#vlad blustein

[queereads-bracket]

Queer Adult SFF Books Bracket: Round 1

Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:

The Murderbot Diaries series (All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, Exit Strategy, Network Effect, Fugitive Telemetry, System Collapse, and other stories) by Martha Wells

Endorsement from submitter: "Asexual and agender main character. In later books side characters are revealed to be in poly relationship."

"As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."

In a corporate-dominated space-faring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. For their own safety, exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids. But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists is conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid--a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, Murderbot wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is, but when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and Murderbot to get to the truth.

Science fiction, novella, series, adult

Hunger Pangs series (True Love Bites) by Joy Demorra

In a world of dwindling hope, love has never mattered more...

Captain Nathan J. Northland had no idea what to expect when he returned home to Lorehaven injured from war, but it certainly wasn't to find himself posted on an island full of vampires. An island whose local vampire dandy lord causes Nathan to feel strange things he'd never felt before. Particularly about fangs.

When Vlad Blutstein agreed to hire Nathan as Captain of the Eyrie Guard, he hadn't been sure what to expect either, but it certainly hadn't been to fall in love with a disabled werewolf. However Vlad has fallen and fallen hard, and that's the problem.

Torn by their allegiances--to family, to duty, and the age-old enmity between vampires and werewolves--the pair find themselves in a difficult situation: to love where the heart wants or to follow where expectation demands.

The situation is complicated further when a mysterious and beguiling figure known only as Lady Ursula crashes into their lives, bringing with her dark omens of death, doom, and destruction in her wake.

And a desperate plea for help neither of them can ignore.

Thrown together in uncertain times and struggling to find their place amidst the rising human empire, the unlikely trio must decide how to face the coming darkness: united as one or divided and alone. One thing is for certain, none of them will ever be the same.

Fantasy, romance, paranormal, series, adult

[thebibliosphere]

Speaking of Hunger Pangs, how do Vampires and such fit into the political scene? Like, are there term limits, and were they invented to keep one immortal congressman or governor from just getting reelected till the end of time?

The vampires in Hunger Pangs are something of political refugees at this point. They were, back in Vlad's grandfather's day, hugely powerful war mongers and the main allies of the Wight King and helped him to conquer the western front. Then he turned on them and demanded subservience and Vlad's grandfather rebelled, resulting in the first hundred year war. Vlad was four at the time. He has only vague memories of him and his still human mother being sent over the ocean to be envoys with his father to claim political refuge in the sanctuary of the Empire. As part of the bargain, the Blutstein clan were forced to give up all claims to power, including their military campaigns and settle down to a life of being the "poor relatives" of the other supernatural elements that make up the Empire. But because they're nobility of a kind it's not really poverty or a life of subservience and the Count is still considered a great advisor to the current Court and makes his fortune through trade and other means.There is also a sanction in place preventing the creation of any new vampires, without special dispensation from the Court. But there's subtle ways around it which Vlad talks about.At present the Blustein family are governing over the coastal county of Eeyrie, with Vlad's father acting as the local lord and magistrate whenever he is home, which he often is not, leaving Vlad to run the local estates and land thus enabling him to enact some of his more radical ideas. Like free innoculation, mandatory schooling up to the age of twelve and patronage of the arts. He's also increasingly enthused about the rise of industrialization and innovation over the last few decades. His current obsession is figuring out how to trap sunlight and use it as an energy source instead of coal which he thinks is an unsustainable resource. It's not uncommon to see the Viscount out in the middle of the day under the protection of a parasol, eyeing the town with a contemplative look and a measuring tape.