#I think this piece of worldbuilding has potential as well as their characterisations

[longagoitwastuesday]

I keep thinking that this Gojo is just like Sukuna. I truly don't see much of a difference between them beyond the human/curse point of view

[paperbackd]

Book review: A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal

Six of Crows meets The Coldest Girl in Coldtown in the first book of a new duology which sees a teashop owner assembling a heist team to infiltrate vampire high society.

A Tempest of Tea has been on many readers' 2024 wishlists - it's got an intriguing premise, a jaw-droppingly gorgeous cover and tons of hype behind it. Sadly, I think it'll leave a lot of readers disappointed. For me, this novel was a case of great ideas let down by mediocre execution.

Since heist stories often hinge on a group of characters working together, characterisation and interpersonal relationships are so important to get right. And unfortunately, the relationships in this book were definitely its weakest point. Specifically, the romantic relationships were written very strangely - awkwardly paced, with lots of contrived moments of tension. The dialogue, too, was clumsy at times; lots of the 'witty banter' between characters simply fell flat. The characters themselves had potential to be interesting, particularly Arthie and Jin, but I didn't end up feeling attached to them.

Ultimately, I think that A Tempest of Tea suffers from trying too hard to be the new Six of Crows. From the setting - a Victorian London-esque fantasy world, to the 'charming rogue' characters, to the writing style. Which is a shame, because the bits and pieces of originality were easily the best part. Faizal's vampire lore was interesting and creative, the tea shop was a great setting (unfortunately underutilised) and the fantasy worldbuilding worked well as a commentary on colonialism. These elements were enough to keep me invested in reading to the end of A Tempest of Tea, but I won't be continuing with the follow-up to this novel.

Many thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux for providing a copy of A Tempest of Tea. The opinions expressed in this review are my own. A Tempest of Tea will be released on February 20th 2024.

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Rating:  2 stars | ★★✰✰✰ Review cross-posted to Goodreads

[coeurvrai]

So I read through the last few posts in my tag in preparation and I think I’m more or less up to speed? I mean, about the events of the last couple of chapters, I mean. The jury’s still out on whether or not I’ll remember pieces of worldbuilding and/or characterisation. If I don’t, please remind me!

We start off with a Serefin chapter, and thank fuck for small mercies. There’s also a typical quote from the Book of Saints at the start of the chapter as well.

Svoyatova Małgorzata Dana: A Tranavian who fled her family of heretics for a life in a monastery in Tobalsk. Her courage, and death at the hands of her brother, canonized her as a saint.

I still don’t understand why the excerpts in Serefin’s chapters are so pro-Kalyazin. Like, theoretically, the fact that we have Nadya and Serefin’s POVs are supposed to show two sides of the war and therefore provide balance, so we can understand and/or sympathise with either side.

But there’s such a Kalyazin-centric push with the excerpts that all of them are to do with Kalyazin and how great their saints are and shit, like where’s the worldbuilding for Tranavia? It’s like we’re never ever supposed to see things from Tranavia’s side for a second, even though hypothetically we should. That’s one of the points in providing multiple perspectives.

But I digress.

The chapter opens with Serefin being hit by his father. This is a new thing for Serefin - he’s never physically hurt him before, and so he’s reminded of his own mortality.

“I ask for so little, Serefin, so little,” Izak said. “A modicum of respect for the traditions of your country. It’s so little.”

That wasn’t what this was about, but Serefin would play along if it kept them both from addressing the true issue. “I’ve expressed how I feel about these traditions. At this point in time, they’re needless. We’re at war, Father.”

Need I remind you that you didn’t track down the cleric that is such a threat that she could turn the tide of war and defeat your country, even though you could’ve and should’ve done it.

Serefin gets hit again, goading him into hurting him more. We’re greeted with ED’s signature nondescript descriptions, because what are rooms and spaces?

Politics. The fallout would mean Serefin’s execution. His coup had to be more delicate.

“The answer has always been here.” But the answer to what? Why this war was still raging? Why his father, who vehemently denied the existence of gods, wished to become one? Though easily answered with his father’s ego, that wasn’t the reason. Serefin never denied the existence of the Kalyazi gods, he had just never seen their purpose.

He wondered if his father had already started the process. The way his crown was slightly askew and his hands shook were significant indicators where his father was concerned. But it was when his sleeve fell back and Serefin glimpsed dozens of fresh cuts scattered across his father’s forearm that he knew. His stomach soured, finally having confirmation that this was all truly happening.

I’m again reminded of why I like Serefin so much.

What’s going on from his POV is far more interesting than the shit happening in Nadya’s. Even if it’s not really good and pretty goddamn predictable, I’m still somewhat engaged. Honestly, if he wasn’t here to break up Nadya’s chapters, reading this book would be a hell of a lot worse.

Even if “he had just never seen their purpose” reminds me of that one quote by Alys van Eck in Crooked Kingdom.

At least his disdain and his abhorrence is more consistent than any of Nadya’s characterisation, except for her wanting to make out with Malachiasz. Serefin does not want to die and does not approve of his father’s plans to attain godhood through his death because it goes against the very identity of their nation and who they are supposed to be. 

Serefin brings up Nadya-as-Józefina’s explanation that she had been attacked in Tranavia on her way to the capital and his father confirms that there are indeed Kalyazi troops inside of the country.

“It’s almost as if they know something we do not,” his father continued. “Like they’re preparing for something … extensive.” Abruptly his father smiled and fear clawed its way down Serefin’s spine. “They won’t survive whatever it is they’re planning, of course. Tranavia is about to show them the true meaning of power.”

“Are we?” Serefin asked, voice strained. His mind spun. If the Kalyazi were preparing an attack on the border, Tranavia might not be able to properly defend it. What did Kalyazin know that Serefin did not?

That the cleric that you were supposed to track down and capture is in the heart of the country? Also, when is the last time that Nadya has even thought let alone worried about Anna? It’s a pretty oblique reference to Anna but it’s also the only reference to Anna we’ve gotten since they’ve come to the palace.

His father warns him to stay away from Pelageya and Serefin’s like “how about I don’t, tho?” like the little shit he is, and that’s the end of that.

In the hall outside his father’s chambers, he pressed himself against the wall, his hands shaking. Kacper approached, putting a steadying hand on his shoulder. Serefin gravitated toward Kacper. He had to move fast. If Kalyazin was making preparations—and his father was planning to annihilate the Kalyazi forces with the power of a god—Serefin was out of time.

Serefin has a lot of flaws but at least he doesn’t have a holier-than-thou attitude. He wants to stop his father and the only real way to do that is to kill him before he gets killed, and he also wants to stop the war because otherwise his country gets conquered by Kalyazin and he just can’t allow that. There isn’t this over-arching propaganda-esque slant of “oh the Kalyazin are monsters, heretics, whatever for believing in gods” and shit, like it is for Nadya. It’s refreshing.

Kacper tries to comfort Serefin and reassures him that they’ll get through this. 

I’m going to briefly address this again. You could technically read this scene as potential romantic/shipping material but it’s not explicitly written as such, and that’s my problem with ED that I keep coming back to because it’s so personal to me as a queer person.

No one besides Ostyia is explicitly queer. Yet ED keeps claiming that the other characters are - in her mind, the only one who’s not is like Kostya - but she hasn’t written it that way at all in this book so far. And it’s so fucking frustrating.

They were walking back to Serefin’s chambers when a tremendous crash resounded through the hallway coming from the direction of the library.

“Well that doesn’t sound good,” Kacper muttered as Serefin took off down the hall.

You’ll never guess who is in the library.

[theharellan]

dragon age positivity meme | accepting

i’m going to be answering these in one post for the sake of simplicity and cutting down ooc posts!

✾ your favourite da:o main quest | sent by @cuervocanto

my actual favourite quest is paragon of her kind, but i talked about why i love that one here. and yes, i don’t even rly mind the deep roads.

my second favourite is probably the landsmeet, especially taking into account that it has some sub-main quests that are grouped together under the umbrella of preparing for the landsmeet. such as resucing anora, breaking out of fort drakon, and solving the unrest in the alienage. i find returning to the alienage as tabris second to aeducan returning to orzammar, but it’s still very interesting coming back to a place where you grew up with no power, suddenly having power. and regardless of origin the worldbuilding is good, immediately the fact that you’re barred from the alienage upon initially entering denerim tells you a lot about the state of elves in ferelden. the choice at the end isn’t particularly difficult, “slavery is bad” isn’t a controversial opinion even in ferelden and so even the warden i created with the intention of being That Kind of Human couldn’t choose that option, BUT it does make for an emotional choice when playing tabris

as for rescuing anora and breaking out of drakon, i just love the humour in the quest. i never have my warden break out themselves just so i can have the companions bullshit their way in. my personal favourite combination is zevran and oghren, although i do enjoy morrigan-leliana and sten-dog, as well. i think my fave thing about oghren and zev tho is that iirc they’re one of the most successful combinations.

as for the landsmeet itself, it’s not particularly challenging, but i enjoy the variety of options you get and how it changes the game going forward. like, in every game anora is queen for me in some capacity, but beyond that i’ve had a bitter king alistair working with a warden who recruited loghain, loghain and the warden alone, etc. i enjoy the politicking and making an alliance with anora. it’s enjoyable even on replays.

❄ your favourite da:i personal quest | sent by @pentaghasted

my actual favourite personal quest is cole’s, which i talked about here. instead i’ll talk about iron bull’s b/c i’m glad they committed to what they started in trespasser and i also appreciate how the choice is set up. most of us save the chargers b/c the lot of them stole our hearts in the two scenes they were in, but unlike some other choices in the series choosing the sadder/arguably worse option doesn’t require you to be roleplaying as an evil bastard to choose it.

so like, most games i save the chargers, but my playthrough where i’m playing a practical trevelyan-- she goes with the qunari dreadnought. the chargers were assets, but a qunari alliance could have been more beneficial in the long term. heck, even my inquisitor who saves the chargers feels a lot of guilt about it-- because even if she didn’t know the people on the dreadnought, there were a whole lot of them, and her decision got them killed. she needed to show she cared for her own people first, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t matter.

which contrasts this personal quest for something like... say, fenris’s third one, which don’t get me wrong, is very emotional. but i cannot fathom why a hawke how kept fenris around for all that time and clearly spent time talking to him would just say “yeah you can take him” its just kinda over-the-top cruel. so i am glad when i can roleplay the alternate decisions i ordinarily wouldn’t make.

and i love seeing the quest’s differing effect on bull. he adjusts either way, but one puts him on a path where he’s going to be facing you, one way or another. and he pays the price for that.

♦ your favourite piece of lore | sent by @felandaristhorns & @sephirajo

i’ve answered this before the last time i reblogged this meme and answered the dalish mage lore from da:i and rivain just. as a whole. i’m going with the lore regarding elvhenan, though, b/c i think the games do a good job of subverting what we were told in da:o and da2 while also explaining how those misconceptions happened. i love going back to the previous games and seeing new angles to the lore and the places where they were building up to it. i love seeing the foreshadowing within inquisition itself.

and i just love how elvhenan is characterised, as a hyper-magic society where reality and dreams aren’t necessarily different things. and where feelings are just as physical as every other aspect of a person. it explains so much about the fade, spirits, solas, it makes even comments like merrill’s-- someone with a pretty nuanced view of spirits-- kind of sad. she calls the fade “another people’s land” not knowing that it was her land, and her people.

while i’m on that spirits in general make me sad. how perception screws with them, and how i think that just further isolates mages. for once i don’t think this is a plot by the chantry, i don’t think they’re lying about how they think spirits are, they’re just wrong to characterise them as they do. but at the same time i don’t think they’d disapprove of the effect is has on mages. it’s cutting them off from potential friendships, and not only that but friendships the templars would have 0 way of regulating given they could potential happen in dreams.

but i’m off-topic. the point is i find the worldbuilding surrounding elvhenan, to be some of bioware’s best. it makes sense, it’s nuanced and varied and doesn’t make elvhen characters wear one single hat. clearly it was a heavily flawed place, but it had a lot of merits and you can see why solas misses it or why cole, upon learning that the veil was never meant to be, feels validated by the idea that he was never wrong to want to be a part of both worlds.

♬ your favourite part of the da:i soundtrack | sent by @daggersandpoison

da:i has the best soundtrack in the series and i don’t think this is a controversial opinion. i do love inon sur’s work, and i was a little worried when i heard morris was composing inquisition b/c i found me3′s soundtrack to be overall a step down from me2′s (it lost a lot of what made the mass effect series unique). BUT with inquisition he managed to keep dragon age’s unique sound while also improving upon it. the inquisition theme gives me chills when i start up the game and even while i’m walking around in the field and a few chords play while i’m picking up my 100th elfroot.

but it’s always hard to choose my favourite. it’s honestly a tie between journey to skyhold and the dark solas theme. both of these give me specific solas feelings, the former b/c you have solas entrusting a lot of hope and faith in the inquisitor (it’s esp poignant if by that point you have a burgeoning friendship with him). and b/c it comes off one of the strongest moments in the dragon age series, aka the battle of haven and encounter w/ corypheus. also i love the dawn will come, fite me. and from my inquisitor’s perspective, esp my main inquisitor, thora, this is probably the first time she’s felt like she was worth all this herald talk. even if she doesn’t believe it, the song beginning with a soft, unsure sound and rising to a triumphant end when skyhold is unveiled encapsulates what i love about the inquisitor’s story and my inquisitor’s personal feelings.

dark solas theme i love b/c it conveys so much of the sadness and loneliness of his character. i would talk more about it b/c it makes me so sad i literally can’t listen to it unless i’m writing post-trespasser solas and even then it’s risky. it’s just a good track ok. and it caps off my favourite dlc.

ღ your favourite da:i banter | sent by @renaudtrevelyan

i talked about some banter i love here between bull and solas. i have to admit i have a hard time choosing my favourite in da:i b/c i just love so much of the banter in this game. i always tell myself not to choose solas banter, and i’m going to... choose one solas and one non-solas.

Solas: I do not understand you, Sera. You have no end goal for your organization. Sera: Nobles get rattled, and people get payback. I play in the middle. Solas: Why not go all the way? You see injustice, and you have organized a group to fight it. Don't you want to replace it with something better? Sera: What, just lop off the top? What's that do, except make a new top to frig it all up? Solas: I...forgive me. You are right. You are fine as you are. Sera: You hurt my head sometimes, Solas. Solas: Yes, I have been known to do that.

this banter is great to me (and all the banter leading up to it) b/c it informs so much about both of their characters. solas is trying to help sera, in this string of banter. he’s trying to give advice so that the red jennies could potentially become an organisation that does more than makes little people’s lives better with pranks or the occasional knife in someone’s back. it’s a conversation between two characters who are, in different ways, absolutely sick of the system and have different ways of dealing with it.

solas wants change. sweeping, societal change. sera isn’t sure change will help any, and would prefer the relative stability of a pre-breach world where she knows which way’s up. neither is wrong to deal with it the ways they are, and solas just has to look at the top he lopped off to see that, yes, they grow back just as bad. idk i just love solas and sera a lot and i love seeing what they have in common and how they handle their frustrations differently.

Sera: I don't get it. If you want to change, just change. Why this "fake Warden" rubbish? Blackwall: For one, people wanted me dead. Being someone else kept me breathing. Blackwall: And then, knowing that people thought I was good made it easier. Sera: (Laughs.) You needed them to think you could, so you could think you could! Sera: You're smart, but you're sort of stupid.

i’m picking another sera banter b/c i love her. i love sera b/c she’s smarter than ppl give her credit for, she cuts through why rainier did what he did the same way cole does. their relationship on the whole is very sweet and it was hard choosing one banter. but i appreciate her ability to both love and support thom while also calling him out on his bullshit. the two of them are good for each other and im so glad they’re friends. my only regret is i’ve never seen thom as sera’s best man in wedding art. or sera as blackwall’s for that matter. their friendship needs more love-- actually, sera just needs more love period.

☄ your favourite da:i codex entry | sent by @chantrysworn

i love this codex entry, describing wisdom (solas’s spirit friend):

When the summoning ritual was complete, the spirit appeared. Both spirits and demons have no gender as we understand it, but this one, much like the rare and dangerous desire demon, presented as female. Although its form was not threatening, the spirit carried itself with a confidence, an awareness, I suppose, that I have seen only in the most powerful of demons.

This spirit of wisdom was polite and courteous. It answered our questions about the Fade, even acknowledging the difficulty when we could not understand what it meant. There was none of the bargaining one normally associates with a summoned creature, save that the spirit sometimes asked us questions as well. Heras shared a mathematical formula he had recently proven, while Etrenne explained her study on magical themes in the Chant of Light, and young Rhys talked a little about his mother.

When we were finished, the spirit thanked us for the conversation and then vanished, although none of us had dismissed it. We soon discovered that the summoning ritual we had devised was critically flawed. The spirit had been under no compulsion to come or remain. All the time it had talked with us, it had stayed of its own volition. Heras was greatly concerned that such a powerful spirit remained free, and has updated the ritual to correct for the weakness in the binding enchantment. I understand his caution, but I also confess that I quite enjoyed the conversation. I am not certain the spirit would have talked so freely had it been shackled at the time.

—An excerpt from Spirits of the Spire by Senior Enchanter Francois

you can see so much of why they were friends in this codex. the politeness, answering and asking questions, no bargaining just a nice conversation where both parties learn things. and then you find out it never had to show up in the first place, it just wanted to-- and likely would not have been as accommodating had it not been free.

it’s great for informing us on a character we tragically don’t know all that well. and also? it’s incredibly sad when you think about what happens to it, it almost makes you wonder if the mages who ultimately bound and killed it would have had better luck simply asking for its protection. solas says something along those lines, but he also says it prefers remaining in the fade (interesting in itself, given that the chantry pushes the agenda that all spirits want beyond it. contradicted by multiple spirits we’ve met tbh, including cole, who actually quite likes the fade).

this codex is also interesting b/c it tells you some about what mages study and do with their time. and it goes back to what i mentioned previously, w/ chantry attitudes depriving spirits and mages of one another’s company.

anyway i love wisdom and it deserved better.