#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.

[itseasytoremember]

I feel like I should talk about some books/ series I've read that I've really enjoyed but I refuse to get a good reads. Here is a list of a bunch of fun/chill feel good fantasy and sci-fy books that I really enjoyed, especially the audiobook version!

Fred the Vampire Accountant series by Drew Hayes: Genre: Low Fantasy/ Comedy.

Mild mannered accountant Fred gets selected by a sadistic vampire to be turned, with the presumption that the power of being a vampire will drive him mad and he will destroy the city. Instead.... He goes back to work, with some new business hours and potentially some new clientele! This series constantly flips the traditional literary monster tropes in a fun and satisfying way, if maybe not the most complex way. The books are broken up into series of short stories, which i like!

I'll say it, The first short story is a little cringe on my most recent reread, and I really thought they were gonna pull an incel protag, but they don't, it's a fake out and the whole series is a cozy read of a man collecting a found family of misfits!

Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett

Genre: high fantasy/ satire

The only critique I have of this series is 48 books isn't enough. Terry Pratchett is what I wanted Jk Rowling to be. I know it seems like a lot of book, but it's actually just 4 smaller series that all take place in the same world, plus a bunch of one-offs that build it out.

I recommend starting at either the nights watch series, which is a fun fantasy/detective Series, or Monstrous Regiment, which is a stand alone that is basically if Mulan was set in a British military comedy. Fun, funny, and stupidly clever. 1000/10 also they recently had all the audiobooks redone and they are excellent.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Genre: Hard science fiction

Probably my favourite science fiction story of all time. What would you do if you woke up in a strange room, alone, with such a bad case of amnesia. Amnesia so bad that the only thing you know with any certainty is that the world is ending and you are supposed to stop it.

Great premise, fantastic characters, and truly a rollercoaster of a story. So much fun from beginning to end.

Murderbot series by Martha Wells

Genre: hard science fiction

Corporate security in the distant future is so important that corporations know humans cannot be trusted to do the job. Thats why they created SecUnits; half bot half human constructs that are designed to be experts at two things; stopping their contracted humans from killing each other, and killing any humans their contracted humans order them to. There is even a chip in their brain, the governor module, stopping them from going on murderous rampages. Our protagonist is one of these SecUnits, and their governor module may not exactly be in working order. While murderous rampage is definitely something that is possible for them to do, they would much rather just do their job and watch media. Fun and short books that ask progressively deeper questions about morality, ethics, humanity, and, honestly, love!

Paladins Grace by T Kingfisher

Genre: romance (smut), dark fantasy

WHEN I TELL YOU I WAS NOT EXPECTING THIS TO BE A ROMANCE BY MY LIBRARIES BIO. "What happens to a paladin when their god dies?" Stefan from SNL voice: this book has it all, murder, slow burn romance, graphic sex scenes, perfumery, court room drama, divorce, rat god! Do I need to keep talking? Rat. God.

As You Wish by Carey Elwes

Genre: non-fiction

If you are a fan of Princess Bride please do yourself a favour and listen to this. Read by Carey Elwes and most of the surviving cast and crew, this is a series of stories from behind the scenes of one of the greatest romance movies of the last century.

NPC's series by Drew Hayes

Genre: fantasy

After a group of non player characters witness a party die at the local tavern, they decide to bluff their way through the quest, in the hopes of saving their town from the king's retribution. A world away, a DM struggles to understand why it seems like the gaming module is changing its plot before his eyes.

Convergence series by Craig Alanson

If two of the last things your guardian told you before they were killed were that 1. Magic is real and 2. You are a wizard, would you believe them? That doesn't really matter for Kazimir Wolfe, as he has more immediately pressing, if not more overall important issues; namely, he's on the run from the police, and the FBI, and a mysterious organization that is connected to his aunt's death. Fun and funny ongoing low fantasy series

[callireads]

Review 3: Men At Arms

I briefly strayed into the world of memoir, but now I'm back to comedic fantasy and the Ankh-Morpork City Watch. Specifically, the second book in the City Watch collection, Men At Arms.

This one isn't one of the ones I've reread until the copy fell apart, but I did remember a fair bit about it. Hard to forget the bit where Cuddy realizes that there is a logic to the way trolls name numbers, or where Everything That Comes After Calculus almost got solved in the Pork Futures Warehouse, or the moment the entire Assassins Guild realized, simultaneously, that Detritus could be a very important person indeed - one of the relatively few times Discworld has actually made me cry. This is the one where Vimes falls off the wagon and attempts to embed his badge into his hand, resulting in the reveal that he had, apparently for some time, been dedicating half his pay to being the closest thing Watch widows and orphans got to a pension - that one didn't make me cry, but I felt like it. There's a running bit about how someone who could shove a sword into a stone sounds like a better kingship candidate than someone who just pulls said sword out again, and how Carrot ends up doing both* in an almost blink-and-you-miss-it moment, about the same time we get Vimes' memorable reflection on the subject of how evil people gloat. And, of course, this book contains stuff like the Flamethrower Incident and perhaps the best pun, or play on words, in the entire series: that is, that one made by Death about how Bjorn Hammerhock believes in reincarnation and will therefore eventually be bjorn again.

Yes, bjorn again. Of all the jokes I could have remembered, it was that one. What can I say, Death has an odd sort of charm sometimes.**

More seriously, I didn't remember that this was the (very subtle) beginning of the...sub-plot? theme? something literary, anyway, about what the Vimes will later dub "the Party People" and "the people who shape opinions into knives", which creeps through the Watch series as a whole. I'm from the United States and, worse yet, specifically from an area about as red as Dorothy's slippers, so a few scenes cut a little sharper now than I imagine they did when I was nineteen and politically illiterate:

"You know," Vimes shook his head, "you know, that's what's so damn annoying, isn't it? The way they can be so incapable of rational thought and so bloody shrewd at the same time." (Pratchett 106)

And I probably never related to Vimes on a personal level so much as during this exchange, which was about the scene on page 106 and the rather unintelligent, bigoted, rich, powerful individual who prompted the observation:

"I was watching you," she said. "You were being very rude, Sam." "I was trying not to be." "Lord Eorle is a very old friend." "Is he?" "Well, I've known him a long time. I can't stand the man, actually. But you were making him look foolish." "He was making himself look foolish. I was merely helping." (Pratchett 109)

My mother's less mild-mannered about it than Sybil when I do that kind of thing around her friends/distant relatives/etc., but...sometimes, you just have to help those who won't stop helping themselves, and sometimes it's even harder than usual to bring oneself to not lend that helping hand, because of just how unlikable a specific case is, y'know? But above it all, there's the grim reality, which occupies far too much of my thoughts these days:

"There were people who'd steal money from people. Fair enough. That was just theft. But there were people who, with one easy word, would steal the humanity from people. That was something else." (Pratchett 116-117)

It's a surprisingly important, thought-provoking book, once you read it with at least some level of awareness of the world around you.

*He also established his ability to stick a sword through and remove a sword from Dr. Cruces at the same time; it seemed to be the main purpose of the exercise from his point of view, but was of less narrative importance than the stone bit, as nobody had included "running through the head of the Assassin's Guild" in the kingship candidate requirements list.

**Death of the Disc, that is, not actual death. In real life, little-d death just makes me angry, but Death of the Disc is someone I might not even mind being escorted to the afterlife by, as long as I got one of his usually-unintentionally-amusing one-liners on my way out.

[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*.

[doux-amer]

I forgot to do my favorite reads of last year so...here it is almost a month late. I excluded ongoing manga series and books I've read before. Uh...haha looks like I barely read any prose novels or nonfiction. Jk I did and I thought most of the stuff I picked up were lackluster. Brief thoughts on everything:

Mexikid - I LOVE this book. I don't read nonfiction much in the kids' space, but this graphic memoir was delightful and reminded me that yeah, sometimes I like gross kid humor! It made me laugh a lot! I bought it because I know I can reread it a bunch and not get tired of it which isn't something I can say about most memoirs.

It's Lonely at the Centre of the Earth - another graphic memoir but for adults. I DID NOT shut up about this book last year and kept recommending it to everyone I talked to. Incredible, inventive art like you've never seen before and a gripping tale about creative block (and depression, imposter syndrome, and a whole slew of other things) which is....rare.

The Stone Home - This book means so much to me. I was emotionally destroyed by it and cried which I almost never do reading books. I don't think it's perfect and there are things I don't like about the structure/writing approach, but I wanted a historical novel set in Korea during the '80s and it came into my life at the right time and made me think about what it was like for my family during that time period and what it was like for them to leave Korea. Not that they went through this, but as I get closer to my dad's age when he left, I'm seeing things differently.

Annihilation - I'M SORRYYYYYYY. SO embarrassing of me to have this on my reading list for literally a decade, but I finally read it and it rearranged my brain! Messed up! Creeped me out! I'm obsessed.

Guards! Guards! - Finally read my first Discworld book and it was super fun and a good book to read during Christmas break. I was going to read and then I wasn't in the mood to read anything other than something like this.

Duel - the art isn't...good lol, but I rarely see a good depiction of the complexity of sisterhood especially for younger readers and yeahhh, more of this. zZ on parent-child relationships. Give me siblings who are complicated but also pretty much like every other sibling pair you know.

Plain Jane and the Mermaid - love Vera's style! This was a cute adventure.

Snapdragon - ngl I wasn't that interested in reading this, but I ended up enjoying it a lot. Kat's energy is like bouncing-off-the-walls frantic and can be a bit much, but the characters are endearing enough that I didn't mind it. Plus omg.....old woman yuri. Strange little girl befriends butch lesbian grandma who turns out to be her grandma's ex-gf? And there's magic, but in a fun way. Nice.

Honorable mentions: Stitches (iconic for a reason and disturbing, but I didn't fall in love as much as I wanted to love this) & My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness (only reason why it didn't make the list is because I don't remember much of it besides the broad strokes, but I was amazed by how vulnerable and open this was and I highly recommend it. Actually, I should have added it to this list, but lsdkjfklaj...then the images will be balanced because there's an odd number).

[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.

[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!!!!

[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.

[basil-touche]

1, 43, 47 for the bookworm ask

Name the best book you've read so far this year

I'm going to cheat a little here and mention the best novel and the best short story as I've read a few of those this year.

Best short story I've read (and instantly became one of my favourites ever) is The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster, a scifi short story from 1909 that is incredible in how much it accurately predicts so much of our modern technology while also warning about humanity's over-reliance of said technology that is still eerily relevant. It's a shame Forster didn't write anymore scifi, though I have picked up Maurice to read this Pride Month and I will gladly read anything by him from now on. You can read the story for free here: https://www.cs.ucdavis.edu/~koehl/Teaching/ECS188/PDF_files/Machine_stops.pdf

As for a single narrative novel, my favourite so far is Nation by Terry Pratchett. I actually started reading Nation because I wasn't that impressed with Mort; I just didn't care about the characters (except Death, I'm not completely heartless). So I decided to take a break from Discworld and read one of Pratchett's later novels and proceeded to be moved to tears by the second chapter. Well, I did say wanted to care about the characters. I was kinda sad at the end that the book is a standalone as I really enjoyed these different characters that are thrown together by tragedy, but it does end on good, if bittersweet, note.

Honorable mention to The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson, especially Flower Garden which was my favourite from the collection.

43. Title of a book you own that's in the worst physical condition you have. Explain what happened to it. Post a picture if you want

This was a little difficult to answer as most books I have that get too damaged I replace if I like the book enough. For example, recently I bought a new hardback copy of Frenchman's Creek by Daphne Du Maurier, one of my favourite books ever, as my old copy was a well-worn 70s edition my friends at my local indie bookshop gave to me.

There's also the handful of books from my childhood that got damaged, several involving water. I was given a free book when I started secondary school that ended up being destroyed when my water bottle leaked (my newer copy isn't water damaged but is very bent out of shape). I can now see the irony of it being Flood Child by Emily Diamand. There's also my first copy of Timeriders The Eternal War by Alex Scarrow that my mum dropped in the bath as she was reading it (she bought the new copy).

I guess the most damaged books I still have would be my Red Dwarf paperbacks. I only bought them last year from a charity shop but seems like they were well loved as they are yellow with age, the spines have been thoroughly cracked and the covers have been bent so the corners permanently point skywards. It's ironic that I'm still missing one of the books and that when I do get it, it'll probably look very out of place next to its withered brethren.

47. What are the last three books you read?

The English Village: History and Tradtions by Martin Wainwright - I've had this book for a nearly a decade, so I'm glad to have finally read it. It's a little dry and took far longer than I thought it would, considering it's short length, but there were a few new things I learned. I would have liked it to have gone more in depth though.

Matilda by Roald Dahl - one of the books from my small collection I read as a kid. I've been planning on reread them for a while now and this one was still an enjoyable time but is also one of those few examples where I find 90s film more enjoyable with its added material to the story.

Out of the Blue by Jason June - a queer mermaid YA romcom with a non-binary main character. While I like the idea of it, I found myself thinking through out I'm too ace for this and I am not the target audience. I felt the book was very lacking and juvenile in its portrayal of love, too insta-lovey for my tastes, and the characters felt very one-note. Thankfully it was a quick read and I borrowed it from a friend, so it's no skin off my nose.

[runawayfuture]

my progress on @batmanisagatewaydrug's book bingo so far!

Sequel: Snuff (by Terry Pratchett)

This is one of the later instalments in the Watch series, a subsection of Pratchett's massive Discworld. It focuses on Sam Vimes, beloved by many readers on Tumblr and off; in this one he he's pressured to go on a vacation to relax, but finds it highly un-relaxing... until he discovers some extremely suspicious activity, and is once again in his element - solving crimes! A really terrific read - definitely check out the earlier Watch books first to get some context though, otherwise you'll be pretty lost.

Published in the aughts (2000-2009): Night Watch (by Terry Pratchett); copyright 2002

A reread for me, and another banger from Pratchett! This one is earlier in the Watch series, but still requires familiarity with previous instalments. A classic time-travel "make sure the past happened the right way" story, with lots of emotional moments and insightful commentary.

Animal on the cover: Pet Sematary (by Stephen King)

I've been meaning to read some of King's novels for a while. Looking back though, this was... not a good one for me to start with. I honestly should have put it down after reading the author's introduction. It's well-written, for sure, and compelling (though the old "creepy ancient Native American burial grounds" horror trope is definitely strong with this one) but it really hit some trauma and anxiety triggers for me. I ended up having a bit of a breakdown over it; if you're sensitive to graphic descriptions of child death, car accidents, head injuries, and/or animal death in fiction, probably do some hard reflection before picking this one up.

Next up:

The Three-Body Problem (by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu) which will fill the "librarian recommendation" box!

Elantris (by Brandon Sanderson) which will fill the "fantasy" box!

Probably another Stephen King novel (filling the "horror" box) so I can see what his writing is like when I'm not feeling the consequences of vastly overestimating my ability to be okay while reading about certain things :)

[asecondglassofcinnamonwine]

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

Ray Carney is the owner of a furniture store in Harlem, trying to get by and provide a better life for his growing family than he had as a kid. Occasionally his cousin Freddie swings by with a radio or a TV or some jewels, Ray doesn’t ask questions on where they came from, and he sells them on and gives Freddie his cut. Then one day Freddie drags Ray into a much bigger crime: a heist at the ritziest hotel in Harlem - the Waldorf Astoria of black NYC - the Hotel Teresa. They’re way in over their heads, and throw Ray into a crooked life of crime far darker than what he would have otherwise chosen.

[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?

[utilitycaster]

Wizard Breakdown Tracker, Episode 138

I think it is easy to forget that literally every episode that aired in the year of Our Common Era, 2021, has taken place over the span of *Spurt voice* eleven days. Well. It has. And, indeed, the last seven episodes have covered roughly two days.

The reason this is only about wizard NPCs is because they serve as a sort of audience surrogate in that they are nerds who don't go outside, vs. D&D PCs who see more shit in two to eleven days than most people would see in a lifetime; case in point, Essek's current state of shock. This is also making it very hard to check in with the other wizards. But also this is not about accuracy, even though I am usually right about everything. This is about...honestly I'm not sure, other than wizards.

What I'm trying to say is:

Caleb Widogast is a PC, not an NPC, and is not included in these strange statistics*.

Currently sidelined: Pumat Sol, Oremid Hass, Ludinus Da'leth, Astrid Beck, E_dwulf Grieve

Obligatory self-indulgent Vess Derogna song parody: Tomb....takers, killed you in your room, they’ll end the world soon but hey/you cult wizard, lost in a blizzard, whatever you’ve done, well, murdered, you’ll stay

Trent Ikithon: I am 100% serious that while I have made Narrative Sense In Actual Play Media in the rock on which I will cast my Temple of the Gods, if the final boss is Trent riding on Uk'otoa...I won't be mad. Like does it seem tonally off? Yes; Critical Role is not humorless high fantasy by any means** but they are not actively trying to seem like something that should be airbrushed on a van, usually. But will it be pretty awesome? Yeah.

Trent on the other hand is pretty fucking mad, presumably, because Caleb continues to leave him on read and also picked up a little something called Mind Blank, which is actually useful and not in fact No Thoughts Head Empty. With that said I don't think it's increased; I think we're just at a steady simmer.

Conclusion: 7/10.

Essek Thelyss: Okay I am a dabbler in both cosmic horror and mathematics; I enjoy many elements of both but am an expert in neither. But if I may drop the jokes for a second, how incredible is it that in this alien setting of a city that is an unwitting and unwilling amalgam of consciousnesses, with all the trappings of classic cosmic horror, two people decided to take a scientific risk with things seen as forbidden or foreign by their respective cultures...and won.

I don't know what will befall Essek and he's clearly still having a pretty rough time of it, even though unlike Caduceus I don't think he was brought to the brink of profanity again, yet; but no matter what happens at least he'll have the nat 20 of instant long rest. No matter what happens...he was right about dunamancy. Fucking ironic how much potential the dynasty is wasting, really.

With that said he does have a red eye now even though all he (and, to be fair, Fjord, Veth, and Caduceus as well) did was fight off an eldritch abomination without rolling what must have been like a 20 Wisdom save DC. Like, he (and Fjord, Veth, and Caduceus) do not deserve this. You think this man has a positive wisdom score? In this economy? (actually, he might, I say, looking at Caleb 'Wisdom Ostensibly 16' Widogast).

Conclusion: keeping him at 8/10. It's funny because he is fully on an emotional roller coaster but it's averaging out to about an 8/10 each time; it's just that he's constantly beset by horrors beyond imagination and really terrible rolls but also incredible validation of his beliefs that had so long been ignored. The man's mental state is basically a sine wave, which interestingly enough is itself influencing his mental state.***

Yussa Errenis: The Prodigal Most Interesting Man in Exandria returneth! Wensforth, play Freedom! 836 PD. You know, he should probably feel a little bit of shame, because he should know better, but also he probably does not. Anyway please enjoy the lines I had for Yussa while he was trapped in Cognouza that I did not ultimately use:

aha no don’t get your consciousness sucked into an ancient city you’re so sexy

Here am I floating in an ancient and terrible world-devouring city/far out in the planes/Threshold crests are blue and there’s nothing I can do

Making bad choices and joining the voices it’s...YUSSA ERRENIS

Conclusion: I'm going to say 6/10 but rapidly decreasing. Also Wensforth has had several days to clean the tower...maybe he just won't tell Yussa? He probably will though.

Allura Vyesoren: she's going to facepalm so long that Kima starts timing it, isn't she. She's going to get a series of messages like "hey so the Mighty Nein seem to be doing well! they freed me from the city which sucked me in like some spicy ramen when I did an astral projection...also something happened in my tower?" She's going to just stare out the window for a long moment. She is going to ask herself, much as I have many a time, what the fuck is in the water in Wildemount.

Conclusion: 3/10. Hey, at least she got some news on the Mighty Nein and the city!

Known Gem Wizard Hotsauce Lutefisk: consider: after over 35 years, give or take, in your own perception of time, trapped in a gem, you finally come across some people. Consider that one of them apparently can't resist a big shiny wizard trap. Now consider that this guy went into your +1 Demiplane of Wizard Murdering AND got his mind fully schlorped by Aeorians and yet you are still, inconceivably, stuck in this fucking gem. This is where he draws the line? At a teensy little bodily possession? What the fuck dude.

Conclusion: I'm pretty sure he's already a few large handfuls of iron filings short of a component pouch (which is to say, full up on the batshit) already but this cannot be helping.

*this will be the first but probably not the last cosmic horror and/or math joke because I actually forgot to make cat jokes last night, so thoroughly did the Nein demolish Cree. Speaking of Cree's fate...call that a Furrier Transform.

**high fantasy is a complicated distinction and the wikipedia page includes Discworld which does not seem right to me; it also includes the Belgariad, a series for which I have great fondness having inhaled the first three books while sick in bed as a fourteen year old and having reread several times, but which is explicitly written by a guy who was like what if I made something as formulaic as possible but also literally everyone is either super sarcastic or a huge moron but anyway imo High Fantasy is actually frequently fucking hilarious and a sign of the skill of the creator(s) is whether it's hilarious by accident or on purpose.

***something something Heisenberg uncertainty principle. I had a joke here but it got very convoluted and that is actually not a pun although if you understand why it could be a pun, good work.