#The Stars Beyond

[abookishidentity]

Books read in July 2024

-Epithet Erased: Prison of Plastic by Brendan Blaber started July 1, 2024 and finished July 3, 2024 - 5/5 stars. I liked this book a lot. This was a story between two sisters and how the death of their mother affected them both. Molly’s sister has such an interesting epithet and it clashes against Molly’s. The characters we are introduced to are so interesting and I love that Giovanni came back. He truly had Molly’s interests at heart. He was incredibly supportive of both sisters which was sweet. The ending was rather cute. Molly was finally with people who truly cared about her. I hope we get more from the Epithet Erased universe. Brendan Blaber writes his characters very well. When I was reading this book I was reminded of a video he put out (JelloApocalypse is the youtube name) called “So, You’re Stuck in a Time Loop!” Due to the fact that nearly each time Molly met her sister in her dream world she would force Molly and her friends out and they would have to go back to the beginning to find their friends. It was such good shit. 

-Star Trek: Deep Space Nine- The Dog of War by Mike Chen started and finished July 3, 2024- 4/5 stars. When I ordered this book I really should have realized it was a graphic novel. Graphic novels are very fast reads. It was pretty good. The illustrations were quite astounding. There were quite a lot of them with the characters and other dogs. It was cute. The story was solid. I got it because I wanted to read more of Mike Chen's stuff. His work is great.

-Thicker than Water by Mike Carey started July 3, 2024 and finished July 8, 2024 - 5/5 stars. Man I love the Felix Castor series. Didn’t care for the beginning too much but I guess the succubus character has to be reintroduced somehow. Other than that this book was quite amazing. Fix’s brother had a role in this book which means we got some family drama and shit. It’s interesting to me how “F Castor” was painted in blood on a car window and the police think its the main character who is involved. I mean the person who painted it could have been saying “Fuck Castor” right? Anyway there was a background story detailing something that happened in Felix’s childhood and I know immediately that Anita Yeats was the one married to the guy who got ripped to shreds and wrote “F Castor” on the car window. I like how Felix is good with children. I liked this book a lot. I need to buy the next book in the series at some point. 

-Royal Street by Suzanne Johnson started July 8, 2024 and finished July 11, 2024- 3/5 stars. I try to read urban fantasy written by women and the main characters are women. They never hit the same as ones written by men and are about men. The setting of this book was quite interesting. New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit. It broke or at least damaged the border between the real world and the supernatural world. The main character’s mentor goes missing and she is on the hunt for him. It was interesting to find out that the mentor was actually her dad this entire time. This is the third or fourth urban fantasy book I have read in which the mentor is killed but the fact that it’s her dad is kind of heartbreaking. Don’t think a mentor/dad would assign their protege/daughter a mission to flirt with a magic dead pirate to trap him and bring him back to the other world.  Perhaps that will harden her in the next book. She is a wizard and gets assigned essentially a wizard cop as a partner. He is strangely protective over her. It’s a little obsessive for my tastes. He also can shapeshift into a golden retriever which he uses to essentially sleep in her house. It’s weird. His cousin appears as well. It’s a weird love triangle until he is taken by the magical creatures for some reason? I don’t know. I think I should read the second book. 

-A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe by Alex White started July 12, 2024 and finished July 16, 2024- 4/5 stars. I’m glad I kept reading past the first chapter. I was going to be pretty bored if the race car driving was going to be present in the book a lot. This book was quite interesting. Science fiction universe with space travel and all that and yet people could do magic. Not everyone has the same magic and one of the main characters can’t do magic at all. The other main character can essentially read machines with her magic. It’s fascinating. There’s also a sapphic relationship in this book which is interesting. I like how the spaceship crew essentially kidnaps the magicless character and the other character is essentially brought along for the ride. She kind of has to as she is framed for murder. They are on the hunt for a missing ship so it’s a treasure hunt. Good book overall. The library doesn’t have the sequel so oh well. 

-The City of Lost Fortunes by Bryan Camp started July 16, 2024 and finished July 20, 2023- 4/5 stars. This book also takes place in New Orleans post Katrina. It’s constantly being referenced as “The Storm” which is weird and repetitive. The main character is the son of a god but it’s never revealed who it is. All sorts of gods are talked about in this book. It seems like every god from every culture exists in this book which is kind of cool but it also makes the book feel unfocused at times. The main character can find things and has powers of his own which he loses for a bit when he is essentially forced into a card game with various gods and beings who are powerful. This book has various parts which is good. In some ways this book didn’t feel like the first book of a trilogy but rather the last book as so much shit happened in it. The book became infinitely more interesting when the main character died and was resurrected in a woman’s body. She is then referred to as she. It’s quite interesting. It was essentially a murder mystery until this happened. I think the other two books are at the library so I should check them out at some point. 

-The Stars Beyond edited by Charlotte Wells Llewelyn started July 20, 2024 and finished July 23, 2024- 3/5 stars. Anthology book with 6 stories about contact. I read that as first contact. I liked the first two stories a lot. The last story was pretty good too. There isn’t much to say. I like the Twilight Imperium universe. It’s quite interesting how a board game series was written into a book series. 

-Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky started July 23, 2024 and finished July 27, 2024- 5/5 stars. This book has some great world and character building. I don’t usually go for 600 page books but this was given to me to read and so I didn’t feel guilty for taking quite some time to read it. The chapters about the sentient spiders were quite interesting to read. I feel bad for the human main character, being woken up from sleep every so often to some utter bullshit. For the longest time this was a 4/5 stars for me but the ending really sold me. I like that instead of complete genocide of the human race and or the spiders, the spiders essentially infected the humans with a chemical and they all work together now. Can’t wait to read more of that in the sequel. 

-Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett started July 28, 2024 and finished July 31, 2024. - 4/5 stars. I needed something different after reading a longer science fiction book. I heard this book was good and I do want to read more about the fae. I like how research focused the main character is. She’s awesome. She doesn’t really read people all that well which is entertaining to read. Bit relatable. It’s quite interesting how her Cambridge coworker, Wendell Bambleby is a member of the fae and seems to care for her a lot. Based on his attitude towards everything you wouldn’t think so. There is moment in which he is saving her from fae and he chops off their heads, thinks its satisfying to do so and then rewinds time to do it again. It reminds me of something. I think something similar happened in a Stephen Blackmoore book? I’m still unsure but it’s such an intriguing moment. Didn’t think Bambleby would be capable of doing something so gruesome and powerful. Overall good book. I think I shall check out the sequel at some point. 

[assassin1513]

🌕💙⚜️💙Stars and the Moon💙⚜️💙🌕

[nerdicorntheshipper]

lyrics from Arcturus Beaming by the Crane Wives

[thelockedhour]

Don’t worry. She would only kill you if she genuinely thought it was the right thing to do…

[heybaetae]

so are we.

[aenslem]

Far Beyond The Stars (1998) STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE

[cursedtrekedits]

“Well Mr. Columbo—”

“Actually, it’s Lieutenant Columbo.”

“You’re Starfleet?”

“Star who now?”

(thanks for the caption @brookbee!)

[peanuttoffee]

if things on Geonosis played out a bit, well, differently

/watch me spin out of control and draw each character i appreciate in sw universe, which is far too many/

[itsallaboutthebirds86]

You are a witch who personifies the very idea of coldness and solitude. Your sister, who personified harmony and community and you secretly hated bc she talked too much, passes away and her successor is a young naive witch who somehow talks even more. Being a master of manipulation, you conspire with your other sisters to get rid of her. Said sisters are 1) an old lady who somehow insults everyone to their faces in a way that you can’t retaliate against and postpones the murder plot because she’s eepy, 2) a goth so committed to being a bitch twenty four seven that it affects her ability to effectively carry out said murder, and 3) a titty AND crotch-out hippie who is down for the murder but also sees it as her magical right to eat anyone who walks faster than a light jog. Every day Indri Witch of the Wind and Stars wakes up

[a-most-beloved-fool]

AOS Kirk, drunk: Hey Uhura... Spock takes good care of you, yeah? He treats you right?

Uhura, who isn't dating Spock anymore but does Not want to flirt with Jim Kirk: Yes. He does.

Kirk, wistfully: I'll bet he does. He seems like the type to really know how to treat a person. He's caring, y'know? You're lucky. Lucky. *he trails off into drunken mumbling*

Uhura, who is rapidly coming to a realization: ???

[artilite]

exploding dog of true love 🧨🌌

my part of an art trade with @drabdoodler!! HI!!!! check out their art here

creds. words: richard siken inspiration: riotbones (it's sooo genuinely gorgeous. please check it out!!!)

thoughts and sketch under the cut!

first page:

i imagine the setting is pre-game, camping outside somewhere for the night. mira/odile/bonnie probably took their only tent or something idk.. suspension of disbelief!!

when thinking about love in any capacity, isa looks to the stars!! take that as you will :)

i decided not to connect the dots of the canis major constellation as a nod to the fact that neither isa nor siffrin would recognize it. it's simply naturally there in the sky, apart from the dog-shaped sky for viewing purposes !

originally the red/blue color palette was a faint nod to t4t isafrin but evidently i deviated away from that a lot,, HELP

second page:

each 4 point star in the background was meant to be another version of them? something something.. in every universe trope !

siffrin's supposed to resemble a supernova somewhat???

originally i figured siffrin would take off their eyepatch to sleep. i vetod this because drawing two eyes is hard, okay? thanks for reading my scattered ramblings... isafrin makes the brain spin 'round <3

[abookishidentity]

Two books I have been given to read

The Stars Beyond edited by Charlotte Llewelyn-Wells - This is an anthology. It's part of the Twilight Imperium book series. It's six stories written by different authors. I have read this book and I really liked the first two stories.

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky - I don't usually go for book that are 600 pages. I find it a bit intimidating to be honest but at least it's not a book I checked out of the library. I am currently a little over half way. It has some impressive world building in it. The chapters about the sentient spiders are quite interesting. One should probably not read this if they have arachnophobia or any kind of phobia of bugs.

[assassin1513]

⭐️🖤💙⭐️Blue Royal Stars⭐️💙🖤⭐️

[hornyverymuch]

basically the same picture

[namchyoon]

day 73/547 until joon returns

[heybaetae]

stunning ♡