#a.k. larkwood

[randombookposts]

Nobody:

The Quincuriate or whatever they're called trying to get Shuthmili to join:

[torpublishinggroup]

Check out this ten-out-of-ten rundown two-out-of-ten (at best) wizards. Get your garbage on!

[theconqueeror]

has anyone read The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood?

i know the series is called the serpent gates but gjdjgjsf how many snakes are actually in the books?

[mybookhaven]

The Serpent Gates Duology - A.K. Larkwood

Fantasy - Sci-Fi - Queer rep

⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5)

I think i just figured out my favorite kind of romantic trope, and it says A LOT about me.

A.K. Larkwood's world building was so beautifully done in this Duology that I think I'm gonna be a little bit in love with it for the rest of my life. The combination of cultures, creatures, and worlds is probably my favorite thing about this story, and I consider myself to be a very harsh critic of world building. I loved the plot(s) I loved the characters, and I loved the language, so let's get into it.

Original Cover Art (respectively): Billelis / Katt Phatt

This duology follows 5 (6ish) main characters through land reclamation, seeking magic objects, fighting gods, becoming gods and much more. A LOT of things happen in the span of two books that keeps you hooked and on the edge of your seat wanting to know more.

Csorwe, an almost 14-year-old girl on the brink of sacrificing herself to her god, meets a mysterious wizard who convinces her to abandon everything she knows and follow him away from the people who want to gift her corpse to their god. From there everything falls into chaos. She meets Talasseres Charossa, her future chaotic sword gay brother (nonbiological), and they both start working for the mysterious wizard in hopes of gaining a drop of his favor (A LOT of father issues in that regard).

Sethennai, the wizard, is after an object that is rumored to contain the secrets of great magic, and in all honesty, I've never hated a character that much. he was brilliantly written to make you doubt your emotions towards him until finally you come to realize at the same time as Csorwe and Tal that he is the shittiest person to have ever existed (in any book you've ever read). I LOVED how A.K. Larkwood was capable of doing that, and then she went and did the exact opposite with Oranna, a librarian from the House of Silence, the cult that sacrifices children to The Unspoken Name (their god). My feelings on her progressed from complete hatred to what I call "me falling in love with every morally gray character that shows a bit of affection after committing unspeakable war crimes".

Finally, I just have one comment on the plot process. I think the series in general would've been even better if it was divided into more than two books. A LOT of things happened that were essentially skimmed over to a certain extent. A.K. Larkwood could have published at least 4 books with the events of these two if she went more into detail of some "in-between" events.

Regardless, I LOVED this duology, and I can't wait to read more of A.K. Larkwood's worlds.

P.S. I wanted there to be more exploration of the romance between Csorwe and Shuthmili. I loved every moment between them I just wished we saw a bit more.

P.P.S. My favorite trope is overpowering "bad-guy" royal Goddess impossibly in love with a troublemaker idiot that is the noblest person in existence.

[fozmeadows]

I wrote the above reply in a rush and thus, to my great shame and annoyance, left off several other books and authors that deserve a mention! Namely:

The Serpent Gates duology (The Unspoken Name and The Thousand Eyes) by A.K. Larkwood;

The Tarot Sequence (The Last Sun, The Hanged Man and The Hourglass Throne so far, with a projected six more books to come) by K.D. Edwards;

The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera;

Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo;

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez; and

The Radiant Emperor duology (She Who Became the Sun and He Who Drowned the World) by Shelley Parker-Chan.

hi! sorry if you've already answered this, but i absolutely adore your tithenai chronicles, and was wondering if you had any favorite queer books to recommend/suggestions for what a fan of your work should read next :) before inevitably restarting my strange and stubborn endurance audiobook again <3 thank you!

Ahh, thank you so much! Regarding book recommendations, two of my all-time favourites are The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (along with the spin-off novella trilogy, The Cemeteries of Amalo, which consists of The Witness for the Dead, The Grief of Stones and the forthcoming The Tomb of Dragons), and The Books of the Raksura series by Martha Wells (which consists of seven books total: a trilogy, two short story anthologies, and then a final duology). However, I'd also like to recommend some works by authors that are less well-known than Addison and Wells, so! In no particular order:

The Bone Universe trilogy (Updraft, Cloudbound and Horizon) by Fran Wilde;

The Broken Trust quadrilogy (Mazes of Power, Transgressions of Power, Inheritors of Power and a still forthcoming title) by Juliette Wade;

The Titan's Forest trilogy (Crossroads of Canopy, Echoes of Understorey and Tides of the Titans) by Thoraiya Dyer; and

The Ascendant trilogy (The Tiger's Daughter, The Phoenix Empress and The Warrior Moon) by K. Arsenault Rivera. Happy reading! :D

[haveyoureadthispoll]

What if you knew how and when you will die? Csorwe does. She will climb the mountain, enter the Shrine of the Unspoken, and gain the most honored title: sacrifice. On the day of her foretold death, however, a powerful mage offers her a new fate. Csorwe leaves her home, her destiny, and her god to become the wizard's loyal sword-hand -- stealing, spying, and killing to help him reclaim his seat of power in the homeland from which he was exiled. But Csorwe and the wizard will soon learn – gods remember, and if you live long enough, all debts come due.

[sapphicreadsdb]

Hi do you by chance have any sapphic fantasy recs? preferably adult fantasy but YA is fine too

sure! tho this could will get quite long... no links, sorry!, bc it was kicking up a fuss with those for some reason

+ = ya

pennyblade by j.l. worrad

lady hotspur by tessa gratton

sofi and the bone song by adrienne tooley (+)

she who became the sun by shelley parker chan

the scapegracers by h.a. clarke (+)

the third daughter by adrienne tooley (+)

the daughters of izdihar by hadeer elsbai

the malevolent seven by sebastien de castell

blackheart knights by laure eve

the warden by daniel m. ford

the unbroken by c.l. clark

dark earth by rebecca stott

witch king by martha wells

scorpica by g.r. macallister

the mirror empire by kameron hurley

now she is witch by kirsty logan

silverglass by j.f. rivkin

the woman who loved the moon and other stories by elizabeth a. lynn

...(this answer is how i discover there's a character limit per block so. doing this in chunks.)

fire logic by laurie j. marks

a restless truth by freya marske

when angels left the old country by sacha lamb (+)

the traitor baru cormorant by seth dickinson

an archive of brightness by kelsey socha

the bladed faith by david dalglish

the winged histories by sofia samatar

dragonoak by sam farren

the forever sea by joshua phillip johnson

into the broken lands by tanya huff

the jasmine throne by tasha suri

daughter of redwinter by ed mcdonald

the last magician by lisa maxwell (+)

the fire opal mechanism by fran wilde

...

the black coast by mike brooks

high times in the low parliament by kelly robson

foundryside by robert jackson bennett

the enterprise of death by jesse bullington

mamo by sas milledge (+)

from dust, a flame by rebecca podos (+)

uncommon charm by emily bergslien & kat weaver

wild and wicked things by francesca may

the unspoken name by a.k. larkwood

brother red by adrian selby

the final strife by saara el-arifi

way of the argosi by sebastien de castell (+)

the bone shard daughter by andrea stewart

ghost wood song by erica waters (+)

into the crooked place by alexandra christo (+)

ashes of the sun by django wexler

the midnight girls by alicia jasinska (+)

the midnight lie by marie rutkoski (+)

the never tilting world by rin chupeco (+)

water horse by melissa scott

...

a master of djinn by p. djeli clark

the good luck girls by charlotte nicole davis (+)

among thieves by m.j. kuhn

black water sister by zen cho

the velocity of revolution by marshall ryan maresca

sweet & bitter magic by adrienne tooley (+)

the dark tide by alicia jasinska (+)

the library of the unwritten by a.j. hackwith

a dark and hollow star by ashley shuttleworth (+)

the chosen and the beautiful by nghi vo

the councillor by e.j. beaton

these feathered flames by alexandra overy (+)

the factory witches of lowell by c.s. malerich

fireheart tiger by aliette de bodard

...

city of lies by sam hawke

bestiary by k-ming chang

the raven and the reindeer by t. kingfisher

the winter duke by claire eliza bartlett (+)

master of poisons by andrea hairston

the empress of salt and fortune by nghi vo

night flowers shirking from the light of the sun by li xing

down comes the night by allison saft (+)

wench by maxine kaplan (+)

girls made of snow and glass by melissa bashardoust (+)

girls of paper and fire by natasha ngan (+)

the impossible contract by k.a. doore

burning roses by s.l. huang

the house of shattered wings by aliette de bodard

not for use in navigation by iona datt sharma

weak heart by ban gilmartin

girl, serpent, thorn by melissa bashardoust (+)

the devil's blade by mark alder

...

we set the dark on fire by tehlor kay mejia (+)

the true queen by zen cho

moontangled by stephanie burgis

a portable shelter by kirsty logan

sing the four quarters by tanya huff

all the bad apples by moira fowley doyle (+)

the drowning eyes by emily foster

the priory of the orange tree by samantha shannon

miranda in milan by katharine duckett

the afterward by e.k. johnston (+)

thorn by anna burke

penhallow amid passing things by iona datt sharma

in the vanishers' palace by aliette de bodard

summer of salt by katrina leno (+)

the gracekeepers by kirsty logan

out of the blue by sophie cameron (+)

black wolves by kate elliott

the circle by sara b. elfgren & mats strandberg (+)

unspoken by sarah rees brennan (+)

thistlefoot by gennarose nethercott

passing strange by ellen klages

(and breathe)

[wetcatspellcaster]

hi there! i started reading emily wilde’s encyclopedia of faeries on your recommendation and i’m having the most delightful time!! i’m usually not the biggest fan of faerie books (been burned by acotar 🫠) but i’m about halfway through emily wilde and i’m obsessed! have you been reading anything else lately that you would recommend?

hello lovely! "I'm usually not the biggest fan of faerie books" - this is bc acotar is not a faerie book it's a bad paranormal shifter romance, SJM wouldn't know faerie lore or any of it's associated literary history if it showed her its dick!

anyway, here are some books that I would recommend if you like Emily Wilde.

Half a Soul and Ten Thousand Stiches by Olivia Atwater (these are faerie books with similar tone to Emily Wilde)

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black (this is a standalone novel of Holly Black's faerie books, I think this is the most like Emily Wilde as it's about a girl fascinated with the faerie world around her)

The Midnight Bargain by CL Polk (this one isn't about faeries but it is about rival magicians of different genders!)

The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope (this is a Tam Lin retelling, so there is some faeries, but the protagonist is also very Emily Wilde adjacent and I love her)

And some good books I've read lately! (mostly romance tbh)

Funny Story by Emily Henry

Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert

Roleplaying by Cathy Yardley

Bitterthorn by Kat Dunn

The Unspoken Name/The Thousand Eyes by A.K. Larkwood (duology)

I'm also currently reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and loving it (the OG in faerie/wizard academia crossover) but I would not in good conscience recommend this book as it's... about the same length as one of my fics lmfao.

[nellasbookplanet]

Book recs: great, unique and creative worldbuilding in fantasy books

A note: this is very much a subjective list. I typically do not care much for historical medieval-esque settings (though seeing as I'm a big critical role fan, obviously there are exceptions), but rather prefer settings that mix up historical and modern, fantastical and scientific, and make up entirely new things and societal structures not based on our world.

Other book rec posts:

Really cool sci-fi worldbuilding

Mermaid books

Dark sapphic romances

Vampire books

Without further ado, let’s go!

The Unspoken name by A.K. Larkwood

Honestly there's so much going on in this one worldbuilding-wise that it's kind of hard to explain. Portals, flying ships, orcs, elves, creepy snake gods, cults, immortal evil mages who traumatize teens as their hobby. It's also very queer!

A Master of Djinn by P. Djèli Clark

Set in an alternate 1910's steampunk Cairo, where djinn and other creatures (among other things, creepy steampunk angels) live alongside humans. We get to follow an investigator as she races to catch a criminal using a powerful object to control djinn and stir unrest. Fantastically creative and fresh, and also features a buddy cop dynamic between two female leads as well as a sapphic romance.

Sunshine by Robin McKinley

Urban fantasy on a level of its own, where dangerous magic exists alongside humans. It keeps you guessing and much is left unexplained; if you want clear answers and explanations to everything you might be disappointed, but if you want a world that feels mysterious and dangerous and lived in you'll probably like it. It follows a baker who, after getting kidnapped by vampires, gets embroiled in a dangerous struggle.

Radiant (Towers Trilogy) by Karina Sumner-Smith

A strange mix of fantasy, sci-fi and post apocalyptic, Radiant follows a girl without magic in a world where magic is currency. Those with much of it live in magically floating towers, while everyone else scrambles to survive in the ruins of an old city left devastated from an unknown cataclysm. The setting is creepy and mysterious and leaves me itching as I want to dig for more. Also there are ghosts.

Three Parts Dead (Craft Sequence) by Max Gladstone

This is one of those books where you just kind of have to let go and go along as it throws you all over the place. I started reading it expecting an urban fantasy, but it is much more and wholly unique. It features a world where gods and magic are deeply enmeshed with society at large, and a base of much of its technology and progress. It doesn't quite feel historical, but also not modern, but rather like you took a fantastical world and let it develop naturally into its own contemporary era.

Strange the Dreamer (Strange the Dreamer duology) by Laini Taylor

One of my favorite things is when the mysteries of the world and how it works become part of the plot, with characters trying to figure out their own world. Strange the Dreamer is beautiful and complex and will hurt your heart. Personally I didn't care much for the central romance, but the wonderful characters, themes, mysteries and world make up for it.

The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach

Like Three Parts Dead, The Dawnhounds is a book where you just kind of have to let the story and the world wash over you. It skirts the line of scifi and fantasy, with a futuristic world of environmentally friendly mushroom houses and deadly fungi bio weapons next to literally god-given superpowers and near-immortality. It's really cool and unlike anything else I've ever read. Bonus: it’s also sapphic!

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (Inheritance Trilogy) by N.K. Jemisin

Another example of a world that feels wholly like its own organically developed thing, with societal structures developed around the magical aspects and a presence of gods and demi-gods, many of whom walk the streets and will smite you if you piss them off.

Dead Witch Walking (The Hollows series) by Kim Harrison

Okay, here we have an actual urban fantasy. While I got a bit worn out by the many, many love interests throughout the series, the worldbuilding is simply phenomenal and relies heavily on a well-developed alternate history. Basically, magical beings such as vampires, werewolves, elves, fairies, witches, etc, used to exist secretly alongside us, but when humanity delved into genetic research instead of the space race during the cold war, an engineered virus ended up wiping a good chunk of us out and the magical beings stepped in to stop us from going extinct. Now in the modern day, we co-exist but tensions remain. Our main character is a witch who, alongside her roommates (a vampire and a fairy) solve mysteries and crime and end up unveiling secrets about their world centuries in the making.

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger

Another urban fantasy, this one aimed at young adults and featuring indigenous mythology alongside creatures such as vampires and ghosts. We follow a young apache girl with the ability to raise ghosts as she works to solve the murder of her cousin.

Red Sister (Book of the Ancestor trilogy) by Mark Lawrence

Honestly, most of what I've read by Mark Lawrence so far could be featured on this list (special shoutout to his Broken Empire trilogy!). We follow a young girl training to become an assassin in a slowly dying world, where ice is overtaking the land and only a small band along its middle is habitable, kept alive by a mirror in the sky sharpening the dying sun's light. Question is, how long will this machine last, and what even is it? Very dark but very good.

The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth trilogy) by N.K. Jemisin

Listen, N.K. Jemisin gets to have two books on this list, okay, she is very good at what she does. In a world regularly torn apart by natural disasters, a big one finally strikes and society as we know it falls, leaving people floundering to survive in a post apocalyptic world, its secrets and past to be slowly revealed. We get to follow a mother as she races through this world to find and save her missing daughter.

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

AKA the book the killed me. Two boys travel throughout their land with the body of a god as her horrible, horrible children try to hunt them down. It's hard to explain more than that, but trust me when I say the narrative voice and literary techniques are incredibly unique in how they blend past and present, reality and story, lead and bystander. Truly an experience. Bonus: gay romance!

Wild Seed by Octavia Butler

Master of slightly fucked up romance, Octavia Butler knocks it out of the park in this story featuring two immortals struggling throughout the centuries. What do you do when there is only one other person remotely like you, and you simultaneously can't stand them and can't live without them? Apparently, you turn yourself into a dolphin for a while.

Birth of the Fire Bringer by Meredith Ann Pierce

Cards on the table, it has been a great many years since I actually read this, and just as many years spent meaning to read the sequels (I have a lot of stuff on my tbr okay, don’t judge me), but I do remember it making a great impact on me back in the day. Our main character is a unicorn! Fighting wyverns and gryphons! How cool is that!

Bonus AKA I haven’t read these yet but they seem really cool

The Surviving Sky by Kritika H. Rao

From Goodreads: This Hindu philosophy-inspired debut science fantasy follows a husband and wife racing to save their living city—and their troubled marriage—high above a jungle world besieged by cataclysmic storms.

High above a jungle-planet float the last refuges of humanity—plant-made civilizations held together by tradition, technology, and arcane science. In these living cities, architects are revered above anyone else. If not for their ability to psychically manipulate the architecture, the cities would plunge into the devastating earthrage storms below.

Clean Sweep by Ilona Andrews

Urban fantasy but the vampires are aliens? Sign me the fuck up

The Gaslight Dogs by Karin Lowachee

From Goodreads: At the edge of the known world, an ancient nomadic tribe faces a new enemy-an Empire fueled by technology and war.

[lgbtqreads]

hi!! i know this has beeb asked before but not for a while and I thought there might be some releases since then, so : any Queer High Fantasy? I've been recommended Priory of the Orange Tree before. Thank you!!

Not sure when the last time was but here’s what’s currently on my radar! (You can also find these here, and an asterisk means it’s not out yet: https://lgbtqreads.com/sff/spec-fic-by-subgenre/) I bolded some of the ones that are newer or coming out in the next few months.

MG

*Splinter & Ash by Marieke Nijkamp – NB

Sir Callie by Esme Symes-Smith – NB

YA

Female Protags

The Winter Duke by Claire Eliza Bartlett

The Never Tilting World by Rin Chupeco – L

Queen of Coin and Whispers by Helen Corcoran

Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst – L,B

Inkmistress by Audrey Coulthurst – B

The Impostor Queen by Sarah Fine – B

Noble Falling and Noble Persuasion by Sara Gaines

Rule by Ellen Goodlett

Havenfall by Sara Holland

*Hearts Forged in Dragon Fire by Erica Hollis

The Afterward by EK Johnston

Empirium by Claire Legrand – B

Belle Révolte by Linsey Miller – BA

These Feathered Flames by Alexandra Overy

The Midnight Lie by Marie Rutkoski

It Ends in Fire by Andrew Shvarts

Beneath the Citadel by Destiny Soria – B, A

The Third Daughter and The Second Son by Adrienne Tooley

Shatter the Sky by Rebecca Kim Wells – B

The Thousand Names by Django Wexler

Male Protags

Cloaked in Shadow by Ben Alderson

The Runebinder Chronicles by Alex R. Kahler

Skybound by Alex London

So This is Ever After by F.T. Lukens

Beneath the Citadel by Destiny Soria

The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas – T

Non-Binary Protags

Spell Bound by FT Lukens

Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller – GF

*A Hundred Vicious Turns by Lee Paige O’Brien

Adult

Female Protags

A Broken Blade by Melissa Blair

Tales of Inthya by Effie Calvin

The Vanished Queen by Lisbeth Campbell

Rook & Rose by M.A. Carrick

The Night and its Moon by Piper CJ

The Unbroken by C.L. Clark

*Warmongers by C.L. Clark

The Gardener’s Hand by Felicia Davin

*The Water Outlaws by S.L. Huang

Dragonfall by L.R. Lam

The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

From Under the Mountain by C.M. Spivey

The Drowning Empire by Andrea Stewart (Amz)

The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri

Malice by Heather Walter

When Women Were Warriors series by Catherine M. Wilson

Male Protags

Kirith Kirin by Jim Grimsley

The Cadeleonian series by Ginn Hale

Tales From Verania by T.J. Klune

A Chorus of Dragons by Jenn Lyons

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

*Dark Moon, Shallow Sea by David R. Slayton

Stagsblood Trilogy by Gideon E. Wood

Genderqueer Protags

*The Water Outlaws by S.L. Huang

[tisiphonewolfe]

Writeblr Intro

Heyo!

I'm Tisiphone - or Tiss, or Tizzy, I don't mind (she/her). I mainly write SFF, but I intend to try my hand at horror and potentially espionage thrillers in the future. I also can't seem to write anything without women being very gay in the middle of it all, so I'm leaning into it.

I follow from @princessw0lf

About me:

I'm a disabled trans lesbian from the UK

What I like seeing in books? Mysteries woven through the plot that resolve satisfyingly. Characters that bounce off each other and grate against each other in interesting ways. Weird romances that don't dominate the plot, but are a key part of it. Great character development.

Favourite books? The Locked Tomb Series by Tamsyn Muir, The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood, Malice by Heather Walter, The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon. And a lot of Terry Pratchett.

Fiction I probably won't enjoy? Something where the plot is purely interpersonal drama or romance with nothing interesting happening outside of it. Literary fiction. YA.

Outside of writing? By day I'm a software developer. The rest of my time is spent drawing, playing games both video and tabletop, and playing electric guitar (badly).

DMs/Asks/Tag games? Fire away!

@sam-glade is my pal and you should go check them out too!

With this blog I'm aiming to post writing updates, inspiration, and probably writing-related memes.

About my writing:

At the moment I'm primarily writing high fantasy/epic fantasy, with a view to trying out some more genres later on.

Admittedly a lot of the classic elements of western fantasy are in there, but I've been trying to get back to the mythological roots of creatures like elves, gnomes, and dwarves, and to present them as not being all white and vaguely British.

The world of The Tectomancy Saga is also, like that of my childhood writing hero Sir Terry, an odd shape. There's a reason for that, and we'll get to it eventually.

While my stories are currently third-person multi-pov stories, I intend to experiment on that at some point in the future.

My stories will probably all revolve around two things; a central mystery and a central relationship. I love a plot where you can pick at the smallest words and phrases, theorise about absolutely everything. I want to write stories where people have a thousand ideas about what the truth is, and each one of them knows there's a good chance they could be correct. I also, as a queer trans lady, want to write about sapphic relationships and include many people who are not cis.

My favourite themes to write are anti-authority, people breaking out of systems they've been trapped in for a long time, people being more important than power.

I'm definitely a plantser. I know kind of where I'm going, but let's see where the journey takes us along the way!

Finally, you can expect the tone of my writing to be trying to find that sweet spot between serious and dry humour that makes you groan, with a healthy sprinkling of subtle meme references.

Current projects below the cut

The Tectomancy Saga

On a bowl-shaped world suspended far above swirling blue mists, nine goddesses, witches, or geniuses, blessed their peoples with divine magics, then disappeared. Now, the world is decaying, tensions are rising, and people scramble to control the magics in order to shape the future.

Made with Crown and Claw

WIP Intro

High Fantasy: The classic Princess-in-a-tower-guarded-by-a-dragon story, but we see the machiantions that put her there, and what happens afterwards.

Releine Sholt is hand-picked by the heir to Tectomancy, Princess Almyra Tectus, to be her new bodyguard. The role has one ominous stipulation: nobody can ever speak to the Princess, on the threat of dire punishment.

'There was only one bed' turns out to have horrifying consequences.

Progress: Fourth draft done at 129.5k

Bound by Stone and Blood

High Fantasy: The saga continues from different perspectives, having different adventures, that will eventually conjoin.

Almyra vies for control of her kingdom. Ellimane tracks down two misfits who are being hunted by a rogue automaton. Releine visits hell. A new threat rises in the shadows of Versewelt, the decaying land.

Bitter exes who technically never dated are definitely not thinking about each other.

Progress: First draft underway at 69k

Snippets and Short Stories:

Flash Fiction Friday: On the Edge

Flash Fiction Friday: I Can't Tell

Her New Captain (Alternate Chapter)

Other

Naenia, through Murder

WIP Intro

Naenia, the reaper who is responsible for death through murder, is shellshocked when a murdered homicide detective returns to life before her eyes and promptly asks her out on a date.

Detective Carina Choudhry has an odd - very Goth - new girlfriend, who saved her from the serial killer she was on the trail of.

Progress: Complete at 46k

Fay and the Red Kite (Title pending)

Fay Orrel, a trainee mech pilot, finds that her beaten-up old training machine holds an AI that has replicated its deceased former pilot. She tries to keep the other woman secret from the PMC that owns the mech, who would be certain to wipe the AI's memories, destroying Mina forever.

Progress: Well, I wrote the prologue and some of the first chapter. Being dabbled with!

[booksandchainmail]

What books other than Nona did you nominate for the Hugos?

Babel, by R.F. Kuang

Last Exit, by Max Gladstone

Wrath Goddess Sing, by Maya Deane

Saint Death's Daughter, by C.S.E Cooney

Things I didn't nominate but almost did:

Siren Queen, by Nghi Vo

The Thousand Eyes, by A.K. Larkwood

The Oleander Sword, by Tasha Suri

[puffywiz]

A.K. Larkwood: zaps Tal with the dilf ray

[sapphicbookclub]

The Serpent Gates duology by A.K. Larkwood

(The Unspoken Name, The Thousand Eyes)

What if you knew how and when you will die?

Csorwe does. She will climb the mountain, enter the Shrine of the Unspoken, and gain the most honored title: sacrifice. On the day of her foretold death, however, a powerful mage offers her a new fate.

Csorwe leaves her home, her destiny, and her god to become the wizard's loyal sword-hand -- stealing, spying, and killing to help him reclaim his seat of power in the homeland from which he was exiled. But Csorwe and the wizard will soon learn – gods remember, and if you live long enough, all debts come due.

Genres: fantasy, romance

Get the books from The Book Depository here! (1, 2)

[piratekane]

april reading wrap-up

another month, another reading wrap-up. i said in my last one that april would be stronger and for once, i was right. i'm basically a genius now. anyway, i read books. i'm going to tell you about them.

some facts: - i read 13 books this month - i've branched out in the reading world and got to read a couple of ARCs for upcoming books - i went to four independent bookstores this month - i bought 2485309 books in 30 days - i did 3 buddy reads

anyway, here's the top books:

a) Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang - if you haven't read this book, you need to read this book. it's my favorite of the month. a magic system based on computation that sounds hella cool, a morally gray main character with the kind of growth you love to see, complex comments on the morality of right versus wrong and what those things really mean--this book was so well-written, the characters were fantastic, and i had to slow myself down reading it so i didn't get too far ahead of my reading buddy 5/5

b) The Mime Order by Samantha Shannon - full disclosure, i started this book in December and just finished it a few days ago. idk why i was stuck--maybe because i read The Bone Season in a day and dove right into TMO and just burnt out? either way, i decided April is when i would finish it and daaaamn, am i glad i did. someone told me that Shannon really blows things up at the end of book 2 and, well, she did. i put the book down. i stared at the wall. i asked, out loud, did that really just happen? totally worth the wait. 4.5/5

c) The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood - i went into this book blind and came out the other side with a tab open on my computer saying "thank you for your purchase" [of the sequel]. this book could have probably been two, because there were two distinct arcs, but also they wove together so well, i didn't mind. sacrifice-turned-sword-hand meets girl-destined-to-be-sacrifice and they decide to just fuck things up. we love to see it. 4/5

ARCs i read: - The Worst Perfect Moment by Shivaun Plozzo, a YA sapphic contemporary story about a girl who wakes up as a ghost and has to figure out why she's reliving what she believes to be the worst weekend of her life--but what the angel assigned to her is positive is her best. i thought this was cute and def had YA vibes, but a good story overall. out May 14, 2024 - Director's Cut by Carlyn Greenwald, an adult sapphic contemporary romance about a woman who is looking to get out of Hollywood and into teaching and maybe into her co-teacher's, uh, bed (felt weird just typing that), while figuring out what she really wants from life. this suffered a few tropes that i am not a huge fan of and wasn't the book for me, but could be the book for you! out June 11, 2024

queer rating: 10 out of 13 books this month. thank you, lesbian visibility week!