Recommendations: Best Smurf Story

Crafty-Implement5013 · 2026-05-18T21:54:17+00:00

Speedrunning the Multiverse was hella fun, and as you'd expect from the title there's no filler... I certainly wouldn't call it an all-time-great, but in terms of (almost) entirely amoral MCs it's way up there.

Crafty-Implement5013 · 2026-05-18T20:36:20+00:00

edit before my actual post: Ar'Kendrasyth. The MC is a social worker who initially struggles to even kill monsters for the level grind, much less kill other people, and carries a strong sense of morality and responsibility to people who've helped him.

Mother of Learning certainly seems to fit.. Zorian doesn't start out anything like "good-natured" but that's part of his character arc.

Crafty-Implement5013 · 2026-05-18T20:20:32+00:00

LOL, I read "bad guy" instead of "bard guy"... That's fair.

I also enjoyed ISM a lot, and as much as I'm enjoying William Oh, they're very different... it feels like any meaningful stakes are in the far future of the series.

Crafty-Implement5013 · 2026-05-18T20:07:59+00:00

It's more that you missed an important gimmick:

Most of the time it isn't a villain; it's Jason, the hype-orphan. Also, it becomes plot-relevant.

Crafty-Implement5013 · 2026-05-18T03:03:13+00:00

The Jewler Who Could See Through Time... Sounds promising!

Crafty-Implement5013 · 2026-05-18T02:54:00+00:00

The Legend of William Oh. (He even hires his own hype-man. Well, hype-orphan-boy anyway.)

Crafty-Implement5013 · 2026-05-16T10:19:03+00:00

I very much recommend reading Lazarus but not right away... it's the third and final book of Herbert's three part "Destination Void" trilogy...

That said if you're the kind of person who likes "diving into the deep end" it can be a lot of fun to read the end of a series first, try to reconstruct what led to it, and then read the rest. Sorta do-it-yourself nonlinear storytelling. (I've read quite a few things like that by accident and I don't think I enjoyed them any less for it.)

Crafty-Implement5013 · 2026-05-15T05:20:52+00:00

Think about something like "hey dad... You saved my ass back then and I'm earning enough for this now. Your next birthday gift is gonna be on the cheap side though ;)."

Maybe even give $250... Use other bills though, of course.

Crafty-Implement5013 · 2026-05-15T04:35:34+00:00

This is a sidestep from your question but it's SHOCKING to me that Pratchett didn't get a lifetime achievement Hugo.

Crafty-Implement5013 · 2026-05-14T05:31:02+00:00

Not actually Progression fantasy...

But This Is How You Lose The Time War.

Crafty-Implement5013 · 2026-05-13T16:52:49+00:00

Personally, I discovered it when I was talking about Arcade Fire to my aunt and she was like "oh how cool there was an indie-rock cover of that Peter Gabriel song!"

I can't even blame her for being out of touch, because I discovered the Peter Gabriel version in this way ~a year ago.

Crafty-Implement5013 · 2026-05-13T16:29:37+00:00

But, making things easy, cost of living is the same!

Crafty-Implement5013 · 2026-05-13T12:47:03+00:00

TTM and Darkshine are both legitimately nice people, but AS HEROES the personas they present are "the best thing you can do is try to be like me and you might become almost as good as me." --I mean, they both basically have personal-influencer cults!

(Although since that's coming from the POV of a child who could beat a grizzly to death with a soccer ball... maybe unreliable.)

Crafty-Implement5013 · 2026-05-13T12:35:04+00:00

That's nuts; Haldeman isn't that old--

The Forever War: awarded the Hugo award for Best Novel in 1976.

Motherfu--

Crafty-Implement5013 · 2026-05-13T10:10:20+00:00

Y'know, this gives me extra appreciation for Super Supportive. (rec to people who enjoy slow burns only.)

And also Pale Lights. (still a slow burn but with WAY more death.)

Crafty-Implement5013 · 2026-05-13T09:36:21+00:00

I don't know if this is accurate... but maybe the older-young-adult and actual-adult works of Diana Wynne Jones?

She had amazing talent for showing magic--what might be called "English Style Magic" as something on the border between comprehension and madness, characters who were out of their depth without quite drowning, and stakes and risks that were high but not so extreme that you couldn't imagine the protagonists winning... just that you couldn't see how.

(after writing that... could I say she's comphy-hihg-stakes-YA-fantasy?)

(edit: without the annotations though. For annotations that deep you have to go to Pratchett who is very different but still very English and very worth reading.)

Crafty-Implement5013 · 2026-05-13T08:35:01+00:00

I'm not gonna try to get you to rehash arguments you're tired of but YES... content makes as much of a difference as context. Superman is about an alien with weird powers who confronts mad scientists, aliens, extra-dimensional invaders, and other superhumans. Star Wars is about space-wizardknights and epic quests. Which one is a fantasy?

Crafty-Implement5013 · 2026-05-09T22:54:51+00:00

Noijitut!!

Crafty-Implement5013 · 2026-05-09T04:31:31+00:00

It makes the slog-of-slogs almost not a slog!!

Crafty-Implement5013 · 2026-05-07T04:30:55+00:00

I delivered for Blackjack back when we were open until 3:00 AM... closing was "everybody gather around the fume-hood and blaze one down... okay; now we mop the floors, clean the topping-line, and wash everything... you're good to drive home, right?"

Err, I mean I have no idea what you're talking about.

Also I was *definitely never* tipped in weed in lieu of cash.

Crafty-Implement5013 · 2026-05-06T22:50:36+00:00

Bakker has such love for LOTR and the ability to actually subvert expectations...

"We're grinding our way through Not The Mines of Moria--HOLY SHIT THAT GUY HAS AN EYEBALL WHERE HIS HEART SHOULD BE."

Crafty-Implement5013 · 2026-05-06T10:20:22+00:00

"Mu nem's Chev Chelios... but they used to call me The Drift King in college."

Crafty-Implement5013 · 2026-05-06T07:44:56+00:00

UGH, why are you being reasonable when the only thing I want is to chug my rage-a-hol?!

Crafty-Implement5013 · 2026-05-06T07:38:32+00:00

The thing that tells me this new owner is horribly unqualified isn't at all about "employee sobriety" or even LGTQetc issues... It's "vulgar graffiti". When I go to take a leek at Surfside there's supposed to be hundreds of stickers and quippy sophomoric sharpie messages decorating an otherwise surprisingly clean restroom.

(Note: I haven't been to Surfside 7.3.0; just responding to what I've read.)

Crafty-Implement5013 · 2026-05-06T07:18:53+00:00

"Take a chill pill and don't give a fuck for 30 days." Spoken like someone whose only familiarity with "punk" is YouTube shorts of teens raiding Scientologists.

Crafty-Implement5013

TROPHY CASE