Re: The R.A. Salvatore comments, I play D&D, as some of you know, so I can't believe I hadn't heard of this guy until now! He very much isn't "just a guy who writes licensed Star Wars novels". The name Drizzt definitely rings a bell for me, but I had no idea that was Salvatore. Funny how you can miss things like that. Guess I'm one of today's lucky 10,000 - https://xkcd.com/1053/ - or more like "lucky 100", because I'd say only 1 in 100 people are nerdy enough to be like "Who the hell hasn't heard of R.A. Salvatore?" But I am definitely that nerdy, so thanks for introducing me.

On Stanek's Distinguished Flying Cross - It's possible he really did do something heroic in the Gulf War to earn that, since a lot of people have been commenting that a DFC isn't as easy to get as I made it sound. While researching this episode, I came across what purported to be a full list of DFC recipients that included a lot of politicians and celebrities, and the ratio of politicians and celebrities to normal people seemed implausibly high for an award only given out for heroism. And the Fake Warriors Project has confirmed that Stanek definitely does have a DFC, but if he had a war-hero story, I'd expect him to milk that for all it's worth. He does talk about being a decorated military veteran, but as far as I know, he has never directly told the story of how he got his DFC, which isn't very Stanek. Maybe the list I found was incomplete, and even if not, it's definitely true that having a legitimate war-hero story makes you more likely to go into politics, and possibly gain fame in other unrelated ways. And maybe Stanek really did do something heroic during the Gulf War, but kind of regrets it now because he knew he could never top that achievement for the rest of his life, and is desperately trying to gain fame in other ways so that he can be sure he didn't peak when he was young. That's strikingly plausible, come to think of it, and makes Stanek's whole story so much sadder. I'll defer to people who know more about the US military than I do, and those people have been saying that contrary to what I claimed in this video, a DFC really is prestigious and really is a big deal.


I stand by my claims about Wikipedia. Yes, there have been credible studies showing it has a left-wing bias, and that is a problem, but at least Wikipedians aspire to be neutral and encyclopedic, which is something most media these days don't even have pretenses of doing. If you think Wikipedia is biased and unreliable, it's on you to find me a source that's less biased and less unreliable. Not even Encyclopedia Britannica is consistently better, though it depends on the topic. I do admit there are are some individual cases of activist editors who muddy the waters - while this is by no means the norm on Wikipedia, check out this fascinating article about one longtime top editor and the personal biases he unapologetically let seep into his edits: https://www.tracingwoodgrains.com/p/reliable-sources-how-wikipedia-admin

I'm obsessed with the thought that he might just be doing all of this for the love of the game

Imagine being one lone real person from Bulgaria unknowingly interacting with hundreds of "fan" accounts all run by the author. imagine how creepy that would be.

With AI, this is a lost form of art

I won't lie, curating a fake web presence around a fantasy series nobody has heard of sounds like an incredibly fun hobby. It wouldn't surprise me at all if that's the part he enjoys, and not the writing, or at least that the writing comes second. Surely it's not profit driven—he can't be making that much from this, especially self publishing—and the copy-paste adaptations reek of "I wonder if I could start a teen market version now." While you can look at it cynically, I prefer to think of it is as an elaborate work of art over the course of decades. The real fantasy work was never in the books.

Inserting his book on the Wikipedia page for "Literacy" might be the most hilarious thing I've ever heard in my life

If Stanek had channeled this passion and skill into an online ARG i think he'd actually make a ton of cool stuff, hes got the grind

“Inserted the book under the Wikipedia page for Literacy”

Beast mode.

I work in a book shop, and god damn am I tired of "A Blank Of X and Y" filling the shelves

Plot twist: the person who wrote the blog unmasking Stanek was Stanek himself

weirdly the car name thing is actually a cool idea for a post-apocalypse, “people named after the faded signs on old rubble” strikes me as plausible, if only it were uh, in a better book

Ty'rant is such a low effort fantasy name. I kind of love it.

Stanek feels like those people who make detailed tv tropes pages for their 10 book epic scifi space opera that only exist in their head and a bunch of bullet points on a word doc but extended out to be an entire fake terrarium of content

It's easier to be an "amazon best selling author" than people think.  I independently published a book, and at one point I posted on social media and made the price 99 cents, and my rank surged for 1-2 days until my book was #1 in the "multiple sclerosis" category, so I am technically an "Amazon #1 best selling author."  I am not exactly about to quit my day job via author income.  It would be truly sad if Stanek had to fake this.

34:00

"These men have sworn a sacred oath to celibacy. Like their fathers, and their fathers before them"
- Topper Harley

Stanek really paved the way for all the author drama of today. He isn't just writing mean reviews of other people's books, this man is working for it.

I was about to comment "RIP Robert Stanek, you would love AI" only to find out he DID actually love it...

I can attest that Sparhawk truly owns the bulgarian fan website The Citadel and is not a sockpuppet - as young Bulgarian fantasy fan I was active for a bit there. He actually pulled strings and the first keeper martin book was translated and released in bulgarian by an actual publisher to no praise and was the ocassion of a forum war regarding the legitimacy of Stanek with rival fantasy and sf fanzines leading the charge - thats how I learned of Stanek in the first place. I had forgotten this piece of lore. Not suprised that he tried the teen distopia grift. Man, this takes me back, the golden age of fantasy forum drama.

Having this channel inexplicably uploading over 40 well-researched , incredibly entertaining video essays in the span of a couple of months has been one of the brightest spots in a really terrible year. Genuinely, thank you so much Tor!

I think Robert Stanek should've started writing spicy dark romance. Because I think it woukd be hilarious to try and see him take on that genre.