#Derin Edala

[abundantchewtoys]

Don’t worry, I’m sure you have a way to get out of this well.

“If I had time travel I’d kill Hitler” “If I had time travel I’d stop my favourite politician getting assassinated” you’re all thinking way too small. If I had time travel I’d stop Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin from dying on the moon due to Soviet sabotage, kicking off the Great Nuclear War and devastating half of the planet.

[queereads-bracket]

Queer Adult SFF Books Bracket: Round 1

Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:

The Locked Tomb series (Gideon the Ninth, Harrow the Ninth, Nona the Ninth, and others) by Tamsyn Muir

Endorsement from submitter #1: "An extremely fun, humorous romp! A heart-breaking, soul crushing catharsis inducing tragedy! A thoughtful piece on imperial structures and trauma. On queerness, Muir flawlessly and without announcement, cracks gender open like an egg and spills its disproven guts across the page. The Locked Tomb does it all also bones, bitch."

Endorsement from submitter #2: "Lesbian necromancers in space. So many fascinating, sort of fucked up sapphic relationships going on."

The Emperor needs necromancers.

The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman.

Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead bullshit.

Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won't set her free without a service.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and bone witch extraordinaire, has been summoned into action. The Emperor has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without their cavalier.

Without Gideon's sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die. Of course, some things are better left dead.

Fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, humor, series, adult

The Javelin Program by Derin Edala (Time to Orbit: Unknown series)

When Dr Aspen Greaves signed up for the Javelin Program, humanity's first foray into colonising deep space, they expected to wake up to life in a thriving colony on a distant planet. Instead, they find themself five years away from their destination on a broken spaceship full of complex mysteries, dead astronauts, and a very unhelpful AI.

Aspen wasn't trained for any of this. But if they can't keep themselves alive, get the ship in working order, and find out what went wrong by unravelling a chain of mysteries leading all the way back to distant Earth, then neither Aspen nor the five thousand sleeping passengers in their care will ever see a planet again.

Science fiction, mystery, series, adult

[queerforscience]

Read this story about a normal and functional spaceship

Read this normal article about football

[haveyoureadthistransbook]

The Javelin Program by Derin Edala

goodreads

When Dr Aspen Greaves signed up for the Javelin Program, humanity's first foray into colonising deep space, they expected to wake up to life in a thriving colony on a distant planet. Instead, they find themself five years away from their destination on a broken spaceship full of complex mysteries, dead astronauts, and a very unhelpful AI. Aspen wasn't trained for any of this. But if they can't keep themselves alive, get the ship in working order, and find out what went wrong by unravelling a chain of mysteries leading all the way back to distant Earth, then neither Aspen nor the five thousand sleeping passengers in their care will ever see a planet again.

Mod opinion: I haven't heard of this book before, but I love trans sci fi mysteries, so I'm hoping to check it out some day!

[queer-book-character-tournament]

Character, book, and author names under the cut

Dr. Aspen Greaves- The Javelin Project (Time to Orbit: Unknown) by Derin Edala

Kissen- The Fallen Gods Trilogy by Hannah Kaner 

Catalina “Cat” Alvarez- All for the Game by Nora Sakavic

Arcturus Mesarthim- The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

[sunlitsorrows]

I AM CHEWING GLASS ABOUT DANDELION BESTIES I AM EATING DIRT

[kinasecrystal]

I’m really enjoying _Time to Orbit: Unknown_, “a space mystery about a completely normal spaceship that has nothing wrong with it”, written by @derinthescarletpescatarian. It’s serialized original fiction ( doesn’t seem to be fanfic of anything I’m familiar with).

[lucian-v-ghost]

This story & others like it were written by Derin Edala. You can find their work at the following links:

Chapter: https://derinstories.com/2022/06/04/001-the-problem-with-the-javelin-program/

Tumblr: @derinthescarletpescatarian

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/derinwrites

Thank you for listening, and stay tuned for more!

[iwasraisedfromperdition]

I just randomly found out that the Public Universal Friend is an actual Thing and not a concept that came out of Derin's mind

[ryanoftinellb]

Gotta say, my favourite part of Time to Orbit: Unknown --

“Storgalthan’s unusually luminous left testicle! You’re who?”

[themuller13]

Woohooo! @derinthescarletpescatarian! Your books arrived in Denmark. However, they didn't provide the neccessary warning signs (must be an oversight).

I'm quite nervous to reread... this normal spaceship on its very normal space trip takes up a lot of time and space and thinking...

[bing-bong-your-gender-is-gone]

Me: Headcanon, when/if Tinera and Dinesh have children, Dinesh has to talk her out of naming them after the chickens on the Courageous.

My partner, who introduced me to TTO:U in the first place and has read both books:

[queereads-bracket]

SEMIFINALS: Queer Fiction Free-for-All Book Bracket

Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

Endorsement from submitter: "That book was written in 1969 and yes, not everything hold up today, but for the time is very progressive"

A groundbreaking work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants spend most of their time without a gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters.

Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction.

Science fiction, classics, speculative fiction, anthropological science fiction, distant future, adult

Time to Orbit: Unknown series (The Javelin Program, The Antarctica Conspiracy) by Derin Edala

When Dr Aspen Greaves signed up for the Javelin Program, humanity's first foray into colonising deep space, they expected to wake up to life in a thriving colony on a distant planet. Instead, they find themself five years away from their destination on a broken spaceship full of complex mysteries, dead astronauts, and a very unhelpful AI.

Aspen wasn't trained for any of this. But if they can't keep themselves alive, get the ship in working order, and find out what went wrong by unravelling a chain of mysteries leading all the way back to distant Earth, then neither Aspen nor the five thousand sleeping passengers in their care will ever see a planet again.

Science fiction, mystery, series, adult

[thisgalliz]

if i had a nickel for every time i read a derin edala story where a human is on a boat surrounded by bug aliens and the boat starts having issues id have two nickels

[haveyoureadthistransbook]

The Cursed Heart by Derin Edala

goodreads

Kayden was six months old when the doctor found the curse in his heart. From then on, his life was a struggle to manage it, to keep it locked away and dormant and above all secret, dreading the day that it would finally break free and wreak havoc. Now he's fourteen, and that day has come. Things look bad, but there's hope — the world's most prestigious magical school is willing to take him in, keep him safe, and pay his legal fees to avoid bankrupting his family. Most importantly, they can teach him to control his curse, to avoid ever hurting anyone else. It sounds far too good to be true, but what other option does he have? Kayden quickly finds himself embroiled in a large political game he doesn't understand. But he'd better learn fast. Because the secrets of his new school run deeper than he ever expected, and his actions have far more dangerous consequences than he could ever have known.

Mod opinion: I haven't heard of this book before it was submitted by a reader on this blog and it doesn't really sound like my type of literature, but I think if you like long magical fantasy stories or want more trans magic school books this could be interesting to you!

[sleepyhead-poll]

ROUND 2D, MATCH 5 OUT OF 8!

Propaganda Under the Cut:

The Public Universal Friend:

Put into suspended animation on an interstellar colonization ship, the Public Universal Friend (it/its pronouns) is woken early to be the ship's doctor. It's part of an organization dedicated to universal benevolence and serving the greater good, inspired by the historic Public Universal Friend, and in order to do so it removed the parts of its brain responsible for a sense of self. However, the Friend is quick to remind people that the parts of its brain responsible for swearing and sarcasm still work perfectly fine.

Avrana:

Kern is the last survivor of a fallen empire, questionably human in every sense of the word, clinging to life through cold sleep technology, scientific integrity and pure, unadulterated spite. She's torn from oblivion in the space between the silence and faced with a universe she no longer recognises. Trapped in a coffin of circuitry and steel with no one to talk to but her broken reflection, she cannibalises her own mind into a simulacrum of a simulacrum, her sympathies shifting from the fractured remnant of humanity to their mutated arthropod kin on the planet below. Not even she knows what's down there. She was never supposed to dream. later on she is hit by a laser and uploaded to ants and it is honestly the coolest shit ever