Talia Moodley

Like you don't want to necessarily be told this is how to think.

Like they kind of put the situation in front of you and force you to confront that too.

This is what fantasy does so well.

It's so good.

This is why reading is so important.

And they say it's just dragons and castles and, you know.

The dragons are having philosophical debates.

And I think it's like that thing of, you know, history repeats, right?

Because I think now we can kind of apply it to kind of contemporary issues like AI and the kind of modern technology that we're worrying about but also trying to learn to live with now.

But I also think that that kind of environmental destruction, like, you know, you could tie it to like the industrial revolution and kind of all of those really big changes throughout history where, you know, we don't really know what the cost of our technology is.

I mean, even kind of, you know, if we want to get into kind of the way that the climate has been affected, you know, there are all these costs that just couldn't be foreseen.

So, yeah, it is interesting how something like this, which was written kind of pre-AI boom,

almost speaks directly to that right now because, yeah, these issues are things that we've dealt with over and over for so many years.

It is your responsibility to look, which is very relevant in a, I think, after dark discussion.

I love a well-crafted magic system.

Like it's just, it's one of the best things about reading fantasy.

Like when they make you believe it and it feels real, because I think one of my pet peeves is when a magic system is just like, oh, they have powers.

And I'm like, where, how, how do they work?

Tell me this.

As an editor, I'm constantly writing those questions.