#Elizabeth Moon

[quinn10121012]

A bit of fanart for Elizabeth Moon’s 1980s fantasy series “the Deed of Pakesenarrion”, featuring the titular farm girl-turned-Paladin…

[phaedraismyusername]

Hi hello I have been knee deep in a genre binge so here are some literary sci-fi books that deal with loneliness as a core theme

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

Translated from French this book follows the youngest girl in a group of 40 women who are being kept in a cage underground in an unknown place, for unknown reasons, until one day they get the chance to escape triggering a search for answers and survival on a desolate surface.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

This is a very subtle dystopian story about a group of people who spend their childhoods at an extremely secretive english boarding school, the course of their relationships, and where they are at the end of their lives. There's a subtle feeling of wrongness from the first chapter and the author spends the rest of the novel very slowly revealing the reasons why.

Everything You Ever Wanted by Luiza Sauma

The super short form pitch for this book is 'Fleabag if there was an option to yeet herself to another planet'. Iris is in a long term relationship with depression, kind of hates her pointless job, sometimes hates her family, and is generally overwhelmed by the weight of existence, when she hears about Nyx - earth's first space colony - and thinks that just maybe it could be the answer to all her problems.

Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon

When the population of a company sponsored colony finds out they have been designated a failure and the people are to be packed up and shipped off to another planet to try again, one little old lady decides that for the first time in her long life she's going to break the rules - she's going to stay and live her best life alone on the planet, and finally get some peace and quiet. What could go wrong?

Skyward Inn by Aliya Whiteley

Skyward Inn is an odd little book set in a future where Earth has come into contact with an alien world that quickly surrendered to humanity. The story follows a small group of kind of unlikeable people who live behind the walls of the 'western protectorate' - a place in the moors that's decided to isolate itself and live like the old days with rudimentary technology for a simple life. Until strangers appear and things start to get... weird. Slower, stranger and with more body horror than you might expect.

[judgeitbyitscover]

The Deed of Paksenarrion series by Elizabeth Moon

Cover art by Kevin Davies

Baen Books, 1988-1989

Sheepfarmer's Daughter (1988)

Paksenarrion — Paks for short — is somebody special. She knows it, even if nobody else does yet. No way will she follow her father's orders to marry the pig farmer down the road. She's off to join the army, even if it means she can never see her family again.

And so her adventure begins... the adventure that transforms her into a hero remembered in songs, chosen by the gods to restore a lost ruler to his throne.

Here is her tale as she lived it.

Paks is trained as a mercenary, blooded, and introduced to the life of a soldier . . . and to the followers of Gird, the soldier's god.

Divided Allegiance (1988)

Once a sheepfarmer's daughter, now a seasoned veteran, Paksenarrion has proven herself a fighter. Years with Duke Phelan's Company taught her weaponry, discipline, and how to react as part of a military unit.

Now, though, Paks feels spurred to a solitary destiny. Against all odds she is accepted as a paladin-candidate by the Fellowship of Gird. Years of study will follow, for a paladin must be versed in diplomacy and magic as well as the fighting arts. But before she is fully trained, Paks is called to her first mission: to seek out the fabled stronghold of Luap far to the west. The way is long, the dangers many - and not even the Marshal-General of Gird can say whether glory of ruin awaits.

Oath of Gold (1989)

Paksenarrion - Paks for short - was somebody special. Never could she have followed her father's orders and married the pig farmer down the road. Better a soldier's life than a pigfarmer's wife, and so though she knew that she could never go home again, Paks ran away to be a soldier. And so began and adventure destined to transform a simple Sheepfarmer's Daughter into a hero fit to be chosen by the gods.

[that-dinopunk-guy]

The Christmas season (really, the whole stretch from November to the beginning of April) is always rough on my depression, but at least today I got another pile of used sci-fi paperbacks in the mail to add to my growing hoard.

These I got because I enjoyed A Plague of Demons so I wanted to check out more of Laumer's work...but mainly because of the Wayne Barlowe covers. (I've also ordered a Barlowe cover copy of Plague, but it hasn't arrived yet.)

I've been meaning to check out the Lensman series for like ever. I went for this set because it had the coolest covers, and won it in a grueling auction. (I think there was only one other bidder. I ended up paying like fifteen bucks.)

Mesklin is a really cool worldbuilding concept, so I got some Hal Clement. This set actually had two different editions of Ocean on Top, so I will be donating the one with the lamer cover to my grandmother's used book store. (I've ended up with a lot of duplicate copies of books to donate, actually...)

I'd never heard of Elizabeth Moon and got these totally on a whim, and now I've gotta get Sporting Chance and Once a Hero to have the complete Familias Regnant series.

I feel like I should probably lay off these purchases for a while after this; they always seem to arrive in huge batches and I'm sure my mail lady is getting sick of having to deal with all those boxes. (I didn't even post the thirty-two other books that came the other day.)

[endoplight]

I think my current mood has been reflecting in my art lately. Here I go again drawing someone relaxing. XD

Anyhoo! Enjoy some art of Dillyn my #oc relaxing after a long day of heroing. Yes, she's a nerd. This is the first time I've ever drawn a picture with a background that has that much detail. XD

[nonenosome2]

Reading the Deed of Paksenarrion series and liking it.

But, maybe I just don't remember since the last time I read was so long ago, god I hate the Girdsmen.

Paks does something good and gets a letter to train with them.

The Girdsmen: OK. You can train with us.

Paks: Trains with them.

Girdsmen: OMG. How dare you train with us and not give anything back to the order. What? Did you think we were training you just because we got a letter saying we should and agreed to it? Why would you ever think that? You could be evil. Nothing you have ever said or done shows you are evil, and even everything we have used says you aren't evil, but you could be. I mean, you lost your temper literally once after using a weapon you didn't know how to use and chopping into your own leg while being berated about not knowing how to use a weapon you had never used.

Paks: So you think I'm evil?

Girdsmen: What? I never said that. I just said you might be. I mean, you did lose your temper once after having shown you normally don't so this whole thing might just be an act because nobody ever loses their temper when they are normally calm. But, if you want to prove you aren't evil, even though I'm totally not saying you are, and so continue being trained by us, all you have to do is become a Girdsman.

Me: What the fuck?

[godzilla-reads]

Reading: The Dragon Quintet edited by Marvin Kaye

Finished: Judgement by Elizabeth Moon

Started: Love in a Time of Dragons by Tanith Lee

[ahaura]

Elizabeth Moon Hunting Party

[writersarea]

Tagged by: @heyylittlesongbird

prompt: post a poll with five of your favorite characters and let your followers choose their favorite (oh shit)

I tag: @funkyfaerie @thebibliosphere @lizziesquire @famousmusician and anyone else who wants to join in!

[kikihesterkamp]

“When she puts down the phone and looks at me, her face has that look. I don’t know what most people would call it, but I call it the I AM REAL look. It means she is real, and she has the answers, and I am someone less, not completely real, even though I can feel the nubbly texture of the office chair right through my slacks. I used to put a magazine under me, but she says I don’t need to do that. She is real, she thinks, so she knows what I need and don’t need.”

(from “Speed of Dark” by Elizabeth Moon)

[dchan87]

Stan the real Queens of Sci-Fi/Fantasy who didn't do Bad Things

[hausofmoon]

...But That's Not All! MOON Will Be Releasing 3 ADDITIONAL Fragrances for Mother's Day!

Called the 'Matriarch Edition', these 3 Newly Created Perfumes Are Celebrations Towards The Original Bad-Ass Women That Elliott Considers Pivotal In The Moon Empire!

(From Left to Right) Charisse Moon / 'ALIEN' ( eau de parfum ), Giovanna Bellini / 'FEMME MACHINA' ( eau de parfum ), Elizabeth Moon / 'ANGEL' ( eau de parfum )

[macwantspeace]

Trading In Danger - Elizabeth Moon Kylara Vatta has personally fought off several pirates [including a bastard uncle Osman] in the access to her ship, Gary Tobai. Johannson is commander of another ship that arrived on the scene. He's sending his boat over to pick up the Vatta crew headed to the Kaleen which was Osman's ship. "Why didn't you just toss the mine?" "A mine is a terrible thing to waste."

[hxans]

Reading a series I have read before. I know how it ends. I know the character is going to be okay, in a fashion. Still bawling like a baby that he's hurt and being taken away from his home and family never to see them again.

[foggyjune]

"In the nights, she was herself, a strange person she did not know, a person she might just remember, from childhood." - Elizabeth Moon, Remnant Population

[paksenarrion-dorthansdotter]

at last, something relevant to my username! if anyone is listening, i highly recommend Elizabeth Moon’s The Deed of Paksenarrion and the related books. she goes into a lot of this kind of stuff and they’re honestly probably the best books i’ve ever read. she was a marine and has a history degree and her descriptions of not only life as a common soldier in a military company, but also the workings of government and the church, are second to none. truly beautiful books. And yeah, there is some “one true king” stuff in there too, but it’s so much more thought out than most series, and especially the later books really dig into the meat of the world and why having a “good” king isn’t enough to fix all the problems (especially when that good king made some bad military decisions before he knew he was a king)

I'm always criticizing eurocentric fantasy worldbuilding, but one thing I think it's underused are city-states and trade republics and leagues. Not that they don't exist, but they're often in the background, the fantasy genre is so focused on monarchies and dynasties and noble drama, while those systems have so much room for intrigue and stuff without getting into "who's the TRUE heir of the super magical monarch" (yes, I know they had aristocratic families that ruled almost as monarchs, but trust me, Medici drama is another beast from regular feudal stuff)

Venice with its stupidly complex election system and their eternal rivals in Genoa, Florence home of the Rennaissance, the Hanseatic League, and lesser known examples like Novgorod, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Taifa of Córdoba, the Consolat de Mar (technically not a republic but kind of an Iberian Hansa) and if we go farther back, the leagues of city states of antiquity... you know what, I'm bored of feudalism. Next time I do a fantasy setting, it will all be city states and republics. Fuck feudalism.