#5 star reads of 2023

[princessofbookaholics]

[lbibliophile-sw]

Need to Know Basis

Also on AO3 [600 words] @whumptober - day 18: “I tend to deflect when I’m feeling threatened.”, day 30: "not much longer…" @clonefandomevents - Coruscant Guard Bingo: masquerade

The Coruscant Guard works on a need-to-know basis, and all too often, Commander Fox needs to not-know. or Five times Commander Fox carefully doesn’t see, and one time he reports what he sees.

1.

There’s something suspicious going on in the Guard. No there isn’t, there can’t be.

Troopers are whispering in corners, officers are meeting behind closed doors, both groups falling silent as soon as he approaches. If he needs to know, they’d tell him. He knows why they don’t. But he’s a Marshal Commander, he doesn’t have time to keep up with whatever petty shenanigans his Guards are scheming. As long as it doesn’t affect their performance outside the barracks he’ll leave it to his deputies to manage the fallout, that’s what they’re for. Keeping track of the Senators is bad enough.

2.

He really wonders about the state of Kamino these days. The shinies are coming to them younger and younger, even the older ones needing more extra work to keep them from making a fatal mistake.

It’s hard to keep track of who’s who under the matching paint, with tics and habits spreading rapidly among the lower ranks. Like that shiny there, the way they tap rhythmic patterns against their thigh when distracted, Clarry would do that. But Cla- CT-9845 was decommissioned three weeks ago; Thorn signed off on it. He said he would ‘handle it’, and Fox trusts his Commanders.

3.

His Commanders have been pestering him lately. The usual about his eating and sleeping schedule – as though any of them ever have time for enough of either – but also about his workload, his off-hours, his meetings with the Chancellor. He answers as best he can what does he do in those hours he can’t remember? because it’s the quickest way to end their mother-henning.

And if they are so curious about his flimsiwork, well they can take some of it; clearly they don’t have enough of their own. He doesn’t think about just which tasks he hands over, or why.

4.

He doesn’t often spend time in the barracks common areas, too busy working in his office or rushing to the next meeting or crisis, but he still sees troopers without their full kit periodically. And he starts to notice troopers with new scars, surgically-precise, or bandages taped to their temples. He carefully doesn’t notice that all the scars match. It pains him to see his Guards’ injuries, but the medics make the right call in saving their limited bacta for more important wounds.

They have more than their requisition records suggest, but he’s long practiced not asking about that either.

5.

There has been a flurry of comms and meetings between the Guard and the GAR and even Jedi lately. It’s nice that tensions between the groups seem to be easing, that his troops are able to catch up with their brothers again. What they’re doing during those catch-ups is none of his business.

Even his own batchmates are sending him messages on their personal chats again. He leaves them unread; it’s not like he has time for mere social calls. He ‘forgets’ his pad unlocked on Thire’s bunk, hoping the other Commander will make them understand. Eventually they stop calling.

+1

One of the most important rules in the Coruscant Guard is that only Fox, as Marshall Commander, reports directly to the Chancellor. Especially now. Dangerdanger, he’s something more, must protect his brothers, can’t let him know.

When the Chancellor gives him orders Good Soldiers Follow Orders, he obeys without questioning. When the Chancellor asks him a question, he answers without prevarication. The Chancellor knows when he tries to lie, as though he can see the truth in his mind.

So when the Chancellor tells him to report anything suspicious about the Guard lately, Fox replies honestly:

He hasn’t seen anything.

[lifesarchive]

PIRANESI by SUSANNA CLARKE (REVIEW)

quickly: a lonely but good-hearted soul discovers his only friend is not who he thought (marble walls and endless hallways / scientist magicians / kidnapping, lies, deceit / ancient forgotten wisdom / creative divinity / finding lost things / ornithomancy (divination by birds) / enemies kept close / reverence for the dead and their bones / the writing on the wall / the ocean and its tides / the wind and the clouds it carries / the forgotten sadness of the world).

A refreshing, delightful, and unique read that took me to a place far away from this world. This story is told through the journal entries of the beloved Piranesi, who spends his time fishing, collecting seaweed, and calculating the sea’s tides. You will come to know him for his effusive spiritual bond to the workings of the strange world he inhabits. He refers to himself as “the Beloved Child of the House”. In his 30’s, he has no wife, and knows of only one other person living in this world with him, who he refers to as “The Other”. There are thirteen more, deceased, but his kind offerings of food and conversation for them at their open-air resting places create life in their absence. He talks to the towering statues that line the walls of this World, and he talks to the birds who communicate things to him that he believes the House wants him to know. 

The writing is uncomplicated, well-paced, and well-structured. Combined with the story’s setting, a surreal earth-locked landscape, I found it to be a meditative and mysterious read. I kept thinking of the video game “Pandora’s Box (1999)”… a quietly unfolding puzzle of Hellenistic proportions. For a story that is so surreal and involves so many elements (fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and a teaspoon of crime), it was incredibly realistic and recognizable. Fantasy realism? This story has a mythic, fable-like quality that I can’t fully explain. It begins with a prophecy told to Piranesi by a flock of birds, and like any true prophecy, it immediately initiates changes in Piranesi’s world. Masterfully and subtly, there are contrasts between a real world full of sorrows and tragedies, and a quiet world where life’s forgotten ideas have become immortalized in statues… there’s the forgetting of oneself for another self as a consequence of being submersed in this ‘other’ world for too long… and also the processes of fate and prophecy playing out through hidden truths and sudden revelations from the subconscious. Like a forgotten fable, I hope to revisit this book sometime far in the future.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

[camreadsum]

You guys were right!!

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi!!!!!!!!!!!

Buff Pirate mommy, are you kidding me?! It's like this book was written for me specifically!!

Sister Shanon, MashaAllah, the woman that you are!!!

[aroaessidhe]

2023 reads // twitter thread    

Godkiller

High fantasy world where gods are outlawed after a devastating war

A god killing mercenary, a knight turned Baker, a 12yo girl and the little animal god-of-white-lies bonded to her, end up traveling together to the destroyed city at the centre of the conflict

queer & disabled characters

[sockswritings]

books i've read in 2023

↳ five survive, holly jackson, (★★★★★)

[bloodmaarked]

a promised land, barack obama

released 2020

read: 07 july 2023 – 14 august 2023

this was a whole lotta book to get through and half the reason i never finished any books in july! In fact, i'm out of practice writing reviews, so i'll keep this one brief. a promised land was everything i love about biographies; it was honest, revealing, and showed me a new perspective of something i thought i already knew. a lot of what was discussed in the book is events that i studied closely many years ago when i was studying government & politics while obama was in office. however, it was like seeing events in a whole new light hearing from the man himself who revealed disputes, conflicts of interest, and difficult decisions going on behind the scenes that i hadn't realised a president may have to go through. i also think his writing style has become far more digestible than it was in dreams from my father, and so despite the fact that this is a hefty book, it's easy to get through and remain engaged.

rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[libertyreads]

Book Review #88 of 2023--

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. Rating: 5 stars.

Read from July 8th to 10th.

Am I really giving a Fantasy Romance a 5 star rating right now?? Well, hopefully you’ve seen me live blogging my reactions to this one over the past few days so you know how this book was making me feel. Do I realize this is probably not the next great American novel? Of course. Was I a giddy school girl the entire time I was reading this one? Yes. This was so fast paced (and done well) and I just wanted to keep reading. Yesterday, I read 290 pages in one day (and I would have read more if I had the time) because I had to keep reading. It’s such a compelling story. Let me back up and give you a quick synopsis: We follow Violet who is entering the war college at the age of 20, but instead of going to the scribes like she always thought she would, this disabled young woman is forced to enter the quadrant for the dragon riders. The most physically and mentally demanding quadrant at the school. But when your mother is the general of the war college you do what she demands. While in her first year, Violet must overcome the physical challenges her disability and the school put in front of her. She uses her daily pain as a beacon to light her way and uses every advantage she has to survive.

I don’t know where to start. I loved the world building and felt like it was done in a way that made sense. I could see not only the setting that this was taking place in, but also the magic and the way it worked. I could picture all the different magic types and how their magic worked with the connection between dragon and rider. I could also picture all of the dragons and the way they moved in flight and in battle. I absolutely LOVE Tairn and Andarna. I cannot tell you how quickly these two dragons wormed their way into my heart. A magical companion will always, always become a favorite character. Another character I basically adopted as one of my children immediately is Xaden. Look, morally grey is my favorite color and I have to adopt all of the morally grey characters. It’s practically a law at this point. He is such the dark and brooding villain hero, but at the same time, when you hold him up in comparison to Dain (Violet’s best friend at the start of the novel), he is just the better person when it comes to how he treats Violet. Well, as long as we ignore the first part where he’s threatening to kill her. But you can’t have an excellent enemies to lovers without the enemies first. And that is what this novel has as the Romance part of Fantasy Romance. There were some solid romantic moments in this novel for me. It starts with Knife Flirting--the sharpest and most elegant of flirting styles in Fantasy. There’s also Hand-to-Hand Combat Flirting which I didn’t know was a thing but now want in every. single. Fantasy I read that has even a moment of a romance. Two of the other big, non-sexual, moments for me were when he had daggers made for her and when he had a saddle made for her dragon (and then just approached the most deadly dragon in the quadrant to ask if it wouldn’t mind acting like a fucking horse). But speaking of sex scenes, there are a few which would normally bother me as someone who is asexual and has a lot of trouble with how specific sex scenes get with what the characters like and how uncomfortable that makes me. But these were some good, and still spicy, sex scenes that I actually enjoyed reading. And if you can make me like a sex scene then that alone almost deserves 5 stars.

And that was a long paragraph. Okay, I also could note how the book had a few moments of not 100% great writing, but I had such a good time with this one. I really enjoyed it and I hate that I don’t have a copy. And I also hate that I can’t read this for the first time again. Overall, this is great for someone who likes Fantasy, likes Romance, likes the combo of the two. If you’re looking for something that just hits all the right beats in a magical world with dragons, a deadly war college, and political machinations, pick this one up and thank me later.

[godheadjones]

layla’s 5 star reads of 2023

4. gideon the ninth by tamsyn muir

But Gideon was experiencing one powerful emotion: being sick of everyone’s shit.

[jcmarchi]

A New Star Wars Outlaws Story Trailer Is Coming Next Week

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/a-new-star-wars-outlaws-story-trailer-is-coming-next-week/

A New Star Wars Outlaws Story Trailer Is Coming Next Week

Publisher Ubisoft and developer Massive Entertainment has revealed that a new Star Wars Outlaws story trailer will be released next week. We’ll be seeing more of protagonist Kay Vess and her trusty (and adorably cute) companion Nix on Tuesday, April 9, at 9 a.m. PT/Noon ET. 

As for what to expect, Ubisoft hasn’t shared anything in that regard. It simply says the story trailer is arriving next week and that it will be published on YouTube. 

Watch the World Premiere of the Star Wars Outlaws Story Trailer. Join us at 9AM PST / 6PM CET.

— Star Wars Outlaws (@StarWarsOutlaws) April 5, 2024

This story trailer is our next taste of Star Wars Outlaws, an open-world adventure set between Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. It was announced during an Xbox Games Showcase last June and further showcased with gameplay at a Ubisoft Forward the same month. You can read more about the game in our preview of it here, and you can read this exclusive interview with the game’s narrative director about what to expect. 

Star Wars Outlaws is due out sometime this year on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. 

Are you excited for Star Wars Outlaws? Let us know in the comments below!

[merthurglompfest]

Title: the excitement of a thousand (or the soothing of your voice) By: regicsillagok / @our-stars-graveside Gift for: Raphale  / @rapha-reads Rating: General Word Count: 6,162 words Warning(s): Brief mention of death Creator Notes: hope you like this raphale!! i feel like i should mention that all the names in this are 100% references and possibly the only detail that i know is backed up xD apologies for incredibly long sentences, too-frequent ellipsis, and anything that isn’t accurate. my excuse is sorcery mwah <3 Summary: From Raphale’s Merthur Glompfest prompt:

Modern AU - Arthur runs away from home after college, refusing to conform to his father's plans. Penniless, homeless and friendless, he ends up in an antique bookshop managed by Gaius, where he meets Merlin. Arthur is on the run from his father who's sent all the cops in the country after him. Merlin is hiding from society because of his magic and who his father was (Uther's enemy? IRA activist? Last of the Dragonlords? Up to you). Despite hiding who they are, they immediately hit it and start falling for each other. Can be Modern with Magic or not.

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/45964738

[lifesarchive]

BELOVED by TONI MORRISON (REVIEW)

quickly: a self-emancipated woman is tormented by her past long after she’s made it to freedom (an ex-slave who has slavery living inside of her / children born in the shadow of trauma / a grandmother who can smell the future on the wind / jealous daughters who speak their minds / a house haunted by the dead / stolen milk and blessed berries / blood magic / the deep dark evil of slavery)

what a wild, lush, furious nightmare of a story. this is the story of Sethe, how she escaped slavery, and how she ended up in a house haunted by the ghost of a dead child. this is truly a southern gothic horror tale in every sense. there are psychological and physical traumas, some obtained from slavery and its perpetrators, some obtained from attempts at resisting slavery. there is magic, not the stereotypical “voodoo/hoodoo”, but something older, darker, and less defined. there’s injustice, southern lands, hard times, etc. at first, toni’s writing is like a dense forest, but once you find your footpath, the journey will carry you forward. 

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

more thoughts: SPOILERS!

Some personal context… I’ve been on the hunt for truly thrilling stories that take my breath away and Toni Morrison’s work did more than that. This read was preceded by “The Haunting of Hill House” by Shirley Jackson. I chose it based on it being a classic of gothic horror, a sub-genre I love. I was disappointed by its lack of thrill, passion, or anything, other than Eleanor’s unraveling. 

Enter Toni Morrison. This is my first read by the late and great author, and it couldn’t have been any more perfect of an introduction for me. I’ll never hear “southern gothic” without thinking of BELOVED, which should be the staple of the genre (sorry, not sorry, Shirley J.). Rarely have I heard this work referred to as such. (If I had, I probably would’ve read it earlier.) I almost feel ‘honored’ to have read this book, though I’m not sure why. Maybe something to do with this incredible black writer penning a story so beautifully terrifying that people forget to call it ‘horror’. Maybe because she met and exceeded what I expected, exceeded what popular culture has had me to expect, and embodied that uniqueness that comes with being called Great.

We begin in a mess of spite and timelines. A blurred view of the world, and everyone in it. From 124, the home at the center of the story, we meet Sethe and the rest of her family who are, and are not there. We are given a brief survey of all that has occurred or been endured, from people running away to a haunting being born from the death of a child. Then, Paul D, a man she hasn’t seen in years, has found his way to her.

Time is layered in this story… at times in the present, at times in the past, sometimes glimpsing the future. Morrison moves through lives and their perspectives in a God-like fashion, without warning, but with the knowledge of all things that have occurred or will come. The way she gives details and expounds on storylines can be unsettling, at first, like coming into a dense and thick forest. Without some studying of what lies before you, it can be easy to get lost. She is a writer who gives glimpses of things before unveiling a fuller truth that towers and shadows and swallows. Sometimes these glimpses of the plot can seem like you missed something, but, artfully, the revelations in future pages have a way of connecting past pages, to form a continuous story.

From behind the eyes of Sethe, her daughter Denver, and Paul D (Sethes old friend and new lover), we come to know the history of Sweet Home (the plantation the family is from) and the history of the people who left it. Through their memories and inner reflections, they relay all we need to know about who they are and why. 

In short, they belonged to “good” white people, but things changed when their owner died and others came in to rule over them. Going from being treated like dogs, to being treated like less than that, prompted them to head to freedom. Most of the core trauma of this story is sourced in that transitional period between their old master passing away and them becoming their own masters out of desperation and survival.

Throughout this story, poetically, are piercing observations, questions, and philosophical dilemmas about slavery and the white supremacy and capitalism supporting it. Toni illustrates quite sharply how monstrous this process of dehumanization is, and how profoundly evil these acts of violence were. So evil in fact, it seemed to spread throughout the entire white race, able to make itself disappear and become known at any time, even in the most “good” of whites. It is an evil so big it seems impossible to have existed (and still exist). Like its appearance should have ended the world, like some demonic apocalyptic revelation from The Bible. (A Bible that has not served the slaves well, and Toni captures this black theological resentment perfectly.)

One of the most disheartening moments is when Grandma Suggs, renowned backwoods high priestess, forgoes her ‘gift’ of preaching. After living a tormented life and finally making it to a place where she is hers, she was collapsed by the intrusion of white men into her seemingly sanctified space. Their privileged appearance and sudden disruption cause Grandma Suggs to question all of existence, finally realizing, that there is no promised land. There are no sacred spaces for them. Maybe no God for them either. She forgoes preaching and spends the rest of what little time she has, thinking about colors. Something she never had time to do as a slave. When asked if she was “punishing God” by not preaching his word, she responds, “Not like He punish me”. 

Sethe is troubled by the child that she killed, a child that has haunted 124 since she died. Paul D is able to rid the house of the spirit, but that only leads to it manifesting in physical form… a girl named Beloved. She appears out of the river one day, sick and dying, and Sethe nurses her back to life. After gaining strength, Beloved proceeds to wreak havoc on relationships and resources. It takes Denver, Sethe’s daughter, to gather the community to rid the house of Beloved, the beautiful demon born of crimes against the flesh. 

That is the story. And I am reducing it to fumes for the point of this commentary, but it is such a rich reading I’m not really spoiling anything. This brief summarization and my recounting of a fraction of my reflections is pale compared to the full color of Morrison’s masterpiece. 

Also, I must say, the Everyman’s Library binding is BEAUTIFUL and comes with useful chronologies and a short biography of the author—and it is well bound! So much better than the penguin hardcovers I see in the library sometimes, which are often too tightly sewn. Just a random note. 

And again, I am HONORED to have read such a masterful work of horror and to have experienced this world built by Toni Morrison’s words. There’s an Everyman’s Library hardcover Song of Solomon, so maybe I’ll read that soon.

[melancholiaenthroned]

look at all the books i read last year^_^

[readingoals]

Absolutely hated this book. It just wasn't good. Full thoughts under the cut for length.

I didn't like any of the characters, even the ones I assume I was meant to. I understand the MC was a therapist but she felt less like a person and more like a way for the author to info dump about all the therapy terms he knows. She just wanders around tripping over clues (and manhandling evidence!!) and ruining the flow with paragraphs of psych bullshit. Also every man that met her seemed to be in love with her which really detracts from what little character she has. It felt like another male writer trying to write a ~strong female character~ and instead writing a caricature of a woman they personally want to fuck.

And she wasn't the only one. None of the characters were particularly well written or believable. In fact nothing in this book was well written. References to classic literature and greek mythology felt shoe horned in which is an incredible feat when they were mentioned on like every page. And don't get me started on the big reveal. The motive is ridiculous and the whole murder plot really made no sense. And thats like the number one thing a mystery/thriller novel should get right!! It really felt like the author decided to add a ~twist~ just to shock the audience with little to no thought about whether or not it actually made sense.

Overall just a pretty weak attempt at a thriller. Whole subplots just fizzle out, the pacing is frustratingly slow for most of it and the characters are entirely forgettable. Honestly it's been about a month since I read it and most of what I remember is just how frustrating it was to read. It probably would have been smarter to DNF it but I had hopes that the final reveal would make it all worth while. Unfortunately it just made it more of a disappointment.

[aroaessidhe]

2023 reads // twitter thread  

Lucha of the Night Forest

YA fantasy about a girl struggling to survive with her sister in a land overtaken by a forgetting drug, who makes a deal with a forest god to escape

spooky fungi magic, forest, sisters, lesbian MC

[sophiecountsclouds]

Ranking My 5 Star Reads from 2023 (so far)

ranking my 5 star reads from 2023 (so far) -

Hello! In taking a photo for my bookstagram account the other day, I realised that in this just-past-midway point of the year, I’ve read 10 books that I’ve rated 5 stars and I thought it would be fun to rank them. I’m actually pleasantly surprised with how broad they are in genre and how they’re all rated the same but for very different reasons. I’m not very good at speaking concisely about…