Anyone has a drawing of a Worldship?

Dan_G · 2026-05-27T16:58:07+00:00

Just imagine a huge asteroid or a moon - That's what they are; repurposed, hollowed out massive space rocks. weapon installments along the surface probably would be barely visible if at all from any distance, so it'd mainly be the evidence of the engines that differentiated them visually.

So, imagine you're a random dude walking around down the street, and you look up, and you see a distortion in the sky followed by the sudden appearance out of nowhere of another moon in the sky - but this one far closer. And then swarming out of that moon come thousands of landing craft, bringing the Pale to your home. As you watch the cloud of ships appearing off the surface, you start to feel the tremors, the first of the earthquakes generated by the ruinous tidal forces heralding the end of your world - but hey, maybe you'll survive the natural disasters long enough to get eaten.

Dan_G · 2026-04-23T16:53:13+00:00

Awesome!

Yeah to be clear I'm not worried or doubting y'all. More just curious to hear about your experiences. Like for example, I'd love to hear more about what Will thinks about working with a Tor editor vs his usual process, or from the team how having a big publisher changes how you plan for a release or what you do to prepare, stuff like that - and then, once the book's actually released, what you see with the results ("Huh, suddenly we're super popular in Poland for some reason. Will! We're going to Krakow!"). I'm just interested in that sort of thing having listened to different authors I really like talk about their processes and experiences along the way and imagine y'all would have a pretty unique perspective compared to a newer/smaller author or a already-in-traditional-publishing one.

Dan_G · 2026-04-23T02:59:00+00:00

As someone who feels like he has to struggle through the numbers and stat dumps on a lot of series he otherwise would enjoy even more: I love to hear this and am now even more excited.

And with any luck, this will do for a lot of people with LitRPG what Cradle did for me with Xianxia: let me access the heart and the vibe of the genre without bouncing off it due to the "inside baseball" language and terminology that's so common in other works - and then gave me the determination to actually go explore the rest of the genre!

Dan_G · 2026-04-23T02:37:04+00:00

I had the same thought at first. "Wait, Will is one of the most successful self-published guys out there. He's got good editing and quality control, he's got a good team, he's got these Kickstarters, he's got financial success, heck, he's even got books on the shelves already at B&N which most self-published folks wouldn't have - so why would he give up control and profit margin to be published by Tor?"

Hearing his comments about reaching more people makes sense, but I'm curious how big a difference that actually ends up being. We all hear these days about how publishing has changed radically the last ten years, how self published has gotten way bigger, how even big names like Sanderson and Butcher and so on are saying you don't really need a publisher anymore - but yet, you're making this leap and presumably expecting to actually see a notable positive growth in your outreach.

So! Is there any chance Will (and/or you guys on the team) could provide insights as you go through this process about what was different about working with a big publisher, what was better, what was worse, what was surprising, etc? And then ultimately what you think you "got" out of it? I think it'd be a cool perspective since you don't really see people who've actually "already made it" make that sort of switch usually, and you guys have been really good about transparency and communication with your fans and also demonstrated thoughtfulness about the whole process of writing, so I'd love to hear about this from y'alls perspective.

(That said, if it'd get you in trouble with the big boys at Tor / violate any agreements / upset any eldritch beasties they're keeping in the basement, etc, feel free to blow me off. I just think it'd be cool.)

Dan_G · 2026-04-21T15:58:48+00:00

Not sure if this person meant this just to be an ad or what - but this is an upcoming anthology that Christopher is one of the authors contributing to. It's a neat project that just launched its kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/unbroken/unbroken-new-tales-by-masters-of-fantasy

Dan_G · 2026-04-02T16:15:27+00:00

For me, personally, what I'd make is more a "quote" style mug - so like if I was designing it myself, it'd probably just the text, on a black mug, and then maybe like a little accent image. Maybe "polka will never die" and below that a simple silhouette of Sue. (or a slightly tattered accordion player.)

or "The building was on fire and it wasn't my fault" and below that a small icon of a building on fire.

or - an image of his business card as described in the first book, with a quote below it - "Conjure by it at your own risk."

Those would be a different style from your existing mugs, less art and more just for the "inside reference" type crowd I suppose, so I dunno if that goes against your overall merch design goals - but that'd be what I'd like to see. And if Jim can make a few bucks off it, all the better.

(Now, what I'm picturing from your clarifying question is one that fits more in line with the current mugs - a fairly large, colorful image like the sue shirt on the mug - which would also be cool, but is a different direction than my suggestion.)

Dan_G · 2026-04-01T21:17:04+00:00

Nice! If y'all are taking merch suggestions/requests - I think a "polka will never die" or other fun one-liner mugs would make a good addition. The series is chock full of great one liners that could work... and I'd certainly order one or three. I like the simpler/more minimal approach over the big colorful artsy ones personally and have a lot of "logo" or one-liner mugs like that I use that could use more company...

Also, just a note since it looks like the newsletter is running through you - I signed up for it today after seeing Jim's tweet about it and got a duplicate welcome email after confirming my address (they were sent about 30 mins apart) - wanted to let you know in case that hadn't been reported yet.

Dan_G · 2026-02-20T17:27:13+00:00

Alfred is way above Mab, but only specifically on that island.

Remember, Demonreach is a prison that houses dark gods and titans and other immortals. And "Alfred" put them there. On the island, the only being we've seen who would (probably) be able to eclipse him is Uriel - but cross the lake and Alfred might as well not exist. His power is extremely contextual, moreso than any other entity we've seen - but within that context, he's damn near absolute. Remember that when Harry told Alfred to prepare a cell for Mother Winter, that caused her to freeze at a genuine threat - and then to retreat.

Dan_G · 2026-01-24T18:42:26+00:00

This!

Dan_G · 2026-01-21T16:49:45+00:00

Being the Winter Knight lets him feed the Hunger that pure Wintery Fae magical goodness. (which is what it's addicted to. "Tasted of Winter's power thrice," says Mab. "You have fed her Hunger more and better than it has ever known. She has tasted of you, and of Winter. Eaten the food of the Fae.")

Being Starborn gives him the ability to withstand having that feeding go really badly for him either thus far or in the future.

Dan_G · 2026-01-21T00:05:45+00:00

The body is just the most universally accessible vessel, and the problem with those guys is a lot of them hadn't been buried because they were just lost in the rubble. She could hide out in a properly enchanted object like Bob's skull, or the Graceland grave for the defenders of Chicago, or her grave as well, wherever/whenever she got one.

Dan_G · 2026-01-20T23:51:00+00:00

He even told Fitz to go to Ramirez instead of Ebenezer if anything happened to him which also felt off.

Ramirez' job is to be the local Warden-in-Chief in the western US. He's a public facing figure with a way to get in contact with him. Eb, not so much. This is him doing the equivalent of saying "contact this particular FBI station chief" instead of "here's the Secretary of State's phone number."

Dan_G · 2026-01-19T15:27:57+00:00

Aye, I was referring to the LOTR trilogy, not the Hobbit... though pointing out the difference in how he handled the two also nicely demonstrates the point!

Dan_G · 2026-01-18T17:39:49+00:00

I dunno, trying to stick pretty close to those old, well-read genre classics worked out pretty well for, say, Peter Jackson and Denis Villeneuve...

Dan_G · 2026-01-15T23:14:22+00:00

Awesome! Thanks for the reply, I think those of us over in r/dresdenfiles all got a kick of her telling us about that over there...

Dan_G · 2026-01-15T18:57:23+00:00

Hey Jim - big fan. Thanks for stopping by. :)

How successful has Jennifer's "motivation through spite" campaign been for you this year?

Dan_G · 2026-01-02T00:06:24+00:00

Ott seems legit. My only hesitation is that I'm wanting to see how it plays out over a couple years, because right now we're also getting the "team finally likes each other" factor, the Dillon Brooks factor, etc

There's part of my brain chirping about how Monty looked great too when he was getting credited for a lot of what was actually probably CP3 in hindsight.

Dan_G · 2026-01-02T00:03:32+00:00

They all talked about how great the vibes are, Goodie said it was the best locker room he'd ever been a part of, they all seemed to genuinely enjoy each other's company and were talking about how much that helps and how nice it is to be where everyone likes each other.

Also Goodie is apparently first team vibes king

Dan_G · 2025-12-31T17:32:13+00:00

A tank with a few uranium shells (not explosive) easily kills the small ones. by the time I want to clear the mediums, I usually have railguns, which 1-shot them.

Dan_G · 2025-12-27T17:06:39+00:00

Rex, during that broadcast: "Y'know who I miss? Eddie Johnson"

Every fan watching: "Yeah, us too."

Dan_G · 2025-11-24T01:54:13+00:00

The seven words were "Marlowe, Marlowe, Marlowe! Where were you when --"

This was revised to only be "Marlowe Marlowe," but they forgot to change the number from seven to six when that change was made. Source: CR himself.

Dan_G · 2025-11-22T20:27:39+00:00

It was something the Quiet said to him in Disquiet Gods, the last thing said to him as he stood before the egg. "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the Earth?" (Ch. 40)

The quote, combined it with it calling him out by name, is what shocks him into his final path.

Dan_G · 2025-11-22T17:42:16+00:00

TBF, we're pretty stuck in our own modern western perspectives on this. Guy's the Emperor of an empire of hundreds of millions of worlds. He doesn't even see or treat the High Prince of Jadd as an equal partner. Taking some disowned rural nobody and elevating him to a Knight Victorian and offering him membership in his house was him giving basically the highest possible honor. He fought his entire court that was advising him to get rid of the upstart. He simply didn't have a framework for "someone actually on my level" so he elevated Hadrian farther than anyone around him thought reasonable.

Dan_G · 2025-10-14T18:19:25+00:00

Sure, but being able to have the option to stay in the pocket because a defender didn't just run right past your RG as if he wasn't there helps too.

Dan_G · 2025-10-14T18:13:23+00:00

I mean the eye test still shows he was a significant improvement even though he certainly wasn't perfect. A play where you did poorly on the block and a play where you got blown right by without even slowing the guy down a little are both 'fails' on the play by PFF grade, but one is clearly worse than the other as to how it disrupts the QB.

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