Toby Knott
@TCSKnott
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Head of Writing at HSG & Investor at Basis. Interested in tech, biology, history, and nature.
Joined February 2016
If all you know of fantasy and sci-fi are Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Dune, here’s an ongoing thread of lesser-known recommendations – not the usual GRRM, Sanderson, Abercrombie, Hobb, Rothfuss, et al. I’ll add more as I read them.
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It’s a refreshingly short read. And by dealing in the fantastic, demonic, and divine, it captures the horror of the war and internal lives of the time better than a purely historical account could.
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📚 The War Hound and the World’s Pain by Michael Moorcock.Moorcock is best known for his Elric stories, but this is better. During the 30 Years’ War, a soldier is charged by Lucifer to find the Holy Grail – to save his soul, redeem mankind, and get Satan back in God’s good books.
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RT @harrietsgreen: Congratulations to our @lfg_uk x @BasisCapitalLtd hackathon winners: Planet Grammar, Puck AI and AI Vikings. 💥⬇️ https:/….
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If we want more defence innovation in the UK, we need more stuff like A2i and Brave1 – marketplaces that allow startups to sell direct to soldiers on the ground. Funding isn't the problem.
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In my experience, this isn't happening. It's just that everyone is eschewing *contemporary* literary fiction because it's signally awful. Self-absorbed, tedious crap. You find more profundity and better writing in most old pulp novels.
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She also wrote the first draft of The Empire Strikes Back, in which Yoda was called “Minch”.
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📚 The Sword of Rhiannon by Leigh Brackett.This is classic planetary romance: lost tech, old “gods”, and slave-driven galleys on ancient Martian seas. Brackett is a forgotten master of pulp who transcended the label with noir sensibilities and well-drawn characters.
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I’d recommend it without reservation if the final act didn’t stumble a bit – but the rest is brilliant. The second part alone could be its own whodunit film.
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📚 The Dragon Waiting by John M Ford.Alt-medieval Europe is threatened by a still-dominant pagan Eastern Roman Empire. The story follows a Welsh wizard, Byzantine mercenary, Italian physician, and German artillerist caught up in the Wars of the Roses. Gene Wolfe loved it.
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The whole amnesia conceit is handled very well, Latro having to rely on his own written record and the shifting cast of characters around him. It’s just fun seeing ancient Greece through his eyes. This is the first book in a trilogy, but you can read it as a standalone novel.
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📚 Soldier of the Mist by Gene Wolfe.Memento set in ancient Greece. Mercenary Latro loses both the memory of who he is and the ability to remember from day to day – but gains the ability to see and talk with the gods and monsters who walk the land.
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📚 Tales from Hoffmann by ETA Hoffmann.Short stories from a forgotten pioneer of romance and fantasy, inspiring everyone from Tchaikovsky to Poe. Mlle de Scudéri, considered the first detective story, is great, but The Deed of Entail is my favourite: a multi-layered ghost story.
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📚 Krabat and the Sorcerer’s Mill by Otfried Preußler.A dark, creepy, but touching folk tale based on an old Sorbian legend. A beggar boy is drawn by strange dreams to a mysterious mill to begin an apprenticeship in black magic… One you can read with your kids.
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📚 The Complete Chronicles of Conan by Robert E Howard.These are pure pulpy fun. Every short story roars along like an action film. Lost cities, ancient ruins, black magic, unspeakable horrors – and, of course, “mighty thews”. Proof that Conan is far from a dumb brute.
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It’s dense, strange, and beautiful. Dream-like. A puzzle box of a story that leaves a lot left unexplained and lingers long afterwards. Lots of lovely obscure old words in here, too. The audiobook read by James Lailey is very good.
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📚 The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe.If you read just one from this thread, make it this. A four-volume sci-fi/fantasy novel (plus a fifth coda) about an exiled journeyman torturer travelling a far-future dying Earth. That makes it sound grim, but it’s not at all.
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RT @harrietsgreen: There is no greater endeavour in life than building. And we need to rebuild our state, for citizens and for the future.….
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