#Kate Elliott

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"Hemorrhaging Trust", a Good Time Society video playing Blood on The Clocktower. Please support their kickstarter [here]

[haveyoureadthisfantasybook]

vote yes if you have finished the entire book.

vote no if you have not finished the entire book.

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[bookcoversonly]

Title: Servant Mage | Author: Kate Elliott | Publisher: Tor (2022)

[godzilla-reads]

I just started reading “Servant Mage” by Kate Elliott, after seeing it had a dragon on the cover. The beginning was a bit slow-going but it’s catching on now that I have the goals of the mission down. Fingers crossed this picks up fast. 🤞

[kateelliottsff]

The History of the World Begins in Ice

I’m delighted to announce that, in Summer 2024, Fairwood Press will be publishing a collection of stories and essays from the Spiritwalker (Cold Magic) universe, titled

THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BEGINS IN ICE:

Stories and Essays from the World of Cold Magic.

That’s right! A collection of fiction and non fiction from and about my Afro-Celtic post-Roman icepunk adventure set in an alt-fantasy 19th century Earth alongside a perilous spirit world, and including Phoenician spies, well-dressed men, revolutionary-minded women, and of course lawyer dinosaurs.

The collection will be published in a trade paperback edition and an ebook edition. It will contain eleven stories and eleven essays, as well as an introduction by N.K. Jemisin.

Each story will have an illustration by a different artist. The collection will include “The Secret Journal of Beatrice Hassi Barahal” with all 28 of the original Julie Dillon illustrations, previously published only in a 300 copy chapbook edition. Here’s the narrator of the trilogy, Cat Barahal, as drawn by Julie Dillon.

Nine of the eleven stories were previously published. The other two are being written specifically for this collection.

If there is enough interest, Fairwood Press will produce a limited edition deluxe hardcover edition with two extra color plates (by Julie Dillon), a fold out triptych (by Kelsey Liggett), and a chapbook insert of the infamous smut chapter, “Chapter 31.5,” from Cold Fire. I can’t promise exact figures (and recent cost of paper increases may mean my guess is way out of date) but likely in the $40-50 range for a book of about 100,000 words.

You can express interest here (comment below or reply via email) or by writing directly to Fairwood Press. If you are interested, please (if you can) write in as soon as possible since creating a deluxe edition will take additional work, monetary investment, and time (that we would be delighted to take on).

Pre-order information will come as soon as it is available.

I first started thinking in autumn 2018 about producing this collection with a Fall 2020 publication date to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the publication of Cold Magic. Events conspired against me at the time, by which I mean I didn’t have the energy or time to move forward with it.

So I am incredibly thrilled to work with Patrick Swenson and Fairwood Press to bring this long-dreamt-of project to life and share it with all of you Spiritwalker fans.

[highfantasybobbyhillreads]

Come plan a reading journal with me.

This year I got really into bullet journaling. I like that they’re free and creative. There’s no real rules, but there’s still structure to the pages. It’s really just a good way for me to plan with my neurodivergent brain.

For 2024 I want to use a dot grid book to do a reading journal. Reading is really important to me, and after taking some genre specific classes this past semester, I want to branch out and read things that I wouldn’t normally read. I also think it will help me a lot as my family and I go into a “no buy” year. I have a lot of books I’ve purchased but haven’t read, so there’s plenty for me to pull from. I also plan on using Libby, my college library, and the local library. Not to mention, there’s plenty in my kindle and audible libraries I haven’t read yet.

I’ve done some research on TikTok, and found a creator whose reading journal style I vibe with. Admittedly a lot of my category ideas came from her channel (@lindseybluher), but I think that these can be so broad that it allows creativity to flow. If this is something you’re into, I highly recommend checking her out.

I ordered some supplies today, a new grid journal and some pens. I’m a perfectionist at heart, so pre-planning a journal helps me to avoid mistakes I might dwell on later. Here’s what I scribbled in Goodnotes while I wait for my supplies in the mail.

Here I was really just jotting down all the section ideas I had seen that I liked. The ones that are crossed out are ones I’ve decided not to do, and the highlighted ones are the ones I’ve chosen to organize the journal.

Starting with “# of books for the year”, I really just decided I don’t want to put an overall quantity goal on books to read. The main goal of this project is to read more intentionally. A number seems like more pressure than I’m comfortable with. “List of books I already own” (or “book backlog”) ultimately got cut for similar reasons. Like I mentioned earlier, I have a lot of unread books laying around. A list of them might be too overwhelming. The “abc” challenge just didn’t vibe with me anymore when I was reviewing these sections.

This page breaks down the broader sections of “Series to read” and “Book Bingo”.

Series to Read: Order of Crowns by Kate Elliott, The Witches sub-series of Discworld by Terry Pratchett, Parable of the Sower (reread) and Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler, and the Sword Dancer series (reread) by Jennifer Roberson.

Some of the categories for Book Bingo are a bit plain maybe, but I tried to think about the books I already own when deciding what to put in this section. This is one of the many coloring activities I have planned.

Genre Bubbles will be another page of coloring that is basically just a bunch of circles of various sizes that have genres scribbled in them. Each time I read one of the genres I’ll color in a bubble.

The other two sections on this page are lists of books in my kindle and audible libraries that I haven’t read yet. I chose 12 from each, one each for every month. This will be important for the Bracket pages I’m planning.

For this last bit I was just tracking down the books in the Discworld sub-series I’m planning to read. This is the only series I chose that I don’t own. The books that are available on Libby (all but 1) I also went ahead and tagged in the app so they are easy to find later.

And that’s it for now. I plan on using this as a place to track my reading progress.

Next post when the new journal arrives!

*C*

[torpublishinggroup]

Attentive readers might recall our Severely Unmoored Winter Holiday Quiz. 

Well.

New year, new us, and we’re going to keep these seasonally wild quizzes churning until the heat death of the universe (And maybe beyond. It’ll depend on engagement).

Take this drastically off-kilter quiz to find out what you should read this spring!

[jeannereames]

FOREVER ALEXANDER

FREE Zoom Conference

23-25 Jan. 2023

The Autonomous University of Barcelona will host a conference commemorating the 323 BCE death of #AlexandertheGreat, focused on art & literature, ancient & modern.

More information and full schedule at the link above. It is free and open to the public.

NOTE: Tuesday, 1/24, 7:30pm Barcelona time (1:30 US EST)

Roundtable: "From History to Story: authors share their process writing Alexander"

Featuring:

KATE ELLIOTT

JO GRAHAM

SCOTT ODEN

MELISSA SCOTT

JEANNE REAMES (moderator)

(There are some heavy-hitters in that list of names! And I don't mean me.)

Come and listen to us talk about writing Alexander.

Please boost.

[wearethekat]

Have you read Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott?

well. I started Unconquerable Sun but put it down after about fifty pages and never picked it back up again. It has lots of things I like (lesbian empire in SPACE!!) so I may well try it again someday, but also I don't seem to get along with Elliott's writing for some reason I can't put my finger on. I also dnf'd her Spirit Gate and the Cold Magic series.

[booksandchainmail]

Recently read through Kate Elliott's Unconquerable Sun and Furious Heaven, the first two parts of a trilogy described as genderbent Alexander the Great in space. Excellent books, but I didn't have the knowledge of Alexander's life necessary to draw the historical parallels. Fortunately, the author has a few essays up on tor.com explaining it. Unfortunately, she doesn't spell out all the connections, so here's what I have, ones stated by the author bolded:

(some spoilers, I guess)

Sun: Alexander the Great

Eirene: Phillip II of Macedon (Alexander's father)

Joao: Olympias (Alexander's mother)

Persephone "Perse" Lee: Ptolemy I Soter (Alexander's companion, later pharaoh of Egypt, noted for keeping memoirs and sponsoring mathematics)

Hestia "Hetty" Hope: Hesphaistion (Alexander's companion and lover)

Alika Vata: Perdiccas (Alexander's companion and general)

James Samtarras: does not have a historical analog, since he apparently fulfills multiple roles

Makinde Bo: Lysimachus (Alexander's general)

Razin Nazir: don't know, she hasn't shown up much, presumably one of Alexander's other companions/generals

Jade Kim: Craterus (Alexander's general, often distrusted for his ambition)

Tiana: Thais (courtesan who later became Ptolemy's consort)

Solomon: Seleuccas (Alexander's general, later founded the Seleucid Empire)

Octavian: no historical analog

Zizou: no historical analog

Crane Marshal Zaofu Samtarras: Parmenion (cautious older general contrasted against Alexander)

Anas Samtarras: Philotas (Parmenion's oldest son)

Angharad Black: Cleitus the Black (soldier who saved Alexander's life)

Moira Lee: Attalos (friend of Phillip's who arranged his marriage to Attalos's yougner relative)

Marduk Lee: Antipater (Alexander's regent in macedonia while he was away on campaign)

Nona Lee: Antigonus? I'm hesitant about this, but Nona is the only character I can think of who fits the description of "one of Philip’s old guard who unlike most of the rest of the older generation retained his importance long into and past the Alexander era"

Dimitar: Demetrius (Antigonus's son, the names match which supports the Nona=Antigonus theory)

Soaring Shan: Cleopatra (Alexander's sister)

Metis: Phillip Arhiddaeus (Alexander's half brother, deemed mentally unfit to rule)

Beau Qiang: Callisthenes (Alexander's historian)

Baron Voy: amalgamation of Demosthenes and Aeschines (athenian orators)

Baragesi: Darius III (ruler of the persians)

Jejomar Os Cook: Sisygambis (Darius's mother, captured by Alexander)

Bartholomew: Barsine (persian noblewoman who knew Alexander as a child, and later married him)

Manu: Memnon (greek mercenary who fought for persia)

Apama: this one I struggled with, Kate Elliott says, "She has an historical counterpoint and in some ways I consider her my most important gender spin in the entire story." But I couldn't find any corresponding person she could be genderbent from. Then I realized that "gender spin" could be referring, not to making a historically male figure female, but to giving a female figure the agency and role in this narrative that she didn't get in the historical record. So my guess is Apama I, a persian noblewoman from a region whose leaders were later referred to as Sabao, whose wikipedia page basically just lists her father, husband, and children.

[v01d4rch1v3s]

Why I love the sun chronicles by Kate Elliott

The characters can be described as followed:

"I'm Persephone but you can call me Perse, or asshole."

Some Guy and his colour changing ai symbiont who uses neopronouns

ukuleleukuleleukuleleukulele

Badass bodyguard with a pet pterodactyl

Demoted and ostracized for refusing to kill a baby

Snarky genderless pilot

Lesbian with gay dads that is nice and sometimes wants to kill people

Lesbian who eventually rules her kingdom + kills people

Glasses but weaponized!

Also it's a science fiction, queer, genderbent retelling of Alexander the Great.

[haveyoureadthisfantasybook]

vote yes if you have finished the entire book.

vote no if you have not finished the entire book.

(faq · submit a book)

[antimony-medusa]

Importantly, being “sympathetic” is not necessarily the same as being “compelling.” A character can convey many unsympathetic traits and actions but remain compelling to read about. For example, an antagonist who isn’t compelling quickly turns into a static plot object rather than a vibrant, edge-of-seat obstacle. Ultimately for my purposes as a writer, I need a character to be compelling above all.

— Kate Elliott x

[crudely-drawn-ben]

The Sun Chronicles are good reading

Following from my post about Mike Brooks' God King series, it's time to talk about another recent series that I have loved. This trilogy is not yet complete but it begins with Unconquerable Sun (which is very good) and continues with Furious Heaven (which is excellent.) I listened to the audiobooks so I'm probably going to spell everything wrong here, apologies to people who know how to read.

The one-line pitch for these was "gender-swapped Alexander the great in space" so I was more or less sold on these from the first time I heard of them, particularly because Kate Elliott is very high on my list of criminally underrated genre authors and she consistently comes up with the goods.

I don't know the history well enough to be able to say how closely the books follow it, so I'm going to talk about them as though they're regular space opera and in that context they're excellent. The story begins in the Republic Of Chaonia (republic in name, dictatorship in nature) ruled by the brilliant but overbearing Queen-Marshal Irene and follows her daughter Sun's journey towards finding her place in this universe.

Chaonian leaders are surrounded by a team of Companions, representatives of the governing houses who offer their skills and loyalty to the leader and have their own companions in turn. These are the characters that form the heart of these books - they are well drawn and interesting, their banter and bickering are fun and authentic. Our main window on this world is through outsider and newcomer Persephone Lee, who's self-deprecating narration I came to really appreciate. In keeping with the source material, pretty much everyone is bisexual and at least one of the major characters is non-binary - queerness is very much a normal part of this world.

Sun herself is the centre around which the companions revolve and I enjoy that she is seldom a point-of-view character herself; we are more likely to see her through other people's eyes. This is something I love when writers like Dorothy Dunnett and Megan Whalen Turner do it, and although my search for a female character on that Lymond axis continues Sun is certainly nearby.

We also have point-of-view characters from other societies that confront or interact with Chaonia and seeing how Elliott gradually winds them together across these two books is fascinating. The books are action-packed and fast-paced, full of intrigue and awful parents. Elliott knows a lot about naval combat and the fleet confrontations have a sense of weight and danger. The different spacefaring societies feel distinctive and their beliefs and cultures hint at depth and mystery. The universe itself is also mysterious, as is the system of jump-gates that enable faster-than-light travel but whose design is lost to time. It feels like there's more to learn about that before the series is out.

Something that Kate Elliot consistently manages well is telling an epic story but keeping her characters at the heart of it, and once again she does a great job of that here. The threads of friendship and found family really helped to bring me and care about the individuals in the wider tapestry of the story. If you want some really big-screen grand space opera this is exactly what the doctor ordered.

So far it is, as you might imagine, a story of imperial expansion, and I'm sure there are people who will tell you that it's celebrating imperialism and conquest, but Elliott is too smart for that. Everyone in this universe is part of somebody's empire and they all suck in different ways. I have no idea what the destination is - and I like that - but the journey so far has been a tremendous ride.

[kateelliottsff]

Finn, short for Fingolfin, checking it out.

I have not ventured onto tumblr for years for the usual reasons, but with the toddler-smashing antics on Twitter by spoiled not-genius boy, the wrack and ruin of the Meta-verse (trapped by Instagram, FB, and Threads), and the various Other Places that aren't really Twitter, tumblr feels relatively . . . peaceful. In a manner of speaking.

I'm still looking around for a place to hang out online* as Twitter's steady decline continues, although honestly I will hang on there until the bitter end, but meanwhile, HELLO AGAIN, Tumblr.

*public hangout, not the private Discord and Slack servers I'm on, which aren't the same