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[extremely has been reading Maxims I voice]: I have been reading Maxims I.

One goal here: try to use this character's maxims to prod at what is normal to them and (rightly!) not normal to us.

The Mountain, After has just come out! It’s a short story, set when power ebbs away from one petty imperial outpost. It features:

Giant robots

Workable blank verse and alliterative verse

A vivid (I hope!) slice of a vanished world

I’m pretty pleased with it!

You can read The Mountain, After for free (or pay-what-you-want), as a PDF and an ebook, via itch.io here. To pay nothing, hit ‘Download’ and then ‘No thanks’ on the payment box. 

Alternatively, you can hear The Mountain, After read aloud on this Twitch VOD. This is a live reading, not an audiobook, but I hope it makes the poem more accessible.

Next week, look out for the release of Deep-Step and Twice-Mortal!

[extremely has been reading Maxims I voice]: I have been reading Maxims I.

One goal here: try to use this character's maxims to prod at what is normal to them and (rightly!) not normal to us.

If you've ever read Beowulf or Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, you have read an alliterative poem. These poems are not the light love poems that often come to mind when we think of English poetry but capture what Tolkien called the Northern imagination: sometimes bitter, sometimes harsh, steeped in courage, calling to mind an austere beauty.

This month, as part of our Themed Collection series, Paul D. Deane has assembled a collection of alliterative poems about Tolkien's world. Paul is the editor of Forgotten Ground Regained, the definitive source of Modern English alliterative poetry online, which publishes a quarterly journal of alliterative verse. Alliterative verse, which is the traditional format of many early Germanic poetic traditions, was beloved by Tolkien, who centered his scholarly and creative efforts upon it. Today, his fans continue working in this ancient form as they craft poems about the legendarium. Paul was kind enough to select ten legendarium-inspired poems to introduce readers to alliterative verse based on Tolkien. As always, we want to hear your favorites as a comment on the collection.