#xanth novels

[littleeyesofpallas]

I have always loved Molly Knox Ostertag's work, in particular the really cute, heartwarming tact of the Witch Boy trilogy's trans allegory and the way it feels so well built to walk that fine line of appropriately nuanced but still perfectly digestible for its intended teen audience.

Well The Deep Dark is more of precisely that style of writing and it blows me away just as much now as Witch Boy did the first time I read it. It's exactly the kind of book I wish I'd had as a kid, and the sort of thing that lights a little hopeful flame in the jaded dark corners of my heart. It's the sort of thing that helps me feel optimistic about a generation of kids who will grow up with this kind of story as their formative personal mythos.

I know I don't usually do reviews or recommendation on this blog so I dunno who this is for really, and it certainly won't have any particular reach, but if you find yourself with the chance to, I really can't recommend The Deep Dark enough. And of course everything else Molly Knox Ostertag has had a hand in, even the one's she's not been the sole author on.

[books-to-add-to-your-tbr]

Title: 5 Worlds

Author: Mark Siegel, Alexis Siegel, Xanthe Bouma, Matt Rockefeller, Boya Sun

Series or standalone: series

Publication year: 2017

Genres: fiction, graphic novel, fantasy, comics, science fiction, adventure

Blurb: The Five Worlds are on the brink of extinction...unless five ancient and mysterious beacons are lit. When war erupts, three unlikely heroes will discover there's more to themselves - and their worlds - than meets the eye. Oona Lee, the clumsiest student at the Sand Dancer Academy, is a fighter with a destiny bigger than she could ever imagine. An Tzu, a boy from the poorest slums, has a surprising gift and a knack for getting out of sticky situations. Jax Amboy is the star athlete beloved by an entire galaxy, but what good is that when he has no real friends? When these three kids are forced to team up on an epic quest, it will take not one, not two, but five worlds to contain all the magic and adventure.

[godzilla-reads]

🎲 D&D Dungeon Club: Roll Call (1) by Molly Knox Ostertag and Xanthe Bouma

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Ahhhhh, what a fabulous book to read for the New Year! I started this on December 31 and finished it today, January 1.

Roll Call! Jess and her friend Olivia have been best friends since third grade and have been playing Dungeons & Dragons for near as long. Entering into eighth grade in middle school feels eerily like a dungeon, especially when Olivia wants to add more people to their group and Jess wants things to just be them. How will they manage?

Being someone who’s gotten into D&D, reading this cute and wholesome graphic novel about friendship and storytelling was such a great start to the New Year. It really got into how we create our characters and how D&D or other RPGs can help us navigate real life situations.

I highly recommend!

(I’m about to force my partner to read this 😈)

[slaughter-books]

Day 9: JOMPBPC: Easy Read

[semiprecioussideblog]

!! Great comics!

Cover of the second volume of the graphic novel that Molly Ostertag wrote and i drew, Dungeon Club: Time to Party! it's coming out on July 9!!!

the series is about a group of 8th graders playing D&D. we delve into their in-game adventures and see how their real world experiences shape the campaign. you'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll want to play your own session lol! it's a lot of fun and i love drawing every page.

I colored this cover, but the interior colors are by Amelia Allore and they are SO beautiful. please check it out, u gotta see it!!

[jesncin]

A Queer and Asian review of Xanthe Zhou + Spirit World

I haven't exactly been thorough about how I specifically feel about Xanthe Zhou as "representation" for people like me and a part of me didn't want to be too harsh since they're a fan favorite and I'm sure the writer did their best and what not- but there is this sense of "I'm not even whelmed I'm underwhelmed" by Xanthe as a character. I don't dislike them, but I can't say I'm a fan if I don't find them particularly interesting.

I'm sure for a lot of people the idea of a Chinese non-binary anime sword wielding, bomber jacket wearing, shaved cut having, envoy between the living and spirit world character is a novel concept. But when you've lived the reality this character attempts to represent (ghosts and spirits are a tuesday where I'm from) and have sought out that representation from within your own communities, Xanthe pales in comparison like a really corporate product. So I want to talk about intersectional storytelling and what a holistic queer Asian superhero could look like.

Again I'm aware Spirit World was written by a queer Chinese author (+ an all Chinese team) and as a fellow author who has to navigate mainstream publishing and deal with attempts at sandpapering authenticity for capitalism I want to stress that I Get The Struggle. But I'm allowed to be critical of how the final product turned out. Some of this is subjective musing even.

Here's the premise of Xanthe Zhou's character: When Xanthe was a very tiny kid, they were run over by a car when they were walking alone at night in the rain. They're resurrected by a powerful spirit called Po Po to be the half-dead, half-living Envoy of the Spirit World.

Everything about Xanthe is exhaustively corporate for me. Like industry planted representation designed to be as safe as possible and attempts at being intersectional are limited. Spirit World features Cassandra Cain Batgirl and John Constantine Hellblazer because that's how we get Asian and queer DC fans to hop onto out new queer Asian character! Xanthe doesn't get to stand out in their own world, or have an established cast system the way Kong Kenan gets to. Spirit World suffers from being a follow up to an Event comic, with all these characters crossing over- but it didn't rise to the challenge of including Batgirl and Johnstantine in meaningful ways. The story would've been better if they were replaced by characters unique to Xanthe's cast system.

I've become pretty cynical about scenes like this one. It's a scene where Xanthe is forcefully invited to have dinner with their family they haven't seen in years. The transphobic dinner pages made rounds on social media because "ooh look at John Constantine gendering a non-binary person correctly even when Xanthe's family keeps misgendering them", and "whoa even the magic system respects a trans person's name". It's free marketing, you can see comments on these posts asking what comic this is from to read more. People will start discourse over "Constantine going woke" and the defenders will pull up receipts that "John has always been a lefitst" and so on and so forth. I saw the promos for Spirit World, but these panels were what piqued my interest early on.

My twin and I were taking turns reading Spirit World- Jes asked Cin (who finished reading first) "so what about that transphobic dinner scene? Was it there? Are there other scenes that talk about it?" and Cin said "nope that's it. The rest is magic fight scenes and spirit world stuff." And honestly that feels calculated. It's like that Jenny Nicholson Star Wars Hotel thing: "whoa if they have this droid and this animatronic alien performer, imagine what else they have!" but nope. That's it. Just enough to fit in a tik tok promo. Just enough to fit in a tweet and make rounds. It's not like Alan Scott's Green Lantern solo, where his queer identity isn't limited to one scene designed to go viral. The whole narrative holistically discussed what it was like to be a gay man in that era. Spirit World on the other hand felt like it had a representation quota to fulfill before moving on to the generic Superhero Stuff- an entirely separate plot.

Then there's Xanthe and John. As a Hellblazer purist I already knew this was going to be a hard read for me since I'm not a fan of DC!Constantine but I've talked before about how Spirit World still has that appeal for me because sometimes og Hellblazer is a pain to read as a person of color. Maybe I can enjoy the fantasy of Constantine being an ally to an Asian person instead of fetishizing them like he did in those old Vertigo comics (people love to leave that out when they're defending Constantine as an ally but whatever). And people kept talking about how this is an elder and younger queer friendship dynamic and I love those.

So where was that? Sure, John genders Xanthe correctly over transphobic dinner and comforts them afterwards. But nothing he says or does is specific to a queer elder. Any ally or character can say these things or do these gestures. He doesn't speak from personal experience about how "it gets better" or "I know what it's like" it's just. "yeah throwing up in Gotham is great I do it all the time". Excuse me if I don't think that's substantial.

Ooh but the ghost of Johnstantine's ex boyfriend Oliver showed up! And then there was a bi joke about how John hooks up with a clone of himself a "dozen times" because he's such a slut amirite, gays. Diversity win. I expected bi jokes from DC!Constantine but marketing this as a queer narrative or generational friendship is a stretch.

Spirit World would've been a more holistic queer narrative if Wan Yujing, the villainous corrupted spirit that wanted to be remembered properly (or reincarnated, depends on the writer's mood)-was revealed to be a queer person. This would've been a fantastic opportunity to recontextualize Xanthe's personal transphobic encounter with their family into a larger systemic theme of queer historical erasure. The original meaning of a "dead name" is the idea that when a trans person dies, their family will put the wrong name on their grave. It's literally their "dead" name, erasing their legacy in writing. So why not include that in your conflict?

Wan Yujing is revealed to be a famous poet, slowly forgotten because "time erodes everything" (vague and bad writing btw). Why not pitch something more motivated and specific? Make it so that she wrote queer literature that was destroyed. Make it so that her lover was rewritten in history books as her "friend". Then when Xanthe makes the promise to remember Wan Yujing as she truly was, it'd be a holistic act of queer recognition and solidarity. But instead the resolution is just Xanthe Zhou promising "hey I'll remember you" and Wan Yujing just takes their word for it.

Can we talk about the huge missed opportunity of what this dialogue implies? Xanthe proclaims that they are both living and dead, granted the living's power to remember and the dead's immortality. Why was this not thematically paired with their experience as a non-binary person struggling in a cis-heteronormative world. Heck, why not pair this with how they're a queer Asian American, a perpetual foreigner wherever they go? Not Asian enough for traditional spaces, but not white enough for a majority of queer American spaces. Are we worried we'll scare off the white audience if this got too intersectional?

Xanthe gets more fleshed out under a different writer (Jeremy Holt) for one of the DC Pride stories (2023). Here, Xanthe talks about how being in the land of the living feels like going about a routinic obligation; "Reminding me that home isn't necessarily where the heart is". This is so much like the disassociated way trans people go about life before figuring themselves out. It's also like how a perpetual foreigner doesn't fit in anywhere. But it's not paralleled to that experience. The fantasy aspects of Xanthe Zhou the Envoy, are completely separate from the very few personal civilian parts of them. Like they're a Superhero first and a person second. The later half of this story gets overtaken by a team up with Batwoman, because once you have a new character set in Gotham you are at the whims of being absorbed into the greater Batfam conglomerate.

There's interesting concepts at the center of Xanthe's character. But it's hard to give credit to writing that doesn't follow any of that through. Xanthe's a hero motivated by making sure the dead are remembered and respected. That's a decent motivation in general, and a pretty resonant one for a queer hero-but everything surrounding the execution of that idea feels so half-assed to me. Xanthe's origin story has so many plot holes, it feels like it was thought up in 5 minutes.

Why was their death just some random car accident and not something more motivated? Why did the all powerful Po Po decide to resurrect them specifically? Where's the tension in any of the many excessive fight scenes in Spirit World, if Xanthe's apparently immortal? Also they age? What are the stakes for a character like this? This isn't even covering the shoddy writing for their transphobic family drama (Why did they just stalk their family after being resurrected? Why did their mom recognize them even though they've been gone and have aged for 15 years? so many questions ugh).

(why was this toddler walking around alone in the rain with their own umbrella. In Gotham. What is this-)

I casually propose that instead have Xanthe's origin be that they died as a runaway trans teen who went missing and was murdered. Maybe because the way police and society in general don't look into the disappearances of trans poc, Xanthe's death went completely unnoticed. Maybe as Xanthe's dying, Po Po sees their determination to fight for the forgotten and chooses to resurrect this kid specifically. Then we'd have a really motivated origin story that ties their identity to their heroism. Instead we get these over the top fantasy concepts + transphobic dinner with my talisman wielding mom.

Spirit World is a fun enough action fantasy with troubled pacing and generic MCU-quippy dialogue. It's so overwhelmed by it's own spectacle that we don't get a chance to get to know our new hero. What is Xanthe's character development? What flaw do they grow out of or overcome? If I'm honest outside of the attempt at quippy banter, what even is their personality? The ending is rushed; not only is the conflict resolved with Xanthe just promising to remember a dead poet, but they also make a deal to work with the Spirit World authorities. Because it's always so fun to watch queer people assimilate to the powers that oppress.

In one of these action sequences, I guess the writer decided there needed to be a semblance of themes to make it feel like the readers' time isn't being wasted. So while Cassandra Cain Batgirl from Detective Comics and John Constantine from Vertigo Hellblazer are holding the giant anime sword, Xanthe goes on an internal monologue about how change is natural and people's fears make them resistant towards it. Xanthe says that to embrace magic, "you need to look at everything you think you know about the way the world should be...and imagine something new."

It's a nice sentiment that isn't reinforced by anything else in the story, but it does make me think. What is "new" about Xanthe Zhou to someone like me who seeks out representation like this? I've seen queer characters with the shaved hairstyle, I've seen queer coded Asian girlies with the bomber jacket, heck I've even seen the giant anime sword. I kinda cringe at seeing "giant spiritual sword" at this point even. But you know what I don't see as often? In real life I've seen the bravest Asian queer people reclaim cultural hairstyles, clothing, practices and beliefs (that originally excluded them). I've seen them join communities and create entire subcultures and lingo in a way that would be unrecognizable to the typical queer readers who enjoy Hellblazer-but I certainly don't see it reflected in fiction a lot.

(Is it really new if I've seen it in a Disney movie)

The premise of a Chinese American non-binary half-dead-half-living Envoy for the dead is something so metaphysical in its intersectionality, world building, stakes and themes that it would require Sandman-levels of out-the-box creativity to pull off. Which is why getting a generic action adventure (+ one scene about transphobic dinner with the family) feels so disappointing. I wish Spirit World took its own words to heart; I wish it took everything we're used to, everything we've known about how the world is and dare to imagine something actually new.

[pupsmailbox]

ACADEMIC ID PACK

NAMES︰ adeline. agatha. alastair. alex. alexander. alexandria. alisa. amber. ambrose. ambrosia. amorette. andrew. annabel. annabeth. annalise. anya. arden. artemis. arthur. ash. ashford. aspen. athena. atlas. atreus. augustus. avery. beatrix. blair. blake. blythe. bram. bronwyn. caspian. charles. charlotte. christopher. circe. claude. coraline. crimson. damian. damien. damon. daphne. darcy. demeter. diana. dorian. durant. ebony. eden. edgar. eleanor. elenor. elizabeth. elvira. emberl. enid. eris. everett. fantine. felix. fern. genevieve. george. grey. griffin. haven. hazel. hecate. henry. hester. holmes. hyde. inkesse. inkette. inkie. inky. isolde. ivie. ivy. james. jane. journalle. julian. julius. juno. kane. killian. lenore. lilith. lorelei. luna. magnus. malachi. mallory. maude. meredith. naomi. narissa. nicodem. nightesse. nightwing. nimue. noire. noiresse. noirette. odessa. odette. oliver. ophelia. orion. percy. persephone. peyton. phineas. phoebe. quill. quille. quinn. raven. ravenesse. ravenette. ravenne. remus. romero. rory. rosalind. rose. rowan. rowena. rufus. salem. scriptesse. sebastian. stoker. sylvain. tanith. theo. theodore. theodosia. trista. tristan. victor. victoria. vincent. virgil. wilhelmine. willow. wynona. xanthe. zoltan.

PRONOUNS︰ acade/academia. amber/amber. an/antique. arch/architectself. arch/archive. art/art. art/artist. arti/article. arti/fact. artifact/artifact. baro/baroque. bea/beauty. bis/bisque. book/book. bookworm/bookworm. calligraphy/calligraphy. can/vas. candle/candle. cer/ceramic. char/charcoal. chess/chess. clas/classic. clay/clay. clock/clock. co/collect. coco/coco. cocoa/cocoa. cof/coffee. coffee/coffee. col/color. coll/collection. collage/collage. con/cept. crea/cream. crow/crow. cur/curate. dra/drama. dust/dust. essay/essay. fea/feather. feather/feather. fig/figure. fil/film. flicker/flicker. gal/gallery. glaze/glaze. globe/globe. gold/gold. hazel/hazel. his/history. history/history. hon/honey. hue/hue. hypo/hypothesis. illus/illustrate. ink/ink. journal/journal. ki/kiln. knowledge/knowledge. le/letter. learn/learn. letter/letter. li/library. lig/ligature. lit/literature. mar/marble. mur/mural. murder/murder. muse/muse. muse/museum. night/night. no/note. novel/novel. page/page. paint/brush. paint/paint. paint/painting. paper/paper. para/dox. pen/pen. pho/photo. pi/pigment. piano/piano. poe/poet. poem/poem. por/trait. porcel/porcelain. print/print. qui/quill. quill/quill. raven/raven. rea/read. read/read. ren/renaissance. rev/revolution. scrapbook/scrapbook. script/scripts. scroll/scroll. sculp/sculptor. sculp/sculpture. sketch/sketch. speci/specimen. spine/spine. sta/stamp. stai/stain. stamp/stamp. statue/statue. story/story. stu/dy. study/studie. study/study. surreal/surrealism. tea/tea. theo/theory. theory/theory. thes/thesis. time/time. tweed/tweed. violin/violin. wheel/wheel. ⌛/⌛. ⌛︎/⌛︎. ☕/☕. ✒︎/✒︎. ✒️/✒️. 🏛️/🏛️. 🏺/🏺. 📜/📜. 🕯️/🕯️. 🖼️/🖼️.

[maniacwatchestheworld]

Several small BatFam notes

@moss-covered-thoughts (I'm answering questions and providing information for DPxDC fans.)

lol don't worry about it! Nothing about you talking about your fic will make me feel left out! I'm just happy to help you out with your work! If anything will make me feel left out, it's the lack of rogues content and people within this fanspace underutilizing Vlad and not having much of that juicy, juicy polycule content (specifically Vlad/Jack/Maddie) that I keep coming back to Danny Phantom for. :p Speaking of, I want to be as transparent as I can with the information I'm giving out, because just like all comics fans, I'm not an expert on everything and I am very much in my own specific niche and haven't read everything out there! I'm actually not much of a Batfam fan and am much MUCH more of a rogues fan! (Specifically my hyperfixation is focused around Harvey Dent and Two-Face.) So while I do have some information about the members of the batfamily, my knowledge isn't nearly as comprehensive as someone who's deep dived into that part of the DC universe! I'll give you the information I can, and hopefully someone with more cohesive Batfam knowledge can reblog this post with extra notes to fill in the holes I have in my knowledge. >.<

Adoption Order

So I can't tell you the specific specifics of adoption specifically, but I believe that the order of each member joining the Bat Family would probably be along the lines of: Dick Grayson -> Barbara Gordon -> Jason Todd -> Tim Drake -> Cassandra Cain -> Stephanie Brown -> Damian Wayne -> Duke Thomas.

Batgirl and Duke recs

Again, I haven't read much Bat Family stuff because my primary focus is on the rogues. But I do have a handful of recs! If you're willing to watch a long-ass video instead of reading, I would actually highly recommend Linkara's retrospective on Cassandra Cain and here's the link to said video! It's very good and goes into just about every major comic appearance she was in at the time of the video first coming out (in 2019)! You will get a very good image of her character from that, I like Linkara's analysis, and by watching that video, you will definitely be able to come away from it with a number of recommendations for both Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown! (He does talk about Steph some in this video, but it's limited.)

Speaking of Stephnie I'm sorry to say that I don't really have any recommendations for Steph as I sadly have just not really happened to come across any works that have her in them in my poking around in different comics and related media. But honestly, while I can't give you any recs for Steph, maybe you should toss Linkara (@atopfourthwall) a message! He's actually a decently active Tumblr user and given that he wants to do a different retrospective on Stephanie Brown, certainly he would have things to recommend!

As for other Cass reccomendations... The only thing I have in my back pocket is Spirit World. It's not about her, it's a solo series about the brand spanking new character, Xanthe Zhou, but Cass IS a main character in it, and people seem genuinely happy with what they did with her in that story!

If you're looking for good Barbra Gordon content... Well... Personally I would recommend giving her episodes in Batman: the Animated series or the issues that include her in The Batman Adventures a look-see...? It's always a solid time with her around in B:TAS, or in the Batman Adventures! They characterize her very well in those serieses!

If you want both a Cass and a Barbra suggestion... Maybe check out No Man's Land...? Asking you to read all of the comics that were part of that saga might be a little much, but there is a novel adaptation of the No Man's Land storyline out there, and personally I listened to the reading of that novel as done by Graphic Audio and it is genuinely excellent! Like, the marketing may be tacky, but it is on the level of quality as something like an audio drama podcast or a Big Finish Audio. It just happens to be a book reading. :p But No Man's Land IS where Cass was first introduced, (also where Harley Quinn joined the comics universe fun fact!) and it has plenty of good moments from Barbara in it too!

As for Duke... Honestly, if you aren't already reading the Wayne Family Adventures, then you really ought to. >.< That series is available for free on webtoon and the first several strips have him as the main character before it becomes more of an ensemble cast thing. (And in case you were wondering it IS official DC media!) >.< I also haven't read much of Duke's stuff, and so in terms of his backlog, I really don't know what to recommend. The one story that I did happen to read that heavily featured Duke... Was "My Own Worst Enemy" (it's like volume 1 of All-Star Batman) which was... Fine...??? Like, as a Two-Face and Harvey Dent story, it was pretty bad and ablest in how it portrayed Harvey's DID. (But this isn't necessarily unusual for books that include him... SIIIIIGH!) But it was also incredibly stupid and fun, and had a lot of good forwards momentum and offered a number of interesting ideas that I don't entirely hate! So overall I find it... Fine... But as a Duke story... Honestly it's not bad as far as a Duke story can go! And the back-up story for that little arc (the Cursed Wheel) was pretty alright too! I do feel like after I read My Own Worst Enemy that I did understand Duke just a little better as a character! So while it's not good... You might find it to be decent in what you're looking for...? Because I really cannot speak on any other stories he's been in. >.<

So uh... Sorry about my whole limited perspective thing... But I do hope that you find some of this useful at least! I wish you the best of luck in your writing endeavors!

[bitterkarella]

Midnight Pals: Once Upon a Time in Delain

Stephen King: wow piers anthony you know my daughter is a big fan of your work Piers Anthony: oh yeah girls love my books Anthony: probably all the mentions of panties Anthony: you know, they find that relatable Anthony: cuz they wear them King: yeah sure that makes sense

Stephen King: so I thought I would write some fantasy Piers Anthony: you sure about that, steve? it's not that easy King: oh c'mon how hard could it be King: i mean it couldn't take that long King: after all King: time is PUNNY Anthony: Anthony: i take it back, you're a natural

King: ok so here's my fantasy story King: so imagine, this evil magician has the crown prince locked in a really really really tall tower JRR Tolkien: oh no! GRR Martin: how does he get out? King: oh that's the exciting part! King: he spends 20 years sewing a rope out of napkins

King: luckily, this kingdom has an infinite supply of cloth napkins King: because a previous queen had a napkin-sewing make-work program King: so there's this HUGE fucking warehouse of single use cloth napkins GRR Martin: wow you thought of everything

King: you guys don't seem so thrilled about my 20 year rope making plan? Martin: it's kind of slow CS Lewis: yeah kind of really slow JRR Tolkien: i don't know what you two are talking about Tolkien: i love this kind of fast paced, seat-of-your-pants action!

King: but hold on King: i haven't even told you the best part King: how does he make napkins into rope while he's in jail?? Tolkien: how does he King: he has a dollhouse with a tiny working loom Tolkien: Brian Jacques: [squeaking] i use a tiny working dollhouse loom for a loom!

Stephen King: jeez piers i guess i just don't have the knack for fantasy Piers Anthony: don't beat yourself up King: how do YOU do it? Anthony: i'll let you in on my secret, steve Anthony: i have an infinite number of 12 year olds at an infinite number of word processors

Anthony: [opens door, revealing an infinite number of 12 year olds at an infinite number of word processors] Anthony: soon they'll have written the greatest xanth novel known to man! Anthony: [reading paper] "the color of her... blanties?!" Anthony: [furious] stupid 12 year old!!

Anthony: take it from me, steve Anthony: farming out the actual writing to random 12 year olds really leaves you time for the important stuff in life Anthony: [huffs pair of panties] King: and you don't find the writing suffers? Anthony: [huffs panties again]

[leebrontide]

I suspect this isn't a normal way of developing character designs for a comic, and I KNOW this isn't a normal way of developing designs for a cast of characters for a prose story.

But this is where I'm starting to develop the appearance of my characters from the body horror mecha novel I'm starting to fiddle around with with my wife, tentatively titled Carapace and Chrysalis.

We couldn't resist a sendup to the old Sentai shows, so we have divvied up our mecha pilots by color- red, yellow, blue, black, pink and green.

So I started off with uniform colors, but since it's not a happy story I wanted to rotate off regular primary colors a bit. I went a bit vintage printing, a bit natural stone...I wanted fairly grounded versions of these colors. From there I added skintone, eye color, hair color, and an accent color, and tweaked everything to give the cast a cohesive look, as if this was for animation.

Just like with Names in Their Blood, I do intend to make a bunch of art for Carapace and Chrysalis, to show you all online. I don't intend to animate, because animating multi-armed, strangely-shaped, insect-informed mecha is far beyond where I expect my animation skills to ever reach.

But it will be nice to design some characters that are more obviously inspired by their genres, since most of my Names in their Blood cast look quite ordinary.

I'm gonna have to remember how to draw old school anime style, at least a bit.

So, here is the introduction of Xanthe, Claret, Sini, Rossa, Varjo and Chloe. Aren't they lovely?

[fae-morrigan]

In your opinion, if Jay ever got a solo run, what should it be about + what should it be called?

OH BUDDY YOUVE GOT NO CLUE

Okay, for the last like, three days, since Ground Zero, I've been thinking about what I want next for Jay, and here's just. A hodgepodge of ideas.

Gossamer: Angel of Gamorra as a main solo run where Jay discovers the true origin of his powers and seeks to expand his strength in order to finally take down Waller for good. In the process, he ends up discovering more about Gamorra's history (and his own) than he ever wanted to. The core idea here being that Jay eventually rises up to become Gamorra's protector and fight against the repeated US colonization that keeps happening there. Involves some lore on Sara Nakamura and the history we never got with her. Multiple arcs focusing on different parts of Jay's life and the people around him.

Superman's Boyfriend Jay Nakamura as a graphic novel taking place before... All of whats happening right now where Jay has to rescue a kidnapped Jon. Involves a closeup look at Jay's investigative process as he tracks down the villain who was able to capture Superman.

And for some not solo runs where he's still in the main focus:

Justice League Dark run where Jay's an antagonist, trying to learn magic to resurrect his mother, in the process being manipulated by Nick Necro, the true villain. Main lineup trying to rescue Jay includes Constantine, Zatanna, Khalid Nassour, Traci 13, Dreamer, Xanthe, and Deadly Six.

The Outlaws run with Essence and Jason Todd where Jay, after being rescued from Waller's prison, seeks to learn the all-blades to exact his revenge on Nia, since they're the only weapons that can bypass her powers. Wacky & emotional hijiinks ensue. (Also includes a re-do of the all-caste because I love the concept there but by god did Lobdell go hard on the orientalism).

[tagedeszorns]

Any good (non Warhammer) book recommendations?

If you haven't read it yet: Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. An increasingly detailed world with very subtle humour and a lot of social criticism/comment in the attractive guise of a hilariously funny fantasy series. Each novel can be read on its own, but they are even better if you follow the internal chronology, as there are often inside jokes that refer to previous books. Discworld is definitely now literary canon and so much of modern media refers to it.

When it comes to darker fantasy, the Thieves' World anthologies by Robert Asprin are highly recommended. These are also classics, but have unfortunately been largely forgotten. Very bloody, brutal and with no good endings for anyone.

(Brief mention of the "Lankhmar" books by Fritz Leiber - Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser-books to be precise - , because they are the classics of the sword & sorcery genre that have probably influenced Warhammer Fantasy stylistically the most. Discuss!)

More hopeful are the novels by Matt Ruff. I really like both his Public Works trilogy and Fool on the Hill. Urban fantasy in a way. But you can't really categorise them.

At the fun, light end of the spectrum are Allan Dean Foster's Spellsinger novels. Talking, very adult-ish animals and sword & sorcery!

Also just light reading are the "Xanth" novels by Piers Anthony. A whole, huge cycle of novels based solely on puns!

These are the first things that come to my mind when I think about fantasy. I forgot so many!

Let me know if you want me to continue with science fiction, very special interest non-fiction or "normal" novels!

[livingfictionsystem]

do you ever think you will release more books?

The duology on D.I.D. is finished with no sequels planned. I'm currently working on a comedy/horror novel called Decay Ultra that I'm pretty proud of, but I've yet to finish the first draft. Gimme like a year or two on that lol

It's about two maladjusted and dysfunctional queer best friends who have grown up in a small, remote town with a lot of fucked up, cursed history. Their lives were ruined right out of high school when a drug binge went supernaturally bad and all their friends ended up dead with them as the main suspects, so when the last remaining two are reunited years later, they try to solve what went down and why stuff like it is happening again. It involves government conspiracy, a cult, and I had fun naming most of the bad characters after the Faerie House folks lmao. It's very Loosely inspired from the real life crime investigation of the deaths of Kevin Ives and Don Henry in Arkansas and all the fuckery that went down with that. The name is a reference to MK Ultra. I based the character, Dakota very much off my own partner and that's been fun. 🖤🖤 It's the first book I've written since I went dormant at 19 so I'm excited with my growth as a writer.

Xanthe has ghost-written a couple of books over the past year but it's not their plot obviously. It was just for money. I'm not sure have any more in the works currently but the ones they have out now are Zeitstück, Lost Chaos, Living Fiction, and Reviving Reality. Zeitstück even has its own audiobook.

-Sparrow 🧷

[studentofetherium]

4th grade: Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Percy Jackson

5th grade: Wheel of Time, Xanth, Mythadventures, On a Pale Horse, Sword of Truth, Sword of Shannara

6th grade: same as the above because all of those are very long lol

7th grade: Game of Thrones, Sherlock Holmes, MTG novels, Hyperion

8th grade: yet more Game of Thrones and MTG novels, also Dresden Files

9th grade: this is when i got a smartphone

11th grade: this is when i joined a sci-fi bookclub and started reading again

[jaynesilver]

9 people you'd like to get to know better

@dirtbag-linecook-kyloren thanks for tagging me! How sweet of you 😭

1. Three ships: Kylux (shocking), Johnlock and Drarry. I'm a walking stereotype, what can I say? I read a ton of ships, but I've only written for Kylux.

2. First ever ship? If we're counting just "being a fan of it"? Then Arwen/Aragorn, back in my wee middle school days. If we're going for a super deep cut, it was Tandy/Smash, in the Piers Anthony Xanth series novel Ogre, Ogre, which I read entirely too young (the Xanth series is so fucked, oh my God). If we're counting read fic of it? Then it was Johnlock, haha.

3. Last song? Love Street, by The Doors.

4. Last film? I just finished (re)watching Revenge of the Sith minutes ago, lmao.

5. Currently reading: I'm partway through Heir to the Empire, by Timothy Zahn, and have many open AO3 tabs.

6. Currently watching: Just started up the Obi-Wan series to continue my Star Wars timeline watch, and I'm strongly considering a House rewatch.

7. Currently consuming: Apparently a lot of Star Wars content, haha. Also, nicotine.

8. Currently craving: Ice cream, constantly. You'd think I'd be over it. Maybe my first ship was me/sugar 😂

No pressure tags! @dragonflies-draw-flame @gayspacecowboys @azrael-comfortplace @ashcrow @kylorensl @paramountives @dendrite66 @lengfeilee @krenlux

[jewishsuperfam]

after a writing slump that has lasted for like. roughly a full year, give or take a few months, i am tentatively opening the door to reworking the outline of my xanthe/pompeia novel and figuring out (again) the research im gonna need to do