#sirius dogsbody

[chelshiart]

character lineup!

[daffodil--lament]

Sirius the Dog-Star from Diana Wynne Jones’ book Dogsbody

[raincoyoteart]

"And the stars came out.  Wheeling overhead they came, tiny disks of white, green and orange, pinpricks of bluish white, cold tingly red blobs, large orbs, small orbs, more and more, crowding and clustering away into the dark, while behind them wheeled the spangled smear of the Milky Way.  Sirius stared upward, dumbfounded.  This was home.  He should have been there, not tied up in a yard on the edge of things.  They were his. And they were so far away.  He had no way of reaching them."

--Diana Wynne Jones--

"Dogsbody" will forever be my favorite book.

[quietflorilegium]

“He had been without his wings so long that he had almost forgotten what they felt like. He spread and shook them, so that the silvery-green flames of the pinions streamed and whispered behind him.”

Diana Wynne Jones, "Dogsbody"

[house-of-mirrors]

I finished reading Dogsbody, that's the fastest I've read a book in such a long time! I'm 🥺😭it was sooooo sweet and I feel like it ended with everything working out as well as it could given the situation

Oh and since I'm used to Diana Wynne Jones' writing style by now, I felt so clever noticing small details like "it's a surprise tool to help us later" XD

[ultimate-good-dog]

Final Preliminaries 40

[ramshacklefey]

I've seen increasing buzz around here about Howl's Moving Castle (book). I think you all deserve to know that all of Diana Wynne Jones's books are filled with characters and plots that are absolutely as delightful and unhinged as that one.

Some Actual Plots include:

Dogsbody - The star Sirius is accused of murder and sentenced to exile on Earth in the body of a dog until he finds a magical item called a Zoi. He's adopted by a young Irish girl living with her abusive and neglectful English relatives. He has to balance his desire to find the Zoi with needing to be a Good Dog for the girl who takes care of him. Also the Wild Hunt is there. Hexwood - A girl finds a magical wood behind her house where she meets a wizard who thinks he's a convict of the intergalactic government, a boy created by the man to destroy said government, and a robot found in a junk heap. The magic wood is actually an alternate reality being generated by an AI who has a grudge to settle with the head of said government. The book is about abuse, PTSD, and trauma. The Dark Lord of Derkholm - Magical world is being destroyed by a company using it as an isekai amusement park for people from another dimension. Bio-wizard is appointed Dark Lord for the year, and he and his family (four of whom are bioengineered griffins) have to find a way to survive the season while everything is going wrong. Deep Secret - Interdimensional detective/diplomat/wizard needs to find a replacement for his deceased mentor. He does so at a fantasy convention, while trying to keep an interdimensional empire from collapsing into civil war after the emperor is assassinated along with all of his heirs.

She's an absolute master at weaving fantasy elements into the mundane world and writing from the PoV of kids. Her books are funny, clever, and full of delightful characters. I'm begging you all to check them out.

[carriagelamp]

A few days late, but I'm lazy...

My favourite books that I read during 2023!

I got really lucky this year, I read some ridiculously good books, to the point that I had a really hard time narrowing them down. And I cheated on a few and bunched them up so I wouldn't have to choose 🙃

I did more detailed assessments of the books in my month reviews, but for anyone that's interested in something I read, here's a quick description:

Annie: An Old-Fashioned Story by Thomas Meehan -- A novelization of the Little Orphan Annie story, close related to the film musical including references to the songs. A charming read that captures the enjoyment of the film but adds a lot more details into the struggles and hardships Annie would have gone through during life on her own in the Depression.

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild -- Three girls from a poor family in London end up being welcomed to a ballet academy where they have the opportunity to learn not only how to dance, but to begin attending performances that let them earn money for their family. Follows the heart warming adventures of sisters with a nice balance of financial hardship and obligations during the Depression.

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle -- A possession horror based around religious trauma and sexual identity. Fantastic prose and genuinely chilling at points without ever feeling hopeless. Here the demons that start stalking people in this God-fearing Montana town are both metaphorical and literal.

A Christmas Story by Jean Shepherd -- A collection of radio stories that follow the childhood misadventures of Ralphie; these stories would go to make up the classic film A Christmas Story, and Shepherd's hilarious, clever prose makes it a very fun read whether you know the film or not.

Doctor Who: Scratchman by Tom Baker -- I actually read a number of pretty good Doctor Who novels this year (13 Doctors 13 Stories, Time Lord Fairytales, Silhouette) and even a Torchwood one (Skypoint) but Scratchman was probably my favourite of the lot. The Fourth Doctor, Sarah, and Harry find themselvese in a horror adventures as they try to defend a host of villagers against an invading force of evil, skeletal scarecrows that are attempting to infect the humans around them.

Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones -- The star Sirius is accused of killing another luminary and losing a powerful instrument called a Zoi. His sentence for this crime is to be stripped of his powers and cast down to earth, to spend one lifetime living in a humble, mortal form - that of a true dog. If he can survive and find the Zoi within that lifetime, he will be welcomed back to the cosmos.

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire -- A novella that explores the rehabilitation of children who had been chosen, who found a doorway and stepped into another, strange world. Adventures done, they now need to acclimatize themselves to living in the rigid confines of the real world.

Grandpa's Great Escape by David Walliams -- A hilarious and surprisingly heart-warming story about a boy and his grandfather who was a flying ace during the war. With his mind beginning to fail him, the grandfather is sent to live at a sinister and definitely evil old folks' home. Only Jack can save him.

Hazel's Shadow by Nicole MacCarron -- Hazel has always been plagued by strange visions - the ability to see and speak to ghosts, as well as the knowledge of a strange, nameless horror living in her grandmother's house. Things come to a head though, when a sudden, zombie-like illness explodes through her town leaving only a few left alive, too many ghosts to count, enemies at every turn, and the shadow waiting for them.

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree -- (as well as it's sequel that came out later in the year, Bookshops & Bonedust). This was such a pleasant, low-stakes, domestic fantasy about Viv, an orcish ex-mercenary who has decided she's tired of fighting and would rather settle down and open a coffeeshop. One of the sticking points being, of course, that no one knows what coffee is.

Love Beyond Body, Space & Time by assorted authors, anthology -- An Indigenous queer sci-fi anthology with a really excellent collection of stories, including an author I already knew and loved! The stories explore a wide range of gender, sexuality, magic, machines, and ways of being, I highly recommend picking it up!

A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske -- Robin, a young baronet, thought he was being shunted into the most out of the way and miserable public servant position imaginable. He expected things to be tedious but necessary. He did not expect to suddenly learn that magic is real and to be tangled in its machinations in a potentially lethal way.

(MDZS) Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu -- Rejoice, because the feared Yiling Patriarch, the necromancer terror who slaughtered thousands, is dead! And has been dead the past decade. And is now very, very confused to wake up in a new body that isn't his, in a room he's never seen before, and to be thrust into the middle of a murder mystery where everyone would want him dead if they were to learn his real identity.

Moominland Midwinter by Tove Jansson -- Moomins hibernate through the winter, that's how it has always been for them. So when young Moomintroll wakes and finds the rest of his family still fast asleep, he's left feeling lost and isolated in this new, strange, snow covered world beyond his door.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers -- (and its sequel A Prayer for the Crown-Shy) A very gentle, compassionate sci-fi novel that explores a world humans have created post-climate-crisis. Life is different, the past distant, and a young tea monk never expected to run into an actual robot, who had so long ago left humanity to live their own secluded life in the wilds. Now they're both struggling to answer the question "What do humans need?"

The Radium Girls by Kate Moore -- (and Kate Moore's other book The Woman They Could Not Silence) The Radium Girls is a narrative non-fiction book that looks at the lives of the girls who were paid to paint luminous watch dials using radium paint. It explores the horror, exploitation, and suffering that came from work place negligence and the world's gradual learning about what exactly radium can do.

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston -- Presidential son and British prince are forced together for the sake of publicity - to prove that they don't actual hate each other and aren't going to cause a diplomatic incident. They cause a whole new and exciting diplomatic incident by falling in love! Do not read this for the politics, but it did end up being way way better than I expected, this author creates quite compelling characters.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett -- Sour, spoiled, and ill Mary is sent to live with her distant uncle on the Yorkshire moors. Set to be as contrary and unhappy as possible, little by little Mary begins to come out of her shell as she experiences nature, play, and love for perhaps the first time in her life.

System Collapse by Martha Wells -- Newest Murderbot book!! Murderbot, ART's crew, and the humans from Preservation are doing their best to defend the colonists on a plant that's cursed with a strange, alien plague from being consumed by the more immediate threat of corporate slavery. Something, however, seems to be wrong with Murderbot and its worried that if it can't fix the problem soon, it may cost its humans their lives.

(TGCF) Heaven Official's Blessing by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu -- Xie Lian is a god. Was a good. He has ascended to godhood twice, and been banished back to earth twice. Once a favour among the gods, he is now a laughing stock, a scrap-collecting god who has been forgotten by almost everyone. So it is with some shock and exasperation to all involved when he ascends for a third time.

This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone -- A ridiculous poetic novella written through improbable letters that are written between two time travels on opposites sides of a time war. Seriously, this is probably the most beautiful book I read this year, go read it, the hype is justified.

Wave Me Goodbye by Jacqueline Wilson -- As World War Two rages, Shirley, like many children of the time, is sent from her home in London to be housed by a foster family in the country in order to avoid the Blitz. Put up with two boys in the strange, mostly empty Red House, Shirley has to find a new life for herself out in the country.

When The Angels Left The Old Country by Sacha Lamb -- Uriel the angel and Little Ash the demon find themselves drawn from their usual lives when a young girl from their shtetl goes missing after emigrating to America. Both with their own reasons for wanting to leave the old country, they set off on a sea voyage that will change everything for them.

Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame -- The classic stories of Rat, Mole, and Toad. The story begins when Mole, venturing out of his little burrow, meets Rat and winds up living with him in his little home by the river rather than returning to his own, lonely, little hole. From there they have a variety of domestic adventures over the seasons, most notable being Toad's ill-fated obsession with motor cars.

[tacroyy]

my favorite thing about dogsbody by diana wynne jones (this is all going to be a lie because actually my favorite thing about dogsbody is the Entire Book) is that you can recommend it to fans of ANY genre.

>sci fi (high tech weapons! interstellar hijinks!)

>historical fiction (sorry for calling it that to everyone reading this who was alive during The Troubles!)

>fantasy (stars are people?!)

>mythology (welsh and celtic mythology! the wild hunt!)

>realistic fiction (young girl goes to live with various levels of evil relatives in a foreign country, deals w racism; on the other side, levels of trust in relationships, making friends when your social status changes)

>animal stories (a girl and her "dog"! what it's like to BE a dog!)

>mystery/crime (everything about the framing crime that gets sirius ~banished to earth, where is the zoi, who is The Master, what is the truth?)

anyway, it's my favorite diana wynne jones book, Which Is Saying Something. check it out from the internet archive here!

[galaxywitch9]

I finished Dogsbody for the first time about a week ago and I loved it, although that ending left me emotionally devastated for a couple days 😭💚

Anyway, while doodling the other day an idea for a Sirius design popped into my head. There's a few things up for change, but overall I like how it's coming. His expression isn't the right intensity for his rage, but I did originally have him making a more neutral expression before changing it midstream 😆

[moonstruck-stormy]

Dogsbody fanart. I love the parallels between the close trust and friendship between Sol and Earth and the friendship between Sirius and Kathleen.

(Watercolor and ink)

[clonerightsagenda]

#recently read May 23

Chlorine by Jade Song. High school swimmer Ren Yu makes a drastic choice to abandon her human life.

Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshananthan. A young Tamil woman studies to become a doctor during the Sri Lankan civil war as her loved ones join the Tigers and she's forced to choose sides.

When Trying to Return Home by Jennifer Maritza McCauley. Sometimes connected short stories about Afro-Boricua characters, their families, and their desires.

Lost Places by Sarah Pinsker. A collection of SFF short stories, including the Hugo winning "Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather."

Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones. The star Sirius is sentenced to life as a dog on Earth after being framed for a crime.

Time to Orbit: Unknown by Derin Edala. Woken from cryostasis as their ship's new captain, Aspen must piece together what's gone wrong. Reminiscent of Andy Weir but with more group dynamics and worldbuilding.

[quietflorilegium]

"He liked Miss Smith. He was sure she would like Kathleen. But he knew that people would take in a dog far more readily than they would take in a fellow human. It was odd, but it was true."

Diana Wynne Jones, "Dogsbody"

[house-of-mirrors]

I went into Dogsbody expecting a light hearted fantasy and wasn't expecting it to go so hard but by now I should know to expect nothing less from DWJ, anyway I'm just thinking about how the plot revolves around recognizing and escaping abuse. Sirius was only able to recognize his companion was abusive when he came to care about Kathleen and realized the similarity between his companion and Kathleen's abusive aunt. And they help each other escape, each has a promise of a better future and a hope for reunion someday 💜🥺😭

Also the story stands out to me with a strong masculine figure being the victim in a domestic abuse situation. I just find it very interesting especially for 1975 because I feel like, at least in my part of the world, it's not something that gets talked about much even today

[ultimate-good-dog]

Preliminary Polls 75

[ramshacklefey]

Rules: Make a poll with five of your all-time favorite characters and then tag five people to do the same. See which character is everyone's favorite!

Tagged by @edhelwen1! Thanks for inviting me to play!

Tagging @kanonkitastuff, @vickyvicarious, @rat-spleen, @haleigh-sloth, and @garaks-padded-bra.