#the endless song

[melanielocke]

So, I really need some book recommendations.

I usually read fantasy but I also like dystopian, sci-fi and stuff. As long as it's fictional. I also like rewrites (if that makes sense).

Since the request wasn't super specific, for this one I just picked a couple of very different fantasy books that I read recently and have not yet discussed. I don't have a lot of recent dystopian (publishing currently believed dystopian is dead, I think). For sci-fi, check out this post

Little Thieves by Margaret Owen is a retelling of the Goose Girl. That's a relatively unknown Grimm fairytale where a wicked maid steals the identity of a princess. This book tells the story of the maid, Vanja Schmidt, who is the adopted daughter of Fortune and Death. She used to be Princess Gisele's maid, until she stole Gisele's enchanted pearl necklace that changes her appearance and takes her place. Now, Vanja leads a double life as princess and jewel thief, seeking to make enough money to escape before she has to marry her creepy fiance, and so she can escape her mothers. But when she crosses the wrong god, she is cursed to slowly turn into a statue of jewels as punishment for her greed, unless she finds a way to make up for what she stole. I'd recommend this book if you like unlikeable main characters.

Vanja is very selfish, but she if she doesn't put herself first, no one else will, so it is definitely understandable. She has a tendency to push everyone away, but deep down she's very lonely. She's a gremlin, and I love her.

There are also some very charming side characters, including the daughter of the god who cursed Vanja, a shape shifter who does not quite understand human behavior, and a prefect (a magic detective of sorts) chasing the jewel thief.

This book also makes some great social commentary on class and wealth. Vanja might have done a bad thing stealing Gisele's life, but Gisele wasn't entitled to all that wealth and prestige in the first place, and this book heavily criticizes nobility.

The Forever Sea and the Endless Song are part of a series and I have only read book 1 so far (book 2 just came in yesterday). This is an adult fantasy series and as such it is heavier on the world building and more complicated than most YA fantasy, so if you've only ever read YA fantasy I don't think this is the best book to transition into adult, but if you're used to reading adult this is a good series to try.

The Forever Sea is one of the most unique fantasies I've read, and this mainly lies in the world building. The premise of this world is an ocean made out of very high grassland. Ships can sail on this grass with the help of a magic hearthfire, and if this fire would go out you would very slowly sink beneath the grass. Sailors go out onto the sea mainly to harvest all sorts of plants used for food and medicine.

Kindred was raised by her grandmother, the Marchess, a legendary captain and hearthfire keeper. When her grandmother disappears beneath the sea, everyone assumes it was a suicide. But Kindred finds a note from her grandmother implying that it was not suicide, but that she was searching for what is down at the bottom of the sea, and might still be alive there. So Kindred sets out to find her, traveling across the Sea and through a legendary pirate city to see if her grandmother could still be out there, and what is at the bottom of the sea.

This book is very plot driven with a huge emphasis on the environment and descriptions on it, but also lots of world building on how this works exactly. There isn't a lot of emphasis on it, but there is also a sapphic relationship in here between the main character and another sailor. As I said, I haven't read book 2 yet but will start it soon. It's also not out in the US yet (coming 14th February, but the UK edition was released already) From the reviews I gathered there's going to be a third (last? idk) book.

In the Ravenous Dark is a dark fantasy that is marketed as YA, but I think it's very upper YA, maybe more NA but publishing doesn't think that is a thing, so YA it is.

This is set in a world inspired by ancient Greece, but only vaguely (clothes, buildings etc, much of the world building is completely made up), and Rovan, the main character, is a blood mage. Since her father's death, she's kept her blood magic hidden, but when her magic is revealed she is taken to the palace and bound to Ivrilos, a dead spirit who can control here, which is something that is done to all blood mages.

Rovan falls in love with two people she can't trust, the spirit Ivrilos, and princess Lydea, another blood mage, and together they uncover a plot of what is going on in the world of the dead and living, and why blood mages must be bound to spirits.

I think the magic system in this book was very well done, including the way spirits work and the realm of the dead. The book was at times a little messy, and I think it might have worked better as a duology since there was so much going on, but I don't bother me much while reading it.

There's a poly relationship between Rovan, Ivrilos and Lydea, which I really liked, and there's Japha, a really cool non binary side character who's essentially the fourth part of the found family.

Unseelie by Ivelisse Housman is a YA fae fantasy set in a second world focusing on an autistic main character

Seelie is a changeling. Though she looks exactly like her twin Isolde, she's actually a fae creature trying to control her unpredictable magic. She and her sister had to flee their home due to prejudice against changelings, and end up stealing to survive. When they get caught up in a heist gone wrong, they team up with unexpected allies to go on a quest and unravel a mystery to do with fae and human history.

The plot of this book is what you'd expect from a YA fantasy, fast paced, not super unpredictable or anything. The strenght of this book is the main character. Seelie is autistic and written by an autistic author, and while it is set in a world where the term autism does not exist, it is portrayed really well and I found Seelie very relatable as an autistic person. In this world, changelings are typically autistic (because real world changeling myths often derive from disabled children, including autistic children). The sister relationship is also intersting, because Seelie and Isolde are so different, and have very different ideas of what their life should be like once they're finished with this quest.

It is the first in a duology and I have no clue when book 2 is coming out

The last book on this list is the Dream Runners by Shveta Thakrar which is a contemporary fantasy inspired by Indian mythology, specifically, the naga. Naga in this world can't dream on their own, so they have children taken from the human world who become dream runners. They travel to the human world to collect dreams from humans for the naga.

Tanvi is such a dream runner, she's been in Nagalok for the past 7 years. Dream runners don't dream themselves and are devoid of emotion, but for Tanvi this is slowly returning and she's desperate to make it stop.

Venkat is a dreamsmith, the only human in Nagalok who is not a dream runner. Instead, he shapes dreams collected by the dream runners into dream stones used by the naga.

They team up to figure out what is going on with Tanvi, and uncover a plot that could destroy the naga world.

I loved the creative world building in this book, with how the dream runner system works. Tanvi was a little difficult to relate to at first, because she was very obsessed with earning a charm bracelet in exchange for her dreams and I found this confusing, but this will make sense later on, and this book had some twists I really liked.

I hope this helps!

[hellenhighwater]

Whereabouts do you live, roughly speaking, and what drew you to that place in particular?

I'm in Michigan, and that's as specifically as I will answer that question! We have really lethal lakes.

[counterspelling]

Endless NSBU

[ibenology]

stop putting Mobius in the same bracket as Aziraphale and Stede Bonnet he needs to be here:

I’m not entirely sure what this type is called so I’ve decided to go with:

human turned immortal and head over heels in love with the non-human being that fell out of the universe and changed their life forever

[mayomkun]

Once I wondered what was holding up the ground But I can see that all along, love it was you all the way down

[kimtaegis]

FRI(END)S for @thv-hyung ♡

[niko-sasaki-dbd]

This is the loveliest video I've seen , it shows just how many incredibly talented people had been involved in the production of this show, and the bond they all have after years of working together, I love it!

Source: George Rexstrew on Instagram.

[05raine]

“When you love the Doctor, it's like loving the stars themselves. You don't expect a sunset to admire you back. And if I happen to find myself in danger, let me tell you, the Doctor is not stupid enough, or sentimental enough, and he is certainly not in love enough to find himself standing in it with me!” -River Song (Doctor Who: The Husbands of River Song)

Inspired by this post by @ibenology

My rambling about this below 😎👍

These three pairings actually hurt me in how similar they are, not to mention how River’s quote here could apply to both Hob and Mobius as well as of course- herself. The three of them(River, Hob, and Mobius) all fall for this seemingly timeless ethereal being; the sunset that they don’t expect to admire them back.

But the quote I referenced above is shortly followed by The Doctor revealing that he’s been next to River this whole time, and that can kind of tie into both Morpheus and Loki in how they admire their partner back in their own repressed way. River, Hob, and Mobius are all under this assumption that there’s no way that their affection will be reciprocated, but they don’t realize that The Doctor, Morpheus, and Loki have been by their side through it all and it just- UGH. THE PARALLELS BREAK ME.

Anyways, if you can’t tell I’m not used to drawing real people but I did my best to make them look like the actual actors while somewhat retaining my art style 💀

[wizardofgoodfortune]

and it rings in the day and it rings in the evening oh, i could pray, but it won't stop you leaving —phildel, “funeral bell”

[userslayer]

every time I think I've read the best spuffy fanfic I ever I come across one that was written in like 2002 and it's like a revelation all over again about how you can cry over fictional characters over a show that ended like 20 years ago

[milfygerard]

and you just watched it happen...

[illumi-nati-png]

And I'm askin' why lord

If this is how I die, lord

Why be left with no family and no friends?

Ooh

I've got no celebration

Just this consolation

Time eats all his children in the end

-The Ballad Of Jane Doe

[counterspelling]

Endless NSBU

[hamletthedane]

growing up queer in an ultra-conservative southern evangelical church gives you deeply ingrained guilt, shame, and grief that haunts you long into your adulthood, sure

but it ALSO gives you the bunny, the bunny, oooh I love the bunny I gave everything that I had for the bunny I don't want no health food when it's time to feed a big bag o' bunnies is all that I need

[achillean-heartbeat]

Listening to the AWTWB Baz playlist Rainbow Rowell has posted on spotify is... devastating.

i am in love with all of Rainbow's playlists and her annotations on her site. i absolutely love how much thought she puts into them in relation to her characters, and how much you can find Simon and Baz in their respective playlists.

But the AWTWB: Baz playlist, specifically, holds a special place in my heart...

The absolute fucking SOFTNESS from the first song till the very last... while listening i can SEE Baz cradling his own vulnerable bleeding heart in his hands and holding it out to Simon no matter the consequences...

I will never shut up about Rainbow's playlists for her characters. They're so good they make me weep everytime i listen.

Edit: Fuck it.

Here's all the specific lyrics in the AWTWB: BAZ playlist by Rainbow Rowell on spotify that made me physically clutch my heart from pain (and love. For Baz.):

"We thought love was something, we weren't meant to find, but now you're a stranger"

"but you don't remember, August honey, you were mine."

"I can't forget those earlier days, when i was in your heart, Now you take my hand, and it's as cold, as when you speak."

"Cannot count the ways you used to love me, But I can count the ways you used to try"

"The cries are just the start, To a fallen angel, While one hand takes the cross, Another lights the candle"

"would you feel, together and inebriated, enabling of a fable, we were never meant to be but together."

"I want say what lovers say to you, I want to feel what lovers feel with you, I want to do it with you. Would you be my lover?"

"Remember the time you told me love was touching souls, Surely you touched mine 'cause part of you pours out of me."

"You're in my blood, you're my holy wine. You taste so bitter and so sweet. Oh I could drink a case of you darling"

"You felt shelter somewhere in me, I find great comfort in you, And I keep you safe from harm, You hold me in your arms"

"I've got your back, And though, it's stacked against us, I've got your hand, It's us against consensus, And I will burn, The people who hurt you"

"You know it's time that we, Grow old and do some shit, I like it all that way"

"Won't you please let me go?, These words lie inside they hurt me so, I've Lost you, I've Lost you, I've Lost you."

"Please don't let me hit the ground, Tonight I think I'll walk alone, I'll find my soul as I go home."

"Looking out at endless snow, Waiting in the silence, If you won't spill your heart, I'll chase you for the worst you owe."

"You are the answer to my question, You are my accomplice in a crime."

"In the twilight they danced and played, The fireflies they go light like cray, In the dreaming we struck each other, and prayed, for pain."

"Two melting candles against the sun, Modern angels they broke our wings in the wind, For what?"

"But when I'm asleep, I want somebody, Who will put their arms around me, And kiss me tenderly"

"Who knows how long I've loved you, You know I love you still, Will I wait a lonely lifetime, If you want me to, I will."

The more i listen to this playlist, the more i cry, the more i ache over baz and the unconditional love this boy, this man, holds in his heart.

Thank you @rainbowrowell.

[polarsirens]

hooo