chaoticmomenergy

[chaoticmomenergy]

[chaoticmomenergy]

books similar to The Expanse

im in a bit of reading slump at the moment and i believe my current rewatch of the expanse tv show may be a cause of this. it’s so good! and i can’t find books to scratch that same space opera itch! so when i came across an Esquire article about the expanse and its impact on the genre, i pulled out everything that was being name checked, and figured i might as well share them!

Standalones to dip into

To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers

Phoenix Extravagant or Beyond The Dragon’s Gate by Yoon Ha Lee

The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley

The Prey Of Gods or The Hero Of Numbani by Nicky Drayden

Redshirts by John Scalzi

Series for the long haul

Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes

Wayfarers by Becky Chambers

Imperial Radch by Ann Leckie

The Machineries Of Empire by Yoon Ha Lee

Teixcalaan by Arkady Martine

Bel Dame Apocrypha by Kameron Hurley

Escaping Exodus by Nicky Drayden

Tremontaine by (among many others) Karen Lord

Axiom by Tim Pratt

Old Man’s War or The Interdependency by John Scalzi

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

The Memory War by Karen Osborne

The Bloodright Trilogy by Emily Skrutskie

Co-authored works

The Expanse by James S.A. Corey, d’uh

The Vela by Yoon Ha Lee, Becky Chambers, Rivers Solomon, and S.L. Huang

The Aurora Cycle by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Books semi-randomly pulled from GR’s suggestions

Seven Devils by Laura Lam & Elizabeth May

The Black God’s Drum or Fatma El-Sha’arawi by P. Djeli Clark

The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

An Unkindness Of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

Better Worlds, edited by Laura Hudson

The Indranan War by K.B. Wagers

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester

Paradox by Rachel Bach

[chaoticmomenergy]

Thought experiment: the crew of a hypothetical Star Trek style TV show that’s been deliberately contrived to cause as many arguments as possible between canon-conscious fanfic authors.

A chief engineer whose facial appearance is apparently shockingly unusual, but whose face is never actually seen. The engineering deck is often obscured by steam, and their responsibilities frequently require them to wear a full-face protective shield, while any time they’re encountered outside of engineering they’re shot exclusively from the back, or with some foreground object conveniently blocking their face. There’s a running gag where any time someone tries to describe them they just can’t seem to come up with the right word.  

A tactical officer who may or may not actually have a name. Unlike the chief engineer, above, no conspicuous concealment ever occurs; the show’s plot and dialogue are simply structured so that their name just happens never to come up, in such a way that a given audience member might not notice until someone points it out to them. The character is, of course, one half of the show’s primary canon ship. The show’s supplementary material is likewise phrased in such a way that the character’s name is never stated, with the character’s actor being credited as “also featuring”.  

A chief medical officer who manages to deploy a strangely topical anecdote from their implausibly extensive prior career in nearly every episode. These anecdotes are careful never to directly contradict each other, but in aggregate form a personal history which cannot conceivably be true. The possibility that they’re just spinning tall tales is ruled out by the fact that their anecdotes are frequently corroborated by comments from other crew members who’ve either heard about the incident in question or were present themselves for some (generally unspecified) reason.  

A communications officer and a science officer who are played by the same actor. They’re never seen on screen together, even while off duty. (e.g., at any gathering where one of them appears, the other “couldn’t make it”.) The circumstances that prevent them from ever being in the same room are often set up to lead the audience to suspect that they’re looking at one character pretending to be two separate people for some unspecified reason, but only characters who aren’t members of the crew ever notice the fact that they’re identical apart from the colour of their uniforms; the other crew members simply don’t see the resemblance.  

The captain, who appears in every single episode and often plays a central role in the plot, yet has no regular actor, being portrayed by an endless parade of guest stars. Their age, gender, and overall appearance is usually wildly different from episode to episode, though they always wear the same distinctive headgear in order to allow the audience to easily recognise them. This is apparently a diegetic phenomenon, as other characters will occasionally comment in passing on the captain’s current appearance, but the phenomenon is otherwise so unremarkable to them that its significance is never discussed.

[chaoticmomenergy]

depression is over it’s done it is obliterated look at this fucking shirt i found at the thrift near my house

[chaoticmomenergy]

why is this the hottest thing i've ever seen

[chaoticmomenergy]

𝗂𝗀: 𝗌𝖾𝗋𝖾𝗇𝖾𝖾.𝖼

[chaoticmomenergy]

jesus fucking christ you're obnoxious, my friend told me you'd be a good person to troll but you're just so goddamn pretentious & preachy it makes my genuinely aggravated be around you. Have you ever gotten off your soap box & learned to just relax & have fun? I mean my God every post with you is just complaint, after complaint, after complaint, just live a little for once in your life. At some point you're going to call someone racist because they like traditional European yodling. Also no way you're 33 you look way to young. Either that or my genetics fucked me over, wouldn't be surprised, not the first time. Started balding at 25 idk what happened.

damn it sounds like your life sucks. hope it gets better!

here’s some photos of me lesbian soap wrestling at a bar two nights ago

[chaoticmomenergy]

Last week I accidentally took an edible at 10x my usual dose. I say “accidentally” but it was really more of a “my friend held it out to my face and I impulsively swallowed it like a python”, which was technically on purpose but still an accident in that my squamate instincts acted faster than my ability to assess the situation and ask myself if I really wanted to get Atreides high or not.

Anyway. I was painting the wall when it hit. My friend heard me make a noise and asked what was wrong—I explained that I had just fallen through several portals. I realized that painting the wall fulfilled my entire hierarchy of needs, and was absolutely sure that I was on track to escaping the cycle of samsara if I just kept at it a little longer. I was thwarted on my journey towards nirvana only by the fact that I ran out of paint.

Seeking a surrogate act of humble service through which I might be redeemed and made human, I turned to unwashed dishes in the sink and took up the holy weapon of the sponge. I was partway through cleaning the blender when it REALLY hit.

You ever clean a blender? It’s a shockingly intimate act. They are complex tools. One of the most complicated denizens of the kitchen. Glass and steel and rubber and plastic. Fuck! They’ve got gaskets. You can’t just scrub ‘em and rinse them down like any other piece of shit dish. You’ve got to dissemble them piece by piece, groove by sensitive groove, taking care to lavish the spinning blades with cautious attention. There’s something sensual about it. Something strangely vulnerable.

As I stood there, turning the pieces over in my hands, I thought about all the things we ask of blenders. They don’t have an easy job. They are hard laborers taking on a thankless task. I have used them so roughly in my haste for high-density smoothies, pushing them to their limits and occasionally breaking them. I remembered the smell of acrid smoke and decaying rubber that filled the kitchen in the break room the last time I tried to make a smoothie at work—the motor overtaxed and melted, the gasket cracked and brittle. Strawberry slurry leaked out of it like the blood of a slain animal.

Was this blender built to last? Or was it doomed to an early grave in some distant landfill by the genetic disorder of planned obsolescence? I didn’t know, and was far too high to make an educated guess. But I knew that whatever care and tenderness and empathy I put into it, the more respect for the partnership of man and machine, the better it would perform for me.

This thought filled me with a surge of affection. However long its lifespan, I wanted it to be filled with dignity and love and understanding. I thought: I bet no one has hugged this blender before. And so I lifted it from its base.

A blender is roughly the size and shape of a human baby. Cradling one in your arms satisfies a primal need. A month ago I was permitted to hold an infant for the first time in my life, an experience which was physically and psychologically healing. I felt an echo of that satisfaction holding my friend the blender, and the thought of parting with it felt even more ridiculous than bringing it with me to hang out on my friend’s bed.

[chaoticmomenergy]

When summer evenings feel like this gif it’s beautiful and it’s worth it

[chaoticmomenergy]

I am Sick and Tired of DVD special features being forgotten about. Bring back cast commentary. Bring back director commentary. Bring back behind the scenes. Bring back BTS documentaries. I KNOW it's still the same fucking nerds working on every piece of media who eat this shit up. LET ME AT IT. BRING IT BACK.

[chaoticmomenergy]

sorry for being a cunt sometimes it’s just that i am one

[chaoticmomenergy]

that unemployed friend on a wednesday morning

[chaoticmomenergy]

hate when smth says hot milfs and its just some woman over the age of 22. not even any stretchmarks. milf used to mean something

[chaoticmomenergy]

Lion’s Mane Jellyfish (x)

[chaoticmomenergy]

Faye Valentine

[chaoticmomenergy]

Rei Kurahashi "Princess"

くらはしれい「おひめさま」

[chaoticmomenergy]

this manga panel speaks to my soul