#...hey seanan

[whetstonefires]

okay so per the nice ask about my Ao3 i replied yesterday, this is none of the fics i asked about, but i went through my files and this was just sitting there basically done like 'eh but nobody will want to read this it was just For Me' but hey maybe somebody (appleblondie) will 😄👍

[akaanir-of-starfleet]

"It was real." "No, that can't be." "Yes, it was, I've seen the records, We began aboard that vessel, All our roads to it run homewards. "It was real." "No, that can't be." "Yes, it was, and we're descended From the crew that once it nurtured, In its place beyond these skies!"        Clear-domed, broad-hulled, clean as stardust,        Cradle of our scattered people.        World of wonder, bathed in starlight,        Long behind us, not forgotten,        Place where all ships were begotten,        Long behind us, not forgotten,        Place where all ships were begotten... "Kin we are." "No, we can't be." "Yes we are, why not believe me?" "I'm afraid!" "Oh, you are childish, Strangers still can share a starline." "Kin we are." "No, we can't be." "Strange we've grown, but still we must be Blood of those who sang and rose as children from the Ship of Stone!" "Come with me." "No, I fear thee." "Hear the stories of the cradle Where our ships were formed and scattered, Now reduced to myth and fable -- "It was real, 'no', you told me, 'Yes', I said, you should believe me, Tight the net of light we're weaving, Part of us forever grieving; Find your solace in believing!"        Clear-domed, broad-hulled, clean as stardust,        Cradle of our scattered people.        World of wonder, bathed in starlight,        Long behind us, not forgotten,        Place where all ships were begotten,        Long behind us, not forgotten,        Place where all ships were begotten.

“Spacer’s Fairy Tale,” by Seanan McGuire

A rewriting of Leslie Fish’s “Ship of Stone” to the tune of Meg Davis’ “The Elf Glade”

I found it looking for something else and it is giving me Emotions.

[roach-works]

seanan it's for you

In case you need it for your D&D games or siege actions— here's what the ballistic trajectory of a flaming pumpkin fired out of a trebuchet looks like.

[scarletwix]

The best part with being in the home stretch (ha) of tlrh is that I can start thinking about other projects again. I used to write several fics at one time, but this behemoth has absorbed so much brain space that I literally couldn't do that anymore.

[kedreeva]

Hey sorry if you’ve answered this somewhere I browsed your “peafowl” tag a bit and didn’t see it but, tumblr search. anyway. Do your birds Fly? Google says peacocks can fly but I don’t think I’ve seen them do it is it like chickens where they kinda can but they mostly Don’t or just some kinds can or something else?

My birds don't really have the space or reason to fly, but they are capable of it. Bug flies around every time we go outside. Peafowl in general are capable of flight starting at about 3 days old, and they do fly, but they also don't have very good grasping feet because they are land fowl, and they're too large to be very maneuverable (especially the boys with their train, which I suppose is why they stay in display leks and the girls move to them) so most of their flight is "get up" or "get down" or "across wide open spaces." They are extremely fast runners on land, they can book it way faster than you think they're capable of (ask my friend Seanan, she watched Bug teleport the other night lol), they can jump like 8 feet feet straight up with barely opening their wings for balance, their predators are super rare (it's mostly just big cats once they're adults, tigers or leopards), and they spend the majority of their day grazing or preening, so there's just not a lot of reason for them TO fly.

[dessertgeek]

The Twitter Mari Lwyd sagas (2019)

So way back in 2019, @seananmcguire and @tkingfisher (and also later @kbspangler) got into a whole poetry/rap battle involving the poor Mari Lwyd (played by Seanan) just trying to get some cheese from Ursula's stores. This went on for a few years, and I can't find transcribed sources, only screenshots.

So, with X/Twitter being What It Is, I wanted a text source to exist. CW for food, alcohol, and all the caps, and full credit to the authors. If you want the original source it's here.

Seanan: WE'RE HERE TO SAY PLEASE WON'T YOU GIVE US SOME CHEESE SOME CHEESE AND SOME BRANDY OR PORT. THIS FESTIVE HORSE SKULL HAS BEEN SHOVED ON A POLE SO GRANT ME YOUR FINEST RETORT.

Ursula: BEGONE WITH YOUR POLE (YOU CAN LEAVE THE NEAT SKULL) DEMANDING MY FOOD IS EXTORTION FOR CHEESE IS QUITE DEAR AND WILL BE WORSE NEXT YEAR AND I CAN’T SPARE YOU EVEN A PORTION

Seanan: IF IT'S HEAD FOR A HEAD, I COULD TAKE YOURS INSTEAD, THAT SEEMS LIKE A TRADE THAT'S QUITE FAIR BUT DECAPITATION REQUIRES CONTEMPLATION, I'D RATHER THAT CHEESE OVER THERE.

Ursula: YOU COME ‘ROUND WITH THE BITS OF A HORSE THAT IS QUITS DEMANDING I GIVE YOU MY CHEDDAR BUT HEY, YOU HAVE SAID, AT LEAST IT’S NOT MY HEAD— I’M SUPPOSED TO THINK THIS IS BETTER!?

Seanan: I AM NOT A QUITTER, NO NEED TO BE BITTER, AND I'D TAKE YOUR GOUDA OR BRIE. YOU ASKED FOR MY HEAD, THINKING THAT SINCE I'M DEAD YOU COULD JUST KIDNAP PIECES OF ME. I HAVE INFINITE TIME AND THE PATIENCE TO RHYME AND I'LL STAND HERE LIMITLESSLY.

Ursula: AND WHAT GIVES YOU THE RIGHT ON NOT-QUITE-LONGEST-NIGHT TO MAKE FREE WITH OTHER PEOPLE’S CHEESES? YOU THINK ‘COS YOU SHOW WITH A WEIRD SKULL IN TOW IT CAN ASK FOR WHATEVER IT PLEASES?

Seanan: THAT'S JUST WHAT I THINK, GIVE ME CHEESE, GIVE ME DRINK, AND I'LL NO MORE CAST DARK ON YOUR DOOR. I'M NO TINSEL OR TREE, I'M CELEBRATORY OF SURVIVAL ON HEATH AND IN MOOR.

Ursula: THERE’S NO HEATH AND NO MOOR BETWEEN HERE AND THE SHORE I COULD MAYBE GET YOU A BOG IN LIEU OF MY BRIE WHICH I’M HOARDING FOR ME WHAT IF—LOOK, SEANAN! A FROG!

Seanan: THAT WAS JUST DIRTY POOL, AND YOU KNOW THERE'S NO RULE THAT SAYS I CAN'T LEAVE AND COME BACK. NOW THERE'S MUD ON MY SHOES I WON'T LET YOU REFUSE THIS FESTIVE DIGESTIVE ATTACK.

Ursula: ALL’S FAIR, SO THEY SAY WHEN CHEESE IS IN PLAY ALTHOUGH I ADMIT TO DECEPTION WHILE YOU CHASED A FROG I SCARFED THAT CHEESE LOG AT PERSONAL COST TO DIGESTION

Seanan: THEN I'LL COME FOR YOUR BOOZE I'M NOT LONGING TO LOSE, AND THIS IS THE HOLIDAY SEASON. I'LL STAND HERE AND SING AS THE MORRIS BELLS RING AND YOUR GUTS CONTEMPLATE CHOOSING TREASON.

Ursula: I’VE NO BRANDY NOR GIN THE SCOTCH STORES ARE THIN BUT OF A SOLUTION I’M THINKIN’ THIS HOUSE’S LIBATION AGAVE’S CREATION WILL NEVERTHELESS GET YOU STINKIN’ IF IT’S BOOZE THAT YOU’RE FOR BONE HORSE FROM THE MOOR IT’S TEQUILA THAT WE WILL BE DRINKIN’

Seanan: WE'LL GET HAMMERED LIKE BOARDS WHEN THE LIQUOR GETS POURED, THEY'LL ASSEMBLE US LIKE WE'RE IKEA. THERE ARE WORSE THINGS TO DO THAN START DRINKING WITH YOU. I'M SO HAPPY THAT I CAME TO SEE YA.

Ursula: I LOVE EVERY ENTITY IN THIS BAR *falls down*

[smallgodseries]

[image description: An elegant black cat with a long tail sits in profile on a block of black marble, blocking the view of Assless Chaps behind them. Text reads, “55, Obsidious ~ The Small God of Occluding Cats”] ____________________________________________________________

The cat is in the way.

This is a basic fact of the universe, simple and immutable.  The sun is shining, the wind is blowing, the cat is in the way.  The world is spinning, the atomic structure of the universe is decaying, the cat is the way.  The faithful pray, the apostate condemn, and the cat is in the way.

How is the cat always, inevitably, unavoidably, in the way?  When did we get a cat, anyway?  How did that cat get in here?  Hey, is anyone willing to take responsibility for this cat?  Can someone tell me whose cat this is?

No.

No, no one can tell you whose cat this is.  No, no one is going to take responsibility for that cat.  No, no one let the cat in, and the cat is in the way because it is the nature of cats to be in the way.  If the cat were not in the way, something much more terrible than the cat might rise in its absence.  The cat occupies space to ensure that the space is occupied, because the space will be occupied, whether it is by the cat or by something far more terrible.  The cat is doing you a favor.  Do not count the cat’s eyes.  The cat’s eyes are none of your concern.  The cat can see you.  Isn’t that enough?

Isn’t it enough that the cat is being generous enough to protect you from the terrible thing that would be looking at you with some uncounted number of eyes if the cat were not there?  Isn’t it enough that the cat is soft, and the cat is purring, and the cat is in the way?

Isn’t it enough?

Let it be enough.

The cat loves you.  The cat will love you even into the void.  The cat will forgive you for your frailties, and the cat is in the way.

The cat is always in the way.

____________________________________________________________

Artist Lee Moyer (Trident of Aurelia, 13th Age) and author Seanan McGuire (Wayward Children, October Daye & InCryptid series) sincerely appreciate you, but wonder if you could scoot just the tiniest little bit to the left?

[bookcub]

Hey hey, I was wondering if you have any ace book/books with ace characters recommendations? I’ve only read Loveless so far (since it is as you said The Ace Book), but I want to read some more for pride month and I don’t know where to start. I know you’ve read a couple but I can’t remember which ones you liked so I was hoping you could help me out?

ooooo yes I absolutely can! I will start with my favorites and then some others I enjoyed. Let me know if you have any questions about content warnings or genres I didn't cover!

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger- urban fantasy, Ellie's ace identity isn't the focus but is canon and the central relationships are familial and platonic. it's part murder mystery, part magical journey

(Little Badger's A Snake Falls to Earth also has an ace mc but I remember less of the plot)

Little Thieves by Margaret Owen- goose girl retelling from the maid's perspective and she's demisexual!! high fantasy and action packed.

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan Mcguire- a magical school book where kids who come back from their portal fantasy adventures. Nancy is ace and there's a murder mystery plot within.

Tash Hearts Tolstoy by Kathryn Ormsbee- my favorite ace contemporary ya romance

How to Be a Normal Person by TJ Klune- contemporary adult romance. the love interest is explicitly ace.

Aces Wild: A Heist by Amanda DeWitt- a group of ace internet friends plan a heist.

How to Be Ace by Rebecca Burgess- A graphic memoir

(I liked Ace by Angela Chen and Refusing Compulsory Sexuality by Sherronda J Brown for heavier reading)

That Kind of Guy by Talia Hibbert- adult contemporary romance, one of the mcs is demisexual (he knows before the book starts)

Role Playing by Cathy Yardley- adult contemporary romance, one of the mcs is demisexual (he realizes within the book)

That's Not What Happened by Kody Keplonger- YA contemporary, follows a group of students after a school shooting.

Let's Talk About Love by Claire Kann- ya contemporary romance.

[catboyclarity]

Hey is it cool if I ask if u have any book recommendations? I wanna read more but it's hard for me to find new stuff to read so i'mma just ask randos to hand over their favs or whatever LMAO

Oh fuck yes I’ve been waiting for this.

I think everyone in the queer community should read In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado so that’s my blanket rec for everyone.

If you like The Weird Stuff I can’t recommend the Lilith’s Brood trilogy by Octavia E. Butler enough. It’s very weird and I love it.

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russel fucked my life. If you are chill with reading something SUPER catholic and want a good trauma book pick that up.

Pick up Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin when it comes out. It’s twice as good as Manhunt and Manhunt is VERY good.

If you like literary fiction or even if you don’t try out Detransition, Baby by Torrey Petters

If you wanna read a 16 book fantasy series Realm of the Elderlings just reshaped my personality

Quick list of stuff I also like a lot but don’t find life changing:

-Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

-Pretty much anything out of the T. Kingfisher catalogue

-ditto for Seanan McGuire

-Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

“Hershel do you like any books by men” yes about two and you probably already know one of them.

[vorthosjay]

Hey Jay! In the All Will Be One stories we saw that Tibalt had already been compleated, and then we saw Tyvar defeat him. Is Tibalt fully dead now?

As far as I know yes.

(Seanan, the author, said as much on her Twitter, before someone posts this to Reddit with “Jay Anenenlini confirms Tibalt is dead”)

[troacctid]

[One of the viewpoint characters in Tidal Creatures is named Kelpie]

Hey, Seanan named a character in this series after one of her D&D characters! That's really cute!

[The character has orange skin, hooves, horns, and a tail, and her arc kicks off with her discovering that everything she thought she knew about her identity may have been wrong]

Oh! Oh, she's not just named after the D&D character, she's actually the same character, ported over into this universe as an alchemical version of a tiefling! Honestly? I am here for it. This was definitely not on my bingo card for this book, but Kelpie is a fun character, and she seems like a cool addition to the series. I guess this version of her was raised by alchemists rather than alligators, haha!

[She offhandedly mentions that her "family" lives in a swamp in Florida]

:O

She was raised by alligators!

[grayintogreen]

Hey, random question but I saw a Seanan Maguire book in a bookshop yesterday (I think it’s a new one?), and I know that’s your thing, so out of interest would you have any recommendations for starting with her stuff?

OH BOY TRAP CARD ACTIVATED.

I think it mostly depends on what you’re into? Like, she has a HUGE bibliography and every story is different.

Her series are all very worldbuilding heavy, especially the longer ones, so if you want to start with something meaty and like detective novels and fey, the October Daye series is my favorite. Her other long series is InCryptid, which is about a family of Cryptozoologists. (I’ve only read the first two books of this one but I know I love it. I just suck at reading sometimes.)

Her Alchemical Journeys series is releasing its third book this summer, and it’s a weird little series are people who are the personifications of abstract concepts (the first book is about a pair of twins who are the personification of words and numbers; the second is about a couple racing to become the personification of Winter and Summer before the other candidates kill them). The first book (Middlegame) is bar-none my favorite book of hers.

Her Wayward Children series is a good stepping stone for getting into her, as they’re short, easy reads. They deal with the consequences of what comes after a portal fiction story and go into very real, very visceral childhood traumas. They’re both dark and yet very happy at times and honestly probably had the biggest influence on LitMoR.

She also writes sci-fi under the name Mira Grant and my god every science fiction she writes IS HEAVY on the science. Her zombie (Feed) series shows its work on epidemiology and my personal favorite Into the Drowning Deep is HEAVY with oceanography worldbuilding.

I also highly recommend her short fiction. If you have an ebook reader, you can get Laughter at the Academy, which collects a lot of her best works. (Also Final Girls and Invincible are amazing novellas bir are ebook-only.)

Hopefully that helps?? She’s a very eclectic writer and she has a HUGE collection of stories and puts out 3-5 new ones every year.

[intersexbookclub]

2023-12-22 Across the Green Grass Fields

For our December book, we read YA portal fantasy novella *Across the Green Grass Fields *by perisex author Seanan McGuire. Elizabeth nominated the book after seeing this review of the book by intersex author JS Fields, who was also a sensitivity reader for the book.

Overall impressions

Elizabeth was stoked for a book with quality intersex-at-puberty representation that was also refreshingly pleasant to read!

vic read the first half, and liked how the book asks you to think about how to parent intersex kids, as well questions about agency and children. Also the book is really sweet; it is warm and caring.

Bnuuy was upset that the book did not take an unambiguous anti-bullying stance, and failed to hold its protagonist Regan accountable for her role in ostracizing her friend Heather when Heather was insufficiently girly.

Vo felt it was very heavy hitting at the beginning, but the book only sort of returned to it. There’s all these scenes where Regan doesn't feel like one of the other girls, and then in the Hooflands she's able to become herself.

Michelle’s view as an author was that from a craft perspective, the ending felt rushed [SPOILERS] xe would have liked to see her meet her centaur family again, see the anti-monarchist revolution that Regan incited. [/SPOILERS]

Intersex analysis

A totally incommensurate amount of intersex representation is intersex-at-birth stories, even though tons of intersex variations become evident at puberty. While Regan’s AIS was known from birth, she doesn’t start to show physical differences until puberty, and her parents don’t tell her until then.

A big reason many of us liked this book was how it delivered on conveying the social & psychological aspects of being intersex at puberty. The author is perisex and perisex authors tend to over-focus on the anatomical aspects and fail at depicting the social/psychological parts. 

The horror that Regan experiences at realizing she is intersex and her terror of transgressing gender roles was something many of us could relate to. Many of us spoke up about our personal experiences going through atypical puberties and getting picked on for it. In the sharing of personal stories, many of us pointed out how our parents added to the shaming. Regan’s parents, while very imperfect, at least did not ruthlessly double down on gender presentation like so many of our parents did!

Many of us were excited to see intersex representation that is *literally anything other than ambiguous genitals*! This book was not fetishy in a way that is very rare to see from a perisex author, and felt like a good example of how a perisex author can do intersex representation well. 

This book does an excellent job prompting the reader to think about how to best parent an intersex child. The parents of the protagonist are depicted as kind of bumbling but good-intentioned and fail in some key ways that lead to Regan running away. It invites the reader to think about what they should do differently.

Parenting Intersex Kids

We spent a good hour talking about the decisions made by Regan’s parents and how they set her up for failure. Her parents made the decisions not to tell Regan she had AIS until she noticed she was different, which gave us the impression they saw the AIS as a negative they needed to shield her from.

Bnuuy pointed out the parents, before telling Regan she had AIS, should have first established that “hey you don’t have to experience things like everyone else”. Regan had anxiety about not starting puberty, and the parents focused instead on revealing she was intersex. vic pointed out they gave a different answer than what she had actually asked.

vic was concerned that the parents didn’t sit Regan down and explain that the world HATES intersex people and those who don’t conform and so you need to be careful about who you tell. Vo agreed that if you don’t set people up for the realities of the situation they will be facing, you’re setting them up to fail. 

Bnuuy pointed out how the parents called Regan a “perfect girl”, when what they needed to do was deconstruct that. Vo asked what they would do if down the line Regan stopped being a “perfect girl”. We discussed how the language of “perfect girl” conveys that we measure people by how good they are as a girl/woman, and that teaching your kid they need to be perfect to be loved is messed up. 

Michelle pointed out there was a nice moment of implied trans solidarity when Regan’s parents told her that “if you say you’re a girl then you’re a girl”. 

Elizabeth pointed out the parents didn’t encourage Regan to support non-conformity, to have her play in non-stereotypic ways. They also seemed way too happy to accept Regan saying she was okay with the situation rather than keeping Regan home from school the next day to process it.

Bnuuy pointed out they could have made Regan apologize to Heather, and was disappointed the mother did not make that happen. Even if Regan didn’t know she was intersex at the time, the parents did know, and should have been able to connect that letting bullying happen would eventually lead to Regan being bullied.

We did note that Regan’s parents protected Regan from surgery as an infant and were supportive of her bodily autonomy. This is important! But it was great to see parents held to a higher bar than whether or not you subject your child to unnecessary and irreversible cosmetic surgery as a child.

Book summary (mild spoilers)

The book has two distinct parts: it starts in our world, centring on protagonist Regan as she enters adolescence. She has embraced social conformity, even though it has led to shun her friend Heather after a mutual friend (Laurel) decides that Heather is gross for wanting to play with a snake. 

When Regan’s parents tell her she AIS at age 10, it triggers a series of events that involve Laurel shunning Regan for having AIS and Regan running away through a portal. 

Once through the portal, Regan arrives in the Hooflands, a world of centaurs. She is adopted by a family group of unicorn ranchers, who nurture her and give her actual agency. She is expected to be the harbinger of some sort of social upset, which she refuses to participate in. Instead, she grows up with her family for five years before she finally feels ready to play her role as a hero. 

What we liked about the book

The intersex representation (see above!), it was very normalizing without any awkward fourth-wall breaks to infodump on the reader

The story is sweet and warm, while also remembering that “kids are not little sugary robots that are happy all the time” (per vic)

In the Hooflands, Regan is given agency and grows as a person; the implicit message is that autonomy and agency are necessary for children to grow.

A few of us were just happy to have horses 🐴

Anti-monarchist plot yesssss

What we didn’t like

The ending. Regan never gets to say goodbye to her adopted family nor see the revolution she instigates. The book ends with her returning to our world, getting ready to enter her bioparents’ house, so we never see her reunite with her bioparents. 

This also means that the first part of the book (events that lead to her running away) and the second part of the book (the Hooflands) never really come together. We all agreed that the book didn’t do enough to resolve or return to the first part of the book, leaving the story feeling incomplete.

There were POV/narrator changes that multiple people found confusing; it was unclear when it was Regan’s thoughts vs an omniscient narrator.

Regan is a coward and a bully. She grows as a character but never really makes things right with her friend Heather. That Regan doesn’t reflect on how she was a bully nor properly redeemed was particularly upsetting to Bnuuy, who found it difficult to sympathize with Regan after she participated in the ostracism of Heather.

Mixed feelings

Some of us preferred the first part of the book, others preferred the Hooflands part.

A few people were surprised Regan was the main character, given how badly she’d behaved at the start, and assumed Heather would be the main character

Not everybody could empathize with Regan, that social ostracisation is something young girls understand they need to avoid at all costs. Some of us felt that although Regan’s behaviour was bad it was understandable. That children don’t have fully developed moral compasses and shouldn’t be judged by adult standards. Michelle recommended “Cat’s eye” by Margaret Atwood for capturing issues of girlhood in greater detail than this book did.

Other thoughts on the book

Most of us related to Heather, who did nothing wrong and was arbitrarily ostracized. Many of us shared stories of being bullied as children & adolescents and how for many of us it happened without any clear inciting event or reason.

A few of us saw Regan’s friendship with Chicory as sapphic or queerplatonic

Michelle pointed out there’s a possible reading of the book where the Hooflands weren’t real - that Regan had dissociated for years and only at the end of the book snapped out of. This is not what the book seemed to be going for, but it was an interesting thing to consider.

Overall assessment: the intersex representation was lauded by all of the intersex people in the call as an example of how a perisex author can do justice to intersex representation. However, the bullying subplot was a notable weakness, given its lack of resolution in the ending. Bullying is a serious issue that has lifelong effects, and intersex people are vulnerable to bullying, so we would have liked a clear moral message on this front.

[ninja-muse]

October was a month of tense, dark, violent books and I'm hoping to get some palate cleansers into my November reading before I completely OD on rebellions, murder, battles, and oppression. Not that I expect this to happen because I took home a true crime ARC last week and I know what's likely coming for me at the library, but hey. We can hope!

My reading count is once again lower than I'd like it to be, mostly because I refused to cart all 752 pages of Menewood back and forth on my commute and so it took me three weeks to finish in the bites of time I have at home for reading. (Also because I spent a week writing up a storm.) And my other stats are kind of equally disappointing as a result. Oh well, I guess. It is what it is.

I did get my hands on three anticipated library books though! That was good (and I hope the library keeps up the pace), but it's a shame that two of the three weren't as good as I was hoping they'd be. And equally a shame that I wound up DNFing the new Patricia C. Wrede… I was really hoping that might cut through all the doom and gloom, mid-month.

I need a good November, basically. I'm feeling a bit slumpy.

October was also a month of awesome 2024 release announcements and discoveries. There are so many books coming out I want to read, and a couple I didn't know where coming that showed up in my ARC haul. There's a genderbent fantasy retelling of Zorro, folks! Freya Marske, Micaiah Johnson, and Seanan McGuire are releasing exciting things! We're getting a sequel to one of my favourite SF books of last year! Someone is using American folktales to comment on race relations!

I'm sure my 2024 TBR will be an utterly normal and achievable number of books. And I'm sure all this excitement has had nothing to do with my slump.

I've still got a fair ways to go to hit my 2023 reading goals too. It's possible I might reach them. It's equally possible I might not. Wish me luck, I guess? And if you have any fast, light reads with which I can continue to not read the dark, heavy books in my goals, please pass them on!

And now without further ado, in order of enjoyment…

Menewood - Nicola Griffith

War is coming to Deira and Hild has vowed to protect her lands and people.

9.5/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (bi), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (sapphic, mlm), mute secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 author, #ownvoices for queerness

warning: pregnancy, death, war, death of a child, animal death, grief, sexual assault, mentions of rape

Like Every Form of Love - Padma Viswanathan

A writer digs into the strange, complicated life story of a man she befriended in a marina.

8/10

major 🏳️‍🌈 character (gay), Indo-Canadian author, 🇨🇦

warning: child abuse, domestic abuse, pedophilia, molestation, misogynistic character

After the Forest - Kell Wood

Greta wants to get on with her quiet life but her wayward brother Hans, suspicious villagers, and her memories of a certain witch’s cottage won’t let her.

7.5/10

warning: cruelty to animals, misogyny

Into the Windwracked Wilds - A. Deborah Baker

Avery, Zib, and their companions find themselves in the Land of Air—where the queen likes making monsters

7.5/10

Saga, Volume 9 - Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (illustrator)

Bad people are catching up to Alana and Marko’s family.

7.5/10

main characters of colour, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (gay, trans woman)

warning: major character death, blood, violence, sex

Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obulafon - Wole Talabi

Shigidi has incurred a debt to an old Nigerian orisha, who’ll erase it if he and his partner pull off a nearly impossible heist.

6.5/10

major and secondary Nigerian characters, major 🏳️‍🌈 character (pansexual), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (bisexual), Nigerian author, #ownvoices for race and culture

By Any Other Name - Erin Cotter

Will Hughes, unemployed actor, finds himself thrust into danger when his mentor Christopher Marlowe dies.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (gay), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (bi, lesbian)

warning: murder, fire

My Roommate is a Vampire - Jenna Levine

There’s a room-to-rent in Cassie’s low, low budget. The (hot) guy renting it acts like he’s from the 1800s but surely he’s just quirky.

6.5/10

Jewish protagonist, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (m/m)

The Remarkable Retirement of Edna Fisher - E.M. Anderson

Edna has been Chosen to stop a dragon menace. Highly untraditional but hey, it gets her out of the nursing home.

6/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (ace-spectrum), Black secondary characters, Latine secondary characters, secondary character with anxiety disorder, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (gay, sapphic/asexual), 🏳️‍🌈 author

DNF

The Dark Lord’s Daughter - Patricia Wrede

Kayla and her family are kidnapped to a fantasy world. Apparently she has magic and they think she’s the next Dark Lady?

Black secondary characters

Currently reading:

The Water Outlaws - S.L. Huang When Lin Chong is convicted of a crime she didn’t commit, she finds herself allied with infamous outlaws.

Chinese cast, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (lesbian, genderfluid), mute secondary character, Chinese-American author, 🏳️‍🌈 author, #ownvoices for race, culture, queerness

warning: death, violence, torture

Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century - Richard Taruskin A history of early written European music, in its social and political contexts.

Stats

Monthly total: 9 Yearly total: 109/140 Queer books: 3 Authors of colour: 2 Books by women: 7 Authors outside the binary: 1 Canadian authors: 1 Off the TBR shelves: 3 Books hauled: 0 ARCs acquired: 5 ARCs unhauled: 4 DNFs: 1

January February March April May June July August September

[librarycomic]

Ep 47: Every Heart A Doorway by Seanan McGuire

Gene and Willow are transported to a magical -- hey wait, isn't that what always happens? This episode we discuss magical children, Ned Flanders, and Gene's Top Five novellas.

https://bookstabber.podbean.com

[smallgodseries]

[image description: A young woman stands among a wild assortment of intergalactic travelers (including Barsoomians, Yithians, a robot, a tank of jellies, tiny translucent blob people, a professional Gnome, and… hey! Is that Jin Jin Jin’s tail I see there?). She wears a straw hat, carnation-colored shirt, black skirt with white polka dots, and black sandals. She holds a heavy black leather bag with several travel stickers (including a bumper sticker that reads ‘I <3 EARTH’) in both hands.   Text reads, “187, SUISEI XING, THE SMALL GOD OF SPACEFARING”]

• • • • •

Space. As the sages say, the final frontier. But not for everyone.

Wherever there is vacuum burn and the smell of ozone, wherever sapients don pressure suits to risk the frozen danger between stars, wherever there are those awesome Orion martinis, the ones with the pickled lichees instead of olives—because every civilization that has alcohol will have the martini eventually, in some form or other, as if brined fruit in clear liquor were the summit of social evolution—she is there, or has already been and gone, off seeking a new horizon, a truly final frontier. No one knows where she came from. Just that she always arrives exactly when she intends to, that her ticket is always in order, and that anyone who sails the stars belongs to her, at least for the length of their journey. She doesn’t challenge other gods for their worshippers. She gives them back as soon as the rocket lands. But while they’re in flight…while they’re in flight, they’re hers.

No matter what world she visits, her appearance is the same, only translated for the local biology, so that the sight of her is not alarming: she is always small, always slight and unassuming, attractive to the eye, and as close to female as their understanding of gender allows. She carries her own bags, talks quietly, smiles easily, and seems most comfortable when allowed to don a human skin. She is innocent and ancient, young and outside time, and she has seen things the rest of us can only dream of.

But she carries a camera, and if you can befriend her, if you can make her trust you, she’s always happy to share. She believes in curiosity without conquest, tourism without trauma, and she loves everyone she cradles in her arms of starlight and vacuum.

They say her true form is infinitely vast, the stretch of space itself, and that she is a small god by choice, limiting herself to avoid frightening the faithful she so adores.

They say her perfume smells like raspberries.

They say a lot of things.

Suisei herself says only “Have you been here before? Only I’m supposed to catch the next shuttle for Betelgeuse, and I’m afraid I may be on the wrong platform. Can you help?” Always help her when she asks. Those she blesses always make their flights.

Trust her to be kind.

• • • • •

Please join Lee Moyer (Icon) and Seanan McGuire (Story) each week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for a guide to the many tiny divinities:

WordPress: https://leemoyer.wordpress.com/

Instagram: https://instagram.com/smallgodseries/

Homepage: http://smallgodseries.com

Mastodon: @SmallGods@mastodon.world