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design test doodle
For anyone who doesn’t know, we grew up living off of Brian Jacque’s Redwall series, which we remember most prominently for 1) its depictions of hope in impossible circumstances, and 2) its vivid and enviable descriptions of the food served at feasts. Well, today, 10-15 years after consuming this entire saga, guess what I found at the library.
It has recipes for everything I ever wanted. Strawberry fizz, Blackberry and Apple Cake, classic Redwall scones. And as if that’s not enough, a note from the author himself:
With all the love in my heart,
@inkweaver22-blr
Yeah Mr. Darcy’s proposal was a complete turd and a half but you gotta understand. You got your life together. A good career, stable income, retirement plan, all that shit together. And you meet this girl. And she’s everything. Clever, outspoken, funny, calls you on your bullshit. Grade A cutie, right? And she doesn’t go out of her way to spend time with you but she’s nice, and sometimes you catch her looking your way in a way that makes you think you might have a shot.
But her family. Holy shit.
First off, it’s p much ALL women, and mostly UNMARRIED women, which at this time means of something happens to her dad then you’re financially responsible for like. Four grown ass adults, potentially forever
Because mom in law is DEFINITELY gonna need someone to take care of her when dad in law kicks it, and they have like. NO money. So already you’re accepting that if all goes well, you’re gonna be one random old bag’s retirement home. That’s expensive and exhausting, yeah? Imagine asking someone on a first date knowing that if they say yes and things go good her high-strung chihuahua mother is gonna move in with you. IMAGINE.
And girly’s other sisters. Well, one is a sweetheart, yeah, and she’s getting engaged so she probably won’t be an issue, but that still leaves two more, and those ones are INSUFFERABLE. Never went to school, dumb as rocks, spend cash like it’s toilet paper
And while one of ‘em’s young still and might grow out of it the OTHER one is actively torpedo’ing her entire family’s reputation by wandering off with random dudes and chasing ass. She’s never gonna work, she can’t build connections, she’s a fucking sinkhole, and she’s being led on by the same goddamn con man ass leeching tit who’s been bleeding you dry while telling anyone who’ll listen that your family is full of ratty thieving bastards.
And if he dumps her after a week- WHICH YOU KNOW HIS BITCH ASS IS GONNA- you’ve got a SECOND UNMARRIABLE GROWN ASS ADULT TO PROVIDE FOR. And you KNOW she’s gonna be a tantrum-throwing little shit about it, and it’s not like you can lock her in the basement or something, you’re gonna have to bring her fucking. Everywhere. And give her an allowance and shit while she contributes zero, because again, she NEVER GOT EDUCATED AND HAS NO MARKETABLE SKILLS. She’s not even good to TALK to. FUCK
And you’re looking at this girl’s father like “please for the love of fuck get your spawn under control, marry them off, get them working on their résumé, learning to sew or be nursemaids or manage staff or SOMETHING, yall got no money and one foot in the grave” and that old man just laughs like “haha yeah, what can you do. lol”
So you’re looking to the mom and finally it’s making sense how she got that twitch in her eye and as MUCH as she is you’re starting to realize she’s the SMART one, desperately throwing her armloads of girls at random men like they’re a bunch of fucking lifeboats bobbing around a sinking ship, like yes Jesus Christ sweetly that life boat IS old and ugly and kind of boring but for FUCKS SAKE PICK ONE
And you look back at this girl who is ALSO REFUSING THE LIFE BOATS BY THE WAY and god damn it she’s still the most radiant thing you’ve ever seen so fine, fuck it, Christ alive, you’ll do it. You’ll shoot your shot. She’s everything you’ve ever wanted in anybody abut it’s not even just about that anymore, it’s about being her best fucking shot at a future, and even if she doesn’t like you all that much she’s still gonna say yes and that might break your heart a bit knowing it’s about the money but who knows, maybe it will at least be civil, or companionable, and even if she doesn’t LOVE you at least you’ll know she’s well and cared for
And so you’ll do it. You’ll take on the neurotic stress mess mother in law, the absent father, the broke ass wingnut no brain no money no future airhead sisters, the bad mannered relatives and the embarrassing behaviour and the impending future of sharing your entire shit with a clown parade of freeloaders, you’ll risk it all and accept the absolute certainty of financial ruin and emotional exhaustion for the rest of your whole ass life and you’ll make your own family deal with it too, you’ll do it, you’ll fucking DO IT, you stupid lovesick motherfucker
And so you go to this chick like “look. Your whole family’s a shitshow. You’ve got fucking nothing and you’re gonna die on the street. But for some reason- and I don’t get it either- I’ve fallen in love with you, and I wish I didn’t, but I did, so I’m telling you that whether you like me or not, I’ll give you everything. I’ll give you everything even if it’s the dumbest shit I ever done. Fuck my stupid Baka ass, I’ll marry you.”
And she looks at you- having heard or considered absolutely none of your months-long internal debate and monologue- and goes “The fuck did you just say about my family, you son of a bitch?”
And the shock of that is enough to jolt you back into a reality where you are able to actually hear and process what just came out of your damn mouth And yeah
Yeah, I think I kinda get it
Mary Bennet:
"Something More"
Drawn for a special edition commissioned by the AST publishing house.
"Queen Calanthe"
Drawn for a special edition commissioned by the AST publishing house.
He’s finally here. The one and only. Borch, Three Jackdaws, Villentretenmerth. The most beautiful.
(Yeah I designed him solely for drawing Geregismerth so you can't skip it)
More of what happened with these three afterwards: Spicy stuff (cw: mature! nudity!) | And later
(Also: Please go read @hanzajesthanza's Possibilities !!! NOW!!!! The art is not directly related. But this is the first Geregismerth fic we have and it's DELICIOUS I have to broadcast it. Go read, now.)
rereading redwall
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
“We aren't human." "Yes. We. Are." His voice turns fierce. "I don't give a shit what the something-somethingth council of big important farts decreed, or how the geomests classify things, or any of that. That we're not human is just the lie they tell themselves so they don't have to feel bad about how they treat us.”
There is so much crazy good stuff in the current Rebellion sale for basically no money: https://rebellionpublishing.com/sale/
I can vouch for Saint Death's Daughter, The Spear Cuts Through Water, The Saint Of Bright Doors, the Goblin Emperor, Lady Eve's Last Con, The Water Outlaws and The Black Coast - all excellent books in different ways.
I need some good fantasy or scifi to read that doesn't involve romance. preferably urban fantasy or cyberpunk or just downright weird shit, but I could do with more traditional stuff. as long as people aren't driven by lust. I'm so so soso so sososososoooooooo very tired of reading that sort of thing in traditional print novels.
#this is such a mood. i kind of stopped reading YA and even a lot of adult fantasy bc of the fixation on romance#op i'm preeeetty sure i didn't follow you for murderbot so forgive me if you know it but if not may i recommend the murderbot diaries#the imperial radch series is also some great non-romance-centric scifi#i've been recc'd several different books by Victoria Goddard for platonic/queerplatonic centered fantasy#only one i've read so far is Hands of the Emperor but it was GREAT#others who follow me probably have more ideas#(i hope i have not misread the room here by offering recommendations)
you weren't misreading, I was unintentionally unclear. recs are Very Welcome XD thank you!!
I keep a goodreads list of No Romance Books for exactly this reason lol.
ABSOLUTE FAVORITES
The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. Sci-fi series, space opera-ish. You've got a lot of recs for this already.
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. Sci-fi space opera. I've only read the first one still but it's brilliant.
Piranesi by Sunanna Clarke. Fantasy. A man lives alone in an infinite House over an equally infinite ocean. Ethereal and luminous and melancholy and beautiful.
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. Sci-fi thriller. Cloning! Dinosaurs! Math! I still love it.
WEIRD AND INTERESTING
The Jewels of Aptor by Samuel Delaney. Weird 1960s science-fantasy. The main characters could be read as romantic if you want - the homoeroticism can't be unintentional - but there isn't Romance Proper in it.
Werecockroach by Polenth Blake. Alien invasion/animal shapeshifter story. Novella. Zany and fast-paced. Aroace agender protagonist like the author.
And What Can We Offer You Tonight by Premee Mohamed. Sorta dystopian strange fantasy in an urban setting. Novella. The main characters are sex workers of the high-class courtesan prostitute type, and after one of them is murdered by a client, she comes back to life - and sets out on a whirlwind of freedom and revenge and justice she never got while alive.
Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower by Tamsyn Muir. Novella. Fractured-fairy-tale fantasy. Told in a snarky, sardonic style, not nearly as upbeat as it initially seems.
The Black God's Drums by P. Djèlí Clark. Steampunk-fantasy. Novella. YA-ish? Steampunk New Orleans and a Black girl who can talk to the Orisha falls into a plot to steal a scientist's superweapon.
Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger. Urban fantasy, YA. Urban fantasy in an all-myths-are-real kind of sense from a Lipan Apache perspective, starring an Apache girl who can talk to ghosts trying to solve her cousin's murder. Asexual protagonist with no interest in romance or partnering; it's refreshing and the sort of YA I would have loved as a teen.
HAVEN'T READ THIS BUT I KEEP MEANING TO
Firebreak by Nicole Kornher-Stace. Cyberpunk. No romance at all. VR and stuff. NKS is aroace and centering non-romantic experiences was her explicit goal here.
SOME ROMANCE BUT IT'S NOT A MAJOR FOCUS
Synners by Pat Cadigan. Cyberpunk. A kaleidoscopic whirlwind of a book with lots of characters with lots of varied relationships; romance is among them but not alone and certainly not the focus.
Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone. Urban fantasy, sort of - it's like a fantasy-kitchen-sink world with gods whose contracts power the magic in the world, so magicians are lawyers and lawyers are magicians and one lawyer-magician has to solve the murder of, and resurrect, a murdered god before his magic grinds to a halt and the city powered by his magic collapses. I'm not doing this description justice - it was vivid and compelling. The main characters do not have any romance, but a supporting character has a toxic ex she can't fully get over that features as a sideplot in the story.
Finna by Nino Cipri. Weird, universe-hopping science-fantasy. IKEA has a tendency to rip open portals to other universes and the minimum wage employees gotta deal with it. The two main characters were dating but have recently broken up, and they don't get back together but rather figure out how to be friends again after the breakup.
Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee. Military sci-fi space opera with a vast and interesting world and a very violent war. A military captain breaks rank and defies orders, so as punishment she has the digital ghost of a long dead war criminal downloaded into her head and she is pointed at a rebellion and told to crush it. I love Kel Cheris. No romance but some flashbacks to sex and sexual coercion.
I hope you don't mind if I jump in with recs because this is my favorite type of book!
The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett- many discworld books have little or no romance, imo. It's a fantasy series set on a flat or "disc" world. The books are only loosely connected so you can pick up whatever book catches your eye. Many readers recommend starting with Guards, Guards! (Fair warning, that one does have a romance, but it has my aroace approval)
The Earthsea cycle by Ursula LeGuin- this is one of my favorites because there is no romance in sight until book 4! And even so book 4 is quite good. It's a fantasy series set on a magical archipelago, and follows the epic highs and lows of life as a wizard struggling with hubris and mortality and destiny. You could read up to book 3 and it would have a satisfying conclusion, or you could read book 4 if you have the patience for romance. Either way its a fun read!
Fly By Night and Fly Trap by Frances Hardinge- this is a middle-grade/YA duology set in a sort of steampunk, vaguely European world where writing has been heavily censored and reading is considered a dangerous skill. The protagonist is a feral little 12 year old who is obsessed with reading. I love her dearly. There is some background romance happening with adult characters but the protagonist is so thoroughly uninterested it's hilarious to read from her perspective. I love this duology so much.
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison- Recommendations for The Hands of the Emperor seem to go hand in hand (lol) with The Goblin Emperor. If you enjoy one, odds are good you'll enjoy the other! The Goblin Emperor is a stand-alone fantasy about an unlikely heir who has to navigate court intrigue now that he is on the throne. There's also a series set in the same world (The Cemetaries of Amalo series) which follows a different protagonist, and is also very good but arguably does have romance in it. The final installment isn't out yet so the outcome remains to be seen, and again, it has my aroace approval.
The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison- while I'm at it I might as well recommend another one by miss Addison. This one is a Sherlock Holmes retelling set in a supernatural version of London. Its got a for reals, canon aroace + agender Sherlock and I love it for that reason!
Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson- fantasy YA set in a world plagued by ghosts and the undead, this one features an aroace protagonist as confirmed by the author. It's a stand-alone novel and a quick read, and I desperately wish there was more. Don't be put off by the blurb on the cover: "venom meets Joan of arc" sounds like trope-y booktok garbage but this book is actually extremely good. 10/10.
this picked up a lot more traction than I had expected. it's great to have so many titles to go check out. ^^ gonna reblog this version since it seems to have the most recs so far.
I'm regretting not listing a few of my faves in the actual post when I went on my rant, bc while I've seen Discworld and the Matthew Swift books recc'd (Matthew Swift is my GOLD STANDARD for urban fantasy), I hadn't seen two other really good ones that I'd mentioned in my tags.
The House of Discarded Dreams by Ekaterina Sedia is a wonderfully surreal story about being adrift in life, and finding strength by coming to know yourself. It features a poc lgbt protag (and a bit of a crush, but that's not at all the focus), and the action itself is a magical and bizarre blend of myth, folk tales, history, and dream-logic.
The Secret History of Moscow is also by Ekaterina Sedia. It's a melancholy and poetic story that follows a girl trying to save her sister from a curse, and meeting figures out of Russian folk tales along the way.
Zod Wallop by William Browning Spencer gets an honorable mention on this list, bc a pair of side characters have a...kind of romance. But it's not the focus, and the rest of the novel is a beautiful and heart-wrenching look at a father dealing with grief after the death of his child. I have never in my life read a novel that would have been more suited to be a Satoshi Kon film than this book.
imagine not drawing for months just to do this <3
inspired by this random tweet twt put on my timeline despite me never interacting with content like that
after weeks of planning and editing, my comprehensive look into deltora quest is done!
i interviewed friends and family to discuss the lore, cover rodda's excellent handling of difficult topics, investigate the mysterious rarity of the books in the western hemisphere, talk about the impact the books had on us as fantasy readers, and pitch the series to new readers.
thanks for watching, and special thanks to @withickmire, @zahroreadsthings, @dragonloverdoran , and my (very offline) sister for their participation 🫶
Redwall art envisioned as an 80's animated film look. (Milt Kahl / Don Bluth) --- I know nothing abt Redwall. I havent read the books and know very VERY little of its lore. Years ago I remember seeing a tv series but never finished it.