus!