Cosmic Warlord Kin-Bright

(A long-overdue review from a fan and former cohost user, who has followed the poem since books IX and X)

There is *nothing* like Cosmic Warlord Kin-Bright.  It changed how I see poetry. It gave me an out to read when I was having a really bad depressive episode. It is one of my favorite things, it's an autismic special interest that I'm always eagerly working into conversations. I have read most of the poem several times over. There are parts of it I can quote from memory.

We used to think we didn't like "high style", it felt like a walled garden we were not allowed into. We never saw ourselves, or the things that excite us, depicted in it.  But this poem has toxic yuri! It has insects! It has noticing the speed of sound! It has ring-ships and radios AI's and aquariums and dragons and hyperspace and even (I fear to say it but I must) cool world-building! :D And it would not have captured our attention nearly as much if all of this were not written in the flowery, uncringing voice of a homeric epic. High Style is SO BACK and you can write anything you can dream of in it.

The poetry is *good*! It uses forms almost like leitmotifs in a movie, which is *really* effective, especially for the death-poems. It introduced me to many wonderful obscure words. It makes me want to go write my own fantastical poetry. I'm really glad it's written in strictly-followed 5-beat lines (and alliterative verse!) rather than free verse. There is a wonderful feeling to getting immersed in a long narrative poem; after a while, you entrain to the ever-present rhythm and it becomes a magical, even hypnotic experience. Books IX and X sent us *nonverbal*. In a very very good way.

Cosmic Warlord Kin-Bright also secretly is an accessible bridge to pre-modern poetry. It uses many common poetic forms, and regularly references and shares themes/motifs with older texts,  which makes going and reading something like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight or the Iliad even more exciting, because you'll see little glimmers of this poem in them. This poem got me to take an interest in a bunch of *other* poetry we would have NEVER even known about, let alone read, otherwise. We are over here trying to learn to read Middle English with all its yoȝs and þorns because of Cosmic Warlord Kin-Bright.

It's also kinda refreshing to see good fiction that expects you to have a brain and basic critical reading skills and to understand that this story is (in-world) *propaganda.* It's a good ol' fashioned I-Can-Fix-Her-Says-Girl-Who-Is-Worse type story and it's one of my go-to comfort readings when I need something that makes me feel like, "well, at least *that* isn't my life".

If you are on this itch page, eyeing up this poem, I am begging you, *please* read (or listen to!) Cosmic Warlord Kin-Bright.  This poem is one of the most creative, exciting, unique pieces of sci-fi we've ever read. I just love this poem so much.

I have been slowly reading the poem and managed to catch the VOD for the final book a little later, and I'm glad I did! The live reading definitely adds something to it, and it makes me want to go back and listen all the way through again, after I had some time to digest this whole beast.

Incredible work. Though I admit poetry isn't my strong suit, I think you did such a good job mixing all these disparate genres together and weaving something worth reading and savoring the word choice of all throughout. I'm super impressed, and I also very much enjoyed your posts and musings on other platforms. 

I'll be recommending this to any person I find who might be interested.

ladies, is it gay for a complex web of honor relations to compel your wife's relatives to fight for you