#and I want to read the ancillary books again

[baejax-the-great]

Top five books this year? :3

I'm going to group series/authors together or else the list would be like 4 books by the same person.

Ancillary Justice series by Ann Leckie + Translation Slate. These books were really such a fun and satisfying read. I've read a few series recently that didn't/couldn't stick the landing, but I thought this one wrapped up really nicely.

First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung. I'd been meaning to read this memoir for over ten years now (since I visited Cambodia), and I finally bought it for myself. The author was a young child when the events of this book happened, so it's a fairly easy read with the kind of descriptions you would expect from a child. It is a heart-wrenching story, and I spent a weekend just reading and crying.

Fitz and the Fool trilogy by Robin Hobb. I think everyone on tumblr has seen my reaction to these books 😭😭💕💕. This trilogy fucked me UP oh my god. Hobb is a freak, I'll never get over it, everyone should read these books, especially if you want to watch one character suffer constantly always for ever and ever and to think "I have no idea what the FUCK these two characters have going on but I'm obsessed with it."

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. This was my first finished book of the year! It's not perfect, but I really enjoyed the fairytale of it all and the mix of characters introduced. Publishing has such a hardon for series these days, and I appreciate a self-contained stand alone story.

Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference by Cordelia Fine. Another book I've been meaning to read for ten years and finally got around to. For a science book, it's very accessible to laypeople, and it addressed a lot of things that irritated me with my own education in neuroscience (imaging studies are stupid, and that one study where they gave monkeys various toys and the female monkeys liked playing with pots and pans showing that kitchen supplies are inherently and naturally feminine...???? Monkeys don't cook.... they don't know what they were for... what the fuck WAS that study and how did a professor tell it to me with a straight face...). It is over ten years old now so somewhat outdated, and I saw criticisms that there are some very similar studies done with regards to race that she doesn't cover, but I kind of think there is value in a researcher staying in one lane. I don't know, I flip flop back and forth on this, but the take downs of the shoddy studies remains valid and it was a satisfying read.

[crossgartered]

LMAO WE KNOW, BREQ

[phagodyke]

IN OTHER NEWS I FINISHED TRANSLATION STATE LAST NIGHT the ending had me sobbing not bc it's sad at all but WAAAAA

[jq37]

FH Junior Year Post-Season Thoughts

With another season of Fantasy High in the books and my recaps all finished, I wanted to do an overview of my thoughts on the season as a whole. Even though I feel generally positive about my experience with the season, there are a few things I think maybe could have been done differently narratively or mechanically. This isn't to criticize the way the season went down or to backseat DM/Play. More my combined ten years of college for textual analysis and storytelling bleeding through, haha. 

I first want to start with the things I thought worked really well.

Fantasy High has "High" right in its title but, in past seasons (and especially Sophomore Year), not as much time as you'd think was spent actually at school and even if it was spent at school, there wasn't much time spent in class or engaging with the realities of being a student. This season really dug into the academic consequences of skipping your classes all the time and the realities of needing to do a ton of extra stuff to try for a scholarship and I think that was a refreshing thing to highlight for a change. Being more scared at flunking out than the dragon that's trying to eat you feels very emotionally resonant. Real "High School Is Killing Me" vibes for anyone who's a fan of NPMD. 

Even though Fantasy High is a show that has some deep emotional beats and strong character arcs, it's first and foremost a comedy show. From the jump, everyone was generating bit after bit that had me cracking up as usual. "Little girly dog collar" is one of the funniest combinations of words I can think of. I think it was Siobhan who said that this was the goofy season and, having seen it, I'd have to agree with her. It never failed to make me laugh and it was always a highlight of my week.  The cast just has great table chemistry that I love to watch no matter what they're doing. 

Watching some of these high level combat encounters is as close as I'll get to understanding people watching sports. Even though combat is generally my least fave part of D&D, I think the cast really killed it this season with how cleverly they played and Brennan came up with some really great combat encounters. Special shout outs to Baron's Game and The Last Stand for their unique mechanics.  

This is going to be one that's on the other list as well because my feelings are mixed, but I genuinely do like the downtime mechanic and how it forces hard choices. I think it's an interesting way to connect a mechanic to the story and cultivate stressful atmosphere for the season.

I have problems with the execution but I love the Rat Grinders in concept. I think as early as season 1 I was hoping that we'd meet a party that was like the Bizarro Bad Kids and the idea of a party that's farming XP instead of going on crazy adventures is a strong concept. Likewise, I think a character that's jealous because of your "cool" (read: tragic) backstory is also a fun trait for an unhinged antagonist in this kind of setting.

This is me absolutely showing my bias but I adored the Abernant Sisters content this season. I dunno if Siobhan specifically asked Brennan to not put her on a bus with the other beloved NPCs or what but I'm so glad she stuck around and we got the development we did. It was almost entirely ancillary to the plot but there was this clear pattern of Aelwyn getting softer and sweeter towards Adaine over the course of the season, from the guarded, "Enjoy the nemesis ward," to, full I love you's and, "I'd take them to get you." It was way more focus than I expected considering that Aelwyn completed the bulk of her arc last season and a lot of the time, a redemption arc basically ends after the big gesture (in this case, Aelwyn taking a magic blast for Adaine in Sophomore Year). So the fact that we got to see all of these sweet moments of them reestablishing their relationship outside of do or die moments was such a pleasant surprise. Again, I fully admit I am extremely biased, but this was my top wishlist item and the season overdelivered so there's a baseline happy I'm always gonna be with Junior Year. 

OK, so moving on to things I things I think could have been tweaked.

Even though I liked the downtime system and the pressures it created, it also squeezed out the chance for more casual PC to NPC interactions that would usually be more common because they were semi-locked behind the relationship track and there wasn't an obvious benefit to roll for Relationships (as opposed to something like Academics which was crucial for not flunking out). Making the mechanical benefit more clear would have helped that (even if it meant Brennan didn't get his reveal--which he ended up just telling them anyway so might as well do it early). The other thing is that the consequence of a rage token was so bad that of course they spent all season avoiding getting one. Things might have gone differently if the consequences had been a bit more obscured, like in Neverafter. And it could have been a nice parallel to the Rat Grinders to take this unknown resource that makes things easier for you but is also having this negative effect. Then it could be like dang we did the same thing they did unknowingly. 

I mentioned this in my recap but I'll talk about it again. It is a little confusing to me that we did the Ankarna subplot right after we did the very similar Cassandra subplot. It took up so much time this season which I don't think is an issue in and of itself, it's just that we literally just went through some extremely similar beats last season. Why double up on this same storyline when there's so much new ground to cover? Or if we're going to raise a god, why not make it a different kind of god? One theory I had early on was that the Rat Grinders were trying to raise their own god to one-up the Bad Kids but instead of raising a chill, misunderstood Cass type, they accidentally raised a god who was erased for a good reason and got in over their heads. 

It's fun for there to be connections between seasons but sometimes it's like, OK that's a *lot* of coincidences. Like the god who your rivals is trying to raise *happens* to be the wife of your cleric's god and also *happens* to be the god of the fiend trapped in your friend's mom's chest and that fiend *happens* to be the relative on your bard's dad's side which is *also* the reason she is randomly cursed? That's a LOT of red string connecting plot points. As unhinged as Kipperlilly is about coveting Riz's backstory if I saw that go down I'd be like you have *got* to be kidding me.  

The mystery elements didn't feel like they clicked as well as they did in other seasons. I think that's partially because Porter's plan was so convoluted (seriously, I made another post about how haphazard his plan was) and had all these moving parts and we didn't get clear answers for a lot of mechanical things like how the rage crystals actually work and when they were implanted and stuff. You had stuff like Devil's Honey which I think is super cool as a thing that exists in the world but ended up being an element that just led the players down the wrong path and had a relatively small payoff (that Porter was using it to lie to Ankarna). I think it's plausible that a forgotten god would be willing to listen to anyone saying the right things without introducing this element. (As opposed to, for instance, Ambrosia which has a very clear connection to what's going on and is a solid clue that someone is flirting with aspirations of godhood.) 

The Porter reveal came so late in the season that even though it was a fun/challenging fight, there wasn't a lot of emotional weight behind killing him. It was basically just dunking on a teacher Fig has always hated who was also mean to Gorgug so screw him. Which, valid of course. But the Bad Kids were never going to react as strongly to Porter as they were to the Rat Grinders so putting Porter in the prime villain spot isn't necessarily what I would have done if I wanted the fight to be more than just a brawl--especially since we've done "School admin with student minions" already in S1. I don't mind the full circle callback but it would have been nice to pick something else for the sake of variety. We haven't had a child mastermind yet and I think Kipperlilly could have been a great candidate for that. My friend suggested that it would have been fun if Kipperlilly was trying to become a god instead of just being Porter's underling and I agree. "I'm not anyone's chosen one so I'll choose myself," is still within her established jealousy and Type A tendencies. If we want to keep Porter involved since that was Brennan's gift to Emily, maybe have it be that instead of Kipperlilly working for him, he's working for her. Like Artemis Fowl vibes! And the Rat Grinders can be varying levels of on board--from true believe to redeemable. I don't think Brennan planned for the Bad Kids to ever redeem her so might as well go full megalomaniacal mastermind with her and make her The Villain if she's not gonna be nuanced anyway. If My Little Pony can do it and send a literal child to Tartarus for pony treason (or whatever Cozy Glow did), Fantasy High can too. 

Continuing from the above, if we have the Porter fight in place of the Grix fight (a la Daybreak) and don't use Ankarna, that gives way more time for the Bad Kids to investigate the Rat Grinders throughout the season and it would mean that they would have their personalities developed a lot more. With the limited downtime, they Bad Kids didn't have a lot of time to spend on these kids who were just hating on them for no good reason (valid). But if you cleared their plate of the god hunt stuff, they'd have more time for this. And if they weren't all rage zombies to varying degrees, it would be easier to see them as characters. Besides Kipperlilly (and, funnily enough, Mary Ann) we don't really have a good read on what these kids are actually like. The little time we spent with them all season was kind of a wash if them breaking out of rage means their personalities got laundered too. Anyway, regardless of how their loyalties ended up shaking out, it would have been fun for them to be more than the minions that they were in canon. As funny as it is for them to just kinda be XP farming losers, they did have the potential to be more interesting in their own right if they weren't just Porter's minions. And again, we've done adults forcing or coercing children into being minions in Freshman and Sophomore Year already. Lemme see some self-created child maniacs! (Or, peer pressured child maniacs. That's cool too. The Lucy/Kipperlilly dynamic is way more interesting to me if it's like girl, I would take a bullet for you but I CANNOT walk this path with you any further in response to *I* will be a god and you can be *MY* champion.)

Anyway, those are my thoughts! Like I said, I have my points that I think could have been tightened, but overall an enjoyable season and I will be glued to my screen if they decide to close out with Senior Year! 

[cantsomeoneelsedoit]

Undead Unluck Theory

So I've been reading Undead Unluck since the beginning, but I haven't actually ever joined the fandom, (i.e., the contents of this blog may be Old News to everyone and/or everyone hates it and I just didn't realize...) but I was showing the anime to a friend and trying to explain my UU theory, so I googled and couldn't find anyone who had laid out something like this. If it already exists, apologies, but this is my version of what UU is all about.

Undead Unluck is a story about writing.

Spoilery things ahead!

The most important thing to know about Undead Unluck is that it's a story-within-a-story. An embedded narrative. Our characters are stock archetypes who are barely on the cusp of learning that they are in a story.

The main story outline stays the same as the author goes through various iterations and edits (aka Loops), testing out new ideas and often scrapping them. Characters evolve into different versions of themselves as the author edits. Our settings are varied as if the author were trying to fit all kinds of different genres into one story. AND THEY ARE!

Suggested listening, btw:

The Author, AKA God, adds variables to the story in the form of rules.

For example, a children's book about a goldfish has no need to mention that there is an entire galaxy of stars in the sky. The goldfish doesn't need to know. The readers don't care. It's irrelevant. That rule can be omitted from a story.

When the author changes the story, for instance, to make the story about a goldfish who goes into outer space, suddenly they need to add the concept of a galaxy, along with all the ancillary ideas (i.e., UFOs).

With their pencil eraser or backspace button, the author changes the reality for ALL of the characters in the work, so that the existence of outer space becomes a Known Thing in-universe. No biggie. It's always been that way, as far as they know. The instant the author changes something, it's done.

This Hand of God kind of author appears in other ways, like the way the Union members arrive via a crack in the sky. They literally fall from the sky like characters in the Barbie movie.

The crack in the sky is a wall-break, but it's not the fourth wall that's broken. It's the wall between the author and the characters!

Remember that cartoon where Daffy Duck argues with the animator's hand? Characters are just playthings for the author. They can be dressed up or imperiled just because.

When you begin to read UU from this perspective, some characters seem more sentient than others.

The characters are tired of being screwed over. They're tired of suffering. They're tired of being tested for no reason. Can't God just give them an easy life? Do all characters hate their authors this much?

Ragnarok is when the author effectively overturns the dollhouse and starts a new story with the same characters, settings, and themes, but adding the kind of slight variations that an author's idle mind might create. The basic "frame" of the dollhouse remains, but we can try out new scenarios like:

"What if X met Y in another time or place?"

"How would X be different if they'd grown up in a harsher or easier environment?"

"What if X was a villain?"

And so the author begins again, pitting their characters in new situations to observe and see how they react. Authors love that shit. Just look at all the ask blogs on tumblr!

Authors enjoy looking at their characters from new perspectives. Even the bad ones! Many times, an author has had a character (say...Victor) in their imagination for a long time, but the character evolves into a slightly different version of themselves (Andy). It's natural to want to keep both versions of this character. And since this is the author's dollhouse, they can do whatever they want, even if this confuses and disturbs Andy/Victor.

Victor and Juiz are, I think, God's starter OCs. Their story is one of seriousness, mystery, and a romance with unresolved tension. They want to be together; we want them to be together; but the author won't let them be happy because keeping that tension burning is what makes the story good. Of course they had a falling out! Of course they're eternally separated in a tragic and beautiful way. After all, they were the main characters for a long time.

You're probably saying, "This theory can't work because we've SEEN God! We've seen Luna!" My idea is that Luna and God are two aspects of the author.

God (Sun) as the author as a writer: Makes brutal changes, can delete everything, loves to start over and test the characters in different environments, never satisfied with the ending.

God wants to make things HARDER for the characters because they are trying to write an interesting shonen story.

God (Luna) as the author as a reader: Authors also like to sit back and read their own works. Sometimes they have a nice cup of tea with them. The tea signifies that Luna is acting as a reader.

Luna, as a reader, has gotten attached to the characters. They want them to succeed. They are trying to make things EASIER for the characters bc they're emotionally invested in the story. Luna also keeps the memories of past rough drafts in the form of artifacts that can be used to bring back discarded story elements.

I don't think either Sun nor Luna truly understand that our characters are capable of suffering, btw.

Luna and God are in a competition with themselves, just like the internal struggle of an author as they want to:

Create an interesting story that will be a success. To get the story "right" and fully explore all the possibilities

but also

2. Just have fun with the characters and help them reach the end of the story.

Killing God means finding a final end to the story so that the characters can have a stable existence. The characters can achieve this by resisting the author's attempts to rewrite.

So, that's the gist of my insanity. I have a bit more in the drafts if anyone is interested in hearing more. I would enjoy doing a read-through blog someday, but I thought I might test the waters with my theory first.

[dxitydoo]

Picked up Translation State from the library, having never read any of the Imperial Radch series before (I realised pretty quickly there were bits I was missing but I read enough series in my youth second book first to make do and I do now have Ancillary Justice on order from the library).

Anyways I have many feelings about the three of them (especially Qven and Reet ngl).

I hope there’s another book where we get to see them again at some point coz I don’t think this book is gonna be leaving my brain any time soon.

The discussions of gender??? And how it pertains (or doesn’t, as the case may be) to other species in the universe and how ppl are dealing with that (or not, as the case may be)?? Chefs kiss. I want more sci fi to explore this kinda stuff.

Anyways I’m greatly looking forward to being able to pick up book 1 from the library as and when it comes in.

[alackofghosts]

a little while ago @crackinthecup tagged me in this bookish meme, which i have been saving for a rainy day - apparently a very literally rainy day in this case. thank you friend, i do so enjoy rambling about books <3 also tagging @hong-ara, @gloriousmonsters, @fatalism-and-villainy if you guys fancy having a go at it (and anyone else who wants to, i love reading others' opinions on books too)

An estimate of how many physical books I own: um. at least 2000. mom did some inventory once all the way back in 2006, and this was the point at which she got bored of it. i have always lived in a library and even though that many books has certainly been a nuisance, i also find it difficult to imagine a living space without them

Favorite author: honestly a weirdly difficult question. i feel like while i do read a lot for the style of prose, i don't very often go on a frenzy to read everything by the same author. but of course you all know my deep and abiding love for richard brautigan and lately i've been so obsessed with mary oliver. ...picking poets for this is easier :')

continued under the cut

A popular book I’ve never read and never intend to read: it feels funny to say this because i have literally not even once encountered talk of this author on tumblr Organically - which tends to be my benchmark for popularity - but seeing as she's all over every other bookish corner of the internet: i have absolutely no desire whatsoever to read anything by colleen hoover

A popular book I thought was just meh: WHERE DO I BEGIN... i've talked about some of these before but a new(er) addition to this list is in the dream house by carmen maria machado which ONCE AGAIN i feel so bad for not being wildly into! i think it's mostly due to the fact that internet at large painted such an interesting picture of it in terms of viewing ones own life/instance of abuse through the lens of different genres/tropes, but actually reading it, each segment was so short and the stylistic exploration didn't really come through. like it wasn't a bad book by any means and certainly covered an important topic and one that people generally shy away from, just. not at all what i expected it to be.

i tend to pick books based on genre and maybe like top few lines of the summary so i can't conjure up expectations, and obviously with popular books that's somewhat unavoidable :')

Longest book I own: extremely boring answer but my dad's bought a bunch of those 1001 books/movies you need to see before you die compilation books over the years and those all hover around the 1000 page mark

Longest series I own all the books to: if we mean series in terms of consistent cast/story, then i think it's the saga of darren shan by... darren shan, which has 12 books that i absolutely devoured when i was 13. otherwise, while i don't own every single goosebumps book (by rl stine), i do have most of them. i was very obsessed when i was 11-12 - these were actually the first books i ever read in english!

Prettiest book I own: um. honestly no clue, my family has never been one to buy books for the covers or for the special edition-ness and even now i feel like i can't picture any of them in my mind lol

A book or series I wish more people knew about: green bone saga by fonda lee!!! ...though again this might be down to the metric i use to gauge popularity, but even so! it has such wonderful worldbuilding and intricate family dynamics and even though i have big big book fear, i practically devoured them

Book I’m reading now: the silence of the white city by eva garcia saenze de urturi. it's pretty good so far! i've had such a year of thrillers and mysteries, i feel

Book that’s been on my TBR list for a while but I still haven’t got around to it: ...ancillary justice by ann leckie. i've started it a couple of times, but the Stars Were Not Aligned on those days. so i wait.

Do you have any books in a language other than English: most of the books i have are in estonian, actually. there's a pretty decent amount in english (mostly due to me...), and a small handful in swedish and finnish.

And lastly, paperback, hardcover or ebook? eboooook. often when i read an ebook i find myself daydreaming of a physical book, but then when i actually read one i find myself getting so irritated by not being able to find a comfy position lol. i also really love audiobooks, for the multitasking value...

[shakespeareaddict]

Summer Reading/Writing/Arting

Thanks so much to @retro-hussy for the tag!

Rules: Follow the directions in bold.

Anyone can join! I’m tagging @alexx-dax, @madelgard (again) and @myurlismisleadingbutsoami, if y’all want to join.

Describe one creative WIP project you’re planning to work on over the summer.

@neumh‘s Imperials server is doing an AU August challenge that I’m really getting into. After that, I’m hoping to finish the next chapter of the soulmate Thrawn/Piett fic and maybe get started on Imptober...

Recommend a book.

I’ll recommend two - well, two series. First is the entire Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells, starting with All Systems Red. Second, the Imperial Radch trilogy (and its sequels) by Ann Leckie, starting with Ancillary Justice. These are great sci-fi on the harder end, slightly dark at points. In particular I love Murderbot’s subversion/reinterpretation of sci-fi horror tropes.

Recommend a fic.

Uhhhhhhh.....I’m gonna go with Snowed Under by @madelgard (frankly everything by her is fantastic but this was such a GIFT). Mads is a brilliant SW writer and her smut is incredibly hot. Also her Espoused series.

Recommend music.

I actually am a big fan of making my own playlists, but one of my perennial favorites is Sea Shanties You Could Theoretically Fuck. Which is not one I wrote at all.

[protoformx]

“Nine People you want to know better” tag game

I was tagged by @gryptids! yippie! ty I love tag game!!!

Last Song: oh jesus uh, I'm listening to putrid mutant by passenger of shit. if you follow that link and don't know passenger of shit just know that it's LOUD

Favorite Color: chartreuse 4 ever it's just always been such a nice color to me. runner ups are bright pinks and purples.

Last Movie/TV Show: I don't consume much media in general! (one of my irl friends told me I 'lived like a tarantula' when I told him this and it's been amusing me since I heard that so m noting that here.) UH I watched phantom of the paradise again recently though. that's such a fun movie and I'll never be over my mom remembering watching it in theaters when I vaguely described it to her. (she just went 'OH you're watching That One? REally??')

Sweet/Spicy/Savory: SWEET and runner up savory. I like everything sweet kjdsnfjkdsndskjfns i also like spice in like medium amounts but even there I really like stuff that's sweet and spicy!

Relationship status: I love my partner it's niceys to me and likes me and wears cool overshirt.

Last thing I googled: 'plex media server'

Current Obsession: UH I'm really hunting down the second book of the imperial radch trilogy cause I was obsessing over the first one after reading it. I've also been dabbling in opening the game tower unite and playing one of the coin games in the arcade on there for like an hour or two at a time.

Last Book: I'm currently re-reading the murderbot diaries since juice and one of my irl friends just got into them! last new book was ancillary justice however! LOL

Looking forwards to: Going to a Glass Beach concert in April, god willing, with some irl friends! I'm also looking forward to valentines day just cause I !!! just really like valentines day dksjngjksgnkjgn

Tagginggggg these guys: @goraturtle @dpthcharge @robofile @roboticbuild @panicbones @thefoulbeast @occultisthorror @miss-shitstorm @wa-u YIPPIE!!! 9!! Y'all don't gotta do this at all! and as usual, anyone who wants to do this but isn't tagged or is just passing by can always just fill this out and say I tagged em!

[hamstringy]

Books of 2023

this is mostly for me to yell at my lawn about books i want more people to read. my faves are highlighted in purple and have a star (☆) next to them. if anyone wants to suggest books at me........ <3

i did not think i was going to make my goal of 26 books, but then i got put on desk duty at work and discovered audiobooks!

The Traitor Baru Comorant - Seth Dickinson gah!!! Builds methodically and slowly but crumbles apart and hits you on the dick over and over. Cannot believe a guy named Seth Dickinson wrote this (affectionate).

The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison Classic feel-good whump, but don't think too hard about the politics. I would have been obsessed with this as a kid.

☆ Babel - R.F. Kuang ☆ A capital-T Tragedy that made me physically cry! RF Kuang is incredible at writing about colonialism and situations that go horribly wrong.

A Lady for a Duke - Alexis Hall Generally cathartic romance about a trans woman who fakes her death at Waterloo to live as a woman and falls in love with her childhood best friend. I think I am not entirely a romance girlie but definitely a solid book.

Sorrowland - Rivers Solomon Oh baby let's get weird and talk about politics! Contains a mycelium-fueled gay ghost orgy and some very good body horror.

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy - Becky Chambers The Monk and Robot duology keeps hitting me over the head with ruminations on all the coming-of-age questions but it offers me tea and a listening ear so I quite love it.

The Stars and the Blackness Between Them - Junauda Petrus I think the prose is well written, but I was definitely left wanting more regarding the magical realism.

Feed Them Silence - Lee Mandelo Again with the slacking on the magical realism. Frighteningly contemporary crumbling relationship and not nearly enough weird bullshit for me.

The Future of Another Timeline - Annalee Newitz I hated this book so much. I really think you could pass it off as the product of a corporate man, that's how shallow it is. It has mega commitment issues with the themes it tries to tackle. Also, if you're going to write a time traveling book you NEED to do at least cursory research???? Women in the 1890s did not wear bras????

No One is Talking About This - Patricia Lockwood A fun and brutal investigation of being chronically online and dealing with personal tragedies. Bonus points for being written by Miette the cat's owner.

☆ Greenwood - Michael Cristie ☆ Incredible multi-generational epic. Cristie knows the story he wants to tell and he executes it near-flawlessly. I didn't love the ending but the rest of the book makes up for it.

Rabid - Monica Murphy, Bill Wasik Definitely an interesting look a the cultural side of rabies, but I wish they had maybe not gone with such a wide array of subjects.

The Lucky Red - Claudia Cravens A queer (minor homophobia) Western in the spirit of all the good female country singers.

Persuasion - Jane Austen Oh baby. I get it now.

Ancillary Justice - Ann Leckie An unfortunate choice of media means I can't rate this higher. I think it's too hard sci-fi for me to listen to it, so I need to reread it in physical form.

Deaf Republic - Ilya Kaminsky Brutal. Kaminsky is really fucking good at writing about war in a pretty minimalist style.

Small Things Like These - Claire Keegan A book that reminds you about the point of choosing to do something right. Also has the added benefit of teaching me about something I didn't know about (The Magdalene Laundries).

Eartheater - Dolores Reyes Another victim of the audiobook medium. I'm not sure if this is because it was translated or because I was expecting something a bit different, but I didn't really jive with this.

☆ Islands of Abandonment - Cal Flyn ☆ Absolute banger. Beautiful prose, concept that makes me go a bit feral. I want to tattoo this on my brain.

Fourth Wing - Rebecca Yarros This is not a fair review--I read this because my friend hated it. A deeply unserious and superficial book to me as an avid fantasy person and not a romance person. I wish Yarros had actually gone full hog and actually included disability in the sex scenes at the very least.

The Vanished Birds - Simon Jimenez Genuinely not sure how to feel about this? Sprawling space opera with purposefully unfinished ties. It does make me excited to read A Spear Cuts Through Water though.

Kindred - Olivia E. Butler I get the Butler hype now! Read it.

Flux - Jinwoo Chong A lukewarm positive review here? Very much a deep dive on grief, tech politics, and fandom. Has some weird timeline stuff so I was definitely confused.

Upright Women Wanted - Sarah Gailey Reads like that one ao3 excerpt of Sasuke learning about gay people. It feels like there's next to no world-building or character development. The characters are incredibly juvenile and all the changes happening are spelled out.

The Dragon Republic - R.F. Kuang Lord, this was a deeply intricate trainwreck of a book. Deeply uncomfortable and yet incredibly gripping.

Rereads:

Nona the Ninth, Harrow the Ninth, and Gideon the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir Decided I needed to listen to the audiobooks of these to inflict maximum damage. Good lord, I am still insane about these books.

Graceling - Kristen Cashore I was obsessed with these books as a 10 year old, and this one still mostly holds up. A good example of romances for little girls who aren't convinced by romance.

[blessphemy]

So, a million and a half years ago, I think on my old blog, you told me I should read Ancillary Justice and like hell yeah, I'm def reading a recommendation from a beloved mutual. And the first few chapters were disorienting in a way my ADHD Did Not Like but. I spent several years Knowing that if I could get past those first few chapters you'd be Right Finally broke the barrier in my brain preventing me from enjoying audiobooks and yeah, you were right. Fantastic book, 12/10, would trap myself in a car with no way to stop the audio without pulling over in order to force my ADHD to cooperate again. Love a character who is both the ultimate failgirl and a wet cat of a man at once (also I've been having a fun time going "wait, what do you mean that's how that's spelled" now that I've seen all the character and place names written down)

fantastic. i remember reccing it to you!!! it was indeed a literal million years but you did muscle yourself into reading that book all right! the imperial radch series was my Obsession for A Long Ass Time. incredible. you've gone through some heroic efforts to read it, that stuff can indeed be kind of dense and disorienting. but man did it just sink its teeth into my mind.

wow this is delightful in many ways... is this book Not simply something that is premium material for Thinking Thoughts Forever??? listen if you ever want to think radch thoughts at me. i am here.

local failgirl is a poor little meow meow. this series is truly full of the Most characters of all time. so many of them are literal war criminals. and i can't stop thinking about them fondly. anaander mianaai my beloved.

also loooolll the audiobook name spelling game. must have been a real trip with these for sure

it's also one of those books that's so enjoyable to re-read... but anyways. i'm glad you did end up enjoying it.

(i finally shook the years-long ancillary justice obsession free by becoming obsessed with the Murderbot Diaries a few years ago. xD)

[artschoolglasses]

5 favorite books?

5 favorite cities?

Five favourite books EVER?? Oh god. Again, this is going to be top of my head, because I'm sure tomorrow I'll be mad I forgot something.

Also, going to have to put this under a cut, too, because it ended up longer than expected. Oops...

Persuasion, Jane Austen. Look, I love Pride & Prejudice, but nothing in the world is going to top that letter from Wentworth.

Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie. You want brilliant, low-key sci-fi with a bad ass lead who also isn't great at doing the whole human thing? This is it.

Lips Too Chilled, Matsuo Basho. It's one of the tiny Penguin Little Black Classics. But I love this translation of Basho's poetry, and it's the perfect thing to pick up when you want to chill for a moment.

The Sorrows of Young Werther, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Read initially for a course I took on Romanticism, and given my love of the time period, this book just so wholly encapsulates the entire vibe of the movement.

Stream Raiders series, Sara Raasch. Sara Raasch is my comfort author. You know those books you pick up when you just want something to enjoy? Especially after reading way too many heavy non-fiction books. Which I will do, and occasionally need a break from. Sometimes you just need to read something for fun. Stream Raiders specifically, because I love the plant-based magic system.

As for five cities...

We're going to judge these by "Places I would be happy to live."

Kyoto. I honestly just love it here. The people are nice and quiet. The food is good. The city is beautiful. I would be very happy here.

Edinburgh. Biased, because my family is largely Scottish. But there's just something about the architecture mixed with the gloomy weather that just speaks to my heart.

Paris. Again, maybe a little biased. French family. And I've been so many times that it just feels like a natural place to wander around for me. And you can't beat the museums, or that Versailles is right there.

Oxford. Gorgeous architecture and bookshops galore? I would spend my days emptying my wallet and taking endless pictures if I lived there.

Reykjavik. It's hard to find better landscapes so close at hand. There's something desolate but beautiful about it. And like Scotland, that's just kind of my vibe.

(The meme says top five, so sorry Vienna, Tokyo, and Dublin...)

[themirokai]

For the writer asks: 10, 14, 24! ❤️ Hope you’re having a nice day 💕

Hey hey friend! Thank you so much for the ask! My day has been okay! How’s yours?

10. Has a piece of writing ever “haunted” you? Has your own writing haunted you? What does that mean to you?

The thing that comes immediately to mind that I got lodged in my brain and haven’t been able to stop thinking about is Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice series because I just read the latest installment in the series. Specifically the relationship between the AI ships and their captains or favorites is something that I’ve spent a lot of time rotating in my mind.

With my own writing it’s definitely the two multi-chapter stories that I started posting but never finished, one is Arcane, the other Star Wars. Interestingly (maybe) both stories are “getting together” fics where I’ve never managed to write the last chapter where they, you know, actually get together. 🤷🏻‍♀️

14. Do you lend your books to people? Are people scared to borrow books from you? Do you know exactly where all your “lost” books are and which specific friend from school you haven’t seen in twelve years still possesses them? Will you ever get them back?

I do in theory, but in practice I haven’t been reading many books in the past few years and I’ve mostly been buying e-books. I don’t recall who never returned things I leant them back in the day.

24. How much prep work do you put into your stories? What does that look like for you? Do you enjoy this part or do you just want to get on with it?

Sometimes I’ll reread or rewatch part of canon that I want to reference but other than that none. Zero. Unless you count thinking about things in the shower or as I’m falling asleep as “prep.” If I need to research something I will grudgingly do it while writing.

Thanks again! ❤️❤️

[readythefanons]

desk dispatch (early May 2023)

writing desk updates from your pal reddy

desk status: under control (patches of the desk's surface are visible, and the stacks do not exceed 3 inches in height = manageable but in the middle of some things)

General notes from April:

I used April's camp NaNo (NaNoWriMo=national novel writing month, which is in November. Camp NaNo is for self-set goals and is held in April and July) to work on an outline! I outlined the Petra/Sylvain fic, and I wrote about 10k >_> the outline is mostly there, but there are a few sections in the middle that could use some more attention

I finally succeeded in winning the "write every day" achievement for (camp) NaNo!!!!!

I posted "Place" in April which is an Adopted!Hilda AU. If you're reading this post, you probably saw at least one of the eleventybillion promos I scheduled for the fic. (five. It was five.) I started that fic in 2020, so it feels great to post it

What's in the can: NOTHING. I have nothing lined up to post. But...

The Leonie fan anthology (AKA Sunflower: A Leonie Fanzine) is shipping/has shipped! I have a fic in that one, and I hope that soonish I'll be able to post that fic to AO3 :) That piece is titled "not a circle, but a spiral"

I am poking the Leonie/Lorenz SciFi AU again. In a fit of productivity, I re-outlined the thing and I hope to poke the draft itself soon.

I wrote and edited 3k of thoughts on pronouns and personhood in the book Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. When I finally hit post on that, you'll see it on my book blog @reddy-reads but I might also bump it over here because why not. embarrassment is for other people. (disclaimer: not every blog on tumblr with "reddy" in the name is connected to me, i promise)

Miscellaneous thoughts: outlining

I might... love... outlining? To be determined. But it felt so good to work on the Petra/Sylvain outline, and it felt good to work on the SciFi AU outline. So IF these fics actually get written, then I might never go back to my no-outline ways.

What I liked about it: it was so satisfying to think about all the parts of the story and how they were supposed to fit together. It was useful to be able to plan out which characters would show up when and where. It was useful (but often felt bad) to realize that certain scene ideas I had weren't working (usually because there wasn't enough concept there). It was SO much easier to go "wait this isn't working" after only writing a few sentences instead of pages and pages. It was much easier to go "oh I need to introduce X earlier" in an outline than after writing (and posting!!!) whole chapters. It feels good to have a plan about where the story goes and how it reaches the ending.

Outlining (it's new to me): My other multichapter fics ("all things considered could be worse" in Netflix!Daredevil fandom, and of course the "Pull It Together" duology) were written without an outline! I knew generally what I wanted to happen and how the ending should feel, but I didn't know how I was going to get from A to Z.

(Actually... those fics BOTH started as oneshot responses to prompts on kinkmemes... and... the Petra/Sylvain fic was inspired by a post on a kinkmeme, and it was originally conceived as a oneshot. So, uh, credit for finally recognizing a pattern!)

Why I'm finally trying outlining: I've become increasingly aware that I have limited time and energy. I wish I didn't. I wish I felt limitless, but the last few year-or-so has just taught me that I only have so much bandwidth. (Which is a good lesson, even/especially if it's not really welcome.) So since I'm admitting that I have limited time and energy, why shouldn't I help myself spend more time doing what I enjoy (writing!) and less time doing what I dislike (not writing because I'm stuck). So that's part of why I have this fresh interest in outlining.

The other thing about outlining is that--well Leonie and Lorenz's stories were fundamentally pretty simple. The Matt & Foggy (Daredevil again) story was even simpler because it was a slice of life. It was hard to get truly lost there. The Petra/Sylvain story needs to fit together a little more precisely, and that means prewriting. AKA writing the whole thing, then editing and posting. I'm not looking forward to giving up my post-as-you-go ways, but maybe I'll end up loving it.

The last part of the "why suddenly outline and prewrite" puzzle is a little... uh... it's a little sensitive. I have ideas about Petra and Brigid that I want to express, but the themes involved (colonialism/imperialism) are delicate. I want to give myself the option of really thinking it through & maybe even getting an extra set of eyes on it before putting it out on the whole internet to see.

So that's why I haven't been posting as much. I'm cooking up something big, I hope people will like it.

Final goodies

Fic rec: Ruu has written a Leonie/Lorenz fic called "Of Conduct, Of Manners." The Jane Austen influence wafts off the page. It updates regularly, and the whole thing is already written :D :D :D

Writing podcasts: I like the writing podcast "Writing Excuses" and "Fiction Writing Made Easy with Savannah Gilbo."

Media podcasts: I still adore "Be the Serpent." It's on hiatus but they have an extensive back catalogue. I got so many great media recommendations from them.

Writing essays: I enjoyed Diane Duane's blog post about her outlining style and approach. I used her "grocery shopping list" and it really helped me build my outline's backbone.

Writing essay 2: A discord pal shared this post with me, which helped me get past an outlining block. The bit about "stop writing scenes you don't want to write" was the magic ingredient for me.

Meal Idea: Vegetarian sushi bowl. Make some rice, season it into sushi rice. Add all the yummy veggies you want. Eat and enjoy. (I made the sushi rice, but then I mixed some riced cauliflower into it for extra bonus veggies. For topping I did avocado w a sprinkle of soy sauce, finely cut carrot, Japanese pickles [cucumber and ginger], and edamame. I also had nori to wrap it as I ate because I loooove seaweed.)

[burningdarkfire]

rules: tag [burst of static] people you want to get to know better! I was tagged by @iniquiticity 💕

last song: i don’t really listen to music, but i’ve watched a bunch of clips of tswift’s tour so cruel summer has been in my head

last show: i watched hamilton live two months ago, which was three years overdue (our original tickets were for march 2020). it turns out that having a hamilton who isn’t LMM did interesting things to my willingness to read fic

currently watching: last night’s succession episode was a banger

currently reading: moving between multiple things, but the one currently in my hands is a copy of happy place by emily henry that i’m annotating for my book club

current obsession: ancillary justice by ann leckie is going to live rent free in my mind for the next few months, at least. i recently picked up pokemon shield again and it sucked me back in instantly. i’ve also been thinking a lot about mtg lately - we started playing in store and in person a lot more again so i’ve been tuning up all of my decks

tagging: @nocttvrnes @tangereendream @demenior - if anyone else catches this post and wants to participate, feel absolutely free to consider yourself tagged by me

[falloutcoys]

11 & 14 for end of year asks? :)

11. Something you want to do again next year?

I'd like to go kayaking again when the weather is nice. I missed a few years but finally went again this summer and I'd forgotten how much I loved it and now with the state parks pass being built into car registration I don't have an excuse!

14. Favorite book you read this year?

Answered with ORV and Translation State last time but I also should mention Ancillary Justice! While technically a standalone, don't read Translation State till you've read the trilogy. and you really should read them! Breq is a really well written character and an unreliable narrator in very interesting ways. and Seivarden <333333

end of year asks