Piers Brown
@piersbrown.bsky.social
Seconding a bunch of things that other people have said:
McKillip, Garner, Nix, Pierce, Aiken.
Adding: Tanith Lee's Flat Earth books; Jane Yolen's Pit Dragon; Robin McKinley, Blue Sword & Hero and the Crown; John Christopher's Tripods; Peter Dickinson's Time of Changes.
McKillip, Garner, Nix, Pierce, Aiken.
Adding: Tanith Lee's Flat Earth books; Jane Yolen's Pit Dragon; Robin McKinley, Blue Sword & Hero and the Crown; John Christopher's Tripods; Peter Dickinson's Time of Changes.
December 1, 2025 at 2:46 AM
Seconding a bunch of things that other people have said:
McKillip, Garner, Nix, Pierce, Aiken.
Adding: Tanith Lee's Flat Earth books; Jane Yolen's Pit Dragon; Robin McKinley, Blue Sword & Hero and the Crown; John Christopher's Tripods; Peter Dickinson's Time of Changes.
McKillip, Garner, Nix, Pierce, Aiken.
Adding: Tanith Lee's Flat Earth books; Jane Yolen's Pit Dragon; Robin McKinley, Blue Sword & Hero and the Crown; John Christopher's Tripods; Peter Dickinson's Time of Changes.
Water Knife definitely not one of the YA novels. Easy to get mixed up.
December 1, 2025 at 2:37 AM
Water Knife definitely not one of the YA novels. Easy to get mixed up.
Do you have feelings about the appendix to The Sound and the Fury, though?
November 11, 2025 at 2:34 AM
Do you have feelings about the appendix to The Sound and the Fury, though?
Great novel titles!
November 4, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Great novel titles!
Which would entertain you have more? I'm currently teaching an SF&F course, though the students get only one whole day on Tolkien (bits of Unfinished Tales and Silmarillion) and no more than scattered Star Wars references.
October 29, 2025 at 10:29 PM
Which would entertain you have more? I'm currently teaching an SF&F course, though the students get only one whole day on Tolkien (bits of Unfinished Tales and Silmarillion) and no more than scattered Star Wars references.
I read Books 1 and 2 in original serial form last year (via Gallica) one installment at a time on the original schedule 140 years after initial publication. It was great. Currently sad because I failed to start up again with Books 3 and 4 in August this year.
October 13, 2025 at 10:23 PM
I read Books 1 and 2 in original serial form last year (via Gallica) one installment at a time on the original schedule 140 years after initial publication. It was great. Currently sad because I failed to start up again with Books 3 and 4 in August this year.
Pickwick Papers? Kim? (The Great Game!) The Importance of Being Earnest? Around the World in 80 Days? (Inkle's video game version?) The Prisoner of Zenda?
October 8, 2025 at 3:42 AM
Pickwick Papers? Kim? (The Great Game!) The Importance of Being Earnest? Around the World in 80 Days? (Inkle's video game version?) The Prisoner of Zenda?
The metaphor I've been using for the job market is those rope-bridges in an Indiana Jones film, the ones with most of planks missing or broken, the support cords fraying. Yes, it is possible to cross the chasm, but first person to try usually falls to their death.
September 4, 2025 at 9:21 PM
The metaphor I've been using for the job market is those rope-bridges in an Indiana Jones film, the ones with most of planks missing or broken, the support cords fraying. Yes, it is possible to cross the chasm, but first person to try usually falls to their death.
First year on the market 2008, when there were 30 Ren drama jobs and 30 Ren non-drama and most of those cancelled mid-year. I took me until 2012 to land a permanent job, in a year when there were 15-20 across the period. Now that number seems like a good year.
September 4, 2025 at 9:16 PM
First year on the market 2008, when there were 30 Ren drama jobs and 30 Ren non-drama and most of those cancelled mid-year. I took me until 2012 to land a permanent job, in a year when there were 15-20 across the period. Now that number seems like a good year.
It is where we get the meaning of the word maudlin, though. You know, Mary Magdalene is a specific sort of sad because of Christ's death: she's maudlin.
September 3, 2025 at 12:31 AM
It is where we get the meaning of the word maudlin, though. You know, Mary Magdalene is a specific sort of sad because of Christ's death: she's maudlin.
Are you just writing Jerry Cornelius? (I'm okay with that. It'd be an interesting thing, especially if it were procedurally generated.)
August 23, 2025 at 2:37 AM
Are you just writing Jerry Cornelius? (I'm okay with that. It'd be an interesting thing, especially if it were procedurally generated.)
Would love to hear what you think when you get to it.
August 22, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Would love to hear what you think when you get to it.
Our old department building had a quince bush in front of it. The quinces were luminous, wonderfully fragrant, and incredibly bitter. The bush destroyed in building of the new quad with underground parking. There's an allegory in this somewhere.
August 22, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Our old department building had a quince bush in front of it. The quinces were luminous, wonderfully fragrant, and incredibly bitter. The bush destroyed in building of the new quad with underground parking. There's an allegory in this somewhere.
Walton, The Complete Angler. Many of the Essays of Elia, frex. "The Superannuated Man."
August 22, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Walton, The Complete Angler. Many of the Essays of Elia, frex. "The Superannuated Man."
A personal favourite: Faren Miller's The Illusionists. It's rich, evocative, short and brilliant. (I'm not quite sure it perfectly lands the ending, but almost?) She was a long time staffer and reviewer for Locus which is really interesting.
August 22, 2025 at 2:50 PM
A personal favourite: Faren Miller's The Illusionists. It's rich, evocative, short and brilliant. (I'm not quite sure it perfectly lands the ending, but almost?) She was a long time staffer and reviewer for Locus which is really interesting.
Makes sense! While it's fictional, it is at least practical, in the sense that someone could easily make one.
August 6, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Makes sense! While it's fictional, it is at least practical, in the sense that someone could easily make one.
Book 3 of Gulliver's Travels.
August 6, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Book 3 of Gulliver's Travels.
Did you know that Piqua has one third of the remaining industrial type-founding machines in the world? Literally the only remaining functioning machine capable of producing 120pt fonts?
June 12, 2025 at 10:31 PM
Did you know that Piqua has one third of the remaining industrial type-founding machines in the world? Literally the only remaining functioning machine capable of producing 120pt fonts?
A bit like marriage (and indeed and interesting compliment to it): religious conversion.
June 8, 2025 at 6:12 PM
A bit like marriage (and indeed and interesting compliment to it): religious conversion.