#ashes of the sun

[xantchaslegacy]

Ashes of the Sun is not even among my most-re-read mtg novels *glances nervously at my copies of BW, Chainer's Torment, Shattered Chains and Invasion that have literally fallen to pieces* but to this day I rate it among my favorite magic books ever because what it has to say about community, cultures of ignorance, and the fraught politics of cultural preservation make it relevant to the world at large almost three decades after it was published.

[ianthe-is-a-bitch-and-i-love-her]

The past couple of weeks I've been reading a bunch of Django Wexler books, and the thing that caught me by surprise was how many of his main characters came across as fairly nuanced aspec rep, and I'm not entirely sure whether it was on purpose or not.

The first book I noticed this in was Ashes of the Sun. It and its sequels are queernorm, and textually acknowledge asexuality and aromanticism as things that are known and accepted within the setting. There are two protagonists, Maya and Gyre, and Gyre's experience of sexual and romantic attraction is deeply interesting in its absence. He has sex on multiple occasions, and seems to enjoy it somewhat, but nothing about his narration ever indicates that he has any interest in seeking it out. He never expresses a specific sexual attraction to either of his partners (or anyone else for that matter), never initiates sex, and never even seems to be thinking about sex as a possibility until someone else points it out to him. His feelings for his partners don't necessarily read as romantic, either. That part is more complicated and more open to interpretation - one of his partners is a fling, and the other deliberately avoids defining their relationship beyond "we are friends and sometimes sleep together", but he clearly feels awkward about the possibility of getting involved with other people in any capacity in spite of their explicit lack of exclusivity. However, his primary partner doesn't receive emotional priority in his narration. He treats her and thinks of her like all of his other close friends, without prioritizing her either higher or lower than anyone else.

However, neither his narration nor anyone else comments on this apparent lack of sexual or romantic interest, which is what makes the authorial intent seem ambiguous to me. In a queernorm setting where aspec people are textually a known and unremarkable part of society, it feels odd that neither Gyre nor anyone else describes himself in those terms. Given that his only partners are women, I'd normally be inclined to say that the author intended for him to allo and straight and just didn't really focus on writing sex and romance if not for our other viewpoint character, Maya. Maya's narration is chock full of visceral romantic and sexual attraction. The force of her attraction regularly hits her like a punch to the gut. At first she has to psych herself up to look her crush in the eye because every time she does her brain functions are replaced with "hnnnnnng girl pretty😳😳😳". It's such a dramatic contrast that it feels like it almost has to be deliberate. It's also worth noting that Maya's eventual partner, Beq, describes herself as having never been interested in someone before and that she hadn't ever expected to be, and as being kind of overwhelmed by the whole experience, which certainly sounds like it could be a description of demisexuality. She doesn't get a pov, though, so that's about as far as that exploration goes.

Demisexuality does come up in a different Wexler series, though. The Shadow Campaigns series is not queernorm - misogyny is dealt with extensively, and homophobia peripherally. One of the pov characters, Raesinia, spends the first half of the series utterly uninterested in romance or sex. She's not dismissive of them, or without opportunities to explore either - she simply doesn't feel either kind of attraction to anyone and never has, and is unbothered by that fact, except for when it puts her in the situation of needing to let one of her friends down gently. However, over the course of two books and about a year and a half in universe time, she develops a friendship and mutual respect with one of the other pov characters, Markus. In spite of a few comments from some of their other friends, Raesinia's feelings for him are pretty unambiguously platonic, with the most she'll concede to her friends' teasing being that he seems and looks nice enough, I guess. However, eventually her feelings for him begin to shift, until eventually she expresses a romantic interest in him. Again, this is not a queernorm series. One of the pov characters and several other main and supporting characters are unambiguously queer, but there's no in-universe cultural awareness of aspec identities, and no one remarks on them as a possibility. Again, here is where I would normally assume that the author intended to write a slowburn between a two allo heterosexual characters, except. There is a specific point in the story, years since they first met and months after they became romantically involved, where Raesinia specifically and dramatically experiences sexual attraction for the first time. And the degree to which that is emphasized by the text makes me think that her demisexuality might have been purposeful.

Ultimately I'm not really concerned with authorial intent; the text is the text, and both series feature characters who read as aspec to me. But it's not often that I'm so uncertain about what the authorial intent was. In any case, it makes for compelling reading.

[pieandpaperbacks]

Currently reading: Ashes of the Sun by Django Wexler

I picked this up over a year ago, and I only just started reading it. It seems to be very heavily inspired by Star Wars, but I haven’t found the similarities derivative or annoying at all. Also the chapter icons are really cool!

[reslutcitate]

listening to ashes of the sun by django wexler, so far great relaxing easy fantasy with dumb terminology like unmetal, perfect for my convalescence

[thedawnrepublicist]

"What are you mixing?" "Dunno." "What's it going to do?" "Not sure." "Is it safe?" "We'll find out!" - Django Wexler: 'Ashes of the Sun'

[bluntblade]

Brain is finally recovered from the worst ravages of the Otterfuckening, so I think I can just ramble a bit about Ashes of the Sun.

It's a neat book. Not in tone but in spirit, it kind of pulls a Watchmen/The Boys with a Star Wars-esque setup, which allows for some "what if the Jedi were actually seriously morally dubious?" exploration which doesn't land in kind of douchey territory and/or clash unsatisfyingly with everything established previously.

There is less space fantasy going on than I'd expected (the star-spanning Empire is very much in the past), but it results in a cool kind of post-apocalypse vibe (an apocalypse which is a long way in the past), where magic exists but so does all this barely-understood technology, and to most of the world the arcana is barely any less magical than the inborn powers some people use to conjure fire or cutting winds.

The characters are cool as well. I have a particular soft spot for Beq, Maya's love interest, because she's such a complete and utter nerd.

Also the Hakens, the not-lightsabers, are really really neat, as a warrior of the Order projects their particular power through the weapon. So you can have blades of fire, wind or even kind of black holes. It's very cool!

[ash-and-starlight]

The world needs more Yue and Zuko friendship, I squeal just thinking abt the parallels. They deserve a life changing field trip together and if u have abt ideas I’m all ears 👀

Hiii anon this ask fermented in my inbox and in my brain for so long,, so take this??? Post canon yue lives/no war au arts?? Anyway aside from the Parallels and their political position & their duty before hoes grindset I think they could learn a lot from each other. With zuko learning the gift of patience & diplomacy from yue & Yue learning that allowing yourself to feel anger and speaking up can actually be Good.

anyway hypothetical life changing trip outcome: zuko takes an intro gender studies class and yue says fuck

(oh and also must not forget the crush on sokka)

[julijbee]

sometimes i boot up morrowind just to walk down the foyada.

[achieve-the-sun]

Cilan, my beloved🌱

[leminaus]

needed to draw them

[agoldengalaxy]

me at any minor inconvenience

[softcryz]

RAIN WORLD ART MONTH ;; LEVIATHAN

So remember when I said I should draw all of The Detorrents for Leviathan day? Well. I DID

...I DREW THEM REALLY SCRUNCHED AND SMALL BUT I STILL DID IT!! Depending on your time zone this is probably late (I also got these done a while ago-- Tumblr is just being weird?) but surely you can understand . I had to draw eight of these fuckers

Obligatory @zarithial tag since these are OUR dogs

I HOPE THESE ARE ALRIGHT!! Hope y'all enjoy seeing all eight big guys

[ianthe-is-a-bitch-and-i-love-her]

@tinker-tanner referring to this post.

I definitely enjoyed reading them! Ashes of the Sun I would recommend unambiguously; it's not a perfect book, but I really enjoyed it. It's a sort of low sci-fi fantasy that proudly takes inspiration from Star Wars. If like the idea of a story where the Jedi and Sith are both more morally grey and that cares a lot about the normal people that get caught in the crossfire of that conflict, this might just be your new favorite series.

I also thought The Shadow Campaigns were enjoyable reads, but I'll put a few caveats on that recommendation. First, it's one of the author's older works, so the plot is a little less imaginative and a little less deftly executed, and there are a few choices that come right up to the line of some unfortunate implications, especially in the orientalism department. I think it managed to stay clear of anything too nasty, and I the author took deliberate care to avoid racist stereotypes in his depictions, but there are one or two spots that I think he could have thought through a little bit better. Second, the series is low fantasy military fiction. If you do not enjoy detailed descriptions of massed battles and the tactics that govern them, you will not enjoy these books. I do enjoy that kind of stuff, and even I will say that the first book had one battle too many, which caused it to drag a bit in the middle. Third, the books are set in an intensely misogynistic world. Gendered and sexual violence is present in the foreground and background, and the conditions surrounding and arising from that are explored. I didn't find it gratuitous - it was generally present for a specific purpose, which it accomplished effectively - but if you would find that upsetting, then this isn't the series for you. If you are interested, the first book is The Thousand Names

[pieandpaperbacks]

Monthly book wrap up - May

Ashes of the Sun, Django Wexler - Loosely based on Star Wars, this is a fun sci-fi adventure with interesting world building and great wlw rep

A Marvellous Light, Freya Marske - the queer historical fantasy you didn’t know you needed

Coraline, Neil Gaiman - I first read this when I was about seven, so it was definitely time for a reread, and yes, it’s just as good as it was back then.

[agentc0rn]

oh man...2 decades on earth...wow.

[zacharyius]

ash ketchum sitting like this . png