#the starless crown

[torpublishinggroup]

Which Fantasy Class Are You? (and what you should read next)

having trouble deciding what your next fantasy ttrpg class is? hmm? trouble deciding your next read?

while seemingly disparate, these two fantastical phenomena are inextricably linked, and we're going to prove it with This Quiz.

so click some answers, tell us what you got, read a book or something, and go ruin a hapless town with your table of ttrpg gamers. it's what's best in life

[johnandrasjaqobis]

In my eternal saga of reading books that are sorely lacking a presence here

The Starless Crown is really interesting so far, definitely surprising in ways, it cracks me up a little every time they mention Urth

and also gods help poor Kanthe if he has to learn Nyx has one more fucking brother --

[chavisory]

I wasn’t quite sold initially on this book I’m reading, but within the first hundred pages or so it turned from iffily-written high fantasy to strangely compelling far-future sci-fi?

Not like it actually switches styles or genres like, say, Cloud Atlas, but once you realize what it actually is, the story instantly gets about an order of magnitude more interesting.

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen another book do this, exactly...

[kernelscorner]

James Rollins' foray into the post-apocalyptic fantasy genre is a hit among his already considerable established fan-base, and gaining him n...

[bookcoversonly]

Title: The Starless Crown | Author: James Rollins | Publisher: Tor (2022)

[libraryofbaxobab]

February 27, 2023

I'm devastated to report that this was not good. Sure, a lot happens, but none of it seems to mean anything. Every obstacle is solved with the same solution, over and over and over. Any statements almost made are accidental. After how much I loved the first one, I'm very disappointed.

4.5/10

#WhatsKenyaReading

[thediaryofareader]

Occasionally, Fate pulls itself together again, and Time is always waiting. Check out my Favorite Books post on my blog

[greensaplinggrace]

in much the same way that they shouldn’t have called him ‘the darkling’ if they didn’t want me to think about baby shadows and tiny cats, they shouldn’t have called him ‘the black heretic’ if they didn’t want me to find him sexy. like everyone knows hereticism is the sexiest thing a person can do

[thatwasntlikeridingabikeuasshole]

AHEM! STARLESS SEA FANS!

I HAVE AN INVITATION FOR YOU!!!!! please keep reading, god, if you love the starless sea enough that you're even seeing this we want YOU!!!! are you a long time starless sea fan who has never found anyone else who wants to talk about this book as much as you do? have you always wanted to write/see starless sea fanfic or fanart but didnt think there was a fandom? or have you just finished the starless sea like twenty minutes ago and have been scouring tumblr for anything you can find? WELL I'VE GOT THE PLACE FOR YOU!

WE HAVE A STARLESS SEA DISCORD SERVER!

LINK

reasons why you should join and why this server is the best:

we are all literally just obsessed with the starless sea

and the characters

we draw fanart and write fanfic and even have events with prompts to inspire you to do the same

we have a super cool minecraft server with the inn at the edge of the world and a cherry blossom forest around it with honey and candles and shit

we do storytime where we read to each other in vc from tss, fanfic, or other books and it happens all the time and its really lovely and soothing and fun

we have movie nights and movie afternoons and random impromptu movies but theres a movie every weekend

we have endless headcanons

and a whole channel dedicated to dorian hurt/comfort

i co-run it with @boogleboot who is just the coolest and if you havent met her youre missing out

and theres a bunch of other cool people there too who i love so much

we have a limericks only chat (for which i blame mod boogle its so fun you have to talk only in limericks there)

YOU LIKE THE STARLESS SEA. WE LIKE THE STARLESS SEA. COME JOIN

go click that link girl (gendy neuch). we're so excited to have you. see you in the harbour!!!!!

[torpublishinggroup]

Is a Bat a Dragon? We Asked James Rollins

By now, Tor is at the forefront of research into what exactly constitutes "dragon." We've entertained many queries throughout the years, determining if the umbrella of dragon extends to hippos, snakes, and Godzilla. Now, we turn to the expertise of James Rollins to advise on the dragonic status of bats. If you've read The Starless Crown and its sequel The Cradle of Ice, you probably know the answer.

Check it out!

by James Rollins      

My love for the natural world and all its myriad creatures was one of my main drives for pursuing a career in veterinary medicine. Even today as a full-time writer, I’ve not fully stepped away from that profession. As I’ve stated many times during book talks—yes, I can still neuter a cat in under thirty seconds.

Still, my greatest fascination about Nature is how it adheres to a dictate stated so succinctly in Jurassic Park:  Life will find a way.  I’ve always been captivated by the manner in which animals and plants discover innovative survival strategies to fill different environmental niches and how that fight has resulted in all the marvels (and horrors) found in the natural world.

While growing up, I found a new way of exploring this subject matter:  in science fiction and fantasy novels set on different worlds. I found myself especially drawn to material that explored life’s resilience across fantastic worlds. Whether it was the sandworms of Herbert’s Dune, the engineered landscape of Niven’s Ringworld, the many species of Card’s Ender’s Game, or a universe of other writers tackling how life finds a way.

Even when it came to those novels that featured dragons, I found myself most interested in the biology and the circumstance of their origins. How did the telepathy and bonding in Anne McCaffrey’s Pern books come about? What steps were taken to harness the physicality of dragons to become warriors in Novik’s Temeraire series? In Martin’s books, could dragon eggs truly be encysted for ages and require fire to bring them back to life? If so, how and why?

When it came to crafting my own fantastic world in the Moonfall Saga, I took a similar scientific eye to its construction. The series takes place on a tidally locked planet, a world that circles its sun with one side forever facing the sun, the other locked in eternal darkness. The only truly livable clime is the band between those extremes of ice and fire. Across such a harsh and unforgiving landscape, I wanted to build a biosphere of flora and fauna that made evolutionary sense. How would species survive the extreme cold and lack of sunlight? Could life find a way in the sunblasted hemisphere?

And what about dragons?

In the novel, one of the apex predators is a species of massive bat, with a wingspan of ten meters or more. We first see them in Book One (The Starless Crown). They inhabit the vast swamplands of Mýr—found in that more temperate climate of the world. They are nocturnal, haunting a drowned forest and roosting in a volcanic mountain. I wanted those bats to make biological sense, to have them fit that environmental niche in a natural way. Being arboreal, they would likely have evolved prehensile tails. As nocturnal creatures, they would need bell-shaped ears and still use ultrasonics to navigate. And without giving away any of the surprises in the books, there is a significant aspect to their biology that will allow them to bond to certain people.

In the books, I also wanted to add a level of verisimilitude to the bestiary by adding naturalistic sketches, drawings that you might find in a turn-of-the-century research journal.

Here is the Mýr bat:

Keep in mind, life will find a way, so this species is not limited to those swamplands. A subspecies evolved in the dark, frozen half of the world. It adapted to fit that harsh niche, becoming smaller and stockier, with shaggy fur, and nasal flaps that could seal to conserve body heat. Likewise, in this treeless landscape, that prehensile tail would no longer be needed. They make an appearance in the second book in the series, The Cradle of Ice.

Here is their sketch:

But what about the title of this blog post: Is a bat a dragon?

In the third volume in the series (A Dragon of Black Glass), which will be coming out in 2024, this species has also adapted to the sunblasted half of the world. To survive, they would need to burrow to survive, growing larger claws for digging, and bodies that would be hairless and elongated, with fanned tails for aerial maneuvering when out of their burrows. They would become known as “sanddragons.”

Here is a sneak peek at their preliminary incarnation (with the final version still to come):

I must note that all of these drawings were beautifully executed by graphic artist, Danea Fidler—as were all the other creature sketches featured in the books. I look forward to sharing the final versions of these “dragons” in 2024 when A Dragon of Black Glass hits bookshelves.

[thelastofthebookworms]

(And if you're intrigued, go read The Starless Sea)

[mackmp3]

whos up starlessing their seas I know you are (insert that one pointer emoji)

🐝🗝️🗡️👑❤️‍🔥🪶

[livingstonegordo]

This is what I've done with all the books I own and haven't read, but this year I'm gonna do it with books I wanna reread!

Some are series I wanna reread entirely, some are stand alones, and some are series that I've read all but the final book. Wanna get through them all

[tobestik]

you know how sometimes you're reading a book and it's 77% bullshit but you're like this is a cool concept despite the execution and then out of nowhere the author, who up to this point again has been slinging bullshit, introduces a character so incredibly your type you now on instinct love the book

you know how that happens to normal people?

[crownedcaps]

★ Sword Art Online Progressive: Hoshi Naki Yoru no Aria // Movie

Download Batches Here. (now in .zip format!)

Please consider liking/reblogging if you download!

[libraryofbaxobab]

June 30, 2022:

I've been a fan of this author's action-adventure books for years & while this is his first foray into Fantasy, it's noticeably on brand. Mostly standard, especially spylling yvery fantysy wyrd wyth a y, but has a specific aesthetic and super high energy 8/10 #WhatsKenyaReading