#sonntam reads

[sonntam]

After having a gendering debate (TM) it feels especially nice to read some more random sci-fi with trans people and new family structures in the background (Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys) and then reading even older sci-fi with pronoun shenanigans (Stars Like Sand in My Pocket by Delany). Yeah, bro, it's a culture war and we're winning. And winning damn gloriously, since it's really good sci-fi.

[the-shy-artisan]

14!

14.Favorite book you read this year?

I read both Jaws and Dracula this year, and they were really good! :D

The hard part now is finding another book to read ;; I should probably give The Iliad another go c;

[crimsonciil]

(WARNING: BLOOD&BRUISE)

"Kratos resisted the temptation to tug at Tyr’s own beard, emphasizing his point. Instead, he pointedly trailed his fingers over Tyr’s braided beard. Tyr raised an eyebrow. However, in his eyes sparkled more mirth than worry that Kratos would mess it up." - CHAPTER 7 of "Two Spears, One Land"

Based on the fanfiction "Two Spears, One Land" by @sonntam and I just want to say how much the fanfiction actually convinced me to ship Kratos and Týr!! AND SERIOUSLY GUYS PLEASE READ IT IF YOU'RE A KRATYR SHIPPER OR A TYR STAN! IT'S REALLY GOOD!

[scumtrout]

Tagged by @alishatheninth

Anxiously waits for feedback after publishing: I think feedback anxiety is inescapable, but The City Will Follow You has lessened this a lot because I'm at peace with the fact that it's a niche fic and it'll never garner the same level of attention as a one shot or novella-length story about a juggernaut pairing. Also, I think that if you're writing for free, then you should absolutely be writing for yourself first and foremost. If you're writing because you want attention from other people, then you should probably be getting paid for that. I know it isn't a binary, and most people are looking for a happy medium of 'I want to write a fanfic I like AND I WANT OTHER PEOPLE TO LIKE IT TOO', but god... If it's a hobby, then you have to give priority to intrinsic motivation. Caring too much about extrinsic motivators makes the hobby seem suspiciously like work.

Has that one fic that deserves more attention: Although I don't know if this really applies to one fic in particular. I think I'm iffy in general about how short smut/romance fic tends to get more attention than stuff that involves actual creativity, but eh, what can you do? People enjoy orgasms and oxytocin. Of course, creativity and smut/romance aren't mutually exclusive, but it's easier to coast by on porn and romance tropes without having to think about plotting or worldbuilding.

That said, even when you have a popular 'product', i.e. smut and/or romance, I still think that attention requires a certain amount of effort to get noticed. Personally, I'm not surprised if I fly under the radar in some fandoms, because I put 0 effort into the networking/community aspect and I am absolutely dogshit at reading and reviewing other people's fics. (Also, I'm sorry, I took one look at the LoK fandom when the series aired and thought 'n o p e'. I am absolutely 100% not here for any kind of shipping nonsense and I'd rather just sit in a corner and braid Tarrlok's hair.)

Wants to be a professional writer someday: Technically I am (writing is one of the many hats I have to wear), but not in an interesting way, more in a 'ChatGPT could do the copywriting parts of my job' sort of way, so it doesn't count.

Tagging @vintar @hightechzombie @sonntam @ghoulettesinspace @anneapocalypse @stillness-in-green @ladyswillmart

Edit: I've had 2 beers so I initially forgot it but here's the template:

[ofliterarynature]

hey-hey! what is the older sci-fi series you started? I love sci-fi and especially older stuff!

I don’t know if you’d consider something published in the 80s-90s “old,” but it’s the Vorkosigan saga by Lois McMaster Bujold! There was much yelling about them in the HOTE discord and I figured I’d give them a shot - I’m only two books in right now so I can’t really speak to the overall qualify, but they’re kind of outdated/comp-het and yet very progressive in a way that is both baffling and fascinating??? And it’s also got some of my favorite character types, so I can’t just abandon them! It’s very frustrating lol. I’m reading them according to the order on this list starting with book 2.

[bladekindeyewear]

Blogging the new hs^2 bonus side material!  I’ll be as light as possible on partial-screenshots and quotes from this except where it’s potentially plot-important, as you’re supposed to be a Patreon contributor to see it.

Thousands gather in the cold of the planet's capital for the most important event in Earth C's political history. JANE CROCKER is due to be sworn in as president.

Ahh, so some of the Bonus material is covering what’s happening in Meat Earth C--

One of the world's biggest celebrities sits behind the swearing-in, drunk as a skunk. The masses don't know this, but the two of them represent the only Creators left on their planet, abandoned by its makers to Crockerian rule.

--while the others are out on their trip?  Hot damn!

Does this mean ALL the human players left to chase down Prince Dirk except for Jake and Jane???

I knew Kanaya and Jade were part of the chase party, but didn’t know they brought Dave.  Did Karkat go, too?  Calliope???  It only says Creators, and if taken literally that only means the human ones?

This is all especially important because it means ROXY WENT ON THE TRIP YAAAAY MORE ROXY!!!  I will always take as much Roxy of any gender that we can get.  That and, you know, awake goddamn Jade.  WAKE THE FUCK UP JADE.

--Oh, also this means that the trip pals don’t plan on time traveling back to the point where they left, if/when they get back here.

Man, it hurt to type that “if”.

> ==>

Huh... Jake doesn’t SOUND that drunk.

Wait, is that Jake’s hair’s silhouette?  I thought it said he sits “behind” the swearing in, not in the crowd in front?

DIRK: (Hey. Is this seat taken?)

God damnit.  Brain Ghost Dirk can’t keep his fingers out from even THIS OTHER Jake’s day??

> ==>

--That old troll makes me feel uncomfortable somehow.  Not sure why.

> ==>

JAKE: (Surprised you didn't questionably jet off with your brain ghost daughter, too.) DIRK: (I don't think I have one of those.)

Oh huh.  I guess everyone is in the loop on what Prince Dirk did, though not necessarily the full import of it beyond the skeeviness.

> ==>

That troll smile is fucking uncomfortable.  And, yeah, Jake’s depicted as drunk here imageways, too.

Have I mentioned how much having these PANELS and all this soft art goes to soothing the impact of the horrible stuff that continues to happen?  Because it really does.  It really felt MUCH, much worse when it was all in serif text and nothing else to soften just how anguished everyone was looking and feeling.  Damn those epilogues...

JAKE: (Thats how you can tell youre not the real mccoy. Youre bothering to ask what i think.) DIRK: (I think you're very drunk. I'm not even real and I can smell the whiskey from here.)

Yeah, he’d have a hard time standing up to you this easily sober, you jackass.

> ==>

JAKE: (Im sure shes doing great. Shes got some good ideas you know.) JANE: I want to address this issue. JANE: I have no tolerance whatsoever for xenophobia. JANE: BUT, JAKE: (Oh goddammit i think i really messed up.)

Ppfpfffff. That’s pretty funny. ...How does Jake get SMARTER when he’s intoxicated??

(EDIT: sonntam points out, since I was too lazy to think about it: "you know how it is with Jake: deep inside he understands everything, but then willfully conceils that knowledge from himself because it means confronting uncomfortable truths. but when drunk the filters go away.")

JAKE: (I just hope theres some way to undo this damned mess that the you that doesnt live in my head got all of us into.)

Hmm... we might get some glimpses into BGD’s motivations, here.  Assuming this BGD and the other one aren’t two separate splinters with limited ability to share thought.

(Someone asked in my inbox why Brain Ghost Dirk shouldn’t be exactly the same as Prince Dirk if Prince Dirk is “all of himself”.  Think of a Venn Diagram that instead of two intersecting circles, is a tiny circle completely inside a giant circle:  Prince Dirk is accessing just about all of his “essence of self” across creation, but that goes mostly one way unless his other selves allow it, like the one who committed suicide in Candy to grant his other self more relevance did because he’d been onboard with the same plan from before the branching point.  Prince Dirk can pull from the rest of himself as an Ultimate Self, but Brain Ghost Dirk is still just a splinter.  Still a discrete self not necessarily sharing the mind of the rest of the whole.  Just like how we’ve had other “Ultimate Selves” who have gained access to their entire Heart, like RoboDave/Rose or Jasprosesprite^2, but their wills haven’t bled into their other separate selves and iterations. )

> ==>

Speaking of... Jasprose^2 I’m assuming, interrupting the ceremonies??  From the title and the colors involved here.  (This was the panel I glimpsed while I was browsing tumblr earlier, before I started read/blogging this bonus.)

Wait, if this is their doing-- hm.  Let me wait to confirm before going on that ramble:

> ==>

Pffff.  This newspaper... I’m not going to cap it all for those of you who haven’t paid into the bonus tier but there are so many gems.  The “Barack Obama Memorial White House” jesus christ Dave I KNOW that was your doing and it is BRILLIANT.

Hm, so that creepy asshole troll was the Vice Pres.  And he HAS to be an asshole since he was willing to run with the Xenophobe to give her a better license to power.  He’ll probably do some shit in her absence that Jake or other neglected non-Creator characters have to do some sideplot stuff to remedy.

And-- Oh!

That’s the last page so far.

Well.  There’s no confirmation that this for-sure WAS Jasprose’s doing, but if it WAS her...

Well, keep in mind that said Jasprose -- while capricious -- also has the knowledge and feelings of Rose Lalonde’s entire timeline-spanning essence and Heart... without Prince Dirk being at all close enough to delude or manipulate her mind the way he’s been doing to the PROPER Ultimate Rose.

Meaning Jasprose may very well know just how fucking hoodwinked her other self is, and has the power to REALLY fuck with Prince Dirk’s plans for Earth C in his absence.  Or at least make Jane’s presidency a little less catastrophic than Dirk was recklessly going to let it be.  Suck it, Dirk!

I’m predicting Jane will be put through some serious hijinks and tomfoolery.  With a boundary-less sprite uncomfortably flirting with her all the way.  Let’s hope this bonus story is planned to give us a bit more hope for the state of the Earth whoever survives this Dirkchase is going to, hopefully, come back to. As much hope as we want to have... in Candy, and here, Jake is right there to help solve the problem, but on the trip chasing Prince Dirk? They kind of left Hope behind...

[thewindysideofcare]

sonntam replied to your post:

                   A random person on ao3 asked me if it was ok to...                

   hey, I know that site. it’s the equivalent of AO3 in the Russian fandom. it’s not dodgy at all. I got fics posted there too. and also you can always ask for a link to the finished translation, if you want. just in case you want to read the reviews through google translate. :)    

Oh hi! Thank you! That is good to know.

[ravel-puzzlewell]

@sonntam replied to your post: I mean, even if they were hellbent on making the...

that would mean they would actually read the book. or at least the wiki. u are asking for too much

normally I wouldn’t force anyone to suffer through silm, but these guys are making LOTR games, they had to know what they’re getting into. Also, there are a lot of funny summaries of silm’s plot on the internet, so you don’t have to read through pages of map descriptions and who birthed what. or just hire a nerd consultant, its not that hard

[monologue7877]

I think this is one of the best if not the best fic I ever read for svsss. It for real reads like an extra and it is amazing and.... I love it.

[big-stupid-jellyfish]

@sonntam recced me “spin state” by chris moriarty, and it’s honestly such enjoyable hard sci-fi

vaguely resembles earlier gibson to me (tho i can’t account to credibility of that association, i haven’t read gibson in ages), really, really cool, complicated worldbuilding with quantum physics, ais, posthumans all meshed into complex politics

[sonntam]

Reading "We Are Legion (We Are Bob)" and I'm giggling, rolling on the floor, hugging a pillow and squeeing. All at the same time.

What is better, than a book with an AI as a protagonist? An AI with a small army of spider-robots. Squee!

Exactly what I needed to get motivation to get through this week.

[mmmmalo]

sonntam replied to your post “Also: After Tavros has a conversation with Vriska, he is trolled by...”

it may be worthwhile to consider what Tavros saw of grandpa: a man who blasted a butterfly for no reason at all. considering Tavros attunement to nature and desire to get along with everyone, it may have been seen by him as a sign of ultimate agression. Tavros is incapable of protecting himself in the troll world, but in their universe which is a reward for their efforts, Tavros is god and literally kills agression. he is also incapable of seeing true bullies (like Bro).

I never really read his power as general alignment with nature, but that makes sense! And it is fair to assume that the trolls have seen everything that we’ve seen, though they tend to misread cultural cues.

Though sometimes we’re supposed to take the trolls misreads as accidental truths. Like, when Eridan and Equius mistake Rose and Dave’s text colors for blood colors. They are wrong, but they were also right about class. Rose is rich. Dave (despite his insistence that Smuppets is a billion dollar enterprise) is pretty poor. The joke of their “mistake” hides the legitimacy of their observations on social class. Thus, there may be some legitimacy to Tavros’s perceived threat, despite Jade’s refutation.

As for doing nothing about Bro, it may also have something to do with this:

Where he more or less states that he’s enacting a “white knight” fantasy to boost his confidence. It’s possible this model of feminine victimhood is part of why he doesn’t offer similar assistance to Dave? Like, he’s operating on a Knights Save Princesses From Dragons narrative. Or else that narrative is part of why he doesn’t see Dave as needing help? Since why would a Knight need saving from a Dragon (even if Dave is actually trapped in a tower). I might be giving too much credit to fantasy for Tavros’s worldview though.

[focsle]

sonntam replied to your post “Maybe I’m a snob but when I see people saying ‘I like reading...”

books need to have tags and ratings and shit, so that it would be easier to find books I like. with e-books I keep sending myself like ten sample chapters and all of them suck, rinse and repeat. and then "oh, first chapter is promising and it got recommended by someone I trust" WRONG never trust anyone, you buy the book and it sucks again.

Goodreads.com, friend.

[scumtrout]

sonntam

well, good thing the cartoon is far more sanitized (no rape at least). never read the comics, but the cartoon has been a blast to watch.

I might still give it a go. I was/am hoping it'd be like The Boys, in that the shows writers would've read the original comics and said, 'Okay, let's do this, but... in a way that's more polished'.

(Although I feel like I'm making an unfair comparison, because the Invincible comic was meant to be pretty good, while I just remember The Boys as being hit and miss. That said, both comics had art that was ugly as sin, so at least the Amazon versions have dodged that bullet.)

[shrumgi]

sonntam replied to your post: Oh so Perception came out yesterday I already...

I actually backed it. gotta wait another week for the PS4 code tho

Yeah, I remember reading something about console delays. 

[sonntam]

Меня затянуло в мир русских любовных фэнтези романов и понеслось... Теперь я на работе не работаю, а читаю.

Хорошо вот так десятилетие уже не заглядывать чего там есть нового, но вот так оказывается, что годноты накопилось порядочно, а от такого изобилия едва успеваю отрываться чтобы хоть что-то полезное поделать.

Конкретно вот сейчас прочитала цикл Гимназистки от Брониславы Вонсович. Теперь читаю Пять Невест и одна демоница от Карины Демины. Я достаточно низко упала, чтобы читать про попаданок, но с другой стороны, разве Шен Цинцю сам себе не попаданец, а кто я такая чтобы на него смотреть свысока?