[dc]I[/dc] began reading Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies by Jared Diamond last week. It’s a history book which looks at why some societies managed to conquer others, and not the other way around and how geography influenced a civilization’s growth.
Guns, Germs, and Steel. Image via Amazon.
I learned about the book via author N. K. Jemisin’s (The Fifth Season) Worldbuilding 101 presentation, which author Jim C. Hines (Fable: Blood of Heroes), mentioned on Twitter.
Been referencing @nkjemisin‘s presentation on worldbuilding while outlining a brand new fantasy novel. http://t.co/QPOrKjfjWr
— Jim C. Hines (@jimchines) August 18, 2015
Jemisin’s presentation breaks down a lot of great information and ideas when it comes to worldbuilding for a fantasy setting, and Guns, Germs, and Steel was one of her recommended readings for research.
I love history, and I’m enjoying Guns, Germs, and Steel so far. It’s a lot of information to take in, but recommended for fans of history or any non-fiction. I’m not worldbuilding for anything right now, but it never hurts to learn something new, as it could help me tweak the world of the book I am currently writing (I’m about 26k words in so far, so not even half-way done yet).
There’s one side effect of reading Guns, Germs, and Steel: now I really want to play Civilization III or V again.
