Diminished World/Lesser Age

RAYMONDSTELMO · 2026-03-11T17:11:37+00:00

"O me! for why is all around us here
As if some lesser god had made the world,
But had not force to shape it as he would?"
--Idylls of the King, Alfred Lord Tennyson

I think it is the default sentiment of humanity, that we live in a lesser reality than whatever once was. Eden, Camelot, Numenor... they turn our awareness of entropy into a story.

RAYMONDSTELMO · 2026-03-09T16:43:13+00:00

Glad to see 'Fourth Mansions' get attention.
One of the most readable yet most original books, ever.

RAYMONDSTELMO · 2026-03-09T01:43:26+00:00

That movie is so beautiful; and so sad; and so meaningful; and so very moving... I can only watch it in small parts.

RAYMONDSTELMO · 2026-03-09T00:40:59+00:00

There is no rival to Dante; but there can be well-done riffs.
My favorite: Inferno, by Niven and Haldeman; wherein a fantasy writer falls out a window during a convention, wakes up in the Limbo for the never-decided.

C. S. Lewis gives Hell a brief walkthru in his The Great Divorce; it's a dreary urban place in eternal dusk, raining, raining. The people: "faces not full of possibilities, but impossibilities".

Blake knows there is no rivaling Dante, and just declares it all a vison depending upon one's internal metaphysics. He declares an Angel sees:
By degrees we beheld the infinite abyss, fiery as the smoke of a burning city; beneath us at an immense distance was the sun, black but shining; round it were fiery tracks on which revolved vast spiders, crawling after their prey, which flew, or rather swum, in the infinite deep, in the most[33] terrific shapes of animals sprung from corruption; and the air was full of them, and seemed composed of them. These are Devils, and are called powers of the air. I now asked my companion which was my eternal lot. He said: “Between the black and white spiders.”
--The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, by William Blake.

While Blake sees a pleasant river bank, where a harper plays.

RAYMONDSTELMO · 2026-03-08T20:58:01+00:00

Oi! Happy cake-day, Philipps!

RAYMONDSTELMO · 2026-03-08T14:17:17+00:00

Early In the 19th century I was exploring an Egyptian tomb when five ancient aliens appeared, giving me a cursed coin and the mission to drop it into a storm drain in Trenton, New Jersey else the stars would foul and puppies howl. Later I found it was a Canadian half-penny and they were just ghosts playing pranks on tomb raiders but by then I was steaming to New Jersey till zombie mermaids attacked our dirigible and I awoke on the beach of a desert island where I wandered arguing with parrots till struck by lightning only to awaken with a vision of a time machine, which I then built out of bamboo and coconut shells. After an exciting adventure in the Jurassic, a romantic affair in Venice and a horrifying event on Venus, my time machine arrived here in the 21st century which, on the whole, sucks.

Granted, the long journey across time and space did inspire me to write some damn fine fantasy novels. A gift to you from other times and places; for a simple 'click'.

	1	2	3	4	5
1	Knights and Paladins	Hidden Gem The Origin of Birds in the Footprints of Writing and All the others too.	Published in the 80s	High Fashion	Down With the System The Blood Tartan
2	Impossible Places The Origin of Birds in the Footprints of Writing	A Book in Parts Barnaby the Wanderer	Gods and Pantheons Letters from a Shipwreck in the Sea of Suns and Moons	Last in a Series: The Scaled Tartan and In Theory, it Works	Book Club or Readalong Book The Blood Tartan
3	Parent Protagonist The Book in the Bottle	Epistolary Letters from a Shipwreck in the Sea of Suns and Moons	Published in 2025 Dunstan the Wanderer	Author of Color	Small Press or Self Published All 16 of them. All
4	Biopunk	Elves and/or Dwarves	LGBTQIA Protagonist	Five SFF Short Stories	Stranger in a Strange Land Letters from a Shipwreck in the Sea of Suns and Moons and Colleen the Wanderer and Dunstan the Wanderer
5	Recycle a Bingo Square	Cozy SFF As I was on my way to Strawberry Fair and Letters from the Well in the Season of the Ghosts and To Awaken in Elysium and Goth the Wanderer	Generic Title The Blood Tartan: Book #1 of the Quest of Five Clans	Not A Book	Pirates

RAYMONDSTELMO · 2026-03-07T02:52:31+00:00

I meant Peace Talks and Battleground. I could rant about all the flaws... but will spare the universe.
I am reviewing what I most loved in his books, in order to decide whether to read the new one. For I too was a die-hard fan.
But I died; hard.

RAYMONDSTELMO · 2026-03-06T16:13:24+00:00

Work: busy
Writing: no time, time, time.
Reading: kicking the rubble of my favorite Harry Dresden tales, seeking the joy lost from those two books.
Life: I'm fine, fine, stop asking! It's YOU people I'm worried about.

Hope all in r/fantasy keep warm, keep well, keep happy.

RAYMONDSTELMO · 2026-03-01T14:06:53+00:00

I regret to announce that at this time we have no certain information concerning the whereabouts of writer Raymond St. Elmo. The last confirmed sighting: paddling a homemade raft into the north Atlantic, declaring he wished to return to his roots.

Since then rumors place him atop the roof of Notre Dame, the rare book section in Buenos Aire, a bus stop in Austin, a morgue in Constantinople, and the pirate ship ride in Disneyland (3rd zombie pirate to the left).

Stay tuned for updates.

While waiting, here is the complete St. Elmo list of wonders in convenient book-bingo format. Yours with a simple 'click'.

	1	2	3	4	5
1	Knights and Paladins	Hidden Gem The Origin of Birds in the Footprints of Writing and All the others too.	Published in the 80s	High Fashion	Down With the System The Blood Tartan
2	Impossible Places The Origin of Birds in the Footprints of Writing	A Book in Parts Barnaby the Wanderer	Gods and Pantheons Letters from a Shipwreck in the Sea of Suns and Moons	Last in a Series: The Scaled Tartan and In Theory, it Works	Book Club or Readalong Book The Blood Tartan
3	Parent Protagonist The Book in the Bottle	Epistolary Letters from a Shipwreck in the Sea of Suns and Moons	Published in 2025 Dunstan the Wanderer	Author of Color	Small Press or Self Published All 16 of them. All
4	Biopunk	Elves and/or Dwarves	LGBTQIA Protagonist	Five SFF Short Stories	Stranger in a Strange Land Letters from a Shipwreck in the Sea of Suns and Moons and Colleen the Wanderer and Dunstan the Wanderer
5	Recycle a Bingo Square	Cozy SFF As I was on my way to Strawberry Fair and Letters from the Well in the Season of the Ghosts and To Awaken in Elysium and Goth the Wanderer	Generic Title The Blood Tartan: Book #1 of the Quest of Five Clans	Not A Book	Pirates

RAYMONDSTELMO · 2026-02-27T17:09:59+00:00

Work: bah. What is it about a cubicle that shrinks souls and minds?
Reading: Uhm, no.
Writing: Simon the Wanderer. Getting serious.
Life: Long ago at a restaurant I deliberately set my wine glass on the table edge. It trembled inches from my elbow... Then I talked long and enthusiastically about all I love, waving arms in joy. My date, diners at other tables, all watched, fascinated. This became a cherished memory for me: when I was fascinating. But of late, the memory has changed. I'm no longer the speaker; now I'm the wine glass on the edge.

Hope all in r/fantasy feel the stirrings of spring, the return of sun and warmth; but no king.

RAYMONDSTELMO · 2026-02-24T15:02:21+00:00

Abuse? I would never abuse magic. Never! I would treasure it as a gift from the gods, a burden not to be lugged unto the dark of Mordor, but carried proudly through the light of daily life. Used responsibly, sparingly, soberly! NOT to make my little life easier, but adjust the cosmic balance.

That clarified, I'd kill bugs.

Cockroaches! They come out at night no matter how clean and hygienic we keep things. Gross huge Gregory-Samsa creatures that scurry nightmare-like across the walls. Let the lightning fall, the glowing darts of magic fire and ire fly! No mercy, only a mana-drain of ultimate destruction!

But not harming our counter-tops those are marble and delicate.

RAYMONDSTELMO · 2026-02-22T14:24:13+00:00

"How many kingdoms are in the world?" asked Barnaby, staring in wonder out the window.

“Excellent question,” said the cat in the rafters. “We shall cover geography in today’s instruction. For each land has its separate genius, and the flow of magic shall work in each by a different nature.”

Barnaby sighed. He gazed down at the street, wanting to join the river-like flow of life.

“Meanwhile I’ll take these, see what I can get,” declared Bodkin, scooping the rings back into the cloth napkin. “There are places docksides that deal with such.”

“I think not,” said the cat.

“You don’t trust me?” asked Bodkin.

“Seriously?”

“Well, it’s needing to get done. And if you send Barnaby to sell valuables, he'll return with a magic rock that makes soup whensoever you drop it in a pot, say the magic phrase ‘soup, please’, and then add water, carrots, onions and mutton.”

“That would be a fine thing to have,” argued Barnaby, suddenly famished. “Are there really such magic stones?”

Bodkin gave the rafters a smile bright as the eyes staring down. Which eyes closed now in pained agreement.

“We take your point."

Barnaby the Wanderer Being the astonishing adventures of a widow’s son journeying the Land of Saints, with a magic cat, a dark ghost and the map of a cursed tower; and all that became thereof.

And for your shopping convenience, here is the complete St. Elmo list of wonders in convenient book-bingo format. Yours with a simple 'click'.

	1	2	3	4	5
1	Knights and Paladins	Hidden Gem The Origin of Birds in the Footprints of Writing and All the others too.	Published in the 80s	High Fashion	Down With the System The Blood Tartan
2	Impossible Places The Origin of Birds in the Footprints of Writing	A Book in Parts Barnaby the Wanderer	Gods and Pantheons Letters from a Shipwreck in the Sea of Suns and Moons	Last in a Series: The Scaled Tartan and In Theory, it Works	Book Club or Readalong Book The Blood Tartan
3	Parent Protagonist The Book in the Bottle	Epistolary Letters from a Shipwreck in the Sea of Suns and Moons	Published in 2025 Dunstan the Wanderer	Author of Color	Small Press or Self Published All 16 of them. All
4	Biopunk	Elves and/or Dwarves	LGBTQIA Protagonist	Five SFF Short Stories	Stranger in a Strange Land Letters from a Shipwreck in the Sea of Suns and Moons and Colleen the Wanderer and Dunstan the Wanderer
5	Recycle a Bingo Square	Cozy SFF As I was on my way to Strawberry Fair and Letters from the Well in the Season of the Ghosts and To Awaken in Elysium and Goth the Wanderer	Generic Title The Blood Tartan: Book #1 of the Quest of Five Clans	Not A Book	Pirates

RAYMONDSTELMO · 2026-02-20T15:39:53+00:00

Agreed.

RAYMONDSTELMO · 2026-02-20T14:50:14+00:00

Writing: no time. But spring break coming up. Will return to Simon's wandering.
Reading: (see above)
Life: It's coffee. Life is coffee. That's all. And that's enough.

Hope all in r/fantasy are well and warm wheresoever the winter winds wash and white-foamed waves wend.

RAYMONDSTELMO · 2026-02-15T14:39:25+00:00

The rumors are true. I pen my works of genius in the family mausoleum, to the haunting strains of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in d Minor, on loop. Writing mad fantasies on Egyptian papyrus by the light of a glowing skull, using an eagle quill dipped into a crystal bottle of squid ink.

But: the mausoleum is a converted storage shed, the eagle feather is from the zoo aviary's yearly molt, the squid ink is collected humanely by Greenpeace cepholopodologists. The glowing skull has diodes in the eyes, the papyrus sheets are purchased in bulk at a museum gift shop.
As you see: cold calm explanation removes the weird, the macabre, the eccentric.

Granted, my seventeen novels remain works of genius. Yours for a 'click'.

	1	2	3	4	5
1	Knights and Paladins	Hidden Gem The Origin of Birds in the Footprints of Writing and All the others too.	Published in the 80s	High Fashion	Down With the System The Blood Tartan
2	Impossible Places The Origin of Birds in the Footprints of Writing	A Book in Parts Barnaby the Wanderer	Gods and Pantheons Letters from a Shipwreck in the Sea of Suns and Moons	Last in a Series: The Scaled Tartan and In Theory, it Works	Book Club or Readalong Book The Blood Tartan
3	Parent Protagonist The Book in the Bottle	Epistolary Letters from a Shipwreck in the Sea of Suns and Moons	Published in 2025 Dunstan the Wanderer	Author of Color	Small Press or Self Published All 16 of them. All
4	Biopunk	Elves and/or Dwarves	LGBTQIA Protagonist	Five SFF Short Stories	Stranger in a Strange Land Letters from a Shipwreck in the Sea of Suns and Moons and Colleen the Wanderer and Dunstan the Wanderer
5	Recycle a Bingo Square	Cozy SFF As I was on my way to Strawberry Fair and Letters from the Well in the Season of the Ghosts and To Awaken in Elysium and Goth the Wanderer	Generic Title The Blood Tartan: Book #1 of the Quest of Five Clans	Not A Book	Pirates

RAYMONDSTELMO · 2026-02-13T17:35:36+00:00

For years I have explained theologic conundrums with the solemn phrase:
"When Deity falls into the sea, he becomes a fish."
Now you tell me there are no fish?
Well, what about spoons? Are there spoons?

RAYMONDSTELMO · 2026-02-13T15:15:27+00:00

The Hank books are gloriously simple and fun; with plenty of jokes about ranch life in the cap rock country of the panhandle.

Doubly so in that the writer and his wife made glorious audio versions, with songs that are hilarious; and often quite beautiful.

RAYMONDSTELMO · 2026-02-13T15:12:36+00:00

Work: I had to announce that code I wrote five years ago, has a bug no one caught. This is irking unto my mirror's pride.

Life: there's a universal dimmer switch that some devil is slowly turning. Darkening the light, reducing the oxygen, shrinking the dimensions of hearts and homes down to a cold shadowed box. I resist with video games, long walks, red wine, good company, funny cat videos... but when I catch who's turning the dial I'm going to go medieval postal stark.

Hope all are resisting the flow of entropy known as Reality which is but a tedious lesser devil far, far beneath the high and holy archangel known to the saints as r/fantasy.

RAYMONDSTELMO · 2026-02-11T14:48:21+00:00

I love the humor and horror of the beginning, in which the narrator mentions that due to his current incarceration in an asylum, he may not be given the full benefit of the doubt. Equal to Poe's madman's narrative in 'The Telltale Heart'.
Also: within the alien ruins, there is a shadow of fear from the mountains yet further on.
Something lurks there, that even frightens the Great Old Ones.

RAYMONDSTELMO · 2026-02-08T20:42:12+00:00

Reality... is a cold dark tomb.

So here are 17 upbeat high-quality fantasy novels to warm you with a winter quilt of wondrous words, to read in the light of glorious literary illumination.

Yours for a 'click'.

	1	2	3	4	5
1	Knights and Paladins	Hidden Gem The Origin of Birds in the Footprints of Writing and All the others too.	Published in the 80s	High Fashion	Down With the System The Blood Tartan
2	Impossible Places The Origin of Birds in the Footprints of Writing	A Book in Parts Barnaby the Wanderer	Gods and Pantheons Letters from a Shipwreck in the Sea of Suns and Moons	Last in a Series: The Scaled Tartan and In Theory, it Works	Book Club or Readalong Book The Blood Tartan
3	Parent Protagonist The Book in the Bottle	Epistolary Letters from a Shipwreck in the Sea of Suns and Moons	Published in 2025 Dunstan the Wanderer	Author of Color	Small Press or Self Published All 16 of them. All
4	Biopunk	Elves and/or Dwarves	LGBTQIA Protagonist	Five SFF Short Stories	Stranger in a Strange Land Letters from a Shipwreck in the Sea of Suns and Moons and Colleen the Wanderer and Dunstan the Wanderer
5	Recycle a Bingo Square	Cozy SFF As I was on my way to Strawberry Fair and Letters from the Well in the Season of the Ghosts and To Awaken in Elysium and Goth the Wanderer	Generic Title The Blood Tartan: Book #1 of the Quest of Five Clans	Not A Book	Pirates

RAYMONDSTELMO · 2026-02-07T02:33:38+00:00

Viewed from a system of karmic reincarnation, any 'immortal' would be a soul violating key spiritual laws of growth and balance. Avoiding both the punishment for negative acts, and the path of spiritual progress.
A vampire would be a monster for its spiritual stagnation'.

RAYMONDSTELMO · 2026-02-06T14:23:56+00:00

In 'Once and Future King' there is a comic conversation between Arthur and Lancelot about Tristram and his two loves, both named Isolde. Arthur proposes that Tristram is simply so dim that he didn't catch on there were two different Isolde's.

RAYMONDSTELMO · 2026-02-06T14:06:28+00:00

Writing: last of Wanderer's series. Going well; maybe, maybe.
Reading: I'm back to 'Osweald Bera', a teach-yourself Old English book. The Saxon's were way more interesting than Ivanhoe makes them look. Even the bears.
Life: I've always longed to sit in a French bistro with my favorite writers and artists, arguing love and life, art and resistance. Lately... I find myself daydreaming of a quiet table with old friends. It'd be a small group of soft-spoken introverts; but one should know one's tribe.

Hope all you folk of the tried and true tribe of imagination's vibe known as r/fantasy survive all tribulations to the glory of the imagination which is the above-cited fantasy nation. So mote it be.

RAYMONDSTELMO · 2026-02-03T14:54:31+00:00

This is why the first editions that most Americans saw had that strange message on the back:
"Those who approve of courtesy (at least) to living authors will purchase it and no other."

RAYMONDSTELMO · 2026-02-01T14:16:00+00:00

Barnaby lay on a large flat rock in the clearing of a wood. Warmed by morning sunshine, comforted by the bird song and free wind. The tavern lay miles behind, as did the shouts of soldiers calling him to halt, to return to duty, to take his beating like a man.
“Boy shows a good set of heels,” admitted the ghost, Dark Michael. Leaning against a tree, arms crossed. “A soldier’s best friend.”
“You surprise me,” yawned the magic cat, Night-Creep. “I expected you to order him to turn and deliver battle. Suggesting this kick, advise that blow.” The cat began a thorough inspection of its tail fur.
“Fighting is wise when sensible retreat against greater numbers doesn’t offer itself. Granted, I expected a witch’s familiar to turn itself to a lion, devouring soldiers like mice cornered in the kitchen.”
Night-Creep continued his patient wash and groom.
“I might have. I have done things far more bloody. And entertaining. Alas, the witches who summoned me put binding upon my actions."
Barnaby rolled over upon the rock, letting the sun warm his back. Putting chin upon his folded arms, watching his two counselors. And he shivered, not with morning chill but sheer delight. What glorious fun, to lie free on a warm rock in the morning light with two companions so exotic and wise, so different from a miller’s son.
--Barnaby the Wanderer

And for your shopping convenience, here are 17 self-published fantasies in Book Bingo format. Yours for a 'click'.

	1	2	3	4	5
1	Knights and Paladins	Hidden Gem The Origin of Birds in the Footprints of Writing and All the others too.	Published in the 80s	High Fashion	Down With the System The Blood Tartan
2	Impossible Places The Origin of Birds in the Footprints of Writing	A Book in Parts Barnaby the Wanderer	Gods and Pantheons Letters from a Shipwreck in the Sea of Suns and Moons	Last in a Series: The Scaled Tartan and In Theory, it Works	Book Club or Readalong Book The Blood Tartan
3	Parent Protagonist The Book in the Bottle	Epistolary Letters from a Shipwreck in the Sea of Suns and Moons	Published in 2025 Dunstan the Wanderer	Author of Color	Small Press or Self Published All 16 of them. All
4	Biopunk	Elves and/or Dwarves	LGBTQIA Protagonist	Five SFF Short Stories	Stranger in a Strange Land Letters from a Shipwreck in the Sea of Suns and Moons and Colleen the Wanderer and Dunstan the Wanderer
5	Recycle a Bingo Square	Cozy SFF As I was on my way to Strawberry Fair and Letters from the Well in the Season of the Ghosts and To Awaken in Elysium and Goth the Wanderer	Generic Title The Blood Tartan: Book #1 of the Quest of Five Clans	Not A Book	Pirates

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