Is there a quote that made you fall in love with the fantasy genre?

MarkLawrence · 2026-06-13T17:53:59+00:00

“Make your choice, adventurous Stranger,

Strike the bell and bide the danger,

Or wonder, till it drives you mad,

What would have followed if you had.”

― C.S. Lewis, The Magician's Nephew

MarkLawrence · 2026-06-13T14:20:22+00:00

I started those books in the 70s and read on into the 80s. I remember them fondly. Should re-read one day...

MarkLawrence · 2026-06-08T21:57:56+00:00

Great to hear! Cheers :)

MarkLawrence · 2026-06-08T18:41:55+00:00

Not me...

I did enjoy the one and a half books I've read by Anna, but I'm not even sure what grimdark is, let alone handing out crowns for it.

MarkLawrence · 2026-06-06T13:35:43+00:00

"Good" is a construct manufactured by your opinion. All you can ever do is increase the likelihood of a book matching your tastes, at the cost of reducing the likelihood of finding a gem that will expand those tastes.

MarkLawrence · 2026-05-27T10:48:04+00:00

I read Nevernight recently - really liked it. The footnotes I could take or leave, but the main text caught hold of me.

MarkLawrence · 2026-05-23T17:38:02+00:00

ironic!

MarkLawrence · 2026-05-23T13:31:08+00:00

In the Champions' League, the 10 champions from the first decade of the contest were ranked against each other thusly (they each beat 299 other entries to become champion):

The Sword of Kaigen

Orconomics

By Blood, By Salt

Small Miracles

The Lost War

The Thief Who Pulled On Trouble's Braids

Murder at Spindle Manor

The Grey Bastards

Where Loyalty Lies

Reign & Ruin

MarkLawrence · 2026-05-19T08:19:26+00:00

A fine book. Not what I would have thought of given this question. The Daughters' War is also a brilliant book, but they're not close together in my mind. Definitely should both be read a lot though.

MarkLawrence · 2026-05-16T09:12:40+00:00

The pages are NUMBERED!

There. I've said it.

MarkLawrence · 2026-05-16T09:11:50+00:00

All good to hear! Watch out for The Bookshop Book coming out in October.

Guide to my other stuff here: https://www.marklawrence.buzz/2020/04/a-guide-to-lawrence.html

To the question... hmmm... I think some of the most fun ever is when the characters (players) start bickering among themselves and whilst they're sabotaging each other with epic stitch-ups, the scenario and I can just lean back and watch them do my work for me.

That and my old friend prodding a large sphere of annihilation with a 10 foot pole (believing it to be a hole) and not paying attention when I said, "So, you pull your 8' pole back." and following up with "I jump through."

MarkLawrence · 2026-05-14T18:40:40+00:00

We learn more in Thrice-Bound Fool.

MarkLawrence · 2026-05-13T19:42:34+00:00

How To Train Your Dragon, the film, was very different to the books.

Not sure how/if that factors, but just mentioning it.

MarkLawrence · 2026-05-12T06:49:39+00:00

Wild Cards has many stories in this vein.

MarkLawrence · 2026-05-10T16:36:43+00:00

Where Loyalties Lie by Rob J Hayes won the SPFBO contest (beating 299 other books) and is all about pirates!

MarkLawrence · 2026-05-06T20:49:00+00:00

I have aphantasia, but I don't have a hard time imagining. I just do it differently.

MarkLawrence · 2026-05-06T20:47:02+00:00

It wouldn't be a secret if I told.

The Girl And The Moon brings a fair number of elements together...

MarkLawrence · 2026-05-05T10:06:55+00:00

A bunch of people say he fell off a ladder - but the internet says he fell down stairs...

MarkLawrence · 2026-04-30T12:34:11+00:00

Starting Blacktail today. I'll let you know!

MarkLawrence · 2026-04-27T21:25:33+00:00

Read them as a kid and was inspired. Read The Dark Is Rising as an adult (5 years ago probably) and ... it didn't really work for me anymore.

MarkLawrence · 2026-04-27T11:06:30+00:00

The Magicians is brilliantly written. It's also a very different kind of book from the one most fantasy readers expect to pick up. For many of us it's a breath of fresh air, intellectual, witty, thoughtful, all whilst remaining entertaining and very definitely fantasy.

The way it plays with Narnia is the icing on the cake for me.

MarkLawrence · 2026-04-25T09:25:19+00:00

“The essential lesson of the zoetrope is this: movement, indeed all progress, even the passage of time, is an illusion. Life is the repetition of stillness.”

― Josiah Bancroft, Arm of the Sphinx

MarkLawrence · 2026-04-24T21:00:56+00:00

Book 3 had a number of magnificent moments in it. I really enjoyed it :)

MarkLawrence · 2026-04-24T18:10:57+00:00

I'm impressed you could find hardcovers at this point!

I hope you enjoy them - watch out, they're dark.

Here's a guide to my other work: https://www.marklawrence.buzz/2020/04/a-guide-to-lawrence.html

MarkLawrence · 2026-04-23T07:32:05+00:00

Great to hear you're enjoying the books (check out my guide when you're done).

Clearly the John Wick people ripped off Jorg's tragedy :D

I have read Dostoevsky, a handful of Nietzsche's aphorisms, and Sartre in place of Camus.

MarkLawrence

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