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"Þe hasel and þe haзþorne were harled al samen,
With roзe raged mosse rayled aywhere,
With mony bryddez vnblyþe vpon bare twyges,
Þat pitosly þer piped for pyne of þe colde."
- the Pearl Poet, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
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NOOK OF SPOOK:
Cabal, Part 2: The Denied (1996)
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"Only the birds may pass - and only true birds, since shapeshifters cannot find their way in or are battered to death by the winds."
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The second part of Alexis's earliest published work, in RPG magazine Valkyrie, where he creates three different cults and suggests possible scenarios for readers' TRPGs. Meet the Denied, who camp outside the Garden of Eden on an eternal and fruitless (ha ha) quest to find a way inside.
The ideas here reappear, evolved, in a bunch of Alexis's later work. From the garden in the Mountain of Light in Fallen London all the way through to the bird-like personas of some Hours in BOOK OF HOURS, these themes have been percolating in Alexis's head since at least 1996. Imagine some monstrously aromatic ragout being boiled, forever, in a skull.
If you missed it, Part 1: The Caldecotts can be found here!
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READING REC:
THE THREE-BODY PROBLEM
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It's being adapted for Netflix by the Game of Thrones showrunners, so you know it must be epic in the most literal way. Cixin Liu's novel is fascinating for two reasons. One, it's a bonkers sci-fi story about a conspiracy of VR and alien physics set amid the Cultural Revolution. Two, it's translated from Chinese, which means you have passages of sublime elegance and beauty followed by the occasional clangs of 'it probably sounded better in the original'. Also, it's the first book of a trilogy so if you like it, LUCKY YOU. I've never read anything like it.
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