The Last Ringbearer

When I’m asked about best book I always bring up „The Last Ringbearer” by Yeskov. It’s a fanfic in LOTR universe, and it wasn’t very interesting when I was reading it but it revolved around a twist that helped me develop critical thinking skills. In short and without too much of a spoiler - it’s about relativism of everything, including history and importance of narrative in shaping perspectives. Somewhat similar to much later Indoctrination Theory in Mass Effect games.

I read a lot of fanfiction in the last years. On the downside the writing is less polished. On the upside it is free and non-mainstream. I was influenced by Eliezer Yudkowsky and his take on rationality. His fanfiction "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality" serves as a nice introduction. http://www.hpmor.com/ Worm by John McCrae is an epic superhero/villain story. Consider it Game of Thrones in the superhero genre. With 16 million words it is a really long story. For comparison, the Harry Potter series is 10 million words. The Metropolition Man by Alexander Wales is also in the superhero genre, but turns it on its head. Lex Luthor is the hero standing up against Superman. The Last Ringbearer by Kirill Yeskov does the same to Lord of the Rings. It effectively becomes a fantasy spy thriller. These three are great stories that show how good and evil are a point of view. An important lesson to learn in a time when US and China are increasingly hostile. Since HN is american, China might be compared to Mordor and Xi Jinping to Lux Luthor. Fiction stories may help you to at least imagine that they consider themselves as the good guys.…