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aroaessidhe · 1 year

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All the books I read in 2022

I’m too lazy to add authors or anything haha, this is just copied from my notion

but damn. this is a lotta books, huh. shoutout to audiobooks.

total: 343

i read 314 library books

177 audiobooks

I read 161 books by authors of colour, vs 182 by white (or unsure) authors, which is less than ideal - I try keep it at least half way! but I think to an extent it’s just....everything i read is from the library, and the library is biased to white authors

71 by trans authors (that i know of)

275 books with queer main characters (though most not included are by queer authors/it’s just not explicit bc there’s no romance/there’s queer side characters)

i read 86 ace or aro books

i read 179 sapphic books

and that’s everything i recorded

January

Skye Falling

The Marvelous

What Big Teeth

Firebreak (reread)

A Psalm of Storms and Silence

The Inkberg Enigma

The Wolf and the Woodsman

Shadow Life

Dead Dead Girls

The Memory Police

Sistersong

We Rule The Night

Broken Web

A Sisterhood of Secret Ambitions

Hench

Are You Listening?

We Could Be Heroes

The City Beautiful

We Light Up The Sky

The Traitor Baru Cormorant

Zero Sun Game

Six Crimson Cranes

February

The Black Tides of Heaven (reread)

The One and the Other

Year of the Rabbit

Witchlight

Garlic and the Vampire

The Red Threads of Fortune (reread)

Another Kind

The Descent of Monsters (reread)

Where The Drowned Girls Go

White Smoke

No Man of Woman Born

Misrule

The Affair of the Mysterious Letter

Bad Witch Burning

The Excalibur Curse

Malice (reread)

Beetle and the Hollowbones

The Midnight Bargain

Ana on the Edge

The Final Strife

Snapdragon

Graceling (GN)

The Death of Jane Lawrence

Daughter of the Moon Goddess

Girls of Fate and Fury

My Sister, The Serial Killer

The Ascent to Godhood

The Kindred

Remote Control

Between Perfect and Real

Bitter

You Feel It Just Below The Ribs

Fire Becomes Her

March

Only A Monster

The Mirror Season

Ophelia After All

City of Deceit

Briar Girls

Mortal Engines (reread)

Predator’s Gold (reread)

Night Flights (reread)

Coming Back

Infernal Devices (reread)

All Our Hidden Gifts

A Darkling Plain (reread)

The Ghosts We Keep

The Ivory Key

The Monster Baru Cormorant

Fever Crumb (reread)

The Annual Migration of Clouds

This Place

A Web Of Air (reread)

The Thousand Eyes

City of Shattered Light

Lakewood

On A Sunbeam

The Tyrant Baru Cormorant

Pixels of You

Scrivener’s Moon (reread)

Me (Moth)

The Perfect Assassin

Do You Dream of Terra Two?

The Midnight Girls

The Wild Ones

Certain Dark Things

Travelers Along The Way

April

Ravage The Dark

Seven Mercies

Goliath

Howl’s Moving Castle

Lakelore

She Gets The Girl

Nothing Burns As Bright As You

The Circus Infinite

Forward March

Blood Scion

This Rebel Heart

One For All

Jillian Vs Parasite Planet

Alone Out Here

Xenocultivars

Scout’s Honor

What We Don’t Talk About

A Magic Steeped In Poison

Witchlings

The Beautiful Ones

Portrait of a Thief

Perfect On Paper

The Language of Roses

Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak

Ace

Squire

Alice Isn’t Dead

We Hunt The Flame

The Space Between Worlds (reread)

Fevered Star

May

Ready When You Are

Piranesi

The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester

Sofi and the Bone Song

The Gravity of Us

Legends & Lattes

We Free The Stars

Extasia

Silver In The Wood

An Unreliable Magic

Dead Collections

The Last Cuentista

Cosmoknights

The Fascinators

The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home

In The Serpent’s Wake

The Memory Librarian

Queen of the Tiles

Invisible Boys

The Greatest Thing

Elysium Girls

The Storyteller

The Kaiju Preservation Society

Arden Grey

The Summer of Bitter and Sweet

Sanctuary

We Can Be Heroes

The Wolf Among The Wild Hunt

The Butterfly Assassin

MFK

June

Little Black Bird

Cafe Con Lychee

Microscopes and Magic

Alpaca and Apparitions

The Weight of a Soul

The Facts and Legends of Callie Catwell

A Million Quiet Revolutions

The Companion

The Fae Keeper

Outrun The Wind

Ellen outside the Lines

A Natural History of Dragons

The Past Is Red

The Unspoken Name (reread)

Wrath Goddess Sing

The Archive of the Forgotten

Flip The Script

After The Dragons

We Go Forward

Message Not Found

The Rise of Kyoshi

The Mask of Mirrors

The Trouble

The Merciless Ones

Take Me To Your Nerdy Leader

The Sprite and the Gardener

Kaikeyi

Journey Home

So Many Beginnings

Zara Hossein Is Here

Other People’s Butterflies

Deep In Providence

Beautiful Darkness

Just Your Local Bisexual Disaster

Gender Queer

July

Survive the Dome

The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School

The City Of Dusk

At The End of Everything

This Wicked Fate

From Dust A Flame

Sal and Gabi Break the Universe

The Dawnhounds

Burn Down Rise Up

Hell Followed With Us

Valiant Ladies

Sal And Gabi Fix The Universe

A Prayer for the Crown Shy

Gamechanger

Wolfpack

The Poet X

Stars in their Eyes

Not My Problem

The Gifts That Bind Us

Switchback

Home Field Advantage

How We Fall Apart

The Romantic Agenda

Muted

August

Not Even Bones

Maya and the Rising Dark

Na Viro

The Book Eaters

Our Wives Under The Sea

A Furry Faux Paw

How To Get a Girlfriend When You’re A Terrifying Monster

The Reckless Kind

Klara and the Sun

The Blood Trials

The Lost Dreamer

If You Still Recognise Me

Blood Like Fate

Errant

It Sounds Like This

The Bone Houses

A Thousand Steps Into Night

Isla to Island

September

You Truly Assumed

Across A Field of Starlight

Katzenjammer

Girl Giant and the Monkey King

Dauntless

The (Un)Popular Vote

A Snake Falls To Earth (reread)

The Oleander Sword

To Break A Covenant

Weird Fishes

Kōhine

The Witchery

More Than Enough

The Red Palace

Only Ashes Remain

The Drowned Woods

When Villains Rise

A Venom Dark and Sweet

Her Name In The Sky

Wonderland

The Feeling of Falling In Love

The Girl With All The Gifts

The God Of Lost Words

A Half-Built Garden

October

House of Hunger

Garlic and the Witch

All The Birds In The Sky

Aces Wild

Other Ever Afters

Beasts of Prey

The Unbalancing

Space Opera

It Looks Like Us

Self-Made Boys

Foul Lady Fortune

Rust In The Root

No Gods No Monsters

A Scatter of Light

Late To The Party

Skin Of The Sea

The Sunbearer Trials

The Restless Dark

Bone Weaver

Babel

Godslayers

Convenience Store Woman

What Moves The Dead

The Revolution of Birdie Randolph

The Women Could Fly

November

Every Body Looking

Violet Made of Thorns

When The Angels Left The Old Country

Strike The Zither

Lavender House

The Whispering Dark

Thistlefoot

How To Succeed In Witchcraft

Ironspark

Silver In The Mist

How To Excavate A Heart

The Scratch Daughters

Siren Queen

The Trouble With Robots

Cheer Up: Love And Pompoms

The Honeys

Into The Riverlands

Breasts and Eggs

The Genesis of Misery

Mamo

The Girl In Red

Bloodmarked

The Bone Orchard

I’m The Girl

Chilling Effect

Kiss Her Once For Me

The Last Hero

If You Could See The Sun

The Sevenfold Hunters

December

Frizzy

Twelfth Grade Night

Even Though I Knew The End

Hollow

Leech

The Bruising of Qilwa

The Spear Cuts Through Water

Never Ever Getting Back Together

The Stars Undying

Nettle & Bone

The House on the Hill

Black Girl Unlimited

Wash Day Diaries

Bluebird

M Is For Monster

Middlegame

A-Okay

All Boys Aren’t Blue

The Last Fallen Moon

Bloom

The Library of the Dead

Moonflower

The Last Session

Every Bird A Prince

Funeral Girl

The Edge of The Woods

Bloody Spade

The Rhythm of My Soul

A Broken Blade

Those Who Ripple

The Life Giver

Nothing Sung and Nothing Spoken

Sailing By Orion’s Star

Of The Wild

Belly Up

Caroline’s Heart

The Hex Next Door

The Fable of Wren

The Orphancorp Trilogy

Thornfruit

#laya talks #laya reads

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fiefgoldenlake · 2 years

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Book Rec II

It’s been some time since my last book rec post, and here I am with some more (unrequested but hopefully not unwanted!) offerings! Each title contains a link to the storygraph page where you can learn more (they have a warning page for each entry), and each book is heartily recommended. I’ve marked the two I would consider YA. Also, only two of the series are complete (Winternight and Montague Siblings), and only one of the books is a standalone - apologies! I do recommend supporting your local library.

Legendborn (The Legendborn Cycle #1 - YA) Tracy Deonn 16 year old Bree starts a college programme, grieving the fresh loss of her mother. College marks a new beginning for Bree, not least because of the demons she discovers on her first day, but there are age old prejudices in the magical new world. This is based on Arthurian legend and inspired (in the author's own words) by African American history and spiritual traditions, yet it is thoroughly rooted in North Carolina. Delightfully queer secondary characters, and Bree is a force as a main character (funny, warm, sharp, raw with grief, and ready to challenge the status quo).

She Who Became the Sun (The Radiant Emperor #1) Shelley Parker-Chan This is a wonderful, brutal, brilliant book. Styled by publishers as a queer, fantasy reimagining of Mulan, delivering on everything that I could have wished for, with a driven protagonist. Explores gender, desire, identity, all in the midst of war. Plus, there’s a pun in the title, what more could you want?

The Bear and the Nightingale (Winternight Trilogy #1) Katherine Arden This is a Russian fairytale - and we open with a story which the pages inevitably follow. Vasya has her mother's gifts to see the household spirits, but her fearful and religious stepmother forbids her from communicating with them. Vasya defies her stepmother but there are other forces at work, roping in hearts and minds, and the Moscow priest also sees Vasya as a problem. This whole series is glorious, Vasya grows throughout, and examines what it means to be female and independent in a world where she is expected to be meek, demure, and subservient to a husband.

A Deadly Education (The Scholomance Trilogy #1) Naomi Novik Magical children from all over the world are packed off to a sentinent school, with no teachers, and no holidays... and monsters known as mals trying to feed on the schoolchildren. The best hope of survival is to be born into an enclave, a power-sharing body found in most major cities, but of course main character El has no such luck. This reminded me of Percy Jackson, and El is a wonderful protagonist - cynical, smart, warm-hearted under a very prickly exterior.

Gods of Jade and Shadow Silvia Moreno-Garcia Welcome to Jazz Age Mexico, where we go on a road trip with a girl called Casiopeia, and the Mayan god of death. Casiopeia feels trapped in her family life and expectations, and though there is danger, there is also freedom, exploration, joy, and a love story.

The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy (Montague Siblings #2 - YA) Mackenzi Lee @melodypowers65 told me that I’d like this one better than the first in the trilogy, and I thought she was wrong because I love boys being silly and in love, but turns out what I love better than that is their fiercely independent, clever sisters on their own lively adventures.

Black Sun (Between Earth and Sky #1) Rebecca Roanhorse This book is a Nebula/Hugo nominee for best novel of 2020/2021, and it’s masterclass in how to subvert euro-centric epic fantasy. Set in a fantasy world rooted in pre-Columbian South American culture, it’s a study of people who are dealing with generational trauma and feelings of not belonging. It centers around the solstice – a time for celebration and renewal. But this year there’s also a solar eclipse, which is said to be the unbalancing of the world, and people intent on fulfilling a potentially disastrous prophecy. It steps outside of the gender binary and heteronormative spaces that fantasy has dwelled for too long and creates a world where people can simply be. It’s also a lush and descriptive piece of fiction. Be wary of a somewhat cliff-hanger ending; it’s the first in a trilogy and is the only one published as of yet.

I hope you manage to find something you love in all this! Let me know if you have any recommendations in turn. Stay tuned for my next book rec post, where there be dragons (yes, I’ve read enough dragon-themed books to warrant a whole other post). Thanks to @lisafer for her assistance, again!

#book rec #tracy deonn #katherine arden #naomi novik #silvia moreno garcia #shelley parker-chan #mackenzi lee #rebecca roanhorse

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maandarinee · 3 years

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what are all the podcasts you listen to?

anon I'm so glad you asked

Since it is a pretty long list including synopses (stolen from the podcast feed or website because I'm Bad at summaries and in some cases it's been a while since I listened) I'm going to put it under a cut.

I've separated the list into "Complete" (either finished or cancelled) and "Ongoing" podcasts. Some have additional comments by me. Current favorites are marked orange. My eternal beloved are Our Fair City and Wolf 359.

Complete

ars PARADOXICA: "When an experiment in a time much like our own goes horribly awry, Dr. Sally Grissom finds herself stranded in the past and entrenched in the activities of a clandestine branch of the US government. Grissom and her team quickly learn that there's no safety net when toying with the fundamental logic of the universe."

Blackwood: "Five years ago, Molly Weaver, Bryan Anderson, and Nathan Howell started a podcast focused on the local legend of a monster called The Blackwood Bugman. Quickly, the investigation grew out of their control, as they discovered that, not only are the legends seemingly true, many people in Blackwood have turned up dead or disappeared without a trace." --> [this feels like the Blair With Project, but as a podcast. Didn't get a second season due to no funding, but it works as a standalone]

Dreamboy: "Dane, a spun-out musician spending the winter in Cleveland, Ohio, has two main goals: keeping his job at the Pepper Heights Zoo and trying not to waste all his time on Grindr. What he doesn’t expect is to get swept into a story about dreams, about forevers, about flickering lights, about unexplained deaths, about relentless change, and about the parts of ourselves that we wish other people knew to look for. Oh, and also a murderous zebra." --> [very NSFW; does cool things with music! Didn't get a second season due to no funding, but it works as a standalone]

King Fall AM: "...centers on a lonely little mountain town's late-night AM talk radio show and its paranormal, peculiar happenings and inhabitants." --> [cancelled after 100 episodes, ends on a huge cliffhanger]

Our Fair City: "A campy, post-apocalyptic audio drama." --> [I know the description sounds like nothing but just trust me, I love it so much]

Steal the Stars: "...is a gripping noir science fiction thriller in 14 episodes: Forbidden love, a crashed UFO, an alien body, and an impossible heist unlike any ever attempted."

Stellar Firma: "...a weekly Science Fiction, Comedy podcast following the misadventures of Stellar Firma Ltd.'s highest born but lowest achieving planetary designer Trexel Geistman and his bewildered clone assistant David 7. Join them each episode as they attempt to take listener submissions and craft them into the galaxy's most luxurious, most expensive and most questionably designed bespoke planets. However, with Trexel's corporate shark of a line manager Hartro Piltz breathing down their necks and I.M.O.G.E.N., the station's omnipresent and omniinvasive stationwide A.I. monitoring those necks to within 3 decimal places, they'll be lucky to make it a week before being slurried and recycled into raw human resources." --> [semi-improvised, I thought I'd have a problem with the improv bit because that's not usually my thing, but no, I absolutely devoured this]

TANIS: "...is a serialized docudrama about a fascinating and surprising mystery: the myth of Tanis. Tanis is an exploration of the nature of truth, conspiracy, and information. Tanis is what happens when the lines of science and fiction start to blur." [+ spinoff The Last Movie] --> [I have no clue what the hell is going on here]

The Black Tapes: "...is a serialized docudrama about one journalist's searc for truth, her enigmatic subject's mysterious past, and the literal and figurative ghosts that haunt them both."

The Magnus Archives: "...is a weekly horror fiction anthology podcast examining what lurks in the archives of the Magnus Institute, an organisation dedicated to researching the esoteric and the weird. Join new head archivist Jonathan Sims as he attempts to bring a seemingly neglected collection of supernatural statements up to date, converting them to audio and supplementing them with follow-up work from his small but dedicated team. Individually, they are unsettling. Together they begin to form a picture that is truly horrifying because as they look into the depths of the archives, something starts to look back…"

Time:Bombs: "...a new audio drama podcast about the hilarious world of bomb disposal. Ride along with EOD technician Simon Teller on the busiest night of the year for him and his team - when business is, quite literally, booming."

Wolf 359: "Life's not easy for Doug Eiffel, the communications officer for the U.S.S. Hephaestus Research Station, currently on Day 448 of its orbit around red dwarf star Wolf 359. He's stuck on a scientific survey mission of indeterminate length, 7.8 light years from Earth. His only company on board the station are stern mission chief Minkowski, insane science officer Hilbert, and Hephaestus Station's sentient, often malfunctioning operating system Hera. He doesn't have much to do for his job other than monitoring static and intercepting the occasional decades-old radio broadcast from Earth, so he spends most of his time creating extensive audio logs about the ordinary, day-to-day happenings within the station. But the Hephaestus is an odd place, and life in extremely isolated, zero gravity conditions has a way of doing funny things to people's minds. Even the simplest of tasks can turn into a gargantuan struggle, and the most ordinary-seeming things have a way of turning into anything but that." --> [starts funny, turns very intense]

Ongoing

Alba Salix, Roya Physician (+ The Axe & Crown): "A witch, her apprentice, and her fairy herbalist treat the ills of a fairy-tale kingdom." + "Gubbin the troll tavernkeeper deals with his clueless new landlord, his shady niece, and some new competition."

Archive 81: "A found footage horror podcast about ritual, stories, and sound."

Arden: "A (fictional) true crime podcast about cold cases and the reporter and detective who try to solve them."

Brimstone Valley Mall: "The year is 1999. Lurking somewhere between Hot Topic and the food court, five misfit demons from Hell kill time inciting sin in a suburban shopping mall. When the lead singer of their band goes mysteriously missing, the demons only have two weeks to find him before they play the biggest gig of the millennium - or face the wrath of Satan herself."

CARAVAN: "First rule of Wound Canyon: No one who gets in, ever gets out. So when a brilliant, ghostly specter flies through the sky amid the rain and lightning, Samir stumbles off a steep cliff and into a hidden world, one in which demons, vampires, and all other manner of paranormal creatures take sanctuary." --> [also pretty NSFW and horny in general]

Death by Dying: "The Obituary Writer of Crestfall, Idaho finds himself deeply in over his head as he investigates a series of strange and mysterious deaths… when he is supposed to simply be writing obituaries. Along the way he encounters murderous farmers, man-eating cats, haunted bicycles, and a healthy dose of ominous shadows." --> [I had to stop listening to this in public because it kept making me undignified laugh and snort noises]

Desperado: "Blood magic, Voodoo magic, old gods, new gods: We've got it all! Follow the story of misfits from all over the world, as they try to survive and protect their heritage from modern-day crusaders."

EOS 10: "Doctors in space, a deposed alien prince, a super gay space pirate and a fiery nurse who'll help you win your bar fight."

Girl In Space: "Abandoned on a dying ship in the farthest reaches of known space, a young scientist fights for survival (and patience with the on-board A.I.). Who is she? No one knows. But a lot of dangerous entities really want to find out. Listen as the story unfolds for science, guns, trust, anti-matter, truth, beauty, inner turmoil, and delicious cheeses. It’s all here. In space."

Janus Descending: "...follows the arrival of two xenoarcheologists on a small world orbiting a binary star. But what starts off as an expedition to survey the planet and the remains of a lost alien civilization, turns into a monstrous game of cat and mouse, as the two scientists are left to face the creatures that killed the planet in the first place. Told from two alternating perspectives, Janus Descending is an experience of crossing timelines, as one character describes the nightmare from end to beginning, and the other, from beginning to the end." --> [absolutely harrowing horror]

Love and Luck: "...is a fictional radio play podcast, told via voicemails and set in present day Melbourne, Australia. A slice of life queer romance story with a touch of magic, it follows the relationship between two men, Jason and Kane, as their love grows both for each other and their community." --> [soft and gay, feels like a warm hug]

Potterless: "Join Mike Schubert, a grown man reading the Harry Potter series for the first time, as he sits down with HP fanatics to poke fun at plot holes, make painfully incorrect predictions, and bask in the sassiness of the characters." --> [the only non-fiction podcast on the list]

Primordial Deep: "When a long extinct sea creature washes up on the shores of Coney Island, marine biologist Dr. Marella Morgan is contacted by a secret organization to investigate the origins of the creature’s sudden and unnatural resurgence. Soon, she and a team of experts find themselves living on the research station The Tiamat, traveling along the abyssal plains as they search for answers far below the waves. But there are dangers in these ancient waters. Reawakened, prehistoric monsters are rising from the deep -- jaws wide and waiting, and in the darkness, something is stirring."

Red Valley: "No one at Overhead Industries wants to talk about defunct research station Red Valley, and account man Warren Godby is out of his depth. When he meets Gordon Porlock, a disgruntled archivist with a bag of tapes from the station’s last known occupant, they will begin a journey to the limits of experimental science, confront horror and trauma from the past, present and future, and try to remember the cheat codes from Sonic the Hedgehog 2."

Rusty Quill Gaming: "An actual play podcast following a mixed ability group of comedians, improvisers, gamers, and writers as they play through the extended, tabletop roleplaying campaign Erasing the Line, an original game world of the GM’s crafting." --> [took me a while to get into because I have trouble focusing on non-scripted things, but eventually I got really hooked on the plot and attached to the characters. This podcast is really fucked up at times if you think about it]

SAYER: "A narrative fiction podcast set on Earth’s man-made second moon, Typhon. The eponymous SAYER is a highly advanced, self-aware AI created to help acclimate new residents to their new lives, and their new employment with Ærolith Dynamics." --> [feels like Welcome to Night Vale but narrated by GLaDOS from Portal]

StarTripper!!: "Join Feston Pyxis on a road-trip through the cosmos, as he leaves behind his old life in search of the best and wildest experiences the galaxy has to offer!"

The Amelia Project: "...is a secret agency that fakes its clients' deaths, then lets them reappear with a brand new identity! A black comedy full of secrets, twists... and cocoa."

The Big Loop: "...a biweekly anthology series. Each episode is a self-contained narrative exploring the strange, the wonderful, the terrifying, and the heartbreaking. Stories of finite beings in an infinite universe." --> [I don't like anthologies, except this one]

The Bright Sessions: "Dr. Bright provides therapy for the strange and unusual; their sessions have been recorded for research purposes." --> [think X-Men, but with therapy instead of a school]

The Deca Tapes: "Recordings have surfaced of ten people that are locked into the same space together. We don’t know where they are, or if they'll get out. But the answers must be somewhere on these tapes."

The Silt Verses: "Carpenter and Faulkner, two worshippers of an outlawed god, travel up the length of their deity’s great black river, searching for holy revelations. As their pilgrimage lengthens and the river’s mysteries deepen, the two acolytes find themselves under threat from a police manhunt, but also come into conflict with the weirder gods that have flourished in these forgotten rural territories."

The White Vault: "Follow the collected records of a repair team sent to Outpost Fristed in the vast white wastes of Svalbard and unravel what lies waiting in the ice below."

Tides: "...is the story of Dr. Winifred Eurus, a xenobiologist trapped on an unfamiliar planet with hostile tidal forces. She must use her wits, sarcasm and intellectual curiosity to survive long enough to be rescued. But there might be more to life on this planet than she expected." --> [think The Martian, but on a water planet]

Unwell, a Midwestern Gothic Mystery: "Lillian Harper moves to the small town of Mt. Absalom, Ohio, to care for her estranged mother Dorothy after an injury. Living in the town's boarding house which has been run by her family for generations, she discovers conspiracies, ghosts, and a new family in the house's strange assortment of residents."

VAST Horizon: "Nolira is an agronomist tasked with establishing agriculture in a new solar system, but when she wakes up on a now- empty colony ship, the whole of her plan disappears. The ship has been set adrift, with numerous mission-critical problems requiring immediate attendance outside of her area of expertise. Nolira is aided by the ship’s malfunctioning AI, which acts as her confidant and companion during the fight for survival."

Victoriocity: "Even Greater London, 1887. In this vast metropolis, Inspector Archibald Fleet and journalist Clara Entwhistle investigate a murder, only to find themselves at the centre of a conspiracy of impossible proportions."

We Fix Space Junk: "...follows seasoned smuggler Kilner and reluctant fugitive Samantha as they travel the galaxy, dodging bullets and meeting strange and wonderful beings as they carry out odd jobs on the fringes of the law."

Welcome to Night Vale: "Twice-monthly community updates for the small desert town of Night Vale, where every conspiracy theory is true. Turn on your radio and hide."

Within the Wires: "Stories told through found audio from an alternate universe."

Wooden Overcoats: "Rudyard Funn and his equally miserable sister Antigone run their family's failing funeral parlour, where they get the body in the coffin in the ground on time. But one day they find everyone enjoying themselves at the funerals of a new competitor - the impossibly perfect Eric Chapman! With their dogsbody Georgie, and a mouse called Madeleine, the Funns are taking drastic steps to stay in the business…" --> [one of THE funniest podcasts I have ever listened to]

#ask #anon #please talk to me about podcasts at all times #podcasts #podcast recommendations

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Where Are All of the Mothers in Fantasy Fiction?

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This is a guest post from Gabriela Houston, the London-based Polish author of Second Bell, a Slavic fantasy debut described as a cross between His Dark Materials and The Bear and the Nightingale. You can find out more about the book here.

Historically speaking, the fantasy genre has a thorny relationship with motherhood. Technically, it’s acknowledged that the protagonists must have sprung from somewhere. But it is often solely their paternity that is seen as important—while the mothers, if mentioned at all, are usually either dead of irrelevant: unmentioned or languishing in a convent somewhere. If the mothers (or stepmothers: a different type of a mother-figure) persist in being alive into their children’s adulthood they are most often presented as an obstacle to their child’s self-actualisation/quest, or, as is most common with the stepmother archetype, present an actual threat to the protagonist.

Since mainstream fantasy as a genre was Eurocentric, this is a trend that is very much connected to the patriarchal structures persisting throughout Europe for most of recorded history. King Arthur, whose legend was first written down in the 12th Century by Geoffrey of Monmouth, had a mother, of course, but her only real importance was in how her beauty drew the eye of Uther Pendragon, who raped her, conceiving Arthur. Since Uther ended up marrying Arthur’s mother, Igraine, story-wise all was considered to be well, and, her role in birthing the future king done, Igraine became an irrelevance, just as any feelings and thoughts she might have had on her second husband. All we know is she was beautiful, chaste and gave birth to the real protagonist of the story.

The courtly love conventions forming the basis of many medieval European legends have seeped into the genre of fantasy, especially high fantasy, and have shaped the way in which female protagonists are related to. In most “traditional” fantasy, motherhood was seen as nearly opposite to personhood. A female character’s value centred squarely on her attractiveness to the male protagonist, meaning that the moment she aged/became a mother, she ceased to hold that particular form of attention that comes from extreme youth and innocence. Motherhood is seen as the end of a female character’s journey. The experiences, shifting relationships and emotions linked to motherhood are not seen as interesting enough to garner any space at all.

In The Lord of The Rings, we are faced with a whole cast of missing mothers. Moreover their absence is not noted as particularly important or carrying any emotional load. Aragorn, son of Arathorn, clearly had a mother, but when his father died he was shipped off to live with the elves. We neither know, nor are expected to care about what his mother thought on the subject. Then, of course, he falls for the elven maiden Arwen, whose mother, we’re told (as an aside) had the good sense to disappear from the scene by sailing beyond the sea before the plot of LOTR begins. Frodo Baggins’ mother helpfully died before he was born and Bilbo Baggins has the rare privilege of having a named mother, Belladonna Took, who, however, is quite dead by the time The Hobbit begins, and is referenced only as a link between Bilbo and the adventurous Took clan. She was a Took and she birthed him. Thus her role ended.

The halls of speculative fiction are carpeted with the corpses of the mothers who died of broken hearts and colds in order to not complicate their progeny’s journey. In fantasy TV and Film the trend, quite naturally, continued. In the original Star Wars trilogy, Princess Leia and Luke’s mother, Padme Amidala lived a full life of adventure but then died of a broken heart shortly after her children were born, as of course she should have done. Can you imagine, had she survived, the plot-spoiling link to their past she would have become? In Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Joyce Summer’s death, whilst arguably the critical highpoint of the series, was seen as necessary. She had to die, or else Buffy might have never become who she was always meant to be. As a mother she was an obstacle, one the scriptwriters helpfully removed.

Occasionally, the death of the character’s mother brings about the advent of the perennial archetype of the evil step-mother. A twisted parody of what a mother should be, just as the dead mother was convenient to the character’s journey, the insertion of the stepmother exists solely to scupper all of the character’s efforts. The examples of the conniving stepmother trope abound in traditional folktales (like in Cinderella, or its Slavic equivalent, Vasilisa, where the young protagonist is sent off by her stepmother to ask a favour of the infamous witch, Baba Yaga), mythologies (think the ultimate evil stepmother, Hera, who habitually persecuted the innocent results of her husband Zeus’ many indiscretions), and, not surprisingly, in fantasy genre as well.

In A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin (which actually does portray an unusual range of mothers with agency), Catelyn Stark, an otherwise fiercely loyal mother, is a cold and distant stepmother to Jon Snow. In the first novel in Katherine Arden’s fantastic Winternight trilogy, the main protagonist grows up in the shadow of her vapid, fearful and cruel stepmother. Part of the reason, I’d argue, why older women are so often portrayed as annoying and conniving, is because, as far as the traditional narratives are concerned, the whole of their role and purpose is fulfilled the moment their physical (youthful) attractiveness wanes. Those without the wisdom to exit the stage by dying become at worst a cumbersome plot bunny and at best an obstacle.

The issue of a lack of older women in fantasy is such an expansive subject that it demands the respect of a separate thought piece, really. And, as regards the stepmothers, I’m not saying, of course, that they should always be portrayed as kind and loving. But precisely because their archetype is rooted so strongly in our collective consciousness, it’s particularly important to acknowledge their humanity. And as far as the humanity of the older female (in the traditional fantasy fiction this seems to describe any woman over twenty) character goes, the good news is the tide is turning.

Part of the reason for that is that more women than ever are given the platform to write their stories. Perhaps somewhere along the way the publishing industry as a whole realised that as women account for the majority of fiction readers (according to one cross-Atlantic research they make up to 80% of fiction market), then perhaps portraying women as actual people, whose agency doesn’t evaporate once they get pregnant, might simply be good marketing.

In the recent years I’ve been ecstatic to see nuance brought into the motherhood trope within the genre. Where the mother of the character is dead, she is so for a damn good reason, with the echoes of her absence reverberating through the story in the most compelling ways, like in Tracy Deonn’s Legendborn. Mothers fight beside their children, and grandchildren (Like the pink-haired protagonist of The Phlebotomist by Chris Panatier), and battle hardship and heartache, like in Madeline Miller’s Circe.

As a mother it was important to me to focus on the humanity of motherhood in my debut, The Second Bell. The mothers I wrote are not perfect, and they are not always right. And even when they are, they might not know it for certain. And that is the point. Mothers deserve their place in fiction not because they’re perfect, but because they are human. Their decisions are just as complex as their younger counterparts and are complicated further by their new and life-changing bond with their child.

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Writing mothers is writing humans. No more, no less. They matter and they are worthy of notice.

Second Bell will be released on Tuesday, March 9th. You can find out more about Gabriela Houston here.

The post Where Are All of the Mothers in Fantasy Fiction? appeared first on Den of Geek.

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sleepy-bookworm · 6 years

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The Goatathon

Day 1 (of 7).

Hello! If you didn’t know, @heretherebebooks is hosting a readathon from June 1st to June 7th, called The Goatathon. I haven’t done a readathon in quite a while, so I’m nervous and pretty excited to get down to things, because reading! and sharing with you!

The first challenge for the Goatathon is to share a picture of your Goatathon TBR, and to tell all y’all about the books I plan on reading. Below is a picture of what I plan on reading during this Goatathon.

Sea of Shadows by Kelley Armstrong, Graceling by Kristin Cashore, Torn by Amanda Hocking, Eve by Anna Carey.

There are only 4 books that I’m going to try my hardest to read. If I manage to read all of them with time left over (then YAY!!!!!!), I’ll read more. But for now I’m keeping my Goatathon TBR small, to keep my anxiety to a minimum.

I have no idea what book I will read first, nor the ones after that, so, without further ado, let me tell you about the books I’m going to be reading this Goatahon:

Sea of Shadows by Kelley Armstrong is a book that I’ve had for a few years. Like, I think I bought it when the series first came out back in 2014. Sea of Shadows is the first book in the Age of Legends trilogy. TBH, I thought that this series was going to be like, 6 books long so I’m satisfied that the series is only 3 books long. I don’t have the other 2 books though, so if I end up needing the second book asap, I’ll have to wait to borrow it from the library. HAH! -- OK, so, Sea of Shadows actually seems like a pretty interesting read. SoS (do you think that was on purpose, or has any meaning to the story? anywho) is about exiled twin sisters Moria and Ashyn. They’re charged with a “dangerous task.” The two of them play the roles of Keeper and Seeker.

I hope that Sea of Shadows isn’t predictable. But I do have a good telling that SOS has two points of view, and that it will be one heck of a journey that these two go on.

In the Forest of the Dead, where the empire’s worst criminals are exiled, twin sisters Moria and Ashyn are charged with a dangerous task. For they are the Keeper and the Seeker, and each year they must quiet the enraged souls of the damned. Only this year, the souls will not be quieted. Ambushed and separated by an ancient evil, the sisters’ journey to find each other sends them far from the only home they’ve ever known. Accompanied by a stubborn imperial guard and a dashing condemned thief, the girls cross a once-empty wasteland, now filled with reawakened monsters of legend, as they travel to warn the emperor. But a terrible secret awaits them at court—one that will alter the balance of their world forever.

(Sea of Shadows on Goodreads)

Graceling by Kristin Cashore is another book that I’ve had my eye on. I’ve gone back and forth on whether or not I should read Graceling once and for all, and since a friend recommended it to me, I decided that yes, I’m going to read Graceling. Once and for all.

I actually started reading Graceling not too while ago, but other books took more of a priority. I’m determined to read Graceling during this Goatathon! One thing that I’m particularly looking forward to about Graceling is that it’s a standalone, but is also a companion novel to the Graceling Realm trilogy.

I particularly like the fact that the main character is a royal-blood assassin.

Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight—she’s a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king’s thug. She never expects to fall in love with beautiful Prince Po. She never expects to learn the truth behind her Grace—or the terrible secret that lies hidden far away . . . a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone. With elegant, evocative prose and a cast of unforgettable characters, debut author Kristin Cashore creates a mesmerizing world, a death-defying adventure, and a heart-racing romance that will consume you, hold you captive, and leave you wanting more.

(Graceling on Goodreads)

Torn by Amanda Hocking is the second book in the Trylle series by Amanda Hocking. Just thinking about the first book, Switched, I can barely remember what happened, save for the ending. Hopefully Torn will be an interesting journey. I’m quite ready for some fae stories.

With Torn being the second book in a series, I have decided to not add in the synopsis, just in case someone who is reading this hasn’t read Switched yet.

(Torn on Goodreads)

Eve by Anna Carey is another book that I’ve had on my shelf for years. Probably since 2013! I have the complete Eve trilogy, so if I end up needing to know what happens next in the series, I can move onto the next! It’s been so long since I read the synopsis for Eve. Like, I completely forgot that I had the series, but just reading Eve’s goodreads page, I know that it’s a Dystopian novel. Which I’m, again, looking forward to.

Reading the synopsis though, I’m kind of dreading that the story might be a dud. I’m kind of over the fact that there are so many books out there where the main character is one who “has never been beyond the heavily guarded perimeter of her school, where she and two hundred other orphaned girls have been promised a future as the teachers and artists of the New America.” Like, am I the only one tired of books like this? Anywhoozle, I read the rest of the synopsis, and let me tell you: I need to read the complete synopsis’ more often. I’m both looking forward to reading Eve, as well as dreading it. So maybe I’ll read Eve first. Just to get it over with.

Where do you go when nowhere is safe? Sixteen years after a deadly virus wiped out most of Earth's population, the world is a perilous place. Eighteen-year-old Eve has never been beyond the heavily guarded perimeter of her school, where she and two hundred other orphaned girls have been promised a future as the teachers and artists of the New America. But the night before graduation, Eve learns the shocking truth about her school's real purpose and the horrifying fate that awaits her. Fleeing the only home she's ever known, Eve sets off on a long, treacherous journey, searching for a place she can survive. Along the way she encounters Arden, her former rival from school, and Caleb, a rough, rebellious boy living in the wild. Separated from men her whole life, Eve has been taught to fear them, but Caleb slowly wins her trust... and her heart. He promises to protect her, but when soldiers begin hunting them, Eve must choose between true love and her life. In this epic new series, Anna Carey imagines a future that is both beautiful and terrifying.

(Eve on Goodreads)

So there are the 4 books that I’m going to try my darnedest to read! Just for funzies, if all goes well, I’m going to be reading 1,523 pages! Within seven days! That seems like quite a lot to be quite honest with you!

On the Goatathon post/page-thingy there are 5 Bonus Goat Challenges. Of the 5, I’m going to be tackling 3 of those! The first challenge is Bleat the backlist: read a book that’s been on your TBR for over a year. It’s safe to say that with well, all 4 of these books, I’m going to be tackling this challenge head on, lol!

The second BGC is: Have you heard: read a book that someone recommended you. Graceling is the book on this list that was recommended to me, haha.

The third BGC is: Udder worlds: read a book set in a world different from ours. With this challenge, the books that apply are: Graceling, Eve (since its a dystopian. maybe it doesn’t work? I’m keeping it tho), and Sea of Shadows.

If you’ve managed to read this far, thank you so much!

#goatathon #sea of shadows #age of legends trilogy #kelley armstrong #graceling #graceling realm #torn #trylle trilogy #amanda hocking #eve #eve trilogy #anna carey #mine #2018

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aion-rsa · 5 years

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Most Anticipated Non-Western Fantasy Books of 2019

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It's a great time to be a fan of fantasy literature, as the genre makes more space for epics told outside of the western perspective.

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While I love a good epic fantasy read where an unassuming, usually male, usually white farmboy learns of his great destiny to save the world, there are so many fantasy stories that exist outside of that framework.

One of my favorite ways to see fantasy genre tropes subverted is by taking the usual feudal European-like setting of the "traditional" epic fantasy saga and throwing it out the window in favor of mythic tropes that are less familiar to western fantasy readers. After all, Game of Thrones is great, but we tend to overrepresent Eurocentric, medieval-inspired stories in the epic fantasy world. There are so many other kinds of stories out there waiting to be told and heard.

read more: Best New Young Adult Books

This standalone YA #OwnVoices fantasy, which has the possibility of more novels to follow set in the same world, follows Hesina as she breaks the laws of her nation by enlisting a soothsayer and a criminal to help her determine who to trust, and who must be punished.

Read Descandant of the Crane by Joan He

Upon a Burning Throne by Ashok K. Banker

In promotional blurbs, Banker is called a pioneer of fantasy in his home country of India, and Upon a Burning Throne is based on the ancient classic, The Mahabharata, full of demigods and demons and battles for the throne. Although princes Adri and Shvate are royals, they must pass the Test of Fire if they want to inherit the throne.

read more: 9 Fantasy Books Set at Magical Boarding School

To make matters more complicated, a half-demon girl claims to have the right to take the test as well. When the girl is not allowed to claim any power after passing the Test, her demon father declares war on the Empire, threatening to tear the world apart. This #OwnVoices series is set for seven volumes, so get ready for an epic fantasy saga stretching over thousands of pages.

Read Upon a Burning Throne by Ashok K. Banker

The Tiger at Midnight by Swati Teerdhala

An assassin and a soldier get tangled in a civil war in this #ownvoices fantasy steeped in Indian history and Hindu mythology. Viper, an assassin fighting alongside the rebels, is how Esha hides her identity. No one knows that she, who lost so much in the royal coup, is the legendary assassin.

Kunal is a soldier, unquestioning in his orders to support the king, even while he longs for life outside the army. When Viper is on a mission to kill General Hotha, Kunal’s controlling uncle, the pair become involved in events on a grander scale, and no one is really sure who is directing all the pieces of this deadly game... This is listed as book one of the trilogy, so expect more cat and mouse games as the story progresses.

Read The Tiger at Midnight by Swati Teerdhala

May

The Candle and the Flame by Nafiza Azad

In this YA feminist fantasy, set along the Silk Road, the city of Noor is destroyed by Shayateen djinn; only Fatima and two other humans survived the attack. Now, a restored Noor is protected by Ifrit djinn, who represent order and reason.

But their protection does not remove all the danger: when one of the Ifrit is killed, Fatima is forever changed, and she finds herself drawn into the political intrigues of the maharajah and his sister—and onto the magical battlefield. Azad’s #OwnVoices tale features fiercely independent women, and a cosmopolitan Silk Road city striving to find harmony within its myriad cultures.

Read The Candle and the Flame by Nafiza Azad

We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal

It isn’t easy to be a legend. Zafira is the Hunter; by taking on a man’s role to feed her people, she can never reveal that she’s a girl, or everything she has done will be rejected. Nasir is the Prince of Death, a deadly assassin who punishes the enemies of his father, the king, despite his own tendency toward compassion.

Both Zafira and Nasir believe that an artifact can stop the incursion of the Arz, a cursed forest that expands by the day. Zafira, as the Hunter, sets out to find it; Nasir is ordered to retrieve it—and to kill the Hunter. Set in a fantastical Arabia, filled with cultures and beliefs that reflect the diversity of the real-world region, this #ownvoices YA series starter features lyrical prose and an enemies-to-lovers romance.

We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal

Nocturna by Maya Motayne

First in an #OwnVoices fantasy trilogy set in a Latinix-inspired world, Nocturna introduces Finn, a face shifter, who has been in and out of so many disguises over the years she’s practically forgotten what her own face looks like. Unfortunately, she crosses the wrong mobster, and she’s given a choice: succeed at a heist inside Castallan’s royal palace, or have her magic stripped away.

Prince Alfehr faces the dilemma of trying to live up to his dead brother’s role as heir to the throne; feeling as though he will forever fail at that role, Alfie would far rather dabble in forbidden magics on the hope of bringing his brother back. When the two of them accidentally unleash an ancient evil, they have to become a team to stop it from destroying the entire world.

Read Nocturna by Maya Motayne

June

The Last Tsar's Dragon by Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple

Set during the Russian revolution, this novella features dragons as tactical weapons, giving it the feel of a historical fiction that happens to have dragons involved in the plot. Yolen and Stemple explore the Romanov family history, as well as royal conspiracies and the revolutions of Jews and Bolsheviks during the October Revolution. For fans of this mother-son duo, it's a chance to delve into historical intrigue.

Unraveling by Karen Lord

Told in a contemporary setting, Lord's newest fantasy could easily be called a psychological thriller. Dr. Miranda Ecouvou has helped put a serial killer behind bars, but there's more to the world than she realized—and now Chance and the Trickster have enlisted her to look more deeply into the seven unusual murders. The plot and world are both labyrinthine, steeped in #ownvoices Caribbean storytelling.

July

Shatter the Sky by Rebecca Kim Wells

You might have heard something about "that angry feminist bisexual dragon YA fantasy novel" on the Internet, and that's a description that Wells has embraced wholeheartedly for her new series starter. In Shatter the Sky, Maren and Kaia expect to live a quiet life—but then the emperor's prophets steal Kaia away to join them, and it's up to Maren to rescue her girlfriend. She's determined to do it, too, even if the only way to rescue Kaia is to steal a dragon from the emperor and storm the fortress of his prophets on her own. While there's a lot in Shatter the Sky that fits into the traditions of western fantasy (including Tamora Pierce and Mercedes Lackey), but the worldbuilding includes #ownvoices Asian influences as well.

David Mogo, Godhunter by Suyi Davies Okungbowa

This #ownvoices urban fantasy is set in Lagos, Nigeria, in an age in which thousands of gods fell to Earth during a war. David Mogo is a demigod and a freelance Godhunter. But he takes a bad gig when he agrees to catch a god for an Eko wizard—who turns around and decides to rule Lagos himself. The three sections of the novel intertwine, but each has a distinct arc, almost like separate novellas. But together, they show David's journey of self-discovery as he deals with his own feelings of abandonment and defines for himself what it means to be a demigod.

Jade War by Fonda Lee

The Green Bone Saga continues in this sequel to the World Fantasy Award-winning Jade City. The Kaul family battles for control of the capital city of Kekon, and over the jade that allows Green Bone warriors to maintain their supernatural powers. But the conflict within Kekon is only a hint at the conflicts beyond the island's borders. Other nations have become interested in the properties of Kekon's magical jade, and the Kaul family must decide whether to band together, or whether to make new and more dangerous alliances to rise to the top. This #ownvoices Asian-inspired fantasy surpasses the first in the series, delving more deeply into Lee's world.

July

The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter

If a Xhosa-inspired revenge fantasy sounds up your alley, this #ownvoices debut may be exactly what you're looking for. Originally self-published in 2017, The Rage of Dragons got picked up by Orbit in a new edition for July 2019 publication. The story is set in a world of war, where those rare gifted—one in two thousand women can call the dragons, one in one hundred men can magically transform into a superhuman killer—wage battles, using the rest of their people as fodder. Ungifted Tau's greatest desire is to get injured early on so he can settle down and raise a family. But when everyone he cares about is slaughtered, his goals change: he will be come the greatest swordsman in order to get revenge on the three people who betrayed him.

The Ascent to Godhood by J. Y. Yang

The fourth in Yang's "Tensorate" series of novellas, The Ascent to Godhood explores how the Protector, now dead, came to power—and why her greatest enemy, Lady Han, mourns her death. Yang's series falls into a space that is almost serial fiction (we include it in our serial roundup), because the novellas are a shorter length, and the story and world grow with each new addition.

Fans of this #OwnVoices silkpunk saga are sure to enjoy seeing how it all began—and new readers might find this a good jumping in point for the series.

Read The Ascent to Godhood by J.Y. Yang

Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim

There’s something going on with stitching and magic in recent fantasy, but this #OwnVoices novel features both tailors and a girl-disguised-as-boy fantasy story with echoes of Mulan. Drawing inspiration from Chinese culture, Lim creates an Imperial Court where the competition over who will become the imperial tailor—and where Maia is at risk of being executed if anyone discovers that a girl is vying for the job.

Things get even worse when the court magician takes an interest in her, because he almost certainly knows the truth. Set with the task to sew three impossible gowns, one from the laughter of the sun, one from the moon’s tears, and the third from the blood of stars, Maia departs on a journey that will either save her family, or end her life.

Given that the book is marked as the first of a series, one can only hope that Maia will survive to stitch her way through future installments.

Read Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim

August

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Though this one isn't set wholly in a fantasy world, I couldn't miss out on including a Jazz Age underworld epic. Casiopea Tun dreams of life beyond her small town in Mexico, but those dreams didn't prepare her for freeing the Mayan god of death and following him into the Mayan underworld to reclaim his throne.

With parts of the novel set in Mexico City and the Yucatán and other pars set in the darkness of the Mayan land of the dead, this #OwnVoices novel is at the top of my TBR list.

Read Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Morena-Garcia

The Dragon Republic by R. F. Kuang

The sequel to Kuang's celebrated The Poppy War, the novel follows shaman and warrior Rin, now addicted to opium, traumatized by her own actions at the end of the Poppy War, and hiding from her god.

In order to get revenge on the Empress, Rin allies with the Dragon Warlord to take over her home country—but Rin learns that her new ally's motivations may not be for the good of the nation after all. Kuang uses some real-world events from twentieth century China as inspiration for an #OwnVoices fantasy full of magic and monsters.

Read The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang

September

The Magnolia Sword: A Ballad of Mulan by Sherry Thomas

If you can't wait for the 2020 live action Mulan, starring Liu Yifei, keep an eye out for this YA wuxia retelling by Chinese-American author Sherry Thomas. A cover reveal posted at Hypable also offered an excerpt packed full of martial arts action. Catching arrows? This #OwnVoices Mulan is definitely going to be our action hero.

Read The Magnolia Sword: A Ballad of Mulan by Sherry Thomas

Kingdom of Souls by Rena Barron

Arrah doesn't have the knack for her witchdoctor family's magic. But when the Kingdom's children start to disappear, she's not going to let the mystery go unsolved. But this is no simple crime spree: the Demon King is waking, and Arrah may be the only one to stop him—if she's willing to sell years of her life to gain the magic it will take to defeat him. This #ownvoices fantasy sets witchdoctors and demons and an over-ambitious mother in the path of a heroine who's willing to tackle it all to save the world.

A Hero Born by Jin Yong

It might be a stretch to consider this classic Chinese epic truly a fantasy novel, but if you love a good kung fu epic, this is absolutely a thing you need on your list. Stretching from the Song Empire to the rule of Genghis Khan, the novel follows Guo Jing, a Song patriot who joined Genghis Khan. But a greater destiny awaits him, and he must learn from the Seven Heroes of the South in order to take up the mantle of his fate.

Steel Crow Saga by Paul Krueger

Krueger explores the role of colonization in this #ownvoices Asian-inspired fantasy epic. The nation of Tomoda has, until recently, been a colonial power. The Sanbunas have recently won a war that freed them from Tomoda. It means that Jimuro, heir to Tomoda's throne, should despise Tala, one of the Sabuna soldiers escorting him back to him to his home nation. But the two of them are thrown together, along with a detective-and-Shang-princess-in-disguise, Xiulan, and her thief partner, Lee. The four of them team together to defeat a killer using more powerful magic than the world has ever seen—and, along the way, forge friendships that could change the progression of their entire world.

October

The Never Tilting World by Rin Chupeco

Climate change can be a threat even in a fantasy world, and here, a goddess has sent the world spinning into a climate shift that causes rifts between nations. Half of the world is cloaked in night, and the other half burns with daylight. The two goddesses who rule the world each have a daughter, and both have kept their secrets about which twin goddess betrayed their world.

These young goddesses are called back to the site of where it all happened... and determined to undo the damage their mothers have caused. The daytime desert setting features sandworms and sand dolphins (which is enough to put it on my TBR list right there), and the author has noted her inspiration from both Mad Max and Avatar: The Last Airbender. The worldbuilding itself is less referential to real-world mythologies, and some advance reviewers are saying it's like nothing they've ever read before. We can't help but consider that a good thing.

A River of Royal Blood by Amanda Joy

Eva and her sister Isa must face each other in mortal combat to decide who takes the throne, because in Myre, only the strongest is fit to be the queen. Eva has magick of both marrow and bone, a rare power, but it means that her sister may not be the only one who wants her dead.

Eva must rely on a fey instructor and a khimaer prince to teach her how to wield her own magick before it's too late. But Eva's biggest challenge may be facing the sister she still loves and fighting her to the death, because only one of them can survive. Based on a North African setting, this debut fantasy doesn't shy away from the dark and bloody, whether in magick or politics.

November

The Deep by Rivers Solomon

Inspired by the song of the same title, written by Hamilton original cast member Daveed Diggs and his fellow hip-hop artists William Huston and Jonathan Snipes, Solomon’s novel takes place under the water, where generations of African slave women live now-idyllic lives, their pasts forgotten.

Only Yetu, the people’s historian, remembers the truth of their past. But the weight of the memories is destroying her, so Yetu tries to flee to the surface—only to gain the understanding that if her people are to survive, they must begin to remember for themselves. Solomon, author of the science fiction novel An Unkindness of Ghosts as well as a writer on Serial Box serial The Vela, shows their versatility with this switch into this #OwnVoices fantasy.

Read The Deep by Rivers Solomon

The Impossible Contract by K.A. Doore

Doore's Chronicles of Ghadid continue as Thana, daughter of the Serpent, takes up her first assassination contract to prove her worth. Her target, Heru, is a dangerous sorcerer, and Thana isn't the only one who wants him dead. When a rival sends an undead horde to attach Heru and Thana both, Thana has no choice but to follow her target into the empire that threatens her own nation. Following a different main character from the first book in the series, The Perfect Assassin, the novel still relies on the world building of the first in this Arabian-flavored setting, so pick up book one before this one hits the shelves.

Realm of Ash by Tasha Suri

Last year's Empire of Sand told the story of Mehr, daughter of an imperial governor and a mother who is one of the outcast and oppressed Amrithi people, descendants of desert spirits. Because Mehr can work desert magic, the deathless Emperor and his advisers take her captive, force her to marry, and try to break her spirit. But when Mehr discovers their plot for her magic, she stands against the tide. In Realm of Ash, Mehr's younger sister Arwa is now an adult, widowed in a massacre she only survived due to her Amrithi heritage. To try to free the Empire from a curse, she forms an allegiance with the disgraced prince, and they travel to the Realm of Ash, seeking to to find answers in the ghostly memories of their ancestors. This #ownvoices sequel returns to the South Asian inspired desert lands of the Ambhan Empire, giving readers new aspects of its world to explore.

Queen of the Conquered by Kacen Callendar

Set in a Carribean-inspired fantasy world, this #OwnVoices novel follows Sigourney Rose, last heir to a murdered noble family. Her people have been enslaved and massacred by colonizers for generations, and Sigourney, who has the power to control minds, is ready to take her revenge. But as she manipulates herself into the royal island and among the colonizers, she realizes a sinister magic is killing the ruling families, and she herself may be a target.

Callender’s excellent middle-grade novel, Hurricane Child, had an understated sense of fantasy and a beautifully grounded depiction of the islands, family, and same-sex budding romance. While I expect the fantasy aspects in Queen of the Conquered to be much stronger, I hope that we’ll see more of those earlier strengths.

Read Queen of the Conquered by Kheryn Callender

December

Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi

If you're like us here at Den of Geek, you've already taken the quiz to find out your Maji clan and you've put the date for this release, the sequel to last year's Children of Blood and Bone, on your calendar in big red pen. We're ready to get back into the world of the Orisha and find out what happens next with Zélie and Amari now that they've brought magic back into the world.

Step one is securing Amari's throne—so that Orisha's maji clans can be safe from persecution. Can't wait until December? You've got time to read Adeyemi's first #ownvoices African-centered fantasy over again!

In the Works

Choice of Games, publisher of interactive, multiple-choice novels, has two forthcoming non-western fantasy apps in production. (Disclosure: I also have multiple-choice novels published by Choice of Games, but I’m not involved in either of these projects!)

Keep an eye out for #OwnVoices Destined for Greatness, by Yasmine Fahmy, in which the reader directs the actions of a main character who keeps company with a djinn, flies magical carpets, and has to save the city of Ghariba from a nefarious dragon; and Tale of Two Cranes by Michelle and Stepanie Balaban, in which the main character helps shape the course of a battle between two warring nobles (based on the historical civil war between the Han and Qin dynasties) in an ancient China filled with magic.

What non-western fantasies are you most looking forward to this year? What did we miss? Let us know—we’ll keep updating this piece as we find them!

Alana Joli Abbott writes about books for Den of Geek. Read more of her work here.

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