#and everyone should use this time to read/reread the entire series

[syl-stormblessed]

IT'S PRIDE MONTH which means it's time for everyone on earth to read The Locked Tomb

[vestigialpersonality]

For the fanfic end of year asks, how about 3, 7, 14 and 24?

tyty 💙💙💙

3. favorite line/scene you wrote this year That Alfira Scene (Chapter 10 of Aria of Will). It can be really challenging to write your own version of a pivotal scene from the main canon, but I think more than any other key scene I've incorporated that I managed to make this one uniquely horrifying.

7. longest completed fic you wrote this year Troubled Skies, clocking in at 20,298 words.

14. a fic you didn’t expect to write Distillation. There is absolutely no question about it. I'd never written anything even vaguely spicy before this year, and somehow not only have I written four Explicit fics, this one is 6k of monsterfucking.

Though if I'm really being honest...I didn't expect to write ANY fic this year. Or get back into fandom on any level. I've written more fic in 2024 than I have from 2008-2023 combined.

24. favorite fic you read this year This is a loaded question and you know it! According to my magic reading spreadsheet I've read over 600 fics this year and rated 132 of them as Five Star. I picked one from every month, but this was genuinely hard considering how many fics I've loved this year. I should probably start a rec blog or something.

January: Open Me Up by @what-immortal-hand-or-eye. Trigun, Vashwood. I had Feelings. And I can't even pretend that the formatting didn't have a heavy influence on my own writing style.

February: Disco at the End of Time by Sarielle. Disco Elysium, Harry/Kim. Third part in a trilogy that I wholeheartedly recommend to EVERYONE, even fandom blind.

March: Whatever Happened to Jack Zimmermann? by ronandhermy. Check Please, Jack/Kent. Everyone here should already know I'm a sucker for atypical formatting and this one grabbed me.

April: The Hearts and Minds of Evil Men series by DoubleYouTeeEff. BG3, TavTash. Ricco has lived rent free in my brain for 8 months and doesn't seem to be going anywhere fast.

May: Breathe by @picathartidae BG3, Durgestarion. It's still going and it's always a delight when I get a subscription email for it.

June: Letters by mycolalia. BG3, Durgetash (ish). An epistolary that also uses the endnotes as part of the fic. Its FASCINATING.

July: The Diamond by @bharv BG3, Gortash/Lady Jannath. 6.5k of politics and transactional relationships...all inspired by a single note in BG3.

August: Force Immunity by @allconsumingrot BG3, Durgetash. I've reread it uhm. several times this year.

September: Reunited by @vialae BG3, Durgetash. I'm a sucker for fics about them attempting to reconnect after the brain damage, and the realization that Durge is no longer quite who they used to be, but this one hit me harder than most.

October: Taste of Bhaalspawn by @drones-art. BG3, Durgetash. My weird kinks are showing and I'm not sorry. This one bluescreened my brain.

November: in his voice i heard decay by @baronvontribble Fallout 3&4, Harkness/Sole Survivor. I'm admittedly a few chapters behind current because I've been busy with moving, but I was so excited I practically threw up when I saw that he was writing about Ted again.

Haven't had a chance to read much of anything in December yet because my entire life for the last 2 weeks has been unpacking boxes and building flatpack furniture.

I also did some annual rereads of personal favorites that will never not be recs. Specifically

The Adults in the Room by @strawberry-jan Yakuza, Kashiwagi/Yayoi. Adults having complicated, messy, ugly feelings.

The Way of All Flesh by @supaslim Fallout: New Vegas, Gen. I've reread this series every 12-18 months for the past decade and whenever I'm not reading it, it's always in the back of my mind haunting me like an intrusive thought.

And now that I've taken the time to try to choose a fic for every month, I'm now mad I had to choose. So yeah. I'm gonna make a rec blog. 💀

[essayofthoughts]

On wastes of time

There's this recurring thing where people can't tell me what's so cool or important about this show they want me to watch or book they want me to read or podcast they want me to listen to and I know summarising is a skill, but it's also really important if you want to get people into things.

Because currently? Currently what we have drives me nuts. We get "Oh, it's gay!" or some obfuscating description that tells us nothing, or "it's so good i promise" and that isn't enough!

Okay, it's gay. I can go to AO3 for queer fic, I have queer books I know are good, podcasts, shows, etc.. I've been rereading a series where most of the main cast are from a non-human culture where queerness is normal and gender roles are flipped around. Tell me why I should care about this one. Gay is not a genre - is it horror, mystery, romance, fantasy, sci-fi? Is the queerness the whole plot or is it incidental? (Because, and I'll be honest, if the queerness is the whole plot, I will not be interested - some may! But not me.)

"read about this perfectly normal thing!" - well, obviously there's something not normal about it or else you wouldn't be writing about it. Is it an SCP kind of obsessively Normal thing in a way that's eerie and unnerving? A horror story? That could be cool. Is the weird coming from people investigating it, or around it? Does something strange happen to it? Is the thing entirely normal but it's just the setting and the story is about people around it or involved in it? I don't fucking know. You haven't told me.

Okay, so it's good. It makes you yell and feel emotions. What emotions. Why? What invokes the emotions? Why do you enjoy it? What bits stood out, what made it interesting to you? What might draw someone else in?

Back when everyone went feral over the Locked Tomb, I didn't get it. Goth Space Lesbians, okay. That's a cool art piece, maybe a stained glass window, but it's not a story.

You know what got me to read it? A post talking about the swimming pool confession.

That? That cut to the heart of messy interpersonal dynamics that indicated a lot of tension between the characters, a lot of nuance to the dynamics and things which, done right, I could find compelling. It showed history, it showed thought, it showed messy, flawed characters who still had morals and guilt and lines even they wouldn't cross within their rivalry, it showed a trust within their rivalry that they knew where they stood with each other even if that was at knifepoint. It made me curious.

I ultimately didn't really care for Locked Tomb, but that's fine. Sometimes you bounce off something, and it just wasn't my kind of jam. But that one post? That gave me a glimpse. That made me curious enough to try.

But a lot of summaries and attempts to make people start something new I've seen lately? Skip that step. Skip making people curious. Just say "HEY LOOK AT THIS" without ever giving a reason. And I get you may want to avoid spoilers, or go in blind, or avoid giving the plot away but...

What counts as spoilers? How blind should you go in? And does this give away the whole plot, or just that there is one? The kind of genre and tropes that might be in play?

If you tell people nothing, then you've given them a blank wall. It could be thin as paper - easy to step through and see what's on the other side, but if it looks like a blank wall, why would they bother? You have to provide a doorway - something they can look through, and catch a glimpse of what's on the other side. Something that makes them want to step through and see more.

You want people curious. You want people interested. You need to answer just enough questions to make them want to discover more for themselves.

If you want me to spend my time reading/watching/listening to something, then I have to know it's worth my time.

[pweaselbee]

MY unpopular HP opinions

(part 1?)

As someone who’s been a “fan” since 2008

Draco Malfoy is not an innocent

Regulus Black is not an innocent (and jegulus… just doesn’t do it for me)

Lily Evans is sidelined far too fucking much

Snape is an interesting character, but not a good person. Literally that male friend you’ve had forever who you bear your heart to and then he says “i have something to tell you” and if you reject him he calls you a slur. holds onto childhood grudges at his big age. BULLIES CHILDREN?? to the point where he is the WORST FEAR of a 13 yr old boy??

(more under cut)

ATYD, while a great AU fic, has damaged the personalities of characters. ex. in this fic it’s understandable that Lupin has a backbone but in canon it is SO IMPORTANT to his character that he never really had enough backbone to stand up to his friends when they took it too far?? and he grew INTO gaining that backbone

Percy Weasley is overhated, sure he was a bit of a pompous prick at times but that was 1. when he was a literal teenager (aka when everyone’s an arse) and 2. when the job he’d been working towards his entire life spoonfed him propaganda… yeah he’s not perfect but he was trying to do the right thing

All the Weasley’s being in the same house is lazy writing (percy should have been a slytherin and he’s not the only one)

JKR, on top of all the racism, transphobia, etc etc is also… not as good of a worldbuilder as everyone says. Look deep enough into it and everything just falls to bits. Her ‘wizarding world’ (specifically BWW) is just European folklore thrown at a dartboard, with aesthetic English Boarding School dumped on it. and don’t get me started on the rest of the wizarding world. (wym there’s only one school for all of south america. joanne i’m coming for you) at best it doesn’t make sense or is ignorant but at worst it’s actively harmful.

It is not enough to separate the art from the artist when the artist is actively profiting off the art. Especially when the art itself is steeped in Racism, Transphobia, Anti-Semitism, Fatphobia, and more. JKR has her platform and money from these works and is using this platform to spew rhetoric that is directly harmful to Transgender people, ESPECIALLY trans women. As much as you are consuming HP content you better also be actively doing whatever you can to help the people directly affected by her hatred. Instead of merch, maybe donate to a goddamn gfm. Next time you reread the series, put some time aside to analyze the text you’re reading. I guarantee it’s not as good as you thought.

The books could have survived as beloved children’s literature is Joanne had never gotten a twitter. Am I saying there’s nothing harmful in the books? No. But the harmful content would have been overlooked if JKR had kept her mouth shut.

“slytherin skittles” is a stupid ass name and i view anyone who mains baby death eaters with utmost distaste. babygirl those are fascists. literally wizard nazis, joanne was not subtle but perhaps you’d prefer the subtlety of a brick to the face

yeah so this was long and i’m probs not making any friends lol. but hey. new blog! maybe i’ll get hate mail

[autobot-ratchet]

remember during my MTMTE retrospective when I said I wasn't gonna reread its sister series (aka Robots in Disguise/The Transformers/Optimus Prime/Windblade/Till all are One/etc)

I lied, I reread the entire thing lmfAO (or most of it anyway, I did skip a lot of the crossover stuff)

I did write down a lot of notes, basically a pseudo-liveblog if you will of my experience rereading all this, but I actively decided not to post it for two reasons

reason 1: a lot of the damage the tf fandom did to me in the mid 2010s was the direct result of people being extremely aggressive with their opinions on how characters were written (Starscream, Prowl, and Megatron were the big ones, with Optimus not far behind them) and at the time, I just either kept my thoughts to myself or parroted what the most popular and vindictive people in the fandom were saying so I wouldn't get attacked lmAO

so the main purpose of rereading this entire comic was for me to form my own opinions on the characters and plot and feel whatever I want about them without the fear that someone will come after me for having the wrong opinions and feelings. I wanted my thoughts to be mine and to find out and fully understand why I think them.

and reason 2: I do not like most of this series lmfAOgfbhdsjkd I like the Windblade and Wreckers stuff, and for everything else, I think it's got plenty of interesting ideas but they are sprinkled too sparingly between large swaths of stuff I did not enjoy reading and I felt no need to make pages and pages of posts of me groaning and grumbling about things I don't like. My blog doesn't need that vibe, y'all's dashboards don't need that vibe, people trying to use the search function and tags to look for fan works of the series don't need that vibe, I got my feelings out in my own little contained space and there was just no good reason for me to be putting that energy out there.

Especially since this comic is about twice as long as MTMTE/Lost Light so there would be so many more posts than I made for my MTMTE retrospective and just fghjdsksd nah dude nobody needs that. also if I'm trying to not get attacked, making a million posts about not liking something fairly popular ain't the way to go about that lmfAO

HOWEVER. some of my notes are funny and I kinda wanna share them lmAO so here, a handful of my notes on MTMTE's sister series out of context

________

“perhaps we should give him (Starscream) a chance,” says Metalhawk. Lol. Lmao even

oh what the fuck Megatron just shows up out of nowhere lmAO

He's (Megatron's) basically just a fourth candidate in the upcoming election, the “kill everyone else” party

absolutely everybody wants to kill the fuck out of Spike Witwicky all at the same time and they're all valid for it

“Tappet! You really still don't know my name-?” I sure didn't lmfAO

Scoop is still relevant??? lmfAO holy shit I fully thought his ass was gone after Dark Cybertron

I completely forgot that Starscream rewired Devastator so that Scoop is its head instead of Prowl, it is really funny how much I forgot about Scoop

and now Blackrock is memeing at me. Fuck this lmaO

Optimus deciding to get involved with Earth's business is clearly the result of that conversation he had with the Mistress of Flame but also like. With all the insane political bullshit that's been going on in real actual life recently (it is January 12th 2025 at the time of me writing this paragraph) it's just very funny that Optimus Prime is gonna try to help make our society just lmfAO like I know this was written an entire decade ago but it is very funny to imagine Optimus Prime trying to hold a decent conversation with Donald Trump

I miss my wife, Tails lmAOhjdsfkal

oh I was 100% correct about the Jesus comparison

save me Mairghread Scott girl hELP

TALK YOUR SHIT WINDBLADE

Overlord is out here on his sock puppet twitter account grifting right-wing chuds for fun. Also I forgot what a slut he is, jesus, who talks like this lmAO

he (Starscream) made his own DJD lmfAO but it's the DVD, Decepticon Vengeance Devision. Shut up you dumb bitch lmAO

WHAT THE FUCK IS SHOCKWAVE DOING HERE BRO WHAT???

everyone shut the fuck up about politics Unicron's here and he's eating all the planets we've been discoursing over for the past 50 issues

Shockwave went back in time and invented religion to own the libs

[constelationprize]

📚and✍️ for the fanfic questions!

📚 Is there a fanfic or fanfic writer you recommend?

Oh. Several.

I love all of @dayurno's fics, the patron saint of Kevin Day POVs. This is also the place where I admit to not having finished the name of the game yet despite it being one of the fics that convinced me to come back into the fandom, because something about it made me sad and I take. Absurdly long to finish things that make me sad. I also cleaned the 388 open tabs I had on my phone and forgot where exactly I had stopped. But Im going back there!!!! Someday. Also dayurno is so sweet and their blog is just a very fun place to hang out in.

@knickknacksandallthat A Falling Star series was literally the joy of my life the latter half of 2023 and knowing there was going to be a new chapter every friday helped me through some of the harshest weeks in college (and there were. A lot of them). I have reread the last chapter of Darkest Before Dawn many many many times because it is rare that miscommunication angst hits THAT good.

sunset, like survival by @jaywalkers is one of my favorite fics, ever, let alone in this fandom. Baltimore is my favorite part of the trilogy because of the emotional punch it packs and the way this fic takes that and turns it aaaaaall the way up in all three of the POVs is nothing short of masterful. It even makes me like the ending of that arc a little bit. Also the author just finished their other kandreil multichapter fic and it's the first thing on my reading list for my Carnaval break from work because you bet I'm gonna use all the time I can get to savour it.

I have the absolute privilege of betaing @queer-lovebot's fic Good to Go (Going Nowhere Fast) and it's just. So good. It's a WIP and there's two chapters out as of today and I think everyone in the entire world should read it maybe. Go check it out while it's still fresh so you can brag to your friends that you were here first!!!!!! (This is only a slight exaggeration. Fame is a construct but you should read it NOW anyway. Live dangerously go read a WIP).

Edit because I almost forgot: Have you heard the word of our lord and savior The Later Parade? I thought I liked Kevjean before I read this. I was wrong. This fic unlocked potentials of kevjean-loving within me only comparable to an anime villain revealing their final form. Like my bookmark on ao3 says, "this is the greatest thing I have ever read. goodbye".

✍️ What's your ideal writing set up?

At home, on my notebook in my desk, ceiling fan ON, with the biggest cup of passionfruit juice I can find, and wathever ambient noise my brain likes most at the time on repeat. (It can very from any song to rain sounds to those playlists of classical music. I once wrote 50k words to the repeated playlist of Brian David Gilbert's AAAAAAAAAH!BBA. Good times.)

[bonebabbles]

So since my rose-colored Gray Wing glasses have been torn of my face and stomped into tiny pieces, I’m now wondering if my perception of Clear Sky’s arc is also skewed. I thought his redemption arc was well done (until Star Flower came back) because he was sincerely trying, wasn’t expecting forgiveness, and (unlike a lot of redemption arcs) was not forgiven by most of the characters right away because of how bad his actions were. Until he got with Star Flower, I thought his redemption arc was damn near perfect. Do I have on rose-colored glasses for his redemption arc?

Clear Sky's "redemption arc" is one of the most incompetent bits of writing that has ever blighted the entire series and I promise you I'm not doing hyperbole. It is so bad that it drags down everything it touches, including Gray Wing, Thunder, Acorn Fur, and the entire concept of StarClan.

And, unfortunately, both things you cited there absolutely did not happen, I am going to have to eat your glasses. I'm gonna munch. I'm gonna cRUNCH

"He was sincerely trying"

He wasn't. He just stopped actively shredding random people on his border and then whines that he's "Trying So Hard," using it as yet another guilt trip tactic because he's still an abuser.

The SECOND anyone gives him any criticism (FOR BRINGING A WIFEBEATER INTO HIS CLAN MIND YOU), he twists the fact they're supposed to "forgive him" against them, starts calling Gray Wing slurs for having asthma, and gets offended at a warning while huffing, "no one tells me what to do!"

Like a big fucking baby

And he only let Tom into his clan (even implying he's not a REAL cat because he's fat + an ex-kittypet) because he promised he could show him how to "fight dirty."

AND ALSO he is fully aware that this man kidnapped children in a previous book; but Blazing Star completely forgets major details of the previous three books in a way that is absolutely unacceptable. You are practically reading a new continuity.

"He was not forgiven by the other characters right away"

He was. He was literally, immediately forgiven in the very opening of Blazing Star. By Gray Wing and Thunder, because the narrative decided that Everyone Is Responsible.

Even back in First Battle, right after the fight ends we get a line that gives Bramblestar a run for his money. "WE let it get too far." The narrative even scrambles for some reason to make a woman responsible and grabs Tall Shadow for some fucking reason.

Acorn Fur doesn't even mention that CLEAR SKY WAS STARVING HER FATHER before she decides to move in with him, because she would miss her parents too much on the moor... those parents who just died. In the battle Clear Sky started.

Everyone immediately forgives him and kisses his butt because "The guilt will hurt him more than any actual consequences :((( He was just under so much pressure of leading guys.... which is why he should continue to lead............"

I've actually had a hard time continuing my reread because I've actually been fucking enraged at how Thunder is swooning over his daddy "finally looking at him" uwu

This is painted like a good thing. This is a sweet and nice thing that finally, the abusive ghoul who shoved his face into a festering wound and said he shouldn't have been born just before trying to kill him and all of his friends 'respects him.' Oh Joyous Day Yippee Hooray!

How this ruins the other characters

It destroys Gray Wing because it makes ALL this dogshit behavior that he displayed for the first three books correct. In spite of how GOD awful this "Redemption Arc" is, you are supposed to believe that there is good "deep down" within Clear Sky. That all of this abuse apologia was wisdom. Gray was, and IS, right to take every insult and understand it as humility, and the Clear Sky on the page is actually a Good Boi who Really Does Love His Clan.

It ruins Thunder because even after ALL of that physical and emotional abuse and neglect, he's still supposed to honor Clear Sky as "You'll always be my father." These destructive impulses to want his approval are good and natural in this narrative, not something to confront or fundamentally question.

Fuck, just look at the Tom Redemption. The writers LOVE abusive parents. Even if they beat the shit out of your mom, get her killed, kidnap you, and had no part in raising you, "they still love you and would die for you." Tom's Redemption and Clear Sky's Redemption are just different lines in the same song.

Acorn Fur moves in with the guy who held one of her parents hostage and ultimately got both of them killed

And STARCLAN forms to "tell clear sky what to do," because in the baffling Fear vs Greed Dichotomy this series thinks is some kind of thesis, Clear Sky was just "afraid," not "greedy," and that means his fucked up little head can be fixed by the comfort a religious force can bring. He wasn't abusive because he loves having power over people, the thing that is right there on the page, nope, he really was just worried about death or responsibility or something.

This isn't even getting to the person he is in later material. He's a MONSTER in Moth Flight's Vision, as if his growth never happened.

And this is taking him all at face value-- in a meta sense, the sheer amount of female characters that get brutalized just for his man pain is legitimately dizzying. 2 mates die, 2 innocent women slaughtered, a child beaten and another starved to death, and even pregnant Star Flower gets pinned to the ground and licked on the face as her assaulter talks about how much he wanted her as a mate

This is the worst arc in the entire Warrior Cats franchise and it is spinning on the crap-axis that is Clear Sky's 'redemption'.

The arc is bad BECAUSE it is working towards this idea, that the best villain the series ever wrote has to become the writer's Poor Little Meow Meow halfway through 6 books, so we can get to our regularly scheduled Born Evil Foreigner Villains Who Hate Love And Friendship.

Imagine TPB but Fireheart cries that self defense against Clanborn cats makes you Just As Bad, Tigerstar was just scared or something, and you get two Diet Scourges. That's DOTC.

[mistbornhero]

Hello my dear. Do you have. any book recomendations ever. I'm talking stories that would suck me in and spill me off when I finish it like I went thru a whole lifetime in a few pages. Any genres are cool.

ohhh boooks I'll try to not forget every book I've ever read now lmao

this has been in my drafts for days because I did in fact forget every book I have read. Cutting this into things I am fannish about and books I just liked in general and books I could probably be fannish about with the right incentive.

Cosmere by Brandon Sanderson

honorary mention, mostly lmao

obviously like the books just look at my username

I like the first Mistborn Trilogy best, even if the Stormlight Archive is probably technically better

It gets bonus points for being shorter and already finished

It gets extra bonus points because book one has a heist

Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

idk if you've read this? but! robots! in space! and found family!

witty and fun

I would die for murderbot (it would roll its eyes at that)

murderbot could have killed many people, but instead it just wants to watch tv, which is a mood

I blame blackglass and her enthusiasm for podficcing every fic for everyone.

All For The Game by Nora Sakavic

gay crime sports anime book

found family!!

so like. this is not a good book, I think

but it also definitely is a fun book, kind of like. self indulgent fics where things that are objectively Too Much happen but in a fun way?

also! canon demi character!

In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan

kid has magic! he must now go to magic school!

immediately falls in love with an elf girl and declares noble!guy his nemesis

he thinks this nemesis thing is mutual, but noble!guy is just very in love with him

realized he was bisexual and actually in love with noble!guy (dated elf!girl for a bit, but decided they were better off as friends)

.... would add TLT here, but I think you've read that, seen you post about it,

Not fannish about, but I could be:

The Riyria Chronicles by Michael J. Sullivan

two bros doing crime and being Good at it

fun fantasy worldbuilding

A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland

fun political things!

slow burn romance

started to reread to say more but then got busy 🥲

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

I just love people who are really good at what they do (stealing)

Great worldbuilding

It's part of a series, but I haven't actually read past the second book because there was an event I didn't quite like at the time (not like it's bad, just. different mental space needed?)

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

I'm in this for the worldbuilding

Should reread honestly

there's a spin-off series that I also love

Not fannish about, but I love:

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

time travel!! cool rules for it!!!

emotional?? basically you can only meet other people who have been in the cafe, so it's usually people who go back to see the ones they were in the cafe with? so yeah, emotional

It made me cry so much

An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong

fun animal facts!!

if you feel like Learning Things this is also pretty interesting?

Literally just spent the entire time I read it telling people fun facts about how animal senses work

this is not going to be sucking you in and spilling you out with a mess of feelings, but I liked it

[longsightmyth]

what's a book or series that you genuinely love? I'm always seeing your commentary on "not so great" (bad) books (no hate, love ur commentary) but I'd love to know the ones you like best.

Ah tumblr search function you fail us yet again (inexplicable fondness).

"The ones I like best" is a very broad category that I will try to narrow down I guess?

My favorite book of all time remains The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by NK Jemisin. The other books in the trilogy are still excellent (I have yet to read anything by NK Jemisin that is not excellent) but specifically the first book of the inheritance trilogy remains my favorite. Other standouts of hers include the short story The Effluent Engine and the second book of the Dreamblood series, The Shadowed Sun (though, again! I cannot stress enough that I'm not even sure NK Jemisin could write a bad book/story if she wanted to!)

I routinely recommend all of Alyssa Cole's romances: not only are they incredibly inclusive, the characters navigate believable conflicts based around their characterization and not simply Because Of The Plot. Her contemporary romances are some of the few contemporary romances I enjoy: it's not usually my genre, but anything Alyssa Cole writes I will read. Shoutout to her expansion into horror, she's also one of the few authors who will get me to read THAT genre. Standouts include Can't Escape Love (novella), A Duke by Default, and Let It Shine (also a novella). Another author who I cannot stress enough: just go read her entire backlog okay. She's got historical romances in a range of time periods. She's got contemporary romances. She's got horror, god help me.

The other author who can convince me to read horror is T Kingfisher, aka Ursula Vernon. Her fairytale retellings are A+ and always contain horror elements, and she is another author who has yet to write a dud for me. Standouts include Nettle & Bone (NETTLE AND BOOOOOOOOONE), The Raven and the Reindeer, and The Seventh Bride.

Tamora Pierce is sort of a no-brainer here for me. Her books are not always perfect by any means, but they are always progressive for the time they are written and she continues to improve and take feedback into account. Plus you probably owe the existence of your favorite stabby ya lady to her. Tortall owns my heart because I read it first but she has a lovely magic school series in a different world where friendship is literally magic and social commentary the norm.

The Dragonriders of Pern is not for everyone. Much of the sexual politics in the early novels are, as I have discussed elsewhere, outdated, but the books evolved as Anne McCaffrey's understanding did, and there are soulmate dragons and impeccably rendered closed time loops (multiples! Happening at the same time!) and a constant discussion and tension of evolving social norms and the needs of society: at what point does technology become Too Much? Does it at all? What happens when the people in charge stop giving a shit about their responsibilities? Seriously the impeachment plot in Dragonseye/red star rising is nearly prescient. Most of these conflicts originate early on but don't truly come to fruition until later, and please take my word for it and simply don't read the books written by her son. They are bad.

The Witchlands series by Susan Dennard! Tbh I think this series deserves more love than it gets. It's not perfect, it can improve, but that's the thing: it routinely does. Dennard puts time and care into her work from all sides and discusses openly her early and middle mistakes, from a technical level to a 'needing a sensitivity reader' level.

Sarah Rees Brennan! Y'all know I love Sarah Rees Brennan, right? You should. She likes to explore tropes and genre convention and snappy, snappy dialogue. I haven't reread The Lynburn Legacy yet this year, but that's an anomaly. In Other Lands is pretty widely acknowledged as superior portal fantasy, I think. Tell The Wind and Fire was constrained by the book it was retelling and I think suffered for it, but that just means it wasn't as good as I personally think it could have been, not that it wasn't good at all. The Demon's Lexicon trilogy is her first series and yes, okay, it shows a little, but have you ever thought to yourself, hey. What if Supernatural was actually, like. Good. And wanted to actually explore in a thoughtful manner morality and what it means to be a person and nature vs nurture and how complicated your relationships with parents can be. Because if so, go give The Demon's Lexicon a shot.

The Rivers of London! We will excuse magic cops this once because they are specifically *magic* cops and because Nightingale literally fought nazis and Peter is pretty critical of the met in general. These books almost make me like London, and as a bonus Peter is fully aware that King Arthur was Welsh (look this is important to me okay)

Lockwood & Co! I am on the final book now and really enjoying my feral child soldier ghosthunters. I want to give them all soup. I want to wrap them all in blankets. My inexplicable attraction to the actor playing Kipps in the show is irrelevant to book enjoyment but I am still flabbergasted, by all accounts it doesn't make sense.

The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold is space opera. I love it. I admittedly love the Cordelia and Ekaterin novels most, but that is a matter of my eternal love for ladies who are generally nice but willing to fuck shit up, they're all good.

Artemis Fowl! Criminal mastermind child WHO JUST NEEDS FRIENDS OH MY GOD. I cried at the end of the third book. It's fine! We're all fine! Colfer does an excellent job of portraying the fairies as having a culture different from ours with real reasons that they haven't taken over the world, and if you don't love Holly you're wrong.

I have more but I'll stop here for now I guess. Whoops.

[meimi-haneoka]

First of all, thanks for making all these translation posts. They really helped in clearing up the confusions the official translation produced. How they managed to pass through editing is beyond me.

However, forgive me for asking this kind of a negative (?) question here, because I know you're such a staunch fan: What would you consider as legitimate criticism of Clear Card? I'm not asking for those that are also present in the OG series (such as CLAMP dragging the mystery for various reasons), I mean those that are only specific to this arc. Because when I reread the entire arc in preparation for the final chapter a few days ago, I noted some missed opportunities and details that never had quite a payoff in the end, but I'm currently debating if I should really analyze why I felt that way or I'm just being nitpicky. (And for the record, I don't have much nostalgia goggles for this series. I only started following this three years ago.)

Hello anon! Thank you for reading my translation posts and I'm glad they were useful to you!

Hmmm I think we should always consider and try to understand if the complaint we have is something that affects the plot to a greater extent or if it's just a wish we have, to have seen more of something, but that in the end -doesn't- really change things on a structural level. Like, I dunno, the kiss everyone is complaining about 🙄🙄🙄 And even when we find some, we might need to think hard if they *really* didn't give an explanation (even an implied one). Also it's good to keep in mind that what we might not have liked, maybe was the favorite thing of somebody else, so we shouldn't label it as a "flaw" in absolutistic terms. Just always keep it on the personal, subjective view.

I'll make you an example of what I think it's a missed opportunity that reflects on the plot, in some way.

The cause of death of Lilie (and her husband, at the same time).

Even for this, I have a hunch or two about why they didn't talk about it (my theory is that the cause was a violent one, and they were betrayed by the Association just like little Kaito had been warning her during chapter 60 - maybe they tried to abduct Akiho, thinking she would be super powerful), I've had this theory since long time and honestly now that they ended the arc without explaining it, I can't help but feel that I was right and that mentioning it would've crossed CCS boundaries.

I see many people complaining "why Nadeshiko died, we never got that explored" but I mean, they told us about it, they gave us a reason? Why no one wants to believe that she simply died of illness? Why does it have to be a magical reason?

For Lilie, however, we only know that she died while protecting her daughter in an "accident" (see, my theory?), at least if we have to trust what the Clan told Akiho. I would've liked to know the reason, just a little bit more of it, because honestly....there are people who wonder why she decided to do all that she did in order to help fixing things in the future that would come many years later, instead of just focusing on staying alive and not leave her daughter alone, unprotected, at the mercy of her horrible family? Since she's a yumemi and could foresee her death? Because we could say that if Akiho ended up being abused in her childhood, it's also because she was completely left on her own. Couldn't she avoid death? That would make sense, so she decided to take care of "damage control" instead, meeting her daughter's future soulmate, the one who would give his life to protect Akiho and bring her out of there? And meet Sakura when she was only 13? But I would've at least liked a mention of that because, if we have to be nitpicky about it, this reflects negatively on Lilie's character. And I'm absolutely sure that she's a decent character and was a wonderful mother in the months she could live with her daughter. I don't think she did all that she did recklessly. But you see, I have to make up theories in my head to fill that gap, I would've liked a helping hand from canon, in that sense.

This is different from another comment I often see "couldn't Kaito just *ask Sakura* for help?" because no, even if they didn't spell out with words why Kaito didn't ask for help, they gave us plenty of hints and portrayals of his personality, which make completely reasonable the way he went about it.

For Lilie, we really have little to go by, in the end.

This is just an example, there are other things that I go a little bit 😐at, but all in all they're little things that might be slightly annoying at worst, not stuff that would impact my love for this series. Hence why you see me so staunch about it. 😊

[phil-lesterfan]

yaoi scholar….. pls i finished the untamed and word of honor what should my next drama be 👀 (happy endings only pls)

also i wanna know your fav bls. if you’ve the time!!

hallo! i didn't mean to let this sit for so long, but i've been using my phone more and don't like answering asks there. i don't actually know many cdramas, but i've got other dramas to rec, if that's alright!

(C/K/J)DRAMAS/LAKORNS:

sotus & sotus s (thai)*

history3: trapped (taiwanese)

seven days (japanese)*

manner of death (thai)*

restart after coming back home (japanese)*

together with me (thai)

long time no see (korean)

semantic error (korean)*

you can watch 2moons2 for the full story, but honestly, the original 2moons mingkit cut is everything to me (thai)*

*based off novel/manga/manhwa

20 of my fav bls under the cut :)

initially, i was going to call it my "top 10", but it's not my top ten, it's just favs that i really love or think you (sara) would also enjoy. so it's just 20 "random" favs. if you (general) want, i can upload the 200+ long list and even include "reviews" of my favourites, but i'll only do that upon request. also here's my blanket rec for mxtx's works. svsss is my fav. i'm very easy. thank you <3

20 OF MY FAV BLS:

sotus is very dear to my heart. i watched it right before i went to university, so it really set that mood for me lol it's not a perfect story, the audio is shit at some parts, and the acting was sometimes stiff, but when the show hit, my fucking god did it HIT. of course i roped all my friends into watching it. it was based on a novel, but the novel didn't particularly stand out to me (sorry). there's also a manga now (3 vols) but i'm just loyal to the show, y'know? it also has a sequel, and that one made one of my friend cry (i actually had to pause the show lol), but for me, the first season is what's rly stellar. (lakorn / rewatches: 4? 5? a lot?)

sasaki and miyano by syou harusono is such an easy read, with lovely art, cute characters, and the softest, sweetest romance. it makes me feel like i've been hit by a car, then the car backed up and drove over me again. sasaki is the light of my life (and also if i looked like him, i'd never shut up. and i project just a little bit too bc oh he just like me fr), and everyday i think about making him my pfp. i owe syou harusono my life. i want to say more about this bc it rly is my fav manga perhaps of all time but that also means i can't say more about it LOL (manga / rereads: 6)

the cat proposed (bakeneko katatte sourou) by hayane dento is quite possibly the best manga i've ever read. the writing is so beautiful, and it's a really relatable and inspiring story for me. plus it's got catboys. *motions to my dnp catboy pfp* but in all seriousness, it's a genuinely great story that squeezes my heart and leaves me in tears (manga / rereads: 5)

doukyuusei is a certified bl classic. i've not read the entire manga series, but i've got the anime film saved to my laptop. that was another thing i roped all my friends into watching, and yes, everyone was gagged (animanga / rewatches: 4?)

koimonogatari by tagura tohru is incomplete, and the "love" part isn't there yet, but my fucking god. i think i just picked it up for funsies at the bookstore, but man was i unprepared. it's not a fun read by any means, nor is it easy, it's actually pretty brutal, but it's a good story, so i felt i should include it. (it is one of my faves) (manga / rereads: none bc i will kill myself.)

summer of you (kimi wa natsu no naka) by furuya nagisa changed me. it was one of those manga that was in my to read list for a really long time, but i just never did it. when i finally did, i totally regret putting it off. i think i cried. it has a sequel (summer with you), and that was good too, but that first one just really got me (manga / rereads: 1)

fools by yeongha has an art style i will forever be jealous of. the original, that is. i'm sure the remastered version is great, and probably the one i should read, but i'm just way too attached to the original and the art is (in my opinion) way better. the story is fun and sweet, and i read it at another formative time in my life. *jazz hands* (manhwa / rereads: 3)

my darling signed in by dimang and new lung. if there's one thing about me, i'm gonna read a video game catfish story. this manhwa is so fucking ridiculous, but i love it. it actually gets pretty dark, which took me by surprise the first time i read it, but it's not between the main cp, if you're worried about that (manhwa / rereads: 3)

dasadanan by herb mandu also has just lovely art. i can just stare at it for ages bc i'm so obsessed. also there's side gl, and i love those two girls so damn much. the story is very easy to read, fluffy, and it's just good feelings all around. it also has some really silly extras. (manhwa / rereads: 4)

history3: trapped is so... it is also dear to me. the main couple is funny and cute; however, it's the side couple that really gets to me. they're so ridiculous and fun, and the actor for zhao zi is an acrobat? does acrobatic dance? i'm not sure exactly, but they wanted to showcase that so he'd just be doing some random gymnast shit for no reason and it's so funny. and jack was made in a lab for me, so. y'know. (drama / rewatches: 2, about to be 3)

glasses cloth and playlist by gwak jonpil was recommended to me by a friend i believe, and i'm so glad i read it. it's another easy read and also very ridiculous, but when i say something is "ridiculous", that's usually a huge compliment. i LOLed at, like, every other panel. the main cp is so damn ridiculous, and i adore them. (manhwa / rereads: 1)

starting with a lie by liang azha has the softest art i've ever seen. that manhua is like a warm hug, if a warm hug also had you gritting your teeth and clenching your fists because GODDAMN JUST GET TOGETHER FOR REAL ALREADY! i love it. oh, but i don't like qiu tian. sorry. (manhua / rereads: 2)

how to survive as a villain by yi yi yi yi is... look, i'm sure it has flaws, right? every story has flaws, but wherever they are, i did not see them. i mean, it's a little bit ridiculous at times, but again, "ridiculous", and the mc was transmigrated into a once-good now-trashy harem novel. and he's also smart but oblivious. bound to be a little bit silly. but also this novel ripped out my heart and stomped on it. and i thought it wouldn't happen with the manhua, but i cried then too. what the hell. i really enjoyed this story, and i think it's what got me into transmigration stories in general :P (danmei / rereads: 2)

a shoulder to cry on by dongmul. okay. OKAY. this is not a "happy" story to most. also the ending without the extras/epilogue is bittersweet to ambiguous. the issue here is that I LOVE ENDINGS LIKE THAT!!!!!!!!! this story is so damn good and i like the art a lot and god, some of the quotes? every time i reach certain scenes i have to pause and stare at the wall because no fucking way. it's just too good. i should go ahead and warn that the couple doesn't have the healthiest of dynamics and their relationship starts bc one of them lies and accuses the other of sexual harassment, so. i'm just letting you know now. but i let myself have toxic yaoi. as a treat. tbh to me it's not that bad, but i know everyone has different intensity levels, so. (manhwa / rereads: 3)

never understand by bbong is an... interesting read. arguably more toxic yaoi, and everyone at times can be kind of awful and annoying, but i think that's fun. sorry. i vividly remember reading this for the first time. for some reason. also, as with a good amount of manhwa that i read in my more formative years, i like this art style. (manhwa / rereads: 1)

semantic error by j soori and angy kim is a lot more graphic and hardcore (sex-wise) than the kdrama, which makes sense, but like... DAMN! my toxic trait is that every three panels i pause and go "hey does anyone else think these guys look like jaedo?" and the sniper that's supposed to shoot me any time i bring up rps lets me live because i'm objectively right. the characters are so damn infuriating, but i like watching car crashes, so it's alright. plus the art is good and, well, i never said i don't ship jaedo. *glass next to me explodes after a bullet cuts through it* whatever! (rereads: none bc it ended not that long ago. but i'll probably reread it soon)

no.6 by asano atsuko and here comes all the haters being like, "oh, that's not bl!" "that's more than bl!" "[some more dumb shit i don't care about]!" suck my pussy. i don't care. i loooove the novels and hope we get a printed official english translation. people are right to say the romance isn't the focus, but it's there, and honestly, i love plotty shit. i've heard it's supposed to be the "happy version" of banana fish or whatever the fuck, but damn if that's not a fucked up version of happy. i sobbed my fucking eyes out (novel & animanga / rereads: 2)

snow fairy by serizawa tomo. i'm not gonna lie, i don't remember this story, but on my big list it has a heart next to it, and i feel like i cried when i read it. i've said i've cried about like half of these, and i cry when i see something cute or when i think about my blorbo or when a song is pretty, so that means nothing. but this one really got to me! i think it was just a simple story with lovely art. it aches, maybe. actually, i've just found my initial review, which reads: "im so miserable....." (rereads: none, but i'd like to reread it asap)

bj alex by mingwa. insert loud and disappointed "ooh" from the crowd bc really, phil-lesterfan? i thought you were a scholar? with taste? LOOK. i know this is a basic manhwa, and i couldn't give a rat's ass about the side cp, but ahn jiwon somehow became pookie. it is agonising, though, 'cause like i said, i don't care about the side cp, but oh my fucking god, it feels like everyone else only cares about them. shoot me. also the side cp is into bdsm, but you can skip over their shit honestly. (rereads: 2)

aien catharsis by oshima kamome was another manga that'd been in my tbr list for ages. i really like how the story feels. aaaaand i just reread it and ah. i see why it affected me. (if you can guess what line stuck out to me, lmk, i'd love to hear it heh) it's historical fiction and has lovely art. tw for sexual assault, but it's not between the cp and it's also not shown. (manga / rereads: 2)

like i said, i have a lot more favs, so if anyone wants the full list, just ask. or if you don't want the full list, i can give rec lists for certain genres or just manga or just danmei, etc, etc. i know i'm in batman hell right now (ah. western yaoi....), but i've been fujoshing since i was like... ten. okay this is of course way longer than it should be. hope u enjoy if you read any of these ^_^ <3

[rjalker]

Your post about sci-fi slavery came across my dash - it seems like you've read the whole Murderbot series, and "regular" slavery is definitely a thing that comes up, in the form of peoples' lifelong forced indentured servitude to corporations on colonies or mining facilities. Just seemed like a odd bone to pick, when it's there pretty clearly (in Artificial Condition, Network Effect, and System Collapse at least).

Referencing this post probably. Or this related one.

Yes, I am aware there's other forms of slavery in this series, and no it's not an odd bone to pick, because the only other slavery that exists in the series is always in the background and always off-screen and never the main focus of any story.

It's not taken seriously, just like the main form of slavery isn't either.

The plot of System Collapse, no pun intended, collapses in on itself as soon as you think about it for more than five seconds, because the entire premise is that the people need to agree to be enslaved in the first place. Which isn't how slavery works.

Whether or not "regular" slavery is also a thing in the setting (only ever in the background!) does not fix the fact that the major form of slavery in the setting is the fake kind that doesn't actually exist and doesn't understand how actual oppression works, and plays into slavery apologism.

And Martha Wells can't even take the fake version of slavery she's invented seriously and treat it with the gravity that it's due, why should the fact that there's so-called 'regular' (not even) slavery in the setting only in the background fix the main problems I pointed out with my original post?

Again. Cannot stress it enough. The plot of System Collapse is that people have to agree to be enslaved before they can be enslaved and all they have to do is say no and boom. Suddenly you can't enslave them.

That is not how slavery or oppression work at all. That's just a whole new brand of victim blaming and slavery apologism to come out of this series. And it's not the first. Murderbot literally argues all the time that other constructs should remain enslaved because otherwise they'd just murder everyone. That's not even fantasy slavery apologism, that's just straight up antiblack slavery apologism that was and still is used to defend real life slavery.

I recommend you try rereading the series. Because we have seven whole books out now and it shouldn't have taken more than two for Murderbot to become actually anti-slavery but even in book 7 we can fucking even have that yet. The only slaves in this series whose lives matter are random humans who don't even get to be actual characters with personalities or matter in any way besides hurting Murderbot's feelings, and Murderbot itself. ART tears an enslaved construct to fucking peices while they're still alive and it's treated as perfectly reasonable and Badass™ instead of the most horrific fucking torture and cruelty.

I don't know how to tell you or anyone else reading this that thinks this series is good at handling slavery, but murdering slaves, and literally torturing them to death by literally chopping them into fucking peices while they're alive is in fact incredibly fucking evil and not actually anti-slavery or pro-liberation.

ART could have literally just fucking knocked that person unconcious or, as @walks-the-ages pointed out: get this: Knocked them unconscious and disabled thier fucking governermodule. ART is the most advanced fucking bot in the damn series, it can do anything it wants. Am I supposed to believe it can't hack governer modules? Am I supposed to pretend that it had no choice but to CHOP A LIVING PERSON INTO PEICES TO TORTURE THEM TO DEATH in "self-defence"?

If Murderbot had a story to tell about getting literally chopped to peices while it was still owned by the Company, it would be treated as horrific and traumatic and terrible.

But when one of the literal heroes of the story does that exact fucking gruesome thing to another enslaved person right there on the page, it's perfectly fine and cool and just shows how Badass™ ART is.

That's not fucking arguing that slavery is bad. That's arguing that slavery is bad when it happens to the protagonist.

If you're reading this post, go read the first post I linked too. Here it even is so you don't have to scroll back to the top.

Edit: you've also completely and utterly failed to address any of the things I brought up in that original post, and instead you're just trying to deflect by talking about the other slavery in the setting, even though that doesn't refute my original statements at all.

[cromaka3666]

a rant/series of ideas

So I've posted these on SB before but to put it simply, the phandom is stagnant. The same ideas are repeated over and over again mixed up but too similar to tell apart. Over on ao3s dp crossover section I've noticed a ton of these stories are created after the author reads a prompt here so I figured I'd gather the posts I've made on SB and post them here in hopes those authors can see them. I'm just copy/pasting these so they will look weird as they were originally posted on SB and I can't be bothered to edit them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So yall know how d.c. crossovers are really common. Well I just had a small idea to add to the list of why heroes don't usually kill, batman especially. Obsessions can help make ghosts and few people are more obsessed than villains, the heroes know this and don't want to risk powering up their rogue gallery more, especially since hell is real and as we saw with deathstroke/slade it's easy to make deals and return. Just another angle to add for those crossovers. Last thing anyone wants is a ghost/demon empowered joker running around.

We have tons of danny phantom dc crossovers but not a single one has Cujo join the super pets for adventures. This is a crime that should be rectified immediately. Best pup should be allowed to play with Ace and Krypto and fight animal crimes.

What aren't there any stories where danny is in the marvels zombies storyline, or dceased, or blackest night, or even the new dc vs vampires storyline.

Why are almost all horror stories about him being tortured when there are perfectly good zombie apocalypses he can fight in. I'd love to see danny wield a black lantern ring and be in total control because he's already dead and as such doesn't need to eat hearts to gain power.

I'd love to see danny get bite by a vampire only for them to taste what's basically deadmans blood. We need less secret sibling, torture filled, betrayal fics and more danny pulling a doomslayer and fighting trigons armies when he invades.

Pariah Dark pulling amity into the gz would have gotten international attention just like cannon. Something that's brought up but never really explored are meta humans rights clashing with the anti ecto laws, I'd love to see the various magic users testifying in congress, debunking the fentons beliefs that ghosts aren't people and as such deserve the same rights as everyone else.

Also I'd love to see walker put in control of arkham, blackgate, or Belle reve. He'd have those places on lockdown, and the thought of the joker trying to escape only for walker to toss him back in his cell is hilarious to me.

All these DC crossovers but not one shows an alternate danny in the justice lords, injustice, or crime syndicate version of the league.

I'm tired of rereading the same stuff, let me read about an evil crime boss danny or one who rules over the GZ like how the justice lords rule earth, or one that sides with superman after metropolis gets nuked. So many alternate worlds, timelines, and dimensions to choose from and they always pick the same ones.

Forget JLU, YJ, or TT let me see danny in the justice league dark apocalypse war movie as a trigon possed Dan Phantom and have him fight Darksied

The infinite realms is so underutilized in the dc crossovers, and just the phandom in general.

You have an entire dimension that can take you any when and anywhere you want/don't want and you don't use it to let superman meet his parents before krypton blows up, or any other orphan superhero for that matter.

Hell you don't have to save his family, you can set up a stable time loop where this meeting is what convinced them to send him to earth rather then any of kryptons dying colonies.

Have Pandora meet wonder women, I don't think I've seen anything more then a passing reference about her in any dc stories to date. The 4 armed ghost of a Greek Goddess would absolutely be something the Amazon's would want to meet.

I'd love to see more stories exploring the factions in the gz like make up a rivalry between the far frozen and Atlantis before the yetis died out and less stories about Lazarus pits being ectoplasm, and Danny bring the lover/secret brother to the entire bat clan.

Give me poison ivy possed by Undergrowth or the joker being terrorized by the box ghost because joker gas doesn't work on the dead. Hell weather wizard/ any other weather villain teaming up with vortex would be fun. Or have technus hijack brainiac/amazo, now that be a good threat.

Let's see Danny put on the helmet of fate and fight klarion because he's not at the same level as the cosmic forces of order and chaos rather then the gz being some super dimension that John "I sold my soul to 30 devils, 10 gods, an angel and a fae" Constantine is too scared to touch. Pariah was powerful, but he ain't Darkseid, Trigon, Child, or Nekron powerful.

Let's see more, superheroes deal with ghostly shit rather then Danny runs away/moves to Gotham for the 30th time. Like lets say the flash has to deal with Kitty and Johnny joy riding in Central city but he can't touch them or freakshow stops in Gotham and kidnaps Jason since the phandom is obsessed with making him a halfa or halfa adjacent. So much potential and none of it explored!

So, yall know how the phandom likes to make ectoplasm an emotional conduit. Where ghosts either can feel / feed on emotions and ectoplasm can have emitions without being a ghost, usually when talking about the pit rage Jason has in the DC stories. Well, let's roll with that and add the Emotional Entities that the lantern corps use.

If ghosts feed on emotions then the lanterns are basically walking snacks, if they sense emotions then the lanterns are walking flash bangs, and if ectoplasm can have emotions then let's have some ghosts get lantern rings simply because they are emotions given physical forms.

Also, yall know how the Danny defeats pariah and becomes king stories are a whole thing, why doesn't that apply to Dan?

Rant/prompt ideas done for now but I have so many more. Let's bring some life back to this half dead phandom.

[crazycatsiren]

Okay, so I had a question about a book series that is NOT THAT book series. It’s a different one. But I have some struggles with it and I wanted to run it by someone. Hope you don’t mind - I’m sure you get tired of being the person everyone seems to go to. Apologies.

So, there’s this book series my mom read to me as a kid at bed time. It’s an older one that I don’t really hear talked about at all, has to do with unicorns. It’s a really cute story and recently I reread them for nostalgia. I loved rereading them, but I ran across something that made me pause. The word “g*psy.”

Now, I know now that I’m older that that word is offensive to most Roma people (I hear that some groups reclaim it, but it depends on who you ask), but I’m wondering if just the use of the word means the entirety of the books are racist? Because honestly… the characters portrayed and labeled as g*psies, besides some of the obvious stereotypes (it is an older kids book, so it has them wearing lots of colors and bells), they’re the good people? It shows them as real characters, with thoughts and feelings, it shows them being oppressed by the rich white lord villain, it shows them having to band together to help each other, to free a wagon when stuck in the mud in the rainy season, being super accepting of everything coming their way. They were the good guys, throughout the entire book series.

And I guess I’m wondering… is it still bad to keep and read books like that? I understand that THAT book has harmful stereotypes and cruel caricatures. But the series I was reading didn’t seem to have that. It just seemed to be using an admittedly racist and offensive word.

I don’t want to be one of those people that puts nostalgia over real people’s hurts. So is there a line? It is an older series, and the people portrayed and labeled as g*psies are not bad or just a plot point. But the word used IS racist. I guess I’m just trying to wrestle with everything. Is it possible to enjoy a series like that, even just quietly? Or should all series’ like that be rejected?

Here's the thing: times change, languages change, words change, people and things change.

Not trying to sound like an old woman but you probably haven't been around long enough to see it all. Back when I was in high school, "retarded" was not only acceptable but also normal. History books and history teachers all said "Indians" instead of native Americans. Less than 10 years ago, when I was teaching elementary school, "gypsy" was the right word to use when it came to teaching children history. Fleetwood Mac has a song called "Gypsy" that came out in 1982.

You're going to come across old literature and media that are frozen in the time period when they were written/produced. When slurs weren't really a thing. Just keep that in mind, and be mindful. Fleetwood Mac is still one of my all time favorite bands.

[swanmay-that-got-away]

Some thoughts on Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser after finishing the first 3 volumes:

Before I go on, would I recommend FnGM: Yes but don't read every story. I have completionist brain when it comes to media, do not be like me, read the ones everyone recommends. A short list would be Ill Met in Lankhmar, Jewels in the Forest, Thieves' House, Bazaar of the Bizarre, Lean Times in Lankhmar, and Stardock. If I do a reread, it'll look a little like that.

FnGM makes a really bad first impression. The Snow Women, and frankly a lot of FnGM stories, are unusually misogynistic even for their time period. The Snow Women has parts I would generally recommend, but I can't, because they're enmeshed with the most intense hate wife bullshit that it shunts me out of the narrative constantly. This is a repeated problem in the stories, with not infrequent rape threats, treating women extremely badly, and just being generally fucking awful? I know FnGM are supposed to be bad people but this is literally everyone in every story all the time. If you're doing a FnGM read, I would recommend skipping The Snow Women, Claws from the Night, Their Mistress The Sea, and the last two books entirely. Those are the worst offenders.

Instead of that, you should start with Ill Met At Lankhmar, which is the first story in the collection order that is both well written and not pointlessly offensive. It's a banger! And it sets the stage for what's so good about FnGM anyhow: two shitty rogues who are a little too witty, fucking up despite their competence. When FnGM shines, this is usually what it's doing. I don't even recommend swinging back to read the first stories later, although the ski fight at the end of Snow Women IS pretty cool.

Leiber's prose is as good as people say it is. I think it's a lot like Moorcock's prose where it's a little annoying by default, until it's ON, and then it's some truly stellar prose that you will remember for a LONG time, and then you fall in love with the default prose too.

Swords Against Death is easily the best single volume of FnGM. It contains the most iconic FnGM stories and it really shows the duo doing their best schtick in the best way. For my money, Jewel in the Forest is my favorite story. That probably says something about me (that I'm really into weird, mindbending, abstract big reveals and care very little about swordplay).

People sleep on The Cloud of Hate. It rocks. It's helped by its short page count, it could've easily gone on past its worth. It doesn't, so the metaphor lasts JUST long enough to feel really cool. Absolutely no idea how you'd use it in a TTRPG, despite my reflex to do so.

Lean Times in Lankhmar feels like a Pratchett novel built for me. I don't really like Pratchett? It always feels like he's taking an extremely long time to say anything and then when he finally says what he wants to say, it's an anticlimax, and the joke doesn't land for me? Anyway, LTiL's pagecount is brief enough that it doesn't do that. If every Pratchett book was like this, I'd be a big Pratchett fan.

I genuinely can't get over Their Mistress The Sea. It's only 5 pages but it has the single most grotesque line in the first three books, which is to the effect of "maybe the witches are mad they weren't raped?" Between this and the pedophilic predilection of Mouser in the later stories, one wonders about Leiber. He says Fafhrd is based on him and Mouser is based on a friend and MAN that is an awful thing to say about someone. I also, disagree, from what i know of the man he was more like Mouser. So.

On the whole, a neat series. Deserves classic status. I need to say "do not read them all, do not read them in order" again, because you really really shouldnt do that. I think I narrowly prefer Elric? I think I'd prefer FnGM in the "Leiber respects women" timeline.

[cultivating-wildflowers]

Books of 2023 - August

A busy month means firing up whatever audiobooks are easiest to access, and I managed to find a handful of books I really enjoyed. And one I hated. As many of you are no doubt aware.

Overall, very pleased with how the reading went this month.

Total books: 10  |  New reads: 7   |   2023 TBR completed: 5 (1 DNF) / 19/25 total   |   2023 Reading Goal: 57/50

July | September

#1 - Anxious People by Fredrik Backman - 5/5 stars (audio)

This. Book.

Such a quiet delight. So cozy but so breathtaking at the same time.

#2 - The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë - 5/5 stars (‘23 TBR, audio)

And again. This book. But for completely different reasons than Anxious People. Is it weird to call a 175 year old book timely? It felt timely for me.

I’m gonna be chewing on this one for a bit.

#3 - Set the Stars Alight by Amanda Dykes - 4/5 stars (‘23 TBR, audio) - 50th read of the year!

This was an enjoyable read, pure and simple. I had some issues with various aspects of the plot and characterization, but those are kind of nitpicky and overall it worked very well. Pacing was excellent, even given the two timelines and POV’s (which can often feel clunky). And for a Christian author and a blatantly Christian story, it DIDN’T PREACH AT ME ONCE. It was just a story anout people who were Christians. It wasn’t about their Christianity. And that was a breath of fresh air.

#4 - Woodwalker by Emily B. Martin - 4/5 stars (audio)

(the author is on tumblr!)

I went into this book with no real idea what to expect, and found a solid adventure set in a rich world. It held my interest for sure, even when I guessed part of the twist--but I did NOT expect the full extent of that final reveal. That part had me cackling with delight. (Y'know. After the initial "uh oh" when things started to fall apart.)

I had a really hard time connecting to the cast, and especially to Mae. I'm thinking some of that might be because of the narrator, especially with regards to the side characters, but at least most of the side characters felt distinct (and one of them REALLY reminded me of an old OC of mine). I couldn't figure out Mae at all, not even at the end. It was honestly frustrating.

That said, the overall story was enjoyable and I fully intend to at least check out the next book in the series.

#5 - The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two by Catherynne M. Valente - 5/5 stars (reread, audio)

While I love this entire series, this may be my favorite of the books, simply for containing my favorite quote in the series:

What others call you, you become. It's a terrible magic that everyone can do — so do it. Call yourself what you wish to become.

and this one:

So it is written - but so, too, it is crossed out. You can write it over again. You can make notes in the margins. You can cut out the whole page. You can, and you must, edit and rewrite and reshape and pull out the wrong parts like bones and find just the thing and you can forever, forever, write more and more and more, thicker and longer and clearer. Living is a paragraph, constantly rewritten. It is Grown-Up Magic. Children are heartless; their parents hold them still, squirming and shouting, until a heart can get going in their little lawless wilderness. Teenagers crash their hearts into every hard and thrilling thing to see what will give and what will hold. And Grown-Ups, when they are very good, when they are very lucky, and very brave, and their wishes are sharp as scissors, when they are in the fullness of their strength, use their hearts to start their story over again.

and this one:

A Library should not shush; it should roar!

All that aside, or perhaps taking all of that into account, I was leery about listening to the audiobook with this one; but I needed something during my trip and only realized after turning it on that it's narrated by Valente herself! So that was actually a nice treat. Now I know how she intended certain things to be pronounced.

#6 - A Voice in the Wind by Francine Rivers - 1/5 stars ('23 TBR, audio)

I know I've already yelled about this book, but I gotta write something vaguely coherent to explain why I hate it.

My first impression, before it went wildly downhill, was that this story could have easily been told with fully half of the actual word count, without losing any substance. We don't need every little detail of these characters' actions.

Ironically, I felt like we did need a bit more of their thought processes, especially when it came to Hadassah. She was opaque. No idea what was going through her head unless it was guilt at not speaking up about her faith. There was a hint of an internal conflict at the beginning--my family's faith is stronger than my own and I doubt God--but that disappeared after the opening scenes, and suddenly she was righteous and upright and full of conviction without any work to get there. Her only fault after that was fear of rejection. That was it. Hadassah was saccharine and perfect, flawless, and flat enough to stick in an envelope and slide under a door.

As for Atretes, much as I liked him, he could have been completely cut from the story without impacting what passed for a plot. He's barely a footnote in the synopsis as it is. (I realize he's in the sequels and I assume plays a bigger [and still dubious] role, but my gut says it's still unnecessary.)

The romance (Marcus and Hadassah, not whatever what going on with Julia at any time and with Atretes at the end) had to be the worst part, though. Chiefly: there wasn't one. There was interest and lust on both parts, but nothing about personalities being complimentary or either one being attractive beyond the physical. At random points, Hadassah's heart beat fast at the though of Marcus. That was it. No introduction, no build up to that, just one day she decided she was interested in him (and not on account of anything he had done toward her specifically). At least on Marcus's part he was interested in Hadassah's behavior and how different she was from the other women he carried on with (read: a slave in his father's household). And we were supposed to buy that? AFTER HE HITS HER? ASSAULTS her? Hard pass for me, kids. Especially because Hadassah still loved him after all of that.

#7 - The Boy Who Lost Fairyland  by Catherynne M. Valente - 4/5 stars (reread, audio)

Hurrah for a good palate cleanse! I decided to continue with the audiobooks to finish this series, since my TBR is piling up and I only have four months left in the year. Sadly this installment was not narrated by Valente, but the narrator did a fantastic job.

#8 - The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home by Catherynne M. Valente - 5/5 stars (reread, audio)

I've read this book three times now but I only ever remember two or three scenes, and never the ending. It's always a delight.

And I have finally finished my reread of this series! It remains a treasured favorite. Definitely one that ages well.

#9 - In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom by Yeonmi Park - 5/5 stars

I don't want to seem like I'm diminishing the force of this book, but it is so well written. Yes, obviously, the subject matter is dark and it's heavy, but the way Park shares her story is breathtaking.

#10 - The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis - 3/5 stars ('23 TBR)

I hate to say it, but my eyes glazed over a lot while reading this one and I’m iffy on the rating. Solid chance I’ll revisit this and reevaluate at a later time.

DNF

Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier ('23 TBR) -

This is not my first Juliet Marillier book, but I read Wildwood Dancing so long ago and retained nothing but a vague impression of the setting, so it was basically like being introduced to a new author.

I didn't finish the first chapter (which admittedly was kind of long). The story wasn't really grabbing me, the pacing felt off, and I belatedly checked the content warnings and decided to go with my instincts. Some skimming and checking the more neutral reviews confirmed that pacing is an issue; reviews also mentioned Sorcha doesn't really drive the story, and that the ending is either open or incomplete.

And even if the content I have an issue with is only limited to one scene...I don't care? I take issue with any author who decides to include it in any level of graphic description, even if "it's not gratuitous" or "it serves the plot". I don't think I'll check out any more of Marillier's writing.