I love speculative fiction, so I thought it would be fun to highlight three speculative fiction books that came out this year to add to your TBR pile:
A Tempest of Tea (Blood and Tea #1) by Hafsah Faizal
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
On the streets of White Roaring, Arthie Casimir is a criminal mastermind and collector of secrets. Her prestigious tearoom transforms into an illegal bloodhouse by dark, catering to the vampires feared by society. But when her establishment is threatened, Arthie is forced to strike an unlikely deal with an alluring adversary to save it—and she can’t do the job alone.
Calling on some of the city’s most skilled outcasts, Arthie hatches a plan to infiltrate the dark and glittering vampire society known as the Athereum. But not everyone in her ragtag crew is on her side, and as the truth behind the heist unfolds, Arthie finds herself in the midst of a conspiracy that will threaten the world as she knows it.
From the New York Times–bestselling author of We Hunt the Flame comes the first book in a hotly-anticipated fantasy duology teeming with romance, revenge, and an orphan girl willing to do whatever it takes to save her self-made kingdom. Dark, action-packed, and swoonworthy, this is Hafsah Faizal better than ever.
Relit: 16 Latinx Remixes of Classic Stories edited by Sandra Proudman
Inkyard Press
These sixteen stories by award-winning and bestselling YA authors center a Latinx point of view in an empowering anthology that reimagines classics through fantasy, science fiction, and with a dash of magic, for fans of A PHOENIX FIRST MUST BURN and RECLAIM THE STARS
In classic stories remixed, Latinx characters take center stage
Pride and Prejudice is launched into outer space, Frankenstein is plunged into the depths of the ocean, and The Great Gatsby floats to an island off the coast of Costa Rica.
A shape-shifter gives up her life to save the boy she loves from an evil bruja. La Ciguapa covets a little mermaid’s heart of gold. Two star-crossed teens fall in love while the planet burns around them.
Whether characters fall in love, battle foes, or grow through grief, each story will empower readers to see themselves as the heroes of the stories that make our world.
The Last Bloodcarver by Vanessa Le
Roaring Brook Press
Nhika is a bloodcarver. A cold-hearted, ruthless being who can alter human biology with just a touch. In the industrial city of Theumas, she is seen not as a healer, but a monster that kills for pleasure.
When Nhika is caught using her bloodcarving abilities during a sham medical appointment, she's captured by underground thugs and sold to an aristocratic family to heal the last witness of their father’s murder.
But as Nhika delves deeper into their investigation amidst the glitz of Theumas’ wealthiest district, she begins to notice parallels between this job and her own dark past. And when she meets an alluring yet entitled physician's aide, Ven Kochin, she’s forced to question the true intent behind this murder. In a society that outcasts her, Kochin seems drawn to her...though he takes every chance he gets to push her out of his opulent world.
When Nhika discovers that Kochin is not who he claims to be, and that there is an evil dwelling in Theumas that runs much deeper than the murder of one man, she must decide where her heart, and her allegiance, truly lie. And - if she's willing to become the dreaded bloodcarver Theumas fears to save herself and the ones she's vowed to protect.
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Are there any OCs you haven't done whole hog on? If so, could we get one of them?
Oh yes indeed!
Kotone Wei
The MC of my eastern fantasy story, The Water Maiden.
✨- How did you come up with the OC’s name?
It's just pretty name. I associate K with the color blue and O with ocean waves for literally no reason. Ergo It suited a character with the power to create water.
🌼 - How old are they? (Or approximate age range)
Kotone is in her young 20s. I would say exactly 20 at the beginning of the story. In her culture they don't have birthdays; ages were given by the regnal year of one's birth or the number of seasons they've lived (though both systems are out of wack now that there is no emperor and the land has become a desert)
🌺- Do they have any love interest(s)?
With apologies to one of my old friends who begged me to keep her relationships platonic, but yes in fact. she is going to have three at least. but it won't be some love quadrangle, your girl is going for the harem route. The members are Naota, her dutiful self appointed samurai, crafty and cunning though lacking an understanding of people; Hua, a former bandit whose life Kotone saves, just as loyal, intelligent in different ways though much more impulsive than Naota and physically stronger by far; and Daiyu, the last noblewoman of an ancient house, living alone these many years believing the world had ended, quite relieved to learn it is not.
🍕 - What is their favorite food?
due to her previous lifestyle she has not really eaten a *lot* of dishes. She is partial to the blue grain this world has that resembles rice. The people of this country raise a type of fowl that resembles the guinea hen, which they use much like chicken, although its meat is darker. They also have a root vegetable resembling ginger, though it has a bright red hue. This is therefore a very involved way of saying she likes ginger chicken and rice. As an aside, green is her least favorite color, so she avoids green foods where possible. This does not preclude her from eating vegetables mind you, as the leafy greens of this world range in colors.
💼 - What do they do for a living?
Kotone spent most of her life s a slave, dancing to create water for the king of Kochin. Water dancer is something of a sacred duty, so she was kept confined except for performances and jealously guarded. After being freed by a fortuitous bandit raid that left both the attackers and all her guards dead, Kotone headed out into the desert, where she will become a warlord by her own hand.
🎹 🎯 🥊- Do they have any hobbies?
despite her lifetime of performing in servitude, she genuinely loves to dance. And she is very very good at it. The only time she will balk at dancing is if someone tells her to do it. In fact she will get huffy if anyone gives her an order of any kind.
❤️ - What is one of your OC’s best memories?
Probably one of the memories of playing with her sisters, Ikona and Raishi. They were not true sisters, but rather the three of them were enslaved water maidens together. They performed together and exercised together and ate together, and at night their cells were close enough that they could whisper through the doors at each other. "Play" in this life was restricted to just word games and riddles, as any physical contact outside of what was necessary to dance and exercise was forbidden on the off chance their valuable bodies were damaged.
✂️ - What is one of your OC’s worst memories?
This is spoilers but Kotone was severely punished after accidentally injuring Ikona during practice. That night, Kotone attempted suicide but accidentally healed herself with her magic. She hadn't known she could do that.
🧊 - Is their current design the first one?
More or less! In the original draft her omber hair turned magenta at the tips instead of cyan because I had intended for her to have pink magic as well, but scrapped the idea. The gold highlights on her outfit were an invention of character designed dear sweet @fvriva. In the current version of Water Maiden I streamlined the magic system and added the halos as a visual effect of when someone is doing it, which means the halo in the character portrait up there is diagetic!
🍀 - What originally inspired the OC?
At the time when I conceived of the story I had been playing Fire Emblem Fates, so I took some visual inspiration from the character Azura, who is a tall cielette with water effects when she attacks. Kotone is completely different from her though. I have refined her design and characterization by reading up on Japanese legendary history and given her symbolism of the Azure Dragon, while her rival Fimeko is the Vermilion Bird.
🌂 - What genre do they belong in?
She was built for epic fantasy babey
💚 - What is your OC’s gender identity and sexuality?
Kotone is cis female, bi, and poly
🙌 - How many sibling does your OC have?
Two adopted siblings, as mentioned before; Raishi, who is of age with her, and Ikona who is younger.
🍎 - What is the OC’s relationship w/their parents like?
Nonexistant. Kotone was taken from her family as a toddler, when her powers manifested. She doesn't remember them except as a hazy outline. She used to resent them for letting her go so easily but has come to realize there was nothing they could have done.
🧠 - What do you like most about the OC?
I like her righteous anger. One of my most venomous OCs. But full of love as well.
✏️ - How often do you draw/write about the OC?
I think about her often. I have put her story into a little bit of a hiatus as I work on other projects but I consider Water Maiden to be my masterpiece project; that is to say, the one I have to complete so show that I have arrived.
💎 - Do you ever see yourself killing off the OC?
Who knows, perhaps if I lean into the Christ imagery. She will definitely die one day, as I have ideas for a distant Era 2 scenario in which she will have faded into legend.
💀 - Does your OC have any phobias?
Now that she's free, she is terrified of being confined again, especially of being chained again.
🍩 -Who is your OC’s arch-nemesis or rival?
Fimeko, for whom I answered questions here.
🎓🍥 - How long have you had the OC?
2016 or so. I was 23
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