Vox Day: A Throne of Bones Review

I review Vox Day’s lengthy novel ‘A Throne of Bones’ and find it to be very, very good.

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A Throne of Bones by Vox Day.

Shakespeare, according to Wikipedia, “was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist”.

Not, of course, that this was the view in his day. In his day the nobles and the elites were very concerned about theatre as a low-class and vulgar form of entertainment.

In fact in 1596 theatres were banned in the City of London, leading to the construction of new theatres on the south bank of the Thames such as the Old Globe theatre.

I mention Shakespeare not because Vox seeks to be as populist as him but because many themes are drawn from the famous play, Julius Caesar.

‘A Throne of Bones’ (Amazon.com / Amazon.co.uk) is set in a fantasy world dominated by the ‘Republic of Amorr’, which is almost indistinguishable from the Roman Republic in the real world. A major difference is that a monotheistic faith very similar to Christianity is already the official state religion. In the real Rome that did not happen until the Republic had been replaced by the Roman Empire. Another difference from the real world is that Amorr’s world contains the usual fantasy tropes such as elves, dwarves, goblins, demons and magic users.

The story concerns power struggles between a number of supernatural and mortal factions inside Amorr and neighbouring states.

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‘Fake Anthrax’ – Law Enforcement Inaction Leads to Further Joshua Conner Moon / Kiwi Farms Related Crime

In the wake of the Okaloosa School threats, the Witchfinder reveals that an absence of US law enforcement activity over sinister website Kiwi Farms has led to further vigilante threats, including a detailed guide to retaliatory harassment of the operator and the sending of false anthrax packages. Josh Moon has had many enemies on the chan boards and elsewhere for some time, long before I wrote about the site. Their opposition to Kiwi Farms and Moon shows every sign of intensifying.

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Escambia County. On the left, Joshua Conner Moon with a small child. Perhaps it is one of the children Kiwi Farms recently voted to target. On the right a terrorist with Anthrax. Center – Sheriff David Morgan looks on. Image used under the UK Parody exception pursuant to s30A Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. Child is a stock image from Dreamstime.

Last week, Hertfordshire police received a menacing email trying to imply I was a criminal. They immediately realised it was fake, and put it in to their technical unit for tracing. It was not the first time. Needless to say it seemd to come from a domain owned by Joshua Conner Moon, the operator of the ‘GamerGate.us’ email service, which falsely poses as the #GamerGate movement for trolling purposes.

Joshua Moon’s site Kiwi Farms has been increasingly controversial for some time now due to its explicit targeting of preteen children and the disabled, as well as high profile individuals like former Nintendo PR Alison Rapp. In my initial article on the subject, I documented how multiple hosting companies had banned the site. French hosting company Gandi.net expressly confirmed that Kiwi Farms was banned after child pornography was found.

In a later article, with links and archives, I provided evidence that Kiwi Farms were openly organising frightening forged emails to women, in the name of other women and with penis photos and similar attached. A member boasted of organising SWATtings and one screenshotted a massacre threat they sent to Hertfordshire police. The same article linked to a vote taken on Kiwi Farms to target under age children and gave an example of their doing exactly that by harvesting family photos of a 5-year old boy. Clearly many of these activities are illegal under Federal United States and Florida law.

Most message boards that provide questionable content avoid participation and rely on immunity under section 230 of the United States Communications Decency Act 1996. Case law shows that this immunity can be lost if you join in the fray and participate by creating editorial content, which of course Moon does on a regular basis. He would be well advised to read this article here (archive here).

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Worthless Ruling in Zoe Quinn Case Spares Judge Embarassment but Does Nothing for Domestic Violence Victims

So this happened. I got most of my grades for my law course and I am nearly done. Of note I got a distinction for litigation (conducting court proceedings) on the civil and criminal side. Much to my astonishment I also received a grade of 100% for conduct (ethics). This makes me one of the most ethical law students of all time.

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Some of my law grades. 100% for conduct.

I have decided to refocus this blog more ethically based on feedback from KotakuInAction and elsewhere. There will be more law and factual pieces with fewer hitpieces along with a slightly gentler style. I will be posting the new style stuff under my real name, with occasional harder pieces by ‘Matthew Hopkins’ for old times’ sake.

So let us turn now to Zoe Quinn and her purported, ‘victory’ over Eron Gjoni. What does the recent judgement of the Massachussetts Appeal Court mean and who (if anyone) won anything?

Firstly, we need to go to the original document, which is here, for a detailed analysis. On an interesting note, Zoe has changed her legal name from Chelsea Van Valkenburg to Zoë Tiberius Quinn. Tiberius was a Roman Emperor said to be a “dark, reclusive, and sombre ruler who never really desired to be emperor”, according to Wikipedia.

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I am Now Writing as Samuel Collingwood Smith

So this happened. I got most of my grades for my law course and I am nearly done. Of note I got a distinction for litigation (conducting court proceedings) on the civil and criminal side. Much to my astonishment I also received a grade of 100% for conduct (ethics). This makes me one of the most ethical law students of all time.

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Sam Smith

I have decided to refocus this blog more ethically based on feedback from KiA and elsewhere. There will be more law and factual pieces with fewer hitpieces along with a slightly gentler style. I will be posting the new style stuff under my real name, with occasional harder pieces by ‘Matthew Hopkins’ for old times’ sake.

I will be maintaining new profiles at Vordrak.com, SamuelCollingwoodSmith.com and samuelcollingwoodsmith.blogspot.com. There is also a factual article here regarding my opposition to harassment site Kiwi Farms.

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Wikipedia’s Mark Bernstein Decries ‘GamerGate’ Threats to Opponents’ Jobs … then Writes to Someone’s Employer

Mark Bernstein’s behaviour has always been … eccentric, even before his recent formal topic ban from #GamerGate and indeed, any gender related controversy on Wikipedia (archive here). As far as I can understand his latest rant, he has been escalated beyond complaining that criticising individuals to their employers or about their employment is ‘harassment’. Bernstein now describes it as ‘extortion’, the US equivalent of the UK crime of Blackmail contrary to s21 Theft Act 1978.

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Mark Bernstein characterises criticism of anti-GamerGate Wikipedia administrators in the context of their jobs as ‘extortion’. Click for full size.

Based on his various ramblings on Wikipedia (archive here) and elsewhere, Mark thinks that controversial Wikipedia arbitrator Gamaliel asked to be banned form enforcement related to the GamerGate article and related matters in order to signal GamerGate to leave him alone.

By chance, Gamaliel was a person mentioned in a draft article about the unjust ban of editor The Devil’s Advocate (TDA) from Wikipedia some months ago. I sent it for comment to everyone mentioned in accordance with ethical practice, but then postponed it due to the arbitration case. For background on TDA’s ban, there is an excellent article by Allum Bokhari here on Breitbart.

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Twisted, Sexual Deviant Troll ‘Dynastia’ From Josh Moon’s Kiwi Farms Targets Pre-Teen Children

This article is a further exposé of the sickening sexual deviants who run and participate in Kiwi Farms, a trolling website operated by an unemployed man called Joshua Conner Moon. Moon lives in Escambia County Florida with his mother, Keller Williams Realtor Candice Potter. Previous articles have focused on Moon himself, but this one focuses on a user called Dynastia, a friend of Moon and user of his site. Dynastia has been organising the sending of penis photos to women for harassment purposes on a near industrial scale and recently had a formal vote passed at Kiwi Farms that they could target children, which was then carried out.

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Sheriff Morgan, please let Matthew Hopkins News give you a solid tip-off about some possible sex crimes.

What Has Come Before?
To recap for those who are unfamiliar with Kiwi Farms, it is a website set up to troll and harass the vulnerable online. Kiwi Farms recently had its main account, @KiwiFarms, indefinitely suspended from Twitter (pre-suspension archive here) after my intervention. This is unsurprising as the tagline was, “Gossip and exploitation of the mentally handicapped for amusement purposes”.

In my original article, I had seen some quotes on Encyclopaedia Dramatica in which Moon was said to have boasted of paedopilia, but I did not accept these serious allegations until I received a separate tip-off that Moon’s site contained child pornography. Rather than view the URIs I contacted the hosting company, which banned Moon.

Subsequently, several hosts in succession removed the site. One, ethical French company Gandi.net told Moon that they had independently verified there was child pornography and it was so serious that he would not be given a second chance. A full size image of their exchange with Moon is here.

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No Angel – Court Records of Former Nurse Candice Lynn Potter, Mother of Joshua Moon

Joshua Conner Moon runs a hate group that hounds people and doxxes their families. There is a considerable public interest in his own background and that of his mother, who financially supports him.

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Candice Lynn Potter successfully completed a pre-trial diversion scheme and charges were dropped. Click for full size.

Josh says that his mother changed career from nurse to Realtor due to age and bone pain. By coincidence, this also roughly coincided with her prosecution for resisting arrest. The case did not lead to a criminal conviction or record, because it was discontinued when Candice agreed to and successfully completed pre-trial diversion.

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Obscure Game Developer Joe Wintergreen of Impromptu Games Will Not Hire ‘GamerGate Weirdo’s, Guaranteeing Continued Obscurity and Failure

The Witchfinder identifies another developer thoughtlessly willing to alienate his customers with ignorant and bigoted opinions about #GamerGate and its supporters.

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Joe Wintergreen mouths off ignorantly. This is not the way to sell games, or have a career in the games industry. Click for full size.

Today I learnt about some games I had never heard of before. Impromptu Games developer Joe Wintergreen is the proud author of Half Life 2 mod – ‘Shotgun Sunrise’ and its derivative, ‘Vroom!’ a racing game. I am not sure if modifying a first person shooter into a slightly different first person shooter is that great an accomplishment, but Shotgun Sunrise gets a just-above-mediocre 7.3 from the ModDB Community.

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