#At the Feet of the Sun

[logarithmicpanda]

"People understood the idea that a lover might follow his beloved anywhere. It had always been a strange and difficult idea that one might love a friend that deeply."

- At the Feet of the Sun, Victoria Goddard

[sarcasticbeanie]

something about a dream come true

[hermitknut]

Made some nine worlds/lays of the hearthfire/hands of the emperor memes :D well, actually I made these months ago and totally forgot about them, so I thought I'd better post them.

Oh, and let's not forget my favourite!

[queereads-bracket]

Queer Fantasy Books Bracket: Round 2

Book summaries below:

The Burning Kingdoms series (The Jasmine Throne, The Oleander Sword, The Lotus Empire) by Tasha Suri

Author of Empire of Sand and Realm of Ash Tasha Suri's The Jasmine Throne, beginning a new trilogy set in a world inspired by the history and epics of India, in which a captive princess and a maidservant in possession of forbidden magic become unlikely allies on a dark journey to save their empire from the princess's traitor brother. Imprisoned by her dictator brother, Malini spends her days in isolation in the Hirana: an ancient temple that was once the source of the powerful, magical deathless waters — but is now little more than a decaying ruin. Priya is a maidservant, one among several who make the treacherous journey to the top of the Hirana every night to clean Malini’s chambers. She is happy to be an anonymous drudge, so long as it keeps anyone from guessing the dangerous secret she hides. But when Malini accidentally bears witness to Priya’s true nature, their destinies become irrevocably tangled. One is a vengeful princess seeking to depose her brother from his throne. The other is a priestess seeking to find her family. Together, they will change the fate of an empire. Fantasy, epic fantasy, politics, romance, adult, secondary world, series

The Hands of the Emperor (The Hands of the Emperor, At the Feet of the Sun, and other stories) by Victoria Goddard

An impulsive word can start a war. A timely word can stop one. A simple act of friendship can change the course of history. Cliopher Mdang is the personal secretary of the Last Emperor of Astandalas, the Lord of Rising Stars, the Lord Magus of Zunidh, the Sun-on-Earth, the god. He has spent more time with the Emperor of Astandalas than any other person. He has never once touched his lord. He has never called him by name. He has never initiated a conversation. One day Cliopher invites the Sun-on-Earth home to the proverbially remote Vangavaye-ve for a holiday. The mere invitation could have seen Cliopher executed for blasphemy. The acceptance upends the world. Fantasy, secondary world, politics, romance, adult, secondary world, series

[ruinconstellation]

That was how people always talked about romantic, sexual love. As if that sort of love was necessarily better, greater, more, than friendship. As if being the greatest of friends was a step down.

Victoria Goddard, At The Feet of the Sun

[queer-book-character-tournament]

Characters, book, and author names under the cut

Cliopher Mdang/Fitzroy Angursell - Hands of the Emperor/At the Feet of the Sun by Victoria Goddard

Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan - Guardian (Zhen Hun) by Priest

Magnus Chase/Alex Fierro - Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard by Rick Riordan

Laura/Carmilla - Carmilla by J Sheridan Le Fanu

[overlord-of-chaos]

Me reading The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard: oh wow, this might be the best book I have ever read.

Me reading the sequel, At the Feet of the Sun: holy shit. Oh my fucking god. This is absolutely stunning and I may never recover. What god has favoured me so as to put this book in my path and how can I pledge them my undying allegiance. How will anything else ever possibly compare to this beauty

Anyway if you're reading this consider it a PSA to go read The Hands of the Emperor, At the Feet of the Sun and probably all the rest of Victoria Goddard's books too they're spectacular

[sleepyfey]

Little Kip and Au’aua!

[thecommongale]

I don't want to talk about how important The Lays of the Hearth Fire are to me because that is too precious and huge to put into words. But if you are also reading these books and if they are also important to you I want you to know that I am holding your shoulders and touching foreheads with you

[agardenandlibrary]

I am in chapter 36 of At the Feet of the Sun

(had little to do except read yesterday and today)

and just the confusion/bewilderment/betrayal of being ace and thinking you had found someone with a similar mindset, who had set a path you could follow or who you could relate to, and saw so much of yourself in, then to find out they aren't like you and you misunderstood entirely—

Haha! Ouch!

[piyo13sdoodles]

and the final crop of atfots-tober art challenge!!! part 1 and part 2 can be found at those links :) i just realized the last 3 are all about birds lol

[logarithmicpanda]

I actually finished the first part of At the Feet of the Sun but putting my thoughts under the cut so Cara doesn't get spoiled accidentally

So. The telepathic dinosaurs were NOT on my bingo lmao I'm still getting a bit of "wth" feelings every time I think about that

On a different note uh Kip having sex with the painter took me my surprise in a not necessarily nice way. Granted its been a year since I read the first book but I had interpreted his character as a specific flavor of ace and while this doesn't necessarily contradict the overall label, it felt a bit like having the rug pulled from under me.

I'm very curious to see where the story will go next, and sincerely hoping that we will see His Radiancy soon because I do not think I'll survive 800 pages of Kip's yearning tbh

Still the most engaging thing I've read in months despite not that much happening which put me in mind of my earlier conversation with Carrie: I care about the political intricacies of this book because Kip cares so very much.

[dedeuteros]

HOTE reading playlists!

I am picky about the ambiance I have on when reading- can't stand looking up "reading playlist" and finding noting but contemporary piano- so I spend some time maybe once a week cherry picking songs for my own background sounds.

So here is all four linked in one place for anyone else interested. These are my babies and are subject to change. I try to match overall tone and.. instrument? of each book, as well as some songs which are shoehorned in for particular scenes. Best played shuffled, don't be scared to skip what isn't quite to the beat of the scene.

[hermitknut]

Kip and Buru Tovo and opposing perspectives

OKAY so time for a little mini deep dive on my current obsession.

One of Kip's major challenges is always about coming home. About how his family and community treat him, about how they see him. From his perspective - well, it's in the opening section of Hands of the Emperor:

By the time he reached the bottom of the Spire he no longer felt like Cliopher Mdang, personal secretary to the Lord of Rising Stars, Secretary in Chief of the Private Offices of the Lords of State, official head of the Imperial Bureaucratic Service, unofficial head of the world's government, the Hands of the Emperor. He was, instead, merely everyone's Cousin Kip, the one who left.

He thinks of people back home as bafflingly insular, as unappreciative of anything outside of the ring, and he thinks that he doesn't rate highly enough to merit much from them - he's too much and not enough, as he says to Fitzroy in At the Feet of the Sun. He didn't find what he was meant to do at home, and he sees himself as without a place there. He assumes people a home barely think about him, and if they do it's trivial or negative. He doesn't doubt that they love him, and he doesn't think of them as bad people - but he doesn't feel seen or appreciated, and he's made his peace with that (well. he tells himself he has, anyway). He assumes they see him, fundamentally, as too foreign, and inadequate.

There is a lovely little microcosm example of this, when he is about to tell Buru Tovo (and his Radiancy, Rhodin, Conju, Ludvic) about his life. Kip feels the need to have a flame present in the room, even if it is only symbolic, so he gets the brazier:

He lit it with the fire-starter, knowing even as he did it that this showed a certain want in him. His great-uncle watched him narrowly, obviously noting the symbolic presence of the fire and the use of a Solaaran method of lighting it.

showed a certain want in him. Oof. But that's how he feels!

Now skip over to Portrait of a Wide Seas Islander, and there's this incredible, almost shocking shift in perspective. Because we can suddenly see what Buru Tovo can see - we can see past the snide little comments about Kip's clothes and how long he's been gone, and we can see the anxiety over his absence that drives it. Kip sees these things as people wanting to knock him down a peg, and that's not entirely untrue - but he has no idea of how much he is valued, back home. Both as a person (as we find out from Bertie's letters and some of the later scenes), and more broadly as the rising tana-tai - people care so much about what he does and what happens to him, and they are so bad at telling him that (Kip's perspective is entirely justified, given the information he has and the way people talk to him, and it hurts).

And going back to the microcosm, this is the part that always makes me pause, because look at the lighting of the brazier from Buru Tovo's perspective:

Tovo watched Kip light the fire in the velioi way, which had the merit of taking bare seconds. When the fire had caught - first try, of course it was first try -

Not only is Tovo entirely neutral on the method - he notes that it's foreign, and the pro is that it's quick, that's it! - he is immediately distracted by the fact that Kip did it on the first attempt, because of course he did, because Kip is just that good.

We don't dwell on this moment in the text, because it's immediately followed by Kip revealing to Buru Tovo that he's been practicing the fire dance, which is understandably a Big Deal. But! the contrast!! between the two versions of that moment!!! kills me every time. Kip, sunk in to the rut of his own belief in his own inadequacies, can only see a lack. He can only see something he could be doing better (as if Kip has ever done something worse than his best, I swear). And Buru Tovo, looking back at him, can only see just how brilliant he is.

Every time I come back to this I have to take a goddamn moment, so I thought I'd share. It's only a tiny moment, and of course it's a theme that the books return to at much greater length, but I really love the deft way this is done.

[queereads-bracket]

Queer Fantasy Books Bracket: Round 3

Book summaries below:

The Machineries of Empire series (Ninefox Gambit, Raven Stratagem, Revenant Gun, and other stories) by Yoon Ha Lee

To win an impossible war Captain Kel Cheris must awaken an ancient weapon and a despised traitor general. Captain Kel Cheris of the hexarchate is disgraced for using unconventional methods in a battle against heretics. Kel Command gives her the opportunity to redeem herself by retaking the Fortress of Scattered Needles, a star fortress that has recently been captured by heretics. Cheris’s career isn’t the only thing at stake. If the fortress falls, the hexarchate itself might be next. Cheris’s best hope is to ally with the undead tactician Shuos Jedao. The good news is that Jedao has never lost a battle, and he may be the only one who can figure out how to successfully besiege the fortress. The bad news is that Jedao went mad in his first life and massacred two armies, one of them his own. As the siege wears on, Cheris must decide how far she can trust Jedao–because she might be his next victim. Science fiction, fantasy, science fantasy, space opera, military science fiction, series, adult

The Hands of the Emperor (The Hands of the Emperor, At the Feet of the Sun, and other stories) by Victoria Goddard

An impulsive word can start a war. A timely word can stop one. A simple act of friendship can change the course of history. Cliopher Mdang is the personal secretary of the Last Emperor of Astandalas, the Lord of Rising Stars, the Lord Magus of Zunidh, the Sun-on-Earth, the god. He has spent more time with the Emperor of Astandalas than any other person. He has never once touched his lord. He has never called him by name. He has never initiated a conversation. One day Cliopher invites the Sun-on-Earth home to the proverbially remote Vangavaye-ve for a holiday. The mere invitation could have seen Cliopher executed for blasphemy. The acceptance upends the world. Fantasy, secondary world, politics, romance, adult, series

[mercysmourn]

if i said sloooowburn platonic to romantic bard emperor x asexual policy wonk forbidden touch romance with repression that goes so bonkers hard that you'll start chewing the book. then would you read it. must i tropeify everything. can't you just know that if i point to a book and all i can say is 'haha!' it'll blow your tits right off. please. trust me. take my hand. read the lays of the hearth fire duology today