karl radek

"i hate love triangles" "i hate cheating" "stop writing about love triangles and cheating" people write about love triangles and cheating because complex emotions and romantic conflict are deeply compelling themes. get good.

As 2023 comes to an end, I find myself curious about the worlds you’ve been exploring through your books this year. 📚 What's been your most-read genre this year? Whether it's the twisted alleys of mystery, the distant galaxies of sci-fi, or even realms I haven’t ventured into with my pen, I’d love to hear about it!

Share your favorite genre of 2023 in the comments and tag three friends whose taste in books you absolutely admire. Let’s celebrate our diverse literary journeys and maybe discover some new genres to dive into. Here's to the stories that shape our year! 🌟

the scythedom could wage nuclear war on the entire earth and the thunderhead could do nothing about it

fyi I hate the concept of the scythedom :)

THEYRE DONE‼️‼️

I did accidentally mess up on Rowans eye-bags but itll be fine 💀

What do you MEAN Neil Shusterman is neutral on genocide did he read his own books?

What do you MEAN Neil Shusterman is neutral on genocide did he read his own books?

never understood why people think citra is boring. like zlawg what do you mean shes literally so funny

Please read this whole post, there’s no meme or catch to this, I’m not staying quiet on this.

this is the first post I’m making about Neal Shusterman’s recent actions - the second is about AI art usage, but this is so, so much more important.

Neal being complicit in the genocide that is occurring currently in Palestine and Gaza. Neal seems to have just gotten back from a book tour promoting a graphic novel he wrote, called Courage to Dream, which is about the Holocaust. He sent an email to everyone subscribed to his online newsletter.

Neal took this as an opportunity to state that he saw how “both sides” - both Israel and Palestinians - were doing things he did not condone, and that he would be remaining neutral.

Obviously Neal isn’t wrong in some of his wording, but what he’s fundamentally trying to say here is wrong and harmful. It doesn’t take someone who has lived through genocide to recognize that a genocide is happening. Genocide is a complex topic, but not in a “both sides should be shown kindness” way. It is complex in the fact that this has been going on for years, that history is repeating itself, and that people in positions of power are so easily falling for Zionist and colonialist propaganda because of their own bigotry and bias against those living in Palestine. How did you just go on tour promoting a book about the stories of people who were being targeted and killed in a genocide, and your first statement upon returning from that tour is to email all the subscribers of your newsletter that you’re “not qualified” to talk about genocide, and that you’re refusing to support the people being eradicated? Why did you write a book about genocide in the first place if you didn’t think you were qualified to talk about it? How do you write a whole graphic novel detailing the stories of people in what is the most known genocide in modern history and not see that Israel is trying to wipe Palestinians off the map?

Being opposed to genocide isn’t a simplistic opinion. It’s fucking common sense.

also Neal shusterman or someone on his social media team is doing shady shit involving AI art

Separating this from the post about Neal taking a “neutral” (complicit) stance on genocide, since art thievery and falsely crediting an artist is much, much less harmful than encouraging people to stay silent about the genocide in Palestine.

On December 7th, 2023, Neal Shusterman made this post to his various social media accounts - I took the screenshot from his Twitter.

Neal does fanart promotion all the time, so this was nothing out of the ordinary for him, except that even though I’ve only read half of Gleanings, I could immediately tell that this wasn’t a character from Gleanings, with the obvious clue being that Rowan is the only character in the series to have ever worn a black robe, and this clearly isn’t supposed to be him.

You’ll notice I blurred the artist’s name here - I did that intentionally so they don’t face harassment from people who didn’t read my post closely enough, but if you want to support her work you can easily find this post on Neal’s socials and get her username (while it’s linked on all of his social medias, the username corresponds to an Instagram account).

To me, this post screamed AI generated artwork, and the more I looked into it, the worse it seemed to get. The cover of the copy of Gleanings in that “photo” is in German - the artist Neal credited does not seem to speak any German whatsoever. In that case, why would they pick a copy of Gleanings in a language they don’t speak to overlay this art? The artist Neal credited never posted this piece of artwork, although they had made a different piece of fanart for the series that was in a completely different style to this one. The style of the piece of AOAS fanart the artist posted THEMSELVES had a completely different art style from the art Neal credited them with.

I ended up reaching out to the artist and asked if they had actually drawn this art piece, or if they knew who did. They responded today.

(My message before I sent the screenshot to them was apologizing for confusing wording in my original messages, and the fact Instagram’s crappy messaging system never sent them the art piece I was asking about in the first place. This confused the artist, which is partially my fault since I used a translator app to translate my message into their native language, which I’m sure screwed up grammar somewhere. I wanted to make sure they knew I wasn’t accusing THEM of using AI, but rather suspecting someone was using AI and saying they drew the AI generated art.)

So, Neal, or someone who manages his social media, put this artist in a damn hard spot and told everyone that the artist made something that was made by AI. And again, absolutely no hate or disrespect to the artist, they didn’t know this was happening and they were very kind and understanding. If you do seek out their account, give them a follow!

My guardian angels came to visit!

imagine going home with xenocrates for your one night stand and he brings you to his cabin penthouse 💀💀

update for 2023 i have literally gotten worse about this

wanted to reply to @cactus-cactus-cactus because ITS THE LIGHTING. I DRINK WATER I SWEAR 😭😭

Scythe Volta

Scythe Volta

"Is there a reason you chose your robe to be the colour of piss?"

Ngl I genuinely cried when Highblade Xenocrates died. :(

end of scythe and early thunderhead quirks because i refuse to shut up

apparently every character is strong enough to carry every other character. like yeah i totally expected curie to be able to just, hoist citra everywhere but reading that citra CARRIED (not dragged) faraday (you know, a grown ass whole ass buff ass man) was a lil jarring. i know they’re all buff as shit but faraday has to be bulking i mean cmon

rowan is so emo oh my god

brahms sniffed the air when he realized someone was following him

neal has a personal vendetta against xenocrates cause WHY DOES HE FEEL THE NEED TO MENTION THAT HE CAN BARELY FIT INTO A CONFESSIONS CHAMBER

this one is from scythe but rowan knows what a tweaker is only because he was so depressed he got his nanites tweaked. he’s so emo and for what

Scythe Volta

Scythe Volta

"Is there a reason you chose your robe to be the colour of piss?"