#Martha wells. have you read the dispossessed

[mohay]

Started the 5th murderbot book and kinda disappointed that the book is uninterested in exploring Preservation’s economy and politics, and explains it away because “murderbot is uninterested in that kind of human stuff.” Even though murderbot seems to understand Corporation politics, admittedly due to it being created and owned by one. But 1) it’s boring to have an incurious protagonist and 2) it immediately makes the world feel shallow when you present this utopian society that is explicitly distinct from the other corporate factions, and then deliberately refuse to explain how exactly that utopia arose and is maintained

[wordscholar]

my favorite books of 2023!

(plus some runners-up that didn't make the cut)

hi all! due to consuming copious amounts of manga this year, i met over 150% of my reading goal in 2023, which i think is a record for me!! that said, i still read a TON of amazing non-manga books, and i wanted to share what they are and why i liked them so much :) here are my top 10, in no particular order:

stay true, by hua hsu: i actually "spoiled" this memoir for myself, in that i opened it randomly at a bookstore and by chance saw a line that revealed the central event of the book. that said—knowing what was going to happen made this book even better. hsu's writing is so conscious of itself and you can tell he never says anything he doesn't mean or anything he hasn't thought about time and time again. i don't even like memoirs! but this book broke my heart.

witch king, by martha wells: all my friends know i'm obsessed with witch king. this was my first martha wells book and i was absolutely enraptured from the word go. it was so fun and exciting and the characters did not overshadow the plot, which is a trend in books nowadays that often bothers me, and it also didn't feel contrived or almost silly the way bad fantasy can be. i read this book so fast it made me depressed when it was over. read witch king!!

goodbye, eastern europe, by jacob mikanowski: dedicated readers of this blog, who definitely exist (lol), will know i am from deep eastern europe. reading this book helped me understand the region more, especially on a more personal and less geopolitical level, but almost more than anything, it made me feel like i wasn't wrong for always feeling like my country has left no footprint on the world. mikanowski says that eastern europe doesn't lack for history, but rather it lacks for narratives that it can tell about itself, having been torn apart and conquered and frozen and thawed and put back together again over the course of more than 500 years. it's not just that no one remembers us—no one even knows what to call us.

mammoths at the gates, by nghi vo: i have loved the singing hills cycle since it first started coming out and this latest story was no exception (though nothing can beat empress of salt and fortune). i love the focus on the neixin (the little "twist" at the end was so funny and cute) and, as i've come to expect with nghi vo, she gives her "antagonists" such careful, dedicated treatment that they stop being antagonists and just start being other people. also, i've said it but it's worth saying again: i love chih!!

the dispossessed, by ursula k. le guin: several years ago i read all of earthsea, and then i read left hand of darkness, but it was only this year that i finally got to the dispossessed, and the wait was absolutely worth it. uklg has so many ideas to share about feminism, nationalism, linguistics, not to mention anarchy and capitalism. reading this book made me feel like even our ability to imagine utopia, the perfect, impossible nowhere-land, has been degraded by capitalism over the years. this book should be required reading.

an immense world, by ed yong: i am scientist and so i love to read about other sciences, especially plant and animal science, and immense world is the best journalistic foray into animal science an amateur could ask for. this book just does not stop hitting you over the head with completely crazy true stuff about the natural world, and to top it all off ed yong is funny and likable and a socially conscious person. do you want to know more about animals, even in passing? read this book.

all the horses of iceland, by sarah tolmie: i'm obsessed with novellas that carry 100 times their weight in meaning, and (like the singing hills cycle!) this is one of them. are you interested in medieval eurasia? nomadic peoples? witchcraft? global judaism? horses? the season of game of thrones where she lives with the dothraki??? all of the horses of iceland has all of these and more and it's slim as hell!!

lonely castle in the mirror, by mizuki tsujimura: this book is most immediately about how bullying can truly send a person's (and especially a child's) life off course, but it's also about living on in spite of that and especially making new friends and reconciling with old ones. while the middle portion of the book is a little slow (not boring, just slice-of-life-y), once i got to the final quarter or so, i was so enraptured i read it while walking home. it's also maybe, but also definitely not? about time travel.

the premonition, by yoshimoto banana: this book is short but it takes you to many places as the narrator comes to understand a secret about her family that had been kept from her for years. many uncomfortable things are discussed and even put into action, but at the end of the day this story is about loving other people and appreciating your life and knowing no one can control you but you. unrelated, but at one point they drink hot calpico, which is total madness.

city of bones, by martha wells: i finished this book on christmas eve and it made the list! on the surface it's about archaeology (and combat archaeology! that beloved 90s genre), which i love as someone with a degree in classics. but it's also about people who are hurt in different ways by the social systems we live under and how mutual aid can help. and also, toxic shock syndrome(?!).

quite a few runners-up:

ms. ice sandwich, by mieko kawakami: a really sweet novella about a kid who doesn't understand the woman he has a childhood crush on had a botched plastic surgery to "fix" her eyelids.

juniper and thorn, by ava reid: a fairly dark piece of magic realism about abuse and freedom. tasteful but not toothless sex scenes.

the king must die, by mary renault: what if when theseus was taken to crete, there were no monsters, only people?

the remains of the day, by kazuo ishiguro: it's never too late to tell someone you love them—or to not do that, if you're british.

the mask of mirrors, by m. a. carrick: an ambiguously slavic (not russian!) fantasy about conning your way to success, or maybe not that much success.

young mungo, by douglas stuart: a really horrifying book in the sense that horrifying things happen in the real world, every day. the conclusion of this book is about as horrifying as the inciting action, but it's a fucking triumph.

all systems red, by martha wells: imagine if every time you went outside you had to bring an antisocial bodyguard obsessed with general hospital.

the last unicorn, by peter s. beagle: many people have written much about this book, so all i'll say is that they're right. it's good.

a couple that weren't for me:

lapvona, by ottessa moshfegh: this book was very much a folk tale describing what happened when pagan communities ostensibly became christian—except no one in the book knew they were still pagan. great in concept, but in execution far too gross for me personally.

confessions of the fox, by jordy rosenberg: i can understand why lots of people love this book, but for me it was actually a bit boring. the commentary (literal and metaphorical) was fun to read, but the story-within-the-story didn't end up interesting me very much.

what lies in the woods, by kate alice marshall: this was a deeply average mystery novel, totally predictable but not unfun. i'd rather just read tana french though.

days at the morisaki bookshop, by satoshi yagisawa: the first half of this book is actually alright, as a young woman is convinced by her uncle that her ex cheating on her was actually a hugely shitty thing to do, but the second half transitions to a completely different story about the uncle's wife reappearing after many years that i didn't like at all.

the manga series i read (or read a lot of) this year:

skip and loafer, by misaki takamatsu: an awesome slice of life story about a girl who lives in the countryside moving to tokyo for high school. the story is split really well between the characters' personal aspirations and arcs and their interactions with each other, and as many have noted there is a prominent trans woman character who's really lovely.

inuyasha, by rumiko takahashi: i'm finally getting into this classic manga. i tried watching the anime first and found it was too hard to pay attention to for me, but being able to take the manga at my own pace has been super fun and i'm really enjoying it! i love miroku and sango. i think this is the first manga i've read from the 90s.

a sign of affection, by suu morishita: a love story about a deaf girl in college meeting her first boyfriend, who is hearing. some parts are pretty goofy, but overall i thought it was cute and i learned a lot about experiences you might have as a deaf person in japan.

in the clear moonlit dusk, by mika yamamori: a romance about a boyish-looking, suave high school girl who is caught off guard when a filthy rich, slightly delinquent upperclassman becomes obsessed with her. sounds disgusting? except then he starts talking about how he'd still be in love with her if she really were a boy and proceeds to respect all her boundaries at all times. chef kiss!

various BL by nagisa furuya (japanese editions): this author's single/double-volume BL manga are super cute, my favorite was definitely long period (childhood friends!) with hoshi dake ga shitteru being a close second.

ao haru ride, by io sakisaka: i had watched the anime of ao haru ride (which stops halfway through the manga) and so when i reached that point in the manga, i was expecting more similar stuff, not a genuinely stressful love square disaster. the first half is so cute and the second half is terrifying. proceed if you dare.

witch hat atelier, by kamome shirahama: i've continued keeping up with witch hat atelier this year, and i have to say i read the first few volumes so fast i've sort of forgotten what happened....but that won't stop me from being obsessed with qifrey and his whole situation. i love that coco and agott are getting more comfortable with each other these last few volumes!

[terapsina]

My top 3 fave series of the year.

(out of 43 books that I read)

1. Inheritance Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin

These three books were awesome. I might actually like them even better than her Broken Earth trilogy (I guess Broken Earth was better structurally but Inheritance made me more happy). They take place in a world ruled by the Arameri and focuses on well... collapse of a ruthless global empire. But it’s also about enslaved gods fighting for their freedom, revenge on those that enslaved them but also those that kept them enslaved. About the mortals who keep having to make choices about what to do and who to side with because it’s not actually as black and white as it starts out looking (I mean don’t get me wrong the empire is totally deserving of falling it’s the collateral damages that makes stuff complicated). 

The first book focuses on Yeine Darr when she’s summoned from her ‘barbarian’ home by her grandfather the Emperor and told she’s being placed in the running for next in line to the throne,,, which is basically a death sentence. Each of the next books have a new POV character and I loved them just as much but I don’t want to talk too much there because it’s got too much spoilers. Oh and also its an own voice story written by a black author. Also also, multiple queer characters. Detailed as hell world-building that just... made it all so perfect.

2. The Books of the Raksura Series by Martha Wells

The story follows Moon an orphan who has spent his whole life not knowing where he comes from and what he is because the only people like him he’s ever met were his mom and his siblings who all died when he was a child. And when the story starts out he’s long since stopped searching for his origins because it absolutely never ever ended well when he tried. What he is is a shape-shifter (think like... giant eagle/dragon/human hybrid) except what makes this story interesting is that even in his wingless form he doesn’t look human (actually there’s no humans in this world, just humanoid species of various kinds). And then of course his origins find him. The vast majority of the story takes place after Moon is brought to meet more people like him, except because he never learned all the social structures of his people he’s still an outsider. 

And here is where all the interesting stuff happens. Because all those social structures are FASCINATING. And Moon just... well without spoiling too much let’s just say that within his species the KIND of shape-shifter he is makes him the most treasured sort of person in a Raksura Flight. The kind that would have been protected and cherished and looked after. But because he was without a Flight his whole life he’s also much closer in personality to a scrappy survivor. And then you add that usually Raksura without a Flight are those that have been banished and they only banish the most heinous of criminals and you’ve got all sort of interesting complications.

And just believe me. This too has some of the most amazing world-building going for it.

3. The Daevabad Trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty

Alright so this is the only series where I’ve only read the first book so far but I really enjoyed it.

The book follows two viewpoint characters.

One is Nahri, A con artist from the streets of Cairo with healing abilities she’s hidden all her life and with a dream of earning enough money to buy her place at a university where she could study medicine. And then her whole life changes on a dime when while acting out a dispossession ceremony she accidentally summons a djinn. It’s not a three wishes sort of genie lamp situation.

More like she finds out there is actually a hidden world filled with the descendants of full blood Daeva and mix blood Shafit and she’s from one of those families. A thought extinct one. And whether she wants to or not she needs to go there to be safe because now that she’s revealed herself it’s not safe to stay in the human world.

The other POV character is Prince Ali. The King’s youngest son with Shafit sympathies who wants to help the people being discriminated against but also wants to stay a loyal son because he loves his family. At the same time it’s not so simple because there is actually like three factions in the city itself and even more factions in the world at large and there is discrimination on all sides and it’s just... a powder-keg of a place.

It’s a slow-build book but once it starts.... ooooh does it start and it’s so hard taking sides because what’s best for one character you end up loving is not good for another and nothing is simple.

And again. The world-building was a thing of beauty. Also this is another own-voices story, this one written by a Muslim author.

---

And these were my favorite reads of this year.

[sigmaleph]

Book recs masterpost

y’all really came through here, thanks! Here’s a collected version, I will continue to update it if recs keep coming. Format will be a little inconsistent but I will try to keep books by the same author together and give the summary if it exists and who provided the rec.

Under a cut cause it gets long:

Gene Wolfe:

The Fifth Head of Cerberus

Three interconnected novellas about life on an authoritarian twin planet system where humans have apparently wiped out the natives. Superbly well written and thoughtful imo

rec by @femmenietzsche

Book of the New Sun 

rec by @napoleonchingon

Octavia Butler:

Dawn, rec by @empresszo, @typicalacademic

Parable of the Sower, rec by @st-just

Kindred, rec by @squareallworthy

Angelica Gorodischer:

Kalpa Imperial

epic fantasy in the style of conan the barbarian, we see the stories of an old empire in some nondescript country, a nondescript amount of millenia ago. small vignettes of different time periods within the country. very light in fantasy, basically an entire book of nothing but lore for a D&D campaign

Trafalgar

comedy sci fi. the life stories of a sales man, a guy who goes door to door selling whatever he can, except IN SPACE. all the stories are framed as him in his little bar in rosario with his friends or drinking mate, telling his latests adventures through space.

La saga de los confines by  Liliana Bodoc

lord of the rings except instead of taking inspiration from nordic folk tales is based on the american conquest. see fantasy races and cultures based on the native american population from south america. lots of poetry, lots of cool classic fantasy with a fresh new flavor

(Already read)

la batalla del calentamiento by marcelo figueras

the fantasy here is very understated to the point of it being magical realism but still my top three favourite book of all time. it starts with a man who suffers gigantism receiving a message from heaven delivered by a wolf speaking in latin. the most colorful and endearing little town with the most wacky of habitants open their arms to the guy who is desperatly in search of redemption

homestuck (by Andrew Hussie)

there is really nothing i can say about this that you havent already heard, so im not even going to bother. just give the first arc (which is about a hundred pages long) a change and see where it goes from there

All of the above suggestions by @fipindustries

Ada Palmer. Terra Ignota series (starts with Too Like the Lightning) (seconded by @youzicha)

(read the first one, have the second one but haven’t read it yet)

Jo Walton, Thessaly series (starts with The Just City)

Yoon Ha Lee, Machinaries of Empire series (starts with Ninefox Gambit) (seconded by @terminallyuninspired)

Ann Leckie:

Imperial Radch series (Starts with Ancillary Justice) (seconded by @youzicha and @squareallworthy)

Raven Tower

N. K. Jemisin:

Broken Earth trilogy (starts with The Fifth Season) (seconded by @typicalacademic)

Dreamblood duology (starts with The Killing Moon)

Seth Dickinson, Masquerade series (starts with The Traitor Baru Cormorant)

(Good rec, already read the first one)

Jeff Vandermeer, Southern Reach series (starts with Annihilation)

Victor LaValle, The Ballad of Black Tom

Tamsyn Muir, Gideon the Ninth

Arkady Martine, A Memory Called Empire

M. R. Carey, The Girl With All The Gifts

All of the above by @st-just

Le guin:

The Dispossessed, rec by @st-just, @youzicha

The Left Hand of Darkness, rec by @youzicha and @typicalacademic

both also seconded by @squareallworthy

(I love Le Guin, read both of these)

Zelazny: Lord of Light, rec by @st-just

Charles Stross:

Missile Gap.

A Colder War.

Peter Watts, Blindsight

Bruce Sterling, Heavy Weather. (I assume. There are multiple books named such)

All of the above by @youzicha

Fonda Lee, Jade City

Richard K. Morgan, Altered Carbon

Shining Path, more thorough rec here.

all by @typicalacademic

Lois McMaster Bujold:

the Vorkosigan Saga

(rec by @omnidistance, seconded by @squareallworthy. Already read all of them, excellent choice)

The Curse of Chalion, rec by @theorem-sorry

Greg Egan:

Permutation City

Orthogonal

above two and “anything else” by him, rec by @saelf

Diaspora, rec by @squareallworthy

The Clockwork Rocket

Physicist discovers relativity in a Riemannian (as opposed to Minkovskian) universe. Also the world is ending.

rec by @jackhkeynes

Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday

Dick, The Man in the High Castle

Gaiman, American Gods

Gibson, Count Zero

Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

Liu, The Three Body Problem

Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

Niffenegger, The Time Traveler’s Wife

Niven and Pournelle, Footfall

North, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

Powers, The Anubis Gates

Wilson, Spin.

All of the above by @squareallworthy

Pratchett, Discworld books (going postal, thud!, unseen academicals, or the wee free men recommended by @acertainaccountofevents, Wyrd Sisters rec’d by @squareallworthy)

Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon & D.O.D.O.

Ted Chiang, Story of Your Life and anything else by him

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis (also suggesting this review)

 C.J. Cherryh – The Faded Sun Trilogy.

Honestly not sure there’s anything groundbreaking or unique about it but a solid scifi tale with aliens and politics and it really fleshed out and made me empathize with all the opposing and strikingly different factions.

Taiyao Fujii – Orbital Cloud

A space-related technothriller, quite fun! If you liked the first 2/3rds of Seveneves you’ll probably like this.

Gwynneth Jones – Life.

Story of a woman trying to be the best biologist she can despite a lot of setbacks, bascially. Barely counts as science fiction, really, but I just really like Anna and Spence as characters and their relationship. This a very feminist book, at times quite preachy–but personally it came across as characters being preachy not the author, and therefore much less annoying, but ymmv.

Katherine Addison – The Goblin Emperor.

Fantasy high politics but nice? Like also pretty level headed but not grimdark like fantasy high politics usually is. Also love the worldbuilding, the linguistics, and my precious cinnamon role Maia who deserves good things.

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet

River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey

the most tumblr print book I have ever read. TBH the cover blurb is better than the book but it’s a quick read and enjoyable.

Paolo Bacigalupi - The Windup Girl.

Ian MacDonald – The Dervish House.

The twenty-minutes-into-the-future setting has aged weirdly since it was written back when Turkey was trying to join the EU, but I reread it recently and the plot and characters are still compelling.

All of the above by @businesstiramisu

"James S. A. Corey", The Expanse series (rec by @justjohn-jj)

Mariam Petrosyan’s The Grey House

kids and minders in a boarding school for the disabled, their relationships and their setting. Mostly a coming-of-age thing but with a lot of weirdness and some fantastic elements. Extremely readable

Arkady and Boris Strugatsky:

Hard to be a God

Inhabited Island

Roadside Picnic

Stanisław Lem:

Fiasco

Cyberiad

Karim Berrouka’s Fées, Weed & Guillotines

what it says on the tin. Pretty fun. I would suspect his other fantasy mystery novel comedies are good too.

The Invisible Planets anthology

extremely hit or miss, but definitely has its hits.

Bernard Weber’s Les Fourmis

All of the above by @napoleonchingon

The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells

Sarcastic cyborg tries to avoid humans and watch entertainment media all day and perpetually ends up saving some. With all the snark.

rec by @rhetoricandlogic

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, Claire North

Guy is born in 1910s, dies at 80 or so… and is born again in the 1910s, and so on. Also the world is ending.

The End and Afterwards, Andy Cooke

A probe to Alpha Centauri, an idealist Nigerian biotechnician, a humdrum English family – and then the world ends.

Against Peace and Freedom, Mark Rosenfelder

50th century interstellar humanity is mostly doing okay. But socionomics doesn’t cover crises, such as the dictatorship that’s taken over Okura, or the unscrupulous tycoon who’s plotting something over on New Bharat. For that we have Diplomatic Agents. Like you.

all of the above by @jackhkeynes

Meta-recommendations:

worldswithoutend.com, their list of lists, and in particular, defining science fiction books of the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s.

@squareallworthy

Jo Walton’s Revisiting the Hugos series. (by @businesstiramisu)

[signourneybooks]

Intro

You know sometimes I like to challenge myself.

How to Play

This reading challenge consists of 3 sections. Fantasy, Sci-Fi and General for a total of 52 prompts which comes down to about 1 book a week.

 You can do 1, 2 or all 3 sections.

With each section you are allowed 1 Double-Up. Double-Up means you can use 1 book for 2 prompts. Preferred is not to at all but if for some reason you are struggling with time or a prompt you can.

In the general sections you can use both fantasy and sci-fi books but not other genres.

Graphic novels, comics, audiobooks and novella’s are allowed. It is all reading in my book.

Rereads count.

You can move the books around throughout the year if things fit better elsewhere and all.

You can step into this reading challenge at any point. I’m starting it in January 2019 but in reality this is a reading challenge you can fit for yourself in anyway you like. If you want to start in May and end April the year after, that is totally fine.

Graphic

Sign-Up

I don’t know if people want to join me but I would love to interact with each other if you do. You can participate anyway you like, with goodreads, twitter, instagram or your blog. I don’t require a sign-up post but I would appreciate if you boosted this.

If there are a nice group of people we can see if we can do a twitter dm group or an fb group or something to chat with each other on how to fill the prompts. 🙂

The widget won’t go into the post because wp sucks so here is the direct link.

If You Need Inspiration: Find Some Fitting Books Per Prompt Here

I figured some of you might like to have a list of options for each prompt so here we are. I’ve read a portion of these, others are on my own TBR and others I just know fit with the prompt. These are in no way meant as real recommendations, just those that fit the prompt. No links because do you see how many books I mention haha.

Fantasy

Classic Fantasy The Dragon Bone Chair by Tad Williams / Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin / The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien / Narnia by C.S Lewis /

Magic School Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling / Tempests and Slaughter by Tamora Pierce / A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. le Guin / The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss / Carry On by Rainbow Rowell / Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones / The Magicians by Lev Grossman / The Novice by Taran Matharu

Necromancers Darkest Powers by Kelley Armstrong / Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride / Sabriel by Garth Nix / The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco / Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews / Johannes Cabal the Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard / Reign of the Fallen by Sarah Glenn Marsh / Skullduggery Pleasant by Derek Landry / Give the Dark My Love by Beth Revis

PTSD Witchmark C.L. Polk / The First Law by Joe Abercrombie /

Dragons The Last Namsara by Kristen Ciccarelli / Liveship Traders by Robin Hobb / The Copper Promise by Jen Williams / Talon by Julie Kagawa / Seraphina by Rachel Hartman / A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin / Eragon by Christopher Paolini / Eon by Alison Goodman / Temeraire by Naomi Novik / A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan / How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell / Wings of Fire by Tui T. Sutherland / Nice Dragons Finish Last by Rachel Aron

Fairytale Retelling Uprooted by Naomi Novik / A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas / Ash by Melinda Lo / Forests of a Thousand Lanters by Julie C. Dao / The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh / The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden / Thorn by Intisar Khanani / To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo

Grimdark Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence / Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson / Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin / A Crown for Cold Silver by Alex Marshall / Skullsworn by Brian Stavely / Red Sister by Mark Lawrence / The Black Prism by Brent Weeks

Ghosts Lockwood & Co. by Jonathan Stroud / The Graveyard Queen by Amanda Stevens / City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab / The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman / The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater / Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

Uncommon Fantasy Creatures So not the usual werewolf, dragons, vampires and the like Bones and Bourbon by Dorian Graves (Huldra) / The Golem and the Djinni by Helene Wecker (Golem) / Steel & Stone by Annette Marie (Incubus) / Troll Fell by Katherine Langrish (Trolls) / The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (Goblins)

Shapeshifters Moon Called by Patricia Briggs / Written in Red by Anne Bishop / Stray by Rachel Vincent / Soulless by Gail Carragher / The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong /

Gods Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan / Magnus Chase by Rick Riordan / Aru Shah at the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi / American Gods by Neil Gaiman / The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin / The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter / The Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White / Furyborn by Claire LeGrand / Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor / Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman / Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova / The Gospel of Loki by Joanne Harris

Animal (or in Animal Form) Companion(s) Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb / The Dragon Bone Chair by Tad Williams / Reign of the Fallen by Sarah Glenn Marsh / Spellslinger by Sebastien de Castell / The Summoner by Taran Matharu

Matriarchy Seven Realms by Cinda Williams Chima / Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake / Daughter of the Blood by Anne Bishop / Dragonflight by Anne McAffrey / The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells / The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley

Set in Our World The Others by Anne Bishop / Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling / Shadowhunters by Cassandra Clare / American Gods by Neil Gaiman / Shadowfever by Karen Marie Moning / Psy-Changeling by Nalini Singh / Moon Called by Patricia Briggs

Witches Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt / The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco / A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness / Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett / The Worst Witch by Jill Murphy / Uprooted by Naomi Novik / Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor

Magical Law Enforcement Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling / Rivers of London by Ben Aaronvitch / The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher / The Golem’s Eye by Jonathan Stroud / Lockwood & Co. by Jonathan Stroud

Thief The Legend of Eli Monpress by Rachel Aaron / The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch / Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo / The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima / The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells

Pirates Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo / Magic of Blood and Sea by Cassandra Rose Clarke / Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch / The Nature of a Pirate by A.M. Dellamonica

Portal Fantasy Child of a Hidden Sea by A.M. Dellamonica / The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis / Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll / Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire / The Magicians by Lev Grossman

Warrior Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin / Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien / Night Angel by Brent Weeks / Half a King by Joe Abercrombie /

Sci-Fi

On a Different Planet A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers / Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray / The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin / The Martian by Andy Weir / Dune by Frank Herbert / Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Space Ship The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers / The Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers / An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon / Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Addams

Artificial Intelligence Point of View A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers / I, Robot by Isaac Asimov / 2001: A Space Odessey by Arthur C. Clarke / Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Kick

Proto Sci-Fi As Frankenstein is seen as the first sci-fi novel all books prior to that that seem to be sci-fi are called proto sci-fi but anything before H.G. Wells will count here as it seems to cause some discussions.  New Atlantis by Francis Bacon / Frankenstein by Mary Shelley / The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson / From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne /

Alien The Fifth Wave by Rick Riordan / The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Addams / The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells / Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

Time Travel The Time Machine by H.G. Wells / Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier / Passenger by Alexandra Bracken / The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig / The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma / Invictus by Ryan Graudin

Utopia The Dispossed by Ursula K. le Guin / Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel / Andromeda by Ivan Efremov / The Giver by Lois Lowry

Games/Gaming/Virtual Reality Warcross by Marie Lu / Armada by Ernest Cline / Otherland by Tad Williams / In Real Life by Cory Doctorow / Unplugged by Donna Freitas

Hive (Mind) The Shadow over Innsmouth by H.P. Lovecraft / Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie / City of Broken Magic by Mirah Bolender

Steampunk Soulless by Gail Carrigher / Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve / Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld / Boneshaker by Cherie Priest / Lady of Devices by Shelley Adina

Super Powers The Reckoners by Brandon Sanderson / Lorien Legacies by Pittacus Lore / Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee / Nimona by Noelle Stevenson / The Runaways by Brian K. Vaughan

Science Better known as heavy sci-fi if you go searching for books Foundation by Isaac Asimov / World War Z by Max Brooks / The Color of Distance by Amy Thomson / Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds

Replicate/Replica Accelerando by Charles Stross / Replica by Lauren Oliver / Evolution by Stephen Baxter / The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson

Space Colonization The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs / Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie / The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradburry

Mecha Themis Files by Sylvain Neuvel / Gundam Wing by Haijme Hatate / Dreadnought by Cherie Priest

Space Creatures/Beasts Mistworld by Simon Green / Dune by Frank Herbert /  Alien by Alan Dean Foster /

Teleportation Jumper by Stephen Gould / Timeline by Michael Crighton / The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter / The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Space Western The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury / Six-Gun Planet by John Yakes / Trigun by Yasuhiro Nightow / Those Left Behind by Joss Whedon / Cowboy Bebop by Yutaka Nanten

The Moon The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer / Moonseed by Stephen Baxter / Artemis by Andy Weir / Red Rising by Pierce Brown / The First Men in the Moon by H.G. Wells

Invasion Alien or Human The Andromedia Strain by Michael Crighton / Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout / The Lorien Legacies by Pittacus Lore / The Alien Years by Robert Silverberg / Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card / First Men in the Moon by H.G. Wells / Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein

General

For this you can use sci-fi and fantasy where you can make them fit.

Satire Discworld by Terry Pratchett / Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams / The Portable Door by Tom Holt / Red Shirts by John Scalzi /

Novella Binty by Nnedi Okorafor / Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire / The Ghost Line by Andrew Neil Gray / The Girl Who Rules Fairyland – For a Little While by Catheryne M. Valente

Finish a Series For this you can read the other books for other prompts throughout this challenge and read the last one here or finish a series you previously started. Or you could just read a whole series for this prompt alone. Whatever you want haha.

Mental Health Stormlight Archives by Branden Sanderson (depression) / The Magicians by Lev Grossman (depression) / Witchmark by C.L Polk (PTSD) / Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo (PTSD)

Disability * On the Edge of Gone by Corinne Duyvis (autism) / October Daye by Seanan McGuire (weelchair) *Kristen from Metaphors and Moonlight created a masterlist.

Set in Africa Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor  / Zoo City by Lauren Beukes / The Famished Road by Ben Okri / Changa’s Safari by Milton J. Davis

Library Library is semi-important in the book Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor / Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine / The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman / The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins /

By a Woman of Color Nnedi Okorafor / N.K. Jemisin / Tomi Adeyemi / Julie Kagawa / Malinda Lo / Heidi Helig / to name only a few…

One Word Title / Under 500 Pages / Over 800 Pages / Published Before 1990 I don’t think I need to make a list for these, right?

If you have any recs for any of these categories (especially Disability, Mental Health, Set in Africa and PTSD) than please leave them down below.

Printables

Let me know if these don’t work to save.

Dancing with Fantasy and Sci-Fi – A (2019) Reading Challenge + Bingo Cards Intro You know sometimes I like to challenge myself. How to Play This reading challenge consists of 3 sections.

[coquelicoq]

8 PEOPLE I’D LIKE TO KNOW BETTER

i was tagged by longtime toastie mutual @hepatosaurus! thanks, friend!

ONE /  name / alias. marie is my middle name, but it’s what i use on here since one of the things i appreciate about tumblr is the (illusion of) anonymity, and using my very unique first name would pretty much rip away that curtain, and then where would we be? face-to-face with the possibility that people i know irl could find this blog? no thank you.

TWO  /  birthday. early january, so calculating my age (which i have to do every time i need to know how old i am, since i never just remember) is very easy for almost the entire year. lucky me!

THREE  /  zodiac sign. capricorn, though i don’t feel like it describes me super well, so don’t read too much into it lol

FOUR  /  height.  5′11″

FIVE  /  hobbies. constructin’ crosswords! writin’ letters! walkin’ in forests and emotin’ at the pacific! makin’ spreadsheets about literally anything you could imagine one could make a spreadsheet of! and, more recently, indulgin’ in memery!

SIX  /  favourite colors. red and purple, but i’m very suggestible when it comes to colors and can be convinced to love any color if it has a ridiculous enough name. when it came time to choose the color for my office’s accent wall that i stare at every workday, i chose an unremarkable yellow-green shade solely because it is called “footie pajamas.” there’s a box under my bed full of paint samples with cool names that i’ve pilfered from home depot over the years. juicy details (salmon)? flirt alert (red)? violet minstrel (actually a shade of brown)? success (purplish blue)? distance (slate gray)? innuendo (lilac)? gargoyle shadow (black, like...most shadows lol)? soul-quenching (kind of a brownish green)? faintest idea (off-white)? file cabinet (also off-white)??? i could go on. oh, how i could go on. it is taking all my willpower not to go on.

SEVEN /  favourite books. okay well i’m currently on a Martha Wells kick and am recommending her to everyone who will listen. i just reread All Systems Red (first in The Murderbot Diaries series of novellas) and i’m now reading a collection of short stories from the Books of the Raksura series. her character work and her worldbuilding are both some of the best i’ve encountered anywhere (come scream at me about my darlings Murderbot and Moon of Indigo Cloud if you know them!!!). other favorite fiction: Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen), the Neapolitan novels (Elena Ferrante), the Graceling Realm series (Kristin Cashore), Everything I Never Told You (Celeste Ng), Stories of Your Life and Others (Ted Chiang), The Broken Earth series (N.K. Jemisin), the Six of Crows duology (Leigh Bardugo), The Dispossessed (Ursula Le Guin), and almost everything by Rainbow Rowell and Ann Leckie (they each have one book i’m kinda eh about). non-fiction: everything i’ve read by Angela Davis, bell hooks, Rebecca Solnit, Audre Lorde, Alison Bechdel, and Susan Sontag; everything by Sam Irby, Katie Heaney, and Leslie Jamison. obviously poetry-wise i belong heart and soul to Mary Oliver.

EIGHT  /  last song listened to. I Wish I Was the Moon by Neko Case is currently on repeat. it’s just a neko kinda night.

NINE  /  last film watched. oh damn, good question. i haven’t been watching many movies lately. let me get out my spreadsheet...okay, unless there’s been another one since then that i forgot to write down, it was John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum back in june for father’s day. apparently by this time last year i had already watched 43 movies, but so far in 2019 i’ve only watched 19.

TEN  /  inspiration for muse.  see, okay, this is what i was talking about the other day when i said i went into the ask meme tag and it was all stuff about muses, but clearly some specialized tumblr meaning of “muse” that i don’t understand. so like, i still have no idea how to answer this question.

ELEVEN  /  dream job. oh geez, i don’t even know. it’s never been particularly important to me what my job was, as long as it had flexible hours and an easy commute and fit my other logistical needs, but i’m starting to get why people care so much about it now. not to be a buzzkill or anything, but i never had to have dreams before because i always thought i was gonna die soon, and now i don’t know how to have them. ah, depression. you stalwart companion, you.

TWELVE /  meaning behind your url. my original url was a pun about my favorite childhood character that was also very apt to describe my overall vibe, but i changed it to make it slightly harder for my ex to read my posts about him. i needed to change it quickly, so i didn’t have a ton of time to think about it but wanted to keep it on the theme of rhyme or pun + something that describes my aesthetic, and here we are.

i’m gonna tag (and as per uzh, no pressure whatsoever to participate!!): @ctl-yuejie, @letthewordsoverflow, @alipeeps, @revealmyselfinvincible, @dangerliesbeforeyou, @doctorbeam, and @numinous-queer!