#winternight trilogy

[animezinglife]

“She bent forward to breathe into his ear: 'Never give me orders.' 'Command me, then,' he whispered back."

- The Winter of the Witch, Katherine Arden

[finngualart]

the winternight trilogy has me frothing at the mouth and i wanted to try and capture some of the characters

[littleeyesofpallas]

Fuyu no Ou[冬の王]: "King of Winter"

aka Winternight trilogy

[cinderkaliningrad]

Wintertrilogy meme:

[thewiddershinsme]

Finished Uprooted by Naomi Novak. I first picked this book up around when it came out because of the great reviews. All I remember is I didn't like it at all.

Fast forward to now, when I hear some great things about Spinning Silver. Specifically, that people tend to love either Uprooted or Spinning Silver, and not really the other. So I'm about to get Spinning Silver, when the cover of Uprooted catches my eye. I know these are both technically standalones, but look at those covers, they scream companion books to me. And because I am someone that CAN'T read books out of order, I found myself unable to start Spinning Silver without grabbing Uprooted again.

Cause the thing was, I couldn't remember anything that happened in that book other than the main premise of wizard takes girl into tower every decade. And as I was reading I realized I must've DNF'd it, cause there came a point I had absolutely no clue what was gonna happen next and nothing felt familiar. And you know what? I overall really enjoyed it. It's continuing a trend where I am retracing some previous books I didn't necessarily like the first time around, but due to so much change and personal growth over the past few years, am finding new appreciation for (such as The Bear and the Nightingale, was meh the first time I read it, but re-read it recently and adored the entire series).

Anyway, the Wood. Absolutely fantastic element. Seriously freaked me out. Can't wait to start Spinning Silver next.

[snurtsnurtcreations]

What's this? I fell victim to another book and made drawings for it again? Well, gee, who woulda thought....

Anywho, close-ups of our favorite frog girl under the cut:

[goblins-riddles-or-frocks]

Fic | Through Midnights Past

Status: Complete, 10.5k words

Pairings: Vasalisa Petrovna/Medved, Vasalisa Petrovna/Morozko

Tags: Time travel, canon divergence

Vasalisa Petrovna and Medved traverse the Midnight road

[amelie-von-krolock]

"Vasilisa, tell me truly

Did you know that

Your heart could kill?

The woodland witch gave

You the weapon

But to use it

Was your own will..."

(Daria Kulesh - "Vasilisa")

The Winternight trilogy by Katherine Arden is one of my favourite book series ever, I just had to paint these two!

[jckthelad]

the girl in the tower: moodboard

[moonlitglen]

Father Sergei: i am old. perhaps my wits are failing.

also Father Sergei: *bursts into a fight*

[broadway-aradia]

whoever said aneurin barnard should play morozko the winter king in a film adaptation of the winternight trilogy was 100% correct

like if this doesn’t give it’s summer and i’m gorgeous but also fucking melting idk what does

[finngualart]

more winternight trilogy sketches!!!!! tfw God isnt listening but Someone Else far older is

[ofliterarynature]

JUNE 2023 WRAP UP

loved liked okay no thanks (reread) bookclub*

An Unsuitable Heir | The Winter of the Witch | An Unnatural Vice | Bloom* | An Unseen Attraction | Masters in this Hall | (The Mislaid Magician) | Gilded Cage | The Age of Innocence | (The Grand Tour) | Any Old Diamonds | The Rat-Catcher’s Daughter | (Sorcery & Cecelia) | (The Goblin Emperor) | A Gentleman’s Position | The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street | Dust and Shadow | A Seditious Affair | A Fashionable Indulgence | Subtle Blood | Proper English | Range

Let’s just say I was feeling a bit unhinged this month…

I don't know what was up with my brain this month (it was stress, probably. ugh.), but it was comfort-reads-only central. Which spun out of control a little with the KJ Charles, but we'll get to that.

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World started things off with a great non-fic pick. It spoke so deeply to me that it made me very angry at the world while also being very comforting. Would highly recommend.

Dust and Shadow is Sherlock Holmes solves Jack the Ripper, but hewing much closer to canon than say, that other one I fell in love with last year (The Angel of the Crows). I couldn't help comparing the two, and while it was interesting seeing each author's interpretations of the Ripper case, this one did not come out on top for me.

The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street is a sort-of sequel memoir to the author's collection of letters published as 84 Charing Cross Road that I read last month and loved. A little different but still a delight, and I've got another one of her related memoirs waiting for me on my desk right now.

The Goblin Emperor... what can I say, my brain needed comfort, I caught up on the AO3 tag, and thought why not. It was amazing to go back and see all the little bits of Maia I'd forgotten.

Sorcery & Cecelia I picked up partially as a consequence of my KJ Charles/historical romance rampage that fully put me off of the other audiobooks I already had checked out. I've been meaning to reread them for a while (it's probably been a decade) because I wanted to explore my mixed memories of the two sequels. And I don't blame younger me! The original book is a delight sort of in the vein of Diana Wynne Jones and The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, with adventures and almost a comedy of manners element to it. The much later sequels lose a lot of the whimsy and brightness, are much more serious and adult, and are much more explicitly mystery novels. Now I love a mystery novel, and I think if you distance them from the original book they're not too bad! The Grand Tour is the worst, I think, both because of the unexpected shift in style and because I don't think the epistolary format they chose works well (I really would have loved to see some letters they wrote to other people, imo, rather than diary entries). The Mislaid Magician brings things back around much closer to the original novel's format both literally and narratively, if not in style, and I liked it a great deal.

This next one goes out to Lauren, who will probably never read this but - I finally read The Age of Innocence! Not the copy you gave me, but I did it. It wasn't quite to my taste, but it absolutely fits with what I know of your other favorite things. Sorry this was like 8 years too late.

Bloom I've had on my shelf for years and it's totally my doing that we read it for book club - it was a nice read, I love the art style, but ultimately it was a bit forgettable. Maybe if it'd focused on resolving the non-romantic conflicts as well, idk.

It took me MUCH longer to get to Winter of the Witch than I had planned, but I did! It felt a little clunky trying to get all the ends tied up, but overall I liked it, I was very glad to get away from the politics of the second book. This was such a well written series, I definitely recommend it, but it also made me feel angry and anxious enough while reading it that I can't see myself ever revisting it. (I'll definitely keep an eye out for more of the author's work though).

AND NOW FOR THE KJ CHARLES!!!

I started off the month finishing up the Will Darling/English books, which, do not follow my example, you should absolutely read in chronological order (and pay attention to character names!). These were not books I fell immediately in love with, but exposure and persistence, not to mention some great side characters, won me over. I also cannot BELIEVE that KJ waited until the very very end to introduce the "proteges" concept, and it's the best thing I've ever heard I am emotionally devastated (and cackling, lmao).

I've mentioned elsewhere my accidental discovery (too late) that the next 3 series were related, but I did manage at least to start with the correct one. Society of Gentlemen was...okay. The first one might actually be the worst KJ Charles I've read so far, but the other two were definitely better, if not exactly to my taste. I like the mystery/action/adventure plots more, I suppose, rather than...politics? I think? and respectability is boring anyways.

I managed to accidentally skip over Sins of the Cities directly into the Lilywhite Boys, which is a pity, because they're much more closely related to each other than Society (which honestly you don't need to read beforehand). Even without the more detailed background from Sins, I LOVED the Lilywhite novels and novellas. Thieves and shady characters who are extremely competent, excellent lovers, a little violent, and with their own moral codes are catnip for me, I could not have resisted.

I then went back to Sins of the Cities, which were also good! The leads in the first book were sweet but a little bland, the love/hate thing going on the second book was fantastic, and I loved that the third book had a genderqueer/nb lead. I appreciated getting all the background to events hinted at in the Lilywhite books, but I also admit I spent less time focused on the murders and more on "ok but HOW does X become the Earl???????" I had so many theories lol, none of them right. I just wonder if these would have hit a little harder if I'd read them first.

As I write this in July, I'm still working my way through the rest of KJ's catalogue but I think the worst of my brain fever is over, and I'm hoping to soon have the mental capacity to read the new Victoria Goddard I've been ignoring for a couple of months. Wish me luck, and happy reading!

[cinderkaliningrad]

If there's no fandom making content about this, I'll do it.

[thewiddershinsme]

Halfway through the year, so far have read:

Once Upon A Broken Heart (currently reading) by Stephanie Garber

Caraval trilogy by Stephanie Garber

The Lady Most… series by Julia Quinn/Eloisa James/Connie Brockway

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

The Blydon Family Saga (aka the Splendid trilogy) by Julia Quinn

An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson

The Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden

Spinning Silver currently in first place as my favorite book of the year.

-plan to finish the Once Upon a Broken Heart trilogy

-want to go back to Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson (read only the first chapter then had to return to library). Think I’ll save for October though, it gave me October vibes.

-it’s high summer, which always makes me think of the sea, which makes me think of ships, which makes me think of pirates, so I think this series I’ve seen Daughter of the Pirate King is soon to be on my horizon

[florallychaotic]

"Or has she dragged you near enough to humanity that you have also become a hypocrite?"