The Reading Room

Yeah, I imagine it's similar to screen actors being typecast. That southern drawl is not going to work if you're narrating romantasy, I imagine.
My friend, if you ever want a deep dive into the profoundly weird, look into how fucking bizarre the parasocial relationships readers develop with romantasy narrators have become. Those poor men need literal security at events. There was an incident in Boston last month that put the entire community on red alert about inappropriate touching at events.
 
@docsilence Yeah, my mother is an author as well and she's described some of that kind of stuff to me before. In general, the parasocial relationships people form with writers, celebs, YT personalities, etc, is fucking weird and gross.
 
@Damien Speaking of John Gwynne, I bought a seax today for no good reason, I'm going to need som pointers on the best way to use this new piece of home defense equipment.
 
@Damien Speaking of John Gwynne, I bought a seax today for no good reason, I'm going to need som pointers on the best way to use this new piece of home defense equipment.
That's pretty awesome.

First thing you need to do is get yourself a Shield Wall.*


*Except not at all, you will probably die if you try to fight in a shield wall with most normal forms of seax.
 
That's pretty awesome.

First thing you need to do is get yourself a Shield Wall.*


*Except not at all, you will probably die if you try to fight in a shield wall with most normal forms of seax.
The guy helping out the blacksmith (who is pretty knowledgable himself but wasn't available to chat at the moment) said to my buddy that he liked how it looked like you were supposed to chop with it and I just kept thinking about the thousands of words Gwynne used to talk about how it's a piercing weapon.

Honestly this thing's just a solid bit of metalwork and if someone came at me while I was holding it I could clobber him with the flat of the blade and wallop him, but it's got such an odd feel compared to most other blades I own. Everything else has an almost gravitational pull telling you how it moves through space.

(I gotta grab that other series this week. Been catching up on some audio dramas between books.)
 
The guy helping out the blacksmith (who is pretty knowledgable himself but wasn't available to chat at the moment) said to my buddy that he liked how it looked like you were supposed to chop with it and I just kept thinking about the thousands of words Gwynne used to talk about how it's a piercing weapon.

Honestly this thing's just a solid bit of metalwork and if someone came at me while I was holding it I could clobber him with the flat of the blade and wallop him, but it's got such an odd feel compared to most other blades I own. Everything else has an almost gravitational pull telling you how it moves through space.

(I gotta grab that other series this week. Been catching up on some audio dramas between books.)


Yeah, I mean... seaxes are cutting weapons. I think one of the big re-enactorisms of the Gwynne books is treating seaxes like important weapons of war, which tends to come from re-enactors kind of piecing together their own version of history from the archaeology that they don't necessarily understand. Lots of people seemed to carry a seax with their weapons, therefore seax = weapon.
The reality seems to be that the seax was just a utility knife that basically everyone carried, and it just so happens that people carried their utility knives during war as well. I mean, you can use it to fight with, and certainly many did. But it -started out- as just a common tool.

That's why the seax is single-edged with a flat back. So you can press your hand down on the back of it while cutting things like meat or rope or whatever. Also, the complete lack of guard means it would be very dangerous to thrust with, especially against hard targets like armor/shields/bone. Good way to slice your hand wide open AND lose your last ditch weapon.

I can't speak to the quality of the one you got. I don't know if it's basically a knife-shaped lump of metal or made to exacting specifications of historical originals. But my experience with seaxes designed after originals is that they tend to feel like clunky kitchen knives. They're okay, but they don't necessarily index -great- or move particularly gracefully. But again, they are primarily cutting tools, not weapons of war, as far as we can really tell.
Fun fact is that the seax design was basically the standard European knife carried by all classes, including knights, until quillon daggers became more popular in the late 11th century. So this 'Viking' knife was carried by Christian Crusaders into Jerusalem on the 1st Crusade.
 
Yeah, I mean... seaxes are cutting weapons. I think one of the big re-enactorisms of the Gwynne books is treating seaxes like important weapons of war, which tends to come from re-enactors kind of piecing together their own version of history from the archaeology that they don't necessarily understand. Lots of people seemed to carry a seax with their weapons, therefore seax = weapon.
The reality seems to be that the seax was just a utility knife that basically everyone carried, and it just so happens that people carried their utility knives during war as well. I mean, you can use it to fight with, and certainly many did. But it -started out- as just a common tool.

That's why the seax is single-edged with a flat back. So you can press your hand down on the back of it while cutting things like meat or rope or whatever. Also, the complete lack of guard means it would be very dangerous to thrust with, especially against hard targets like armor/shields/bone. Good way to slice your hand wide open AND lose your last ditch weapon.

I can't speak to the quality of the one you got. I don't know if it's basically a knife-shaped lump of metal or made to exacting specifications of historical originals. But my experience with seaxes designed after originals is that they tend to feel like clunky kitchen knives. They're okay, but they don't necessarily index -great- or move particularly gracefully. But again, they are primarily cutting tools, not weapons of war, as far as we can really tell.
Fun fact is that the seax design was basically the standard European knife carried by all classes, including knights, until quillon daggers became more popular in the late 11th century. So this 'Viking' knife was carried by Christian Crusaders into Jerusalem on the 1st Crusade.

It’s funny, this blacksmith actually adds a simple crosspiece to his seaxes but that probably just makes them historically inaccurate. But it absolutely feels like a tool, not a weapon. I want to sharpen it up and use it to attack carrots. But it’s also hefty enough you could mess someone up with it, but you can do that with a streak knife too in the right hands

The dagger I picked up feels like it was made for finding and puncturing kidneys.
 
It’s funny, this blacksmith actually adds a simple crosspiece to his seaxes but that probably just makes them historically inaccurate. But it absolutely feels like a tool, not a weapon. I want to sharpen it up and use it to attack carrots. But it’s also hefty enough you could mess someone up with it, but you can do that with a streak knife too in the right hands
Definitely historically inaccurate. And I don't know that I'd describe any functional knife as 'hefty.' That tends to lead me in the direction of modern overbuilt 'for looks only' kinds of things. Which is fine. There's nothing wrong with having that stuff. I have a Deepeeka Falcata that is definitely overbuilt and feels kind of terrible in the hand. I like it in defiance of its faults, but you could turn it around and beat someone to death with the spine of the blade, it's so thick.

But historical seaxes definitely have nothing to protect your hand from sliding up onto the blade. In fact, many of them are actually narrower where the handle meets the blade than toward the bottom of the handle, making it even easier for the hand to slide up onto the blade. And the handles tend to be very round, and therefore not good at all for indexing the blade. They're a bit of an oddity, that's for sure.

I've seen a few modern smiths intentionally make 'almost seaxes' where they kind of make them to the assumed use. They know people are going to want to swing them around and stab things with them in the backyard, and they don't want to get sued by someone that hurts themselves or breaks it, so they make them too thick and beefy, and they add stops or swells between the handle and blade to protect people from themselves. Probably not a bad idea, honestly, if you're selling at Ren fairs.


The dagger I picked up feels like it was made for finding and puncturing kidneys.

Stabby bois be stabby. I have an antennae dagger and it informs you of how it wants to be used as soon as you pick it up. It's not a 'fighting knife,' even though it has a very traditional-style dagger blade. It's a fucking ice pick. It's meant to be held inverted and driven down into an eye-slit. Basically a proto-Rondel.
 
Yeah, I actually think he tweaked the seax design so ren faire goofballs don’t lose a finger. I don’t love it now that it’s at home, definitely an impulse purchase, but it’d feel nice tucked into a sheath at the small of the back or such.

The little stabby dagger just demands an inverted grip. It’s got “stab and then unzip the guy” design feels to it. Damn these Massachusetts laws about carrying bladed weapons in public…
 
@Damien I just finished Rage of Dragons and that book nearly gave me a fucking stroke but in a good way, the absolute BELLIGERENCE I felt at the injustices and abuses heaped upon the characters and how well crafted the fight scenes are... Starting the second book in the morning.

I looked up to see if the third book has a release date and... Jesus Fuck people are awful. Giving Winter so much grief about needing time to finish. One of the things I hate about being an author is the entitlement of readers - I literally FINISHED My own five-book series and people give me shit every single day about not writing a sixth. I'm like: was finishing a book, and writing the whole series so if I got hit by a bus and couldn't finish each book would have its own conclusion and not leave you hanging not enough? Publishing is a goddamned bloodbath.

(I did find out one of my nephews is reading my first book right now which almost, almost makes it worth getting grief from readers for only releasing 11 books in 12 years)
 
@docsilence Hell yeah. Told ya' it was good. It's one of the few series I've read where so many people are being unreasonable dickbags, but it doesn't feel like it's forced bullshit because the author just really wants certain characters to have a hard time so everyone just acts insane toward them for no reason. I hate that.
In my youth, I read a lot of the Drizzt books. Salvatore is a good writer, but his fight scenes are over-complicated dogshit 99% of the time. I was really skeptical when it became clear that Winter was going with the dual-sword protag, but he actually pulled off the fight scenes very well. Easy to follow what's happening and nothing entirely outlandish.

As for people being awful.... yeah. As a George Martin reader, I basically can't even look at the fandom spaces anymore because everyone is fucking vile. Like an older author needs to constantly be told, day after day, that he's 'gonna die soon.' The entitlement people feel toward someone else's time and energy is wild. You bought a book, you read a book. If you didn't want to engage with a series and not be guaranteed a conclusion - don't start books that don't have endings yet. It's that simple.
It's especially bad with how Winter is being treated for one reason in two directions; he's a brand new author, with Rage being his first book ever. So on the one hand, he's doing really well and if the third book is giving him some static (totally understandable, as he's trying to find the way to wrap everything up -- and just you wait until you see the shit that happens in book 2, oh my god), it's totally reasonable to just let him have the time he needs. And on the other hand, you're basically making this guy want to exit the space and never come back. Not sure what anyone thinks bullying him is going to get besides a half-assed book release and a talented author that disappears and never writes again.
Fuck all those people.
 
The way he makes the dual wielding warrior actually story relevant and meaningful is so well done and so damned rare. Yeah, it makes Tau the badass trope but it does it thoughtfully!

And he also avoids all the “people being dumb to move the plot forward” shit I hate in most fantasy lit. I was convinced he was going to make lousy drama for drama’s sake right before what I think of as his “Achilles in Troy” moment and being proven wrong was so satisfying.

I’m gonna be bummed when I run out of story in a week but I hope he finds his voice and keeps going cos this dude can write.
 
I’m gonna be bummed when I run out of story in a week but I hope he finds his voice and keeps going cos this dude can write.
I am SO excited for book 3, but I'm also SO excited to see what he does next. He's very good at this whole 'writin' thing. Can't really think of anything that I actively disliked in the books so far. He's good at the writing drama and conflict without any of the characters being written as idiots. All the stupid things the characters do makes sense for them to be doing. The combat is written well. The world building is excellent. Top notch stuff, in my opinion.

Just wait until you read book 2, though. Seriously.
 
I am SO excited for book 3, but I'm also SO excited to see what he does next. He's very good at this whole 'writin' thing. Can't really think of anything that I actively disliked in the books so far. He's good at the writing drama and conflict without any of the characters being written as idiots. All the stupid things the characters do makes sense for them to be doing. The combat is written well. The world building is excellent. Top notch stuff, in my opinion.

Just wait until you read book 2, though. Seriously.

One more quick observation — when Tau is being petty or petulant, it passes quickly and he acknowledges he’s being a dickhead. No dragging out bad behavior for drama. He lashes out but course corrects quickly which I appreciate a lot in a genre where obstinance is often a stand in for personality.
 
DEFINITELY. Tau is treated like an actual grown-up with a brain, who also happens to be somewhat unbalanced. But he recognizes other people are, in fact, people, and treats them accordingly. Winter does a great job at writing Tau as someone with drive and rage issues, without him being just a douchebag to everyone around him all the time.
 
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