#I'm in the middle of reading mistborn

[cosmerelists]

The Other Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse But Make It Cosmere

As requested by @round-hatches-are-terrifying. :)

In the Good Omens novel, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (War, Famine, Pollution, and Death), who are bikers, are followed by four other biker dudes who chose their own names to be, uh, equally ominous:

Grievous Bodily Harm, Cruelty to Animals, Really Cool People, and Treading In Dogshit (formerly All Foreigners Especially The French, formerly Things Not Working Properly Even After You’ve Given Them A Good Thumping, never actually No Alcohol Lager, briefly Embarrassing Personal Problems, and finally People Covered in Fish)

So let's say we had other Horsemen on various Cosmere planets. What would they be named?

1. Roshar (Stormlight Archive)

The Main Horsemen: War, Famine, Desolation, and Death

The Other Horsemen: Man-Eating Giant Crabs, Running Out Of Stormlight Right In The Middle of the Weeping, Ill-Conceived Boons, and Reified Gender Norms (formerly Men Reading, formerly Predicting the Future But Not Like Storm Wardens Do Because That's Just Math Basically, briefly just Predicting the Future)

2. Scadrial (Era 1) (Mistborn)

The Main Horsemen: Famine, Pestilence, Ash, and Death

The Other Horsemen: Child Abuse, Dangerous Piercings, Trying to Keep Literally Anything Clean, and Getting Hit in The Head With A Coin Like Every Night Because of Those Blasted Mistborn Flying About Everywhere

3. Scadrial (Era 2) (Mistborn)

The Main Horsemen: War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death

The Other Horsemen: Social Unrest, Rich Bastards, ACAB, and Getting Hit in The Head With A Coin Like Every Night Because of Those Blasted Coinshots Flying About Everywhere

4. Nalthis (Warbreaker)

The Main Horsemen: War, Famine, Death, and Second Death

The Other Horsemen: Undead Squirrel Attacks, Being Out of Breath, The Haunting Realization that the Gods Who Live Among Us Are Actually Pretty Daft, and All Foreigners But Especially the Idrians

5. Threnody (Shadows for Silence)

The Main Horsemen: Fire, Blood, Running, and Death

The Other Horsemen: Fortfolk-Acting-Too-Big-For-Their-Britches, Withering-That-Does-Not-Kill-You-But-Does-Make-Life-Just-That-Much-Harder-Forever, Ghost-Grandmother, and Adonalsium-May-Remember-Our-Plight-Eventually-But-For-Now-It-Is-Pretty-Bleak-Out-Here-Guys

6. Komashi (Yumi and the Nightmare Painter)

The Main Horsemen: Nightmares, Famine, Pestilence, and Death

The Other Horsemen: Artist's Block, Being Straight on a Planet Where Even the Lighting is Bisexual, AI Art, and A Stiff Breeze Coming At Exactly The Wrong Time Noooo My Rock Stacks

7. First of the Sun (Sixth of Dusk)

The Main Horsemen: Bad Death, Worst Death, Quick Death, and Slow Death

The Other Horsemen: Mainlanders, Mainlander Capitalism, Kids These Days, and Suspicious Invaders (?) From Outer Space

8. Sel (Elantris)

The Main Horsemen: War, Famine, the Shaod, and Death

The Other Horsemen: Aggressive Proselytizers, Stubbing your Toe, People Who Do Not Accept The Word of Shu-Dereth And So Seal For Themselves Their Own Inevitable Doom, and I'm With The First Guy Who Said Proselytizers (formerly People Covered in Slime)

[avidabsurdist]

Every time a new Brandon Sanderson book is released everyone updates their suggested reading order but all you need is the patience to be uninformed and enjoy the book!

But depending on your preference the best story to start with will be different.

If you want a crash course on the basics of The Cosmere's magic physics (Aka Investiture) so you can hypothesize on how other magic works I suggest the short story "The Emperor's Soul" as a starting point, it gives a solid overview of Realmic theory and covers Identity (a rather difficult idea to communicate) very effectively. (this is the start of the PhD route)

If you want something that's more like a traditional fairy tale as an intro I suggest Tress Of the Emerald Sea, which doesn't require a PhD in the shattering to understand. (though if you're going the PhD route I suggest reading this one later because if you're questioning the magic it's a far more confusing one)

Warbreaker is a good middle ground, if you're going the PhD route I suggest this second (it covers Intention which "The Emperor's Soul" doesn't), It's not a bad starting place either, it was my first book in The Cosmere and it's up for free on The Sand-Man's website. It's also all-around an excellent book.

I'm going to be (a tad) controversial and say I enjoy Elantris, it's certainly not Brando-Sando's best work but it was his first, and it's not a bad book to start with! just keep in mind that many of the issues in the book are things he improves on in later books.

Mistborn is two (soon to be 3) series, we distinguish them by 'Era' and they should be read in order if you want to make sense of what's going on.

Mistborn Era 1 (3 books) is also an excellent place to start, it's a YA-style series so you follow a teenager in a Post-(more like perpetual)-Apocalypse, but it's also an Epic high fantasy so if you like those and don't mind romance It's a good one.

"Mistborn Secret History": read this after Mistborn Era 1 if you're going the PHD route read anytime before The Lost Metal (Era 2 Book 4) for everyone else. (PhD track: if you want the most out of it I suggest also reading White Sand first)

Mistborn Era 2 (4 books) is a high fantasy Western set in the same world much later in time, 10/10 no notes, it's excellent.

The Stormlight Archive, TheBigOne™ It is planned to be a 10-book series with accompanying Novellas. I suggest reading in chronological order including the short stories, published so far that would be:

The Way of Kings

Words of Radiance

"Edgedancer" (novella)

Oathbringer

"Dawnshard" (novella)

Rhythm of War

Start with this series if you thirst for sprawling high-fantasy novels with page counts that would make grown men weep (the Audiobook for RoW was like 48 hours long)

The entirety of Arcanum Unbounded is not required reading, (unless you're on the PhD track) but it contains both "The Emperor's Soul" and "Edgedancer", you should probably read Elantris, Mistborn Era 1, Alloy Of Law (MB Era 2 Book 1), and Stormlight (up to Words of Radiance). If you enjoy Graphic Novels and dislike spoilers/rereading stuff when you haven't finished it yet I suggest skipping the White Sand excerpt.

White Sand is also not a terrible intro, it covers a theme in B-Sandy's work that isn't directly related to the cosmere but will give you a good insight into whether you'll like his work or not: the idea that skill is developed, not just inherent. if you're like me and dislike graphic novels GraphicAudio™ (actually a company not a joke) Has an Audio rendition that has some narrative differences from the Graphic novels (iirc at least one character is a different gender) But the Graphic novels also have a random boombox on a planet with no electricity so either should be fine.

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter is in a similar situation to Tress of The Emerald Sea except instead of a classic European Folktale Vibe it's got a Western Interpretation of Anime Vibe, ofc it's high fantasy like all Sandon Branderson's work so it's world is inspired by Japanese culture rather than just being Japanese.

The Sunlit Man read Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell (Arcanum Unbounded), and at least Oathbringer (Stormlight Archive 3) before this one, unless you like being thrown into the deep end, Mistborn Era 1 & 2 would also help.

There are other routes than Ph.D., there's also the Galactic Politics route, The Secret Society route, The Worldhopper Watcher route, The Ancient History route (Aka The Shattering route) ect

if you want specific reading route recs just tell me what you're looking for I can help!

[tildeathiwillwrite]

Tag Game: Writeblr Interview

Thanks to @cowboybrunch for the tag, this looks fun!

Long post incoming.

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Short stories, novels, or poems?

I find I end up with novelette/novella-length stories more often than not. I've written plenty of one-shots and short stories for prompt events, and I like doing that especially when I'm doing fanfiction or nameless characters. When I write with ocs though I tend to stretch stuff out and what had originally started as a one-shot or short story ends up becoming a novella.

Don't get me wrong I have plenty of WIPs planned out to be novels (like Trials of the Six), but the first drafts of The Hunter, the Myth and the Cure and The Legend of Orian Goldeneye were both novella-length and will probably stay that way or end up being longer. My Hero x Villain series ended up being a novelette, so basically I can't plan for how long a story's gonna be lol.

I've written a little bit of poetry (heck, I wrote one for The Legend of Orian Goldeneye that may or may not get cut), but it's not my favorite thing to write because I way overthink things. But when I do compose poetry I usually do limericks.

What genre do you prefer reading?

Fantasy, no contest. And within fantasy, usually High Fantasy with a lightcore or hopecore focus. I read some gritty stuff, but I find they tend to have elements I don't really like more than the ones I do.

Are you a planner or a write as I go kind of person?

Both? I like having an idea of where the story's gonna go, and I plan that out either before writing or while writing, so I don't get stuck. But it's really loose and gives plenty of room for the characters to go feral. I'm in the middle, but I lean more panster than plotter.

What music do you listen to while writing?

Soundtracks, usually from videogames or movies. I really should start organizing my two writing playlists by vibes other than calming music and boss fight-type, but I'm pretty happy with how I have it now. I also have some seasonal aesthetic playlists which match the vibe of the current weather.

Field Music Playlist (calming background soundtracks)

Boss Fight Playlist (pump-up, more exciting soundtracks)

Seasonal Aesthetics: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter

Favorite books/movies?

Oh goodness.

Uhhhh. UHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

My knee-jerk answer for favorite movie is and always will be The Princess Bride. But I also really like Back to the Future, The Martian, and Clue.

With books I tend to separate them into categories. For fantasy I would say it's a tie between Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, The Death Gate Cycle: Hand of Chaos by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson, and Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynn Jones.

For sci-fi it's The Martian by Andy Weir, followed closely by Skyward by Brandon Sanderson.

My favorite classic is Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, followed by Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin.

And for nonfiction I like Stuck by Justina Van Manen, The Healing Imperative by Mike Aquilina, and Beautiful Holiness by Kathleen Beckman.

And of course the Holy Bible and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Any current WIPs?

This post is getting long enough already, I talk about my WIPs here and they're all linked in my pinned post in one way or another.

Create a character description of yourself:

Quiet, and keeps to herself. Never without a book, never without a rosary. Her brown hair is long, reaching nearly past her waist, and often kept up in a ponytail or a braid. She dresses mostly in dark colors, black jeans or skirt and a shirt or blouse that is black, navy, or gray, but occasionally wears a bright shirt. She wears little to no makeup unless she feels like being extra fancy. She always has a ring on her right hand, and usually a bracelet that matches her outfit, both of which she fiddles with. Her friends are few but she loves them dearly, and they are often on her mind. Though she may be quiet most of the time, she never hesitates to speak up for what she believes in.

Do you like incorporating actual people you know into your writing?

Eh... not really. I know my own thoughts and experiences much better than those around me and I wouldn't wish a lot of the stuff I do to my characters on the people I know so it just feels kinda weird to me.

Are you kill happy with your characters?

I find I like to bring my characters to the brink of death and back again rather than just killing them unless I want to write about grief. I'm more kill happy with immortal characters for the same reason.

Coffee or Tea while writing?

Usually just water, but if I can get my favorite iced coffee drink than I'd be happy to drink that.

Slow or fast writer?

It varies depending on the amount of research I have to do in a scene, but I think I write pretty fast. I haven't measured my words-per-minute in a while but it was pretty good if I recall correctly.

If you were in a fantasy world, what would you be?

I'd love to be a guide of some kind, part of the group enough that I won't get killed off. I'm pretty good with navigation and maps, and I'd like to have powers (minor ones, not overpowered) but that would depend on the fantasy world.

Most fav book cliche:

Scoundrel with a heart of gold. I eat that up like a starving woman. Han Solo, Mat Cauthon, Ifan Ben-Medz, etc. Draven Cozenson, Diana Ozborne and Korfel Domin are two oc examples.

Least favorite cliche:

Love triangles. Frustrates me to no end, especially how most of them are resolved and how they really only seem to drive wedges in the fandoms (Keeper of the Lost Cities fandom, I'm looking at you.) I have no love triangles in my stories and I never will. I have minimal romance anyway but in the two I got there is no competition.

Favorite scene to write?

*evil grin* Love writing the whump or hurt/comfort scenes, all my ocs get whumped in some form or another, and I have fun every single time.

Reason for writing?

Creative expression, love for my ocs, with a dash of "I maked these :D"

In all seriousness, it's a hobby that I love. It sparks joy and it's a craft that I continuously improve upon and the more I write the better I get at writing. I also occasionally fantasize about publishing one day and my books having fandoms of their own. Maybe that will happen someday.

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This was fun! Tagging @fourwingedwriter @phoenixradiant @thewritingautisticat @writingphoenix @somethingclevermahogony

@agirlandherquill @happypup-kitcat24 @imsoveryveryconfusedatlife @geode-crystal @pluttskutt and open tag! :D

Blank list under the cut:

Short stories, novels, or poems?

What genre do you prefer reading?

Are you a planner or a write as I go kind of person?

What music do you listen to while writing?

Favorite books/movies?

Any current WIPs?

Create a character description of yourself:

Do you like incorporating actual people you know into your writing?

Are you kill happy with your characters?

Coffee or Tea while writing?

Slow or fast writer?

If you were in a fantasy world, what would you be?

Most fav book cliche:

Least favorite cliche:

Favorite scene to write?

Reason for writing?

[riverbeatsaber]

Happy Mistborn Fortnite Friday!

ID, more pictures, and rambling under the cut

[Image ID: a picture of an embroidery project on a white fabric background. Mistborn is embroidered with copper and silver floss on the top, Fortnite with black floss in the middle, and Friday with light pink and blue floss on the bottom. There are curls of mist embroidered in light blue floss around the top and bottom.]

Here's how it looks on the back:

Here's the pattern I made, based on the original meme by @celestialkindliness / @dekartas:

And here it is displayed on the wall of my room, right next to my second embroidery project:

Now. Time for rambling>:)

This took about 7 months to make, from asking permission to the very last stitches. However, I had to adjust my initial plan A Lot to make it actually work, which explains the long time. For example, my first idea was to use black fabric for the background, but my options for that were a fabric that was way too flimsy (the marking pencil warped it) and something I realized much later was canvas- too thick. I probably could have gone to the fabric store and gotten other black fabric, but on top of that, I had a lot of trouble marking the pattern on it, so I eventually realized. Wait a minute. I can just use my regular white fabric. That would be much easier.

I also initially wanted to use a 6 inch hoop, which made the satin stitches much too big. The general maximum for the length of a satin stitch is 1cm, not 1in, so I adjusted the pattern to a much more sensible 4 inch diameter. I still worked it on a 6 inch hoop, though, because it had extra room.

The next big obstacle was that I wanted to use herringbone stitch for Mistborn somehow. After a bit, I realized it wouldn't really fit the shapes there, but I was like nooo... I have to use all these different stitches or else it won't be Good or Original... wait a minute that's not true lol. I also changed it from putting 1 stand each of 4 colors in the needle (2 copper, 2 silver) to using the silvers for the outside and the coppers for the inside, which looked better and wasn't too many strands (which might have warped the fabric).

The final adjustment was on Fortnite. I had made the outline in the middle of the project, using backstitch. One option was just to keep it as an outline. The other option was to use satin stitch to fill it in. Usually with satin stitch, if you have an "outline" it actually goes inside the satin stitch, to make it pop out more. I also kinda wanted something actually outside the satin stitch, though, because otherwise it can be pretty jagged, but that might have made the letters too big... So, about halfway through the F, I realized I could end my stitches in the middle of my outline for the best of both worlds! It also somehow made the fabric bunch up much less, which meant it was a lot less stressful to stitch.

So, there ya go, my epic tale of embroidery frustration and innovation. I used 2 strands of:

Light blue (DMC 800) with a split backstitch for the swirls of mist

The same light blue and pink (DMC 894) with a whipped backstitch for Friday

Plain black (DMC 310) for the satin stitch on Fortnite

1 strand each of light silver (DMC 168) and very light silver (DMC 762) with backstitch for the outline of Mistborn

1 strand each of orangey copper (DMC 301) and red copper (DMC 920) for the inside of Mistborn- I dunno what stitch I used really, I just did whatever there.

Finally, if you've somehow read this far, (1) i'm impressed, (2) you can check out my other embroidery if you want:]

[llycaons]

SO. I've hit 14 books this year!! I do have a goodreads but it's kind of public so it's mutuals-only (feel free to ask!). but here's my list so far

babel by r.f. kuang

kindred by octavia butler

the goblin emperor by katherine addison

horse by geraldine brooks

spinning silver by naomi novik

kitchen by banana yoshimoto

deep as the sky, red as the sea by rita chang-eppig

the buried giant by kazuo ishiguro

annihilation by jeff vandermeer

the order of the pure moon reflected on water by zen cho

the mask of mirrors by m.a. carrick

black water sister by zen cho

the witch's heart by genevieve gornichec

mexican gothic by silvio moreno-garcia

I also attempted, but gave up on

the night tiger by yangsze choo (the stepsibling romance...I couldn't)

the tiger's wife by téa obreht (just a bit slow - may return to it)

song of the huntress by lucy holland (I just hated one of the leads so much 😭 my blood pressure skyrocketed every time it was her chapter)

these violent delights by chloe gong (WOW this book is for 15 year olds and also pretty pretentious and stupid to boot)

black sun by rebecca roanhorse (it did not grab me)

the black tides of heaven by neon yang (frankly this was a bad book)

silver in the wood by emily tesh (shut UPPPPP white rich british man!!!!!)

lucha of the night forest by tehlor kay mejia (very juvenile and an embarassingly heavy-handed 'drugs are evil' moral right off the bat. also just not very well written)

my reading map as of now

borrowed

ancillary justice - scifi isn't my usual genre but I was really intrigued by the sample I'd read, and I loved the raven tower by the same author. audiobook

sistersong - I had such a bad time trying to read song of the huntress I'm wary about this one but I do still want to try it. ebook

holds - physical books

gods of jade and shadow - I don't know much about this one but I do love a more modern take on folktales and I don't know much about mexican mythology

snow crash - I'll finish this eventually lol. another scifi

pachinko - sampled this ages ago. will it be good? idk. I was absorbed

salt fish girl - REALLY looking forward to this one. it says zero copies available so perhaps I will need to buy it 😭

warbreaker - a podcaster I listen to gave a glowing review and I've been meaning to get into brando sando for ages

lolita - lower on my priority list. I'd like to listen to the audiobook but maybe that would be harder. the only available copy is in spanish anyway

holds - audiobooks

warbreaker - I'll takewhatever arrives first. the waitlist is fucking. months long

pachinko - ditto. these are both 20+ hour audiobooks so maybe a physical book would be less tiring. maybe

wuthering heights - I want to know what everyone is talking about when they rave about their toxic doomed love

the final empire (mistborn #1) - another sanderson offering

the watchmaker of filigree street - I have been on the waitlist for so long for this one...

the water outlaws - please be good please please please

giovanni's room - long waitlist for this one too!!

on my list but not in my library

when a fox is a thousand - I want to read this one so bad I feel SICK. libby PLEASEEEE

piranesi - honestly this did not captivate me but it's so short. why not

sorcerer to the crown - only the second book of this series was available, oddly enough. is the second one so freestanding? is it so much better? I'd like to read them in order. lower on my list since it was a new addition

this is like 16 books and some of them are VERY long so I doubt I'll get to this entire list by the end of the year but it's so satisfying to look back and see how much reading I've done 😊 I've done more this year than I have in like, a decade and it's been so wonderful getting back into another long-beloved form of storytelling even if I don't get as obsessed with it as I used to in hs and middle school

[pleas3pretendimnothere]

May 2024

Only read two books this month, but one of them was the size of three books so... Let's talk about them!

The Way of Kings

By Brandon Sanderson - I'd been putting off this one for a long time, in part because the book is nearly 1,300 pages. I am a Brandon Sanderson fan (I've read 7 other books by the man), and I heard this was his magnum opus. I should have set lower expectations.

I still very much enjoyed Kings. I've read too many bad books to think this was actually bad. It's just...fine! Certainly not the huge, exciting fantasy epic everyone made it out to be. Online hype had me expecting Elden Ring, but all I got was Final Fantasy. We all like Final Fantasy, but by no means is it a modern feat of the genre!

A million people have reviewed this book, and most criticisms I've read are entirely valid. The highlight of Kings is Kaladin's story. Bridge Four's struggle is frightening and endearing--you want to read those parts because it really does feel like characters' lives are stake. That's good! But then, you don't really care about Kaladin when he was eight--please, get back to Bridge Four. Nor do you want to read about Dalinar, a flat, Aragorn-esque mirror of a dozen other characters Sanderson has already written. Shallan, our emotional female lead, is...fine. She's fine. All in all, it's tough to stick around for 1,300 pages with these plain, stereotypical, morally-impervious characters leading the way.

Nonetheless, there's intrigue in the world that kept me reading all the way to the end. Kaladin's story is strange and fantastical, and there's enough mystery peppered into Dalinar and Shallan's chapters to keep my attention. If only the book were a tight, 700 pages, which, I think Sanderson could have easily managed.

I could write about my qualms with this book for ages, but I think it comes down to this. Read Kings if you haven't read anything else by Sanderson--having already read Mistborn, Warbreaker, and Elantris, Kings brings nothing unique to Sanderson's cosmere. Read if you prefer worldbuilding to character work. Read if you want to finally know what the big friggin deal is! But this book isn't a masterpiece by any means. Just RENT IT!

Planesrunner

By Ian McDonald - Where Kings is often fine, Planesrunner is completely and totally fine. This is the definition of middle-of-the-pack. I picked this one up a million years ago from a used bookstore, and sadly, it's been sitting on my shelf all this time for no good reason. Super bad books are fun. Super good books are delightful. Average books bring nothing to the table.

I'm so sorry, Ian. The book's premise rocks. A London kid discovers his kidnapped father has left him a map that allows him to hop universes--a map that is heavily sought after by more sinister forces. Sounds fun, right? That's why I bought it!

And there was a lot to like about Planesrunner, but by the end, I just didn't care. The main character is a perfect, big-brained, Artemis Fowl archetype who believes in goodness and justice. Alternate-universe London is weird, colorful, and evocative of Lanthimos' Barcelona in Poor Things, but I never truly felt like our characters were in danger here. The main character was just too smart to ever be threatened. He made plans with his gang of witty Mortal Engines-like airship crew, and they always worked out brilliantly! When he ultimately succeeds at the book's end--oh no! One thing went wrong, and now we have to have a sequel! Having just read Catherine Fisher's Obsidian Mirror, which has a very similar plot of using a McGuffin to travel times/dimensions in search of a lost father, I would recommend Fisher's books instead. The main character's stubbornness and anger make him interesting, and you want him to succeed--or fail, even! You won't find any intrigue like that in Planesrunner.

This book is incredibly unspecial. Read Fisher's Obsidian Mirror saga or Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines series instead. This one, just SKIP IT!

[theinquisitxor]

November 2023 Reading Wrap Up

I read a total of 9 books in November, which was a better reading month than I've had in a while. I also found some new favorites and new releases this month. My workload for classes was much lighter, and I had significant more reading time. I read 7 physical books and 2 audiobooks.

1.Shadows of Self (Mistborn 5) by Brandon Sanderson, 3/5 stars. Another crime mystery set in Elendel. I read this one entirely as a physical copy, but I probably would have enjoyed the audiobook more. I wasn’t as engaged in the plot as much, and it felt a bit like a ‘filler’ book to me. Crime thriller high fantasy

2.The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher, 4/5 stars. This was a creepy portal fantasy horror with interdimensional monsters and a museum of curiosities. A good spooky season read, and a book that I couldn't put down. I stayed up past 2am to read it. Horror, portal fantasy

3.The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater, 5/5 stars. My annual reread of this book starting every November 1st. I listened to this on audio, and I made November cakes in honor of my tradition.

4.Starling House by Alix E Harrow, 5/5 stars. This book was everything I enjoy in stories, and is about a struggling Appalachian town, siblings trying to survive, a sentient house, tragic dark fairy tales, gothic horror, and a beauty & the beast retelling. The pace of this book is slow, and I would consider it a deeply character driven story. Contemporary fantasy.

5.Steelstriker (Skyhunter 2) by Marie Lu, 3.5/5 stars. This is a post apocalyptic dystopian ya fantasy that touches on real world events, and certainly feels relevant to some events that have happened over the past few years. This is a fast paced, action packed duology that kept me hooked and wanting to turn the pages. Sci-fi/fantasy

6.Leviathan Falls (The Expanse 9) by James S.A. Corey, 5/5 stars. I've been reading the Expanse books for three years now, and I started Leviathan Wakes in Jan 2021. This really built up to a huge finale and gave a satisfying ending, I don't think I could have asked for better. The last ~20 pages of this were spot on. I'm very glad I read this series, even if it took me several years. Science Fiction Space Opera.

7.The Bands of Mourning (Mistborn 6) by Brandon Sanderson, 4/5 stars. Very entertaining and enjoyable, reading this series on audio is 1000% the best way for me to consume these books. This book had a lot of cool moments, parts that made me go “what?!” and some neat new cosmere/worldbuilding things in it. Crime thriller high fantasy

8.Murtagh by Christopher Paolini, 3/5 stars. Murtagh was a decently good book. Murtagh is my favorite character of the Inheritance Cycle, and I was looking forward to reading this. I enjoyed most of this book, although I thought it could have been trimmed down, and there was one section and significant trope that I did not enjoy, which affected how I felt about this book. High Fantasy.

9. Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher, 5/5 stars. This novella was exactly my type of fairy tale and brand of faeries. I also enjoyed a good representation of the middle ages, and T. Kingfisher's excellent writing. This was such a sweet story (even though it has darker moments), and I'm glad I decided to pick this up. Fantasy/fairy tale

That's it for November! See my December tbr below

December tbr:

The Lost Metal (Mistborn 7) audiobook

A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows (reread)

All the Hidden Paths by Foz Meadows

Howl's Moving Castle by DWJ (reread)

Castle in the Air by DWJ

House of Many Ways by DWJ

The Damar duology (The Blude Sword and The Hero and the Crown) by Robin McKinley

A Winter's Promise by Christbelle Dabos

Realm Breaker by Victoria Aveyard

Nonfiction on audio

[anoriabard]

my girlfriend is a huge fantasy reader and im really not , but I do wanna give her some fantasy books for her birthday. Might be annoying atp but can you rec some Sanderson books since you love all of his books. Sorry im helpless. Also thank you

sure! Sanderson books are really good, but they're on the longer side. also, almost all of his sagas are interconnected somehow because they are set in planets in the same universe, so theres always an overarching plot going on that's a little bit buried/hinted at in every book. however, she can read any saga/trilogy on their own and still understand the plot of those specific books. my absolute favorite has been the stormlight archives so far, the way of kings is book one. it can be a little confusing at the start cause the world is very dense and there is a lot to learn in the first chapters, but it is something I also had to do having read all of his previous books. otherwise, my very first Sanderson book was mistborn book 1, the final empire, which coincidentally, is also the book everyone recommends reading if one wants to either start reading all of Sanderson's cosmere books or just want a taste of Sanderson's writing. both sagas are solid 5 stars for me, with SA being a little bit above cause I'm a sucker for one of the protagonists lol.

SA is more epic fantasy, with more traditional elements, there's a dude that's really good with a spear, a woman with magic, an older general dude with visions, another guy who's got a massive sword and isn't afraid to use it.... there's huge monsters, an hostile environment, spirits granting special powers to chosen ones, a mystery regarding a possibly dead god.

mistborn is more dark, there's an evil empire with an evil emperor who's a demigod, a group of underground misfits/criminals who organize his murder to bring freedom to a minority, a mystery revolving said demi-God and his ascension to almost-God hood, a teenager girl with trust issues and a slightly unhinged middle aged man who is hell bent on gaining her trust. the magic system is very complex and very unique, can be a little hard to understand at first but once you get it it's easy to follow the flow.

otherwise, there are some cosmere books that are standalones and are only very loosely tied to the rest, meaning there will be mentions of stuff that one might not fully understand but that has no impact whatsoever on the story of that book (they're nice Easter eggs for the fans, speculation material, mostly). I'd suggest Yumi and the nightmare painter in this case, it's based on a sort of fantasy/alternative east asian society (mainly Korean and Japanese) so it IS fantasy but in a more urban fantasy sense. it is also less 'epic' and more lighthearted, since the protagonists are in their early twenties, or older teens, I can't recall rn.

it's your/her choice, really!

[thevegetablewhichnoonedaresname]

one of my favorite things to do on the train is to see what middle aged men are reading/watching on their commutes. Naruto. Mistborn. Tattered paperback copy of Wings of Fire. Wuthering Heights. Legend of Korra. Some doorstop-sized book about programming. One Piece (in Japanese, with a dustcover made out of a Whole Foods bag so no one finds out this 50-something balding man reads One Piece in Japanese on his commute, cause I guess you never get too old to be vulnerable to social pressure. except me, who found out because I'm nosy and spend my commute reading One Piece over businessmen's shoulders.)

[eddisfargo]

1, 3, 4?

Oh yay thank you!!

#1: How many books did you read this year? According to my Storygraph, which I'm pretty sure is updated, I have read 53 books this year! Of course, the year is not over yet! I did hit my original goal of 50, although I later changed it to 60, which I will not be hitting haha. I'm currently in the middle of 10, but 0 chance I'll be finishing them all in December.

#3: What were your top five books of the year? In no particular order, because it was hard enough to get them down to 5 at all:

Waybound (Cradle #12/12, by Will Wight)

Painted Devils (Little Thieves #2/3, by Margaret Owen)

Son of a Liche (The Dark Profit Saga #2/3, by J. Zachary Pike)

The Hero of Ages (Mistborn #3/3, by Brandon Sanderson)

Network Effect (Murderbot #5/7, by Martha Wells)

#4: Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?

Oh, GREAT question! I think literally everything I put above was a series I'd started in a previous year. Which makes sense because it usually takes me more than 1 book in a universe to get really invested. So this seems like a great time to include:

Jonathan Stroud, because I did start the Bartimaeus trilogy with Amulet of Samarkand, and I'm definitely planning to continue.

I also really enjoyed Beautiful, by Juliet Marillier, to the point where I'd like to read more of her stuff.

Ditto Jennifer Donnelly after Stepsister!

Thanks so much for asking, @knife-dad! This was fun!

[underthetree845]

ask game

😅✍🛒🛠💖👀🤗

Hello darling! Thank you for the ask (<3)

😅 (What's a story or scene you've created that you're a smidge embarrassed exists?)- God, um, I have this one x reader thing I wrote, and it was the very first piece of fanfiction I ever came up with. I wrote it in eighth grade (T-T). It wasn't super terrible and I didn't say "orbs" instead of eyes even once, I just kind of didn't know what I was doing. No planning took place, it was just a little forced, but I'm kind of proud of myself for just getting it out. It was an Armin/fem reader thing where they were going to a party dance thing and there was a confession. Kind of like a less evolved version of my recent masquerade fic, actually. I guess I enjoy writing dancing. I know I was young and everything but I'm so thankful that I hadn't figured out that I could actually post on fanfiction websites yet, I kept writing and thankfully (at least I believe/hope) that I got better. ✍ (Do you have a beta reader?)- I do not. I'm not against it or anything, I just don't. I do have this one friend that I send e v e r y t h i n g I write to though, albeit after it's published because she's not really an experienced writer (not that she's bad, just not the right person to ask for feedback). She's even read that dance fic I mentioned in the previous question.

🛒 (What are some common things you incorporate in your fics? Themes, feels, scenes, imagery, etc.)- Mutual pining is a big one for me 😭. Whether it's friends to lovers (which is what I mostly write), strangers to lovers, enemies, coworkers, etc. etc. there will always be mutual pining at some point. Even if one has had feelings for longer and I depict the growth of the other's feelings (which I find really interesting). Also- random- but I feel like hand holding/focus on hand touches is always a light thing I find myself wanting to incorporate. Not sure why.

🛠 (What tools/programs/apps do you use to write?)- I like to use google docs. It syncs to my phone too so I can write on the way to school or in public if I'm bored, stuff like that. Straight up writing in the tumblr drafts scares me, it's too easy to delete O.o. I oftentimes keep one doc for notes (if it's a longer fic) and write the fic separately. Fun fact though, when I started out, I was actually using the notes app on my phone. That didn't last long, but I still have my first few unpublished 8th grade fics on there.

💖 (What made you start writing?)- Okay so what made me REALIZE that I liked writing was my English classes in school. I've always been a bookworm- ever since I was a little kid- so it was amazing to me that I was able to create stories and show them to people in the same way real authors could. So middle school me loved doing creative writing assignments, I always went way over the wordcount, I loved reading books, etc. etc. Eventually I start getting into fandom, and through internet browsing, I come across fanfiction for the first time. I have to say, it kind of blew my mind. It's hard to explain that I never really stopped reading as much as I did in middle school and elementary school, I just read a lot more ~digital works by unpublished authors~ now (and I still do read books, I'm currently reading Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson and I love it). The rest I kind of already explained. I tried my hand at it for awhile in the notes app, eventually made an account, read, liked, etc., started posting, and the rest is history. :)

👀 (Tell me about an up and coming wip please!)- *Rubs hands together.* Okay, so: First of all, I'm ALMOST, almost I swear! I'm almost done with the next chapter for my ongoing fic. I'll probably post it sometime next weekend (I don't know if you follow it but there's that). I'm currently working on a Dazai oneshot with the pocky game (you know what that is, right?) And then someone sent me a jealous Chuuya request which I plan on completing after my other two wips since they won't take long.

🤗 (What advice would you give to new fanfic writers that are just getting started?)- EEEE! Okay okay!

Dear new writers, WE ARE SO HAPPY TO HAVE YOU HERE. Please don't be shy! Reach out, interact, share your work (if you want to) and there will be people who say hello back! Remember, don't compare yourself to other writers. We all started at some point. We all had a first post, we all make mistakes, we're all human. On that note, don't beat yourself up about making it perfect! Getting out a first draft is a great first step. It can include notes, errors, run on sentences, and that's fine because it's a draft! You do not have to be perfect, none of us are. Do not feel bad about not having the time to write, or even if you do have the time but lack the energy. Take care of yourself first always! Remember to have confidence in yourself. You created something that wasn't there before and put it out into the world and it's a story and it's yours and that is amazing in every aspect. Don't give up on yourself, take care of yourself, be kind to yourself, and you will slowly but surely find your place in the writers' community! <3

Thank you again for the asks! I hope all of you sleep well tonight. <33

[ceruleanfuckup]

I've been following you for a while but didn't realize you were a cosmere fan until I saw your tags on that gorgeous pink and black gem post!

What's your favorite cosmere story/book?

Okay this genuinely made me so happy. I love Brandon Sanderson! He's my favorite author. I adore how all of his books are individual stories but are all tied together in a higher level. Mistborn was my introduction to him. When I picked it up the first time, I didn't get more than halfway through. I picked it up later on a whim and started over and adored it. I have a mistcloak signed by him and everything. I really really really like the world building and magic system for Stormlight Archive but it's a very big series, all in all. Spren are so fucking cool and so are the Parshendi and the storms. I'm re-reading (or re-listening) to the series again and I'm in the middle of Oathbringer. That reference I made was a pretty damned specific one, all in all, so I'm proud of you for getting it. I think Lift is probably my favorite character in the Cosmere.

Thank you so much for the ask! This was delightful.

[underlined-fires]

WIP - The Final Empire rebind

I'm in the middle of rebinding this 10-year old Mistborn paperback, because it's falling apart. I own the UK edition as well, but I'm attached to this one, because it was a gift and it's the first Sanderson book I ever read.

The cover is only half done, but I like how it looks so far. This is also my first experiment with vinyl, thanks to the friend who let me borrow their cutting machine.

[thelustybraavosimaid]

My husband is gushing about the Mistborn trilogy and is telling me that the first book is the best book he had ever read.

I'm currently in the middle of reading the Seven Realms series and want to reread the Ellderet series. Is Mistborn worth reading? 👀

[thexgrayxlady]

What I Read in July 2024

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by S.A. Chakraborty - 4.50/5.00

If you could synthesize a book in a lab, just for me, this would be very close to the end result.

This was a fun, swashbuckling adventure, staring a retired pirate and her middle-aged crew. I love how despite being older, the characters are all still hot messes and absolute menaces to society. Amina, despite trying to reform for her kid, is still an adventurer at heart and you feel how much she loves being back on the sea, getting into misadventures. I was having too much of a good time to take too many notes.

Also Raksh sucks so much. He's just the worst. I love him. I want him to keep trying to serve Amina magical divorce papers forever.

It's really just held back by its ties to her previous series, which is mainly a personal grievance because I'm finding interconnected universes, especially when they don't need to be there, increasingly uninteresting. The part on the Peri's island drags a lot and they take a lot of the tension out of the ending.

The book has a fun, Raiders-esque feel to it. The plot unfolds at a pretty fast pace and I never got tired of the hijinks the characters got into getting the band back together.

Voyage of the Basilisk by Marie Brennan - 3.00/5.00

I'm always weirdly disappointed by these books. Like, they're not unenjoyable, but I always feel like there isn't enough focus on the speculative biology of dragons. The pacing for this book is a lot better than the previous entries, it gets right to business on Isabella's voyage around the world to study dragons. It's very accessible and easy to read. When the dragons are on page, they're really interesting. I really liked the illustrations. Unfortunately, I'm just not terribly interested in the politics of this world.

Wicked Beauty by Katee Robert - 3.50/5.00

I gave Katee Robert another chance and I liked this so much better than Electric Idol. Wicked Beauty made for a fun and easy beach read. The characters are less annoying, except for Hermes and Dionysus, who are, yet again, just so irritating. I hated every second they were on page. Fortunately, there was not very much of them.

I really liked Helen, Achilles, and Patroclus. They had a fun dynamic between them. I appreciate that while they come to care about each other, they have incompatible goals at first and they eventually work to figure out how to make their relationship work. They're all messy bisexual assholes and I loved watching them being messy bisexual assholes.

The ratio of porn to plot was a lot better in this book. The plot is kind of dumb, but it's entertainingly dumb and, let's be honest, you're not reading this series for the plot. There are some things from the plot that I would have changed, one of them is genuine and the other is just a personal preference. I wish that Helen defeating Paris had been from her POV and had more time and weight dedicated to it. It felt like the author was rushing to the end here. I also wish there had been more drama around Patroclus' injuries in the second trial, but that's just my preference. Hiding injuries is my catnip. It was dangled in front of me and then jerked away. Like the football. Jail for Katee Robert. Jail for 1000 years!

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson - 2.75/5.00

I see the appeal of these books. They do not appeal to me.

To it's credit, it is very accessible. Maybe a little too much so for my taste. I am, admittedly, a pretentious asshole. This could have been a fun book. At times, it is very close to being a very fun book. Unfortunately it settles for being the MCU of fantasy in both a complementary and a derogatory sense.

The language is very simple, to the point where the few times where complex vocabulary was used, it was somewhat jarring. I think I can count on one hand the number of times figurative language was used. Everything is very surface level, if it's what you're in the mood for, I could see it being very easy to turn your brain off and enjoy this and not have to worry too much about missing out on subtext.

That being said, everything is explained so often that you have to ask yourself if Sanderson thinks his readers are stupid. You just want to tell him that yeah, you got the point like three paragraphs ago, just get on with it. The over explanation of the, admittedly interesting, magic, the simple plot, and the beyond simple characters lead to the book feeling tensionless and bloated.

I actually like the magic system. When it wasn't being explained every other paragraph. Learning about Allomancy became very repetitive fast and I think at least half of it could have been kept in the appendix for a much tighter book. And because it was so overstated, I became kind of pedantic about it. The magic system doesn't even go as far as it could with its own logic. Why can they push and pull non-magnetic metals? Why is that road copper when it could be a much cooler magnetic metal? You could have a road made out of cobalt or neodymium or even nickel if you wanted something more mundane. Why is pewter the metal that makes you stronger when it's really soft and malleable in real life?

The world itself feels more like a themepark version of itself than an actual lived in world. I wouldn't care about this so much, but Sanderson gets so much praise for his worldbuilding and I do not get it. This is due at least in part to how flat and lifeless the characters are.

Vin is wildly inconsistent. She says over and over and over again that she doesn't trust people and she expects to betray her. Yet every time she encounters someone betraying someone else and she becomes surprised pikachu. Like, she should not need to have what noblemen do to Skaa women explained to her. She should not be shocked and appalled by it. She grew up with that threat constantly hanging over her head. She should not like or trust the nobility as much as she does, as quickly as she does. From the very beginning, she feels more like a sheltered noblewoman than a homeless orphan who makes a living by stealing.

I've very rarely encountered a character as annoying as Kelsier. You can practically see him tip his goddamn fedora and hear him say, "M'lady." I'm not sure a whole chapter goes by without one character or another extolling the virtues of the goddamn Mary Sue. He has one pretty good moment, when he returns to the Pits of Hathsin, and another when Sanderson has another all too brief flash of really good writing with Kelsier's death. The first is nearly immediately undercut when Kelsier single-handedly destroys the Pits in two pages and meets so little resistance in doing so that it feels like he could have done that whenever he wanted to. If he could so easily do this, why does the rest of the plan even need to happen?

Sazed's the best character and even then, he's still wish.com Alfred Pennyworth.

Because the main characters are so overpowered and the antagonists have very little presence on the page, plot has no tension. Everything just feels too easy for the characters. Everything more or less goes according to plan. And when it doesn't, it doesn't feel like they have to struggle to get things back on track. At the end, I had to ask myself what was the point of 2/3 of the book spent gathering the army when Vin and Kelsier were going to solo everything.

The tension is not helped by calling the oppressed underclass The Skaa.

The logbook bits at the start of the chapters are the most interesting part of the book because they're allowed to stand more or less on their own and they don't tell the reader everything that happens, then explain it in the narration, then have the characters discuss it again just to make sure that the reader knows what happened.

Admittedly, the last fifty pages are a blast, but you shouldn't have to slog through six hundred pages of repetitive, annoying, beige prose to get there. The Lord Ruler's entrance is really cool and creepy. What Vin does with the metal arrowheads is creative and frankly just nifty. Unfortunately, my copy had several misprinted pages right when it was getting good, so I couldn't really even enjoy that.

At the end of the day, it honestly feels like Sanderson would rather be writing manuals for a TTRPG than a novel.

Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse - 3.50/5.00

The cover is less criminally ugly than Fevered Star!

I want so badly to like this book more than I do. Unfortunately, it inherits too many problems from the previous book to land as effectively as it could. The author still has to scramble to move characters into place because of how much time the previous book wasted futzing around.

The whole Teek storyline feels rushed and I feel like Xiala should have gone through most of it in the previous book. If her mother, aunt, and the matrons were given more time to develop, then their massacre would have had more of an impact. The scene on the beach where she starts to Sing is really good and I wish that it had the impact it deserved. That being said, once it gets off of the Teek islands, watching her come into her powers is pretty cool and her storyline moves much more smoothly. Her reunion with Serapio is very cute and I love their relationship.

Naranpa's storyline ultimately feels superfluous and hastily tacked on as the conflict pivots away from the Crow God and the Sun God. At the end of the last book, I thought we would get at least something interesting happening at the Graveyard of the Gods and it just never happens. I feel like you could cleanly excise her parts from the book and very little would be lost. It's ultimately just so shallow and disconnected from everything else that it's hard to care.

None of Balem's flashbacks were needed and just leave the book feeling bloated. Frankly, I don't think that Balem's POV is needed to begin with. You could get just about everything you needed from that with some minor tweeks to Iktans.

Serapio's POV is easily one of the strongest. There's a scene with the man he thinks is is father that's so good. You get such a strong sense of his religious trauma and why he feels like his destiny is his only option. You really understand why he latches so strongly onto anybody who treats him like an actual human, like Okoa and Xiala.

Like. I loved the first book in this series. I love these characters. This is such an interesting world. I know it doesn't seem like it from this review, but I like this book. There's a lot of very good stuff in here. It's just held back too much by mistakes made in the previous entry and I wanted it to be better.

[mylittlecomfortplace]

The Well of Ascension (The Mistborn Saga #2) [Book Review]

➺ 3.5/5 🌟

I felt like an outsider after seeing so many high ratings of this book, but I just couldn't give this higher than this. It was actually already generous of me to give this 3.5 rating. I was about to give this book maybe a 2.5 or 3 stars, but the last 150 pages bump up the rating for me. It was exactly that part where I genuinely enjoyed this book for the first time.

For the first 600 pages, I felt like only two things are repeatedly happening. First, Vin's internal struggle: whether she deserves to be Elend's woman, or wondering if she's really just a tool being used, or if it would make her a different person if she wears a dress, or if Elend would see her as a monster because of her power, or if eloping with a mistborn like her is the right thing to do, blah blah blah. I know her insecurities and I can sympathize with her. Girl went through a lot since childhood, I am clear of that. But spending that amount of pages going on about it is frustrating for me.

Second, Elend trying and failing to secure his position as the emperor. I appreciate every effort he makes and it's clear that he's sincere in making the empire better, but I felt like every decision he made didn't really achieve anything. The more he decide something, the more his throne is slipping away from him. It was absolutely true that he's a good man, but not necessarily a good king. Maybe for now. Watching him struggle to fight for his kingdom in his own idealistic way without changing anything is exhausting me.

I'm more invested in exploring the truth about the mist and the Well of Ascension, and we got to that part eventually, but for the most part, all I can remember is that most of Vin and Elend's decisions only made things worse. The whole situation declined the more I continue reading and I know that should make this more exciting to read as it would make one look forward to what will happen next, but I think what frustrates me the most is that this middle book of a trilogy only served as the accumulation of the characters' failures and introduction of more problems, stretching it so much to make this thick book. I don't even know if my complaints make any sense to other people but all I know is that I'm not a big fan of this book, not until the last 150 pages.

I felt slightly disappointed that I didn't like this the way I wanted to and I felt genuinely sad about it, but I still have high hopes for the last book. The last part of this book actually did a good job in making me anticipate what will happen next.