#The Dragonriders of Pern spoilers
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rjalker · 2 years ago
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[ID: The "you're crying from Home Alone?" "The old man got to me" meme, now edited to read:
"You're crying from Robinton dying?".
"Are you kidding me? I hate him. I'm sad about AIVAS and Zair".
"All right.".
End ID.]
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emblazonet · 1 year ago
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I'm a bit further in Dragonquest (yes I read glacially these days, but in my defense it's my bathroom book) and oooh, new POVs, ok. (Again plz not to spoil. I just got to, uh, Jaxom's a POV char now? Ok cool, my friend who DNF'd this series hates him. Also he gets a white dragan according to the atb on The White Dragon that I briefly skimmed. Neat. Don't know if that's happening in this book or next book.) General thoughs so far:
Wow, F'lar and Lessa seem to have matured since the last book. Their relationship is cute actually? I don't see how they are abusive??
Kylara's POV is... something. Not a great fan of any direction I am predicting her arc will go.
F'nor and the TINY FIRE LIZARDS. OMG. TINY DRAGONS. Why is this so cute. What the fuck.
MMM intrigue between factions.
F'nor is maybe my favourite character so far, I do love how he oscillates wildly from clever to EXTREMELY DENSE.
Have read maybe two pages into Jaxom's POV and he seems ... fine? He's ok so far?
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ranticore · 8 months ago
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reading your pern fic (OBSESSED btw) and you seem to have a really good grasp on flight / flight dynamics & the physics of it. and it's incredibly hard to find a resource for more realistic dragonriding - would you mind sharing some of your knowledge, terminology, that sort of thing? i guess this is me asking you to infodump about dragon flight/riding to your heart's content lol
>:) I waited until I was on pc to answer this one
Background information about me is that I've a long history with horse riding, a love for birds, and a special interest in.... aviation (in case that wasn't obvious)
to write a dragon riding scene I kind of synthesise all of these elements - to know what it's like to work alongside a steed (balance, cooperation), to know what it's like for a bird to fly (responding to the shape of the air) and also to know basically how flight at speed affects people (g-forces, air pressure, hypoxia) as well as essential flight mechanics (the basic 'how do wings work' thing)
So for a wing to work, the air must be flowing over its surface at a speed which creates a pressure difference which then causes lift. That's very simplified but u get it - the low pressure that develops on top of a wing kinda sucks the wing upwards. That means that in flight, you have a minimum speed where lift can persist. Dropping below that speed will cause a stall (lift stops) because that pressure difference won't exist. When you climb, you lose speed, which means at a certain critical point, the wings stall. Diving back down again will increase speed, increase lift, and then you'll go up again. I recommend looking up some videos or something because i'm not the best at explaining it haha
The air itself is also important to consider and i think it's the key of what brings it all together. Air is always spinning around the margins of a wing. It's why I always use descriptions like "whirling" and "churning" and stuff like that, it's to evoke the spirally vortex that generates in the wake of a flying object. You can see the vortexes sometimes when the low pressure over a wing changes the dew point in the air, causing condensation to form:
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this "tube" of air is a rapidly spinning vortex which forms when lift is happening - it's always there, but only this condensation makes it visible. next time you're on a plane coming in to land, watch and see if you can spot one, and notice that the moment the spoilers come up on the wing, the vortex stops, because lift is no longer being generated. The wingtip vortices cause drag which is why many planes have devices at the wingtips that point up, it reduces the vortices and saves on fuel!
Big wings make bigger vortices and this is what causes wake turbulence.
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you can see here really clearly the shape of the air in the wake of the plane, two big churning vortices that grow and spread out with distance until they're negligible. But flying directly into these vortices will cause a smaller aircraft (or dragon) to experience that turbulence, think of it like the wake of a large boat causing waves that might capsize a kayak. Turbulence, wind shear, etc these are all fluid dynamics in the air. Something that bores me in flight scenes (and sooo many flight scenes are guilty of this) is "dead" air, air which doesn't exist as anything other than an empty medium for something to basically levitate weightlessly through. It takes power and effort.
Back to birds - unlike planes, birds have a great degree of flexibility over how they approach the air, but their wing mechanics are convergent. Birds also extend high-lift devices to fly slowly without stalling (their alula). They can catch and exploit many of the wind forms which would throw a plane of similar size out of the sky. Thermals are an obvious one to write about, these are columns of rising air that form over a warm surface. Soaring birds use high-lift devices on their wings (the slotted primary feathers) to catch the thermal and ride it without having to flap at all. This is how the bronzes work.
Queen dragons in my story fly at the bottom of the column when in battle, really close to the ground - they actually exploit the ground effect to fly that low. Within one wingspan of the ground, the high pressure zone that forms under the wings acts as a cushion, because there's nothing under it but solid ground. This means lift can be maintained in conditions where normally it would not work - low in the air, the air pressure is dense and drag is a major factor.
Air pressure is another thing to consider but that's relatively intuitive. More pressure, more drag, slower flight, more energetically-costly flight, etc. The ceiling for 'breathable' air is about 10,000 feet. Now we have to think about the rider - have you ever stuck your head out of a car window at high speed and tried to breathe? If you've ever cornered fast on a bike you'll know how it feels to bank, more or less. Your weight increases the more Gs you pull, because gravity is intensifying for you. For the physical effects on the riders I looked into fighter pilots, stuff like G-lock, what kinds of forces someone can withstand before their body starts hurting lol.
in short: flight is a complicated battle against gravity and the air is alive
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princesscolumbia · 7 months ago
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About that [VARIANT] HRT thing...
If you're not deep in the thick of all things trans on Tumblr then you'll have seen the [animal] HRT that was spawned by the Dragon HRT series by aveydoesthings, then I feel sorry for you.
Seriously, go give her a follow and start from the beginning. There's TONS of inspired work that came from this, you probably won't ever find them all, but trying is worth the attempt.
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If Dragon HRT were possible, I'd absolutely be mainlining that shit. I've felt draconic for so long I remember, just like when I realized I was a woman, learning that according to the oriental zodiac I was a dragon and feeling like that just fit.
No wonder I was so obsessed with the Dragonriders of Pern when I was a kid.
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Naturally, since we're a system, I need to be taken into account here, so dragon-lady there wouldn't go full scaley unless there was a way for me to still be me. We're already crazy tall and gaijin, being a goddamn dragon might be a step too far for me.
...I wouldn't say no to having a cat's ears and tail, and the ability to purr...oh, and the fangs and claws!
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Okay, therian...
In any case, a few months ago (about 2-3 weeks before we split into a system, as a matter of fact) I read a fic on Scribble Hub called "A Date with Faet," and...well...okay, some spoilers below the link. I'm not going to cut, because I want the whole post showing up, but if you like TG TF fics that dip into the hard weird, keep reading. Otherwise, skip the next section until the AO3 link:
In this fic, the protag discovers that she's a changeling, as in non-human. They're fae, and, in fact, turn out to be a fairy princess. Now, this is actually rather common as TG/TF fics go, and at first it appeared to be fairly standard for its type...right up until it wasn't.
Turns out the protag's adoptive father was also trans and the character that could have been a Mary Sue winds up with Herculean problems; they've got plenty of power, but will it actually be able to fix anything? Will this make things better or worse? What are the consequences of their actions?
This book/series takes a hard turn into the "𝕕𝕖𝕖𝕡 𝕡𝕙𝕚𝕝𝕠𝕤𝕠𝕡𝕙𝕚𝕔𝕒𝕝 𝕔𝕠𝕟𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕦𝕞𝕤" when, decades after being turned into a woman who's no longer actually protag's parent, dad-turned-mom-turned-cousin is once again asking to be changed, and this time she becomes protags daughter.
This particular bit in particular has stuck in my mind ever since. It's what works for the story, it's a completely natural outgrowth of the events that happened before, and what's more it allows the author to naturally insert someone who's a system into the fic. (You would not believe the number of fics I "stumbled on to" when I was incubating as the system we are now.)
The protag and their father/mom/cousin/daughter start out perfectly ordinary humans. In fact, they are, at first, rather desperate to cling to that humanity. But over the course of the story they, step by step, wind up being almost completely non human and, in the fae princess' case, periodically wielding power enough to transform reality to her whims.
And, of course, if you know me at all, the fact that this made things as emotionally/ethically/plot-wise/morally complicated as fuck just made me love it harder.
A few months ago I started penning "Like a Cat in Heat," which was a direct response to a smutfic that had a promising description but absolutely fell down on the execution that presented the question of, "What if a person had a distinctly inhuman trait? What if it was more like an animal trait?" I said, "Okay, how about that but if it was actually good? And what if it were funny?"
It turned out to be a fun little bit of flash fiction that I hadn't, at first, intended to be more than what it was. But then one of the readers dropped a comment and coupled with the last, closing lines that were intended to be just a silly little joke wound up spinning out "Dragon's Lair," which proposed the question, "What if 'the normal character' turned out to be a monsterfucker? What if that monster was as fragile as spun glass and the human was the real monster all along with the power to crush the 'monster' if they so chose? What if making the 'wrong' choices by 'society's' standards was actually the best thing for these characters and was the (morally/ethically/narratively)Good Ending™?"
Then I finished that up with "Smokin' Hot" which said, "...fuck it, full eldritch abomination! Fuse that main character with a kami! Main characters LOVE being fused with kami!"
I even have a scene where the MC is being burned alive to nothing and must trust that she'll be reborn from the ashes...
...so imagine my surprise when I found Eldritch HRT and the artist did basically the same thing in their comic, including the cocoon analogy:
( @dawning-mars - PHENOMENAL work so far, please keep it up, this series is wonderful and I can't wait to see where you take it! ...oh, and drink some water and make sure you're getting enough sleep. Burnout is the creative's worst enemy. Don't worry, the inspiration and the zone will be waiting for you on the other side. 😉)
And all this has reminded me, from reading "Date with Faet" to my own work to Dragon HRT and Fish HRT and Mouse HRT and Eldritch HRT...all of these are about people becoming their best self when they no longer conform to "normal" "humanity."
This is not a new revelation, of course. People have been identifying this phenomenon for decades, possibly longer. When the people we now call "queer" are targeted by fascists for killing, and when "normal" people can't be bothered to lift a finger in our defense, and when the "bad" guys in movies and TV shows are queer coded so heavily some of them are actually shown as being gay and in loving relationships...well, it's not hard for us to take a look at the options (do I conform and deny my basic nature and be miserable for decades, or do I commit to the bit and live a happy, if short, life?) and choose to become the monster.
And for those who wind up on this path, it doesn't feel like we're "less" human than the "normal" people. If anything, we're retaining what it is that, to us, makes us human, our sense of self, our agency, our individuality and identity in a vast, uncaring cosmos on a burning world filled with uncaring people. And once we've embraced that part of ourselves, the parts that we're told growing up make us monstrous and evil and inhuman, we look back at the humanity we left behind and see nothing but a faceless mass of conforming nightmares that wish us death.
We may be the monsters, but they are the Borg in its most pure, TNG-era form; uncarring, unfeeling, all consuming, faceless, mindless but the hivemind, and destroys everything it touches.
We embody IDIC, in our weirdness and our multitude and our refusal to conform. Resistance isn't futile, it's mandatory.
The collective sees anything that's different and seeks to force it to conform or erase its existence.
We bronies and furries and scalies and therians and transwomen and transmen and gays and bisexuals and systems and catgirls and dogboys and catboys and doggirls and eldritch abominations are the chaos of life. When someone says, "I'm...new, there hasn't been anything like me before," we say, "WELCOME BROTHER!" ("I'm a non-gender robot, actually..." "WELCOME SIBLING!")
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Do you have a place to stay? About five people in the community have couches you can crash on...oh, you're good there? Are your bills paid? "Capitalism," amirite? How about medication? Can't get you your brain pills without a scrip, but we can hook you up with DIY HRT...oh, you're not planning on medically transitioning but you want top surgery? We can find you a list of places and the right people to talk to to make it happen. How about food? Here's a food bank near you...is your job treating you okay? No job? Let's get you resources to keep you housed while you're looking. Oh, that's your first art piece? Gorgeous! Magnificent! You've got a future...GAI'S, COME LOOK AT THIS ART THE NEWBIE DID!
Who's the monster here?
tl;dr - Maybe the real humanity is the eldritch abominations we made along the way?
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valyrfia · 1 month ago
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Oooooh I would love to hear your anti-romantacy thoughts (because same)
If you feel like sharing I will be sat
So, first little lore dump is I used to be a huge anti SJM person back pre-covid before SJM became uber popular like she is today and ACOTAR sparked this whole romantasy saturation. My negative review of Empire of Storms on goodreads was its own little corner-of-the-internet-controversy back in the day because I was like.....(SPOILERS FOR THRONE OF GLASS SERIES UNTIL THE PARAGRAPH BREAK) Rowan and Aelin came out of nowhere! This is bullshit! Manon is a lesbian! Dorian and Chaol are obviously in love! This magic system doesn't make sense! Why are these characters that meant so much to me as a teenager suddenly caricatures! Why is this world a bad patchwork of every other fantasy story ever!
I feel like 16 year old me didn't quite know how to explain why these things were bad or what the root problems were, but now seeing these root problems repeated widely across a genre....I can summarise in a list. I can go into greater detail if I won't bore anyone, but to sum it up:
Heteronormative as hell. This is my major complaint. Most romance in romantasy reads as thinly veiled conservative propaganda. Plus the weird insistence on using the words "males" and "females"
Bad FANTASY as a whole. Fantasy is my favourite genre because done right you can fold a whole lot of real world observations about our own society into it. Or, if you're Brandon Sanderson, you can write excellent magic systems based around rules and drawbacks. Super Special Girl meets Bad Boy and they have the most specialist powers ever doesn't do it for me really.
Following on: extremely dumbed down plots. Fantasy is about weaving elaborate plots together under a new system of rules, Romantasy is all about the romance. Don't worry about plots, just don't.
Blatant plagiarism absolutely everywhere? Every single book with dragons/wyverns from the past ten years needs to start paying some sort of monetary contribution back to the Eragon series and Dragonriders of Pern.
Really REALLY weird attitudes about race/class/beauty if you start looking at it too head on.
I am a girl with a deep love for ao3 and a fairly active account but it needs to be said.....a lot of these people who exclusively read romantasy have porn addictions. You know how depressing it is to see a favourite fantasy book of yours be rated low because "no spice" or "spice wasn't good enough". Like the spice is only one possible way of flavouring a delicious meal, I think we need to learn to embrace the vanilla too as a society.
The marketing of it is also just disturbing. And it is encroaching big time on fantasy as a genre rather than just accepting that it can be its own thing. Fourth Wing is NOT proper high fantasy, don't make me laugh. Talk to my copy of Priory of the Orange Tree please.
People can enjoy romantasy of course I won't hold it against them, it's just more an absolute hatred for the genre and people reading it refuse to engage with it critically when fantasy as a genre has ALWAYS been a mirror to our own society. Also, returning to my first bullet point, it's just mind-boggling heteronormative slop most of the time. Instead of trying to build a romance that can compel me, most romantasy authors are perfectly happy to go "she was a slight and slender and specially magically powerful girl, he was a hunk of a man, can I make it any more obvious?" and leave it at that.
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sebsxphia · 6 months ago
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Oh fucking hell Sebbie, I thought the thoughts for Sentry were bad, but after seeing those photos for Salem's Lot I AM WEAK!!!!! (lol). I am so sorry for any spoilers that come about.
Fall with Ben Mears has gotta be the absolute BEST!!!!!!
-You guys adopted both Mark Petrie and Baby Randy (Randy was about 8 months old when he was taken away from his birth parents) and on weekends when Mark doesn't have any homework to do, you guys will take them both down to the apple orchard and pumpkin patch to go and pick out what they want for Halloween
-You guys end up with soooooo many apples that you literally have no choice but to make a pie. No sooner do you get it out of the oven and set it in the oven than your husband has snuck downstairs to sneak a taste, only to be chased away by you wielding a dishtowel
-Ben's busy working on his book most of the time, but you love to see him sitting at the old roll-top desk with his typewriter, working away with the windows open to let in the cool air and watching the leaves fall outside. He'll always let you read his rough drafts, but he insists on sitting out on the porch in the creaky wooden rocking chairs where he can lean in and kiss you easier
-He'll read "Goodnight Goon" to Randy almost every night before bed. You've never seen a ten month old sit and listen to it all the way through the way he does (lol)
-You, Ben and the boys will go to the used bookstore in town and will absolutely raid the bookshelves for those dollar-paperbacks. Your in-home library has an insane amount of shelf space that isn't even full yet, but you guys will walk away with milk crates full of books. There's tons of fantasy and sci fi books for Mark and he absolutely FREAKED the first time he read both Lord Of The Rings and The Dragonriders Of Pern
Sebbie these little thoughts are just a small hint at what's to come (lol).
aaaaaah! ben mears and autumn! ben mears and autumn! two of my beloveds together! they’re go so perfectly together and everything you’ve mentioned has me feeling all warm and cosy 🥹 i love this, thank you for these sweet thoughts, my love! 💌
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darkfeanix · 2 years ago
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In Which I Read Dragonflight
So after observing references to this "Dragonriders of Pern" series passively for several years, I recently decided to see if it was worth a look. To my immense gratitude, @c-is-for-circinate​ wrote out a very nice explanation and recommendation here. Having now finished the first book they suggested, Dragonflight, I wanted to share my thoughts.
(Also, I've just realised the second book they recommended was Dragonsdawn, not Dragonquest, which is the one I thoughtlessly jumped into after finishing Dragonflight. Oh well, I guess I'll be checking out Dragsondawn next.)
Thoughts under the cut. Spoilers for Dragonflight, and to a lesser degree Dragonquest, naturally.
So all things considered, I did end up enjoying Dragonflight. I really liked Lessa as a protagonist, and F'lar as the handsome man who sweeps in to sweep the protagonist off their feet, even if I did get frustrated with him from time to time.
I loved the dragons. After 10+ years of Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, where dragons are intelligent but still largely bestial in nature, it was a thrill to read about dragons communicating directly with their riders. I also found it interesting that McCaffrey includes an introduction (prologue? I was listening to the audiobook and don't remember how it was titled) that explicitly goes into the history of Pern as a science fiction setting rather than fantasy. I know that it had that backstory, but I had assumed it was something that would come out over time, not be made plain before the story even started.
To be clear, I'm a huge fan of the worldbuilding. I'm a sucker for stories where society has forgotten its scientific origins and so marvellous achievements of times past come to be regards as magic.
Speaking of times past: was not expecting time travel in this story! Somehow managed to avoid spoiling myself about that until I reached it in the story. I thought it was quite cleverly woven, with serious enough consequences that overuse of it could end up being disastrous. Unfortunately, I did spoil myself regarding its use in the story's climax, but even then, I thought it was set up so well that if I hadn't known ahead of time I think it would have been really satisfied with it.
Other random things of note:
When the story first introduced Fax, and as we learn more about what an awful person he is, I initially found it hard to take it seriously. "What a cartoonish villain," I thought to myself. And then I thought a bit harder and realised we have people like that in the real world; people with that same sense of entitlement, who think they can do and say and take anything with no consequences. After that he felt a lot less cartoonish, and a lot more satisfying when he met his end.
I really empathised with Lessa when she became Weyrwoman and basically got reduced to… well, "woman do what man say, man fight, woman stay behind to look after home". I despised R'gul, and when it was time for Ramoth's first mating flight, I became genuinely worried and half-convinced that he was going to solidify his power by keeping F'lar out of the picture until it was over. I cannot overstate my relief when he was unseated, nor my satisfaction as he was repeatedly proven wrong about his beliefs over the course of the rest of the story.
Speaking of F'lar, by the way, I got really frustrated with him at multiple points. It seemed like all the things about Lessa that made him want her to become Weyrwoman suddenly become a problem for him once she actually was Weyrwoman. Not to mention that it really felt at times like he was blaming her for not knowing enough, when he should have been well aware that R'gull kept her education very limited. It felt a bit like making someone wear a blindfold to your home and then getting angry when they can't name the colour of the carpet.
As stated above, I have started reading Dragonquest, and I appreciate that the time travel solution, though it solved their problems in the short term, doesn't end up being a perfect deus ex machina; there are consequences being felt even seven years later.
All in all, I’m glad I read it, and once I’ve finished Dragonquest, I will almost certainly check out Dragonsdawn.
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winterroseposts · 2 years ago
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Harper Hall Trilogy #3 (Dragonriders of Pern)
When young Piemurs' voice changes he becomes apprentice to the Masterharper. Eventually reaching the uncharted Southern Continent of Pern.
SPOILERS
Sticking with the older sci-fi, fantasy books. The Harper Hall series is geared to young adults. Unlike the first two books Menolly is very much a sidecharacter in this. Some knowledge of the happenings in other books is needed to make sense of the book.
This is a very slow moving book with Piemur as the only character for a long stretch and an abrupt ending. It mostly concentrates on Piemurs' attempts to survive without alerting any of the settlers in the Southern Hold.
3 Stars
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rjalker · 2 years ago
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You know I was waiting for it to be brought up again but it just never did.
So uh. spoilers for Dragonsblood I guess.
I guess Nuelsk just....fucking doesn't exist anymore?
Becaue in Dragonsblood Nuella shows up for like 5 seconds with a gold wher. And says she thought one of the dragons was going to choose her and she'd have no idea how to handle "two of them".
Implying she only has the one wher. Who is gold.
So.
Yeah.
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emblazonet · 1 year ago
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According to various responses to my Pern post it appears Pern has canon gay characters? Ok, I was not expecting that. I am, however, trying to remain fairly spoiler-free for this readthrough, so I haven't been reading replies and reblogs too closely. For those who wish to follow along, I'm like two chapters or so into Dragonquest. There has been no gay action so far. There is however friction between the time travelling dragonriders and Lessa's peeps, so that's delicious. I am enjoying thoroughly how everyone is disagreeing with things.
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vergess · 3 years ago
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Vees I'm starting to read the dragonriders of pern after Far too long of letting them chill out ignored on my kindle. I read Dragonsong as a kiddo but they were on the same shelf as the Xanth books and those had more colorful covers and puns 🤷‍♂️
Anywhomst. "To control the incursions of the dreadful Threads... The more resourceful men embarked on a long-term plan. The first phase involved breeding a highly specialized variety of life form indigenous to their new world." "It took generations to develop to the fullest the potential of these dragons"
One of those early colonizers was REALLY looking for any excuse they had to actively breed those lizards. They saw their shot and ran with it.
1) Her name was Kitty Ping Yung
2) There's a trilogy that features her creation of them in the first book
3) She shot her shot so hard she literally dropped dead the moment a viable clutch of eggs was made
4) Her daughter Wind Blossom is absolutely Buck Ass Wild
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silverstoryteller · 6 years ago
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Drabbles, pt. 8
So I have a bunch of, more or less random, 100-word snippets from various works that I figured I’d go ahead and post rather than letting them sit on my hard drive, No, they don’t necessarily all work as independent drabbles, but if you’re interested in me expanding on some of them, drop me an ask.
Dragonriders of Pern 3rd Pass AU-- basically fixing some of the parts I had issues with in the original books and exploring missed opportunities
One day, Kindan had asked his father where he and Dask were going, and Danil had answered, “A mating run.” 
“What’s that?” he had asked, and Danil’s response had been to ruffle his hair affectionately. 
When pressed, he said, “You’ll understand when you’re older.” These trips were uncommon, but not unheard of to Kindan, and as he did get older, he did gain a better understanding of them. Dask had even won one of those runs, something which Kindan would realize much later was an unusual occurrence—a brown outrunning the bronzes for a queen. Something to be proud of.
Sometimes, Kindan had been told, a dragonet would hatch and be unable to find a suitable bond. Nobody was quite sure why—whether it was a flaw in the dragonet or the presented candidates. It was a sad, if rare, occurrence. But ‘sometimes’ was rapidly becoming an eventuality. 
As the Pass crept closer, dragon clutches grew larger while candidate classes withered. There were simply too few children of the right age; their generation had been hit hardest by the plague fourteen turns ago, and expanding acceptable candidate age ranges could only do so much. Keens sounded at every other Hatching.
Of course she was only hours away from leaving the Weyr when the clutch began to hatch. Lorana was caught between exasperation and excitement. Did she truly want a dragon? Was she willing to miss the chance to watch a Hatching?
 …Would she be putting the hatchlings in danger if she stayed? 
Salina found her before she could make a decision, and the Weyrwoman would brook no argument. Bemused, she found herself ushered off to stand with several other girls around Breth’s queen egg. The other girls were ignored, for Lorana discovered something much more interesting. 
The eggs were talking!
There was no fixing this. Everyone said it was bad when a person lost their dragon, but nothing Lorana had ever heard conveyed the sheer horror of the gaping wound in her soul. She wasn’t sure it was possible to describe it to someone who hadn’t lived through it. 
She couldn’t help resenting her friends for the way they blithely assumed she could Impress another dragon. As if it was that easy to get over the grief of losing Arith. She wasn’t ready to be so close to another dragon; she didn’t think she ever would. The others didn’t understand.
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onefleshonepod · 2 years ago
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Hi! My wife is looking for some new books and I was trying to remember one that was mentioned briefly on the podcast- something about lesbians who can’t touch each other? And then they brush pinkies at some point? What was that book? (Also, your analysis is brilliant and we both love the podcast soooo much!!)
hi! 🖤 thank you so much for the kind words!!
i’m very sorry to say that the book in question is not about lesbians – it’s six of crows, a young adult novel by leigh bardugo (in the same universe as the grisha books, which were recently adapted as a tv show on netflix).
the couple we love brush pinkies for two microseconds in the sequel which completes the duology, crooked kingdom (mild spoilers for the first book in the plot summary on goodreads).
i (baily) love these two books so much (as does kabriya). all the characters are delightful and well fleshed-out, the books are very funny, and there’s an exciting and twisty plot which tests all of the characters and slowly reveals their backstories.
some more book recommendations, for you/your wife and for other people who may be interested:
sticking to leigh bardugo’s work to start, i also love this book of short fairy tales from the same grisha universe (my review on goodreads). kind of hate linking my own goodreads review here in a self-indulgent way, but i hate the idea of rewriting reviews and summaries i've already written more, so there you go.
i honestly find leigh bardugo very inspirational because she substantially improved as a writer between her first series, the grisha trilogy (which relies heavily on ya cliches like the mean girl, the most specialest chosen girl ever, and the love triangle with normal guy next door and hot but morally questionable guy) and the crows duology.
if you’re looking for things to read that are like the locked tomb:
more work by tamsyn herself:
her novella “the deepwater bride,” which is not available online but can be purchased for a reasonable price here.
“the magician’s apprentice,” which is available in full here, is an early exploration of some of the themes that arise in john’s relationships with alecto and harrow in the locked tomb
“chew,” a short story about cannibalism set during wwii
"the woman in the hill" (have not read)
“the house that made the sixteen loops of time” (have not read)
wlw sff books i have enjoyed, in no particular order:
a memory called empire by arkady martine: an anti-imperialist epic, written with a historian’s love for the byzantine and aztec empires. intricate worldbuilding with spectacular little diegetic poems and excerpts that i personally really enjoy. also uses the 70s science fiction conceit of overthinking social encounters to the point where one conversation can take up to fifteen pages (think dune and early dragonriders of pern) – i love this but i know some people who grew up reading today’s snappy ya fiction really don’t. contains a memory device that i suspect tamsyn was inspired by for aim/the messenger. a debut novel with some pacing issues – it read a bit like an exponential growth graph, leaving barely enough time to explain what was happening before the book was over. i haven’t read the sequels (i have a hardcover copy of the second book sitting on my desk literally right now) but hopefully they are better paced.
the traitor baru cormorant by seth dickinson: i’ve ragged on this series for its heavy-handed writing, telling and not showing, and thinly-sketched time skips, but despite all that it’s an enjoyable read. a very dark anti-imperialist tragedy set in a homophobic empire loosely based on late victorian britain. lots of economic intrigue. has similar psychological and medical horror to harrow the ninth beginning in the second book, if that’s something you enjoyed.
the unspoken name by a.k. larkwood: the story is thrilling, the world is interesting, the characters are lovable, the names are luxurious, the romance is cute, and i plan to read the sequel. the science fantasy vibe is very similar to tlt. however, this book is trying to cram three books into one. the time skips are frustrating because it robs you of organically coming to know and like these characters. loved it but be warned!
she who became the sun by shelley parker-chan: speculative historical fiction about a chinese emperor (do not google this emperor like i did bc you will be spoiled for some elements of the story!!), with minor fantasy elements. parker-chan does interesting things with gender if you’re interested in that aspect of the locked tomb series. however, it is definitely set in quasi-fantasy ancient china, not a homophobia- and sexism-free future. this was my favourite of the three major adult fantasy novels with central f/f relationships released in 2021 that were often lumped together on social media, lol.
speaking of those novels, i also enjoyed the unbroken by c.l. clark. it has a similar anti-imperialist storyline to the locked tomb, inspired by the real-world history of morocco and france. definitely has some debut novel issues (the pacing was very uneven), but i loved the characters.
foundryside by robert jackson bennett: a unique magic system called 'scriving' that allows you to essentially speak to objects, interesting plot, and a sweet but honestly kind of understated and forgettable romance. slow to start but has a satisfying and wild ending that sets up the next book in the series.
the ruthless lady’s guide to wizardry by c.m. waggoner: a light but delightful and hilarious fantasy romance. not at all similar to the locked tomb in terms of atmosphere – this has oddball victorian steampunk vibes.
the long way to a small, angry planet by becky chambers: in many ways, this series not at all like the locked tomb – it’s very cosy and sweet and low-stakes. in one way, though, it is like tlt – imo the locked tomb is fundamentally a warm-hearted book series full of love for humanity, even though there is a lot of horror and loss and grief. you can’t take loved away, etc etc. becky chambers writes from the same point of view on life and love, but without the horrors. these books always have interesting and inventive worldbuilding. sometimes the voice of the author peeks through in a clumsy way when detailing the leftist policies of her invented worlds but since i generally agree with the author politically it doesn’t bother me. the excellent sequels are linked stories, not a direct continuation of the same plot.
sisters of the vast black by lina rather: hey, nuns in space!! some of them are gay. i gave this four stars right after reading but i can't remember anything about it, so take from that what you will.
the raven and the reindeer by t. kingfisher: wlw retelling of the snow queen!
daughter of mystery by heather rose jones: alternate history fantasy romance / fantasy of manners set in a made-up european country. enjoyable lady and bodyguard dynamic.
monstrous regiment by terry pratchett: fantasy comedy about a fictional war in discworld. the fact that i'm putting this in wlw is a bit of a spoiler; i'm sorry, try to forget that.
some wlw sff books i thought were “okay” to “fine” but you might like better:
the priory of the orange tree by samantha shannon: i feel obliged to recommend this because we’ve mentioned it so much on the pod. a solid three stars. interesting enough, just not mindblowing in any way. here's a good although mildly spoilery review if you're interested in a more articulate encapsulation of some of my issues with this book.
this is how you lose the time war by amal el-mohtar and max gladstone: it’s fine. too flowery for my taste. would have preferred to read unrelated poems from these authors and read this story written by other people.
starless by jacqueline carey: standalone fantasy with a very promising start, great central relationship, and well-sketched setting, but the plot slots into a prophecy that’s already 90% complete and the world is saved all within the last 50 pages. as long as you’re not expecting anything else, you’ll probably enjoy it! i like jacqueline carey's other work as well. i read her book santa olivia like a decade and change ago; iirc it's a wlw romance between a boxer and a werewolf in a post-apocalyptic future, but i barely remember it so can't really rec it.
bone shard daughter by andrea stewart: it’s decent. an anti-imperialist story set in a society reminiscent of ancient china. there are lesbians. interesting magic system built on draining life from unwilling subjects of the empire to create magical constructs with, essentially, computer code written on shards of these subjects’ bones.
the jasmine throne by tasha suri: another book that is fine. also anti-imperialist, with interesting magic based on spirits from hindu mythology. i loved the worldbuilding inspired by indian history. there were definitely pacing issues in this book though – the central relationship lurched from place to place without any super natural development in between, and it seemed like the book was trying to end about seven times before it actually did.
non wlw sff i love:
a natural history of dragons by marie brennan: a personal favourite of mine. the beginning of a series following essentially a female charles darwin in an alternate history england. really is nothing at all like the locked tomb but i love it so much. here's my non-spoilery review of the fifth book.
provenance by ann leckie: my review on goodreads. i personally got really pissed off at the ancillary justice series for doing a hard left turn away from the universe-spanning objectives and alien horror i expected based on book one, but i love the author’s other work, including this book.
all systems red and the rest of the murderbot series by martha wells: nothing but hilarious romps with murderbot. i can never remember anything that happened after i finish reading but i always enjoy the experience. here's my review. i love martha wells’ other work as well, like this standalone fantasy novel and this portal fantasy series. there’s an author-approved free download of her debut novel available here.
the curse of chalion and the sequel, paladin of souls, by lois mcmaster bujold: very warm and happy and above all thoughtful reads. my review of paladin of souls is here. the penric and desdemona series is set in the same world; it's a gentle and feel-good novella series which only gets better as it goes on. lois mcmaster bujold is best known for the vorkosigan saga, which is extremely good – don’t START with my favourite, komarr, but please read enough so that you love miles and then read komarr (my review here).
the goblin emperor by katherine addison: god this is so good. SO good. i can't put it better than i did in my review.
velocity weapon by megan e. o'keefe: a somewhat complicated but mostly straightforward scifi adventure – the complexity comes from the timeline and structure of the book, something i enjoy picking apart in the locked tomb.
spinning silver by naomi novik: i love naomi novik’s writing and plotting. imo, her plots unfold in the same inexorable way as tamsyn muir’s, where the characters are established and placed in situations such that they move into and resolve conflict in a way that is shocking and thrilling at first read but perfectly fitting and inevitable in hindsight.
natasha pulley’s slow but thrilling novels, particularly the watchmaker of filigree street (my review) and the bedlam stacks (my review).
sixteen ways to defend a walled city by k.j. parker: a whip-smart fantasy based on the byzantine empire (or the late western roman empire). anti-imperialist story from the perspective of someone within the empire itself. uses the very weak device of just swapping skin colours and doing Fantasy Racism against the white people, which you just kind of have to laugh at. the narrator is very misogynistic but imo funny enough to get away with it – you can tell the author is making fun of his character as much as the character is bitterly taking witty jabs at the world around him. there are 3 books in this series now, all excellent.
the wee free men by terry pratchett: speaking of monstrous regiment and terry pratchett, nona pov reminded me a lot of tiffany aching, beloved of younger me.
rivers of london and the rest of series by ben aaronovitch: my review here of the first book. the subsequent books are all better than the first, tbh, but the first isn't bad by any means, just kind of weird. the series has a charming protagonist with a very gideon-like outlook on the world (for a straight dude lol).
infomocracy by malka older: thought-provoking near-future scifi.
powers by ursula k. leguin: showcases ursula k. leguin's always-excellent worldbuilding. profoundly human and full of love. my review here.
winter’s orbit by everina maxwell: m/m scifi romance. i have to be honest, i read this first when it was published as original fiction on ao3 and i haven’t read the published version, but i don’t think it’s changed too much except to add more political intrigue. very sweet. contains a memorable scene with scifi skiing.
sunshine by robin mckinley: my favourite ever vampire story. robin mckinley has also has done a lot of excellent fairy tale retellings.
sff short reads:
this list is already way too long, so i'm just going to recommend two short story authors i love:
rich larson, story 1 that i love (my review), story 2 that i love (my review).
sarah pinsker, story 1 that i love, story 2 that i love
non-fiction (specifically about space):
the end of everything by katie mack: my review.
packing for mars by mary roach: i love mary roach so much. a laugh-out-loud read.
poetry for locked tomb fans:
incarnadine by mary szybist: strong gothic catholic vibes. i described this collection on gr as “numinous and gruesome.”
poems by denise levertov, who converted to catholicism in 1984. i prefer her poems about nature, but there's a lot of stuff there for the religion enjoyers.
horror:
i'm absolutely not a horror connoisseur, but the horror book that i think gideon the ninth fans are most likely to enjoy is we have always lived in the castle by shirley jackson. there's a fucked-up sibling relationship, a horrible antagonist who's just some guy, wild twists and turns, and a big old crumbling house.
i also loved the bloody chamber by andrea carter, particularly the bluebeard retelling.
the merry spinster by danny lavery: more dark fairy tale retellings. my review here.
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venividivoom · 4 years ago
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While reading ACOSF over the weekend, it occurred to me that how Rhys and Feyre are acting now is very similar to how F’lar and Lessa acted post Dragonflight (if anyone has read Dragonriders of Pern) Basically they want to be in the middle of everything and the reason why things happen.
Rhys and Feyre brought the high lords together to fight Hyburn. They now have this peace treaty going on. They’re trying to control things even though the courts and the human lands are autonomous from each other.
F’lar and Lessa brought the other Weyrs forward, and when they started being jerks, they banished the jerks to the curb. They United the rest of the Weyrs and basically became the de facto leaders even though the Weyrs and Holds are autonomous.
Granted I could be totally wrong. But there were just some really weird parallels that popped up.
"Why does Vallahan not want to sign the treaty?"
They weren't consulted on its construction and it probably doesn't offer them any kind of concessions re: trade or sovereignty. Like, it is not beyond Rhys and Feyre to drop a treaty on Vallahan that says something like 'we pledge all of our soldiers to the night court in times of war and agree to supply them with grain in exchange for friendship and the acknowledgment that we are almost as awesome as Rhys'
There. Answered.
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beingatoaster · 2 years ago
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In order: P, Y, P, F, P, P
^_^
*squints* I think I see what you're doing here.... TBH this was a little delayed just because when I think of a random AU I tend to throw it onto Tumblr immediately, so I had to wait until new ones occurred to me. XD;;
P - Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas)
Eula and Jean, role reversal. Not their backstories or families, but their positions in the Knights--possibly this AU is kicked off by some Lawrences conspiring with Eroch and Eula catching wind of it, and so she goes to Varka about the time he’s looking for someone to assign the investigation, and he sees it as a way to demonstrate her loyalty to Mondstadt. So she successfully roots out Eroch and his supporters and becomes Master of Knights, while Jean takes the captaincy of the Reconnaissance Company when it goes empty because someone has to do it, and then Varka assigns Eula as Acting Grand Master when he leaves. And while the Eroch investigation shored up Eula’s bona fides within the Knights, she’s still facing a lot of the resistance from Mondstadt’s civilian populace--that’s what’s interesting to me about this--and so the pressure the Fatui are exerting about the Knights not handling Dvalin at the start of the game is turned up so much higher.
Y - What are your secondhand fandoms (fandoms you aren’t in personally but are tangentially familiar with because your friends/people on your dash are in them)
Right now, probably the big ones are The Locked Tomb (glad folks are having fun! this one is especially fascinating to follow from the outside, so to speak, because I was a megafan of the author's Homestuck fanfic) and various Dimension 20 games? The Witcher was another big one for a while. And there's one person on my dash who's keeping me updated on the What We Do In The Shadows TV show entirely via gifsets.
P - Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas)
Inspired by spoilers for Ballads and Brews: Andrius adopts Rosaria along with Razor, so she’s even more his brother. XD I’m thinking the bandits who took her from her village stumble into Wolvendom and run afoul of the wolves, and so Andrius ends up with two feral children at once. TBH given Rosaria’s existing Vision story, if the bandits run into the wolves when she’s very young she can easily just share Razor’s--the pack dies trying to save both of them from an Abyss mage, she still loses a quasi-parental figure in whichever were the parent wolves--or if they run into them much later, her bandit not-really-father dies defending her from the wolves.
F - What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom
If primarily roleplaying OCs counts as being in a fandom, probably Dragonriders of Pern, which I've been RPing in since, uh... I first got Internet access in 1999, and I found the first RP forums probably a year after that.... Otherwise, if we're talking purely about reading/writing fic, probably Avatar: The Last Airbender, which I first read fic for shortly after it came out back in 2005, and last read fic for just last week.
No, wait, going by those standards, I was reading Star Trek novels as far back as 1995 at least, since I remember boxing some up for that move, and I was reading a Star Trek fic yesterday. XD Star Trek wins!
P - Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas)
The AU, and I’m not sure if this is Ei/Sara, or Ei/Yae and Sara/Makoto, where Makoto doesn’t die. Which could go a lot of interesting ways for a lot of different characters and points of focus, but as the first sentence suggests, I am thinking about it from a Sara POV. As one of the Shogun’s foremost generals she is very aware that her Shogun seems to have two modes of being with differing behavior to fit each, and she is embarrassingly attracted to the Shogun in one of those modes, while not quite sure why the other mode does nothing for her (or why, in the other mode, she keeps getting subtle nudges encouraging her interest). Yae meanwhile is inevitably in the background laughing her ass off and sowing additional chaos.
P - Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas)
...The one where Lisa doesn’t give up on her research and academic drive, just on the Academiya itself, and ends up acquiring a rich patron willing to provide her with a workspace, assistants, and funding, so long as these lines of research bear certain fruit. Which is to say, Lisa as Ningguang’s secret weapon, because I just persistently love the idea of those two in the same room.
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fandomtrumpshate · 4 years ago
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Unlisted Fandom Challenge - Update
Today's Unlisted Fandom Challenge update brings you not just the leaderboard, but the WHOLE LIST of write-in fandoms - yes, all 136 of them. Five new fandoms joined the list (historical/artist RPF, The Goblin Emperor, The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System, Vorkosigan Saga,  and Witch Hat Atelier), but so far, nothing has been able to challenge Gundam Wing for the top spot. Lucifer, did, however, snag another entry and move up a rank. The full list is under the cut
Separate posts  a bit later this evening will give the details on how signups are going for the listed fandoms (spoiler, Sherlock is still on top of the game), and info on the supported orgs and overall signup numbers.
There's just ONE day left to sign up! Still time to knock Gundam Wing out of the lead and get your fandom onto the leaderboard.
7 Gundam Wing 5 9–1–1 5 Bridgerton 4 Genshin Impact 4 Lucifer (TV) 4 Sanders Sides 3 Campaign: Skyjacks 3 Diamond no Ace 3 Pirates of the Caribbean (films) 3 Rusty Quill Gaming 3 Stand Still Stay Silent 3 The Maze Runner 3 Yu-Gi-Oh! 2 A Redtail's Dream 2 Assassin's Creed 2 Attack on Titan 2 Black Sails 2 Bleach 2 Carmen Sandiego (Netflix) 2 Cobra Kai 2 Cyberpunk 2077 2 Emperor’s Edge by Lindsay Buroker 2 Final Fantasy 8 / Final Fantasy 14 / Final Fantasty 15(XV) 2 Ling Qi/Spiritpact 2 London Spy 2 Newsies 2 Shameless (US) 2 Suits 2 The Imperial Radch Trilogy 2 The Last Kingdom 2 The Losers 1 Ace Attorney 1 Angel Sanctuary 1 arthurian mythology 1 Babylon 5 1 bastion 1 Benjamin January Series 1 Big Wolf on Campus 1 Billabong Books - Mary Grant Bruce 1 Cherry Magic / 30sai made dotei dato mahoutsukai ni narerurashii 1 Chicago Fire 1 Chilling Adventures of Sabrina 1 Chronicles of Narnia 1 Cosmere - Brandon Sanderson 1 CSI: Miami 1 Cut High Earth Defense Club (any season) 1 Daiya no A 1 Danganronpa 1 Death Note 1 Destiny 2 1 Devil May Cry 1 Dimension 20 1 Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (2016) 1 Discworld 1 Dragonriders of Pern 1 Fallout 1 Georgette Heyer - Romance Novels 1 Great Pretender 1 greek mythology 1 Grimm TV 1 Hawaii 5-0 1 Hilda (TV series) 1 Historical/artists RPF 1 Horizon Zero Dawn 1 Hunter x Hunter 1 Identity V 1 IDOLiSH7 1 Ivanhoe 1 Jeeves and Wooster 1 Jibaku Shounen Hanako-Kun 1 Jujutsu Kaisen 1 Jupiter Ascending 1 Kuroshitsuji 1 La Casa de Papel 1 Lupin the 3rd 1 Moominvalley (Cartoon 2019) 1 mushishi 1 My Roommate Is A Detective 1 Nancy Drew games 1 Oceans 11 (2001 version) 1 Pandora Hearts 1 Persona 5 1 PG Wodehouse - Psmith 1 Phandom 1 Movie fandoms 1 Pokemon 1 Pretty Little Liars 1 Prodigal Son 1 Promare 1 Ranger's Apprentice 1 Red Dwarf 1 Resident Evil (Video Games) 1 Rhink 1 Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch (series) 1 Robin Hood BBC 1 Rookie Historian: Goo Hae-Ryung 1 RootBound 1 Saiyuki Gaiden 1 Sanditon (TV 2019) 1 Sarazanmai 1 SCI Mystery 1 SEVENTEEN 1 Skip Beat! 1 Smile For Me 1 south park 1 Speed (1994 film) 1 Star Ocean: The Second Story 1 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (any) 1 The Elder Scrolls 1 The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison 1 The Hour 1 The Last of Us 1 The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 1 The Librarians 1 The man from uncle (movie 2015) 1 The Mechanisms 1 The Mighty Boosh/Boosh RPS 1 The Murderbot Diaries 1 The Old Guard Movie RPF 1 The Order (Netflix Series) 1 The Rookie 1 The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System 1 The Starless Sea (novel) 1 The Terror (S1) 1 The Wicked and the Divine 1 Tiger and Bunny 1 Timeless (2016) 1 Tokyo Babylon 1 Tomorrow When the War Began - John Marsden 1 Tortall 1 Tower of God 1 Vagrant Story 1 Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold 1 Warehouse 13 1 Witch Hat Atelier 1 works of L.M. Montgomery
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