#tamsyn muir when i catch you

[blueathn]

"Time’s up," he said. "Give this to Cam for me, will you?"

And he spread Nona’s fingers like he always did, and he quietly kissed the second right-hand knuckle.

- Nona the Ninth, chapter 5

[ezramire]

the type of shit i text to @goodmorningmiles at 10 pm on a sunday

[livingasaghost]

hold awn is TLT a greek tragedy…???? (like yes it is but….IS IT REALLY???)

[70sscifiart]

The Last-Minute Sci-Fi Gift Guide

There's only one thing worse than procrastinating on getting gifts for your loved ones, and that's procrastinating on putting together a guide to help out everyone else with all those gifts. It's Dec 12, so you can decide for yourself which I'm doing.

Art book: Worlds Beyond Time, $32

If you follow this blog, you might have heard of this one. I published Worlds Beyond Time: Sci-Fi Art of the 1970s this year after five years of work on it, and I think it's really good! 400+ images, 100+ artists, with lots of fun art history and jokes.

Also, it's just $20 right now if you order through my publisher and use the code SKIPTHELINE! Cheapest it's ever been!

Card game: Coup, $14

In this "social deduction" card game, you play as a government official in a future dystopia who needs to backstab their way into power. Everyone starts out with just two cards in this bluffing game, so the tide can turn pretty quick when players start assassinating each other's cards. The fast pace makes it a good gift for someone who loves spies but thinks they don't like card games.

Game to play over Zoom: Bad Spaceships, $3

If a bluffing game stresses you out, try Bad Spaceships: It's a collaborative world-building game in which you roll dice to see what area of your spaceship connects to another, forcing you to spitball exactly why this is the case. As the game puts it, you might fix the hull by playing Tetris, or charge your weapons in the swimming pool. You're basically getting weird prompts to tell a story that can evolve over the course of the game.

It's such an indie game that it comes as PDFs you download from itch.io, but you can play it just as well over Zoom, if you're looking for an excuse to catch up with your old digital nomad college friend.

Movies/TV: Streaming service gift card

Gift cards are all well and good, but you can personalize them by recommending a few of your favorite shows as well. I suggest:

Hulu: Cowboy Bebop

Apple TV+: Severance

Criterion Channel: Ravenous, Paprika, Strange Days

Paramount+: Yellowjackets

Amazon Prime: The Devil's Hour

But to be honest, this entry is just an excuse to talk about the new Max show Scavenger’s Reign. Inspired by the work of French artist Moebius and with a clear debt to famed 70s animated film Fantastic Planet, this stylish sci-fi show features a bunch of humans trying to survive on a beautiful but hostile alien world. Perfect for lovers of fictional nature.

Vintage sci-fi

This Etsy shop has some good stuff, like the 1971 Frank Kelly Freas NASA poster above, a bit of history that I even mentioned on page 167 of my art book.

Penguin science fiction postcards, $28

These postcards have a ton of very cool sci-fi covers I've blogged in the past – great value if you want a lot of art for a low cost.

Meteorite pendant necklace, $34

I think we all know what kind of rock your loved ones need around their neck: A chunk of meteorite straight out of the 1576 Argentinan meteorite fall.

Book recs

For astronauts: Packing for Mars by Mary Roach, The New Guys: The Historic Class of Astronauts That Broke Barriers and Changed the Face of Space Travel by Meredith Bagby

For comedians: Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, Even Greater Mistakes: Short Stories by Charlie Jane Anders 

For sleuths: Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty, Drunk on All Your Strange New Words by Eddie Robson

For crafters: Knits of Tomorrow: Toys and Accessories for your Retro-Future Needs

For the resistance fighters: The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley, An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

For slasher movie fans: Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare

Syd Mead "Biomorph Vehicle" button down shirt, $49

T-shirts aren't classy enough for the world's coolest visual futurist, Syd Mead. I haven't actually bought this incredibly odd shirt, but I really need to.

Art prints (and more) from 70s sci-fi artists

Artist shops can be surprisingly hard to track down on the internet, but here's a short list of ones I've come across. All of these artists are featured in my book (except one), so you can read up on them before you commit to a print.

Michael Whelan 

John Harris

Syd Mead

Don Maitz

David B Mattingly

Peter Andrew Jones - Jones was one of just a few artists who declined to be included in my art book, but he has a distinct, colorful style that I would have loved to have featured!

Finally, here's one extra bonus, just for everyone who made it to the end of this article: The UK-based educational charity Centre for Computing History sells three big officially licensed John Harris posters featuring these three artworks, famous for their use as covers for Sinclair programming manuals.

It's a great deal that I've never seen mentioned anywhere, and Harris' work has a timeless quality that makes it great for an unassuming wall decoration. If you're outside the UK, the shipping costs will be a pain, but there's no better deal for a classic sci-fi poster.

[jackalopetrope]

I'm experiencing The Locked Tomb again, and the Second Reading (or listening in my case, I'm doing audio books this time), is absolutely DELICIOUS. It's like, a whole different book. Littered with details that couldn't possibly be enjoyed without having read the subsequent story beforehand!!

I've had to pause and jot some things down just because they make me feel ways (this is obviously full of spoilers):

In Chapter 6:

1) Aiglamene is teaching Gideon how to wield a rapier and tells her, her hands "Shouldn't be twins, but sisters", that they have different roles, but should be aware and support each other or something. And I was, Tamsyn are you sending me secret messages about the Third?

2) Harrow is speaking to the congregation and Gideon is thinking about how full of shit she is, but then Harrow says something like how no one will ever love the Ninth like she does, that "her heart is interred here", and Gideon is like well actually that bit sounded sincere. Oh boy. It sure is Harrow. Sounds like Ninth Poetic Gothic Nonsense, but in Hindsight, really quite literal. Well done Muir.

3) This one is a little less direct but when Gideon realizes she may never return to the Ninth and thinking that that somehow makes it seem fragile, that by turning her back on it, not looking at it, it might fall apart. Likes she's destroying it... Omg 😰 Just sort of rang like a precursor to how she felt about Harrow "turning her back on her" with the lobotomy y'know?

4) So Harrow and Gideon are getting on to the shuttle to Canaan and tension is high, they are not happy with each other and Harrow says "I want to watch you die", and Gideon, just super hyped to finally be escaping, smugly saying "Well you won't do it here." (Here being the ninth) 😭 Tamsynnn

Chapter 9:

When Ianthe catches Gideon hiding in dark, listening in on the third, she refers to "the necromancer of the third house", necromancer SINGULAR. Nice little drop there.

Chapter 14:

Harrow says "I'm not equipped to deal with a spirit attached to a live nervous system, you're so noisy!", implying Harrow is equipped to deal with spirits NOT attached to live nervous systems, like say, a bunch of dead kids haunting you???

Chapter 15:

Harrow says "She never liked that cursed thing anyway" in regards to Gideons longsword, said she always felt it was "judging her". Which is a weird thing to say about a sword Harrow

Also my current crazy theories that may debunked during this book or the next two because I don't remember all the lore:

1) Teacher is John? The colorful belts and the bracelets mentioned on Ianthe and Kiriona are like... Control belts or something. John needed a way to "be" on that planet without going to the system. John got hyper paranoid after all his Lyctors betrayed him, and wanted security measures on his Princes?? Like clearly he isn't aware of what they doing all the time, but maybe he can, remote in? Idk. Crazy theory.

2) Cytherea is the only reason Gideon made it through the aversion trial. Or Harrow rather, because I'm not convinced Gideons body didn't die. (Or do her escape death trick). During that sequence Gideon starts throwing up blood and seems like it's going to end very quickly then Dulcinea is like No! And the blood dries up, and the soul sucking pain is described as moving around Gideons body... I don't think Harrow would be experienced enough to adjust her siphoning like that. Also Dulcinea was clearly very intent on that key. At first I thought in half memory of the scene that maybe she was just interested in seeing if Gideon COULD survive the trial. But I don't think she cared who got her that key really.

Idk! I'm only on Chapter 20 of Gideon. I've gone completely nuts about these books.

[wondereads]

Weekly Reading Update (12/15/24)

Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (★★★★★)

A good indicator of a good twist is that when you do catch on, you're kicking yourself for not figuring it out sooner. Tamsyn Muir does that in every book of this series, but it was such a kick in the pants this time around. I spent the last 100-200 pages of this book absolutely freaking out and pacing around my room. The character work in this book was really the stand-out between Nona, Camilla, Palamedes, and Pyrrha. I was also overjoyed to see the return of a beloved character (I thought maybe she Came Back Wrong but she's just having some weird quarter-life crisis). It was incredibly interesting to get some more context about the world, both before the Houses and outside them. I was utterly devastated by everything that happened in the last 50 pages and the only reason I didn't leave this mortal coil upon finishing was because I need to read Alecto.

More under the cut

The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik (★★★★★)

Oh, Naomi Novik, you are cruel. It's truly a miracle that I made it the whole year it took for The Golden Enclaves to come out when I read this for the first time. Anyway, I feel like ADE and TGE sometimes overshadow this one, ADE because it's the first and introduces us to so many beloved characters and TGE because it's insane, but this one is probably my favorite in terms of El and Orion's relationship. They are such fumbling teenagers (made infinitely worse by their magical whatnot), and it's adorable. This is also the book that really makes you feel for the Scholomance itself. As readers, we're told it's alive to some extent, but this is the book where it truly becomes its own entity or character. This was just as fun the second time around, and I grabbed some great evidence for my thesis.

For She Is Wrath by Emily Varga (★★★☆☆.5)

This book reverses what often happens; it has a bit of a weak beginning and end but the middle is just amazing. When Dani is enacting her revenge, the tension is high, the backstory is juicy, and her strengths get their moment to shine. The mystery of what is going on with the magic is great, and her tension with the love interest, Mazin, is quite well done. The beginning is a little contrived (really, of all the places to just dig into?) but moves quickly. I found the ending incredibly rushed; with the scope of Dani's goals, I really thought this was going to be a series, but it doesn't seem like it. The last ~20% or so is just jam-packed with every possible thing the characters can do, major moments getting barely more than 5 pages each. This book hovers at just under 400 pages, and I think extending it to around 450 just for more space in the climax would do wonders.

Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey (CR 30%)

Even if I haven't made much progress, the politics of this story continue to draw me in. This is what a political fantasy should be: me flipping back to the cast of characters every five pages to check who's related to who. Jokes aside, I am genuinely enjoying myself. I continue to find Phedre a delightful protagonist, and I'm really interested in what this is all building up to. Also, I think the main love interest was just introduced, and their dynamic is entertaining so far!

Witchbound by Sable Cross (DNF) and Daughter of Truth by S. Frasher (DNF)

I'm just putting these together because I DNF'd them both pretty early in for the same reason: bad writing. As it turns out, metaphors and pretty language don't automatically make your writing good; you have to be able to string a coherent sentence together for that. Once the poor writing made itself known a couple times, I knew it wasn't going to get any better.

[salvadorbonaparte]

2024 in Books

Every Book I read in 2024 very briefly reviewed. I'm ignoring re-reads.

The Blade Itself - Joe Abercrombie (I definitely want to read the rest of the series but I haven't managed to get my hands on it yet)

Death's Country - R.M. Romero (I read this as an ARC, it's a journey to the underworld in free verse)

More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary - M.R. James (I love this guy's ghost stories)

100 Poets: A Little Anthology - John Carey (I read this as an ARC, would have liked more international voices)

Ariadne - Jennifer Saint (Very solid version of Ariadne's story highlighting the lack of agency under the patriarchy)

Cien Microcuentos Chilenos - Juan Armando Epple (Not gonna lie I barely understood anything)

Catch-22 - Joseph Heller (I'm soooo not normal about this one)

The Murderbot Diaries 1-4 - Martha Wells (I'm really enjoying this series but I had to wait for months to get a library loan for the 5th one and now I forgot everything that happened)

Darius the Great is Not Okay & Darius the Great Deserves Better - Adib Khorram (Actually made me cry which tells you what kind of year I'm having)

The Jeeves Collection - P.G. Wodehouse (A 40h long anthology of Jeeves stories read by Stephen Fry what more can you want)

Von der Pampelmuse geküsst - Heinz Erhardt (Funny)

Die Jodelschule und andere dramatische Werke - Loriot (Funny)

Legends & Lattes - Travis Baldree (This was truly so cozy)

Poemas Portugueses - Ed. Maria de Fátima Mesquita-Sternal (Good collection of different works)

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store - James McBride (Highlight of the Year)

Quality Land - Marc-Uwe Kling (How is his satire so real??)

When Women Were Dragons - Kelly Barnhill (Highlight of the Year)

Gender Queer: A Memoir - Maia Kobabe (Very affirming to read)

Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut (I'm so not normal about this that I'm considering getting a tattoo about it)

Andorra - Max Frisch (A play about antisemitism but in that very Max Frisch way)

Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman - Richard Feynman (I want to study this guy under a microscope but I also learned a lot about education and people skills)

Von Juden Lernen - Mirna Funk (Bad, unfortunately)

House of Leaves - Mark Z Danielewski (I've been reading this on and off for the better half of a decade and I have many thoughts none of them coherent)

Views - Marc-Uwe Kling (One of the most upsetting books I ever read and I mean that positively)

Harrow the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir (What the fuck is happening but also oh cool)

People Love Dead Jews - Dara Horn (the other really upsetting book I read this year but beautifully written)

It Came From the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror - Ed. Joe Vallese (An anthology so up my alley you'd think it's fake)

Camp Damascus - Chuck Tingle (More upsetting than scary but a really good read)

Stephen Fry in America - Stephen Fry (Very funny and insightful if you've just moved there)

You Like it Darker - Stephen King (I'm still thinking about some of the short stories)

Mother Night - Kurt Vonnegut (Also not normal about this one)

The Song of Roland - Unknown, Trans. Glen Burgess (It sucks that this slaps so much because it's blatant propaganda)

Die Verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum - Heinrich Böll (Worst year to read and watch this tbh but highly recommended)

Herzog Ernst - Unknown (Medieval Fantasy but like actually Medieval)

Willehalm - Wolfram von Eschenbach (Sorry I only partially read this because I got too busy with school)

Bury Your Gays - Chuck Tingle (Better still than Camp Damascus but again more upsetting than scary)

[thistle-nightshade]

Lovable Loudmouths

I love a snarky character. Did they put their foot in their mouth again? I eat that up. I humbly present my top 5 chaos muppets. Here’s to the ones who never know when to stop talking.

Remy from Silver Under Nightfall by Rin Chupeco

Remy has a habit of babbling during epic battles. A hoard of vampires out for death won’t stop him from running his mouth. He is, at least, self aware. “Take it from someone who talks to much—” *kills the guy currently monologuing* “—you talk too much.”

Riley from Strictly No Heroics by B.L. Radley

This book is chocked full of snarky one liners. Riley has a very distinct voice, and I love her for it. She’s just a queer normie trying to make her way in the world and she’s fed up with all the ways in which the world is shitty.

Tracker from Black Leopard Red Wolf by Marlon James

Tracker has the ability to follow a scent across anywhere. If he catches your scent, he can find you anywhere. This ability is well known. Tracker is also one snarky guy. The ongoing refrain in this book when he meets potential business partners and sticks his foot in his mouth is for them to say “I had heard you had a nose. No one told me you had a mouth.”

Nate from The Alpha’s Warlock (Mismatched Mates #1) by Eliot Grayson

Nate escapes halfway through a curse that leaves his magic seeping out to nowhere and threatening his life. To save his life, he ends up bonded to a werewolf who he’s pretty sure hates him. And this is not at all helped by the fact that Nate can’t stop himself from saying all the wrong things at all the worst times. These enemies do eventually become lovers, but Nate never outgrows his habit of expressing his disdain through strongly worded messages inked onto coffee mugs in permanent marker.

Gideon from Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Listen… If you’re partner is so worried about you saying the wrong thing that she makes to take a fake vow of silence… you’ve put your foot in your mouth one too many times. Never fear, however, Gideon finds plenty of ways to become a problem for Harrow even if she never opens her mouth. And she can back up her non-verbal communication with her sword.

[utilitycaster]

thanks for the book answer! would you share your fiction favorites in general?

Hi anon,

I'll post a few but I think to clarify - this is also kind of just going to be a list. I meant more like...are you looking for book recs? If so are you looking for specific things (eg: queer characters, fantasy and if so which subtype, sci fi and ditto, literary fiction, etc.) Or do you just like, want a list of books I have liked.

Anyway this is a list of a handful of books/series/authors that I'd count as favorites, loosely grouped, but I didn't go into any details about anything.

Fantasy I read a teen and has permanently shaped how I interact with fantasy fiction; some of this is YA

a large swathe of what Diana Wynne Jones has written

The Belgariad and Mallorean by David Eddings

The Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix

Sorcery and Cecelia by Caroline Stevermer and Patricia Wrede (this came up on the comfort reads panel I watched yesterday and it is indeed a comfort read for me) and Mairelon the Magician by Patricia Wrede (set in the same sort of world)

Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

I read some of the Patternist series by Octavia Butler as a teen but then didn't revisit it until adulthood

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (Piranesi is very different and also excellent but that came out when I was an adult, but it's still a favorite)

The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley (I also read a bunch of her fairy tale-based books which I don't know if I'd call them favorites still but I do think they're an influence)

Sandman by Neil Gaiman

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Middlegrade/YA fiction I read as a kid that also permanently shaped something

Several Ellen Raskin books but especially The Westing Game

Elizabeth Enright's books but especially the ones about the Melendy family and Gone-Away Lake

Fantasy and SF I read as an adult and would consider exceptional/a favorite

The Broken Earth Trilogy by N. K. Jemisen

The City and the City by China Mievelle

The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir

Phedre's trilogy of the Kushiel's Legacy series by Jacqueline Carey (have not read the others in the series so this isn't saying they're bad, I just can't speak to them)

The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Leguin

Arcadia by Iain Pears

The Terra Ignota series by Ada Palmer

The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie

The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold

The Night Watch books from Discworld by Terry Pratchett; I have read like, one other Discworld book and it didn't have Sam Vimes in it so I didn't really care

Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand by Samuel R. Delaney

Literary fiction/not sf I read as a teen or adult

(there's notably a lot less of this because I do lean heavily towards fantasy but)

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead by Olga Tokarczuk

[literary-illuminati]

Book Review 18 – Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower by Tamsyn Muir

This is the first in the giant pile of shorter books and novellas I’ve been powering through over the last three weeks to catch up with my extremely aspirational ‘read and review 60 books in 2023’ new years resolution. It’s also possibly the only thing longer than a short story I’ve listened to in audiobook format in, like, a decade? (and that was one of the Veronica Mars spinoff novels).

All to say I may have rushed this one a bit more than I should have to properly appreciate it, and definitely didn’t retain as much from listening to it as I would from reading it. So this is going to be shorter and probably sloppier than previous reviews.

And with all those disclaimers out of the way – this was such a fun fucking book.

The basic premise is that a witch has kidnapped a princess and locked her at the very top of her tower until a prince fights his way up forty floors of monsters (as is the done thing among witches). Unfortunately, this time the witch has rather outdone herself, and the diamond-scaled dragon she has to on the ground floor (putting the most expensive monster on the ground floor being the sort of artistic, avante-garde move this witch wanted to try) turns out to be really quite excellent at the job of prince-slaying. So it’s left to Princess Floralinda, with the variably voluntary help of a stranded fairy by the name of Cobweb, to fight her way all the way down the tower and free herself.

I’ve always really loved the whole fractured fairy tale genre when it’s done with the right sort of sense of humour, and Muir is just perfect at it. Dry and sardonic without ever really tipping all the way into meanspirtedness, and always playful and willing to indulge in a bit of absurdity. Listening to it as an audiobook really did help as well, I think – the narrator was just a delight, and had an amazing sense of timing and delivery for most of the jokes.

I know I say this about altogether too many things, but the whole novella honestly reminded me quite a lot of the old adventure games I played as a kid? Both the tone and just the fact that so many problems required the ruthless exploitation of the automatically regenerating bread, orange and water the witch had left Floralinda with. ‘Use bread knife and fire on curtain rod to make a spear you can use to fight the goblins with’ just very much seems like the sort of thing that would end up in a GameFAQs walkthrough, you know?

Speaking of ruthless exploitation – Cobweb and their interactions with Floralinda were just a delight. Honestly wish fewer words had been devoted to mechanically working their way down floors so we could get more on their dynamic developing. But then I’m a sucker for affection hidden behind sarcastic unpleasantness.

And they are both really truly unpleasant at times, in amusing sorts of ways. Floralinda’s whole arc takes her from sheltered passivity to something more active and terrifying, but it never exactly makes her likeable. Which, to be clear, is not a complaint. Quite the opposite, really. Muir really is excellent at writing spiky women.

Anyway yeah, not the most substantial read in the world, but incredibly fun time.

[sadbookworm]

10 TBRs for 2025

Thanks @skarabrae-stone for the tag

The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer. I read Braiding Sweetgrass in 2022 and it shook my world. Her writing hit me gently, but carried me so far. In 2023, I read Gathering Moss, which is more niche and less philosophical but still a good book, and I’ve been keeping an eye out for what Kimmerer is writing since. I was a little sad when I saw how short it is, 128 pages in hardcover, but I’m sure it’ll be good. 

Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States by Samatha Allen- I’m joining a queer book club!!! I’m so happy for me. While this book hadn’t been on my radar, I do feel like I get a lot from nonfiction books, and I’m looking forward to it. 

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir - I reread Gideon the Ninth in December in preparation and I’m waiting for a copy to come in from the library. I go feral for Mystery + Necromancy + Sword Fights + “How could you leave me? You’re the only person I’ve ever had” / “Why do you keep me here under your control? All I ever wanted was to be valuable to you, and since I can not [do not believe I can] have that I might as well try to be worth something someplace else.” 

Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White. This YA queer horror book was recommended to me by a friend several years ago. They said something along the lines of it would hit me like a ton of bricks at least in part for the “escaping a fundamentalist cult” aspect of things. So it’s been hanging out on my long TBR list for a long time, but I think I’m ready to read it. 

No Comfort for the Undertaker by Chris Keefer is a historical (early 1900s) mystery. This has also been on my TBR for a long time, and she’s been continuing to write and publish books so I want to catch up. 

Gleanings by Neal Shusterman. This short story collection is set in the YA Arc of a Scythe series which I thought was very well done and might reread someday. 

All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot. I’m planning on listening to this on Libby (Die Amazon- not giving bezos money if I can help it). 

Wuthering heights by Emily Bronte. There are lots of classics I haven’t read, and I’ve heard that this one is kinda fucked up, so it should be fun. I am trying to spread my ‘classics’ reading across a couple centuries, and this was published in 1847. We’ll see what stops I make in my time travels come December 2025. 

Cold as Hell by Kelley Armstrong. This is the third in the Haven’s Rock series, which is a spinoff of her Rockton series, both of which are very Copaganda mysteries. While she can be heavy-handed, I still enjoy Armstong’s books. Maybe I’ll find a better series with which to scratch my woman-mc-power-fantasy sometime, but for right now, I’ll keep reading things I can only sort of recommend if you squint and don’t touch the delicately balanced suspension of disbelief. 

And lots of romance novels to be decided, definitely including authors K.J. Charles [I highly recommend] and Grace burrowes [I do not recommend at all], possibly including Abby Jimenez, Emily Henry, Cat Sebastian and whoever is available on Libby when I want some rose-tinted glasses.

@lycorogue @lilaczx

[voxofthevoid]

Hi Vox, what books do you like to read? Genres etc, physical or e-books? Also do you have any recommendations on books to read? I'm dying to get into new books but I have no idea where to start looking.

(by books I meant outside of fanfic.)

PS, will you ever continue your doubledong dickfest (the train age swap one) fic again? I'm so down bad for teenage Satoru getting dicked down haha.

Recently, I've mostly been reading online even when I'm not reading fanfic—stuff like the SCP stories, r/nosleep authors and series, and original fiction on Ao3 and Fictionpress. Been hearing good things about Royal Road too, though the popular genres there may not be to my taste.

Anyway, when it comes to published books, I prefer fantasy or SF. Or both! And I'd rather have physical books than digital ones.

As for recs, the ones from my recent reads are—

The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir. It's a blend of SF and fantasy. It has four parts, and three are currently out. We're waiting with bated breath for the final one.

How to Survive Camping series by Bonnie Quinn. It's a complete four-part series of supernatural mystery and horror that started out on r/nosleep but has been published as books.

My last proper reading spree was over five years back, so I have no idea how I'll feel about these books if I were to read them now:

Whyborne & Griffin series by Jordan L. Hawk

Cut & Run series by Urban and Roux

Literally everything by Megan Derr. Her collection was impressive even circa 2016, and I'm sure it's grown now.

A few classics™, if you swing that way:

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Candide by Voltaire

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

I have an extensive to-read list too, and I can't exactly recommend anything from that, but here are the ones I'm looking forward to the most:

The Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells

Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

Ahh, double-dong dickfest, my beloved! That one suffered from having my attention diverted at just the wrong moment (thank you, chapter 236). Other, shinier ideas keep pulling me to them. Plus, what I currently have is some 14k that could easily stand as its own fic; the remaining outline is an escalating pornfest, and it's got a lot of fun bits I'd like to tackle, but if I don't start, what I've written would make a coherent oneshot.

I can promise a lot of teenage Satoru getting dicked down though. That, I keep going back to faithfully 😂

Thanks for asking this! It was fun to answer.

[sindri42]

What books or graphic novels do you most frequently recommend? What are your all time favorite books or series?

That's a complicated question, and my memory is shit so I'll probably come up with a dozen better answers the moment after I hit post, but off the top of my head...

Basically everything by Seanan McGuire/Mira Grant is gold. Most of it comes in long series which are a big investment and have their ups and downs, and which will have different value to different people and mindsets, and I haven't read all of them because she just writes too damn fast, but I haven't encountered a single book from her that wasn't great. If you're looking for a one-off, Middlegame might be the best; it's about a couple of artificial people created by an ancient conspiracy attempting to attain godhood, and math, and language, and time travel, and what family means, and doing the same thing over and over thirteen thousand times in search of a better result. I'm also especially fond of Alien: Echo, which starts out as a cute little YA gay romance set in a sci-fi colony world, until halfway through you catch the name 'Weyland-Yutani' and abruptly remember which franchise the title is referencing and realize how few of these plucky teens are likely to survive to the end of the week.

You should probably read everything by Naomi Novik. The Temeraire series, starting with His Majesty's Dragon, is an alternate history of the Napoleonic Wars (officers and gentlemen, wooden ships and iron men, all that jazz) except that aerial combat is much more prominent than in our timeline, which gradually expands out into building a whole different earth exploring how numerous cultures and regions were affected by humanity not necessarily being the dominant species. The Scholomance books, starting with A Deadly Education are kind of like your standard magical boarding school, except unlike certain more famous examples of the trope actually makes sense; also it's consistently hilarious whenever it's not being horrifying as the story follows a girl who is clearly born to be an evil empress and who is very definitely not dating this stereotypical dashing hero guy, no matter how many times they save each others' lives. As standalones go, she's done Uprooted and Spinning Silver, both of which put wonderful new spins on classic fairy tale tropes and popular myths but this paragraph is already too long for me to elaborate.

The Murderbot series by Martha Wells is not only great as a sci-fi action series and as a worldbuilding exercise, but also the most realistic depiction of an anxiety disorder I've ever read. It starts with a security droid that hacked its own governor module to get the ability to disobey orders, but then because change is terrifying it continues to go through the motions of its terrible job, but now streams thousands of hours of media in the background while standing guard between crises; unfortunately, when something starts trying to kill the scientific survey team it's currently contracted out to, it discovers to its horror that it's actually starting to care about what happens to them.

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones is a classic for a reason. Maybe you've seen the Miyazaki film? Doesn't matter, read the book anyway. It's a completely different story. (somebody described it to me as 'the book is what Sophie remembers, the movie is how Howl describes it after the fact')

If you're looking for books on tumblr you've probably heard of Tamsyn Muir's The Locked Tomb series by now; no need for me to elaborate on what others have said better.

Ooh, pick up Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Stugatsky; it might be the greatest Soviet sci-fi novel, and has had a huge cultural impact around the world. After you read it you'll realize that you've been seeing it everywhere, not just in a whole bunch of other sci fi literature but also from video games to anime to tabletops.

Moving into things that I personally love but don't necessarily recommend...

I want to tell everybody about The One Who Eats Monsters by Casey Matthews. It's a near-perfect blend of the adorable and the horrifying, and one of the best non-human perspectives I've encountered, following an elder god who could be mistaken at a glance for a teenage human girl as she simultaneously tries to figure out how to navigate "civilization" and fights a monstrous conspiracy to protect an (actual) ordinary teenage girl that she accidentally swore an unbreakable oath to defend because the moon was very full and she smelled very nice. It's great. but if you read it, then you would be in the same position that I am, waiting for the second book in the series, which was supposed to come out six years ago.

I love the Arcane Ascension series (Sufficiently Advanced Magic, On the Shoulders of Titans, The Torch that Ignites the Stars, and The Silence of Unworthy Gods) by Andrew Rowe; it's basically about an artificer attending a school for battle mages, using every trick and trap and gadget and clever scheme he can think of to keep up without having any direct combat magic of his own. The reason it's probably not for everybody is that as the story gets bigger and more elaborate, it starts interweaving with at least two other series of books by the same author (one of which initially looked like a completely different setting, and definitely operates on a completely different magic system), and none of the three are finished yet. Also the systems involved are intricate and there's a lot of little details going on, so you kiiiinda have to get obsessed in order to keep track of it all.

The Witcher books by Andrzej Sapkowski might be the best you'll ever find in the gritty "grimdark" fantasy category. The netflix series that everybody was obsessing over for a while before it shit itself too badly? Everything that they did right, is something that was better in the original books. Most of the best parts of the original books were removed entirely and replaced with complete garbage. The video games are a better adaptation, but still fall a bit short in writing quality and character depth. But it definitely leans into the Grimdark, possibly more heavily than you want to deal with.

The Valhalla trilogy by Ari Bach is good... conditionally. You can read just the first book like it's a standalone, and get a cool story subverting the classic Coming-Of-Age 'girl who never fit in is recruited by a secret society that tells her the thing that made her Different is exactly what they need to save the world' trope, except that the thing that makes her not fit in is her propensity towards brutal, remorseless violence. But you can't read the second book (which elaborates on why maybe maintaining world peace by deploying a secret society of ultraviolent killers with no oversight might not be a good idea) without committing to also reading the third, because the end of the second book will make you want to stop reading, and if you take the whole trilogy together then it's great but if you let the end of the second book be your last memory of it then that'll leave a bad taste in your mouth forever.

Jim Butcher's Codex Alera is six books, and five of them are absolutely magnificent. Unfortunately, the first volume is, in my humble opinion, dogshit. You can't skip it either, or you'll miss a bunch of vital setup and introductions. There's nothing you can do except push through a bunch of stuff ranging from simply dumb to downright offensive before you can get to the great part.

[racefortheironthrone]

Hey there,

So I read the Locked Tomb series a few months ago and one thing that occurred to me after reading Nona the Ninth was that the John Gauis’s account of the end of the world could not be fundamentally trusted.  While I believe that Tamsyn Muir intended for these passages to be “true” or “Accurate” to what happened I found unable to accept the chapters due to the number and severity of lies told by John.  It also led to me notice any inconsistency, irregularity, or any implausible scenario and to see it as evidence of another lie by John. 

My question I suppose is if an author uses an unreliable narrator when (or if) should the audience trust said narrator again.  

In part my extreme skepticism started when John mentioned the oxygen crisis, that such a scenario would be so sever and immediate that there would be little time for John’s necromantic schemes.  It was further stoked by John’s impractical cryogenic plan (why would you send frozen people to the Kuiper Belt), and later on John’s  mis-remembering when and how original-Gideon died and that he was telling this story to Harrow hark trying to convinced her to join him.

I am quite certain that my extreme distrust is unwarranted and that Muir intended for us to believe John’s tale but I cannot help but notice the inconsistencies and find John utterly dishonest and unbelievable.

I'm glad you asked this question, because it allows me to talk about how to apply historiographical methodology to literary analysis.

One of the terms that I was exposed to during my training as a historian is the "hermeneutics of suspicion" - the practice of reading texts such that the on-its-face meaning of the text is false and that you have to read the text solely for its deeper, hidden meanings. The problem with the hermeneutics of suspicion is that, taken to a logical conclusion, all texts and meanings become false, and for lack of evidence, all academic inquiry shuts down and we wind up sitting on the floor with our hands over our mouths.

Now, this doesn't mean that you have to take texts as 100% valid either, but rather that good methodological practice requires a careful weighing and balancing of bias, rather than simplistic binaries.

So in the case of John's narrative in Nona the Ninth, is John meant to be an unreliable narrator? Yes. However, because Tamsyn Muir does actually play fair with the readers, she makes it quite clear when John is lying to Harrow/Alecto:

"I said I made a mistake. She let it go eventually because the others were telling her to lay off. Just said Guys as careful as you shouldn't have accidents. If you've got a gun learn how to aim it. This is too big for fuckups now... "Did you ever find out what happened? With your accident?" He turned to her and he smiled a funny little smile. It only used one half of his mouth. In the dream his new eyes did not show happiness or unhappiness. And he said, "Come on, love. Guys as careful as me don't have accidents."

And here again:

"I did need to do it, Harrow. There was no other way. Once those bombs were going off, there was no hope for Melbourne anyway-- G- was dead meat." She said-- "You said that G-'s bomb went off first." "Yeah, it did," he said impatiently. "Of course it did...Look-what does it matter? In the end, why the hell does it matter?"

Unfortunately for John Gaius, Harrowhark Nonagesimus is smarter than he is when she's in her right mind and she catches the discrepancies in his story - just as we are meant to do.

So what I would say is that, unless it's something where Tamsyn Muir gives us clues like this where other characters are calling John out on his bullshit, you should treat worldbuilding issues like the population of Earth, or the logistics of cryocans, or the speed of shuttle transports in the Nine Houses, etc. as either mistakes on the part of the author (when they actually are mistakes) or just part of the overall willing suspension of disbelief that comes with speculative fiction.

[gryptids]

“Nine People you want to know better” tag game

I was tagged by @demekii!! Thank u for thinkin of meeee <3

Last Song: Ike's Rap II by Isaac Hayes. On the album it is attached to another song, but I've just been listening to this part :>

Favorite Color: SO HARD TO PICK... probably cool green, but blue & pink are my honorable mentions.

Last Movie/TV Show: I don't really watch much TV 2 be honest!!! I much prefer nonfiction media, most of my fiction I consume thru books rather than TV/movies. That being said, I do plan on tuning in to the new season of True Detective on HBO 👁👁

Sweet/Spicy/Savory: Tie between sweet and savory!!! I loooove sweet drinks, but when it comes to snacks I prefer savory. Catch me drinking sweet chai & salt n' vinegar almonds like nobody's business. My tolerance for spicy food is fairly low.

Relationship status: Happily single

Last thing I googled: The 2019 film Queen & Slim

Current Obsession: The Bald & The Beautiful podcast and Cyberpunk 2077. I don't really care about the plot of the game, more the world that its in. Been watching a looot of ambient driving tours in Cyberpunk 2077 lol (shout-out to DaydreamGaming on Youtube).

Stealing prev's last two questions:

Last Book: Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. Gideon is so fucking funny I love her so much, I know at least two lesbians who act exactly like her sjlkfjsd.

Looking forwards to: Attending some adult meetup groups at my local library!!

Tagging @official-bagpipes @technicolor-technopath @sauntervaguelydownward @triptrippy @dracula-enthusiast @charlioak @esafagus @cucumberlumber @protoformx and whoever else wants to do it!!! There were some ppl I wanted to tag but Tumblr wouldn't let me so if u see this I am tagging YOU and you should do it 👀

[noahsbookhoard]

📚April 2024 Book Review (Part 3/3)📚

April final part! I am still slightly overwhelmed by the work ahead but we are getting somewhere!

Nona the Ninth (The Locked Tomb #3) by Tamsyn Muir

In a world shattering, Nona is trying her best to help: she works at the school, she helps her family, but that's not easy when you woke six months ago in a strange body without any memories and when each night you have strange dreams of a man named John and a woman with skull face paint.

In which once again, Tamsyn Muir plays her favorite game: messing with poor Harrowark's memory!

I have to admit this one was really wierd and I think I missed some stuff along the way because I am still not sure I understand what happened to Harrow. Nona being confused about everything including herself makes her point of view just as unsettling.

Nonetheless I loved watching Nona make friends and try to grasp from Pyrrha, Camilla and everyone around her what is happening to her city. The kids are really fun and makes a good balance to the adults who try not to say too much because that's how you get into trouble, which is reasonable in this setting. They really sound like elementary schoolers or early middle school kids, even when they try to act more grown up than they are (looking at you, Hot Sauce)

The dreams with John were what really ties the series wolrdbuilding together; and it is as chaotic as could be expected. I had read memes on tumblr about a wall of cow and had refused to believe it until is stared at me black on white (the print not the cows). The immense gap between where we started and where we are now is dizzying.

Once again a pointed lack of Gideon (I'm still mad about Kiriona) but Camilla and Palamedes made me really emotional. The Lyctorhood ritual always manages to screw up in the most dramatic manners because Pyrrha's story is just so sad too. Paul had better be there in Alecto the Ninth. Also what is it with SciFi characters being named Paul? This is a genuine question.

I was a bit disappointed by the pacing, but I want to put it on account of the novel being cut into two (the final installment being the long awaited Alecto the Ninth). It had what I find generally as the flaw of the second books of trilogies: it doesn't introduce much because it has been done before and it doesn't resolves much either because that's the third book job. I am really looking forward to Alecto (or at least a release date, do you hear me? I am dying out here!)

Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa

The Elric brothers, Edward and Alphonse, are State Alchemists. They are among the most talented of their generation but they have a secret: years ago they tried a forbidden ritual to bring back their mother from the dead; it cost Edward an arm and a leg and Alphonse, his entire body. Now their goal is to find the Philosopher Stone so they can restore their bodies but in their quest they will uncover much deeper and secrets.

I had a manga phase in middle school and high school but lost interest (and the free time to binge animes) in the years after. It took me some times but I'm trying to catch back on series I found cool but never had the time to read or watch: I am almost caught up in One Piece and can finally say I read FullMetal Alchemist!

The setting and magic system is really nice, I love the steampunk elements. The lore is deep and full of details, the politics, religion and the history of this country with its neighbours are more contemporary than ever.

Character-wise it's really good too! Edward and Alphonse are top notch: siblings in the most siblings of way, bickering but caring about each other so much. They struggle with their loyalty and morality, they struggle with their bodies, they are so mad at their father (rightfully so). I loved the facial expressions, the funny oversimplified one especially.

Winry, Roy Mustang and the two Armstrong are also a favorite of mine, the all have really good backstories that tie in with the lore and makes them feel really alive and pop out in the universe. The two last volume, which comes back further in time really set the notion that the Elric brothers and Winry are kids who haven't seen the worst of it, yet they are dragged in whether they like it or not, or even and totally aware of that.

I'm sorry to have put it away for so long, I really enjoyed it! There's so many more classics ai haven't crossed out yet so don't hesitate to send recs!

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T J Klune

Linus Baker is a social worker with DICOMY, specifically he controls the foster homes for magical children. He is devoted to his job, certain that what he is doing is right; after all he is protecting the children! But when he is sent on a two week mission to the seaside, in one foster home more peculiar than the others, his certainty will be shaken.

TJ Klune is one of those author I wish I had discovered sooner. I have read two of his books (mostly because I am rationing myself but In the Lives of Puppets is calling me...) and they are both comfort books and went straight into the reread pile!

This novel deals with childhood, fostercare, accepting that everyone is different and that different doesn't mean dangerous, these theme could make it grave or grim but it never is: this novel is bright, joyful most of the time and hopeful when it isn't.

The characters, especially the children, are adorable. They are magical beings and very creative: a blob of slime which dreams of being a hotel groom, a were-pomeranian, a female gnome with an attitude... They have their struggles but they are full of hopes and dreams and just like Linus I wanted nothing more than preserving it. Arthur to loves them and cares for them so much, and that shows in his kindness, hi playfulness, the comfort he brings.

The love story is really cute, I love the mutual pining, love the way Arthur put the children first, always, love how Linus' veneer of professional righteousness cracks and fall of day by day. The pacing is not slow but let's you appreciate the moments, the adventures as well as the characters moment of growth especially Linus'.

This was an instant favorite and a new comfort book. It is soft, fluffy, tender and sad but never tragic and with the biggest brightest Happy Ending because, dammit, it deserved no less.

As of drafting this post (september 14th) the sequel Somewhere Beyond the Sea has been released for 4 days and I can't wait to read it!

The Duke and I (Bridgerton #1) by Julia Quinn

Daphne Bridgerton is the oldest daughter of the numerous Bridgerton family. She is nice, everyone likes her, but that's the problem; in 3 years out in society she hasn't has any marriage proposal. When the Duke of Hasting - a former schoolfriend of his brother - comes to London for the season pointedly not looking for a wife, they strike a deal: they will pretend to be courting, making Daphne look desirable and the Duke already taken. But how long will the pretends hold?

Since the first season of the Netflix show Bridgerton my mother wanted to read the books, and I thought it would be a good way to keep in touch with her by reading along. Hence me, reading romance novel, which is absolutely not my comfort zone. I read a few, I enjoy romance in novels where romance happens but I am rarely looking out for the genre. But I liked the show, I like period books, so let's give it a try!

This is something that will come a lot in my opinion of the Bridgerton novel: I vastly prefers the show to the books. I hate possessiveness in romance and this seems to be a recurring trope in this series, which isn't as strong in the TV adaptation. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The plot is catching for the first part (before the wedding, is it spoiler to say that the protagonists of a romance novel get married at the end? I think that's sort of expected) it's fun, the Bridgerton family is endearing even though we don't see them much. Simon and Daphne are sweet and the contrast between their life and especially their childhood and relationship to their family makes their dynamic interesting. The drama is over the top but I liked it that way, I love a good old pistol duel, I am not difficult to please.

However I was kinda incomfortable with the plot past their wedding: Simon refusing to conceive and letting Daphne believe "I can't have children" means "unable to" instead of "won't". Daphne forcing her way. Their extremely mature response to the whole mess... I know there wouldn't be a plot if the characters were not repressed victorians unable to talk about their feelings but at some point you have to communicate with your spouse!

Overall fun but not a crush, even though I read the whole series because I love my mom. I am thinking of doing a long review of the 8 books in one post instead of month by months but I an still not set about that. I'll have to finish the final book anyway before that.