#author Michelle Sagara

[alfvaen]

Novel Deck

I had another birthday in July, taking me from "playing with a full deck" to "in the prime of my life". I celebrated the day, as I celebrate every day, by reading. The results of this daily celebration of reading for the month of July can be seen herein…

(Possible spoilers for the Wild Cards series, David Feintuch's Nicholas Seafort series, Michelle Sagara's Elanta series, Faith Hunter's Jane Yellowrock series, and Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga, among others...)

J.V. Jones: A Cavern of Black Ice, completed July 2

With my current carved-in-stone reading cycle, after I reread I go to either "diversity" slot, or "trying a new author" slot, and this was time for a new author. Often some author or book has caught my attention and so I have already picked it out a while in advance, but this time all I had was "female author", and probably not space opera after the Vorkosigan book I'd just reread. I browsed the pool table where my new-authors-to-try books are collected, and I ended up drawn to this big thick fantasy novel by J.V. Jones. Like, 932 pages thick. Since under 100 pages per day is my usual pace, I decided to schedule it for 10 days of ~93 pages/day, which is about an hour and a half of reading every day; some days that's easier than others, and those days are the ones I make progress on my nonfiction book or whatever.

These days when I'm trying a new author, I give myself permission to just not finish the book if I'm not enjoying it, and especially if it's something thick like this. I've bailed on a few of those. So I was pleasantly surprised to find the book keeping my interest. There was one scene in the first chapter where the characters were having a scene of lighthearted rivalry that seemed a little meh, but things quickly took a turn for the darker so there wasn't any more of that. I mean, it's not that I only like grimdark fantasy or anything like that, but several of the books that I did stop were because the characters didn't feel like they had enough emotional depth.

There are inevitable comparisons to A Song of Ice And Fire here that keep coming up. For one thing, the majority of the action is taking place in cold northern climates, and a lot of it in winter, so there's that. There are also distant and uncaring gods, a tribal leader who keeps reminding me of something between Walder Frey and Tywin Lannister, and characters who keep having to carry on when they're badly hurt and nearly frozen. But there's a fair amount of actual magic, something that George R.R. Martin shied away from, though it is costly and doesn't always do the main characters all that much good.

Our main characters are Asarhia "Ash" March, a girl who was born outside the gates of a city in the prologue, and was adopted as a founding by the sinister Penthero Iss, who has Plans for her; and Raif Sevrance, a young clansman from the Blackhail clan, whose life is turned upside down when his father and the chief are slaughtered while he and his brother were out of the camp, and the chief's slimy foster son takes over. We also get POV from Iss himself, as well as Raif's young sister Essie (whose inclusion also feels vaguely Martinesque), Vaylo Bludd (leader of a rival clan, the Frey/Tywin analogue I mentioned earlier), and occasional others. The clans feel fairly authentic, mostly somewhat Germanic with cold-weather adaptations (and there are definite Inuit analogues around there too).

There are a few places where random helpful people show up to help out our main characters, but in general they seem to be well foreshadowed so it doesn't feel like too much of a cheat. One of them turns out randomly to be Raif's uncle, which maybe stretches things a bit, but mostly it's fine. I do have a little trouble taking the Bludd Clan too seriously because the name feels a little silly. (Would it be better if it was just "Blood"? Maybe?) But these are minor nitpicks, and I generally enjoyed the book, harrowing as it was at times. Unfortunately, that means I will now have to find copies of the undoubtedly-out-of-print-except-as-overpriced-ebook sequels…

George R.R. Martin (editor): Mississippi Roll, completed July 6

Next book would be a male author (or, in this case, male editor with both male and female contributors), and not a big thick epic fantasy. I ended up picking the next book in the Wild Cards series, which I'm amazed is still going. I started reading it in the early years, and bogged down a bit (particularly after Aces Abroad, the fourth book, which I didn't really care for). Back then I was only really interested in the characters with superpowers, not the jokers or skilled "nat" characters. The series initially ran for twelve books, and then a sequel trilogy, and then it stopped for a while. When I started doing more rereads, I ended up doing a reread of all fifteen, and by then there were more. There were two books after that published only as ebooks, which I didn't read for years, but eventually I did get ebook-reading capabilities and went on. And the series had started up again too, with a new generation of heroes (and some new writers).

The basic premise of the series is that, just after World War II, an alien virus was released on Earth, which caused many of the people exposed to it to die, many of the survivors to be deformed, and a lucky few acquired superpowers. When it came out, there were a number of shared-world series like Thieves' World and Heroes In Hell, but this was different, with superheroes in a more modern setting. After the first book, which covered the first few decades of the world with the Wild Cards virus, each book was taking place in a more or less contemporary timeframe. It was always grittier than comic-book heroes, but then it was the era of "Watchmen" and such when it first came out. The books weren't all in the same format, either: some of them were collections of more-or-less unrelated stories, each with a different writer; some of them were interleaved and overlapping short stories; some of them were "mosaic novels" where multiple writers wrote different characters interacting over the same timeline; and there were even a few single-author novels. George R.R. Martin was one of the early contributors (long before A Game of Thrones), and others included Walter Jon Williams, Roger Zelazny, Howard Waldrop (whose idea it was, apparently, to start the timeline in 1946), Melinda Snodgrass. Edward Bryant, Pat Cadigan, Stephen Leigh, David Anthony Durham, Lewis Shiner, Mary Anne Mohanraj, and dozens more. Often the books end up in three-volume arcs, and this is starting a new one. The books are almost all card references of some type, and this seems to start a sequence of books named after types of poker. It seems to have something to do with a riverboat.

It turns out that this book is not really the first of a new arc; although this book and the next two, Low Chicago and Texas Hold 'Em, are labelled "The American Triad", it actually seems like each book is supposed to be self-contained, and each trumpets that it would be a great starting point. I guess they want to attract readers who haven't read all 23 previous volumes or something? So it is strictly linked short stories, with one framing story that has its own resolution. The aces (and jokers) who show up are almost all ones that have been in earlier volumes, and the central plot has to do with Kazakh joker refugees from the last book (with ICE villains). It's not the strongest Wild Cards collection, unfortunately; in fact it may be the weakest since Aces Abroad in many ways, but it's not bad.

David Feintuch: Children of Hope, completed July 13

I wasn't sure what to go on to after the Wild Cards book, apart from "male author". I wasn't yet ready for another thick epic fantasy, and Wild Cards, as a superhero book, fits vaguely into "urban fantasy" (if you squint), so I decided to look at science fiction. (I already knew my next book would be a reread, but a Star Trek novel, in a slight break from the Vorkosigan series.) And I ended up picking this one, which would finish off a series.

Feintuch's Nicholas Seafort series is interesting, if sometimes problematic. The initial quartet follows Nicholas Seafort from his early days as a midshipman on a spaceship. Seafort is constantly tormented by the fact that, to do the right thing, he has to, as he sees it, compromise his honour and damn his soul to hell. And yet he does it, and is widely lauded as a hero for it, which is a torture that Aral Vorkosigan would definitely empathize with. The problematic parts, which are a thread through every book and so it's hard to tell if they align with the author's belief system or not, are 1) a conviction that corporal punishment and discipline is a good way to make an unruly person not only behave, but thank you later for making them a better person, and 2) a strong religious background. After the initial quartet there was Voices of Hope, a multi-POV book not centered around Seafort (though I believe he was still there), which suffered as a result, and then Patriarch's Hope, a welcome return to Seafort.

This book, interestingly, is a single-POV book, but it's not Seafort this time. Instead it's about Randy, the teenage son of one of Seafort's oldest friends, who got killed in the last book, and he blames Seafort for his father's death. He starts off as a thoughtless, rebellious teen (though there's a framing story where he's giving testimony of some sort to a church official) who makes a bad decision in a rage and then has to deal with the consequences. Many characters from previous books show up.

It's actually pretty gripping, because we not only have Randy's personal problems (and his trying to coming to terms with Seafort), but we also have growing conflict with the religious leaders on the colony (all of whom seem to be just cartoonishly evil), and we have a first-contact story, which is done really well. Definitely mixed messages about religion--Seafort is fond of assigning Bible verse memorization for disciplinary purposes, for instance, but practically every other character who even shows the slightest respect to the actual church actually ends up betraying him before the end. The ending of the book is a little open-ended, which apparently may have been because Feintuch was working on a sequel that he never finished before his death. Even as it is, it makes a decent coda to the series.

Diane Carey: Final Frontier, completed July 18

Next was coming another reread, but one of the breaks in the Vorkosigan reread. Amongs the books I've been interspersing with my series rereads have been Discworld books, Dick Francis books, and a lot of the old Star Trek books I read in my teens. A lot of the latter have not held up and I've weeded them. This book, from 1988, was probably one of the last that I bought. Also, most of the novels were standard length for the time, which is to say around 200 pages, but around this time they had put out a few extra-large (over 400 page!!!) novels, all of them odd prequels. We had Enterprise: The First Adventure, which occurred when James T. Kirk first arrives on board the Enterprise; Strangers From The Sky, a flashback to first contact with the Vulcans (which didn't look much like the "Star Trek: First Contact" movie for some reason), and this one.

Diane Carey had written a couple of the shorter Star Trek books by this point. I had read her first one, Dreadnought!, where she had own characters, a young Starfleet officer and her Vulcan or half-Vulcan companion, and the standard Star Trek cast members were secondary; I don't know that I ever read the second, Battlestations!. Luckily this one didn't get the exclamation mark on the title.

The premise seems a little weak at first--it's a book about James Kirk's father, George Samuel Kirk, who was never a captain in his own right, but was apparently a Commander and first officer. Ho hum. And we start with a framing story, explicitly set just after "The City On The Edge of Forever", in which James Kirk is, in the wake of Edith Keeler's death, wrestling with the question of whether he even wants to be a starship captain any more. So he's moping back on the old family farm, reading his father's old letters, while McCoy and Spock attempt to chivvy him out of his mood.

So George Kirk was a mildly corrupt security officer on a starbase, bilking traders out of gambling money together with his friend Drake. And then he gets abducted, which is cool. But just to bring him to a secret Federation base, where he's being shanghaied onto a secret mission, with Captain Robert April, on a new untested starship, so new it doesn't even have a name yet (though it's probably going to be an NCC-1700-something-or-other, three guesses), where they're going to perform a daring rescue of some colonists dying of radiation poisoning in an ion storm, as a combination of mission of mercy and PR stunt for the new ships. Oh, and we also get viewpoint from some Romulan characters (in fact, Rihannsu Romulan, as introduced by Diane Duane back before there was much Romulan worldbuilding) for some reason. And it turns out that reason is that somebody sabotages April's unnamed ship, so that when it hits the ion storm the warp drive kicks into overdrive and they go waaaaay off course…in fact, into Romulan space!

Maybe it's the extra length allowing Carey the room to develop things more fully, but I found this a really engaging book, for the most part (I don't know that we needed the tiny romance between April and the medical officer). The intrigue among the Romulans was well done, the character conflicts between Robert April and George Kirk, and the tensions of having to deal with a ship with tremendous capabilities but only erratically available because it's a) unfinished, b) short-staffed, and c) often damaged. (Which works better here than in "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier", which by a weird coincidence I watched to the end for the first time while reading this book.) Suffers a little bit from the endemic 1980s random POV shifting, a.k.a. "headhopping", but it's not as bad as some books I've read. And there was also some real tension given that I didn't know whether or not Captain Kirk's father had actually disappeared mysteriously when he was ten years old, so I wasn't certain George was going to survive until the end of the book. So this held up surprisingly well and it's going to be one of the rare Star Trek books that I actually keep after this reread.

Michelle Sagara: Cast In Sorrow, completed July 23

Another female-author diversity slot, and once again I am using it for a Michelle Sagara West book. I went into some of her background back in my December book post, but basically, she seems to have her thick epic fantasy series under Michelle West, whereas under Michelle Sagara she has mainly relatively shorter works. Mainly, she has the Elantra series (or the "Cast" series, since the books in the series are all "Cast In something"), set mostly in the city of Elantra, with the main character of Kaylin Neya.

Kaylin was born in "the fiefs" in the city of Elantra, which are vaguely similar to the "hundred holdings" in the city of Averalaan in the Michelle West books, but with some differences. She's a low-ranking officer in the city guard, as every book tends to make a point of establishing early on, because otherwise we might forget it. She's a personal acquaintace of the fieflord Nightshade, she's been sort of adopted into the noble families of the ~elves~ Barrani, she has weird living runes all over her body which give her magical power which she is bad at controlling (except for healing, which is her spare-time avocation), she is friends with several dragons (dragons in mostly-humanoid form run most of the city), and in general she hobnobs, awkwardly, with a lot of the movers and shakers of the kingdom.

The books tend to be self-contained, though with threads that continue from book to book; this book is a bit of an exception, as a direct continuation of the previous book, Cast In Peril, which I presume just grew too long for one volume. It takes her out of her comfort zone (the city of Elantra) and across country to take part in a Barrani ritual, at the behest of Lord Nightshade, whom she owed a favour from an earlier book. Also from the previous book, she has a small dragon-like being (a "familiar") accompanying her, and nobody quite knows what to make of it.

Sagara/West is definitely a fan of the softer, vibes-based type of magic. Kaylin (like Jewel ATerafin) will do things based on instinct, not always sure if she can do them at all. Except that Kaylin can mostly do stuff based on the runes on her body--taking runes off of her body or absorbing other runes she finds. She has to do a number of very vague magics, many of them involving her Barrani colleague Teela, who was part of an earlier iteration of the ritual that went awry, and assemble a "story" with the help of Lord Nightshade. There's also some Barrani not-quite-politics, much of which (like the magic) revolves around the fact that some Barrani (and Kaylin) have "Names".

Perhaps because so much of the story is based strongly on what happened in the previous book, and also from Cast In Courtlight, the second book in the series and the first Barrani-centered one, I found myself at sea for large chunks of the book, trying to figure out what was going on. So this was not my favourite in the series to date, and I look forward to being back in the city for the next book.

Faith Hunter: Mercy Blade, completed July 27

I have started a whole lot of urban fantasy series, so I'm in the middle of a lot of urban fantasy series, and often I enjoy them, but perhaps not as much as I want to. Which tends to mean that I don't get through a lot of them as fast as I could. This felt like it might be time to stick an urban fantasy book into the sequence, which means I have to dither over the various series I'm reading trying to figure out which one I want. Patricia Briggs (Mercy Thompson) and Diana Pharaoh Francis (Horngate Witches) were fairly recent, so probably not back to those, and I just finished the Kelly Meding (Dregs) series and don't want to start a new one yet. I'm maybe starting to get a little more invested in the Ilona Andrews (Kate Daniels) and Seanan McGuire (Tobey Day) series but it felt like I should make progress with one of the ones I'd been neglecting instead. So I picked up the next Faith Hunter (Jane Yellowrock) book.

The Jane Yellowrock series has some nontrivial similarities with other series, but then they are all mostly drawing from the same well. Jane is a shapeshifter, not a were, kind of like Mercy Thompson. She's spending a lot of time in New Orleans dealing with vampires, a common pastime; in Jane's case, while she is an accredited vampire slayer, she's currently working for Leo, the head of the New Orleans vampires, as a security consultant. Some of the supernatural beings (vampires and I think witches) are public, but others are not (and hardly anybody knows that Jane's a shifter). And our main character has several boys after her, though currently she's dating an undercover cop named Rick.

I liked the previous book, Blood Cross, but this one did not do it as much for me. For one thing, there were annoying sequences of Jane being tempted to cheat on Rick, especially since he seemed to be cheating on her (or was that just something he had to do to keep from blowing his cover?). The "mercy blade" of the title, another supernatural being (of a previously unfamiliar type) whose calling is taking down vampires who have gone insane (or, through their magical blood, keeping them from doing so), is a somewhat annoying character that I did not really warm to. And then we get out main plot, of werecats (i.e. werepanthers, weretigers, etc.) going public and having high-level talks with Jane's vampire client…followed by a group of were_wolves_ coming out and threatening Leo with old murder charges. Now werewolves, with their stupid debunked alpha-based dynamics, are one of my least favourite urban fantasy race, and I don't think these ones have any redeeming features whatsoever, so they're just annoying. The plot is very tangled and lost me a few times, too.

I also dock marks for having a Harry Potter reference. (One of the major reasons that I gave up on Jennifer Estep's Elemental Assassin series after one book was a gratuitous Harry Potter reference near the end of the book. I mean, I'm sorry, if supernatural races were entirely hidden until after the series was written, then I'll give it a pass--but in Estep's series magic was publicly known for long enough that the cities don't even have the same names. Why would anyone be writing books about Harry Potter?) One amusing bit of worldbuilding is that vampires were outed when vampire Marilyn Monroe tried to turn JFK, and failed. So vampires have been in the world since the 60s, and still there was Harry Potter? Sorry, no, I don't buy it.

So probably this series has been pushed down in my urban fantasy cycle and it'll be longer before I go on to the next book.

James Goss (& Douglas Adams?): Doctor Who And The Krikkitmen, completed July 30

I have read a lot of Douglas Adams (not that hard, since he wasn't particularly prolific), and I have watched a certain amount of Doctor Who (I have watched almost all of Doctors 3 through 11, and rewatched a lot of 9 through 11 as well). So I was intrigued by the idea of a book that, presumably, depicted a Doctor Who version of Life, The Universe And Everything. I would be perfectly willing to believe that the story started out as a Doctor Who script proposal, at the very least.

But who's this James Goss guy? Ah, I see…I guess he's kind of novelizing the original script, or script treatment or whatever form it was in before Adams replaced The Doctor and Romana with Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect. (Probably not a one-to-one map in either case.) It looks like he's written other Doctor Who tie-in stuff, so I guess that's okay. I know there's a whole series of other Doctor Who stuff, novels and audiobooks and such, which I haven't delved into because mostly I'm not that interested, but this one seems to be all right. He does a decent job of channeling Douglas Adams's voice, at least as good a job as Eoin Colfer did with And Another Thing.

It turns out the original Adams treatment is in an appendix, and the doctor's companion was listed as "Jane"--not Romana, but not necessarily Sarah Jane either? Goss says he changed it to Romana because a major plot point is "Jane" supposedly flying to Gallifrey, which only timelords can do… The timeline is a bit fuzzy; well, of course, this is Doctor Who after all, but, I mean, what is the "present day" on Earth supposed to be? Because there are references to mobile phones and the Internet, and yet near the end it is heavily implied that Romana goes to meet Margaret Thatcher, who talks about "Ronnie" and his "Star Wars" nuclear defense. They may have had some sort of large mobile phones back in Ronnie's day, but not so much Internet. I guess it may not necessarily be implied that the internet and mobile phones are present on Earth, they may just be mentioned as things that alien planets have, but with the implication that the reader is of course thoroughly familiar with them. So I guess that's okay.

On the whole I quite enjoyed it, though it felt like it maybe went on a bit long. I don't quite remember the entire plot of Life, The Universe, And Everything, but I felt like we reached the climax of that plot at the halfway point of the book, so I kept wondering what the rest of the plot was going to be about. I guess we met more characters on Krikkit and got into their politics a bit more (and there was a highly unnecessary bit near the end with the two Jehovah's Witnesses [?] going to Krikkit and trying to talk the new leader into setting up a new religion), but I don't think there was anything there that the Arthur Dent version was really missing out on. (I guess there were things from the Hitchhiker's Guide radio show scripts that were omitted from the books and they weren't really missed…and some things work well in some media but not others, too.)

Lois McMaster Bujold: The Flowers of Vashnoi

I didn't expect to squeeze another book into July, actually. The Krikkitmen book was over 400 pages (though the last 40-50 were the appendices) and I normally don't read much more than 100 pages a day. But this week my car was in the shop and I was spending a lot of time on the bus, so I ended up getting more reading done than normal. (I finished so many books during the three-month period I was working for Nexopia and the parking was ridiculously expensive so I spent two hours on the bus every day.) And my next read was another novella.

The last thing released to date in the Vorkosigan Saga has been the novella "The Flowers of Vashnoi", but apparently it's not the last in the timeline. I couldn't quite remember exactly when it happened except definitely after A Civil Campaign, since it features Enrique Borgos, and it seemed likely after Diplomatic Immunity as well. But apparently it happens before Cryoburn, so here it comes in the reread sequence.

It's labelled as "An Ekaterin Vorkosigan story", and I guess I had forgotten that she is the only POV character, and that Miles himself is only intermittently present. As the title implies to the knowledgeable, it's set around the ruins of the city of Vorkosigan Vashnoi, the former Vorkosigan District capital until it was nuked by the Cetagandans. Count Piotr passed it on to Miles as a highly questionable bequest (and Miles mortgaged it to a Betan back in The Warrior's Apprentice to help buy Arde Mayhew's ship, though he got it back), and now he has a plan to help clean it up, courtesy of Enrique and some genetically-engineered bugs to help concentrate radioactive material for easy disposal. Ekaterin accompanies Enrique and Miles to their test site in the radioactive zone, only to find some of the bugs have gone missing…and maybe the area is not as deserted as they thought.

It's more similar to "The Mountains of Mourning" than any other Vorkosigan story, really, dealing with rural low-tech people and trying to keep them from being abandoned by the system. And attitudes about mutation.

#

I had decided to officially drop my Goodreads Challenge goal from 100 down to 90, to stop from feeling oppressed when I fell behind, and avoiding longer books. But sometimes I forget some of my techniques for gaming the system. Like, I had two very short books come in for me at the library, and I counted those against my total, and suddenly I was two books ahead. And "The Flowers of Vashnoi" only took me a day, too.

One of the library books was Terrible Maps from the social media account of the same name, which I followed on Twitter and Instagram and so probably don't follow any more since I'm on neither platform these days. (Are they on Mastodon or Bluesky, or even Tumblr? I should check.) Anyway, when they announced their book coming out, I requested the local library purchase it, and they did. It's not a big book, and I had seen most of the maps before, but the rest of my family enjoyed it, so there's that. The other one was There Are Dads Way Worse Than You, whose cover I'd caught a glimpse of, with Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader standing awkwardly looking down at Luke's severed hand; it looked cute so I put a hold on it. That one I found more disappointing; I might have liked it better if it was just a bunch of sketches of bad fictional dads, but unfortunately in addition to those it also had a poem about them, which I did not actually like. Admittedly, I wouldn't have recognized all the fictional dads on my own without labels, but this just felt too clunky.

Still making a little progress in the Risk book, though at some point in the middle of the month I went back to Marvel Unlimited to read another month of comics, a Sisyphean task by this point, since I seem to be long past the point where I read a month's worth of comics in a month. Well, whatever.

[ameliedebruyne]

what's the book you’ve reread the most times?

I think it's book 1 of the Chronicles of Elantra series by Michelle Sagara. It's a urban fantasy series following a police officer but set in a secondary world, and I absolutely love all the secondary characters and worldbuilding.

The author has a very subtle writing and a slightly biased/unreliable narrator, and also some big event happening in book 5 that leads to a big reinterpretation of earlier interactions between 2 characters, so I've done a lot of rereading and analysis of those books with some online friends - we even made a fan website just for that 😂

It's also basically the books I used to learn English!😅 My first book I read in English was Harry Potter 6 at the end of 2006, and I wanted to continue after that, and since I had just read Elantra 1 in French, I bought the next books in English. So now I have a few words like "reliable", "relevant", "portcullis" that always make me think of those books when I see them 😂

(and this is also the book series that made me realise I love enemies-to-lovers and I needed more of those in my life 🤣)

Thanks for the ask!

[first-flower-of-my-house]

1, 27, 32 for book asks! 📖

Thanks for the ask friendo!!

1. Name the best book you've read so far this year.

I’ve read 64 books so far this year, mostly rereads, so I’ll do top three new and reread!

New to me!

Mass Effect Andromeda: Nexus Uprising by Jason M. Hough and K. C. Alexander

The Sunshine Court by Nora Sakavic ( @korakos)

In the Serpent’s Wake by Rachel Hartman

Rereads!

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini

Love is the Drug by Alaya Dawn Johnson

So You Want to Be a Wizard by Diane Duane ( @dduane)

27. What was the first book you remember reading as a kid?

While I know I definitely read Magic Tree House first it’s uh. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban sadly. My mom read me the first two as bedtime stories and I distinctly remember being excited to be allowed to read it on my own

32. Name your favorite author(s).

Okay other than those listed above:

Susan Dennard ( @stdennard) (READ THE LUMINARIES AND TRUTHWITCH I BEG OF YOU) (Hi Sooz!!)

Michelle Sagara (Chronicles of Elantra my beloved)

Tamsyn Muir (I have already listened to GtN/HtN/NtN TWICE this year)

Claire LeGrand (Winterspell and Emperium Trilogy my loves)

Sarah J. Maas (don’t judge me)

Cassandra Clare ( @cassandraclare) (I’ve actually met her and SJM twice each somehow)

Richelle Mead (Vampire Academy my beloved)

Michelle Hodkin (Mara Dyer my beloved, Noah Shaw my beloved)

Jennifer L. Armentrout (I’m very excited for her new book in August)

M. J. Scott (I love her Half Light City series SO MUCH)

I could go on and on and on

[mild-lunacy]

Writing blogs outside Tumblr

🔹Latest News and Blog Posts - Rachel Neumeier

🔹Blog - ILONA ANDREWS

🔹Blog - Michelle Sagara

🔹Blog - T.A. White

🔹Dorothy Grant / Mad Genius club / blog

🔹KJ Charles – Words for sale

🔹Jeffe Kennedy Blog – RITA ® Award-Winning Author of Fantasy Romance

🔹Jessie Mihalik / Blog

🔹Jennifer Estep / Blog

🔹Jennifer Armentrout / Blog

🔹Annette Marie News

🔹Coming Soon - Ruby Dixon

🔹Lindsay Buroker News

🔹TA Moore Writes | Substack

[msbarrows]

Well if you want urban fantasy it's hard to go wrong with the king of urban fantasy, Charles de Lint. He has a few (older) standalone books but most of his stories take place in the fictional city of Newford, which is kind sorta like a blend of Ottawa (area he lives, iirc) and Seattle. Uses a blend of European and First Nations mythologies. Personal favourite: Someplace To Be Flying.

Tanya Huff (oh look, a second Canadian author, can you guess my nationality...) also writes some wonderful urban fantasy, and light fantasy, and fantastical sci fi. She also sometimes includes queer characters (from the viewpoint of a queer author). Personal favourites: The Fire's Stone (polyamory, MMF), The Smoke Trilogy (MM), which is sequel to her Blood series (MFC and vampire). Both old enough to be a little dated now but still a good read. Can't mention her without also mentioning her Valor series (that's the fantastical sci fi one - includes among other things pastel haired nymphomaniac space elves).

I'd rec Guy Gavriel Kay just on the basis of what an awesome storyteller he is (Look! Another Canadian!), except darn it most of his fantasy is more-or-less historical, being mostly vaguely based on real history with all the names (and map) changed. But if you ever want beautiful sometimes painful stories that will probably make you cry, he's a good choice. Books of his I would never give up re-reading include Tigana, A Song For Arbonne, and The Lions of Al-Rassan. (Okay yes I'm reccing him anyway).

Let's go for four big names in Canadian-written fantasy - Michelle Sagara (West) and her Queen of the Dead urban fantasy trilogy. And if you like that she's written a couple of epic fantasy series - look for Michelle West's Sun Sword/Sacred Hunt/House War books and Michelle Sagara's Chronicles of Elantra series (the Cast In... books)

Not urban fantasy but fantasy with romance between queer characters (and lots of intrigue and espionage) - Lynn Flewelling's Nightrunner series (gay MMCs).

Let's see, paranormal romance - Robin McKinley's Sunshine (MFC and vampire).

Another urban fantasy with queer characters - P. Djeli Clark's Djinn series.

Queer and urban fantasy - T.J. Klune pretty much everything, though some of it is toward the YA end of the scale.

Queer fantasy - Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint books (MM, poly FFM iirc). And most of Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar books have queer characters too. Alexandra Rowland's A Taste of Gold and Iron (MM).

Queer romance fantasy crime investigation procedural - Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett's Astreiant series (MM). Also fantasy with queer characters is Melissa's The Master of Samar.

Queer romance - Sam Starbuck's Shivadverse series (available on Lulu books under that name and on AO3 as @copperbadge). Lyn Gala's soft SF Desert World trilogy.

Urban paranormal mystery - okay I haven't actually read this one yet, it's on my TBR pile, but Mark Leslie's A Canadian Werewolf series.

I'm looking for book recs!

Things I'm looking for: urban fantasy, romance (especially romantic suspense, paranormal romance, and/or queer or polyamorous), political thrillers, mysteries (more Kay Hooper than John Grisham), easy fantasy

Things I'm not looking for: hard fantasy or sci fi, horror, lit fic, historical or Christian romance, YA, Colleen Hoover or Sarah J. Maas

Feel free to rec your own books, if they're out there somewhere! I appreciate any suggestions people have for me.

[kkpxcoy]

Cast in Eternity (Chronicles of Elantra #17) - Michelle Sagara

EPUB & PDF Ebook Cast in Eternity (Chronicles of Elantra #17) | EBOOK ONLINE DOWNLOAD

by Michelle Sagara.

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Ebook PDF Cast in Eternity (Chronicles of Elantra #17) | EBOOK ONLINE DOWNLOAD Hello Book lovers, If you want to download free Ebook, you are in the right place to download Ebook. Ebook Cast in Eternity (Chronicles of Elantra #17) EBOOK ONLINE DOWNLOAD in English is available for free here, Click on the download LINK below to download Ebook Cast in Eternity (Chronicles of Elantra #17) 2020 PDF Download in English by Michelle Sagara (Author).

 Description Book: 

Dead men tell no talesWhen Corporal Kaylin Neya is assigned front desk duty?a task hated by every Hawk?the only thing she can look forward to besides an endless stream of complaints is visits from a dotty old woman. She always brings baked goods along with information passed on by her friends?who happen to be ghosts no one else can see. But then the old woman?s invisible friends have news about Severn Handred: his unusual weapon has caught their attention. Concerned, Kaylin accompanies the woman home because she has a few questions to ask these so-called ghosts.Sadly, Kaylin can also see them. And she can see other spirits in the woman?s house as well?four children who?ve been trapped there for decades. When Kaylin looks into the deaths in the records at the Halls of Law, something doesn?t add up. Factor in a building that isn?t supposed to exist, and nothing makes sense. But Kaylin is a Hawk, and she?s determined to free the trapped ghosts of the children, even if she?s suddenly

[kathydavie]

Book Review: Michelle Sagara's The Emperor's Wolves

Book Review: Michelle Sagara’s The Emperor’s Wolves

First in The Wolves of Elantra fantasy series (and 0.1 in The Chronicles of Elantra series) revolving around Severn Handred, the Wolf first assigned to work with Kaylin Neya in Cast in Shadow, 1. My Take Sagara has, er, had been making me wonder about Severn and how he ended up with the Wolves. Now, at last, we get to find out. I love that we learn more about Kaylin’s background from Severn’s…

[whispersmith]

Confusing game genres with book genres so that I come out with Michelle Sagara writing character action titles

[devonellington]

Tues. Sept. 20, 2022: The Boostered Couch Potato

Tues. Sept. 20, 2022: The Boostered Couch Potato

image courtesy of Agata via Pixabay.com Tuesday, September 20, 2022 Waning Moon Pluto, Saturn, Neptune, Chiron, Jupiter, Uranus, Mercury Retrograde Yup, Mars is still in Gemini (until March 2023) Cloudy and cooler Anyone else find all these retrogrades exhausting? This will be short, because it was close to a Lost Weekend. Not due to alcohol (hopefully, I’ve matured beyond that by now).…

[luckywatersao3]

Ahhhh I can’t believe I haven’t asked you this but!!! Do you have any fic recommendations (I’ll read any ship honestly and either marvel or hp)? I feel like you most definitely have top tier taste 😋💘✨

“top tier taste” heck yeah 💅

Sorry this took a week to respond to! I kept getting distracted when I was looking through my bookmarks being like "oh wow I forgot about this story" or "why haven't I bookmarked this story?"

Small disclaimer: I only really started using bookmarks in the last year, so a lot of fics that I read before than have fallen through the cracks here, especially in the HP fandom. But here are some that I really like!

Harry Potter

Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter

The Man Who Lived (253826 words) by sebastianL Chapters: 42/42 Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: Explicit Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter Characters: Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter Additional Tags: Original Characters - Freeform, Sexual Content, Violence, Slow Burn, First Person, Character Study, Enemies to Friends, Friends to Lovers Summary:Draco breaks a cup, and one thing leads to another. A story of redemption, tattoos, dreams, mistakes, green eyes, long conversations, and copious amounts of coffee.Set in New York twelve years after the war.

The Bucket List (32393 words) by GallaPlacidia Chapters: 17/17 Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: Not Rated Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter Characters: Pansy Parkinson, Teddy Lupin Additional Tags: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, contrived love curses, terminal illness but in kind of a light hearted way?, Draco Malfoy living his best life, Bucket List, Secret Identities, Sickfic Summary:Draco will die in six months if he can't get Harry Potter to fall in love with him. Since that's not going to happen, he might as well spend his last days working through his Bucket List. Tap-dancing lessons? Rock climbing? Poetry-writing? Threesomes? Cocaine? Getting to know his adorable cousin, Teddy Lupin? Draco will try them all!Feat. Cheerily pessimistic Draco, devoted bitch queen Pansy Parkinson, and a Harry who can't help but notice that something seems DIFFERENT about Draco, these days.Inspired by a lovely piece by khasael called Somebody To Love. Also indebted to You've Got The Antidote For Me by Kandakicksass and IDK My BFF Hermione? by lettered

The Moon Looks Lovely Tonight (35723 words) by Omi_Ohmy Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter Characters: Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Luna Lovegood, Gregory Goyle Additional Tags: Board Games, Owls, Potions, Sharing a Bed, Grimmauld Place, HP: EWE, Pining Summary:When Harry moves into the damp and empty Black house, it doesn’t quite feel like home. And then the first owl moves in. After that, it’s a steep slope leading to bed-sharing, more owls, assorted housemates, strange potions experiments, and terrible cooking. And a bit of waltzing, too.

Harry Potter/Severus Snape

Between the Lines (22816 words) by Dementordelta Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Harry Potter/Severus Snape Characters: Harry Potter, Severus Snape Summary:Harry discovers a secret in his Potions text and a friend in the Half-Blood Prince.

Final Examination (22807 words) by asecretchord Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: Not Rated Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Harry Potter/Severus Snape Characters: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Ginny Weasley, Minerva McGonagall Additional Tags: Pre-Slash, Snarry-A-Thon Challenge Summary:"Is this some sort of test?""Everything that doesn't kill you is.""Mind you," he added, "surviving doesn't always mean you passed."― Michelle Sagara West

Marvel

Peter Parker/Tony Stark

Stipulations (70043 words) by Anonymous Chapters: 11/11 Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Iron Man (Movies) Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Peter Parker/Tony Stark Characters: Peter Parker, Tony Stark, Michelle Jones, Pepper Potts, Aunt May, Ned Leeds, Steve Rogers, James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Sam Wilson (Marvel), Wanda Maximoff, Vision (Marvel), James "Bucky" Barnes, Natasha Romanov (Marvel), T'Challa (Marvel), Nakia (Black Panther), Happy Hogan Additional Tags: Slow Burn, Age Difference, Peter is 18, POV Alternating, Explicit Sexual Content, Power Imbalance, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, author has already arranged a ride to church trust me Summary:Peter Parker’s longterm dream recently went from ‘get into MIT’ to ‘afford going to MIT’. As the time approaches, it’s dawning on him that he won’t be able to pay his tuition and afford the move to Cambridge all at once: he’s out of money, his secrets are beginning to pile up, and desperation has started creeping in...And then one night, he saves Tony Stark’s life.

Wouldn't Be The Worst Thing (7729 words) by deltorafray Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Peter Parker/Tony Stark Characters: Peter Parker, Tony Stark, James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Sam Wilson (Marvel) Additional Tags: Getting Together, First Time, Underage Drinking, (in the US), 20-year-old Peter Parker, Fluff, Smut, Fluff and Smut, Light-Hearted, drama-free, Daddy Kink, Panty Kink, Anal Sex, Oral Sex, Rimming, Anal Fingering, Riding, Sugar Daddy Tony Stark, Sugar Baby Peter Parker, Graphic Sex Summary:In which Peter somehow finds himself having a sugar daddy in Tony Stark without either of them meaning to, but neither really do anything to stop it. It’s not like anyone else bats an eye either, so it just … happens.

Refraction (16300 words) by chelicerata Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Peter Parker/Tony Stark Characters: Peter Parker, Tony Stark Additional Tags: Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, But also, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Tony Stark is not Iron Man, (...Yet), Dimension Travel, Multiverse fuckery Summary:In which Tony Stark gets kidnapped (again), meets a real life superhero, and has a long-delayed midlife crisis.

Gift of Choice (11744 words) by tuesday Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies) Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Peter Parker/Tony Stark Characters: Peter Parker, Tony Stark Additional Tags: College Student Peter Parker, Sugar Daddy, Sugar Daddy Tony Stark, College, Explicit Sexual Content, Stealth Crossover, Multiple Orgasms, POV Peter Parker, Lingerie, Sex Toys, Age Difference, Canon-Typical Violence, Sounding, Romance, Flirting, Adult Peter Parker Series: Part 15 of Author's Favorites Summary:Tony Stark had a thing about giving Peter stuff.

Raising Hybrid Puppies (158269 words) by JayPendragon Chapters: 33/33 Fandom: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Iron Man (Movies) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Underage Relationships: Peter Parker/Tony Stark Characters: May Parker (Spider-Man), Pepper Potts, Bruce Banner, Ned Leeds, Michelle (Spider-Man: Homecoming), Jarvis (Iron Man movies), Adrian Toomes, Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes, Phil Coulson Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Slow Build, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Age Difference, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Tony Stark vs. The Media, jarvis disapproves, Consensual Underage Sex, Last Week Tonight as plot point, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Happy Ending, Humor, Angst Series: Part 1 of Hybrid Puppy Verse Summary:When Tony saunters into the coffee shop, he never expected to meet Peter Parker, the incredibly hot barista with a brilliant mind and a passion for engineering only rivaled by Tony’s own. Tony always gets what he wants – which is pushing Peter up against the counter and making sure he forgets his own name.But he can’t.Because Peter’s sixteen.~*~A non-powered Tony/Peter coffee shop AU with billionaire Tony and working-class, teenage Peter. Also, Toomes has a bakery and somehow Last Week Tonight is a genuine plot point.Translations: Korean | Russian | ItalianFANART by plavkivie | COLLAGE by 1r0n5p1d3r

Revelations (126830 words) by Anonymous Chapters: 19/19 Fandom: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Iron Man (Movies) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Peter Parker/Tony Stark Characters: Peter Parker, Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Pepper Potts, Ned Leeds, Michelle Jones, Happy Hogan, May Parker (Spider-Man), James "Bucky" Barnes, Sam Wilson (Marvel), Bruce Banner, Thor (Marvel), Stephen Strange, Wanda Maximoff, Vision (Marvel), James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Maria Hill, Nick Fury, Natasha Romanov (Marvel) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Power Imbalance, Age Difference, Peter is 18, Found Family, Slow Burn, Explicit Sexual Content, author has already arranged a ride to church trust me Summary:“I still don’t get it,” Ned says. “How you just... keep being ordinary in spite of all the craziness you’ve lived through. You were in space. You helped Iron Man save the universe. And nobody knows it was you.” His tone softens, becomes almost sad. As though he realizes that what he’s saying is so completely alien to him that he will never be able to understand this part of Peter’s life. “Peter, don’t you want people to know you for who you are?”An AU where they get the Gauntlet off of Thanos that first time, on Titan.

Left Hand Free (7836 words) by tuesday Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies) Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Peter Parker/Tony Stark Characters: Peter Parker, Tony Stark Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Aged-Up Peter Parker, Canon-Typical Violence, Explicit Sexual Content, Multiple Orgasms, POV Peter Parker, College Student Peter Parker, Flirting, Romance, Banter, Blow Jobs, Anal Sex, Anal Fingering, Civil War Team Iron Man, Adult Peter Parker Summary:Peter and Tony's first meeting is both the same and very, very different. In which Civil War happens when Peter is a college sophomore, and Peter catches Tony on the rebound.—"Are you—are you hitting on me right now?"Tony looked up. "Do you want me to be? Because normally I'd start with how impressive this is—" He gestured with his free hand at where he was stuck to the door. "—but I'm afraid you might take it as encouragement to leave me here."

James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers

Steve Rogers Versus the Classics (34078 words) by thecommodore_squid Chapters: 4/4 Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain America (Movies) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers Characters: Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes, Sam Wilson (Marvel), Natasha Romanov, Clint Barton, Tony Stark, Thor (Marvel), Lucky (Hawkeye), Rebecca Barnes, Winifred Barnes Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Modern Bucky, Bucky is a History Professor, Steve is still Captain America, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Literature, cinema, Steve's Therapists are a Bunch of Dead Authors, Steve is so Uncultured, Steve Has Issues, Bucky has issues, Healing Through Books and Movies, Amputee Bucky Barnes, Angst, Fluff, Happy Ending, Discussion of Past/Minor Character Death, Discussion of Suicidal Idealation, Drunk Steve is in Love With Thor, Clint Ships It, Violence, Injuries are Definitely Inaccurate, Glorified Movie Marathon and Chill Series: Part 2 of A Historical Relic and a History Professor Walk into a Bar- Summary:Steve narrowed his eyes. “I’m beginning to suspect I’ve been set up.”“I would never,” Natasha said, feigning shock.Steve sighed.“God fucking dammit,” he heard someone say and looked up.AKA An AU in which Steve is still Captain America and Bucky is the unfortunate history professor selected to help him understand those references.

Slide To Answer (6326 words) by relenafanel Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Captain America (Movies) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers Characters: Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Wrong Number AU, Romantic Comedy, Phone Calls & Telephones, Dating, One Night Stands, Steve accidentally calls Bucky for dating advice, Bucky gives good advice, Meet-Cute, Misunderstandings Series: Part 1 of Slide to Answer Summary:"What do I do?” Steve appealed into the phone. “I’m freaking out.”There was silence on the other end of the line. It lasted so long that Steve pulled the receiver away from his ear and frowned at it. Pay phones were old. Maybe this one wasn’t working despite the obvious dial tone when he picked up.“Ok,” a stranger’s voice said over the phone. “First acknowledge the fact that you dialed the wrong number, but be quick about it because my cab is a few blocks away from my own plans and I’m about to drop some truth bombs on you.”

Etc or Multi pairings

Astronomy In Reverse (184785 words) by pansley Chapters: 25/25 Fandom: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain America (Movies) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes & Tony Stark Characters: James "Bucky" Barnes, Peter Parker, Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, T'Challa (Marvel), James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Sam Wilson (Marvel), Baron Zemo Additional Tags: Gratuitous Superfamily, Becoming a family, Hydra being a dick, Peter is canonly adorkable, Protective Bucky Barnes, Protective Peter Parker, unfair representation of the foster care system, Fluff, canon amount of angst, amateur (but effective) equine therapy, Civil War Fix-It, bucky is a good dad, Peter is a good kid, Steve is a good boyfriend, Tony is a good friend, and also kind of a sugar daddy, without benefits, Hero Worship, Peter is majorly stanning everybody in this fic and it's cute, world's most adorable basketball Series: Part 1 of Winter!Dad Summary:A year after the Winter Soldier failed his mission in DC, Bucky Barnes is doing his best to stay under the radar from both Hydra and Steve Rogers. His hope for a peaceful day-to-day life in limbo goes awry, however, when he meets Queens’ newest hero; a pure-hearted kid with a death wish and a ridiculous pair of red and blue pajamas.The last thing Steve expects when he finally tracks Bucky down is that, not only has the man been living in Queens all this time, right under his nose, but also that, in the two years since they last saw each other, Bucky somehow acquired a kid.Alternatively: How Peter Parker effectively fucks over Bucky Barnes, and also totally saves him.Dramatic reenactment by fanfictionbookclub on tiktok (WARNING: contains spoilers) LuckyWaters note: This is technically stucky, but it's more of a genfic IMHO

I've Found a New Baby (17756 words) by TellMeNoAgain Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Harley Keener/Tony Stark, Harley Keener/Steve Rogers, Harley Keener/Bucky, Peter Parker/Tony Stark, Peter Parker/Steve Rogers, Peter Parker/Bucky, Tony Stark/Pepper Potts, Tony Stark/Natasha Romanov, Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov Characters: Peter Parker, Harley Keener, Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Noir, Alternate Universe - Mob, Alternate Universe - 1920s, Period Typical Attitudes, Mob Boss Tony Stark, Mob-Type Violence, Dark Tony, dark bucky, Dark Harley, Dubious Consent, Mental Instability, Mild Kidnapping, Polyamory, Everyone Is Poly Because Avengers Series: Part 1 of Roaring Hot Summary:This is the first story in the "Tony Stark is an insane 1920's Mob Boss and there's sex everywhere" fic that literally no one asked for but that kept me up nights until I wrote it.I'm sorry.But at least we'll be in that handbasket to hell TOGETHER, friends. LuckyWaters note: This is me recommending the entirety of the Roaring Hot series, I just thought it would be excessive to list all 13 parts lol

[alfvaen]

Novel Battle

Last month I did a roundup of books I read, and it looks like I managed to do it again this month, woot. It's not quite the end of the month yet, but there's only day left in December 2023 and I don't think I'll be getting anything else finished this month (and I finished my 100 books on Goodreads), so I might as well do it now. (I have been trying to not leave it all to the last minute, writing bits of it during the month, which may be an effective strategy.)

Actual books under the cut--possible spoilers for Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series, Michelle West's House War series, and maybe C.J. Cherryh's Atevi series, though I'm trying not to.

Michelle West: Battle, completed December 6

This is a slot for a female (or non-male) "diversity" slot author. It almost feels a bit cheating for me to use the slot for Michelle West (a.k.a. Michelle Sagara), who I've been reading for a long time now, and is somebody I'd read anyway, but her books are pretty thick and I have a tendency to fall behind on them, so I'll take whatever will get me to actually read them.

Back when I first read Michelle Sagara, I was heavily into Canadian SF and wanted to read everything that was eligible for the Aurora Awards every year, if possible. (It soon became clear that it was not, for all practical purposes, possible.) So I saw her on the list with her first series, The Sundered, and read them all. It's a series where the good guys lose at the end of the first book, and our protagonist ends up imprisoned by a demon lord type who is also her main romantic interest. This kind of dynamic has turned up a few times in her other books, to some degree or another. Later she came out with the Sun Sword series under the name Michelle West, a series of six quite thick books. (And, it turns out, there had been a previous duology, Hunter's Oath and Hunter's Death, set in the same world and featuring some of the same characters.) And after that, she started coming out with her Elantra series (a.k.a. the "Cast" series, since the titles are all like Cast In Shadow or Cast In Courtlight etc.), again under the Sagara name; slightly lighter, and thinner, fantasy novels featuring a guardswoman named Kaylin Neya living in a multiracial fantasy city (and by multiracial, we have like hawk people, lion people, dragons, elf-types, and telepaths, and probably others I'm forgetting). And after that, she started coming out with the House War series, which was designed to tie up some loose ends from the Sun Sword series. (She's also got another series, a YA-ish urban fantasy series called "Queen of The Dead", but I haven't tried those yet.)

So at the moment I'm reading both the Elantra series and the House War series; I try to get through one of each a year so that maybe I won't fall further behind. Battle is, as one might guess, in the House War series, which, as a series, is a bit odd. The first three books in the series are really their own trilogy, since they take place before The Sun Sword entirely (and one of them overlaps with Hunter's Death). And then comes Skirmish, which takes place after The Sun Sword, and continues on with Battle, Firstborn, Oracle, and War. (Firstborn and Oracle were not part of the original series listing, so I assume that the series stretched as she was writing it.)

The central character of the House War is Jewel Markess ATerafin, who I believe was introduced all the way back in Hunter's Oath and may have been in all of the Michelle West books to date. She started out as a street kid, leader of a "den" of orphans and homeless kids, until she gained the attention of the powerful House Terafin, and managed to win entry for herself and her den; later it turned out that she was a rare "seer-born", and she grew in power and influence. She is a fundamentally nice person, though, who would be happy if everybody just got along and nobody got hurt, so she's not comfortable wielding her power--something she may have to overcome by the end of the series, I suspect. (And, unlike some of Sagara/West's characters, she seems deeply aromantic-coded. Not even a hint of romantic feelings in any of the books to date.) Also, in these books it seems like any random character can turn out to be a retired assassin with a dark past, or a troubled immortal, or a secret mage, or some other such archetype. It works better than it has a right to.

So what is the House War? That's a good question. It's not, fundamentally, a struggle within House Terafin, or between any of the Ten Houses, at least as of yet. It seems more like a struggle of House Terafin, or all of human civilization, against outside forces, quite frankly. Battle has relatively little battle in it, in fact; it still feels like we're readying for the battles to come.

I've started supporting the author on Patreon, mostly because she was working on a new book in this world, Hunter's Redoubt, which the publishers passed on (possibly because she couldn't guarantee it being a reasonable length, or maybe the series just wasn't selling well enough for them), and I've only got three more House War books after this one, so probably by 2027 I'll get to reading it.

Ian Fleming: For Your Eyes Only, completed December 8

Feeling a little behind on my Goodreads challenge after the length of Battle, I decided to scan my shelves for something somewhat shorter, and less fantasy. And Ian Fleming is what I came up with.

I remember James Bond from an early age, between the HBO we (probably illicitly) had when I was a kid, and the promotion for the movie "For Your Eyes Only" (including the Sheena Easton song and the Marvel comics adaptation). These days "FYEO" is considered a lesser entry in the Bond canon, but I have a soft spot for it. I watched and rewatched a lot of the movies over the years, and at some point I started reading the original novels. They're not bad, though of course a product of a different time with all sorts of deeply-ingrained sexism (and probably racism too).

For Your Eyes Only the book is actually a collection of short stories. The first one, "From A View To A Kill", is perhaps the best, a straightforward but engaging story of Bond outwitting an embedded spy nest in France. (Little or nothing in common with the "A View To A Kill" movie.) The title story and "Risico" are the two that the "For Your Eyes Only" movie was built around--the former a story of an off-the-books mission where Bond avenges a pair of M's old friends (with the aid of their bereaved archer daughter, who became Melina in the movie), and the latter being the story of double agent Kristatos trying to set Bond against rival Colombo; the stories themselves are pretty good. Then there's "Quantum of Solace", which also has nothing to do with the later movie, and hardly anything to do with James Bond, being mostly a story told to Bond about a relationship that went sour, and "The Hildebrand Rarity", which oddly didn't get any movies named after it, about a horrible person who comes to a bad end on a boat on the Indian Ocean, and good riddance. While uneven, it was actually a bit refreshing to see Bond in different contexts and shorter pieces.

Jim Butcher: Warriorborn, completed December 9

Next, I wanted another male author, and still probably a shorter book. The Olympian Affair, the latest Jim Butcher novel, had just come out, and was devoured by several members of the household; this e-novella was kind of a precursor to it, and my wife had recommended I read it, and I decided it might be just the thing.

I have a read a lot of Jim Butcher--almost all of the Dresden Files (saving only a few of the more recent stories), the Codex Alera, and The Aeronaut's Windlass, the first Cinder Spires book (to which The Olympian Affair is the sequel). It's been some time since his last novel, Battle Ground, and quite frankly, that one left a really bad taste in my mouth. A lot of that was due to a particular character death which I really did not appreciate, but I can't tell if it's just that or if I've gone off him completely. So I have deliberately been avoiding the last few Dresden Files stories, and I wasn't sure if I was going to read any more at all, so I guess this was also a way of giving him another chance.

I apparently didn't remember The Aeronaut's Windlass that well, because I did not remember the main character of the story, or the whole Warriorborn class at all (they seem to be humanoid but part cat or something?). I remembered actual intelligent cat characters, but not these guys. Anyway, there was a story, it was mildly exciting, and it only took me a day to read it. I'm still not sure if Butcher has redeemed himself, but I did put The Olympian Affair on my to-read list, even if I probably won't actually read it any time soon. He may not be "don't read ever again", but he hasn't earned his way back up to "read as soon as the hardcover comes out" yet by a long shot.

Lois McMaster Bujold: Ethan of Athos, completed December 12

Three books since my last reread, so it was time for another one, the next (chronological) Vorkosigan book, Ethan of Athos. It's an odd duck in the series--no Vorkosigans appear in it at all, but we do get Elli Quinn, last seen getting sent off for extensive facial reconstruction surgery in The Warrior's Apprentice, in which she had barely any screen time. The book's POV character, though, is the titular Ethan, from the planet Athos, a planet of a reclusive misogynistic society that bans women entirely and reproduces entirely through uterine replicators and ovarian cultures. But when the ovarian cultures start senescing, and their replacement shipment is hijacked, Ethan is forced to head into the big bad woman-infested galaxy and try to remedy the problem. Which brings him into contact and/or conflict with Elli Quinn, Cetagandans, and other forces. And ends up broadening his worldview ever so slightly, though he does return home at the end…with perhaps the biggest dangling plot thread that never got revisited in the entire series. I was lukewarm about it my first time through, but by now I consider it pretty fun, but inessential. It does give you a chance to see Elli as a full-fledged character before you see her back with Miles again.

Cecilia Dart-Thornton: The Ill-Made Mute, completed December 18

After three short reads in a row, I was now ahead again. It was time for another female author, and for "trying out" one I hadn't read before. When I'd first started doing this, I limited it strictly to authors where I'd picked up one book at random and that was it, but I later broadened it to include other authors, particularly ones where I'd picked up two books by them and not yet read either. And the one I happened to have sitting on my shelf was Cecilia Dart-Thornton's The Ill-Made Mute, which was both an interesting author name and an interesting book title.

It's an odd book in a lot of ways. The language is…well, you could say "rich", you could say "not afraid of using obscure vocabulary words". The setting is interesting--there's a metal that floats above the ground (not unlike something that they have in the Cinder Spires, actually), and some people use it to travel by floating ship or floating horse…which makes sense once you find out how dangerous overland travel is, because of all the wights (a.k.a. fairy folk, seelie and unseelie, many of which seem to be drawn from actual Celtic folklore, given the extensive references at the back).

Our protagonist is the mute of the title--stripped of their memory, speech, and name, disfigured by accident, and receiving only grudging kindness by their rescuers. Could be a more proactive character than they are, since they spend a lot of the time at the mercy of more powerful forces (and many capricious wights), but you do root for them to come through.

It turns out, by the way, that the other book in the series which I own, The Battle of Evernight, is the third book, not the second, so I guess I need to track down a copy of The Lady of The Sorrows sometime. Sigh.

C.J. Cherryh & Jane Fancher: Defiance, completed December 22

I only had three books left to read for the year, and 13 days to do it in, so I still seemed more or less on track, but maybe a shorter book would not go amiss--especially since we were planning to go out of town on the 23rd, something that I could finish by the 22nd might be a good idea. Female author still, and not high fantasy.

I often like to let books sit on my to-read shelf for a while; or, to put it another way, to not neglect forever the books that have been sitting there for a long time in favour of newer and shinier ones. But there are exceptions, for authors that I've read a lot of and am actually caught up on, where I try to keep caught up by reading their newest books.

I've been reading C.J. Cherryh for a long time--I started with her Morgaine books, after seeing her mentioned in Dragon magazine, and went through whatever I could find--Cuckoo's Egg, Serpent's Reach, the Faded Sun books, the Chanur books, etc. I fell behind for a long time, but the Atevi books (starting with Foreigner) helped, because I started reading them to my son. They're not kids' books, but he was a teenager when I read them to him so that was okay. (If it bothers you to think of a teenager still being read to by his parents, think of it as a "parental audiobook experience".) I had gotten about twelve books in on my own, but even restarting from the beginning, I was able to plow through the series (up to at least book 20) reading them aloud. (By this point he can read them on his own if he wants to, though.)

This is book 22 in the series, and while it seems to be starting out with recap (which was less useful when reading them back-to-back, but helpful now) it's probably not a recommended starting point. The length of the series is a tribute to the complex political situations that our characters get involved in, and she's probably not in danger of running out. This is her second novel, and first Atevi novel, crediting her longtime companion Jane Fancher as a cowriter, probably for reasons.

The Atevi series in general takes place on (mostly) a planet inhabited by a species called atevi, where a group of humans were forced to settle after a hyperspace accident left them unable to return home. After some initial friction, they are coexisting mostly peacefully, with one human (called a "paidhi") as a cultural interface. The current paidhi, Bren Cameron, ends up getting involved more deeply than usual in atevi politics, which is all I'll say in lieu of spoilers.

Josiah Bancroft: Arm of The Sphinx, completed December 27

I also picked this one largely on page count--I was planning on reading it in 5-6 days, which would cover the days when I was visiting my mother for Christmas. In a slight deviation from my normal tactic, I ended up allocating reading pages so that the two travel days (it usually takes us about six hours to do the drive) required fewer pages, and it worked pretty well.

The first book in the series, Senlin Ascends, involved Thomas Senlin and his young wife travelling to the Tower of Babel, the wife getting abducted, and Senlin going into the tower after her. The details of the world aren't particularly clear--there is a Tower of Babel but there's also steampunk technology and people with European names, and there's no map of anything besides the Tower itself so I don't worry about it too much.

In this book, the second, we have more an ensemble cast rather than just Senlin, and I think the change is quite effective. Senlin is a reserved gentleman thrust into unfamiliar situations, and sometimes he's a little bit repressed, so having more viewpoints was helpful. Plus it allows us, the reader, to learn things without Senlin necessarily learning those things as well.

I'm hoping that we'll shift our plot from "Senlin looking for his wife" to something with slightly larger stakes about the fate of the Tower itself, and the world. Because it's beginning to seem like Senlin and his wife may not have the most successful, loving reunion. We haven't seen much of her at all, really, and I hope that when we do, she'll have a stronger character than just "damsel in distress".

There's two more books in the series, which of course may be out of print by this point, but I think the odds of my finishing the series at all have definitely gone up.

Lois McMaster Bujold: Borders of Infinity, completed December 30

And then it was time for another read, another Vorkosigan book, whose placement may be a little bit controversial. It consists of three novellas, the first of which, "The Mountains of Mourning", takes place between The Warrior's Apprentice and The Vor Game. The others do take place between Ethan of Athos and Brothers In Arms, but in this book there's also a framing story that takes place after Brothers In Arms. (In the more recent omnibus editions the novellas are rearranged, and the framing story disappears entirely. There's not much to it, so it's not a huge loss.) But there's no spoilers from BIA, it turns out (Miles is in the hospital with broken arms from an unchronicles adventure that happens after BIA, and while its events are alluded to, all that really comes up is that they were on Earth). BIA in fact takes place directly after "Borders of Infinity".

"Mountains of Morning" is probably the most affecting of the three novellas, as Miles has to investigate the murder of a baby in the backwoods of his district, with characters that show up again in Memory. "Labyrinth" is my least favourite of the three, though it's still good. It is the most novel-structured of them, with subplots and multiple settings, and its events serve as setup for the events on Jackson's Whole later in Mirror Dance. "Borders of Infinity" is a tour de force showing how Miles can accomplish his goals after stripped of pretty much everything, and also a good example of how to hide things from the reader that your viewpoint characters knows.

And that's December, and the end of 2023. Next up it will be a book from my dwindling supply of male "diversity" authors, Siege of Mithila by Indian author Ashok Banker. I also got a copy of the nonfiction book Paths of Pollen, written by my very own brother, that came out a month ago.

[themonkeycabal]

re: Fantasy Recs

riseoftherose said: If you don’t mind a slightly younger aimed author, I still enjoy a series I first read as a kid, always thought it deserved more rep. The Land of

Sorry friend, it looks like your rec got cut off a bit there. 

msprufrock said: Also aimed slightly younger, but I really enjoyed Akata Witch (and the sequel Akata Warrior) by Nnedi Okorafor. It’s a YA fantasy series set in Nigeria

Oh nice. Sounds like fun. Scarlet Odyssey is also set in a very Africa-like world, really loved that. 

gerundsandcoffee said: I liked Uprooted by Naomi Novik. It’s a stand alone original but heavily rooted in Eastern European folklore.

I think I might have read that one. It sounds familiar. I’ll have to look again. Thanks! 

solysgoldensun said: The Invisible Library series by Genevieve Cogman is pretty fun, involving dragons, fae, and librarians (oh my!) in a multiverse semi-portal fantasy deal with steam punk elements.

Oh nice. I’ve got a little bit of a weakness for steampunkish-ness. (oh, bonus, the first book was only $2.99. I picked it up. thanks!)

anomaly-nerd said: The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison is my current favorite. It’s a little plot heavy but the worldbuilding is fantastic and the protagonist is impossible not to love

I don’t mind plot-heavy if I feel like it’s going somewhere. Love good worldbuilding, though. So great. 

Anonymous said: I highly recommend Temeraire. That series was amazing. It's 9 books, complete storyline that begins in Napoleonic Wars era Europe and then expands into almost every continent. It was just mwah *chef's kiss*. The lead characters (one human, one dragon) are both absolutely adorkable and I thoroughly enjoyed every chapter. There are serious matters and some dark chapters, but it's a very optimistic series overall, not grimdark in the least.

Oh, thank you for reminding me of that one! I have the first one, I think I read it when it came out, but I never followed up on the rest of the series. 

emilise284 said: any/all of Diana Wynne Jones’s works: Howl’s Moving Castle, Dogsbody, and Fire and Hemlock are among my favorites. 

Robin McKinley is also gr9, I especially love Pegasus and Chalice

if you’re looking for recent fantasy Gideon the Ninth (and sequel, Harrow the Ninth) by Tamsyn Muir are GREAT fun and very gay (but also maybe edging a lil further towards grimdark than you’re in the mood for rn)

Cool. Thank you!

backwardsandinhighheels said: For urban fantasy, I’ve really enjoyed the Guild Codex series by Annette Marie - funny with found family vibes and slooow burn romances, and the heroine of Spellbound is a normal human girl in a magic guild which gives me serious Darcy vibes

That sounds like a lot of fun. Thanks. (score, the first one is $3.99 and has Margarita in the title. Can’t go wrong there. I grabbed it.) 

lady-of-luthien said: The first fantasy author I really got into was Tamora Pierce. She writes a lot of YA stuff. Song of the Lioness, The Immortals, and Protector of the Small series. All awesome.

Oh yes, I read some of those. Definitely fun. 

furyleika said: Absolutely second Robin McKinley, particularly The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown. Also Tamora Pierce. If you don’t mind younger aimed, my absolute favorites of all time are Patricia C. Wrede’s Enchanted Forest Chronicles. Anne McCaffrey’s Pern novels straddle the fantasy/sci-fi line depending where in the timeline you’re reading. The Harper Hall series is a great starting point.

I also really like Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom series. They may be closer to grim than not, but things turn out okay! Way less depressing than GRRM. I liked Holmberg’s Paper Magician series if you haven’t read that from her.

Swordheart from T. Kingfisher is awesome and funny and romantic. It says it’s in the same series as something else of hers, but I didn’t read those and enjoyed it anyways. Okay, I’ll stop. (Oh wait! Have you read Neil Gaiman’s stuff? I like almost all of it.)

Oh, I’ve totally read Anne McCaffrey, very into Pern back in ye olden tymes.  

I have the Paper Magician, but I haven’t read it yet. I just finished Spellbreaker/Spellmaker and I wanted to try somebody else first. 

T. Kingfisher sounds familiar, but I don’t recognize any of the titles (maybe I read Clockwork Boys, that sounds really familiar. Or I started to read it and got distracted and forgot -- this happens). I will check out Swordheart. 

Garth Nix sounds familiar, too (I am bad with names, so this happens a lot, too). I’ll check out the first one. Thanks! 

And, yes, I’ve read all the Neil Gaiman things lol. 

owl-librarian said: Echoing Diana Wynne Jones, Tamora Pierce, and Garth Nix rec’s. I also recently reread a bunch of Patricia C Wrede books, which are delightful. If J/YA isn’t your jam, try Mercedes Lackey; HIGHLY prolific fantasy writer. Some of her stuff is a little dated now, but gosh a lot of it is still awesome. I particularly like her Arrows of the Queen trilogy.

Oh, yes, definitely I’ve ready Mercedes Lackey. Back in ye olden days with Anne McCaffrey and Terry Brooks (I was very into the Shannara books in high school). 

gothfirefaerie said: If you like amazing world building and word porn I can not recommend Patricia a McKillip enough! My favorites are alphabet of thorn, fantastic beasts of eld and ombria in shadow. Also great for world building is Michelle Sagara and her chronicles of elantra but while I wouldn’t call them grimdark they are heavy.

Those sound fun. Thank you. Love worldbuilding. 

owl-librarian said: Have you done any Terry Pratchett? He’s the right kind of fantasy for me, definitely not too heavy “high fantasy” - and full of real characters and great humor! If you are intimidated by his Oeuvre start with “Guards! Guards!” or “The Wee Free Men”

Oh yes, absolutely. Great fun. 

owl-librarian said: I also highly suggest the Bordertown books edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling; it was a shared world created back in the 80s for authors to play in - there are several short story collections and a couple of novels set in this town that is the border between our world and faerie. It was revived in the 2010s with Ellen and Holly Black in another short story collection.

That sounds familiar, but I don’t think I ever read any of it. Thank you, I’ll check it out. 

cathsith said: @sarahreesbrennan In Other Lands is *amazing* and lots of fun and the furthest thing from grim!dark that I can think of

Awesome. Thank you.

lover-of-the-starkindler said: *nods along for most of the recs and takes notes of the others* Summers at Castle Auburn by Sharon Shinn is good; Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope is a Tam Lin retelling set in Elizabethan England and is amazing; Woodwalker by Emily B. Martin if you like sneaking through forests and political plots…

Sweet, thank you.

Thanks everybody I will check out all of your lovely recs. 

[my-complicated-pairs]

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in book series

While the title of this list is “List of canon villain/heroine ships with happy endings”, it doesn’t contain only ships with male villains and female heroes:

-some of these ships consist of female villains and male heroes;

-there are some lgbt+ ships and polyamorous relationships here as well;

-in some of these ships both characters are villainous (or antiheroic);

-some of these characters may be seen not as villains, but as antivillains, antiheroes, antagonists or “just” criminals - in the end these definitions are fluid and some characters may be really difficult to categorise, especially if they go through a major character development or if they appear in the slice of life media;

-I included ships involving ex-villains;

-some of these ships are the examples of the enemies to lovers trope, but they don’t involve any characters, who can be categorised as villains or antiheroes.

Other notes:

-in some examples the villain doesn’t get a redemption arc and it’s the heroic character, who changes their alignment;

-in few examples the couple has a bittersweet ending, but I include it due to the fact that both characters are not dead and their relationship itself is happy;

-I included some pre-existing couples;

-this list was created mostly for statistical purposes (it may be used for recommendations as well, but not always) - due to it, this list includes ships that are humorous, don’t play significant role in the canon material, come from the media that are often considered to be bad or come from really obscure media;

-some ships on this list - especially if they come from media created long time ago - may be considered to be controversial due to various reasons, so if you don’t want to read anything potentially disturbing, don’t forget about doing research first;

-I included some ships from non closed canons that have a chance to have a happy ending (they’re described as ‘hopefully’) - if they won’t get a romantic happy ending, I’ll remove them.

I’ll be updating this list from time to time, so feel free to suggest other examples :) - and correct me if I got something wrong (f.e. if the specific ship doesn’t have a happy ending, some characters are not villains and/or antiheroes etc.)

If the types of characters are not specified, the ship consists of a male villain/antihero and a heroine.

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in live action movies

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in live action series

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in anime and manga

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in animation and comics (excluding anime and manga)

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in standalone pieces of literature

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in visual novels and video games

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in music 

[note: the links usually lead to the respective Goodreads pages]

Book series - fantasy, sci-fi & horror

hopefully Jean-Claude x Anita - Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter, an ongoing urban fantasy series by Laurell K. Hamilton, an American author (suggested by @a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Tristan x Isla - The Black Prince Trilogy, a 2014-2015 fantasy romance series by P.J. Fox, an American author (suggested by @vilheroinefairytale)

Stefanos x Erin - Books of the Sundered, a 1991-1994 fantasy romance series by Michelle Sagara West, a Japanese-Canadian author (suggested by vilheroinefairytale) 

Laurent x Damen (male villain x male hero) - The Captive Prince, a 2013-2018 fantasy romance series by C.S. Pacat, an Australian author (suggested by @mademoisellemurders and @basilt0npitch)

Legend x Donatella - Caraval, a 2017-2019 fantasy romance series by Stephanie Garber, an American author (suggested by @addiesluc)

Beltain x Percy - Cobweb Bride, a 2013 fantasy romance series by Vera Nazarian, an Armenian-Russian American author (suggested by @monsters-and-villains)

Vlau Fiomarre x Claere Liguon - Cobweb Bride by Vera Nazarian (suggested by monsters-and-villains)

Persephone x Hades (female villain x male hero) - Cobweb Bride by Vera Nazarian (suggested by monsters-and-villains) 

hopefully Rhysand x Feyre (male antagonist x female hero) - A Court of Thorns and Roses, an ongoing fantasy romance series by Sarah J. Maas, an American author (suggested by @pacificwanderer)

Bane x Mirra - Demon Lord, a 2010-2012 fantasy series by T C. Southwell, a South African (?) author (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world) 

the dragon terrorizing Ankh-Morpork x Errol (female villain x male hero) - Guards! Guards!, the 1989 novel in Discworld series by Terry Pratchett, a British author

Magnus x Cleo - Falling Kingdoms, a 2012-2018 fantasy series by Morgan Rhodes, a Canadian author (suggested by an anon and addiesluc)

Cardan x Jude (male villain x female antihero) - The Folk of the Air, a 2018-2019 fantasy series by Holly Black, an American author (suggested by monsters-and-villains and pacificwanderer) 

Madoc x Oriana - The Folk of the Air by Holly Black [warning: a bittersweet ending - Madoc goes to exile and Oriana follows him as his wife]

Lucius x Narcissa (the pre-existing couple; male antagonist x female antagonist)  - Harry Potter, a 1997-2007 fantasy series by J.K. Rowling, a British author

Draco x Astoria (male antagonist x female hero) - Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling [warning: Astoria dies in The Cursed Child]

Marak x Kate - The Hollow Kingdom Trilogy, a 2003-2005 fantasy romance series by Clare B. Dunkle, an American author (suggested by monsters-and-villains and vilheroinefairytale)

Trent x Rachel - the Hollows/Rachel Morgan series, a 2004-2016 fantasy series by Kim Harrison, an American author (suggested by @meadow-mellow)

Howl x Sophie - Howl’s Moving Castle, a 1986-2008 fantasy romance series by Diana Wynne Jones, a British author (suggested by monsters-and-villains) 

various couples - the Immortals After Dark series, an ongoing paranormal romance series by Kresley Col, an American author (suggested by pacificwanderer)

Zane x Danica - Hawksong (the 1st book in The Kiesha’ra series), a 2003 fantasy romance novel by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, an American author (suggested by roguesareth)

Hai x Nicias - Wyvernhail (the 5th book in The Kiesha’ra series), a 2007 fantasy romance novel by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, an American author (suggested by roguesareth)

the Lord of the Feasts x Hiresha  - Lady of Gems, a 2011-2013 fantasy series by A.E. Marling, an American author (suggested by vilheroinefairytale) 

Day x June - Legend, a 2012-2019 sci-fi series by Marie Lue, an American author (suggested by @augustintodarkness)

Ulvhedin x Elisa - Footprints of Satan (as the main characters) and The Last Knight (Ulvhedin is one of the main characters), 1983 fantasy romance novels, the 13th and the 14th volume of The Legend of the Ice People by Margit Sandemo, a Norwegian-Swedish author (suggested by @neoma2) 

Mar x Shira - The Garden of Death (the 17th volume of The Legend of the Ice People), a 1984 fantasy romance novel by Margit Sandemo (suggested by neoma2)

Marcel/Lucifer x Saga - Lucifer’s Love (the 29th volume of The Legend of the Ice People), a 1987 fantasy romance novel by Margit Sandemo (suggested by neoma2)

Tamlin x Vanja (male antivillain x female hero) - The Demon of the Night (the 33th volume of The Legend of the Ice People), a 1987 fantasy romance novel by Margit Sandemo (suggested by neoma2)

Halkatla x Rune (female villain x male hero) - A Glimpse of Tenderness and Is There Anybody Out There? (the 43th and the 47th volume of The Legend of the Ice People), 1988 and 1989 fantasy romance novels by Margit Sandemo (suggested by neoma2)

Ulvar x Tilli (male ex-villain x female hero) - mentioned in Móri and the Ice People (the 2nd volume of The Legend of the Realm of Light, the continuation of The Legend of the Ice People and The Warlock saga), a 1995 fantasy romance novel by Margit Sandemo (suggested by neoma2)

Eli x Oskar (male antivillain x male hero) - Let the Right One In and Let the Old Dreams Die, a 2004 vampire novel and its 2013 sequel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, a Swedish author 

Zakath x Cyradis  - The Malloreon series (sequel series of The Belgariad series), a 1987-1991 fantasy series by David Eddings, an American author (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world) 

Noah x Mara - the Mara Dyer series, a 2011-2014 fantasy romance series by Michelle Hodkin, an American author (suggested by mademoisellemurders)

Ileskar/Illukar x Medair - Medair, a 2010-2011 fantasy series by Andrea K. Höst, an Australian author (suggested by monsters-and-villains)

Vin x Elend - Mistborn, a 2006-2008 fantasy series by Brandon Sanderson, an American author (suggested by @thefirewithallthestrengthithath)

Spook x Beldre - The Hero of Ages, a 2008 fantasy novel from the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson, an American author (suggested by @thefirewithallthestrengthithath)

Valen x Nova - Neron Rising, a 2018-2019 science fantasy romance series by Keary Taylor, an American author (suggested by an anon)

Simon x Meg - the Others series, a 2013-2019 urban fantasy series by Anne Bishop, an American author (suggested by meadow-mellow)

hopefully Caspian x Lace - Pandemonium, an ongoing fantasy series by Willow Anderson, an American author (suggested by addiesluc)

Mr. Gray x Maura - The Raven Cycle, a 2012-2016 fantasy series by Maggie Stiefvater, an American author (suggested by vilheroinefairytale)

Nasir x Zafira - Sands of Arawiya, a 2019-2021 fantasy series by Hafsah Faizal, an American author (suggested by @filigranka)

Lou x Reid (enemies to lovers) - Serpent & Dove, an ongoing fantasy romance series by Shelby Mahurin, an American author

Warner x Juliette - Shatter Me, a 2011-2020 dystopia series by Tahereh Mafi, an Iranian-American author (suggested by @abydragonfly)

Christoper x Sarah - Shattered Mirror and All Just Glass (the 3rd and the 7th book in the Den of Shadow series), 2001 and 2010 paranormal fantasy novels by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, an American author (suggested by @roguesareth) 

Malachiasz x Nadya - Something Dark and Holy, a 2019-2021 fantasy series by Emily A. Duncan, an American author (suggested by pacificwanderer)

implied as the future for Ciena x Thane (friends to lovers to enemies to lovers) - Lost Stars (a Star Wars novel), a 2015 American science fantasy romance novel by Claudia Gray, an American author (suggested by pacificwanderer)

Sinjir x Conder (male antihero x male hero) - Life Debt and Empire’s End, the 2nd and the 3rd part of the Star Wars Afermath trilogy, a 2015-2017 science fantasy series by Chuck Wendig, an American author

Caelena x Rowan - Throne of Glass, a 2012-2018 fantasy romance series by Sarah J. Maas, an American author (suggested by vilheroinefairytale and pacificwanderer)

Seth x Josie - Titan, a 2015-2018 paranormal romance series by Jennifer L. Armentrout, an American author (suggested by mademoisellemurders)

Regin x Sonea (male ex-villain x female hero) - the Traitor Spy trilogy (a sequel to The Black Magician trilogy), a 2010-2012 fantasy series by Trudi Canavan, an Australian author (suggested by neoma2)

Osse x Uinen - briefly described in The Silmarillion, the 1977 book from Legendarium created by J.R.R. Tolkien, a British author

probably Lestat x Louis (male villain x male antihero) - The Vampire Chronicles, a 1976-2018 vampire series by Anne Rice, an American author (suggested by mademoisellemurders)

Damon x Bonnie - The Vampire Diaries: Evensong, an American vampire romance series (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Hideo x Emika - Warcross, a 2017-2018 sci-fi series by Marie Lue, an American author (suggested by @dystopianinterstellar)

R x Julie - Warm Bodies, a 2010-2018 romance/zombie series by Isaac Marion, an American author 

Keenan x Donia - Wicked Lovely, a 2007-2011 paranormal romance series by Melissa Marr, an American author (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Irial x Leslie x Niall (male villain x male antihero x female hero) - the Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Devlin x Ani - the Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Morozko x Vasya - the Winternight Trilogy, a 2017-2019 historical fantasy seeries by Katherine Arden, an American author (suggested by pacificwanderer)

Khalid x Shahrzad - The Wrath and the Dawn, a 2015-2016 fantasy romance series by Renée Ahdieh, an American author (suggested by monsters-and-villains and pacificwanderer)

Ships that used to be featured here as ‘hopefully getting a HEA’:

-Eve x Ezekiel (female villain x male hero) from the LIFEL1K3 trilogy, a 2018-2019 sci-fi series by Jay Kristoff, an Australian author (suggested by monsters-and-villains): Eve gets a redemption arc and survives, but Ezekiel gets a romantic happy ending with a different female character;

-Thorn x Ophelia from The Mirror Pass, a 2013-2019 fantasy series by Christelle Dabos, a French author (suggested by vilheroinefairytale): they are happily married for some time, but at the end of the series they are forcefully separated and it's implied that despite her efforts, Ophelia will never find her husband;

-Archex aka Cardinal x Vi from the new Star Wars extended canon books - Phasma and Black Spire by Delilah S. Dawson, an American author: Archex  gets a redemption arc and it’s revealed that he has romantic feelings for Vi, but she doesn’t return them; at the end Archex dies by sacrificing himself.

Book series - crime & thriller

Anthony x Claire - Consequences, a 2011-2015 thriller/erotica series by Aleatha Romig, an American author (suggested by @ainomica)

Hannibal x Clarice (male villain x female hero turned villain) - The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal, 1988 and 1999 horror novels, the 2nd 3rd part of the Hannibal Lecter series by Thomas Harris, an American author (suggested by @heroaine, and vilheroinefairytale and an anon)

Villanelle x Eve (female villain x female hero) - Killing Eve, a 2018-2020 thriller series by Luke Jennings, a British author

Ignazio x Karissa - Monster in His Eyes, a 2014-2016 crime/romance series by J.M. Darhower, an American (?) author (suggested by ainomica)

Fred x Aniela - Niewolnice z Long Island (en. The Slaves of Long Island), a ca. 1930 thriller/crime series by Antoni Marczyński, a Polish author (suggested by neoma2)

John x Vicky - Vicky Bliss, a 1973-2008 mystery series by Elizabeth Peters, an American author (suggested by vilheroinefairytale)

various couples - many books by Edgar Wallace, a British author (suggested by vilheroinefairytale)

Book series - historical 

Juan x Mónica - Corazón Salvaje, a 1957 series by Caridad Bravo Adams, a Mexican author (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Chu Beijie x Bai Pingting - Gu Fang Bu Zi Shang (en. A Lonesome Fragance Waiting to be Appreciated), a 2005-2015 historical romance series by Feng Nong, a Chinese author (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Lazaro x Leonora - books by Frédéric Lenormand, a French author (suggested by vilheroinefairytale)

Mickey x Silence - Wicked Intentions (2010), Notorious Pleasures and Scandalous Desires (2011) from the Maiden Lane, a historical romance series by Elizabeth Hoyt, an American author (suggested by neoma2)

Book series - slice of life & drama

Andrew x Neil (male villain x male hero) - All for the Game, a 2013-2014 sports series by Nora Sakavic, an American author (suggested by an anon)

[due4amiracle]

Day 143

i’m sitting here writing this early because i'm gonna forget shit i've done - not that i've done a hotgotdamned thing but ya know. This is where we're at.

Regardless.

One chapter of book - read. Gogo The Emperor's Wolves. Michelle Sagara is such a fabulous author!

Having had to restart my browser - again - for the second day in a row i’m getting really tired of this shit! Blah. But it’s fine. It probably means i need to restart my computer but we’re gonna push that off as long as possible!

Did Waifu things, yes i did, did those dailies!

Came to a blinking, neon sign of a realization that i’d had coming up to this but really kind of brushed off but - damn i’ve got ADHD and i desperately wish i could get that properly diagnosed but damn if i don’t have the means to do it. Blah. Horrible.

my copy of Witches Steeped In Gold by Ciannon Smart arrived! Can’t wait to start reading it. Not going to be before i get my drooly pills, though, it’s hard enough looking forward without my face running off my skull, let alone looking down at a book. So. It’ll have to wait a few days. But i’m so excited! Thank you Goodreads for the giveaways~

i honestly didn’t get anything else done. Unfortunately. It’s so hard to hold the threads together. On a good day, it’s a struggle, but on steroids? That all goes out of the trolley like baby toys when baby throws a tanty.

Food: A but also F because gaping void screams. But i’ll give it an A because i had a lot of snacks and good foods. Liquid: A Did well drinking my water. And will continue to do so after we break our sleep schedule again, rip. Pain: B+ Earache, bit of a headache, fingers achey, but ok otherwise. Brain: Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr forever infinity symbol goes here.

Tomorrow: Reading? Writing? Bread? (Yes it’s the same list, bite me.)

[books-in-a-storm]

A Book To Read

Title: Cast in Shadow(Chronicles of Elantra #1)

Author: Michelle Sagara

Pages:507

Synopsis: Seven years ago Kaylin fled the crime-riddled streets of Nightshade, knowing that something was after her. Children were being murdered — and all had the same odd markings that mysteriously appeared on her own skin... Since then, she's learned to read, she's learned to fight and she's become one of the vaunted Hawks who patrol and police the City of Elantra. Alongside the winged Aerians and immortal Barrani, she's made a place for herself, far from the mean streets of her birth. But children are once again dying, and a dark and familiar pattern is emerging, Kaylin is ordered back into Nightshade with a partner she knows she can't trust, a Dragon lord for a companion and a device to contain her powers — powers that no other human has. Her task is simple — find the killer, stop the murders... and survive the attentions of those who claim to be her allies!

[aciddropwriting]

As part of trying to be a better writer, I’m studying the writing of authors I enjoy - currently Michelle Sagara. While I enjoy the complex world she has created - completed with six or so species with distinct cultures - I love the characters even more. Kaylin is compelling, flawed and seeks to do better. This has spawned fanfiction. If you are so inclined, the first two chapters are already up on on AO3 and fanfiction.net, with more to follow. (Also, substitute for posting my Sunday index card - I visited my hometown for the weekend, which involves a five hour drive each way.)