For the record: I thought of the pun in the last line of ‘Food For Thought’ when I wrote it. I offer that not as an apology, for I feel neither shame, nor remorse. Instead, I offer it as a reminder that great evil can lurk in the heart of even the most good-natured and innocent of men.
Of course, there’s always of what to do with those Dark Lords afterward. The person running ‘Trading Up’ is simply kicking the can down the road. On the other hand, that’s usually a good strategy! A lot of those regimes will just regress to a boring old monarchy or something within one, two generations.
And, on the gripping hand: if there is a problem, there’s also a lot of Dark Lords out there that now owe Trading Up some pretty significant favors…
It doesn’t matter what the power is. Technology, magic, theurgy, High Weirdness — if it can be accessed reliably, somebody’s going to find a way to simplify the process and “…Make Them Equal.” Which is a good thing! Hard on the people who used to have the power monopoly, sure. But that’s life for you.
That’s the ‘Cold Irony.’ It’s just elves, man. Freaking elves. And, trust me: they were all bad.
The theme of ‘Ergognomics’ is not unknown in science fiction. The entire concept of diffusion of innovation is really very fascinating; there’s a fairly close alternate timeline where I’m an academic who specialized in it. …And wouldn’t that world be weird.
I’m not fond of time travel, as a rule. The ethical issues are myriad, honestly. But ‘Count Your Blessings’ is there to remind you that maybe the only worse thing than changing the past might be changing the past back.
New patron, new installment of my space opera serial THE BOLD MARAUDER. At some point, I’m sure I’ll have to do these weekly. At some point.
‘Soul-Red Roses’ suggests that not every supernatural manifestation is flashy. There are other implications, but I’ll leave them as an exercise for the interested reader. No need to pound a metaphor into the ground.
