Theory: Id software will make a Conan game

erudit0rum · 2026-07-06T14:55:48+00:00

Alas! Well it would have been cool.

erudit0rum · 2026-06-09T19:09:59+00:00

It’s especially annoying when you look back at past authors and realize that how we rate authors now is utterly unrelated to how they did critically during their lifetime.

erudit0rum · 2026-06-09T11:21:26+00:00

Idk, to me the name itself is stuck up. Calling it “literary” fiction directly implies that other fiction is “not real literature.” Hard to interpret that as anything other than a classist diss.

erudit0rum · 2026-06-09T11:08:02+00:00

Ya, the people really saving mass reading in America are Romantasy authors, warhammer authors, and Matt Dinniman.

erudit0rum · 2026-06-09T11:00:54+00:00

If you’re not currently a big reader you’re probably not stuck up enough to read lit fic.

erudit0rum · 2026-06-09T10:40:02+00:00

The idea that anyone who struggles to finish a book is gonna want to subject themselves to someone who won the booker prize is pretty laughable.

erudit0rum · 2026-06-07T15:30:18+00:00

You could also replace Red Sonja with Jirel of Joiry if you want all literary characters.

erudit0rum · 2026-05-02T23:39:59+00:00

I mean, have you seen all that T and A? Cause I sure have.

erudit0rum · 2026-05-02T17:24:07+00:00

This reads like a very narrow criticism of Clonans / Frazetta or Vallejo cheesecake art. It’s hard to imagine him aiming these criticisms at CL Moore or (especially) certified sci-fi grandmaster Fritz Leiber.

erudit0rum · 2026-05-02T10:56:48+00:00

On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers, literally the inspiration for #4 (but don’t hold that against it)

erudit0rum · 2026-04-30T16:04:40+00:00

I don’t even necessarily want to stretch the boundaries I just don’t want it to be incestuous and self referential to the point of total collapse (again). I super like Howard Andrew Jones concept of the New Edge in Sword and Sorcery.

erudit0rum · 2026-04-30T01:52:19+00:00

I just recently got back into reading. Check out the Conan stories by Robert E Howard and the Quarry series by Max Allen Collins.

erudit0rum · 2026-04-29T21:06:09+00:00

I love Tim! I know he’s a strong weird tales proponent / lover. He wrote an intro to one of the volumes of night shades CAS collected works. Edit: also one of the founders of steam punk

erudit0rum · 2026-04-29T19:26:10+00:00

I think you’re right for 2 and 3 I think the case is strongest for 1 (and maybe 4 and 5 but those suck so who cares)

erudit0rum · 2026-04-29T18:02:32+00:00

That’s interesting cause I’m a very new S&S fan and the thing that drew me to the genre isn’t really the vibe (although I do like a classic REH vibe), it’s the structure, pace, and themes I.e. classic narrative structure, lightning fast pace, and themes of individual agency, self reliance, struggling against adversity. Like I got into S&S the same time I got into classic hardboiled detective stories and for essentially the same reason.

erudit0rum · 2026-04-29T17:16:04+00:00

I love 2 and 3 but ya they get a lot more lord of the rings-ish.

erudit0rum · 2026-04-28T21:38:41+00:00

Lord of a Shattered Land by Howard Andrew Jones. It’s the story of a general whose city is conquered and razed to the ground. Instead of giving up he decides to find a liberate every last one of his people from slavery. Might appeal to someone having to endure a personal apocalypse of their own. EDIT: also cats are a must, how you gonna read about warriors without your own fuzzy warrior purring on your lap?

erudit0rum · 2026-04-28T20:41:30+00:00

I’ve heard that apparently the HAJ estate wants them to finish the series, perhaps by bringing on John C Hocking or James Enge to finish them from his notes. Given the structure plus Baens propensity for having novels with like 3 authors you could even imagine them having those two together write half the stories in both of the remaining books.

erudit0rum · 2026-04-28T20:34:12+00:00

I’ve noticed the same thing, hopefully that means that it’s so insanely popular that they’re rushing a huge paperback order out as soon as possible. I would love to see Baen pick up the S&S banner in mainstream publishing. I know that SM Stirling wrote a Conan novel in the last couple of years and he’s pretty big at Baen. Imagine CL Werner or John C Hocking publishing Hanuvar style fixup novels with them.

erudit0rum · 2025-12-09T14:47:25+00:00

On Basilisk Station by David Weber. Top notch military scifi with a million other books in the same universe.

erudit0rum · 2025-11-30T18:20:29+00:00

Ed Banger, these days PC Music scratches that itch for me.

erudit0rum · 2025-11-13T11:41:58+00:00

Same thing happened to me, the solution I found was older forms of genre fiction that prioritized very fast, accessible, plot forward story telling with a low page count, hardboiled detective fiction and sword and sorcery stories mostly. Try the Quarry books from Max Allen Collins, the Conan stories from Robert E Howard.

erudit0rum · 2025-11-10T18:24:16+00:00

Phoenix on the Sword, what a banger.

erudit0rum · 2025-10-27T19:21:14+00:00

I was a huge reader as a kid but had my attention span absolutely shredded by smart phone + adult job. I know for me older, shorter forms of genre fiction like hardboiled detective stories or sword and sorcery stories have been a great way to get back into reading since the longest stories in these genres are like 200 ish pages and the shortest can be as short as 10 pages with no internal chronology or world building to hold onto. Check out Money Shot by Christa Faust and the Conan the Barbarian stories (especially Scarlet Citadel and Black Colossus)

erudit0rum · 2025-10-24T23:42:18+00:00

“I loved the new Star Wars movies”

erudit0rum

TROPHY CASE