(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Ever since our pre-pre-pre-pre-prehistoric ancestors left the primordial sea to slither around on dry land, the vast majority of our transportation has been been earth-bound. Naturally, in talking about different … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) I’ll admit I’m prone to complaining about how unpleasant travel has gotten these days. The combination of security theater at the airports and the loss of amenities on the planes … Continue reading
The second collection from Marie Brennan’s ongoing New Worlds Patreon is now available in a print edition! These essays on the art of worldbuilding, originally hosted here at Book View Cafe, have been revised, expanded, and re-organized. Together with New … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) When we first hit the topic of worldbuilding exposition back in May, I discussed the exposition on the level of prose: how to work setting details into your sentences without … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Governments have taken a dizzying array of shapes over the millennia since we first invented them, all around the world. We have lots of terms for discussing those shapes, but … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Given the importance of religion in human culture, it’s not remotely surprising that it’s often served as the underpinning for a leader’s right to power. In European history we most … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Every government and every leader has some basis on which it claims the right to power. This is true whether the leader in question rules over a tiny village of … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Some worldbuilding topics are so large, it’s hard for me to figure out which approach is best for tackling them. In more than two years of this Patreon, I have … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) As this goes live, I am in Yosemite National Park, where I hope to take many lovely photographs of nature. Lots of art forms have developed new materials or techniques … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Like sculpture — but unlike what I’ll be talking about next week — painting, in the broad sense of “color applied to a flat surface,” goes back a long way … Continue reading
