I thoroughly enjoyed Blood over Bright Haven, particularly appreciating the novel’s inventive approach to frequently troped elements of magical systems. These elements were cleverly refreshed through a compelling blend of Victorian-era aesthetics and steampunk sensibilities, bringing new life to familiar magical themes. The characters were well-drawn, each exhibiting a nuanced balance of flaws and virtues, creating a narrative free from the overly sentimental romantic tropes often prevalent in similar works.

The imaginative landscape of Blood over Bright Haven captivates initially through its richly Dickensian texture—vivid in its evocation of class disparity, urban decadence, and sprawling, oppressive institutions reminiscent of Victorian London’s dense social tapestry. Scenes such as the destitute inhabitants living in stark contrast to the extravagant lives of the aristocracy powerfully underscore these class divides. However, despite these vivid portrayals, the Dickensian elements do not fully support a profoundly impactful narrative arc, remaining captivating yet somewhat superficial. It was here, in many measures, that I found myself disappointed by the novel – not due to the skill of execution, but rather the depth of exploration, and the feeling of a “rush to get it done in a book”.

Analyzing Bright Haven’s necromantic utopia reveals conceptual similarities with seminal speculative literature. Echoing Walter M. Miller Jr.’s A Canticle for Leibowitz, Bright Haven venerates arcane necromantic knowledge, preserved in a manner similar to Miller’s fragmented historical lore. Much like Miller’s preservation of relics and rituals, Bright Haven hints at a deeper philosophical narrative around the use and preservation of dark knowledge, yet it never thoroughly explores these implications, leaving critical questions unanswered and its thematic potential largely unexplored. There is an academic exploration, but the narrative structure severely inhibits the ability to go in-depth into many of these elements.

Bright Haven’s society also shares thematic resonance with Garth Nix’s Sabriel, particularly in how necromancy subtly integrates into societal functions. While Nix deftly uses necromancy to illustrate moral complexities and ethical conflicts, Bright Haven presents necromancy as a normalized, theocractic practice, a public held back from a secret apparently most of the ruling class understood and was at peace with. The novel’s characters accept these practices without significant internal conflict or societal debate, thus lacking the narrative tension and ethical depth present in Nix’s work.

Isaac Asimov’s Nightfall offers another critical comparative perspective, specifically regarding the societal mechanisms of enforced ignorance or collective denial. Asimov effectively illustrates how fragile societal order can be, highlighting the tension between knowledge and stability. Although Bright Haven similarly incorporates themes of societal ignorance, it falls short of thoroughly investigating the psychological or philosophical ramifications of its own narrative constructs.

Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” further contextualizes Bright Haven’s moral landscape. Le Guin vividly portrays moral complicity and societal rationalization of suffering, a concept that Bright Haven superficially reflects. However, Bright Haven fails to develop characters that grapple meaningfully with these ethical dilemmas, resulting in underdeveloped characters and missed opportunities for deeper moral exploration.

Contrastingly, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World effectively highlights Bright Haven’s thematic shortcomings in exploring conformity and systemic manipulation. While Huxley interrogates the psychological impacts of a seemingly ideal society, Bright Haven’s citizens remain oddly passive and psychologically simplistic. This deficiency becomes especially glaring regarding the unexplained betrayal by Bright Haven’s first archmage, whose motivations remain inadequately examined, depriving the narrative of vital psychological and philosophical depth. There is so much hinted at there, as a means of exploration of “how this came to be”, and it is left sitting, rather than expounded on in a way that links the underlying past to the horrible present.

In conclusion, while Blood over Bright Haven impresses with atmospheric detail, Dickensian settings, and ambitious thematic elements, it ultimately falters in delivering the narrative depth and philosophical complexity evident in its literary predecessors. While the book explores topics of classism, institutional racism, sexism, and the necromantic underpinnings of capitalism within a fantasy milieu, it does not do so in a way that digs deeply to the roots—rather, it tills the surface, bowling over the weeds. Perhaps this approach is purposeful on the author’s part, or perhaps it reflects a broader societal shift away from saga-based storytelling, as suggested by declining reading trends among younger audiences—it is unclear.

References

Asimov, I. (1941). Nightfall. Astounding Science Fiction.
Dickens, C. (1837-1839). Oliver Twist. Richard Bentley.
Dickens, C. (1859). A Tale of Two Cities. Chapman & Hall.
Huxley, A. (1932). Brave New World. Chatto & Windus.
Le Guin, U. K. (1973). The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas. New Dimensions.
Miller, W. M. (1959). A Canticle for Leibowitz. J.B. Lippincott & Co.
Nix, G. (1995). Sabriel. HarperCollins.

Memorial Day is always so complicated for me. I both love, respect, and miss the family I have (and lost) who have served. I also can see, as a firsthand, how their sacrifices led to a better world for the future of their children, and, in turn me, the children of their children.

I can also attest that the world I lived in, which was riotous and confusing compared to the world they came from, as well as how I was shaped by that world (ending up very very far from where they were, on almost every major axiom aside, perhaps from ethics and belief in the core tenets of democracy) led to great divides. My grandmother’s lasting legacy was showing me how love can supersede even the diametric opposition of viewpoints.

As a parent, I am left with this pit of anger and grief. I don’t believe the world my children will inherit and inhabit will be better off than mine, which seemed unlikely two decades ago, but almost a certainty now.

The republic’s founding covenant—life purchased through voluntary sacrifice for collective liberty—faces systematic dissolution through institutional capture and societal atomization. Memorial Day’s commemorative function exposes this degradation: the dead secured constitutional governance while contemporary power structures operate through regulatory complexity, financial extraction, and democratic theater.

The American Dream’s death manifests in structural terms: median wage stagnation against asset inflation, regulatory barriers to entrepreneurship, and credentialing systems that substitute institutional loyalty for productive capacity. These mechanisms concentrate wealth while distributing debt, creating permanent economic subjugation disguised as meritocracy.

Technological capability now exists to eliminate material scarcity through automation, distributed manufacturing, and information systems. However, implementation requires constitutional restoration and economic restructuring away from rent-seeking toward value creation. Current institutions profit from artificial scarcity and will resist technological disruption of their revenue models.

The pathway forward demands jurisprudential enforcement of constitutional constraints alongside popular recognition that individual prosperity depends on collective institutional health. This requires abandoning the false choice between capitalism and socialism for a third path: constitutional republicanism with technological abundance, and universal rights and privileges for all the citizenry. This is not a failing, it is an aspiration, and, frankly, should be the lowest bar.

The critical transition involves citizens understanding that their individual economic security depends on dismantling systems designed to extract value from productive activity. Technology becomes liberating only when deployed within governance structures that prevent its capture by existing power concentrations.

The fallen died for constitutional principles that can still govern technological implementation. Their sacrifice becomes meaningful through institutional restoration, not merely through memorial observance.

Can enough of the populace get through the “me” generation thinking to change it?

This is why I never sleep anymore.

Freedom Spill by B McC and Midjourney

​It was late January of 1571, when midday, Inti hid from
his people.
The world ended for them, like in November 2024.
For the children of Ruby Bridges and Pachamama,
the sons and daughters​ of Kamala, Sapa Inca, and Leonard Peltier.
Los conquistadores set sail months before,
but they would not take Cusco until after Inti hid his light,
they would not take the Capitol until cowards called them hence,
but as all who worship the sun know must happen –
the whiteness of light always breeds the darkest of shadow.

Those Spaniards, made red by Inti’s love, would kill his children
lay waste to the cities, the priests, the khipu, the temples, the empire –
enslave whomsoever they could not kill, rape, or who twisted to their ways,
and take Inti’s heart back to the head that guided the hand of fire and pain –
The fifth Pious one, who killed a civilization, a hemisphere;
in the name of a god of love, sacrifice, grace, and forgiveness.

The heart of Inti was gold,
Our hearts are of muscle.
Gold melts, bends, shatters –
Muscle strains, tears, fails.
Gold gets hammered back into shape,
Muscle only heals when it stops.

For centuries, Inti could not stop, did not stop –
the heart and blood and life of his children,
they needed the light he carried to survive the cruel
jungle
that would eat them all alive if he stopped dragging that heartlight
across the sky.

What happens if I stop
carrying
all those tied
to the day-to-day
for whom the jungle waits
to subsume?

The Sun God Meets the Conquistadores – B McC./ Dali-E 3

After Inti faltered in the midday,
He picked his heart, the light, back up
and next dawn,
carried that light around the world,
for all the people
even the blood-soaked rapist Spaniards,
their pederast friars,
and the asiento slavemasters in Gibraltar.

Even though his children died, he did not stop –
The system, did not stop –
The colonist millstone ground and ground and ground
the maize until gold was crimson,
and the blood plague of the Spaniards,
killed ever so many more than
Inti ever kissed
with flame and bloody lips
at the top of handmade basalt mountains.

How can those of us, facing new conquistadores,
wielding fresh-bound torches of policy and supremacy
crying for the death of
brown and black bodies,
people who speak languages other than
American?
Those who want the death and deportation of
gold and love and maize and music
just the same as those six centuries ago
called for the death of the
of children of the god light?

How do we face the emboldened racists
born on the eclipse of
January 6th –
the conquistador horde of
othering and bigotry and fascism and supremacy?

How do we,
the post eclipse
children of the sun –
hope to last longer
than those children of
Inti
slain by Spaniards?

The offspring of the gold-heart sun
outnumbered the conquistadores
tens of thousands to one –
but can only be seen today in
vine-choked ruins,
rubble-sturine mountains,
colonist-edited history books,
or white-curated museums.

I am told –
the light will fade
forever
If we don’t stop to
breathe,
rest,
heal our torn hearts,
and hold the light for all we shine on,
despite the looming eclipse.

I’m not proud,
but I beg you Inti –
tell me how you stopped
to heal a heart broken
by hate
and still hold the light
for all
even after they killed
everyone who revered
and loved you?

At its core, Two Princes dramatizes a rivalry between two suitors vying for the affections of a single woman. The speaker—one of the two contenders—positions himself as the better choice, contrasting his sincerity and love with the material wealth of the other. This dramatic tension mirrors the romantic dilemmas found in Shakespeare’s comedies and tragedies alike, as well as in Pyramus and Thisbe, a tale of forbidden love that Shakespeare adapts into A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Shakespearean drama often foregrounds romantic competition, particularly in plays like A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, and Twelfth Night. Two Princes employs a similar structure, where love is not merely a matter of individual choice but is complicated by external pressures—specifically, the dichotomy between wealth and genuine affection. The song’s speaker, much like Shakespearean lovers such as Orlando (As You Like It) or Bassanio (The Merchant of Venice), argues that his love should be valued over material prosperity. The song’s line “If you want to call me baby, just go ahead now” evokes the kind of direct appeals often found in Shakespeare’s romantic dialogues, in which lovers entreat their beloveds to choose passion over pragmatic concerns (Shakespeare, Much Ado 2.1.180-190).

Ovidian Tragedy and the Problem of Status

The contrast between the two suitors also recalls the class-based barriers in Pyramus and Thisbe, a tale recounted in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In Ovid’s narrative, the lovers are separated by their parents, who disapprove of their union. Although the song does not explicitly mention parental interference, it implicitly invokes societal pressures through the opposition of the rich prince versus the sincere but impoverished lover. The speaker’s plea suggests an awareness that love is often dictated by social constraints—a theme pervasive in both Pyramus and Thisbe and Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, which directly adapts the Ovidian source material (Romeo and Juliet 1.5.92-109).

Furthermore, Pyramus and Thisbe is famously adapted as a play-within-a-play in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, where its exaggerated tragedy is used to satirize the conventions of dramatic romance. In this light, Two Princes can be read as similarly playful; it employs hyperbolic romantic rhetoric but ultimately resists tragic resolution. Instead of death, as in Pyramus and Thisbe, the stakes in Two Princes remain within the realm of emotional rather than existential drama, aligning it more with Shakespeare’s comedies than his tragedies.

Repetition and Theatrical Persuasion

A notable feature of Two Princes is its repetitive lyrical structure, particularly the refrain “Just go ahead now”, which functions as a rhetorical strategy akin to persuasive monologues in Shakespearean drama. The speaker’s insistence and direct address to the woman resemble the way Shakespeare’s characters, particularly in soliloquies, attempt to assert control over their fate through language. In Richard III, for example, Richard woos Lady Anne despite having killed her husband, employing relentless verbal manipulation (Richard III 1.2.225-250). Similarly, in Two Princes, the repeated invitation for the woman to choose mirrors these rhetorical strategies.

The lyrics also contain an almost comic self-awareness, akin to Benedick and Beatrice’s witty repartee in Much Ado About Nothing (Much Ado 5.2.35-50). The speaker’s awareness that he is competing with a wealthy rival but still framing himself as the ideal choice adds a dramatic irony reminiscent of Shakespeare’s more comedic love scenes.

  1. “One, two princes kneel before you” – This lyric establishes the competing suitors, reminiscent of Helena and Hermia’s rival lovers in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2.2.125-135), where Lysander and Demetrius both suddenly proclaim their devotion to Helena.
  2. “That ain’t what I said now” – This phrase echoes misunderstandings and comedic miscommunication often found in Shakespearean dialogue, particularly in Twelfth Night (2.2.20-35), where Viola (as Cesario) protests her unintended wooing of Olivia.
  3. “Marry him or marry me” – The direct appeal resembles Orlando’s passionate declarations in As You Like It (3.2.320-330), where he inscribes poetry to Rosalind and insists on his unwavering devotion.
  4. “I know what a prince and lover ought to be” – This statement encapsulates the speaker’s belief in romantic idealism, similar to Bassanio’s reasoning in The Merchant of Venice (3.2.10-24), where he gambles everything for Portia’s love.

Subversion of the Love Triangle

In both Shakespearean and Ovidian traditions, love triangles frequently result in either comedic resolution (as in Much Ado About Nothing) or tragic demise (as in Romeo and Juliet). Two Princes, however, refuses to provide a resolution. The song ends without revealing whether the woman chooses either suitor, leaving the question of love open-ended. This ambiguity subverts traditional romantic narratives, in which love is either consummated or doomed, and instead offers a modern, postmodern meditation on choice, agency, and the performance of romantic appeal.

Ultimately, Two Princes serves as an unintentional but rich intertextual dialogue with the history of romantic storytelling. By engaging with tropes of wealth versus sincerity, persuasion through repetition, and the love-triangle structure, the song taps into a literary lineage stretching from Ovid to Shakespeare, repackaged within the idiom of 1990s alternative rock.

Works Cited

Ovid. Metamorphoses. Translated by A.D. Melville, Oxford UP, 1986.

Shakespeare, William. Much Ado About Nothing. The Arden Shakespeare, edited by Claire McEachern, Bloomsbury, 2016.

Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The Arden Shakespeare, edited by Harold F. Brooks, Bloomsbury, 2007.

Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. The Arden Shakespeare, edited by René Weis, Bloomsbury, 2012.

Shakespeare, William. Richard III. The Arden Shakespeare, edited by James R. Siemon, Bloomsbury, 2009.

I haven’t made or sold any gaming stuff in a few years, and had a resolution for ’24 to do so. I didn’t actually sell anything, but I did make, a lot! Like, a whole campaign setting! I’m almost 200 pages in at this point, and I still have SO MUCH to add. This thing is quickly going to rival my mind-set-place-idea warehouse of Toworia.

Here’s a map, for anyone who care:

as midnight tolls its solemn chime,
old whores sip bitter wine with time,
fig jam and sharp cheddar pair,
leftover shrimp in cocktail wear.

new year’s eve, a feast of jest,
melancholy gluttons can’t resist.
wool socks on cold feet slide,
past and future gently collide.

underneath the fireworks’ bloom,
melons cut through festive gloom,
in laughter, old stories replay,
as time slips another year away.

in quiet corners, some reflect,
on years gone by, and what’s next,
the night deepens, so does cheer,
toasting hopes for a brand new year

by DLC, prompt poem, Dali-E 3