#The Books of the Raksura

[spockandawe]

Double edit: actually, that's enough of that.

Edit: I was expecting maybe thirty notes tops. This is a surprise, and one that doesn't delight me. If I hear about any harassment stemming from this post, I'll be more pissed at the harasser than the person this is about.

God. Dammit.

I hate this, let's just out that out there! I'm unhappy that I'm talking about any of this, I'm unhappy there's an issue that's come up at the intersection of media preservation, respecting authors, and one of my favorite book series. And I'm unhappy that I've censored the names in the screenshots I'm about ti post! I'm not happy that I'm helping to slide consequences away from someone who thought this was an acceptable thing to do to a modern working author. But I'm even less happy this is something that happened in the first place, and I'm VERY unhappy the original post has been deleted without a whisper of accountability or apology.

And here's a partial screenshot of the IA page, which has since been removed. I get the excitement to share something you love with a new audience. This isn't the right way to go about it.

First, if Martha Wells' patreon is still in place, I encourage everyone in the strongest possible terms to go sign up for it. It'll charge you one dollar. I've been a member since probably 2018, and I mistakenly believed it was locked to new members (it's labeled 'Currently Closed To New Patrons') until I had reason to look it up last night, when I tripped across this reddit post from earlier this year.

Now. I was looking it up because of this sudden patreon message:

Even if the patreon goes away, I still recommend that people sign up. Explore the stories! They're very fun! Even though the patreon has been dormant for years, I've loved having that repository in place.

In fact, in the interest of full disclosure, what kept me from immediately reblogging last night is that I've felt the same archival urges! I bound a hard copy of these stories earlier this year, and let me quote my own words from that post:

I live in a state of perpetual low key stress over the impermanence of digital media and that goes extra for sites that aren’t designed to work well as archives. I hope, desperately, that someday Martha Wells publishes more raksura, maybe even including these stories! I will buy it immediately. No thoughts, wallet empty. I own all her other raksura books in literally three formats, fingers crossed that by printing this, I can actualize a formal official printing of these stories by the author 😂

So. Archiving, yes. But especially with a living, working author, I would never DREAM of posting a public free-for-all with IA and mediafire links. My most charitable interpretation is that OP thought it was fine since the stories were "free," even though the writeups acknowledge that access costs a dollar. Ao3 is also free. Reposting someone else's fic is still understood to be a dick move.

Last night i was left kind of stunned, and I was hoping to see some kind of response from op this morning taking responsibility, and was... disappointed to see that the post was just deleted. The IA listing was deleted too, and I hadn't actually looked up the mediafire post yet but I'm guessing it's also been nuked. Out of curiosity, I wanted to see if there was anything more in the comments, so I found a surviving reblog. And there was!

So I'm writing this post because I'm... frustrated. Taking down the files is a good step. Posting them publicly was a worse step, but hey. I still more than understand if Martha Wells still deletes her patreon. I don't understand what sending her files of her own stories is meant to accomplish, but whatever. Ascribing a profit-driven motive is driving me up a wall, though. She's financially stable. I read her email, and what i see is frustration that even though it only cost a dollar to access 62k of her work through her own chosen location, control of her writing is being forcibly removed from her. I'm sure that seeing copies sold by third parties wouldn't help, but I don't think that's the root issue.

This is a fandom-heavy website, I'm sure most of us have seen posts about not reposting art when you can share directly from the artist's blog. I've seen posts about stop copying your ao3 faves over to wattpad just because you like reading there better. At a fundamental level, I read the message from Martha Wells as a deep frustration at having no way to share her creative work without someone removing control of it from her hands. And I don't know if there's any way to really take back that damage.

[nellasbookplanet]

Book recs: monster/creature friendships

Do you like movies like Alien vs Predator, Venom, and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes? Do you enjoy dragon riders and talking animal companions? Friendly yet deeply inhuman aliens? Monster children and monster parents? Consider yourself less of a monster fucker and more of a monster best friend? Watch horror movies and fantasize about befriending the horrifying ghosts and ghoulies? Then this is the list for you!

A note: some of these books do have romance subplots, but not as the most important relationship or focus.

A (second) note: the criteria for "monster" are subjective. I looked mainly for titles featuring creatures who neither look nor act/think human. In cases where they are more human looking, I wanted a distinctly inhuman mind and morality, meaning most books featuring vampires, werewolves, fey, etc are excluded. I may have included books you feel aren't monstrous enough, or excluded ones you feel are sufficiently monstrous but I don't agree about. Again, it’s subjective.

Feel free to leave your own recs in the notes, but please know that if you rec books featuring mostly human vampires and werewolves I will be judging. I have separate lists for those, go look there instead.

For more details on the books, continue under the readmore. Titles marked with * are my personal favorites. If you want more book recs, check out my masterpost of rec lists!

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir*

Ryland Grace just woke up from a coma, unable to remember anything. He finds himself alone on a space ship, and as his memories slowly trickle back, he realizes he’s been sent on a mission: to find a solution to the impending doom of the earth. Still struggling with holes in his memories, Ryland tries to fulfill his mission, but as he gets closer to his goal, he discovers someone else got there first. And they aren’t anything close to human. Funny, heartfelt, and heavy on the science.

Fragment by Warren Fahy*

The reality TV show Sealife is having a rough time - as it turns out, a ship full of scientists doesn’t make for the kind of drama they hoped for. Hoping for some excitement, they reach Hender’s Island, a fragment of a lost continent that may contain an interesting new ecosystem. But as they step foot on the island, they quickly come to realize the ecosystem isn’t just new, it’s highly dangerous and very hungry. Among all this life is one single species that may be more dangerous than any other, but which may also be the salvation of the scientists on the island. A bit wonky, but genuinely one of the most fun books I have read, I love it so much.

The Road to Roswell by Connie Willis*

Francie has just traveled to Roswell to attend her college friend’s wedding to a UFO conspiracist. Not a believer herself, Francie is shocked when she finds herself abducted by an alien. Her abductor is not much what popular media would have you believe, looking more like a tumbleweed than a grey alien, and is clearly on some kind of mission it isn’t willing to put on hold for the sake of Francie attending to her duties as a bridesmaid. As more people get roped along - among those a conman, an old lady, a ufo conspiracist, and a retiree with an RV - Francie finds herself getting closer to the alien and wanting to help it succeed.

The Last Human by Zack Jordan

Young adult. Sarya is a human - the only one of her kind. Living with her adoptive mother - a vicious, insectile alien - on a space station surrounded by hundreds of other alien species, Sarya spends every day staying below the radar and hiding her true identity. But when an odd new alien arrives on the station, she may finally get an answer to her biggest question: why humanity was deemed too dangerous to be allowed to exist.

Alien vs. Predator: Prey by Steve Perry & S.D. Perry*

On desert planet Ruyshi, businesswoman Machiko Noguchi is about to take over the leading position in a small human colony. Her job is made infinitely harder when the colony comes under attack on two fronts as two species of vicious aliens choose it as their battle ground. If you're reading this list, you probably already know of the movie by the same name. The book, while completely different in setting and cast, does feature many similar plot points, among those a third act team-up between a human woman and a murderous alien.

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky*

Millenia and generation spanning scifi. After the collapse of an empire, a planet once part of a project to uplift other species to sentience is left to develop on its own, resulting not in the intelligent monkeys once intended but in sentient giant spiders. Millenia later, what remains of humanity arrives looking for a new home, only to be met by the artificial remains of the ancient woman who once led the uplift project - and she is not willing to let them on her planet.

The Moon and the Sun by Vonda N. McIntyre

You can’t go wrong with a Vonda McIntyre novel just, like, in general. This one is set in 17th century France, where a young woman and her brother travel to live at the royal court, where they are to care for and study a strange captured sea monster fabled to have the ability to grant eternal life. A lot of focus on court politics as well as the cultural and biological differences between the humans and the mermaid. Also available as a movie (but it’s not very good, please just read the book).

Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys*

Lovecraftian fishpeople! Aphra and her brother are the only survivors after the government raided their home, Innsmouth. Their only living family are the amphibian people of the deep, whom they will one day join, but until then they are bound to land where they struggle to build new lives for themselves after the great loss of their home and loved ones. Then rumors start to spread of a russian agent seeking dangerous and ancient magic, forcing Aphra to involve herself as they try to stop it. Does contain horror elements but is generally a much more optimistic look on cosmic horror than most lovecraftian stories, told from the perspective of one of his monsters. Lots of focus on found family and rebuilding of community.

The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky*

The Doors of Eden is something of an experiment in speculative biology, featuring versions of Earth in which various different species were the one to rise to sentience, from dinosaurs to neanderthals. Now, something is threatening the existence of all timelines, dragging multiple different people and species into the struggle, among those a pair of cryptid hunting girlfriends and a transgender scientist. Together, can they find a way to save the multiverse?

The Spider and Her Demons by sydney khoo*

Young adult. All teenager Zhi wants is a normal life (and possibly for her harsh aunt to be a bit nicer), but it’s hard when she’s half spider demon. Every day she must conceal her true nature and hide in human guise. When she slips up and eats a man in front of her rich, aloof classmate Dior, Zhi thinks her life is over. But Dior has secrets of her own, and she is dead set on making herself a part of Zhi's life.

Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson

Young adult fantasy. Artemisia prefers the dead to the living, and is training to become a Gray Sister, a nun who helps the souls of the deceased pass on to the afterlife rather than remain as dangerous spirits. To defend her convent, Artemisia accepts the help of a dangerous revenant, a powerful spirit which grants her great power but also could possess her the moment her guard is lowered. As evil threatens her homeland, Artemisia and the revenant must find a way to work together.

Slewfoot: a Tale of Bewitchery by Brom

Historical horror. Young Englishwoman Abitha has only recently arrived and married into a Puritan colony when she unexpectedly becomes a widow. As she strives to save her small farm from going under in the wake of tragedy, something dark and dangerous stalks the surrounding woods. He doesn't know whether he's spirit, devil, or god, doesn't even know his own name, and in requesting Abitha's help, both their lives are changed forever.

Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses by Kristen O'Neal*

Young adult. Priya had plans to go to Stanford, but is derailed when the fallout from lyme disease puts her back, making her question if she'll ever get back to normal. Luckily she has her discord support group with whom she can chat and vent about her illness. Even more - she has Brigid, online fandom friend and fellow chronic illness sufferer. But when Brigid disappears from the web without warning, Priya must drive to Pennsylvania to make sure her friend is okay - and finds that Brigid's condition is a bit hairier than she expected.

Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson

Young adult. Elisabeth is a librarian, trained to handle grimoires - books of magic which, if mishandled, can turn into horrifying monsters. When an act of sabotage leads to the release of one of the library's most dangerous grimoires, Elisabeth finds herself implicated in the crime. Forced to team up with an enemy sorcerer and his loyal and unpredictable demon servant, Elisabeth sets out to find out the truth of what happened.

The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey

In a post apocalyptic, zombie-infested wasteland, a group of characters try to stay alive and hope to find a cure. One of the characters is Melanie, a young girl who carries the contagion inside of her and hungers for flesh, but like many children of the apocalypse has kept her humanity. Is she and children like her the answer to the cure we are looking for? Or are they the start of something entirely new? This book has also been adapted as a movie!

Malevolent by Harlan Guthrie*

Lovecraftian horror mystery. Private detective Arthur Lester wakes up in his office, his partner dead, memories fuzzy, vision gone, and the voice of a malevolent entity in his mind. Unable to see, Arthur is forced to rely on guidance from the entity as he attempts to solve the mystery of what it is and where it came from. Is this a book? No. But as someone who reads mostly audiobooks, the difference between a book and a fiction podcast is negligible, and also I love this story and its characters and want all of you to do so too.

Parasyte by Hitoshi Iwaka*

Horror manga, heavy on the bodyhorror. Shinichi Izumi wakes one day after a strange dream: that an alien parasite crawled into his arm. Soon he realizes it was more real than dream, and that an inhuman creature, having failed to eat and take over his brain, now controls his arm. Forced to cooperate, the two do their best to survive as more parasites quietly infiltrate society, meaning to devour our entire species. Also available as a very faithful anime!

Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy*

Young adult. Twelve-year-old Stephanie Edgley's uncle, famed horror writer, just died mysteriously and left her his entire fortune. As it turns out, the stories he wrote weren't entirely made up, and that which killed him wasn't entirely human. In trying to avenge his death, Stephanie joins forces with Skulduggery Pleasant, sorcerer, detective, and living, walking skeleton.

The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells

Moon doesn't know what he is. Having lost his family young he lives on the move, shifting his shape to hide his true form. The only ones similar to himself he's ever encountered are the vicious, bloodthirsty Fell, but he knows he cannot be one of them. When chance leads to a meeting with someone like him, he hopes his days of loneliness are over. But his new people stand against a dangerous enemy, and not all of them welcome Moon's help. A departure from other titles on this list in that it features only creatures, with not a single human on page.

The Girl From the Well by Rin Chupeco

Young adult horror. Okiku died three hundred years ago, her body thrown down a well. Now she spends her days hunting for and punishing murderers like the one who once killed her. When a strange boy bearing odd tattoos appears in her area, he catches Okiku's attention - as does something that follows after him. To save the boy, Okiku will be drawn into a journey taking both of them from American suburbia to a faraway shrine in Japan.

Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova

When Magos loses her son Santiago to a longtime illness, she loses herself to grief and cuts out a piece of his lung. After hearing old folktales, she begins feeding it - and is shocked to find it growing and alive. Soon finding herself in charge of a hungry and bloodthirsty creature, Magos and her family must come together to care for what they can only see as a second chance for Santiago.

Semiosis by Sue Burke

A generational story following a group of humans trying to survive on a new planet, where a strange and unkowable intelligence is finding ways to use them to its whims. As the humans come across an abandoned city wrapped in the roots of a strange plant, they slowly come to the realization that mutual communication is the only path to peace and survival. Meanwhile, the alien finds itself tied all the more tightly to the growing human community.

The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei

Maya Hoshimoto used to be an art thief, and a damned good one to, until a disastrous heist made her retire into academia, hoping for peace and coping with an alien disease which causes her to see glimpses of the future. When an old friend tracks her down and asks her help to find and steal a legendary artifact that could save his entire species, Maya is convinced to do one last job.

Magical Girl Dandelion by Mizuho Kaeru

Manga. Tanpopo Ohanami's parents were killed by a phantom monster when she was young, but her life was saved by Shade, another phantom. Ever since then, Shade has been her friend, watching over her and keeping her safe. But then Tanpopo is revealed to be a potential magical girl, meant to fight the phantoms and protect humanity. Her and Shade are meant to be enemies, but can they instead work and fight alongside each other?

His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik

It’s the height of the Napoleonic Wars, and soldiers on dragon back fight each other in the air. Will Laurence isn't a dragonrider but a sea captain, but when his ship captures a French frigate and discovers a dragon egg about to hatch in his cargo, his life changes forever when he and the dragon hatchling bond.

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

Middle grade. In Lyra's world, every person has a daemon: a talking animal companion who follows them throughout life. When children begin being stolen off the street, among them Lyra's friend, she must embark on a great journey to save him, taking her to the furthest north - and beyond.

A Redtail's Dream by Minna Sundberg*

Graphic novel inspired by Finnish mythology. When an irresponsible fox spirit accidentally traps an entire town in the dreamlands, it’s up to slacker Hannu and his talking, shapeshifting dog Ville to save everyone. Together the unwilling heroes must travel the dreamlands and locate the townsfolk, returning them to the waking world before the fox spirit sends them all on to death to hide his mistake. While the physical copy is all but impossible to get a hold of, the original webcomic can still be read for free here.

[rjalker]

fantasy oppression written by white people in a nutshell:

[ID: An MS Paint comic of two stick figures talking, saying:

Figure one: "I can kill you any time I want. I am stronger and faster than you and smarter and I can overpower you before you even realize you're under attack. If I decide to kill you there's absolutely nothing you can do to defend yourself." Figure two: "Um. Okay. I'm kind of scared of you now." Figure one: "You're oppressing me." End ID.]

[captainsupernoodle]

So I had a thought

[walks-the-ages]

Nope, sorry, the more I reread The Cloud Roads the more it stands out.

The first character interaction we ever see, is pretty much on page 2 and it's Moon insulting "the most mentally deficiant" (aka Intellectually Disabled) member of the Cordans, the guy who guards the shitty ineffective fence, named Hac, who is not only described as being an idiot, but he's also described as being very ugly.

And then there's Ilane.

You know, Moon's girlfriend? Possibly on the level of almost fiance, considering they wanted to have kids together? Yeah, she's a bad person because she's slow. Because she's stupid. Because she can't grasp basic concepts no matter how simply or repeatedly they're described to her.

Her character flaw of being jealous and mistrustful purely stem from her being too stupid to grasp basic biology such as "We've been having unprotected sex for around a year or more now, If our species were biologically compatible, you would probably be pregnant already even before we talk about wanting kids"

Moon apparently sat her down and repeatedly, patiently explained that their species are apparently just too different and he doesn't think he can get her pregnant, a very long, involved discussion, and her take away from that is "He is more interested in my room mate instead" no matter how much he tries to explain it in simple terms, she just keeps looking at him, all ~innocent and simple and devastated~.

And these are the first character interaction we see in the book (Hac), and the first big, important relationship Moon has. (Illane)

These are our first introductions to Moon, and it's meant to be justified that these character's are stupid and slow (aka, neurodivergent), because Hac is mean to Moon, and Illane "betrays" him.

And the most hilarious part is, he's been lying to them since day one.

These people are Fell survivors.

He decides he's gonna sneak out and fly around on the exact same night that a Harbinger has been spotted in the area by a prominent Elder, which even though the rest of the Cordans don't believe the elder and make fun of him (why, exactly?) Moon knows that Illane believes the elder that there are Fell nearby.

These people are Fell survivors. Their entire city and way of life was destroyed by the Fell, and they know that Fell like to infiltrate settlements and play nice before they bring down the swarm to slaughter everyone.

Illane's reaction to Moon being a Fell is, 100%, the correct reaction! If he were actually a Fell, she would have, if not saved her tribe, at least given them some advanced warning of the approaching Fell Flight.

The Cordans don't know what Raksura are.

Heck,Moon doesn't even know what a Raksura is!

The only black, dragon-y shapeshifters the Cordans or anyone in their general area have ever met is the murderous, evil Fell who genocided their people after infiltrating their city.

sure, Moon hasn't hurt anyone in the year or so he was staying with them-- but neither do the Fell Rulers when they come to groundling cities and play at politics.

Not until it's too late.

Ilane honestly, 100% made the correct choice, with the information she had at the time, especially considering her past experience with Fell and the fact that a Harbinger was literally spotted in the area just a few hours previously, literally a harbinger of imminent death and destruction.

But! Because it's happening to Moon, our main character, we're supposed to think the Cordans are being stupid and irrational and evil. And the only reason the betrayal happened is because Illane is "too slow" to understand that Moon can't get her pregnant because their species are too different, and because she completely fails to grasp this concept, she instead thinks he's cheating on her.

Illane realizes her boyfriend/fiance/partner/mate is secretly a Fell Ruler come to infiltrate her tribe and is out, communicating with a Fell Harbinger, keeps her cool, doesn't panic, and still grasps onto her love of Moon enough to test him by giving him a poison that only effects Fell before she alerts anyone to her discovery???

Looking at it from the Cordan's perspective really changes the perception here, don't it?

Do you think Moon would have reacted any different if it had been, say, Stone discovered as a massive, black shifter in the camp, disguised as a traveling old man???

Oh wait, we don't have to guess, because Moon's first reaction to Stone's shifted form is "wow, we all owe that elder an apology, he was right! There is a huge giant black flying lizard monster flying around that could annihilate the whole camp in just a few minutes" !

Oh but you know. We should hate Illane because uh *checks notes* the next time Moon sees her, weeks if not months later, she is living with a new man (don't forget, Cordan women are not allowed to live on their own and are assigned to live with a man to be house keepers and bed warmers!), and Moon has his feelings hurt by this.

Even though he'd be more than happy to be dating Jade right then if it weren't for the fraught politics involved.

Oh, and Illane is also the one who realizes that Jade, who is has lied her way into their camp is suspicious and might be a Fell because she looked similar to Moon, which takes a hell of a lot of observation skills, and the obvious conclusion, of Fell-like stranger suddenly showing up and demaning to know how they make the Fell poison..... is that the Fell are trying to find out how they make it so they can destroy the source and leave the Cordans defenseless. Which is logical and the correct assumption to make!

But we should think Illane's an evil, conniving bitch for making the Elders suspicious of Jade. Because we're not supposed to like Ilane.

Anyways. This reread is going to be interesting. I'll make note if there's ever any other neurodivergent characters in the Raksura books at any point, but off the top of my head I don't think there's literally any Raksura, ever, who are autistic or intellectully disabled.

The only "neurodivergent" raksura I can think of is the Solitary Warrior who's name I can't remember, who may or may not be the horror movie buzzword sociopath/psychopath secret serial killer Or whatever his evil backstory was. [eye rolling emoji]

I love these books, I love this world, and I love these characters, but as an autistic person especially, this analysis reread is not off to a great start.

And that's why it's so important to critically analyze the media you love-- if you don't notice these things, you will just accept them at face value and internalize it.

[abigailspinach]

Stone tried to light the fire. He shielded the tinder with larger pieces of wood, striking sparks off a set of flints, just like anyone else. Moon tried to reconcile this picture with the creature that had tossed the giant vargit into the Cordans.

Frustrated curiosity getting the better of caution, he asked, “What are you?”

Stone glanced at him from under skeptical brows. “Did you get hit on the head?”

Moon didn’t respond, and after a moment Stone’s expression turned thoughtful. He said, “I’m a Raksura. So are you.”

“I’m—�� Moon started, then realized he had no way to finish that sentence. He had never known where he came from or what his people were called. And he speaks the language your mother taught you. Moon didn’t want to believe it. But if it was a ploy, it was a patently bizarre one. He’s trying to make me think he didn’t bring me up here to kill me, or... He had no idea. Moon settled for saying skeptically, “Then why are you so much bigger than me?”

“I’m old.” Stone frowned at him, as if Moon was the one who sounded crazy.”

— The Cloud Roads: Volume One of the Books of the Raksura by Martha Well

[rhetoricandlogic]

Books of the Raksura Books In Order

Publication Order of Books Of The Raksura Books

The Cloud Roads (2011)Amazon.de | Amazon.comThe Serpent Sea (2012)Amazon.de | Amazon.comThe Siren Depths (2012)Amazon.de | Amazon.comThe Edge of Worlds (2016)Amazon.de | Amazon.comThe Harbors of the Sun (2017)Amazon.de | Amazon.com

Books of the Raksura is a series of fantasy novels written by Martha Wells. The books take all the old fantasy tropes and upend them.

+The Story

The Books of the Raksura series is high fantasy. Rather than taking fantastical elements and integrating them into the real world, the series creates a whole new world filled with wholly alien species and cultures.

One wouldn’t be faulted for initially dismissing the Books of the Raksura series. After all, the synopsis is very reminiscent of the fantasy novels of old. You have an orphan that has lived all his life in isolation.

Then he learns that not only is he not alone but he is actually special, the host of a great gift with which the world can be saved. If that description sounds familiar, it’s because the concept has been utilized in various fantasy series in the recent and distant history.

Of course, if you give the Books of the Raksura series a real chance, you might be surprised to find that, while the books definitely replicate a couple of tropes, the world Martha Wells creates and the stories she tells in the series are unique and competently crafted.

The Books of Raskura series revolves around the character of Moon. When he is first introduced to readers, Moon doesn’t know who he is. More to the point, he has no idea where he came from.

Moon knows that he isn’t like other people. He is a shape shifter, a being that has the power to change his form. Moon spends the first portion of his life living in isolation. Because he thinks that he is the only one of his kind, Moon is afraid of the reactions other people will have to him, not only because of his strange power but the fact that one of the forms he can take looks eerily similar to the ‘Fell���, the most savage of creatures in the land, an enemy that strikes fear in the hearts of every man, woman, and child.

It initially looks like Moon is destined to spend the rest of his life in self-imposed exile. But eventually, the loneliness gets to him. And in an attempt to find companionship, Moon hides any physical indicators of his race and finds a village where he can pursue a real life.

Moon’s ruse doesn’t last long. When the villagers discover his feared flying form, they not only cast him out of the village but they confine him in the open where the local beasts will find and consume him.

When rescue finally arrives, it takes a form that Moon would never have imagined. Moon learns that he isn’t the only one of his kind. He proceeds to meet the remnants of his species.

He also learns of the Raksura, a subsection of his species of considerable importance. Moon’s life changes forever. He meets new characters, makes new connections and finds that there is a destiny awaiting him.

Moon goes on many adventures. He also engages in many fights against the Fell, the biggest enemy his people have; a species that seems hell bent on annihilating them all.

The Books of the Raksura series succeeds primarily because of Martha Wells. She uses very simple and straightforward language that makes her books very easy to read. Additionally, she knows how to create highly compelling characters, not to mention crafting unique relationships between them.

The Books of the Raksura series has all the hallmarks of a clichéd high fantasy collection of novels. But Martha Wells somehow succeeds in injecting a breath of fresh air into concepts and ideas many people thought were long dead.

+The Author

Martha Wells was born in 1964 in Fort Worth, Texas. The author attended Texas A&M University. It was there that she got her Anthropology degree. Martha’s hold to fame are the many fantasy and young adult novels she has written over the years, not mention short stories and essays on fantasy and science fiction.

Besides producing her own original work, the author has also made contributions to notable media franchises like Stargate Atlantis and Star Wars.

The author has been commended for her ability to create complex but realistic societies. The species and cultures and communities in the author’s books feel like they could exist, mostly because Martha Wells injects so much detail into her stories that you cannot help but get the sense that you have lived and walked in her fictional worlds.

+The Cloud Roads

Moon is a shape shifter. He has the ability to take on the form of a winged creature. Moon doesn’t know why he can do the things he does. He doesn’t even know where he comes from.

As an orphan, Moon has spent his life in hiding, trying to keep his powers a secret. Moon’s life changes when he gives into his loneliness and decides to try and fit into the local tribe.

While Moon initially succeeds, especially after he works hard to suppress his special powers, his secret is discovered and the new family he had begun to bond with abandons him. The outcome, while seemingly tragic, turns out to be a blessing in disguise because it brings Moon into contact with another shape shifter like him.

Moon is shocked to learn that he actually isn’t the last of his kind. The new shape shifter takes Moon to a place where he can be himself, a community brimming with people like him.

Moon begins to believe that his life might have changed for the better and that fate is finally throwing him a bone. He doesn’t know that he is something special and that his presence has the capacity to tip the balance of power.

Moon will discover his extraordinary lineage even as he begins to undertake a journey that will see him fight to keep the extinction of his people at bay.

+The Serpent Sea

Moon has come far. As consort to the sister queen of the Indigo Cloud Court, Moon is no longer the solitary wanderer of old. He works alongside Jade to find their people a new home.

Moon thought that the colony would be safe once they reached their ancestral home of Indigo Cloud. But then they arrived to find that the trunk of the tree had been blighted. To save his people and their home, Moon undertakes a journey to find the heartstone of the tree.

[aplpaca]

every martha wells book is like we are going to explore these abandoned/mysterious structures or so help me god

[coquelicoq]

martha wells loves to do this thing where she takes a character who has to hide and pretend to be something they're not so that they aren't shunned and hated by everyone around them, and then introduces a new character who is also whatever the main character is hiding being but who is not a damaged broken liar about it because they have people in their life who know about it and love them. and then she makes the second character and the people who love them experience trauma. and she makes the first character observe this and fear that love at the same time they long for it. and above all she makes me have emotions about it. she's constantly doing this. thanks a lot for that.

[chimaerakitten]

I’ve been thinking today about off ramps in long running stories, especially book series.

By that I mean like, places where a person could stop reading and have a satisfying ending even if they’re not yet at the actual ending. (Someone tell me if there’s an established Tvtropes name for this I’m missing.)

Now, a lot of book series will have an off ramp at the end of book 1, because many first books are written without promise of a sequel. Like sure, there might be a sequel hook, but the actual second book is still up to publisher whims in most cases. So you can read All Systems Red or The Thief or A Madness of Angels and have a perfectly satisfying ambiguous-end sci-fi story or middle grade fantasy romp or inverted murder mystery revenge quest without ever picking up book 2. This is definitely an off ramp but it’s not necessarily the interesting or revealing kind because again. Whims of the publisher.

There’s also stories that have an off ramp after every installment. Leverage is famous for this—they had a philosophy of having every season be a satisfying ending, which says a lot both about the writers and about the story they were trying to tell.

But I think the most interesting ramps are the ones where by design or by circumstance, there’s a single off-ramp somewhere in the middle. One spot where unless someone tells you there’s more, you’d never be unsatisfied with leaving halfway through.

Sometimes these will be signaled in some way, where there’s a big timeskip after the off-ramp, or the series changes names or has a spin-off, or the POV changes, or after book 3 the author publishes a short story collection before hopping back in to novels, or the series suddenly jumps from being only novellas to a chunky 120k novel. (The Raksura books, Percy Jackson/HoE, Matthew Swift/Magicals Anonymous, and Murderbot all do one or more of these)

But sometimes off ramps aren’t visible in series order or marketing. Sometimes they’re organic to where a story happens to leave off at the end of an installment.

The queen’s thief has one of these after King Of Attolia. I know this was a satisfying ending because for seven years I thought it was the end. My local library didn’t have A Conspiracy of Kings, so I thought it was a trilogy. And you really can leave it there! KoA ends with Gen back in his element and recognized as king, the main internal threat to Irene neutralized, and peace on the peninsula. The Mede aren’t yet the immediate threat they are in the back half of the series, since up through KoA they’re mainly represented by the magus’s vague warnings and Nahuseresh, whom Irene thinks circles around. There’s no real reason to assume the Mede are a threat within the scope of the series. Now I absolutely prefer getting the whole story, but KoA is a damn solid off-ramp for anyone who feels like exiting there.

And that’s one kind of off ramp where the end you get is pretty similar in tone (mostly happy) to the one you get if you go on to the rest of the series. I’ve also read books where you can off ramp successfully right at the lowest point in the series and get a tragedy out of a series that ultimately ends happy, or leave at a high point and get a happier end than the main one, or exit at an ambiguous point and continue on with ambiguity. The Giver sequels make it pretty clear what happened to Jonas and Gabe at the end of the book. but you don’t have to read them or have that question answered if you want to.

I don’t have a really solid conclusion to draw here except that I think the positioning of off ramps says a lot about authors and stories, and choosing whether or not to take an off ramp says a lot about readers.

[loki-says-bite-cruel-hands]

@sunderedstar have some more raksura core memes

[sunderedstar]

heart like a river mouth (37847 words)

Chapters: 6/6

Fandoms: Final Fantasy VII, The Books of the Raksura

Rating: T

Pairings: Zack Fair/Angeal Hewley/Genesis Rhapsodos/Sephiroth/Cloud Strife

Tags: The Age Old Controversy Over Whether Nanaki Is A Lion Or A Wolf; Nanaki: sometimes your best childhood friend decides to live in a giant tree in a swampy rainforest. nobody's perfect; Genesis: You Cannot Befriend Me. I Cannot Be Friended -

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Nanaki comes from the desert canyons to visit Cloud for a few months.

Or a few years.

(His species lives a long time, okay?)

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A side story that is literally just Nanaki Time.

[rjalker]

Now applying to everything it applies to instead of just The Books of the Raksura or The Murderbot Diaries.

The most ~mainstream~ example is probably Zootopia. Or, more infamously, Bright.

[ID: Two images, each showing a panel from a two-panel comic. Panel 1 is titled, "What white authors think bigotry looks like", and shows a snake wearing a bib that says, "I [heart] mice with a fork, looking down at a mouse that is trembling in fear, saying "U R a bigot if you're afraid I'll eat you when you first meet me even though I am literally an obligate carnivore who evolved 2 eat u. And ur cousin got eaten by my cousin last week." Panel 2 is titled, "What bigotry actually looks like", and shows one mouse sweating nervously, surrounded by five other angry mice with swords, who are shouting, "Terrorist!" "Thug!" "You're threatening me!" "You are dangerous!" "You are violent!" Larger text to the side explains, "People with power pretending that the minority is inherently dangerous and violent to justify violently oppressing them.". End ID.]

Pro tip: Real oppressed people are not and have never been scary Evil monsters trying to end the world. Nor are oppressed people obligate carnivores that literally evolved to hunt and eat the people oppressing them.

Disney wants you to think that anyone who wants people to stop being oppressed is gonna turn around 2 seconds later and murder a baby. And so many fucking white authors (Including Martha Wells!) think that oppressed people are all super powered unstoppable killing machine apex predators who literally evolved to eat other people and you're being mean :( for being reasonably wary when you first meet them, because your cousin literally just got eaten alive by their cousin last week and you don't want to go the same way. This is what white people think bigotry is.

[captainsupernoodle]

raksura: this is the way things are! for reasons!!

Moon: that doesn't sound right but i'm too traumatized to question the social norms of the people around me for fear of attempted murder and isolation

[walks-the-ages]

(major books of the raksura spoilers)

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Someone explain to me why is it that when Moon and Jade finally have kids. Moon is a father. They have literal infants.

But they don't matter. They barely exist. I can't even remember what their names are, or how many there are, or what type they are.

Why on earth do Raksura give live birth ? And like, okay, sure, Raksuran Queens don't give a fuck about their kids. Sure. Okay. But why don't we SEE more of Moon interacting with his kids instead of them just being this vague background motivation.

I usually don't care about "kid fic" but GOD DAMNIT i want to see Moon and his kids actually interacting

[rjalker]

Especially when you consider that Chime and River are heavily trans-coded, and the horrible ways they're treated because of that, and the way Warriors are treated as worthless and lazy, even though the Arbora literally refuse to let them help, or even teach them the proper way to do things.

The Raksura series is weird, because in some ways it seems to be a feminist criticism of certain tropes, showing how a lot of tropes that are usually applied to non-viewpoint characters end up feeling negative when applied to a viewpoint character. But at the same time, it seems to end up supporting a complementarian/separate spheres/benevolent sexism model of gender relations.

Some of that is probably a side effect of the setting; like, it’s a lot easier to fall into a separate spheres model when you’re talking about a sexually dimorphic semi-eusocial non-human race. But, like, if we take the analogy to human gender relations seriously when it’s talking about the problems of sexual-desirability-as-a-source-of-power as perceived by Moon, I feel like we kind of have to take it seriously when it’s doing the “womenconsorts have to be kept out of danger not for their own good but for the good of their husbandqueen” thing.