#in-depth posts about sff no one's read

[socialfauxpa]

2022 book wrap up

I got a couple messages about what i was reading in 2022 and thought the Storygraph Wrap up feature might be a good chance to post about it.

If anyone is interested in adding me on storygraph, my account username is socialfauxpas

I read a total 36 books and graphic novels this year! I was aiming to read 22 books in 2022 and overshot that goal. Most of the graphic novels were re-reads of Saga catching up for the new issues this year (i am completely caught up as of yesterday). And yes Harrow the ninth is on here twice, i read it twice this year. Also nothing but love for Martha Wells's Murder bot diaries those six books slay.

I'll post some detailed thoughts about my 5 star reads under the cut below.

My 5 Star Reads

Last night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

Listed under books that made me lose my mind. I read this in January 2022 and its discussions of discovering and belonging to queer community and acceptance of butchness had me legit sobbing at times. And all that is being paralleled with 1950's Red-Scare paranoia ! Malinda Lo was insane for this and I recommenced it to everyone interested in historical queer fiction because it has been rattling around my head for literally a year.

The Starless Sea By Erin Morgenstern

I Love Erin Morgenstern, her novel the Night Circus is one of my all-time favourite love stories ever. Starless sea is a banger too. It comes out swinging with her beautiful prose fantastic protagonists and a novel about the nature of stories and storytellers? Insane. Her wold building and interweaving of timelines is so incredible. I also listened to this as an audio book and the reader was so good at the different characters voices and delivery of the stories it really added a lot of depth to an already rich story.

The Priory of the Orange Tree By Samantha Shannon

Talk about a win for the High fantasy gays, this ones got it all. Dragons, romance, magic, RICH world building. It's what i wish game of thrones was-> a entire cast of characters and interconnected storylines across continents that 1) made sense to its own story and 2) no homophobia lol. I literally couldn't put this brick of a 850+ page novel down and read it in exactly 10 days according to storygrpah.

The Unbroken by C.L. Clark

The review on the cover says something like" this book wil grab you by the collar, break your heart over its knee, then mend it" and Yeah.jpeg. It does that. I love Touraine and Luca, their dynamic is incredible. Adele voice "Its about the devotion babes, devotion".I found this book through a Tordotcom article about The Butch Martyr in SFF, where it talked about 2 of my other favourite queer fantasy series (Gideon the Ninth and The Traitor Baru Cormorant) and i figured anything that is mentioned in the same breath as those two must be a banger, and BOy howdy is it. And ill tell you if i had nickle for every book I've read that features heavy themes of colonialism, of dealing with the grief of a love lost, and loving a culture that will never see you as one of its own, id have about 15cents. Which isn't a lot but it was the hot new trend for books i read in 2022 (2021 was lobotomy).

She Who Became the Sun by Shelly Parker-Chan

Another one i could not put down. I listened to this one as an audio book as well and i was plugged the fuck in. Absolute banger of historical fiction and an incredible GNC protagonist. I feel like ive seen this book mentioned a lot along side Xiran Jay Zhao's Iron Widow (which i also read and liked a lot this year) because these authors have taken real people from Chinese history are playing around with them like dolls. But the way this book talked about fate and how the life you live is an active choice really hit. And talk about a book that is gender, JESUS. You know how sometimes you read something and you can just tell it was written by someone who GETS it, Shelly Parker-Chan gets gender in a way that i haven't seen in a long time.

Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Can't talk about books that are so gender without talking about Nona. Yall know my love for the locked tomb series and this torch is still being carried. I've been thinking about the "It’s finished, it’s done. You can’t take loved away." line for uhhhhhh 5 months straight. I can not say enough good things about this series, I could talk about it for literally years (and i have).

[lesstheshadow]

1, 10 and 20 for the book asks?

1. book you’ve reread the most times?

pride and prejudice almost certainly!! it's my comfort reading when i feel like shit. close runner up the name of the wind which i have problems with but nonetheless has wormed its way so deeply into my brain

10. do you have a guilty fav?

probably the rivers of london series. i love it for being detective story + fantasy, for the fun magic system and for the way it feels like it's set in a london that's the one I actually live in. however. it is about police and gets kind of copaganda-y, plus the first few books have some uhhh Uncomfortable writing of women.

though tbh most detective novels with police in qualify here... i love detective novels but it's hard to reconcile them with a worldview that is genuinely for the abolition of police, carceral systems, etc.

20. what are things you look for in a book?

ooh this is a good one. probably thematic depth/exploration of things that interest me and beautiful prose are the top ones. I also like good character arcs/development and interesting worldbuilding in sff!

for this book asks post!

[elucubrare]

this post springs from Thoughts On Sincerity In SFF, but: 

In the oeuvre of K.J. Parker, everyone's a terrible person, definitely on the outside, and many of them on the inside, but Parker/Holt or his fictional universe or both has a sort of baseline goodness. 

A lot of Parker is about perversion of goodness – how the most fucked up moment in The Belly of the Bow isn't Bardas Loredan making a bow out of his nephew but Bardas' brother, the boy's father, forgiving him for the sake of family; how Poldarn's desire to know, like Oedipus's, destroys him and a bunch of other people; or how Temrai's adherence to tradition gets literally everyone killed. 

(Also I had forgotten that Gorgas Loredan opens the gates of Peridameia so that Bardas can be a hero, which is very yikes.)  

[sageblogsthings]

to celebrate The Crimson Moon reaching 30k as of this morning, i thought that i would share the progression of the opening lines of the book, and talk a bit about how the book has grown and changed in the last year! on july 27th it will be exactly a year since i first started writing this and wow i’m not getting emotional you are aha whaaaat

*cough* anywayyysss!!

draft one: please oh god don't judge me

ok i'm not going to talk negatively about my past writing because it got me to where i am today but. [marge i am looking away meme] if you can't tell, i wrote this when i was going through the existential crisis phase of uni and just wanted to live in the woods, i say like i would not currently move to the woods in a heartbeat asdklfja

at the time that i wrote this i was really happy with it because the writing was fun and, as a result, easy! at this point i was just writing in my down time from uni, and i didn't know what the plot was or what my plans were for the book as a whole. because this was just something i did in my down time, i think my writing took on more of a conversational, stream-of-consciousness tone, and that's part of what made this draft (or start of a draft, i only got like 12k in i think) so easy to write. but eventually, as the plot started to come together and i started to gain more inspiration from sff writers as a whole, i realized that this book wasn't heading in the direction i wanted it to. it wasn't just something to do in my free time at that point, it had taken on a life of it's own. and thus, draft two began.

draft two: electric boogaloo

ngl these lines still slap and i love them. there are definitely things i would change, but these lines will be in the current draft of the book, albeit not in the first chapter and altered slightly. when i started this draft, i didn't have an outline but i had a very clear, cinematic image of how i wanted this chapter to go. i think having that before i started writing helped a looooot, both in terms of prose and just being able to convey aspects of the setting/character in the first paragraph. as i continued writing this draft though, i realized that some of the character arcs didn't make sense or were getting a bit messy, and that, based on the story i wanted to tell, it didn't make sense to start with Xalia. while there are six main pov characters in this book, Vanna really is the main character and i wanted that to be clear.

draft three: this time it's personal actually good

these are the current first lines of the book, and honestly my favorite so far! starting off with Vanna rather than Xalia definitely gives the book a different feel, and it's one that's more true to the vision i have for it. in my opinion, this opening does a much better job of setting up some of the book's themes, which admittedly i'm still figuring out lol. grief and loss are major components of all the character arcs, and are integral to the plot itself. switching to present tense has also been a LIFE CHANGER for me. it's funny because, on the second stab at this book, i kept slipping into present tense, but forcing myself back to past tense because i thought present tense sounded weird. turns out it only sounded weird because it was surrounded by past tense, and now that i've written 3 chapters in present tense i can solidly say that this is the way the book was meant to be written. it just feels like my book now, and i'm so happy with where it's headed!

i also made an outline for this draft of the book, and while i've already deviated from it somewhat to work out plot holes or increase ~foreshadowing~ in certain scenes, getting all of the events out of my head and onto paper has really allowed me to just write because i know that i have a document to refer back to if i get stuck on where the story is headed. making the outline also really pushed me to think about character backstories, most of which i had previously established, but now they've changed a lot to fit together more cohesively and integrate with the plot more clearly. i've also changed a lot of the character designs, and as a result of changing the appearances and backstories of a lot of the characters, i feel a lot closer to them and the story itself. the characters have well and truly taken on a life of their own, and now i'm kind of just along for the ride, telling their stories and loving every second of it!

ALSO!! the last big change with this draft, which i just implemented literally this morning and am so so sooooo excited about, is having first person referral, present tense mini-chapters/interludes! it gives the book a really unique sound and ties into the plot really nicely i think! i feel like the structure and form of the story are finally tying into the story itself and it's driving me insane a little bit askdfjka

as of right now i'm not ready to reveal who the pov and referral characters are in these chapters, because i'm debating between a couple ways of doing things and if i go one way that would end up being a pretty big spoiler! that being said, i got really hyped up about it earlier today and rambled in the spoilers section of my server so if you do want that sweet sweet spoilers content....join my server! ;)

also. i hope u all know that i almost deleted that first snippet about ten different times but transparency in writing and all that, i really do want to show how much this book has grown and changed! even if it's going to cause me immense psychic damage to type up the image description for this but i digress

i think that's all for now, and thank you so so much if you read all of that! the love and support this project has received and continues to receive absolutely blow me away, and i can't thank you enough for being part of the journey! <3

the crimson moon taglist (ask to be +/-)

@dallonswords | @isherwoodj | @florraisons | @aetherwrites | @childhoodlovers | @bijouxs | @ziyin | @moonhungers | @piyawrites | @avi-why | @svpphicwrites | @alicewestwater | @ladywithalamp | @spencers-tomes | @discreet-writer | @sunwornpages | @abalonetea | @the-bard-writes | @x-writes | @morganwriteblr​ ​| @aphaimaniis | @stephwriteswords | @ninazeniks ​| @araliensmagica | @fuyugomori | @ryns-ramblings | @greyjaywrites | @marimos

image descriptions below the cut

[header image description]

the background is a dark castle with a checkerboard-patterned marble floor. the hallway fades into black, with the hint of a figure standing in the doorway. white text across the image reads "The Crimson Moon" in a large, all-caps font, and below that reads "wip update post" in thin, lowercase text.

[image description for excerpt one]

I lay on my back, gazing up at the sky. The weather was absolutely perfect. I could hear the crickets singing, the birds chirping, the brook babbling, all that good poetic shit.

I came out here often, just to get away and pretend like I wasn't a part of the fuck-all society I lived in. How could humans be so ignorant? We live in a world with this, I gestured expansively in my mind at the field around me, how can we not see how beautiful it is? How perfect it is? How imperfect we are by comparison?

[image description for excerpt two]

Xalia strode down the marble halls, the soft leather of her shoes meeting each tile with a cacophony of echoes. This was not the first, second, hundredth time that she had walked these passageways, and yet the chill she felt when contained within their depths never seemed to subside. The looming corridors and billowing curtains always seemed to hide sinister whispers that breathed down her neck and pricked at the tips of her ears. Perhaps it was the High Council, with their unnerving masks and owlish eyes, seeming to know and perceive all — or perhaps it was the knowledge that every time she stalked back towards the exit, she would carry the weight of another’s life on her shoulders, a life that she had to take.

[image description for excerpt three]

Vanna’s mother always tells them that grief is a sharp, biting thing; something that latches its teeth around your stomach until you double over with the weight of it. But for Vanna, that’s not quite right. There isn’t something hidden and tucked away behind the confines of their gut because there isn’t anything there at all. As they walk towards the town well — a spell book in one hand and emptiness in the other — they think that their mother got it wrong trying to describe grief in terms of presence. Grief, to them, can only be absence. The absence of light, the absence of a smile, and the absence of a palm which had curled so perfectly into theirs.

[sometimesrosy]

I know this is just like a comparison and that we shouldn't do it, but! I've just finished reading From Blood and Ash, and I was completely amazed by it. When I was still in the middle of it, it somehow gave me the courage to be able to surpass my writer's block and begin my draft. Now, here comes the problem... today I realized something: the book was published March 2020, and the author claims she had the idea since 2016 but only started writing it in September 2019. (cont.)

(cont.) That's more or less 6 months between starting the 1st draft and publishing. I'm assuming there were edits done in the middle (I mean, all books do, don't they??) Imposter syndrome came up when I was still reading the book, my mind would ask how would I ever be able to write characters as good. But I persevered! It makes me happy to think of how fast things were for her, 5th book is on the way and it's been ~2 years, but at the same time it makes me nervous. Will I even finish my draft?

+++

All right, so I need to start off by saying I am NOT an expert in the publishing world. I don't know it. So I can't explain how that all worked for her. But, the pipeline from first draft to published book is shorter for an established author than it is for a new writer. In general, I mean, if they aren't suffering from writers block or are a slow writer to begin with, like GRR Martin. Or both. Idk why that book is not out yet.

But that author has... wait let me look it up. FIFTY SEVEN PUBLISHED BOOKS OUT.

!!!!

Since 2011!!!! That's almost 6 books a year. She's one of the people they joke about when they talk about YA writers putting out so many books.

Listen nonny. This lady is a speed writer. She's a power writer.

I know speed writers. I am one.

I ghostwrite contemporary romance novels, and in the last two and a half years, I have written something like 20 books. I'm not sure. I've lost count and they've all blurred together. They're shorter books, for sure but if you look at word count, it might be close to her writing speed. You might also consider the possibility that she's hired someone to help her write all those books. I don't know her writing, but she might have a ghostwriter either writing some of the books or helping her clean them up, she CERTAINLY has an editor working on the second drafts.

As a ghostwriter, I write ONLY the first draft. In fact, I just finished one/am finishing it TODAY. I started with an outline that I did in 2/3 days, then wrote 2-3k a day for 3-4 weeks. I have three days left to write the epilogue, then go over it to tighten and clean it up, then I'm done. I try not to have to write more than 3k a day, because for me it starts to get exhausting, although if I made as much money as that author does I'm sure it would lessen the exhaustion.

Writing at that speed is not normal. In order to write that fast, you have to be obsessive, you have to do it every day, you have to have a routine that works for you, you have to have a lot of practice writing, you have to be supremely confident in what you do. You have to BE a writer. As in that's your life and your identity and you have to commit a helluva lot of time to writing.

Okay, it is normal. It's within the parameters of normal writer human behavior, but it is 100% not necessary for writers and you also shouldn't expect it of yourself if you're still on your first book.

I personally feel that the writing suffers when you write that fast. It's hard to make the story deep and meaningful and the writing taut and zingy when you're zooming through the story. Also, she writes genre books, you see, and that means conventions and tropes, and she probably mixes and matches them. Tropey genre books can be SUPER fun books to read and write because we resonate with them easily because of the familiar tropes

She might also be naturally good at writing characters. That can happen. Where she just knows how to bring out that depth of character. She's probably written HUNDREDS of characters to get to that point. AHH. And she studied psychology in college. THAT'S why her characters are so good.

I'm looking at her wikipedia. She doesn't disclose her age, which makes me think she's older than you would expect which means she's been at this a long time. You don't know HOW long she's been writing, or how much she wrote BEFORE she got published or how fast she wrote when she first started out.

Let me use myself as an example. I started writing novels (SFF) with the intention of being an author when I was 15. I FINISHED my first complete draft of a novel at 25. It took me a year. (Lit fic)

It wasn't until I started Nanowrimo at 35 that I learned I could write 3k a day and therefore finish faster. That's when my writing (SFF) started picking up speed. Then I started writing fanfiction at 45 and dropped all the anxiety that I'd always attached to my writing which kept slowing me down. I started posting my fanfic as first draft, and didn't bother with the revision process that I used in my original fic. Then I realized that I could write fast and clean first drafts, so I applied to a company that does ghostwriting, and THEY asked me to write novels in 21 days. It's a push. I don't love the pressure of having to write that much every single day, but I do write fast and I love writing stories. When I don't write stories I started to get depressed. I DREAM in stories now. They're like novels and movies. It has soaked into my bones. I'm a sack of stories held together by tired muscles and skin and fueled by coffee and peanut butter apples.

In all that writing life, I got a HS diploma, a bachelor's degree in English and Creative Writing, a master's degree in Teaching, taught HS for five years, waited tables for something like ten years, got married, had two children, one of whom is ASD/ADHD/depressed, moved something like twenty times, three times across country, got divorced, got ptsd, came down with a chronic illness, and like, SO much more. Don't look to me for publishing advice, because I've come to realize that my undiagnosed ADHD has interfered with my executive function in JUST the way that makes publishing hard (organization, paper work, reaching out to people, summaries, query letters, ugh,) even while really making me a writing machine (hyper focus FTW.)

What am I trying to say to you?

FIRST: Don't compare your beginning stages to her mastery. You're starting out. She probably started out twenty years ago and has had twenty years to develop the skills to do what she does. Writing doesn't start when you write the first word and end when you write "the end." Writing starts YEARS before, in all the study and practice and training and words that no one ever sees.

SECOND: She didn't write this book in six months. You should have picked up on that when she said she's been developing this story since 2016. She's BEEN working on it. Even when not writing it. The planning has already been going on for years and she probably has put a LOT of effort into those characters that you think just poofed into being in six months. She had it in her head, and in her notes, and in her plans WAY before starting writing.

THIRD: Everyone's writing process is different and every book you write also happens differently. Just because she did her first draft in a month or two or six and you haven't finished yours yet doesn't mean you can't. You have to COMMIT to finishing it, and frankly, that's what happened to me with my first finished draft. I was afraid I would NEVER finish that book, so I made a commitment to sit down at the same time every day and write until I was done. I think I started with a page a day, then slowly worked up to three pages a day and every once in a while hit ten pages. That was before I used word counts. And before 2k a day was my favorite daily goal. You can WORK up to writing fast, although you don't need to. You just need to sit down and commit to finishing.

FOURTH: Don't worry about speed unless you have a deadline. Don't despair because a professional speed writer at the height of her career can pump books out. Be your OWN kind of writer. Just keep moving forward. And when you finally hit "THE END" celebrate. Then work on revision. A totally different experience.

[franklyautistic]

Alternatives to H*rry P*tter

Given Robert Galbraith’s recent decision to become a Death Eater (”I just don’t want mudbloods in pure-blood spaces”), I am sure many people are looking for new fandoms to get involved in. So here are two great literary fantasy worlds to get stuck into.

I have strictly stuck to 1) fantasy, and 2) series, so great SFF authors like @annleckie, @neil-gaiman, @charliejane-anders, @jscalzi, @maryrobinette, Annalee Newitz, Yoon Ha Lee, and many more had to miss out. Particular shout-outs to Anders and Lee, who are both trans, and Newitz and Leckie in particular have handled trans issues very well in their writing.

(If anyone is looking for recommendations of stand-alone works, or sci fi, or more queer-focused works, or anything else, then hit me up and I can throw ideas at you.)

All these books share two key things: characters who jump off the page and into your heart, and

So, without further ado:

N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy

There is a paradox in recommendation: the better something is, the less one wants to say about it, in case it spoils the experience. With most stories, one does not want to spoil the dramatic twists and turns, the surprises, the emotional highs and lows. And the Broken Earth trilogy has all of that. There are several major twists in the first book alone. There are characters you will love, and others you will despise with intense venom, and some who will make you feel both at once. This is a series full of triumph and despair, wonder and amazement. But you could have all the plot twists spoiled for you and it wouldn’t diminish your enjoyment of this book. The emotion is never cheap, but built up through excellent thematic work which gives the series a huge amount of depth and subtlety.

Jemisin is a middle-aged black woman, not a demographic frequently represented in epic fantasy stories like this, but here she wears her blackness and femininity with pride. This story could not have been written by anyone other than a black woman, a proud feminist and black rights advocate. It’s a staggering work which will make you feel intense feelings in even the most mundane details.

Did I mention that all three books won the Hugo Award? That’s a huge deal, completely unprecedented. By any measure, these are historically important fantasy books.

Lastly, there is a trans character who has a significant supporting role, receives lots of development, and who finds a loving, accepting community. She is not fetishised, and while her transness is made explicit on occasion, it does not define her. There are other queer characters, including two very important ones, and a poly relationship. And nearly all the characters are black.

Patrick Rothfuss’s Kingkiller Chronicles

I can’t not mention Rothfuss. The first thing you notice about The Kingkiller Chronicles is that Rothfuss’ prose is extremely rich. The story is narrated by Kvothe, who was once the greatest adventurer in the world but has lost his magic, and is now trying to live out his life in peace. As well as the great prose, Rothfuss excels at character development. Kvothe is never allowed to get comfortable. His life is constantly driven forwards, and his character builds along with it. And there’s some really good payoff in the form of a few great “crowning moments of awesome” when Kvothe masters a skill.

I will say that some of the sex scenes are rather cringeworthy. I hope that this is intentional, with Kvothe being deliberately portrayed as an arrogant guy who plays up his sexual conquests. But he isn’t just a bad boy

There are no trans characters that I am aware of. There are two obviously gay characters who are in a relationship with each other. While there is a range of female characters, the depictions of women are occasionally a little limited - it’s a step above Tolkien but far from perfect.

And given that this is about Galbraith - in 2015 Rothfuss unthinkingly shared a transphobic New York Times article. It would have been easy for him to claim it was a mis-click, or to double down, just like Galbraith. Instead, he owned up to his ignorance and committed to listening to trans voices and becoming better informed.

Laini Taylor - Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Karou is a young artist who collects teeth for a mysterious benefactor, who might be the devil.

This starts out as an atmospheric urban fantasy book, but builds into a sprawling epic, full of tension, some really brutal scenes, and also lots of feely goodness. Characters bare their souls, get them torn up in their face, pick up the scraps, pull them back together again, and do it all again. Themes include identity, memory, transformation, appearances, good and evil, and love. And once you’re done with the trilogy, there is a weakly-related duology (Strange The Dreamer and Muse of Nightmares) to crack on with.

The nature of most of the characters in the original trilogy makes applying human labels difficult. There is an explicitly asexual character who is shown in a romantic relationship, but the first clearly same-sex relationships don’t show up until the later duology, which is slightly disappointing given the first series focuses on romance. However, I think Taylor’s works very much lend themselves to being read through a queer lens, particularly from a gender perspective.

-----

That’s what I have for you. The intent here is to recommend brilliant fantasy series that can replace Harry Potter in your heart. If you’d like queerer SFF, or black SFF, Asian SFF, or anything else, let me know and I can pull a recommendation post together.

[dillydedalus]

what i read in march

several antigones & some other stuff

call me zebra, azareen van der vliet oloomi

oh boy. i really wanted to like this one, but uh. nah. so this book is about zebra, a young iranian-american from a lineage of ‘autodidacts, anarchists and atheists’, still traumatised by her childhood experience as a refugee (incl. her mother’s death on route). when her father dies years later, zebra decides to retrace the route of her exile thru barcelona, turkey, and back to iran. this sounds great! the beginning is good! but zebra is a quixotic figure (don quixote is unsubtly flagged as THE intertext several times), delusional about her own importance, obsessed with some kind of great literary mission and obnoxious & condescending & egotistic as all fuck (she looks down on students but treats her realisation that like, intertextuality is a thing, as this grand revelation when like..... we been knew since Lit. Theory 101) - and this is intentional & part of the quixotic thing & in general i approve of abrasive & bristly & difficult female characters BUT i expected there to be a gradual process of realisation where she sees that a) maybe her entirely male lineage of geniuses ain’t all that, c) her mission is uh.... incomprehensible. instead, once she reaches spain, she gets bogged down in endless pretentious bullshit and a #toxic relationship that takes up way too much space. knowing that all of that is likely intentional doesn’t.... make it good. also the writing is pretty overwrought for the most part & not even your narrator’s voice being Like That excuses plain bad writing, like the  absurd overuse of ‘intone’ and ‘pose’ as dialogue tags. i see the potential and i see the point & i liked some of it but uh. not good. 2/5, regretfully, generously

in the distance, hernan diaz

i don’t really go for westerns or man vs wilderness stories but damn i’m impressed. despite the violence & deprivation and sheer amount of gross shit, this story of a swedish immigrant getting lost in the american west for decades remains at its core so human, so tender, so sad (honestly this book is SO SAD, yet sometimes oddly hopeful), so evocative of isolation, loneliness, and the desire for human connection. 4/5

notes on a thesis, tiphaine rivière (tr. from french)

god, if i ever considered doing a phd i sure don’t anymore. this is a short graphic novel about a young woman’s descent into academic hell while writing her dissertation about labyrinths in kafka. it’s funny, the art is expressive and fanciful, and it is incredibly relateable if you’ve ever tried to actually write your brilliant, glorious, intricately constructed argument down, battled uni administration or had a panic attack over how to phrase a harmless email to a prof. Academia: Not Even Once. 3.5/5

red mars, kim stanley robinson

this is a very long hard sci-fi novel about mars colonisation & terraforming, discussing the ethics of terraforming, the potentials of a truly ‘martian’ culture, and how capitalism will inevitably fuck everything up, including outer space. all of this is up my alley and i did really like the first half (early colonisation efforts), but the 2nd half (beginning of terraforming, lots of politicking) was a slog - i liked reading about how terraforming was going, but the rest was just bloated, scattered and confusing. also there’s a tedious love triangle the whole time. 2/5

dragon keeper (rain wild chronicles #1), robin hobb

i love robin hobb she really can write a whole 500+ page book of set-up, characterisation and politicking and make it WORK. anyway, this has disabled dragons, a quest for mystical city, lots of rain wilds weirdness, a dragon scholar in an unhappy marriage, liveships, a sweet dummy romance, and uh... a lil penpalship between two messenger bird keepers? not much happens but it’s so NICE & so much is going to happen. also althea & brashen & malta turned up & i screamed. 3.5/5

season of migration to the north, tayeb salih (tr. from arabic)

this is a seminal work of post-colonial arabic literature, a haunting tale of the impact of colonialisation, especially of cultural hegemony in the education system, the disturbing dynamics of orientalism and sex, and village life in a modernising post-colonial sudan. it’s important, it’s well-written, it’ll make you think, but fair warning, there is a lot of violence against women - it has a point but still uh... wow. 3.5/5

dune, frank herbert

SOMETIMES.... BOOKS THAT ARE CONSIDERED MASTERWORKS OF THEIR GENRE.... ARE WORSE. so much worse. the writing in this is atrocious (”his voice was charged with unspeakable adjectives”), herbert somehow manages to make court intrigue and plotting UNBELIEVABLY DULL and sure, it was the 60s, but i’m p sure people knew imperialism was bad in the 60s! the main character, the eugenically-engineered chosen one or whatever, literally spends years among the oppressed & resisting natives of a planet ruled by a space!empire and at the end he’s like ‘i own this planet bc imperialism is Good Actually’. emotionally neglecting/abusing your wife, who you (!!!) decided (!!!) to marry for political reasons bc you’d rather marry your gf is also Good Actually (cosigned by the protag’s mother....) the worldbuilding is influential for the genre, sure w/e, but mainly notable for there just.... being a lot of it, the whole mythology-science makes No Goddamn Sense, all around this is just Bad. Bad. 0.5/5 i hope the Really Big Worms eat everyone 

dragon haven (rain wild chronicles #2), robin hobb

this healed my soul after toxic exposure to dune. anyway w/o spoilers: everyone is very much In Their Feelings (including me) and there’s a lot of Romance and Internal Conflict and Feelings Drama and Complicated Relationships and Group Dynamics and also dragons, which are really like very big, very haughty cats who can speak, and a flood and a living river barge with a mind of his own (love u tarman!). it’s still slow and languid but so so good. also: several people in this have to be told that People Are Gay, Steven, including Sedric, who is himself Gay People. 4/5

an unkindness of ghosts, solomon rivers

super interesting scifi story set on a generation ship with a radically stratified society in which the predominantly black lowerdeckers are oppressed and exploited by the predominantly white upperdeckers, mixed in with a lot of Gender Stuff (the lowerdeckers seem to have a much less stable and binary gender system than the upperdeckers) and neuroatypicality. it’s conceptually rich and full of potential, but just doesn’t quite stick the landing when it comes to the plot. 3/5

sanatorium under the sign of the hourglass, bruno schulz (tr. from polish)

more dreamy surreal short stories (ish?). i didn’t like this collection quite as much as the amazing street of crocodiles, but they are still really good, even tho you never quite know what is going on. featuring flights of birds, people turning into insects, thoughts about seasons and time, fireman pupae stuck in the chimney, and the continuing weird fixation on adela the maid. 3.5/5

angela merkel ist hitlers tocher, christian alt & christian schiffer

a fun & accessible guide to conspiracy theories, focusing on the current situation in germany and the current boom in conspiracy theories, but also including some historical notes. i wish it had been a bit less fun & flippant and more in-depth and detailed bc it really is quite shallow at points, but oh well. also yes the title does indeed translate to ‘angela merkel is hitler’s daughter’ so. yes. 2.5/5

the midwich cuckoos, john wyndham

fun lil scifi story in which almost all women in sleepy village midwich are suddenly pregnant, all at the same time. the resulting children, predictably, are strange, creepy, and possibly a threat to humanity. i get that it was written in the 50s but it is strange to read a book where almost all women, and only women, are affected by A Thing, but all the main characters are men & no one tells the women ‘hey we think it’s xenogenesis’ -  like realistically 80% of women affected went to the Neighbourhood Lady Who Takes Care of These Things like ‘hello, one (1) abortion please’ and the plot just ended there. i still liked it tho! 3/5

antigone project

antigone, the original bitch, by sophocles (tr. by fagles)

god antigone really is That Bitch. that’s all i have to say. 4.5/5

antigone, That Bitch but in french, jean anouilh

the Nazi-occupied france antigone. loved the meta commentary on what tragedy is and how antigone has to step into the Role of Antigone, which will kill her “but there’s nothing she can do. her name is antigone and she will have to play her part through to the end”. i didn’t really like (esp. given the ~historical context) the choice to make creon much more sympathetic, trying to save antigone’s life from the beginning. hmm. 3.5/5

antigonick, anne carson

look, antigone really is That Bitch and you know what? so is anne carson. best thing i’ve read so far this year, don’t ask me about it or i’ll yell the task of the translator of antigone at you. 5/5

home fire, kamila shamsie

honestly i really wanted to like this bc politically it’s on point and an anti-islamophobia antigone sounds amazing, but it just doesn’t succeed as a book/adaption. it spends way too much time in build-up/backstory (the play’s plot only starts in the second half of the book!), waaayyy to much time on the weirdly fetishistic antigone/haimon romance, and even the most interesting characters (ismene & creon) don’t fully work out. sad. 2/5

currently reading: the magic mountain by thomas mann, but i should be done in a week or so! also: the paper menagerie by ken liu, a collection of sff short stories

[problemsofabooknerd]

LGBTQIA+ BookTubers You Should Be Subscribed To

Pride Day 4!

Check out the intro to my Pride project here.

Here’s a thing you probably already know if you follow this blog: I’m a lesbian BookTuber! For the uninitiated, BookTube is a specific subset of YouTube that involves talking about all things bookish. You want reviews? Recommendations? Discussions? People screaming about their favorite new releases? That’s BookTube in a nutshell. But, when you first join the community, it can be a little harder to find LGBTQIA+ BookTubers. Fear not, we’re out there! And today I’m recommending my favorite channels run by some of my favorite humans. If you want a quick shorlist, I have already posted one of those, but this one will get more in-depth with the kind of videos these lovely people post, and the books they read. 

Perpetualpages - This channel is run by the amazing Adriana. If you want in-depth discussions of books (some that you probably have heard of, some that you haven’t) they are the person to follow. Adriana constantly highlights queer lit, Latinx lit, and so much other diverse content. You will never run out of recommendations, and every single video they post leaves me speechless as far as giving me new insights on books and media. Their discussion videos also always astound me, and are some of my favorite content on BookTube. 

WoolfsWhistle - Nicole is out here, ready to give you all the sapphic book recommendations you could ever need. Ok, she reads beyond sapphic content. In fact, plenty of variety as far as LGBTQIA+ content is on her channel, but I’ve also gotten some of my all-time favorite wlw books from recommendations in her videos. Her video, Summer Reads for Queer Ladies, is how I found her channel originally and its such a solid introduction to her content. Nicole also has a really excellent mix of books that are super hyped, as well as ones I haven’t seen mentioned anywhere else. 

Danika Leigh Ellis - In all likelihood, if you are into finding books with sapphic content, you’ve probably seen some of Danika’s writing already. She manages The Lesbrary, plus @biandlesbianliterature here on tumblr. AND she’s a Book Riot contributor. Honestly, if you are looking for any kind of book that features sapphic ladies, Danika is the person to go to. Her videos are just as informative and full of recommendations as her posts around the internet, and she’s all around a delightful human. Also, she created the LGBTQIA+ BookTube tag so go through this playlist and you will find lots of others who have done this video. 

The Boy Who Cried Books - Joseph is here to be queer and talk about queer lit. I actually first happened across his channel when he challenged himself to read nothing but queer books for a full year, and he documented that through a bunch of wrap ups and other videos. Check out that full playlist of Year of Queer videos here! Joseph is hilarious, and constantly highlighting books about queer and/or POC folks, so you should 100% be watching his channel.

Kayley Hyde - Kayley has been doing YouTube for like ten years which is kind of mind-boggling to me, but in more recent years her channel has become a bit more book focused. She’s super sweet, always talks about queer books - mostly contemporary, but plenty of other genres mixed in there as well. Plus, and this is only slightly unrelated, but she has the BEST instagram, and it is full of pictures of Kayley and her girlfriend that I gush over daily. 

Wish Fulfillment - Sylwia is one of my favorite people on the internet, and I cannot possibly gush enough about her. Her entire channel is super focused on so many forms of representation, from feminism to mental health to the queer community and more, and every wrap up features a super in-depth look at at least a couple of the books she’s read recently. She covers a wide variety of genres (and has said in the past it’s her goal to get into every genre out there), so there is a little something for every viewer. Sylwia is deeply supportive, incredibly smart, and I love every single piece of content she uploads. 

TeaLeavesandBookBindings - What’s fabulous about Ashley, at least for me, is that we read similar books, but I feel like Ashley always has something new to add about them that I didn’t think about, or she has a wildly different opinion that can really change my perspective. We can hype books together, and then have totally opposing opinions that I love to discuss with her. She also always brings variety to her content on YouTube and I adore that. Her Reading While Queer video series started right about the same time that Danika created the LGBTQIA+ BookTube Tag, and it is an utterly engaging mix of discussion of books, representation, and anger. She’s fabulous.

Iris Moon - I have been watching Iris’ channel since right around when I first joined BookTube, and it’s been amazing to watch them grow as a reader, as a reviewer, and as a person. They’ve always been super academic and intriguing with their reviews (the thing that initially drew me to their channel) and I have constantly found totally unexpected books through their wrap ups and recommendations. They also created the Representation Book Tag, which Iris tagged me to do as well and I promise it will happen soon, but it’s fantastic and super enlightening so check that out!

DylantheReader5 - If you’re anywhere on book Twitter, you must have seen Dylan by now. I mean, he’s everywhere. Also, I adore him, just putting that out there. Dylan reads primarily contemporary, mostly emotional contemporary, mystery, and romance. He’s also mega friendly, hilarious, and I spend most of my life sad we live far away so I can’t hug him. It’s a disaster on geography’s part. But if you aren’t already watching his videos, fix that right this second! 

Things Lucy Reads - Luce is another BookTuber I feel like I’ve been watching for years! I feel like she’s one of those OG queer BookTubers that has been doing the work for so long, and I live for it. The BookTube Code of Silence videos remains one of my all-time favorites in terms of rep and how we discuss it online, but overall Luce constantly recommends incredible underrated books. Plus I never get tired of her Star Wars content.

xreadingsolacex - Kav!! Is such a gift to our community! I adore their videos, their frank and honest discussion of books, and the recommendations I get from their channel, but honestly Kav is a delightful part of bookish internet in every sense. They’re always cheering people on in the comments (sometimes I get a comments blast from Kav and I get super emotional about it), and they also talk so extensively online about representation, the book community, and how we all can constantly be doing better. Truly, I love them in every way and you should too.

That’s it for the channel highlights! There are lots more LGBTQIA+ BookTubers out there for you to find beyond this list, I promise. You could be watching Riley Marie, Ben Alderson, TheHufflePuffleBooks, jennaclarek, Winx & Ink, TheIrishReader, Pucksandpaperbacks, George Lester, and Peter Likes Books. Also check out this playlist by Danika of Queer Women Booktubers! Alright, that’s all from me today, but be sure to check back tomorrow if you’re looking for some queer SFF.

[bronanlynch]

recent media consumption summary time

could’ve sworn the last one was only two weeks ago but apparently it was three. sorry for becoming unmoored from the passage of linear time

listening: you know when you use a song lyric as a fic title and then you get that song stuck in your head for the next week? anyway Whirlpool by Sea Wolf sure is a song that I enjoy and also have had stuck in my head for a week. I feel like I should have smarted musical things to say here but I like Sea Wolf, they’re nice to listen to, they’re sad man with guitar music without being identical to every other sad man with guitar band

reading: finished my reread of Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo, and my main thought this time around is that I love Kaz with my whole entire heart. also love a good multi-layered heist scheme. also also Wylan/Jesper is cute but I do think they don’t get nearly as much relationship development as the two m/f couples and like, I really like these books but that is very much a trend especially in sff YA these days

also finished Lord Seventh (Qi Ye) by Priest and. god I love the characters so much. a friend group can just be a bunch of horrible gay people pining for each other and betraying each other in order to save each other’s lives. extremely tasty. also,

(I would say that missed opportunity is my one complaint but like. my actual main complaint is that as much as I love the characters, I think that if the racism in your text is blatant enough that I, a white american with very little knowledge of the specific racial coding happening can pick up on it, then it’s uh. probably pretty blatant and that’s Not Great)

also did some pride month impulse purchases at my local indie bookstore, including Molly Knox Ostertag’s The Girl from the Sea, a lesbian selkie graphic novel, which did so many things to my heart. first of all the art is so pretty

second of all, I too have been lonely and starting to realize that I’m gay while living in a beach town with a summer tourism economy, drifting apart from a friend group that I didn’t feel like I was part of and wishing I was literally anywhere else even though I loved the ocean. third of all, gay selkies

also read The Witch King by H.E. Edgmon which I enjoyed even though I am definitely not the target audience for first person present tense novels, even if those novels are portal fantasies about fae power struggles and arranged marriages. I really enjoyed the three main characters and their relationships, and the worldbuilding was fun, though the twist at the end (and lots of parts of the ending tbh) felt a little bit abrupt to me. also, and this is a personal thing, but someday I would love to read a fantasy novel with a transmasc character that actually feels like it reflects my experiences. I guess that’s part of the problem with looking for this in YA, but that’s where I tend to see transmasc protagonists so here I am. anyway, valid for anyone but especially trans teens to want to read a narrative about someone being loud and open about their identity but that’s not my experience. which I think is why I tend to construct my own trans narratives around characters who like, aren’t canonically trans but have themes about lying and hiding and being defensive about their image because *that’s* a trans experience I actually relate to.

I’ve started In Deeper Waters by F.T. Lukens, which is not a book I intended to buy but 1) look at the cover

2) I am weak for gay people on the sea. it’s fun so far, I’m not expecting any sort of in-depth anything about royal power but it’s cute and light and I’m having a good time. my main complaint is again a personal thing, which is not actually a complaint about the book itself and more about twitter discourse about how there should never be homophobia in sff that takes place in different worlds and how we’ve had enough of that so everything should take place in a world where it’s fine and normal to be queer. and again, that’s fine! I do enjoy books like that! I am currently enjoying a book like that! but again, I have a harder time relating to characters whose queerness isn’t mediated by fear the way mine is (this book sidesteps that by making the main character a very anxious person, which helps increase the relatability, but also. there’s this whole thing about how people distrust him and there are rumors about his ~perversion and yeah it’s about his secret hidden magic but. felt very weird to have that set-up and then not have homophobia play any part in the way other people talk about him, y’know? like please, stigmatized magic as a parallel for stigmatized sexuality is Right There)

watching: finished Nirvana in Fire and am having lots of normal and moderate emotions about it. belongs in my mental categories of “media I want to consume over and over again and take it apart and figure out how to write like that” and also “things I want to rewatch when I have enough energy to appreciate it” because I do think if I weren’t so tired these days I could’ve tried to have predictions instead of waiting for the characters to explain their plans to me, as much as I do love it when attractive people smirk at the screen and monologue about their schemes

also watched most of Castlevania season 4 (I have 3 episodes left) and it’s. well. it’s not Good but it’s a lot better than season 3. however, I only care about a few of the plotlines and everything else is kinda boring. I like Alucard’s plotline and I like Greta and I liked the two scenes where Hector and Isaac interacted and I liked the vampire lesbians deciding that being gay was more important to them than doing war crimes. cannot be bothered to care about anything else though, especially St. Germain. more importantly, Alucard’s new look fucks. love the whole cape + tits out thing.

finally got around to watching the end of the first season of Elementary and once again, I enjoy it when people explain complicated plans to me. love a good mystery. also, predictably, I’m in love with Moriarty. her first two dates with Sherlock are about art forgery and Roman artifacts in the London sewers, how was I supposed to *not* fall in love with her. also every time she interacts with Joan after the reveal has extremely homoerotic energy. ladies is it gay to become psychosexually obsessed with a woman who outplotted you

also, very importantly, my roommate realized I’d never seen Tsubasa OVAs, and they sure are an experience. I read the entire manga in like two days in a fugue state last winter and remember very little of the plot of the second half of the story, so the second OVA which is like. a random section of the late plot was kind of a lot to try to process at once, though I do appreciate one of the main ships doing a Gift of the Magi thing except instead of selling treasured possessions to get each other gifts they’re sacrificing parts of themselves. however the first one is my favorite arc, because it should not surprise anyone that the post-apocalyptic vampire arc is my favorite. also, I don’t need to remember the actual plot to remember and appreciate how much of an Eliot-core character Fai is. look at him. prettyboy ice wizard pretending to be flirty and performatively useless to hide his trauma. also he’s a vampire. he sets off the cosplay and gender envy parts of my brain so much

playing: nothing new since last time, just more Tidepools and Beam Saber. maybe someday I will play a video game again

making: got to cook for just the two of us last week instead of having to find something that everyone would eat, so Zan and I finally got to make chicken marsala from this recipe and it was extremely good. next time we’re gonna double the mushrooms though I think, the recipe didn’t make quite enough compared to the amount of chicken

someday I will make non-food things again but unfortunately, when most of your energy has to go to either cooking and cleaning for other people or trying to get other people to cook and clean,

writing: posted three new fics: the Persona selkie AU, the Nirvana in Fire miserable sapphic makeout fic, and a slice-of-life Persona fic for an exchange, and worked on a couple of other things that are still secret for zine reasons

[blackforestbasilisks]

Execution: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Enjoyment: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The spinners, the weavers, the dyers, the healers.

We spin the threads that bind the world… we spin blue. 

We are the Communion of Blue.

It’s fairly rare that I read any middle grade books, but I saw Niki’s art for The Deep & Dark Blue and immediately fell in love. I knew at once that I had to check this book out. The bold colours and character designs work for me. When I heard it described as “Tamora Pierce, except if Alanna/Alan got to actually be trans,” that was all I needed to know. I headed off and snagged it from Bookshop. And honestly? It completely lived up to all my hopes and dreams. 

First, the art. The art is stunning. Niki uses a palette of bright, saturated blues, reds, and pinks throughout the novel to great effect. Panels are bold with large swathes of color containing only minimal shading within each block. Her art style is eye-catching and creates a sense that the world is bigger, broader, and more lush than the dialogue and narration can cover on their own. 

I have a real soft spot for magic based on weaving and spinning. As Tor.com recently discussed in their blog post, In Defense of Needlework, it’s common for young girls in SFF to feel empowered by disliking feminine activities such as sewing. I think that gets just a bit old, myself, and clearly Niki is in firm agreement with me. As in The Four Profound Weaves by R. B. Lemberg (another AMAZING story featuring trans characters!), the art of working cloth has been elevated from a mundane activity that’s too-often disparaged by powerful characters into a source of power and strength in and of itself. The act of creation becomes a source of magic. 

When the sisters in the Communion of Blue spin their wool, it’s not just thread that they create. Instead, it allows them to control the elements – wind, fire, and water. They are tapping in to the world itself and changing the very fabric of reality with their magic. Not all the sisters are able to spin Blue, however; others fill different roles within the Communion. Some learn martial arts, some farm the fields, and some are chosen to become healers. Each art has its own values, even if Hawke, one of our two main characters, is a bit slow to realize it. 

Grayson and Hawke are twin brothers, scions of House Sunderlay. Neither of the pair ever expected to have much to do with the Communion of Blue beyond watching a few of their ceremonies from afar, but their life is thrown into turmoil when their sister stages a coup on their house, killing their father and his heir. They flee, disguising themselves as young girls amongst the Communion’s new initiates. 

For Grayson, however, being a girl isn’t just a disguise. For once in her life, she can be the person she’s always wanted to be: Grayce, a sister in the Communion of Blue. She’s always been Grayce, deep underneath, but only now is she in a position to embrace herself and her own life. She’s admired the sisters from afar for years, pining away as they perform their magics in the distance. Hawke, however, chafes beneath his dresses and wants his old life back. 

Hawke is admitted into the ranks of the Guardians, initially ecstatic that he’ll be learning to fight. His hopes are quickly dashed, however, when he learns that the sisters rely on balance and speed, utilizing unarmed combat techniques. He’s trained with a sword his entire life; what possible use could he have for punches and kicks? Later, however, he’ll learn exactly what sort of advantage they can bring to him. Without these skills, his quest to bring justice to his house would never have succeeded. He’s been raised as a boy and will become a man, but Niki takes this opportunity to once again highlight the strength of women and femininity. 

The acceptance and love both Hawke and the sisterhood show towards Grayce is heartwarming and beautiful. It made me so happy to see the support Grayce receives at every turn. She’s worried, and rightly so; coming out and telling people you’re close to that you’ve hidden something from them is incredibly frightening! The fear of rejection is very, very real. Hawke’s reaction made me adore him: he was horrified. Horrified that he hadn’t realized she was Grayce and not Grayson, and oh-so-embarrassed that he’d been thinking of her as Grayson this whole time when she clearly, clearly was not. Reading that scene, my whole reaction can be summed up as “omg my babies I love them they are so good and wholesome and I love them??? omg sweet babies” (don’t judge me). It warmed my heart. It’s the kind of content I desperately need more of during this whole pandemic and quarantine situation. Cinnamon rolls, the both of them. 

Now, admittedly, it is important to go in with expectations reasonable for a middle grade book. Since this is aimed at a younger audience, it’s focused first and foremost on being clear and straight to the point. There aren’t intricate plot lines that intersect and interweave, etc. It’s much simpler than Alanna’s adventures in Tortall were, in part because of the age and in part because of the medium. That said, there is still a ton to enjoy as an adult! As said earlier, my only gripe is that I really do wish there’d been a little bit more. Although it makes sense that there isn’t given its audience focus, I’d give a lot for an in-depth look at the Communion’s internal politics, more information on how the magic works, and a better understanding of its capabilities and limits. I love the world, and I do wish that I had an opportunity to dig into it a bit deeper. 

I’d highly recommend this graphic novel to anyone who’s in the mood for a quick, feel-good story about good overcoming evil. If you love beautiful art, trans representation, and highly developed characters, this is the book for you. Niki recently did an AMA with us over at r/Fantasy, which is another great resource to learn more about The Deep & Dark Blue along with its author. Loved it!

Niki Smith is an artist, writer, and lover of fine comics (and some pretty trashy ones too). I grew up in Kansas and now call Germany home, and I’m dedicated to filling the world with queer and diverse stories! My debut graphic novel, Crossplay, is a Lambda Literary Award nominee.

I’m a US author but I moved to Germany with my wife a few years ago; I was supposed to spend April and May back in the States doing a tour of comic conventions and book festivals, but, well, none of that’s happening now! I’ve also drawn serious nonfiction comics for The Nib and silly smutty (and totally educational) stuff for Oh Joy, Sex Toy.

Follow them on Twitter, Patreon, or Instagram.

Goodreads | Book Depository | Amazon | Bookshop

Have you read this book? What did you think? Do you have any questions about it?

Let me know in the comments below!

 The Deep & Dark Blue by @niki_smith - I saw Niki's art and immediately fell in love. The story is heartwarming and gorgeous, and I have a major soft spot for magic based on weaving and spinning. 5/5 stars! Execution: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Enjoyment: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ The spinners, the weavers, the dyers, the healers. We spin the threads that bind the world...

[hermanwatts]

Sensor Sweep: Sword & Sorcery, Tales From the Magician’s Skull, Boxing, C.S. Lewis, RIFTS

Lit-Crit/Culture Wars (Brain Leakage): They always featured their alpha male heroes in exotic locations, getting into fist fights, knife fights, and gun fights. The women were always fast and dangerous. The bad guys were always powerful and ruthless. The covers usually depicted some hard case with a gun, striking a tough guy pose with a scantily clad woman nearby. Maybe she had a gun of her own, watching his six. Maybe she was just clutched onto the hero, begging his protection. Politically incorrect? Maybe. But so what?

  Magazines (Goodman Games): Tales From the Magician’s Skull is a printed fantasy magazine dedicated to presenting all-new sword-and-sorcery fiction by the finest modern crafters in the genre. These stories are the real thing, crammed with sword-swinging action, dark sorceries, dread, and ferocious monsters — and they hurtle forward at a headlong pace.  Last year, we published issues #1 and #2 to great acclaim. The stories were well-received, and the fans demanded – more! MORE! We hear you, fans, and the Skull is prepared to grant your desire!

This Kickstarter launches issues #3 and #4, as well as subscriptions to future issues!

  Robert E. Howard (Black Gate): I have been mulling this problem for a while now, and of course, I had the answer all along: “Queen of the Black Coast” is the best Conan tale to read if you have never read any before. In other words, it is the perfect story to discover the character, the Hyborian setting, and of course Howard’s talent.

One of the numerous problems that have plagued the perception of the Cimmerian by the general public is this idea that the tales represent as many steps in Conan’s so-called “biography,” though nothing in the series supports that notion.

  Cthulhu Mythos (DMR Books): Price burst onto the Cthulhu Mythos/weird fiction/pulp scene in 1981 when he launched Cryptic Publications and its flagship title, Crypt of Cthulhu. For those who don’t know the history, the late ‘70s was a little bit of a low ebb for things Mythosian and Lovecraftian. Arkham House, after the death of August Derleth, had veered away from the Mythos fiction that had been its bread and butter.

  C. S. Lewis (Mewsings): Some time in the mid-to-late 1930s, C S Lewis and J R R Tolkien agreed to each write an “excursionary ‘thriller’”, as Tolkien put it, with Tolkien attempting a story of time-travel and Lewis one of space-travel. Tolkien never finished his (what exists was eventually included in The Lost Road and Other Writings), whereas C S Lewis went on to write a whole trilogy, beginning with Out of the Silent Planet(published in 1938).

  Sword-and-Planet (Fantasy Literature): The first novel of Farley’s to see the light of day, The Radio Man, was initially serialized in the pages of the 10-cent weekly Argosymagazine, a four-part affair stretched over the June 28 – July 19, 1924 issues; that first issue featured gorgeous cover artwork for the serial by famed illustrator Stockton Mulford. Farley’s novel was later reprinted as a three-part serial in the 12/39 – 2/40 issues of Famous Fantastic Mysteries (which, despite its name, reprinted prodigious amounts of sci-fi and fantasy), and was finally released as a hardcover book, in 1948, by the Fantasy Publishing Company, featuring another impressive cover, this time by one O. G. Estes, Jr.

  Comic Books (Paint Monk): “Conan the Gambler” is the first issue in a three-part story arc, and it begins as many Conan comics do – the Cimmerian stumbles across an outnumbered victim being robbed. It doesn’t take a heady plot to create a good Conan story, and in this case, the trope is well-used but effective.

The victim Conan rescues is a man named Maraudus Mathir, a foreign merchant engaged in a trade war with another dangerous peddler named Kero, dubbed “Kero the Callous.”

  Tolkien (Alas, Not Me): The question arose for me immediately: why do only ‘mortal men’ require enchantment to be ‘contained’ in Faërie? While I had written before about the mortal experience of Faërie in Middle-earth, I had never asked myself this question as far as I could recall. What came to mind at once was a passage from The Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth in Morgoth’s Ring. There Finrod says to Andreth (MR 315).

  Boxing (Don Herron): 100 years ago today, on July 4th, 1919, Jack Dempsey won the heavyweight title from Jess Willard in Toledo. 

It was a remarkable time in the history of sports. Dempsey was more popular than Babe Ruth and boxing was followed every bit as closely as football or baseball.

Here’s what Robert E. Howard had to say about Dempsey in a letter to H. P. Lovecraft, years after Dempsey was no longer champion: “Jack London and Jim Tully wrote their way up out of the abyss; Jack Dempsey fought his way up.”

        Art (DMR Books): Roy G. Krenkel would’ve turned one hundred and one today. I have to say that his centennial year was underwhelming. Despite his importance to SFF art during a crucial period in the twentieth century, his one hundredth birthday year went largely ignored across the blogosphere. I wrote two posts looking at the man and his work, but never quite got around to finishing all that up with a summation of his influence and legacy.

  Magazines (Rough Edges): I’ve been waiting to have a copy of this book in my hands before posting about it, and now I do. THE DIGEST ENTHUSIAST is just about the best magazine out there, and the new issue, Book Ten, features the longest, most extensive interview I’ve ever done, with lots of cover reproductions and at least one photo of me that I’m pretty sure has never been published anywhere else. Doing this interview with editor Richard Krauss was a lot of fun and brought back many great memories of the early days of my career.

  D&D (Blog of Holding): n its 45 years, D&D has spawned a video game industry that’s worth more than either the movie or the book industry. Dungeons, dragons, leveling, character classes, and loot drops define video game design space. But books, movies, and TV shows haven’t absorbed much from D&D that wasn’t in Tolkien.

In medieval and modern fantasy literature, you’ll frequently find magic swords, but no magic armor; wizards, but no clerics; and dragons, but no dungeons.

  RPG (Walker’s Retreat): RIFTS is one of those tabletop RPGs that promise a wide and diverse array of playable characters, explorable environments, and gameworthy scenarios. It’s a lot to take in, and one of the rookie mistakes players make is to just run it cold and stupid like you can–successfully–do with D&D. That way lies disaster. Let me put down one proven practice that is key to running any tabletop RPG with the open scope and scale that RIFTS allows: Define your campaign space.

  Cryptozoology (Brian Niemeier): My crypto-reader returns will a spiritual successor to the tale he shared last time. So, I was just out visiting my cop buddy in Indiana for the first time in two years, and he was regaling me with the backlog of Tales of Rural Police Adventures while we’re out target practicing in his field and had one that’s right up our recent conversations’ alleys.

  Gaming (PC Gamer): Cyberpunk 2077‘s Night City is full of people for you to beat up, including gang members, cops and corporate douchebags—there are limits, though, so you won’t be brawling with everyone. Children, for instance, will be protected from your murderous rages, along with story-important NPCs.

  Gary Gygax (Forgotten Runes): I first encountered Greyhawk in the Greyhawk expansion to the little brown books in 1975. Although there were several pages of short adventure suggestions there was very little setting. I played “Descent into the Depths” as a tournament module at GenCon, but the Underdark has little relation to the surface kingdoms of Greyhawk.

  Sensor Sweep: Sword & Sorcery, Tales From the Magician’s Skull, Boxing, C.S. Lewis, RIFTS published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/

[problemsofabooknerd]

Recommendations: Queer POC by Queer POC

Pride Day 9!

Check out the intro to my Pride project here.

There’s a tendency to represent our community in media as particularly white. I mean, white cis gays spent years being the only kind of queer people we saw in movies and shows, and they still often dominate our conversation and the way we’re seen in the media at large. So, today I thought I would talk about some books about queer people of color written by queer people of color. Diversify who you are reading, and who you are supporting this month!

Books I’ve already talked about in other posts this month:

Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera (goodreads, amazon)

I talked about this in my post on books with a large LGBTQIA+ cast of characters, so check that out. This one is about Juliet, Puerto Rican lesbian from the Bronx who gets the chance to be an intern for her favorite author in Portland. It’s about intersectional feminism, queer women of color, and it’s excellent. 

Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore (goodreads, amazon)

I mentioned this one in my LGBTQIA+ SFF post, because Anna-Marie McLemore writes about queer POC in magical realism. That’s very much her type of novel, and I’m deeply here for it. This one follows a family of women who live in and tend magical gardens, while also living with a curse that should one of them fall in love too deeply, their lovers will disappear. Most of the characters in this book are queer Latinx folks, and it’s wonderful.

Anger is a Gift by Mark Oshiro (goodreads, amazon)

A novel about queer teens of color standing up for themselves and their rights when their school starts to treat them like prisoners. There are basically no allocishet white characters in the entire book, and plus it features a main character who deals with anxiety, and a side character who is disabled. You can learn more about the book and the author in my video here!

Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee (goodreads, amazon)

Shockingly, it is only the 9th of the month and this is already the third time I’m talking about the Sidekick Squad series. (It’s actually not remotely shocking shhhh). Like I’ve been saying, this is a super fun, upbeat, and adorable superhero series about queer teens of color kicking ass, fighting a corrupt government, and falling for each other. The first book is about a Chinese-Vietnamese bisexual girl, the second book about a black trans boy, and there are more to come!

Other Books I super recommend:

The Color Purple by Alice Walker (goodreads, amazon)

One of my all-time favorite books right here, wow. This is a sweeping historical fiction novel following a black woman named Celie in the south in the early 1900s. It’s about her being separated from her beloved sister, being forced to marry an abusive older man, and also eventually finding her own sense of self and her power. She is also a lesbian and has a relationship with another black woman, and it is absolutely gorgeous. I cannot hype this enough. 

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz (goodreads, amazon)

Another bit of historical fiction! So, many of you already know about the beauty that is Ari and Dante, but I’m going to mention it anyway. This one follows two Mexican-American boys (named Aristotle and Dante) in Texas in the 1980s. They meet each other one day and both find that they are odd, trying to figure out where they fit in the world, and have a deep connection. This is an in-depth look at how Ari and Dante discover and discuss their sexuality, their heritage, and their relationships to their family. It’s excellent. 

Power & Magic: The Queer Witch Comics Anthology edited by Joamette Gil (goodreads, amazon)

I adore witches, and I adore queer content. This is... this is everything to me. This is a collection of comics by woman-aligned POC creating stories about queer witches who are also all POC. It’s magical, takes on so many issues, and the mix of styles and stories is really excellent. This also has tons of rep for disabled mcs, and mcs with mental illness. Plus there is now another collection called Immortal Souls!

Noteworthy by Riley Redgate (goodreads, amazon)

Jordan is Chinese-American, her family is poor, she’s bisexual, and she’s trying to make it as a singer at the prestigious performing arts school she attends on scholarship. But when her alto voice keeps her from getting any of the parts she wants in the musical theater department, she decides she has to prove herself by disguising herself as a boy and auditioning for the well-known men’s acapella choir on campus. This is a super charming book that I think actually handles the gender issues of cross dressing super well, plus it features a character coming to terms with her sexuality and how she sees herself, while being surrounded by a group of lovable boys. 

Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai (goodreads, amazon)

A tougher read, and one I don’t talk about quite as much. This is deeply, deeply inspired by the author’s own experience growing up gay in the 1970s and 80s in Sri Lanka. While it discusses Arjie, the main character, coming to terms with his sexuality, this is also very much a novel about him understanding the tumultuous political divide that was happening in Sri Lanka at the time. Arjie lives an incredibly divided life, and this novel does a beautiful job covering all of it.

I also have a few more books on my TBR that fit this theme, such as Life is Wonderful People Are Terrific by Meliza Banales, When the Moon Was Our by Anna-Marie McLemore, They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera, and The Summer We Got Free by Mia McKenzie.  And that’s all I’m going to talk about for now! I hope this list helps make your TBR a bit more diverse, and be sure to leave me some recommendations in a reply or a message. Plus, check back tomorrow for a full written review of Juliet Takes a Breath!