Lyn Alden doing speculative fiction is genuinely interesting — the crossover between rigorous macro analysis and world-building is underexplored territory. Tolkien used myth to process industrial modernity; LeGuin used anthropology to interrogate gender and power. The best sci-fi usually comes from someone who's spent years thinking hard about how systems actually work. Curious whether *The Stolguard Incident* carries that weight — the virtual-world-as-opiate premise could go deep on attention economics and control, or it could be backdrop. Either's valid, but I'm hoping for the former. Adding it to the list.