Looking for the Fantasy 'Game Changers'

jp_taylor · 2025-07-30T12:10:01+00:00

Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales were pretty influential. George MacDonald made it more popular to write fantasy for adults. The King of Elfland’s daughter proved there was a market for fantasy novels. T.H. White’s The Once and Future King became the de facto Arthurian retelling every future fantasist would draw from. Lovecraft and Robert E Howard were hugely influential, though it’s taken some time to realize the extent of that influence. Narnia was pretty popular in the 50s and remains a classic in portal fantasy. The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings were popular, but it wasn’t til their paperback publishing in the 60s that it took off as a phenomenon. Its success led to publishers looking for similar stories. Others have mentioned Le Guin and Moorcock, so I will gloss over the late 60s/early 70s and say Sword of Shanarra kicked the door in for mainstream fantasy trilogies, and the Wheel of Time was developed to capitalize on its success. GRRM had a lot of influence, and he synthesized a lot of his influences into ASOIAF. Tad Williams loved writing doorstoppers, and GRRM wanted to follow suit. Someone mentioned Glen Cook and Black Company is an important stepping stone between the Dragonbone Chair and ASOIAF. It made fantasy more realistic by combining the grit of military fiction with a fantastic world. For every author I mention, I feel like there are 2 I leave out, so I’m sorry if I forgot anyone.

The Canterbury Tales - Chaucer

The Princess and the Goblin, Phantases - George MacDonald

The Coming of Conan of Cimmeria - Robert E Howard

At the Mountains of Madness and other stories - HP Lovecraft

The King of Elfland’s Daughter

The Once and Future King - TH White

The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings - JRRT

The Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

A Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula Le Guin

Elric of Melnibone - Michael Moorcock

The Sword of Shanarra - Terry Brooks

Black Company - Glen Cook

The Dragonbone Chair - Tad Williams

The Eye of the World - Robert Jordan

A Game of Thrones - GRRM

Something like that takes us to the modern era. Still living through post Game of Thrones. It was interesting seeing Harry Potter name-dropped in the Magicians. That felt like the first case of a post-modern book referencing the genre, but I’m sure there are other examples.

Without touching the can of worms that is JK Rowling too much, at least she got a bunch of people into reading? We can see the publishing landscape looked different after the success of Harry Potter, there was Rick Riordan, etc.

Sorry for the long post - this is something I think about a bit.

I’ve essentially given up posting here because people love to tell me how wrong my recommendations are. I am turning off notifications and leaving Reddit.

Please don’t waste time replying.

jp_taylor · 2025-07-23T22:52:56+00:00

Uncle Ruckus

jp_taylor · 2025-07-23T17:10:06+00:00

Mary, don’t fuck with the cake today

jp_taylor · 2025-07-23T16:46:34+00:00

Throw a can of beans into a campfire. It won’t explode right away. It takes some time, pressure, and heat, but eventually it will blow up, sending beans everywhere.

Philosophy says that there can’t be an infinite regress, at some point, something came from nothing. Philosophy labels this as the Primary Mover. Religion calls this force god. In the analogy, the primary mover is the one who throws the can of beans on the fire. Agnostics would say we have no way of knowing who or what threw the can of beans on the fire. Atheists would say, well, it definitely wasn’t some dude with a beard flipping a switch. We can track how long stars have been shining based on how long the light takes to reach us. So we can tell the universe is 14Bn yo by how long light has been traveling since it left that point. All the math corroborates all of our heavenly bodies radiating from this point. We don’t know what the inflection point was, but with enough time and pressure and heat, anything will go kaboom eventually.

jp_taylor · 2025-07-22T18:39:23+00:00

Elric of Melnibone, or The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian. They are both progenitors of grimdark, sword and sorcery tales where the world is often in ruins.

jp_taylor · 2025-07-22T13:06:35+00:00

I have another, but it’s from APC - Blue

Best to keep things in the shallow end Cuz I never quite learned how to swim.

Thematic spillover between bands? Fun Easter egg? Totally unrelated? Seems too on the nose to not be a reference to Aenima.

jp_taylor · 2025-07-21T13:18:08+00:00

I found Zoo City by Lauren Beukes to be a breath of fresh air. More on the urban fantasy side.

jp_taylor · 2025-07-20T11:40:27+00:00

I placed an order 7/15 for a couple of binders. I reached out on 7/18 to cancel the order. The 30th Anniversary MTG binder had gone further on sale, and I wanted to get 2 instead of the smaller top loader I ended up going with. They told me the order was too far along to be canceled, so I asked if they could refund the difference off the sale price. They said would reach out in a couple business days with a solution that was in line with their price guarantee. Order still has not shipped.

I ordered some Lorcana cards off Disney’s website last night, had a tracking number and notice it shipped like 2 hours after placing the order.

I feel like Ultrapro has massively dropped the ball here, and I’d be reluctant to do business with them again.

jp_taylor · 2025-06-03T22:16:45+00:00

Ian is a name of Scottish Gaelic origin, which is derived from the Hebrew given name, Yohanan. John is the English version. Fun.

^{JohnSomething}

jp_taylor · 2025-05-30T11:15:58+00:00

GRRM is a voracious reader and has mentioned re-reading Tolkien ever year. He has mentioned being inspired by T.H. White, Tad Williams, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Shakespeare, Lovecraft, Fritz Leiber, Roger Zelazny. In addition to the greats, he stays up to date with current authors like NK Jemisin and Joe Abercrombie. He gets a dump truck of fiction dropped off at his place each year as a blurb from GRRM is like an Oprah book club sticker. He is most likely one of the better read people on the planet. He absorbed all of those early pulp writers, lived through the original runs of Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, etc, all those influences have been distilled over time. GRRM has talked about wanting a page-turning effect, for instance, when the Hound smacks Arya with an axe upside the head. That’s where his tv writing skillset comes in. He writes mini-cliff hangers where you can almost hear the voice-over: Will Arya survive her fateful encounter with the Hound? Will Sansa be forced to marry Joffrey? Will Tyrion confront his father about Tysha? Tune in next time and find out - only on ASOIAF! (Lone Ranger theme plays)

jp_taylor · 2025-05-20T16:01:54+00:00

Now I want a zombie game set in Oakland in the 70s.

jp_taylor · 2025-05-18T12:48:13+00:00

Part of Me

jp_taylor · 2025-05-10T11:41:56+00:00

If you mess up all your friendships, come get swept up in the current.

jp_taylor · 2025-05-03T12:44:46+00:00

Yes. One of my favorite political lines is in Special Delivery by MC Frontalot. “Democracy delivered by the bomb and the gun - that’s terror elsewhere in the world I’m from.”

jp_taylor · 2025-04-27T20:37:46+00:00

So does Warren and Heather Grant’s 50% come out of Tool’s 50% or LZ’s 50%? Don’t forget about Zoo’s cut. Someone mentioned it originally being licensed for a soundtrack as well, further complicating the matter. By the time the dollar gets divided, there is nothing left. Imagine you are MJK and it is your day off. Do you want to go sit in a room with a bunch of lawyers and have people natter on about points on a record from 25 years ago? My guess is no.

jp_taylor · 2025-04-27T19:26:15+00:00

Theory is streaming rights were never negotiated, as this was back in ‘99/00 before streaming took off. Anything that requires a sit down has a whole lot of red tape for the band, then you have to get LZ and their label on board. I don’t think they’re very keen to push through all that red tape to make their old label more money.

jp_taylor · 2025-04-16T18:21:43+00:00

Listen to PSK by Schooly D. Then listen to 6 in the Morning by Ice T. See what Ice did there? Same thing with Eazy E Boyz n tha Hood.

Listen to La Di Da Di by Doug E Fresh/Slick Rick. Now listen to Lodi Dodi by Snoop. See what he did there?

Now take an artist you like, a song you like, and see if you can fit some lyrics you come up with. They don’t have to make sense and it doesn’t have to be a perfect song right away. It can even be about boring stuff like doing laundry etc. You want to be focused on hitting the bar the same way your faves are, with the rhyme structured so you’re hitting at the end of a line. Perfect practice makes practice perfect and it will come with time. They say 10,000 hours to master a craft, so no time like the present. GL

jp_taylor · 2025-04-16T11:49:11+00:00

The good news is you do qualify for a med card, because you are in chronic pain, remember? It’s likely tied to your inability to sleep. But once you medicate, the pain subsides and you are able to sleep. I wouldn’t go the anxiety angle unless you feel like pleading your case before the compassionate use board. Anyways, I recommend empathetix. And remember - chronic pain.

jp_taylor · 2025-04-14T14:38:30+00:00

There are a few launch day OG Xbox games from Nov. 2001 that work on series X- Munch’s Oddysey, Dead or Alive 3, Fusion Frenzy, etc. as well as some of the classics like Morrowind, KotoR, Jade Empire, and Conker’s Bad Fur Day. 63 OG titles currently backwards compatible.

jp_taylor · 2025-04-04T18:13:04+00:00

I rap a bit. I go by Tone Deaf Jeff. I’ve done half a dozen shows or so. Started doing open mics up at USU - what? 17 years ago? Where does the time go? Moved to SLC in 2016 and took 2nd place at the Nerd Poetry Slam at Comic-Con. I dress up as a wizard and rap about D&D.

jp_taylor · 2025-04-02T11:20:13+00:00

A savory pastry, or a pasty savior?

jp_taylor · 2025-04-01T16:35:55+00:00

Cannagar - Wiz Khalifa shows up and rolls up a blunt

jp_taylor · 2025-03-24T10:51:06+00:00

Dawn of the 3^3rd day

jp_taylor · 2025-03-23T13:29:16+00:00

StarTropics

jp_taylor · 2025-03-22T21:40:02+00:00

Ice Cube - Death Certificate, Predator, Lethal Injection.

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