Paracyclops

I'm Oliver Arditi, a fantasy worldbuilder, conlanger, and storyteller, working my way towards publication. #writing #reading #fantasy #sciencefiction #worldbuilding #conlangs

My website: https://oliverarditi.com/

Public Key

npub1y83u0weesvy5zdrdy76x9jh7nghhtx96seryg9c78jfwulnxkesqsm68wf

NIP-05 Address

oarditi_at_mastodon.social@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqszrc78hvucxz2px3kj0drzetlf5tm4nzagv3jyzu0reyhw0entvcqprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmnteprq0l

Publishing to

relay.momostr.pink

Author Public Key

npub1y83u0weesvy5zdrdy76x9jh7nghhtx96seryg9c78jfwulnxkesqsm68wf

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Last Notes

2025-09-01 13:32:01 UTC

Just finished Michael Moorcock's 1993 'Stormbringer' omnibus. Much fun, occasionally profound—best story was the 1991 'Revenge of the Rose'.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/a883bec1-5e03-4f97-a1c4-0ae8a40baed7
#michaelmoorcock #elric #eternalchampion #chaos #stormbringer #fantasy #swordandsorcery #books #bookstodon @npub1ny7…uv57
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2025-07-30 19:29:16 UTC

I've got a new favourite book! 'Black Leopard Red Wolf' by Marlon James is one of the best novels I've read, and the most accomplished contemporary fantasy book I've encountered.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/1af4a238-a80b-44f3-88aa-ae63a3024f20
#fantasy #marlonjames #blackleopardredwolf #books #bookstodon @npub1ny7…uv57
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2025-07-18 15:57:26 UTC

I found 'The Kingdom of Gods' by N.K. Jemisin a beautifully crafted, thematically complex work of grown-up fantasy fiction.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/b401a34e-2ee7-4f66-b75d-75c3e1bee783
#fantasy #fantasyfiction #books #nkjemisin #theinheritancetrilogy #thekingdomofgods #bookstodon @npub1ny7…uv57
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2025-06-24 18:32:55 UTC

- reply

A ‘tad’. Nice! 😎

2025-06-24 18:22:59 UTC

I'm making my way through Tad Williams's 'Memory, Sorrow and Thorn' series. 'To Green Angel Tower: Siege' has many virtues, contains some good writing, and was really enjoyable to read, but for me it's a LOT longer than it needs to be.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/e4337506-64d2-4d58-87e5-68aa9bb71be7
#fantasy #fantasyfiction #epicfantasy #tadwilliams #memorysorrowandthorn #togreenangeltowersiege #books
#bookstodon @npub1ny7…uv57
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2025-06-11 16:45:00 UTC

Ursula K. Le Guin's 'Steering The Craft' is both a creative writing manual, and a manifesto for the importance of good writing. It's as beautifully written as her fiction.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/bb4c17b1-bdd9-47b4-9715-398dfbd35a67
#creativewriting #ursulakleguin #steeringthecraft #books #bookstodon @npub1ny7…uv57
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2025-05-21 16:26:19 UTC

I was quietly but powerfully moved by Ursula K. Le Guin's 'Orsinia', a beautifully crafted cross between Realist historical fiction and Ruritarian romance.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/3c912f22-f720-4988-8297-a12235a4edf5
#fiction #ruritarianromance #shortstories #ursulakleguin #orsinia #books #bookstodon @npub1ny7…uv57
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2025-05-11 19:19:16 UTC

Just read @npub17sq…5lp7 #298 (about a year late). Loved every story, but Mame Bougouma Dieme’s ‘Perpetual Motion Sickness’ in particular was utterly devastating.
#sf #sciencefiction #fantasy #sff #specfic #interzone #shortfiction #shortstories #books #bookstodon @npub1ny7…uv57 @npub1jt3…38c8 @npub1wul…jr5z
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2025-05-07 13:40:22 UTC

I've had Lord Dunsany on my TBR for a long time. I found 'Time and The Gods' a very enjoyable read, and I was amazed at how much of Dunsany's influence I could detect in many of my favourite writers.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/0e38524f-f13b-4950-8173-dc96000f2639
#fiction #fantasy #fantasyfiction #lorddunsany #timeandthegods #thegodsofpegana #books #bookstodon @npub1ny7…uv57
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2025-04-07 15:12:18 UTC

Volume 2 of Ed Piskor's 'Hip Hop Family Tree' continues his enthusiastic, wonderfully drawn account of the music's early years.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/d657b63a-cb1e-4750-ab30-9de8dbced481
#comics #hiphop #edpiskor #hiphopfamilytree #books #bookstodon @npub1ny7…uv57
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2025-04-06 14:55:25 UTC

Alex Pheby's 'Mordew' is an epic fantasy exploration of Neoplatonism, and a wonderful, baroque successor to the works of Mervyn Peake. Beautifully written, and unfeasibly thought-provoking.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/27a0ce72-5616-418e-95c2-022684419537
#fantasy #epicfantasy #neoplatonism #alexpheby #malarkoi #books #bookstodon @npub1ny7…uv57
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2025-03-21 17:46:07 UTC

I enjoyed revisiting Michael Moorcock's End of time setting, in Legends from the end of time, which is an omnibus of five novellas exploring minor characters from the earlier series. The funniest was the one that dumps Elric in the middle of the lunacy, but they're all very entertaining.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/d5412218-0568-4ae0-b987-e18a81655473
#fantasy #sf #sffh #bookstodon @npub1ny7…uv57
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2025-03-12 18:16:47 UTC

My latest read was BFS Horizons #16— favourite stories ‘Ida’ by Teika Marija Smits & ‘And Into The Tunnel, The Train’ by David Gullen.
#britishfantasysociety #bfshorizons #fantasy #speculativefiction #shortstories #poetry #bookstodon @npub1ny7…uv57
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2025-03-09 15:47:10 UTC

I've finally got around to reading M. John Harrison's 'Viriconium' stories. It's kind of Michael Moorcock meets Mervyn Peake round Jack Vance's house, and contains some of the best writing I've ever encountered.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/94ee4179-9081-43f9-8fdf-4a72b56f8dc1
#fantasy #fantasyfiction #newwave #mjohnharrison #viriconium #bookstodon @npub1ny7…uv57
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2025-02-28 10:43:21 UTC

Annabel Campbell's 'The Outcast Mage' is a thriller full of politics, magic, dragons, and high emotional stakes. It wasn't really my cup of tea, but a lot of fantasy fans will love it.
#fantasy #fantasyfiction #latinmakesmagichappen #books #annabelcampbell #theoutcastmage #theshatteredlands #bookstodon @npub1ny7…uv57
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2025-02-23 16:32:31 UTC

'Very Far Away From Anywhere Else' by Ursula K. Le Guin is a brief, beautiful account of two teen outsiders in 1970s middle-America. As so often with Le Guin, it made me feel very represented.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/7130e9bb-c011-4de5-8bdb-0e1b458f127b
#books #bookstodon #ursulakleguin #veryfarawayfromanywhereelse @npub1ny7…uv57
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2025-02-21 19:37:30 UTC

Ed Piskor's 'Hip hop family tree' comics have been sitting in my TBR pile for an unconscionable number of years. I've finally read the first, and it's an absolutely bangin' non-fiction comic about a fascinating period of music history.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/dc7fe5b2-7c28-4fdc-8a7e-7f510aaf5b28
#hiphop #rap #oldschoolhiphop #oldskoolhiphop #edpiskor #hiphopfamilytree #comics #nonfictioncomics #books #bookstodon @npub1ny7…uv57

2025-02-17 18:51:47 UTC

I found Tasha Suri's 'The Oleander Sword' a very compelling and atmospheric book, with plausible worldbuilding, and a very weighty and consequential approach to magic. Very striking prose too, which I've rarely found in my efforts to get up to speed with contemporary fantasy. Highly recommended.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/af725a67-f020-45d1-b859-2fec15f07200
#fantasy #fantasyfiction #epicfantasy #tashasuri #theburningkingdoms #theoleandersword #books #bookstodon @npub1ny7…uv57
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2025-02-03 12:56:25 UTC

Louise Glück's 'Averno' is an ambiguous, but scalpel-precise collection of poems, riffing obliquely on the Persephone myth. Don't ask me what it means, but I loved it!
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/cfc012b7-70d7-49f5-a95f-5bc0606a13ac
#poetry #louiseglück #averno #avernus #persephone #nobelprize #books #bookstodon @npub1ny7…uv57
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2025-01-31 16:39:42 UTC

Edward A. Berlin's 'Ragtime: a musical and cultural history' is an exemplary, if brief, piece of historical and musicological scholarship, and one of very few serious books on an important foundational genre of popular music. It's also very readable.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/4e8b5b1a-644b-4ab3-a8fb-7ea0f259ecfd
#music #popularmusic #ragtime #cakewalk #edwardaberlin #ragtimeamusicalandculturalhistory #musicology #books #bookstodon @npub1ny7…uv57
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2025-01-19 16:10:43 UTC

I’m very behind reading fiction magazines, about a year behind in fact. Interzone 297 was up to its usual exacting standards, with some excellent non-fiction (although, am I alone in NOT wanting book reviews to include a detailed synopsis?) Fav story: ‘Lights of the New World’ by Paul E. Franz
#sf #sff #sffh #sffh+ #sciencefiction #fantasy #fantasyfiction #horror #horrorfiction #shortstories #shortfiction #interzone #bookstodon @npub1ny7…uv57 @npub17sq…5lp7
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2025-01-09 15:30:27 UTC

'The Blue Star' by Fletcher Pratt is a fascinating, and beautifully crafted gem of a mid-twentieth century fantasy novel, that often reads more like historical fiction. I was completely immersed in its world.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/6d34f241-294a-4a70-add6-da19bd372406
#fantasy #fantasyfiction #ballantineadultfantasy #fletcherpratt #lincarter #thebluestar #books #bookstodon @npub1ny7…uv57
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2024-10-10 08:50:36 UTC

I can't find the words to praise ‘The Wind’s twelve quarters & the compass rose’, which contains the first two major short story collections of Ursula K. Le Guin's career. When I read Le Guin I always feel a combination of striking novelty and absolute familiarity. So beautiful.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/71af6986-ab60-4127-8eca-dd699286f057
#sf #sciencefiction #fantasy #fantasyfiction #shortstories #books #ursulakleguin #thewindstwelvequarters #thecompassrose #sfmasterworks #gollanczsfmasterworks #bookstodon @npub1ny7…uv57
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2024-08-25 12:38:37 UTC

Glasgow 2024, A Worldcon For Our Futures was my first World Science-Fiction Convention. It was an overwhelming, extraordinary experience. It made me think deeply about a lot of things, but especially about self-published authors. I reflect on what I learned there in my latest blog post.
https://oliverarditi.com/2024/08/25/everything-that-worldcon-taught-me-about-indie-authors-that-i-didnt-know-i-needed-to-ask/
#books #publishing #sciencefiction #sf #fantasy #fandom #conventions #worldcon #worldcon2024 #selfpublishing #indieauthors #bookstodon @npub1ny7…uv57