#what will i do when i get to the end of this discworld reread

[booksbabybooks]

In rereading Discworld, I marvel at how lucky we were that Sir PTerry lived to give us such a fitting send off to that universe: and how that send off is much richer if you view Raising Steam and The Shepherd's Crown as a dual goodbye.

Steam gives us "big ideas" Pratchett at his finest: what happens when you introduce a world-changing roundworld idea to Discworld (the railways). It showcases a host of favourite main characters (Moist, Vimes, Vetinari and the Night Watch) plus some beloved minor characters (Harry, the Low King) and develops their relationships in new and interesting ways (see how Moist, who has never had time for the police, is forced to reassess Vimes, and vice versa). It moves key issues forward - gender politics in the dwarves, how certain species are treated - and revisits old stories (Vertinari's secret double, the golden golems). Plus we get some genuinely exciting set pieces, and happy endings all round. It would, on its own, be a fitting finale.

Then we get Shepherd. A small scale, intimate book about one old woman's death and one young woman's destiny. About how a life can ripple through the world, but without pulling focus from those in her smaller circle. It's not scared of big ideas - from the gender dynamics of witches to the relationship between faeries and the world - but it ultimately feels focused on one compact group of (mostly) women. While Steam felt like a big, showy leaving party, Shepherd feels like a farewell between friends, bittersweet but lovely all the same.

Together, they reflect the strengths of Discworld, its ability to tackle big ideas but to do so by tying them to characters who feel like people you know, making them small enough to grasp. Read them in close sittings, and they fit together beautifully.

[shazzyv]

Been rereading the Discworld City Watch series coz those books are like crack laced with serotonin and I think Carrot is simultaneously one of the best and most terrifying characters in Discworld.

Best because yes he's the goodest boi and he's got a werewolf gf and he's unfailingly honest and decent to pretty much everyone and is so earnest and sweet people just can't disappointment him. Except...

One thing that sticks in my head is that last scene in Men at Arms

SPOILERS for most of the City Watch books:

When, right at the end Cruces is telling Carrot he's a long lost king and has the documentation to prove. Carrot walks over to it, takes a read and while Cruces is doing his villain monologue, stabs him through the chest. It's quick and clean and Carrot doesn't even bat an eye that he just took a man's life on purpose.

I say on purpose because my boi literally committed manslaughter in the previous book when he threw the Law and Ordinances at Wonse. He didn't seem to miffed then either, aside from the fact he just misunderstood an order from a superior.

Granted it's a funny joke and Wonse was a bastard but Carrot doesn't seem to react to it.

Like, throughout the books Vimes constantly struggles with the urge to just go ham and remove all the people causing the problems. He's constantly faced with the cynicism and cruelty and just the sheer stupidity of the world and always tries to do the moral thing, to do it by the book because as he says, "if you can do it for a good reason, you can do it for a bad reason." He's in the grey between black and white.

Carrot on the other hand doesn't really seem to mind. We never really see what Carrot is thinking (probably because he's so honest he just flat out says it) so it's hard to parcel how he feels about things.

My headcanon is he killed Wonse by accident, never thought about it again and then killed Cruces when he realized Cruces was a greater threat than he realized plus was about to kill Vimes. You could say the same about him skewering a werewolf later on in Fifth Element, but that was a survival situation I feel. Granted he never really kills again but I like to think if Carrot was face to face with Carcer or Stratford it would've been a very short conversation.

I think that's another reason why Vimes keeps a close eye on Carrot. Imagine doing your best to live life by a strict set of moral principles only to have your charismatic, well beloved second-in-command simply kill a man in front of you then tell you without blinking you had a wedding to go to.

Carrot even says "Personal doesn't mean important" which kind of tells me that no matter what his feelings on the subject, he's going to try to do the right thing.

And he killed Cruces for, I feel, a good reason.

He's a good man who'll kill you without a word and Vimes is a good man who'll kill you when there's no other acceptable option.

Vimes is the grey and Carrot is the white that gets dirty.

[prodigaldaughteralice]

So, I was tipped off a while ago by a post that’s probably still in my queue (I have a long reblog queue u_u;; ) that a few words were changed in the US edition of Monstrous Regiment. As it’s my favourite Discworld book, and I’d only ever read the US edition, I tracked down a second-hand UK first edition online and had a re-read as soon as it came, with my battered old US edition next to me so I could check when anything pinged me as ‘off’. Here’s what I found, not counting minor UK->US spelling changes like turning “girlie” into “girly”.

(There may be more that I missed, I didn’t have both copies open the whole time, but I’m pretty familiar with this book. As my sister teased me about when I mentioned I’d done this comparison, I did have it in my bed for several years as a teenager so I could reread it whenever my insomnia was hitting particularly hard.)

Spoilers from here on out, of course.

The first two are just kind of pointless? Changing “coprolite” to “coprolith”, which is just a less common word for the exact same thing, and changing “riff-riff-raff” to “riffraff” feels like they forgot Jackrum was playing drunk in that scene. Whatever. These don’t bother me.

There are a few UK->US type changes in the next one (“wooly vest” to “woolen undershirt”) which similarly feel pointless to me, but what really gets my goat is the last word. “The man’s bare chests,” plural, being changed to “the man’s bare chest”. Because that’s foreshadowing, but it’s not a giveaway, because on a heavier (cis) guy they do hang separate. It’s a nice little touch, and they took it out.

The next one is the one I’d been tipped off to, and it’s the change I’m the most annoyed about. “Turned her chair to the fire/around him the kitchen worked” -> “turned her chair to the fire/around her the kitchen worked.” I’m sure whatever editor changed it didn’t do so with any kind of malice or agenda, they just weren’t paying enough attention and thought they were fixing a continuity mistake, but it’s just such beautiful writing that they removed.

Because they’ve just had this incredible, delicate, vulnerable conversation about the girl Jackrum left behind him, and that that girl was him, and that he has a son out in Scratz and he doesn’t know what to do now that he’s leaving the army. Polly cries. And it’s Polly who suggests that he really can remain Jack Jackrum, he can go back to his son in medals and braid and be his father, and Jack gets to really settle in to the idea that he can be happy that way. Both those pronouns being “her” doesn’t feel wrong, necessarily; I always read it as Polly processing. But the switch between the two sentences is so beautiful. It’s a gentle closing of the conversation, it’s that girl being fully put behind him, and Sergeant Major Jack Jackrum (retired) getting to go on with his life.

The last one is just… odd. Inexplicable, and it’s the hardest to explain as just an editorial accident. They added a word that specifies something that was not previously specified. “One of them was Maladicta, in full uniform” becomes “one of them was Maladicta, in full female uniform.” I was thinking about it on this reread, and Mal is the only member of the squad who wasn’t publically outed at the Keep. Mal wasn’t involved in the actual raid— too busy gibbering and sucking on a sack of coffee beans— and at the trial Mal kind of stood in the back vibrating from caffeine overdose. Even Jackrum said “with vampires, who cares”. Only Polly knows about Maladicta.

And what that means is that Mal is the only member of the squad who could reasonably remain presenting as male in the army. Polly encourages a couple of young recruits in the very end that it’s their choice to enlist as men or as women, with Mal right beside her, and I think the original ambiguity there is really lovely— it doesn’t matter if Mal has an ‘a’ on the end at the moment, because Mal is there to help Polly fuck shit up, and that’s what matters. By adding the specificity, they just… took away a really nice bit of subtext, a really nice effect.

So yeah, I’m ticked off as a queer person about the (minor) subversion of the book’s general gender fuckery, but I’m almost more ticked off as a writer. Pratchett was so talented, and we talk about it a lot on a large scale of themes and motifs and characters, but he was also just so fantastic on a sentence to sentence level. This is craft! This is really beautiful, delicate writing, elegantly put together and perfected, and some US editors just. Took out some of it. And it’s still an incredible book! As I mentioned, I had it in my bed for years as a teenager so I could reread it over and over, it means a ton to me, it’s my favourite of his work and I love his work! But it hurts to see these little places where it was originally even better.

[silverskye13]

I absolutely adore your writing style. You've mentioned being inspired by authors. Care to share which ones and/or some books you'd strongly recommend? I'm in a but of lurch on books I want to read right now and your writing style really scratches a certain itch so finding something similar would be lovely

I've answered this question a couple of times but! I will always answer again. I read a lot of books :3

I will warn you, I read a lot of epic/high fantasy. If that's not your thing, you probably won't like a lot of my recs, whoops.

This got really long I apologize. Once again. I read a lot.

T. Kingfisher

In my opinion, anything written by her is a win. Her World of the White Rat series of books are by far my favorite [Clocktaur Wars, Saint of Steel series, Swordheart], but she also writes very good horror, and her Sworn Soldier books are kickass.

She is a major inspiration for my writing style, especially internal thoughts and sense of humor. I try to emulate her way of having fantastic characters think and act on mundane things [i.e. a scary paladin man who gushes about knitting].

Blanket warning that all of her Temple of the White Rat books are romantasy, rated E for explicit. But as someone who normally hates [or just doesn't get / enjoy romance books] I still recommend them. The world is rich, some of them have intense horror and suspense moments, and the characters all have amazing dynamics and chemistry.

My favorites by her are: Paladin's Strength, Paladin's Faith, and What Moves the Dead

Nicholas Eames

Still on the style inspiration train. I really sat down and studied his use of description and character voice shortly before writing Redstone and Skulk. If you like how I handle descriptions, planting and worldbuilding, I recommend reading his work. I do a yearly reread of Kings of the Wyld, and while I didn't like Bloody Rose as much, it does an awesome breakdown of problematic heroes.

These books are rated R, for graphic depictions of violence and some pretty raunchy humor/language. The first book Kings of the Wyld has very light romance [unless you count Clay Cooper increasingly thinking about how awesome his wife is, or the group's barbarian falling in love with an avenging angel], but Bloody Rose does have a lesbian bard main character who falls in love with a kickass tattoo witch. I love them, your honor.

Terry Pratchett

I mean, yeah, everyone recommends Terry Pratchett, and if they don't, it's because they haven't read his books in a while and forgot to recommend him. I really like his Death books, and the Samuel Vimes books. For the standalones in Discworld, I also really, really liked Small Gods and Monstrous Regiment. If you like my style of optimistic storytelling [no matter how dark, there is always a happy ending] read his books. And if you like RnS's existentialism, the idea of struggling with, and against, death, read Morte and Reaper Man. Especially Reaper Man.

The Ranger's Apprentice Series by Jonathan Langan

YA fantasy at its finest! If you like how I handle character dynamics and ride-or-die friendships, you will like these books. I was reading these books a lot when I started really really writing in high school, and I didn't realize just how much they inspired my writing style until I reread them last year. Rated PG, maybe PG-13 in the later books when the characters are older and the stakes are a little higher. It's a fun low fantasy world set in Basically England, and it's just. Nice. Will and Horace are so dear to me.

Also apparently he is restarting? The series? Rebooting? New protagonists. I haven't read any of them yet but I am looking very interestedly.

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More books in no particular order that I am recommending you read because I love them:

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House of Open Wounds by Adrian Tchaikovsky

High fantasy, PG-13, Graphic Depictions of Violence, Religious Persecution, Fantasy Nazis

This is the second book in a series, but I couldn't get into the first book and only read this one, whoops. This book basically poses the question: what if Small Gods by Terry Pratchett, but the last man on earth who believes in God isn't as nice, and has some major character flaws, and also doesn't like God. Also also, what if this was set in Fantasy World War 2, and he was forced to work for the Nazis. This book is very grim, and focuses on a medical unit during Magical World War 2. There are a lot of wound descriptions and war crimes. But it made me feel a lot of things, and I was genuinely upset one of the characters stayed evil at the end of the book. There is no Good and Evil in this story, only Evil and Morally Gray. If that isn't your thing, give it a pass, and I mean that. There are Themes here that are made to make you uncomfy. But there is also found family, and some really strong questions about religion and morals, and the book really makes you Think about the character decisions. I liked it a lot.

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

High fantasy mystery thriller, R, Graphic Depictions of Violence, Language

Oh it's good. It's so good. Holmes and Watson style mystery in a world where everyone has biological mutations and enhancements powered by Kaiju that rise up every year to try and murder everyone. It's really cool. I was hooked from beginning to end. The main character is amazing, with hilarious deadpan humor, and his Holmes is an eccentric autistic woman with zero filter. The "Rated R for Language" above is 98% because of her.

[Note: I'm not an authority on good autistic representation, but I feel like she stands out as really well done. It makes more sense in the context of the novel, but she's created a space for herself where things like noise/light sensitivity are used to her advantage, hyperfixations are portrayed both as useful to her craft in research and a hazard to the people she's interrogating, and she has managed to trick half the cast into thinking her "quirks" are because of augmentations she doesn't have. It was a really cool and original way of putting autism into a character without infantilizing or "unfeeling logical machine"-ing them in the process. If that's something you've been looking for representation-wise, I think this is worth checking out.]

Aside aside, the world building is cool. The characters are cool. They mystery makes sense. I just. I can't talk about this book too much or I'll tell you the whole story. I get too excited.

Aliens: Phalanx by Scott Sigler

Sci-fi horror, PG-13, Graphic Depictions of Violence, Major Character Death, Language

Ever wanted to get into the Aliens franchise but thought the sci-fi was a little much? Ever wanted to know how medieval peasants would handle a xenomorph invasion? Do I have the book for you!

This book is sci-fi horror that takes a turn for the vengeful at the end. Made me feel a lot of things. Got really emotional over some of the character deaths. But when the characters win, they win big, and their achievements feel weighty. You really get the sense of human tenacity clawing life back from the jaws of post-apocalypse. And also? Xenomorphs? Cool? If you've seen the movies, you'll really appreciate how this book takes the conventional tropes and spins them. And if you haven't, the story attacks them in an original way that explains it to the uninitiated. If you know nothing about the movies you will still know what's going on.

Penric's Demon by Lois McMaster Bujold

Fantasy adventure, PG-13, Minor depictions of violence, mystery/puzzle elements

Fun books? Fun books. Ever wondered what would happen if an uninitiated, but very kind and sweet 18 year old boy was possessed by an ancient demon with a great sense of humor and near limitless power? Now you know! Penric and his demon Desdemona have fantastic rapport, and every book in the series just further cements how awesome their relationship is. Fast little reads in a great little universe. And the gods are cool.

The Traitor Son Cycle by Miles Cameron

Epic fantasy, R, Graphic Depictions of Violence, major and minor character death, sexual themes, language

Gritty realistic knights -- fighting very unrealistic magical creatures. They're outmatched, but not out skilled! Especially with the Red Knight leading the way. These books had just, an awesome way of drawing me in. Cool world, interesting if flawed characters, and a growth arc that turns an entire company of criminals and mercenaries into basically paladins. Plus there is an awesome overarching plot involving god-like dragons and angels.

The only downsides to this series is there are a lot of characters and POVs, and the author is not afraid to kill them off at a moment's notice. Characters you've grown to love over three books will be killed off screen when a monster took flight, or a boglin hoard swarmed the front lines. I won't finish the final book in the series because I will be uh, incredibly pissed if one of my favorite characters dies, and I'm getting the vibes she probably will >:/

Alas, this is the nature of grim-dark fantasy.

Cameron has written other books under different pseudonyms, but to date this series is the only one that's really sunk its teeth in me.

Covenant of Steel Trilogy by Anthony Ryan

Low Fantasy, R, Graphic Depictions of Violence, Major and minor character death, religious persecution, language, sexual assault

What happens when a criminal's entire crew is slaughtered for their crimes, and the only survivor turns into a religious zealot? No wait come back it's good I promise! The Pariah starts pretty grim and heavy. We reach our character's emotional low point about a third of the way through the first book, but what blooms from that is a slow burn about faith, and the danger of a Saint who gets to build her own radicalozed morality, rising on the tide of her faithful followers. It is all told in memoir format by the main character, before the final chapters where we get a sense of his here and now, which is a format that Ryan loves writing in [his Bloodsong series does this as well, and while that series is good, it's clear every fumble he made writing that he tried to fix writing CoS]. If I had to really pin this book down, I would have to say it's the story of Joan of Arc if she had actually succeeded in her crusades, and how dangerous she would have been because of the blindness of her followers and her own feelings of personal holiness. The main character even falls for her charms, heck, I as a reader fell for her charms. It was only after she started massacring "heretics" that I started to go, "Wait a fucking second, she's the antagonist???" If you like really intense stories about how insidious the side of "good" can be, and the terrors of religion, and just the epic slow burn of that building up and breaking down, give this a read. However, this is a very dark series. Read with caution and care. By the end I was very burnt out on all the death and atrocity.

Cold Storage by David Koepp

Thriller/horror, PG-13, Depictions of Violence, Fungi-based body horror, Language

Not nearly as intense of the last rec! Cold Storage is the story of a mutated mold spore that works just like that stuff that makes ants do weird things -- but to people! Oh and also it's about some really funny main characters that don't know it exists, even though it's growing right below their feet. A lighter read that will give you some good scares, and a pair of characters you're desperately rooting for. I love it :3 it's a fun romp. Mind the exploding deer.

Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

Sci-fi, PG-13, Depictions of Violence, Language

Another fun romp! Murderbot is a security unit made to protect humans -- and it's hacked its programming and just wants to sit down and watch TV all day. Unfortunately, humans are very good at getting themselves killed, and SOMEONE has to keep them safe. At least Murderbot is programmed to do it correctly.

This story starts as fun sci-fi, and as the books progress, really breaks down the lines between human sentience and... Well, any other sentience. It asks hard questions about whether something Must be human in order to be accepted in a society, and how badly we as people want to fit everything into understandable boxes -- even if the things we want to understand don't fucking like it, thank you very much! There's a lot of fun action, a lot of characters that have really won my heart, and, man, I just want Murderbot to be happy.

The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman

High fantasy, R, graphic depictions of violence, sexual assault, language, major character death

A thief accosts a knight on the road -- and ends up going on a road trip with her filled with witches, monsters, giant corvids, man-eating goblins, giants, and more! All to save a princess. This book really grew on me when I read it a second time. The magic system is cool, the world building is stellar, the goblins and giants are fucking scary. The character has a dirty mouth and his humor runs to the toilet a lot, so keep that in mind. This is by far the lightest and funniest book Buehlman has ever written though, so if you like it, brace yourself for grim dark if you read the rest of his work. Especially if you read Between Two Fires.

There's my book recs! Have fun!

[metisket]

book recs request ❤🖤❤🖤 🙏🙏🙏 in this case, book recs that you feel have inspired your writing style, or inspired your fics somehow?

Hmmm...this is a fun one but a tough one, because I'm not sure I'm really self-aware enough to know the true answer here. But I'll try! A lot of books/authors I believe shaped my writing style did it when I was pretty young, so we're getting some YA over here.

Robin McKinley

I must have read The Outlaws of Sherwood a dozen times between ages 10 and 15. I love me a hero who literally doesn't want to be here and got conned into this by pushy, well-meaning friends. Marian was the most badass Marian I'd ever encountered. Random, complicated, weird side-characters, my beloved. Cecily somehow speaking directly to whatever was unhinged about my own childhood feelings about my gender. Flawless, 10/10, should really re-read to see if it holds up.

This is not to minimize the ridiculous number of times I read The Hero and The Crown, The Blue Sword, Beauty, and Deerskin, because I also read them So Many Times that they've probably become a part of my psyche. Literally none of her heroes want to be heroes. But they've been informed that they are. Apparently. Ugh. Love to hate that for them.

Lloyd Alexander

I also re-read The Chronicles of Prydain at least once a year for many years. It has almost certainly messed with my mind. I was especially unhinged about The Castle of Llyr, because Princess Eilonwy. The best, the worst, the angriest princess. Love and respect. Taran I could take or leave, particularly during his Taran Wanderer phase (I was less sympathetic to his growing pains than I was to Eilonwy's), but The High King was a fantastic payoff, loved everything, no notes.

...Damn, I need to reread this series, also.

Lois McMaster Bujold

I didn't read The Vorkosigan Saga until college, but it immediately hit my brain hard. Fantastic characterization. The way she writes trauma and recovery from trauma, amazing.

Miles. What a character. What a mess. What a problem. He is only a little guy, literally and figuratively, and he's going to do his best to convince you that he didn't mean to offend that guy, set that building on fire, or end that empire. You know. Like a liar.

Sarah Rees Brennan

My number one fanfic influence--her style of writing is so delightful that, particularly when writing Harry Potter fic, I'd sometimes find myself paraphrasing her. I had to Sarah Rees Brennan-proof my fic to make sure I wasn't being an accidentally plagiarist, because her turns of phrase would just go subliminal in my brain. This honestly may still be happening, and if it is, I'm so sorry, Sarah, it's not on purpose.

My favorite of her books is In Other Lands, the story of a boy who is whisked away to magic school in magic land and is extremely annoyed to find himself there. Like why. Why is the plumbing medieval. Why don't phones work. Why is this magical Sparta.

...He's not wrong, is the thing. But he won't bend and he won't break and he won't leave, so apparently he's just going to have to fix the world himself. God help everyone! Love him. Love his friends. Love the entire world and setup and every single side character.

Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

I have been informed that you can see the Pratchett and Gaiman influences in my writing. I think this is a lie people have told me to make me feel better, but you know, I Want To Believe. So I'll include them.

Pratchett: Love for virtually the entire Discworld series, with an especially fondness for the Watch books and Susan. Still obsessed with Vetinari after all these years. What if Machiavelli but chill, though.

Gaiman: Lost track of how many times I've reread Sandman. The characters, the coolness, the weirdness, the meta! Especially obsessed with Death. Just someone being very calm and collected in the face of all kinds of horrifying nonsense. I admire that. Love nearly all of his books, but my favorite is probably Anansi Boys. Bet your stupid family drama doesn't involve gods. Or at least. I hope it doesn't.

Erin Morgenstern

I'm cheating by including her, because she didn't actually influence my writing, I just WISH SHE HAD. She can't, sadly, because my outline game will never be that strong. I know my limits. But DAMN. ENVY.

Both of her books are without flaw, but I did love The Night Circus just that little bit more, probably because I am weak to a circus. I firmly recommend The Starless Sea also, though, because it features an Unhinged Library. The characters and settings and descriptions--delightful.

But the best part is the WAY the stories are told. They're not chronological--they're like little intricate puzzle-boxes, where you open one panel, and there's a story, and you open another panel, and there's a different story, and by the fifth panel, there's a story that connected to the first panel, but also a little to the third panel, and--

LOOK, I CAN'T EVEN DESCRIBE IT. It should be confusing, but it isn't. It's perfect. Just the right amount of information at the perfect time connecting to other pieces of information in a complex, interesting, deeply satisfying way. I would kill to be able to do this. Kill. I actually tried to do this in 'Mirror Image', and I had to give it up, because the level of incoherence was off the charts. ffffffffffff howwwww does she dooooo eeeeeet.

Anyway, I think those are the big ones. Special mentions to: Tom Holt, a deeply weird writer who strongly influenced one fic in particular (Some Confusion, DGM), Patricia C. Wrede, because Dealing with Dragons in general and Cimorene in particular got to me, and Dennis Lehane, because a) his historical fiction is inspiring, and b) I love his handling of The Unhinged Friend in the Patrick and Angie books. The best unhinged friend. He booby traps his own home. Love him. What is wrong with him? We'll never know.

[coquelicoq]

9 Fandom Peeps to Get to Know Better

i was tagged by @littleragondin! mci mon ami.e !

3 Ships You Like: in a kim dojka & yoo sangah platonic life partners phase rn. god. they would get married but not because they particularly care about marriage, just to bypass the hoops the government makes single people jump through in order to adopt kids, but kim dokja would seriously hesitate for the sole reason that him marrying yoo sangah would make all three of his parents very happy in a way that he would find incredibly annoying.

ok i'm doing another platonic one: moon & ember! i have read the few existing moon & ember fics so many times i can no longer separate them from canon. their dynamic is everything 2 me. bodyguard & anger translator. damaged hottie with trust issues & naive little pretty boy who just wants to go home. moon sees ember as not just a romantic rival but also a threat to his place in the colony, and of course being moon, his reaction to that is not to challenge ember but just to assume that he's been replaced and that he has to start over again alone. ember is everything that moon is not, everything he's convinced he's supposed to be, but ACTUALLY they're both perfect the way they are and there's room enough in this court for the both of them. they are so powerful when they combine their complementary skillsets for the good of the colony. plus i love that every time he interacts with anyone moon is probably thinking, "ugh, i bet EMBER wouldn't be fucking this up"…but also he's defending ember when stone makes fun of him and offering to challenge the reigning queen on ember's behalf! he's protective of ember even as ember embodies everything that makes him insecure. meanwhile ember thinks moon is the coolest person to ever exist and also. extremely cringe. probably 25% of his pillow talk is him subtly trying to convince pearl that moon is just a little birthday boy who should be allowed to be a hugely oversensitive weirdo, as a treat.

people have been rbing some of my cherry magic posts recently so i've been thinking about kurodachi again. i miss them! they're so well matched, so complementary in the ways that they need to grow, and it's lovely to watch them help each other do that. the way that adachi is inspired to make an effort by kurosawa's continuous striving for things he thinks he'll never get, and the way that adachi's apathy for perfection frees kurosawa from his need to be worthy…like ok fine whatever i am listening!!!

First Ship Ever: i have been sitting here trying to think of an earlier ship so i can avoid embarrassing myself, but if i'm honest it's probably ron/hermione. moving right along.

Last Song You Heard: one week by barenaked ladies! what a banger.

Favorite Childhood Book: when i was a kid i had meticulously curated my top ten favorite books, but now i can only remember half of them: island of the blue dolphins, the witch of blackbird pond, ella enchanted, walk two moons, and mrs. frisby and the rats of nimh. can you tell i had one of those bookmarks that listed all the newberry award winners and was working my way through it? lol.

Currently Reading: i just finished my reread of maskerade, the discworld book about the opera, which i had put on hold after reading le fantôme de l'opéra. it wasn't one of my fave discworlds as a teen but i think i'm now in the right headspace for it. enjoyed it quite a bit!

i'm near the end of both the traitor baru cormorant by seth dickinson and par amour by valérie tong cuong. the latter is about a family in le havre during wwii and is very hard to put down. i have honestly no idea what will happen in the remaining two chapters except the nazis are going to lose the war. the traitor baru cormorant is well done, but i don't think i like it enough to read the sequel. (i still am pathologically unable to stop a book that i've started, but i've just discovered that i am capable of stopping after book 1 of a series. life hack!!)

Currently watching: natsume season 4 dub! i just watched the moon-splitting festival arc and the baby nanase episode yesterday. next up is the one about natsume's picture of his parents which. like. let's just say i am marshaling my emotional forces for that one.

also it is about to be march madness! selection sunday tomorrow babey!!!

Currently consuming: the great thing (sarcastic) about living alone is that you spend four hours making this quinoa black bean dish and then have to somehow eat all of it before it goes bad. luckily my neighbor and i have been doing this cute thing for the last ~6 months where we share whatever food we make with each other. this has been working out extremely well for me, because when he cooks i get to eat without having to do anything whatsoever, and when i cook i don't have to worry as much about quantity. i feel like i tricked him into it somehow even though he is getting exactly the same thing out of it as i am.

Currently craving: a baked good i made for the first time recently and then made again two times in rapid succession because i (and my neighbor lol) liked it so much: gingies! okay technically the recipe calls them gingerbread cookie bars, and i just looked up "gingies" (to make sure it's not an offensive term for redheads that i don't know about) and apparently it's frequently used for gingersnaps, but MY use of "gingies" is right and correct and all these other people are idiots. the reason is that they're basically brownies (texture/structure/technique-wise) but with the gingerbread flavor profile instead of chocolate. and "gingeries" sounds stupid, so gingies it is!

tagging @treecakes, @joelletwo, @qserasera, @defeateddetectives, @ctl-yuejie, @deimos-the-wolf, @stupid-lemon-eater, @loreofcardigan, and @dangerliesbeforeyou if you feel like it! no pressure obvi!!

[carriagelamp]

Found some excellent horror-related and horror-adjacent books to read this month! Not a common genre for me, so this was fun. Really can't recommend Grady Hendrix as an author enough, Horrorstör was definitely my favourite novel from this month

Eric

I hate saying it because I love the Discworld and Terry Pratchett is easily my favourite author, but man Eric did not do it for me. You could see some good bones in it, but as far as I’m concerned all the interesting bits that appeared were done significantly better in later books. It had some humour moments, but the only bits that I really enjoyed were when the Luggage was around.

This story followed a young, teenaged, would-be demon summoner who, instead of summoning a demon, accidentally winds up with the incompetent and fearful wizzard Rincewind. Obligated to answer this kid’s wishes, they end up bouncing through time and space while attempting to survive what each wish had to throw at them. 

Fantastic Mr Fox / Esio Trot / George’s Marvellous Medicine / The Enormous Crocodile

I went on a Dahl kick this month, I wanted to work through some of his shorter works that I’ve never bothered to read before. All of them were honestly delightful, I had a blast. Esio Trot was probably the weakest of the lot, but the other three were so much fun. The Fantastic Mr Fox may be my favourite just by virtue of being the most fleshed out, but listening to The Enormous Crocodile be read by Stephen Fry is an unparalleled experience.

Hockey Girl Loves Drama Boy

A story I enjoyed more than I expected. I have a strange soft spot for hockey narratives, but that might just be the Canadian in me. Alix’s one true love is hockey, it’s the one place she feels competent and happy, but her team captain is making the space increasingly hostile until, unable to take the bullying, she strikes out and punches her captain. Shocked by her own violence and given an ultimatum by the coach to get her temper under control, she ends up going to popular and poised Ezra, hoping that he could show her how to deal with harassment without losing her cool in a way that scares her.

Horrorstör

Easily the best book I read this month, this book was amazing, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s a “haunted house but in a knock-off Ikea” and I mostly picked it up as a joke because the premise sounded hilarious. But I was familiar with the author (I’d read The Southern Book Club’s Guide To Slaying Vampires a couple years ago) and trusted him to do something interesting with the premise. And wow. Just wow. It is very much a classic, grisly, nauseating horror premise, but in a way that explores capitalism, exploitation, and treatment of prisoners and the mentally ill. It’s been  a long time since I read a book that actually gave me chills, but I had to put this book down and walk away from it occasionally, it was intense enough.

The Kaiju Preservation Society

As a Pacific Rim lover, this book was everything I’d ever wish for it to be. It’s such a love letter to the kaiju genre as well as environmental conservation, and it’s speculative biology is fascinating!

After being fire from his job at the beginning of the Covid pandemic lockdown in New York City, Jamie Gray is barely making ends meet by acting as a delivery driver. He doesn’t know how he can possibly continue on like this, until he runs into an old friend who offers him a strange and intensely secretive job offer. With nothing to lose, Jamie agrees and finds himself on an alternate Earth, helping to study creatures that he only knows from campy monster movies, now very much real.

The Last Wish

Felt an urge to reread a Witcher book, so I’ve been picking my way through the short stories. They continue to be a lot of fun, and it felt good to reconnect with the original narrative voice again after reading a lot of fanfiction over the years. For anyone who has someone existed post-Netflix version without picking up the general premise: Geralt of Rivia is a "witcher", a person who was specifically trained to wield weapons and magics to hunt dangerous monsters that threaten humans. This is a collection of short stories that show Geralt on some of the various hunts he's had during the decades of his over-long life. (It's significantly better than the Netflix version, very much worth the read if you like classic high fantasy and/or fairy tale retellings.)

Mortimer: Rat Race to Space

A very dull youth novel. Mortimer is a lab rat at Houston who has aspirations to go on the space program and prove that rats are better suited for colonizing Mars than humans. If you’re a seven year old who wants to consume space facts, this is the book for you. For everyone else, it’s a bit of a slog.

My Best Friend’s Exorcism

Another Grady Hendrix book. This book was undeniably well-written, just as masterful as his others, but I didn’t enjoy it as much. A bit too much high school narrative and not enough all out horror. The conclusion was pretty decent, but the rest was… fine. A fun love letter to the 1980s though as you learn about two best friends and how they grow up together. ...A bit of a debate whether or not it warrants a queer marker or not, I'm not even going to make that attempt.

The One and Only Ruby

The newest book from the One and Only Ivan series. Much like The One and Only Bob this book was… fine. The original of the series was really wonderful and felt quite inspired, inspired by the real life story of a gorilla that’s kept in a small cage in a mall complex. The next two books take place after that one and each follows one of Ivan’s friends (Bob the dog and Ruby the baby elephant). A fun enough addition to the series, the art is still cute, and it has decent things to say about the hunting of endangered animals, but it was nothing amazing. 

Paperbacks from Hell

Look, I really just felt the desperate need to read a bunch of Hendrix novels after being so violently consumed by Horrorstör. This is a nonfiction book in which Hendrix dives into the evolution and popular tropes of horror novels throughout the 1980s, with the cover art being the driving thesis throughout. You can tell how much he loves these weird, pulpy horrors and it makes you want to go and find a bunch of these and read them yourself. It really is an interesting book, even if you aren’t a great horror lover (which I wouldn’t consider myself).

The Salt Grows Heavy

Now this is a fucking novella. An absolutely unhinged, body-horror rich retelling of both The Little Mermaid and Frankenstein. Yeah. After the complete destruction of her husband’s kingdom at the hands (and jaws) of her own children, the Mermaid finds herself travelling with a mysterious Plague Doctor. I won’t go further into this except to say that the way it portrays morality, life, death, and the mutability of flesh is just… something else. Would recommend. But not if you have a weak stomach.

Scott Pilgrim

A classic. I watched the new animated series with my brother and felt the need to go back and reread the entire original series. Absolutely perfect, no notes, continues to be one of my all time favourite graphic novel series. The magical realism is just *chef’s kiss*.

[kolbisneat]

MONTHLY MEDIA: June 2024

Halfway through the year! More daylight means less media consumption but I'm okay with that. Here's what I experienced in the month of June.

……….FILM……….

Back to the Future & Back to the Future Part II (1985 & 1989) It's been a while since I've watched these but I was immediately stricken by how much Avengers: Endgame owes to Part II. Both move at such a breezy clip that it makes total sense Part III would ditch most of the sci fi stuff for a western.

……….TELEVISION……….

Bridgerton (Episode 3.01 to 3.02) Having not watched seasons 1 or 2, I'm impressed by how well the first couple eps set the stage for newcomers. Plus it makes all the previous seasons feel like lore! So far I'm digging this gossip girl.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith (Episode 1.07 to 1.08) Really great season of television that ties so much up I was genuinely surprised by how complete it felt. I know season 2 is confirmed but I think this show got in, said what it wanted to say (wholly), and got it and hot dang do I respect that. Big fan.

Delicious in Dungeon (Episode 1.23 to 1.24) Great cap to the season and lovely to end not with a bombastic fight but a contemplative and hopeful discussion. Such an excellent adaptation.

……….YOUTUBE……….

The Death of Movie Theatres - Beyond the Black Void by Red Letter Media It's really interesting to think of the movie-going experience as something that could become more niche: something akin to listening to records or going to see a play. VIDEO

Simple Rules for Better Sandwiches | Techniquely with Lan Lam by America's Test Kitchen I really appreciate the culinary arts but have only ever felt confident in the kitchen when following a recipe. Videos like this have really opened up my mind to concepts and building blocks for making better food. VIDEO

……….READING……….

Witness for the Prosecution by Agatha Christie (Complete) I'm not usually one for short stories (tougher to connect and keep track of the characters, especially if reading a few in a night) but I'll admit I liked most of these. Varied with really only one or two that left me feeling confused. Heck I even solved a couple before the end!

Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett (Complete) The previous book (reading in publication order) didn't click for me but this was a return to form. Maybe it's cause I love the witches, maybe it's cause I love vampires, but this was a joy. Some of the body humour felt dated, which is strange for the generally timeless humour of Pratchett's work, but fortunately it was only a small part. Big fan and excited to get back into Discworld.

The Vision by Tom King, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Mike Del Mundo, & Michael Walsh (Complete) The concept character writing is so good in this; the Visions really do read like androids attempting to be human. I really wanted a slower burn out of this and wish we got a little more "trying to fit in" before it all goes wrong. Maybe it'll sit better with me on a reread but it was still a fun time with a comic book.

I Hate This Place Volumes 1 & 2 by Kyle Starks, Artyom Topilin, and Lee Loughridge (Complete) Picked these up from the library on a whim and it's all oozing with so much style. Doesn't quite live up to expectations (I was imagining more serialized stories instead of one very fast-paced story) but the artwork is so gnarly. Really cool premise that I wish had more room to breathe.

……….AUDIO……….

No Hands by Joey Valence & Brae (2024) I want to like this album, but its 90's influences just don't grab me. They do a great job of capturing the spirit of the style, but I preferred when that style was more early Beastie Boys. Those are 80s/90s influences I can get behind.

……….GAMING……….

Neverland: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting (Andrews McMeel Publishing) Tuesday crew has defeated the elves and made a Liche ally! But their current quest is collecting all the pirate bones they scattered back during their very first Neverlandian session! Anyway you can read all about it here!

Oz: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting (Andrews McMeel Publishing) The Mof1 crew's magic item investigation has lead them to a wealthy family holding a private event and their plan is to get in through the power of wrestling fandom. I'm excited to see how that goes.

And that's it. See you in July!

[cosmicrhetoric]

tagged by the incomparable @briarhips to post nine book recs <3 sorry so many of these are classics im going thru smth

Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen: This is MY Austen of choice. I'm doing a reread atm and it's very Emma in it's social commentary but this is THEE eldest daughter book of all time. Maybe I just like when characters are super repressed but if you want to see a woman (who has spent 200 pages being soooo hinged) have the most cathartic breakdown about it......

Identitti, Mithu Sanyal: For fans of Kuang's Yellowface who want a bit more of an academic lens! Our main character, a 2nd gen Indian-German woman, spends years of her life in the trenches of postcolonial study under a seemingly Indian woman who is then exposed as white. It doesn't give you any easy answers but it provides a lot of scholarly resources and leaves a lot of space to come to your own conclusions. Read it on a plane. Kinda fire.

Eros the Bittersweet, Anne Carson: We all know Carson. But I'm picking a nonfiction essay instead of Autobiography of Red or her translations mostly because this one takes you behind the curtain of a lot of her famous translations when it comes to the aspect of love. I'm not really nonfiction girl in general but this was worth it

Chain Gang All Stars, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah: Speculative abolitionist fiction! Set in a near future where prisoners can compete in death matches to try and win their freedom. I've honestly read nothing like this...ever, like it's in a league of it's own but if you're a fan of the way footnotes were used in something like Babel you're gonna wanna check this out. Multiple povs (really interesting pov switching from a craft perspective actually) overlap to paint a stark and realistic depiction of American prisons.

The Devourers, Indrapramit Das: This was described to me as "IWTV but with werewolves and in Mughal India and actually really good" and while that's a pretty comprehensive plot summary it does not even begin to cover the shit this novel goes through. This is a book about transformation and stories and what letting a story live in you can do for you. The werewolves are kinda obviously a genderqueer allegory as well (as they often are in sff lmao) but when the interviewer himself starts talking about gender in his experiences you can see how that changes the story he's transcribing and it's just very cool. Heavy trigger warnings on this one though. Don't read if you can't handle a bit of piss (they are wolves). Writing style wise feels very similar to the magical realism of The Hungry Tide if that's ur bag

The Mill on the Floss, George Eliot: In the way that s&s is my Austen, this is MY Eliot. A classic story about women of this era who cannot fit into the boxes society lays out for them. A failed romance brands the main character an outcast in their town in a way that is. Hear me out. Fucking Utenaesque. Follow for some classic tragedy and themes of water....I would compare this more with like Dickens Bleak House than Austen though.

Villette, Charlotte Bronte: Once again. MY Bronte. Maybe it's just cause I read this before Jane Eyre but literally I do not understand why Miss Eyre gets so much more love than my girl Lucy. In broad strokes the story is about an English girl who ends up having to support herself by moving to France and becoming an English teacher at a girls boarding school. She's also plagued by a terrifying apparition of a nun, because this is Charlotte we're talking about and there's a bit of Catholic v Protestant thing going on. I read this during the very early pandemic and let me tell you some of the descriptions of isolation and loneliness are soooooo. yeah.

Monstrous Regiment, Terry Pratchett: Listen. Like, listen. It's that good. I wouldn't put a discworld novel up against fucking chain gang all stars unless it was THAT good. This is a classic 'girl dresses up as a boy and goes to war to find her brother' story. It definitely started as a commentary on folk songs/stories but it is at it's heart a novel long criticism of imperialism, nationalism, and organized religion (there's jokes though it's funny). Also not to be that guy when it comes to LGBTQ book recs but the thing came out in 2002 and it's surprisingly thoughtful when it comes to both gender and sexuality. You do not have to be a fantasy fan or a discworld fan to read this. If you gave Pratchett a try and didn't like it i STILL insist you give MR a shot. It is in a league of it's own.

Wives and Daughters, Elizabeth Gaskell: Do not be scared off by the sheer length of this one. It's fucking silly. This is one of my faaaaaaaave 1800s novels about class. We have juxtaposition between Molly's family (her father is a gentleman but a working doctor) and the landed gentry but also this divide between the uneducated Squire and his Cambridge bound sons and another one with the 'new money' gentry. There's also quite a lot of early science and anthropology documented in this (Gaskell and Darwin were besties) if that's interesting to you. WARNING: SHE DIED BEFORE SHE FINISHED THIS. ITS LIKE 99% DONE THOUGH

This was a hard list to narrow down but I have to include (at least as honorable mentions): Ling Ma's Severance/Bliss Orange, Cixin Liu's Three Body Problem and the SFF POC anthology New Suns

tagging: @weltonreject @bronskibeet @gaymersrights @orchidreign @brechtian + any and all mutuals i know ive forgotten <3

[jenreadsstuff]

Small Gods thoughts...

When I first read this one, as a teenager, it was one of my least favourites. I just didn't get it, the way so many other fans seemed to get it. I don't know why, but it's likely because my experience of church and politics back in the mid-90s was limited to Sunday School and Spitting Image.

I think it's definitely one that you need some level of adulthood to fully appreciate. Now, it makes so much sense, but I also feel like I appreciate Brutha as a character so much more than I ever could have as a teenager. The courage it takes to resist your impulse to lash out at someone who has seriously hurt you, to say, we can be better than we are but only if we make the choice to do so, and keep making that choice every damn day. To have both power and knowledge, and understand how to use them wisely - Simony and Urn both have knowledge, but both intend to use their knowledge unwisely, without thinking about the long-term consequences. Brutha's proposition on the beach at the end - 'what if we fought, and then in the future, people ask why we couldn't have sorted things out on the beach when we had the chance?' - illustrates a recurring trope in Pterry's writing, which he also used in Johnny and The Dead, of recognising now that you have the chance to do things differently than your first idea suggests. It's a question I often find myself pondering when I'm trying to make a decision - what if this is my chance to think things through and make something better?

I like the Latatian jokes in SG - I think this book might also be the first use of nil illegitemi carborundum, which remains a firm favourite quote that I use regularly at work.

Also interesting to see Om invoking the 'million to one chance' effect.

Rereading SG was something I was particularly looking forward to when I started this reread project - it was the book I probably struggled to engage with the most as a young Discworld fan, so I genuinely appreciate having the opportunity to revisit it now as an adult. Also, at 16 I didn't know what a pederast was and Google did not exist then, so that's one more reference I now have a better understanding of.

[smalltownfae]

For the book bait ask game: 22-24, 27-32📚📖

I don't know if the dash means you want me to answer all the questions in between but I am gonna suppose you don't (?) haha but then why the comma... well, I will answer them all then.

22. would you want your favorite book to be a movie?

My favourite book is unfortunately a movie. More than one even. I am talking about The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Do I want a better and more accurate adaptation of that? Yes, yes I do. It isn't even that hard, come on. You need to go all out on the visuals for that work about art. You need exuberance in every setting and every piece of clothing. It needs to look glorious and you need at least 3 amazing actors for the main roles.

If I consider the entire Realm of the Elderlings series I would like to see a tv show of the Liveship Traders and the Rain Wild Chronicles. The stories are too long for a movie series, but I think those would look amazing as a show. The Fitz books would be harder to adapt and I fear the white washing even though it seems we are getting better about that in casting nowadays.

23. I answered this one here.

24. what book to movie adaptation to you dislike?

I don't remember watching many adaptations of the books I read tbh and I am less picky with movies. I need to go check the movies I watched haha. I don't like Eragon, but I didn't like the book either so... that is the popular answer people give to this question and I can't even use it. I think the first Narnia movie was an improvement on the book, but I don't really like the Chronicles of Narnia either way. I didn't mind the His Dark Materials movie or the Percy Jackson movie.... I'll say The Cat in the Hat! Omg that movie is terrifying and my sister loved it as a kid. Do you know tha trauma of having to see the face of that human cat hybrid almost everyday on your tv??? And hear that voice??? Burn it! Kick it to hell where it belongs. The kids' book is ok.

27. I also answered it here.

28. is there a book that made you cry?

You know there is. I cried in almost every book in the Realm of the Elderlings series by Robin Hobb. I think only City of Dragons didn't make me cry on my first read through. Now I don't cry as much, but I still do (especially in the Fitz books). I remember crying reading The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid too and at the end of As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCan. I know there are way more books that made me cry because I used to cry a lot with books and movies. I don't cry as much anymore though. Unfortunately, because I like when books cause a big emotional impact on me.

29. is there a book that made you laugh out loud?

Yes, the Realm of the Elderlings series again. People keep talking about how sad these books are and ignore how funny Hobb can be. Maybe that kind of humour only works for me, but I laughed out loud with many of the character interactions in these books.

Oscar Wilde makes me laugh a lot too. Recently I reread The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest and both those works made me laugh. Most Discworld books by Terry Pratchett also make me laugh a lot and so does Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. I believe I also laughed out loud reading some of the First Law books by Joe Abercrombie. If an author is from the UK I will probably laugh haha there is a specific kind of humour there that really works for me. It's the irony and silliness that they do so well. I also laughed out loud reading Heartbreak Boys by Simon James Green and Glitterland by Alexis Hall, UK authors again. Maybe there is something in the water of that place that makes people really funny.

Every Heart a Doorway also made me laugh, but I don't think I was supposed to. I was laughing at how ridiculous it was in a laughing at it instead of with it kind of way and I don't think that was the purpose of certain scenes.

30. is there a book that changed your life?

Realm of the Elderlings, maybe. It did help me a lot to get through a very depressing time in my life (ironically enough). Maybe I did look at Fitz and think "you know what? I am not doing so bad after all. At least I am not this guy". I don't know. I know it helped me forget my problems by immersing myself in a fictional world in a way I never experienced before. One of my friends made me talk about the series at my father's funeral and it helped for a bit so that is the kind of thing. Knowing that someone came up with the character of the Fool also made me feel less alone because it showed that somewhere existed someone with values similar to my own. Solanin by Asano Inio was also a big comfort in a time of my life when I needed it and pretty motivational.

31. how many books are on your current tbr?

Physical? I have no idea but probably less than 200. In my tbr on storygraph is 478 and that only includes the first volumes of mangas. So, a lot that I will probably not read in my lifetime tbh.

32. what is the first book you remember reading?

The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse. I think I gave it to one of my small cousins so I don't own it anymore nor can I find a picture of my exact copy... it was one of those kids' books with hard pages and full illustrations. Others were random fairy tales that were in a box set, including Snow White and the Ugly Duckling among others.

Thank you for the ask :)

[theygotlost]

2023 book log/year in review!

here is a comprehensive of breakdown of every book I read this year!!

Terry Pratchett's Discworld

this was THE YEAR OF DISCWORLD for me. I read more disc books than non disc books. I'm probably gonna take a break from the series for a few weeks to get my breath back. I read my first ever disc book, Going Postal, in december of 2022 so it doesn't technically count as being part of this year, but here's every one that I read starting in january, in the order I read them:

Making Money

Raising Steam 

Guards! Guards! (x2)

Men at Arms (x2)

Soul Music

Feet of Clay

Mort

Jingo

The Fifth Elephant

Night Watch

Wyrd Sisters

Faust Eric

The Wee Free Men

Witches Abroad

Thud!

Monstrous Regiment

The Truth

Lords and Ladies

Hogfather

Rereads

The Fourth Bear is kind of whatever but rereading all the others has cemented them as some of my favorite books and I'm really glad I got to experience them again because I hadn't read them in years 😁

The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

How I Killed Pluto (and Why It Had It Coming) by Mike Brown

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams

The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul by Douglas Adams

Other Books

It's kind of embarrassing to see how this list pales in comparison to all the disc books but I WAS reading other stuff I swear!! look!!

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami

Sacrifice by Mitchell Smith

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

The Lost Future of Pepperharrow by Natasha Pulley

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

Did Not Finish

Some of these I got through more of than others. the really bad ones I dropped only after 50 pages or so. im sorry women.

Closing Time by Joseph Heller

Early Riser by Jasper Fforde 

The Real and the Unreal, vol. 2: Outer Space, Inner Lands by Ursula K. Le Guin

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

Total Stats

Books started: 36

Books finished: 31

Books finished that I hadn't read before: 26 (19 Discworld, 7 not)

I PROMISE I'm not trying to be one of those "30 books in 30 days!" type booktok people, I wasn't aiming for any specific number. I only read this many books because i genuinely really loved them and couldn't stop reading them!!!!!!!

Reading List for 2024

I have an even longer list than this with a bunch of books that I saw or were recommended to me and I thought "oh that seems interesting maybe I'll check it out" but who knows if I will actually get to them. this list below is basically a new years resolution, books that I fully intend to read this year:

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr (already currently reading this one, just need to finish it)

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Facing the Wave: A Journey in the Wake of the Tsunami by Gretel Ehrlich

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley

The Bedlam Stacks by Natasha Pulley

The Half Life of Valery K by Natasha Pulley

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

Maus by Art Spiegelman

Discworld Reading List

Yes, I am keeping this one separate. I don't necessarily intend to get to all of these by the end of 2024, just some time in the future (I probably will end up reading them all next year anyway LOL). Once I finish these, only the Rincewind and Tiffany Aching series remain. I'm not as interested in those based on the small sampling I got of them, but I'll probably read them all at some point just for the sake of completion.

Moving Pictures

Snuff

Reaper Man

Pyramids

Small Gods

Equal Rites

Maskerade

Carpe Jugulum

it's kind of scary to think that this is all thats left..... idk what im gonna do after that man..... kill myself? start over from the beginning? I guess ill just have to cross that bridge when I get to it ☹

happy new year everypony!!!!

[magpiefngrl]

Mar + Apr Books

Photo Credit (original): Ed Robertson

Mar + Apr 2023

I read 14 books in the past two months and filled 11 categories of my Reading Challenge. Two of the novels were NetGalley ARCs; neither impressed me much. Three were from my piles of unread physical books, which is (slow) progress. One was a reread. Overall, I'm doing OK as regards my 2023 reading goals.

The books that I enjoyed the most were:

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by KJ Charles (historical m/m romance) I inhaled it in a day and a half. A very satisfying romance. KJC goes from strength to strength, and I realised when I sank into it how much I'd missed her writing.

Daughter from the Dark by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko. A unique, weird magical realism tale that I quite enjoyed.

Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner. Fantasy of manners. Very Les Liaisons Dangereuses but with more swords and a gay love story at the heart of it. I liked it a lot and it's stayed with me.

All Systems Red by Martha Wells (sci-fi novella) Everyone keeps raving about Murderbot--and they were right! I read the novella in one sitting. Very well-paced, an excellent narrator voice, the mystery kept me in suspense till the end, secondary characters were distinct with personality that came through even through Murderbot's POV.

The Six Deaths of the Saint by Alix E Harrow (fantasy short story) I've a complicated relationship with Harrow's stories. Luckily, this one hit the right buttons. It's a fascinating premise; Harrow is good with those.

What the Dead Know by Nghi Vo (fantasy short story) Not as loudly impressive as the rest, this is a quiet understated ghost tale about two charlatans pretending to contact the dead.

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins (dark fantasy) This is a wild ride, like WHOA. Insane world-building, very original and creative, violent and dark AS FUCK (most trigger warnings apply), this is the kind of novel that makes most of fantasy appear super tame.

What's next?

No idea. I 'll prob read some romance to put my mind in a romance-writing mode. I also want to get to a series or two that I've left unfinished (Temeraire, probably, or the Dreamer Trilogy) and to read a couple more physical books that have been gathering dust on my shelves. Maybe one more Discworld novel too?

[kiaxet]

for fic writer asks:

7, 20, 35, 42

I was gonna wait until I had a keyboard in front of me for this, but it's SDCC weekend so fuck it we ball

7. How do you choose which POV to write from?

Honestly? Vibe. I generally do third person limited for whoever the story's about, with very few exceptions, and I tend to POV switch if the story calls for it (but only if it's planned/a consistent thing. If I need a one-time POV switch to shore up something in the story, that's a structural issue I need to fix).

20. Have you noticed any patterns in your fics? Words/expressions that appear a lot, themes, common settings, etc?

I do a lot of em dashes - for punctuation, for stream of consciousness, for whatever I need them for - and I have a very particular way of writing mental breakdowns that just keeps making it into fics.

On a less mechanical level, most of my stories tend to be about moments or day-to-day stuff. I don't write a lot of grand, sweeping epics or action; I do a lot of dialogue and day in the life sort of stuff.

35. What is one essential thing to remember when writing a villain? 

Know what they want. They don't have to be redeemable; they don't have to be complex; they don't have to be smart or powerful or competent; they just need to do shit and you need to keep in mind what that shit is. Do they want to destroy the protagonist's family because of a mistaken identity issue? Do they want to end the world because they think societal rot has set in too deep to be fixed? Do they want to end the world because they're fucking bored and just want to do it? All valid! Just make sure you know what they're up to and keep it in mind.

42. What’s the last fic you read? Do you recommend it?

We're fudging this a bit because the last fic I read was one you linked, so we're gonna talk about one I keep rereading instead: Power Up! TMNT Rise; everyone's ninpo gets an upgrade,and Leo's does not shake out the way anyone expects. Healing Hands goes a little wrong.

It's a slow start, but holy shit does it go places. I love the approach to Leo's inner workings - that we stay away from the self-flagellation we see a lot with post-movie Leo fics and get into him trying to improve and how goddamn hard it is to make changes in your thought processes and habits, even when you know the changes are for the better. Also, the hurt and hurt/comfort in later chapters is fucking delicious.

The fact that this fic has some solid Discworld DNA woven in and isn't afraid to show it also earns it quite a few points.

[chuthulhu-reads]

[ID: The Josh Kirby cover of Small Gods by Terry Pratchett. It depicts Brutha, a naked monk with a tonsure haircut and a loincloth, strapped to the back of a large metal turtle with a concerned expression. Smoke is billowing from around the turtle, which is being heated by a brazier underneath. This is being looked over by Vorbis, a tall, bald man in a brown robe with a hooked nose, clawed fingernails and pitch-blank eyes. Several other monks in hooked brown robes are gathered around, including a member of the Quisition in a face-concealing, pointed red hood. Above them, an eagle is swooping down with a tortoise held in its claws. A large hand is reaching across the sky in the background and appears to be producing bolts of lightning. It's a Josh Kidby cover, so it's extremely chaotic and there are probably details I'm missing. End ID.]

Holiday reads! I decided to re-read Small Gods because I haven't read it in years and it's one of the first Discworld books I can remember feeling rewiring my brain as I read it. It involves the Great God Om, regularly referenced in other Discworld books, finding himself trapped in the form of a small one-eyed tortoise because, in all the great and vast and strict nation of Omnia, there's only one person who actually believes in Om rather than just believing in (or rather, being terrified of) the institution of Omnism. That last actual believer, Brutha, has just become a tool of the powerful and devout bishop Vorbis in a plot regarding their neighbouring nation of Ephebe, and has to navigate the edges of a war while figuring out how to get people to actually believe in Om again.

And it all meant this: that there are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that cannot easily be duplicated by a normal, kindly family man who just comes in to work every day and has a job to do.

Like when I first read this, I was in my early-teens, annoying-militant-athiest, Richard-Dawkins-quoting, taking-out-personal-Christian-based-trauma-and-frustration-by-calling-religious-people-sheep stage, and this definitely redirected me. A lot of the book spends time going: religion can be part of a community and a culture, it can inspire and motivate and support people, but your major and dangerous problems start when a) folk are more devoted to the institution than the religion itself and b) folk figure out how to use religion, and the institutions around them, as tools of self-gain and self-deification. Also, gods need believers arguably more than believers need their gods, and a god that does nothing for their believers is worthless. And there's good eating on a tortoise.

He thought: the worst thing about Vorbis isn't that he's evil, but that he makes good people do evil. He turns people into things like himself.

Every time I reread a Discworld book, I notice something new, whether it's a pun I missed before or an entire new concept. For one, I straight-up never realized that Brutha being strapped to the metal turtle to be roasted to death is meant to evoke Big J on the Cross; it only really clicked for me this time when the local Dibbler mentioned that he'd been planning to sell necklaces with a little turtle pendent on them, but he'd probably have to take the little dying dude off of them first. Definitely lends a whole new meaning to Simony arguing that they should leave Brutha to die so that he can be a martyr, a symbol of Omnian tyranny, and Urn's response being essentially "what the actual fuck is wrong with you". The other thing that clicked in my brain is that Brutha is very autistic and that's how he revives his god, heals his nation, and averts a hundred years of war, thank you and goodnight.

Fear is a strange soil. Mainly it grows obedience like corn, which grows in rows and makes weeding easy. But sometimes it grows the potatoes of defiance, which flourish underground.

[ghostoftonantzin]

Books I’ve read this year, roughly in order

I’ve decided to make a record of all the books I read this year, and post it on tumblr, because why not. Of the books I read, nine were on my phone (thank you libby), one was an audiobook (before I remembered that I’m terrible at listening to audiobooks), and eight were short story collections (some of these were also ebooks). In order, with some thoughts, below the cut:

Ghost Wall, Sarah Moss- a reread, and just as good the second time around. Compact and tense, with a slow creeping sense of dread.

The Violins of Saint Jacques, Patrick Leigh Fermor- the back of this book frames it around the volcanic eruption at the end of the book. The framing device is about how the woman telling the story was the only survivor of the volcanic eruption at the end of this book. It’s not a surprise, and yet when it happens, it’s so sudden and violent and all-encompassing that it’s still shocking.

Faceless Killers- found this in the books app on my phone (long story) and tore through it in a day. Enjoyable, dark, and twisty.

Small Gods, Terry Pratchett- same books app find as Faceless Killers, and the first Pratchett book I’ve read that isn’t Good Omens. I enjoyed it, especially Pratchett’s sense of humor. I do intend to read more Discworld books, though they’re not at the top of my list.

A High Wind in Jamaica, Richard Hughes- I feel like I enjoyed reading the long article analyzing the social context of the setting almost as much as I enjoyed reading the book, though that’s not entirely a knock on it. It seemed to hover in a strange space between a children’s story and one that’s too bleak for children.

Matrix, Lauren Groff- very readable and great at drawing you into the world of the medieval monastery.

The Traveling Grave, L.P. Hartley- unfortunately, I feel like I can barely remember any of the stories in this one, though I did enjoy it. It’s more creeping dread than outright horror.

Skin Tight, Carl Hiaasen- the audiobook! Also a reread of a book I’d initially read maybe ten years ago. It’s not my favorite Hiaasen book, but it’s still a good one. (I also started listening to the audiobook for Sick Puppy, but never finished.)

Where the Wild Ladies Are, Aoko Matsuda- part of my efforts to read short stories, and also more works in translation. I liked it, though I don’t have much to say about it.

Basic Black with Pearls, Helen Weinzweig- I feel like I read a lot of this in a warm bath in the middle of winter, which may have affected my opinion, but I really loved this. A married woman wanders around her hometown of Toronto, supposedly there to meet up with her secret-agent lover who she has followed all over the world, and who may or may not be real. But the meat of this book is in the encounters she has while wandering the city, and how they tie into her own past and the legacy of the Holocaust. It’s a strange, dreamlike book, and it’s stuck with me.

The Book of Difficult Fruit, Kate Lebo- I honestly expected this to contain more scientific and historical background on the fruits and less aspects of personal essays, but that’s more of a problem with me than the book.

Valancourt Book of Horror Stories, Vol. 1, multiple authors- a good read. The editors at Valancourt seem very good at selecting stories for their short story collections.

Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir- I downloaded the free sample from Libby at the airport, then immediately checked out the full book and read it in a day. I fell in love with Gideon as a character and narrator, and the ending was both tragic and exactly what I wanted.

Good Behavior, Molly Keane- like drinking vinegar littered with glass shards, in the best way possible. Wonderfully subtle and full of darker implications. The kicker is a killer.

Crocodilia, Philip Ridley- the narration in this felt very amateurish at times, though as the novel went on, I found it worked well to get me into the mindset of the narrator. The novel becomes an incredible puzzle box of twists and stories folding in on themselves and repeating, while still maintaining its core focus on first love and coming of age as a young gay man.

Harrow the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir- I also tore through this in a day, though it made me miss Gideon even more.

Song for the Unraveling of the World, Brian Evenson- I’ve read a lot of praise for Evenson’s writing, and I did enjoy this book, though it didn’t draw me in. Also read on the Libby app, which may have affected my opinion.

Wise Children, Angela Carter- realized this year I wanted to read more Angela Carter, because the only thing I’d read by her was The Bloody Chamber, and that was a shame, because I love her writing. I loved this. It’s sprawling and dramatic, but filled with so much joy and zest for life.

Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea, Teffi- I read most of this while getting my car serviced. That has nothing to do with anything, just wanted to mention it. Beautifully written, but also a fascinating look at the uncertainty of exile, and yet how life seems to go on in fits and starts.

The Pure and the Impure, Colette- beautiful writing, again. Just fascinating to read about queer communities in Paris in the early twentieth century.

A Certain Hunger, Chelsea G. Summers- read in the Libby app, after I’d had my eye on this book. I remember wondering while reading what the narrator thought about Ruth Reichl, only for her to mention her a few pages later. In my opinion, the food writing aspects of this novel were relatively weak for a novel supposedly based around it. Unfortunately, I feel like the book was blandly heterosexual in a way I found uninteresting. I do think this novel stuck the landing, though, in a way that made me appreciate the rest of it more.

Growing Things, Paul G. Tremblay- also read in the Libby app. Notes from the Dog Walker was the standout story for me, though I enjoyed the rest of it enough to consider seeking out some of his novels.

Deep Blue Good-by, John D. MacDonald- I tore through two Travis McGee books in the Libby app after reading about the author while looking up Carl Hiaasen trivia. I honestly haven't read a ton of thrillers, but it was fascinatingly emotional and honest about the pain the protagonist experiences for a detective novel from the 1960s.

Nightmare in Pink, John D. MacDonald- The other Travis McGee novel, also read on my phone. Certain lines of this book still haunt me.

A Nail, A Rose, Madeleine Bourdouxhe- actually started in early 2021, but I only finished it this year. Another short story collection, this time primarily about ordinary women in France and Belgium around World War II. Well-written, but I didn’t personally love it.

Lolly Willows, Sylvia Townsend Warner- more sedately paced than I expected, but the final conversation between Laura and the devil is astoundingly ahead of its time. In retrospect, it’s an interestingly subtle take on the power fantasy suggested by the blurb on the back.

The Alteration, Kingsley Amis- read before writing evviva il coltello. I would classify this as science fiction, but its entire focus on a world less technologically-developed than our own was an interesting twist. (Though I don’t read a lot of science fiction, so I couldn’t give you the proper context of whether it’s actually unusual.) Very much of its time.

The Juniper Tree, Barbara Comyns- I hate to say it, but my favorite part of the book was probably the cover. Fascinatingly timeless in its setting and an interesting update on the fairytale, but didn’t compel me.

A Night in the Lonesome October, Roger Zelazny- my second year reading this over the month of October, and I intend to do so next year. It perfectly encapsulates the feeling of “spooky season”.

The Collector, John Fowles- I’d heard of this book years ago, and was suddenly seized with the need to read it. Creepy, though it did feel like the plot dragged in places, though that’s understandable for its format.

Ghost Sequences, A. C. Wise- the blurb compares her writing to Angela Carter, which I don’t think is quite accurate; her prose doesn’t quite capture the same poetic highs of Carter’s work. But I enjoyed the stories in this collection, especially their incorporation of different forms of media in both form and theme, whether it’s apps or newspaper article excerpts.

Isolde, Irina Odoyevtseva- I originally read this in early 2021, but decided to revisit it this year. Excellently written in what it conceals through the narration, and simultaneously glittery and bleak. It’s a fascinating snapshot of the lives of young Russian emigres in France, post 1917.

The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas, Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis- started sometime in July, and repeatedly picked up and set down, which is really not the best way to read a book that’s dense with literary and philosophical references that I’m not familiar with.