Please suggest books to me! Preferably in the glove kink/lesbian space atrocities, urban fantasy or dark academia genres but I'll happily try any SF/fantasy at least once.
So far I've read and loved:
Before 2023
The Imperial Radch (Ancillary Justice/Sword/Mercy) - Ann Leckie
Jean le Flambeur (The Quantum Thief/The Fractal Prince/The Causal Angel) - Hannu Rajaniemi
The Windup Girl/The Water Knife - Paolo Bagicalupi
Memory of Water/The City of Woven Streets - Emmi ItÀranta
2023
The Locked Tomb (Gideon/Harrow/Nona the Ninth) - Tamsyn Muir
The Masquerade (Traitor/Monster/Tyrant Baru Cormorant) - Seth Dickinson
Teixcalaan series (A Memory Called Empire/A Desolation Called Peace) - Arkady Martine
Machineries of Empire (Ninefox Gambit/Raven Stratagem/Revenant Gun/Hexarchate Stories) - Yoon Ha Lee
The Murderbot Diaries (All Systems Red to System Collapse) - Martha Wells
The Broken Earth (The Fifth Season/The Obelisk Gate/The Stone Sky) - N. K. Jemisin
Klara And The Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro
Xuya universe (The Citadel of Weeping Pearls/The Tea Master and the Detective/Seven of Infinities plus short stories) - Aliette de Bodard
This is How You Lose the Time War - Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
The Goblin Emperor/The Witness for the Dead/Grief of Stones - Katherine Addison
Some Desperate Glory - Emily Tesh
2024
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - V. E. Schwab
The Craft Sequence (Three Parts Dead/Two Serpents Rise/Full Fathom Five/Last First Snow/Four Roads Cross/Ruin of Angels) - Max Gladstone
Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution - R. F. Kuang
Dead Country - Max Gladstone
Hands of the Emperor - Victoria Goddard
Read and liked:
The Moonday Letters - Emmi ItÀranta
Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
Great Cities (The City We Became/The World We Make) - N. K. Jemisin
Autonomous - Annalee Newitz
Dead Djinn universe (A Master of Djinn/The Haunting of Tram Car 015/A Dead Djinn in Cairo/The Angel of Khan el-Khalili) - P. DjĂšlĂ Clark
Even Though I Knew the End - C. L. Polk
Station Eternity - Mur Lafferty
The Mythic Dream - Dominik Parisien & Navah Wolfe
Shades of Magic (A Darker Shade of Magic/A Gathering of Shadows/A Conjuring of Light/Fragile Threads of Power) - V. E. Schwab
The Luminous Dead - Caitlin Starling
Last Exit - Max Gladstone
The Stars Are Legion - Kameron Hurley
Ninth House/Hell Bent - Leigh Bardugo
Machine - Elizabeth Bear
Our Wives Under the Sea - Julia Armfield
She Is A Haunting - Trang Thanh Tran
Sisters of the Revolution - Jeff & Ann Vandermeer
Station Eleven - Emily St John Mandel
Nettle & Bone - T. Kingfisher
Monstrilio - Gerardo Samano CĂłrdova
Was uncertain about:
Light From Uncommon Stars - Ryka Aoki
The Kaiju Preservation Society - John Scalzi
Paladin's Grace - T. Kingfisher
The House in the Cerulean Sea - TJ Klune
In the Vanishers Palace - Aliette de Bodard
Uprooted - Naomi Novik
What Moves The Dead - T. Kingfisher
All The Birds In The Sky - Charlie Jane Anders
And read and disliked:
To Be Taught, if Fortunate - Becky Chambers
A Psalm for the Wild-Built - Becky Chambers
The Priory of the Orange Tree - Samantha Shannon
The Calculating Stars - Mary Robinette Kowal
The Space Between Worlds - Micaiah Johnson
How High We Go in the Dark - Sequoia Nagamatsu
Shadow and Bone - Leigh Bardugo
The Passage - Justin Cronin
In Ascension - Martin MacInnes
(My pride insists I add that I have, in fact, read other books as well. Just to be clear.)
unsung benefit i think a lot of ppl are sleeping on with using the public library is that i think its a great replacement for the dopamine hit some ppl get from online shopping. it kind of fills that niche of reserving something that you then get to anticipate the arrival of and enjoy when it arrives, but without like, the waste and the money.
bonus it ALSO fills that dopamine hit of in-person shopping. âoh I didnât go in looking for this but hmm, Iâm tempted⊠I canât resist⊠oh ho ho I have made some irresponsible decisions at the library today [carrying my stack of ten random books]â and then it doesnât even matter if you donât like them because a) free b) youâre gonna give them back anyway
Does anyone have a lesbian space atrocities thematic table lurking somewhere? Like, with columns for war crimes, brain surgery, imperialism, tea, gloves, AI rights? Maybe some body horror? What else should be included?
I was at a courthouse once, and saw an indigenous australian woman in a dressing gown very carefully and gingerly making her way down the steps outside the courthouse, surrounded by family who were helping her down the stairs. We asked if she was OK, because she looked awful. She looked like she should have been wrapped up in bed with blankets and hot soup, not on the steps of a courthouse.
One of her family told us that she had given birth yesterday evening, but that Child Protection services had taken her baby away with no warning, claiming that she wasnt prepared to look after him. What had happened, is that she'd literally only just given birth -- hadn't even passed the afterbirth yet, is holding her blood-coated, crying, newborn baby to her chest -- and a nurse asked what her feeding plan was. She was tired from the birth and distracted by the brand new baby in her arms and thrown off by the timing of the question, but still, she managed to answer, and said she planned to breastfeed him whenever he was hungry.
Well apparently that wasn't enough of a plan for the hospital staff, who reported her and claimed that she was unprepared to look after the child, and claimed that had no social supports, and that the baby was at risk if left with her. All because a brand new mother, 30 seconds after giving birth, didn't have a PowerPoint presentation ready to go that cited the timing cycle she would feed her kid on, and instead simply said that she would feed him when he was hungry.
Child Protection services showed up, took her kid, and she was told to show up to court the next day to contest custody if she wanted her baby back.
So a woman who had given birth less than 24 hours prior was forced to rally her family and show up to court to prove that she a) had a feeding plan for the child, and b) had enough social supports to justify reclaiming her baby.
It was one of the most appalling things I'd ever seen. I don't even know if she won her case. They didn't know at the time we saw them, and after that brief interaction on the stairs, i never saw them again. I sincerely hope she got her newborn baby back.
That was about 5 years ago. And the exact same kind of thing is still happening today.
News broke today from a South Australian whistle-blower of the appalling treatment new mothers frequently receive, including hospital staff taking the baby away from the mother "for medical tests," only for the mother to then be told, with absolutely no prior warning, that the baby was not going to be returned to her.
Machine by Elizabeth Bear had a lot of things I generally like: discussion of AI rights, crimes against humanity (or at least sentience), medical drama, a disabled queer main character (although I'm a bit unclear about how she became a space cop before getting her assistive device), and of course the crowd favourite, illicit brain surgery.
It did all get rather overshadowed by pacing issues - oh no the world as we know will end if we don't do something, now I'm in a cafeteria complaining about spaghetti. Still, I do not regret reading it which is more than I can say for some books lately.
I've seen a lot of meta about Forgiveness and TLT and the contrast between Gideon forgiving Harrow/John's whole bugbear about forgiveness and one thing I think I've never seen articulated.
I think The Locked Tomb relies really hard on the idea that asking for forgiveness is putting yourself in a vulnerable position. It's giving other people power over you.
Harrow isn't asking for Gideon's forgiveness at all, she fully expects Gideon to kill her. She's shocked and horrified when putting herself in Gideon's power leads to forgiveness. The vulnerability that leads to Gideon forgiving her is explicitly the same vulnerability as vulnerability to violence.
John wants to be forgiven, but he can't be. Part of this is the fact that all the things he wants to be forgiven for are so egregiously terrible (in the traditional sense) and he's spent longer than modern recorded human history doubling down on them that it would be hard with anyone with full context to forgive him but also. To ask for forgiveness is to ask for mercy. To ask for forgiveness is to admit someone else has power. John Gaius chose to make himself the Emperor Undying, King beyond the river. (All that iconography didn't come as a package deal with the godlike powers. It didn't have to happen.) John Gaius chooses to keep wearing his crown (OF BABY BONES) when he's off with his polycule and their shitty half-adopted kids lightyears away from any of that social structure. John wants to be forgiven, but to be forgiven he'd have to rescind control and power, and he is completely unwilling to do that.
One could argue that that's the power Mercymorn tries to take when she attempts to kill John - if I recall correctly, her last words to him are in the lines of "I forgive you". John quite violently rejects it (to be fair, he did also get atomised, so, understandable) but then turns around to beg Augustine for loyalty, only to be rejected in turn. Would he have let Augustine forgive him as the favourite acolyte?
Alla oleva Ilari Kailan kanssa kirjoittamani teksti oli tarkoitus julkaista kolumnipaikallani vuoden 2024 maaliskuussa Ylen verkkosivuilla, sekÀ luettuna Yle Radio 1:ssÀ. EpÀtavallisen editointiprosessin ja sitÀ seuranneen usean pÀivÀn hiljaisuuden jÀlkeen YleltÀ ilmoitettiin 18.3., ettÀ juttua ei julkaista. SiitÀ tarjottiin kuitenkin kirjoituspalkkiota.
Editointi oli ehtinyt edetÀ vaiheeseen, jossa yleensÀ tarkistetaan faktavÀitteitÀ ja niiden taustoitusta. Palautteen mukaan julkaisu oli kiinni yhden lauseen muotoilusta, koskien sotilashallintoa miehitetyillÀ palestiinalaisalueilla. AlkuperÀinen muotoilumme oli paikkansapitÀvÀ, mutta tarjosimme kuitenkin vaihtoehtoja. TÀmÀn jÀlkeen Ylen puolelta ei oltu enÀÀ yhteydessÀ, kunnes julkaisu peruttiin.
Syiksi annettiin, ettĂ€ editoinnin pitkittymisen takia aihe âsaattaa vanhetaâ, ja ettĂ€ kolumnista ei ole âselvĂ€sti erotettavissaâ mikĂ€ osa on kirjoittajan mielipidettĂ€. Kolumnejani on julkaistu YlellĂ€ vuodesta 2017, eikĂ€ tĂ€mĂ€ teksti eroa aiemmista sen enempÀÀ tyylin kuin tarkkuuden suhteen. Vastaavanlaisia peruutuksia tai haasteita editoinnissa ei ole aiemmin ollut.
Alla oleva Ilari Kailan kanssa kirjoittamani teksti oli tarkoitus julkaista kolumnipaikallani vuoden 2024 maaliskuussa Ylen verkkosivuillaâŠ
I was going to just relinquish my hold of the Ninth House, on the basis of really disliking Shadow and Bone. Quite happy to have given it a chance (although still not enjoying it quite as much as Last Exit) but now I'm even more confused about how the same author managed to write both of these. This one actually has, for example, a plot and characters.
I was going to just relinquish my hold of the Ninth House, on the basis of really disliking Shadow and Bone. Quite happy to have given it a chance (although still not enjoying it quite as much as Last Exit) but now I'm even more confused about how the same author managed to write both of these. This one actually has, for example, a plot and characters.
The Stars Are Legion is definitely an addition to the "lesbians with brain damage" subgenre of scifi. I did quite enjoy it although the logistics of the worlds somewhat disrupt suspension of disbelief: there are no children. It is repeatedly made clear that the worlds are dying and babies (and women capable of bearing them) are rare. Why do they then keep sending out armies to take a world that's already conquered? Like, people are a scarce resource here, stop wasting them!
(Also, pregnancy is already body horror as it is. Pregnancy you have no control over and end up giving birth to a giant organic cog is absolutely terrifying.)
I finished The Fragile Threads of Power a couple of nights ago and I have to confess, I absolutely hate Lila Bard. She's a bully with very little character development for four books now, and what she has had mostly seems to consist of 'might makes right'. She keeps running off on her own without notifying anyone (including the people whose actual lives are at stake in a given situation) and needing to be rescued (sometimes by the very same people). I'm kind of hoping she'll end up losing her power at the end of this series, for the sake of all the Londons.
Besides, she was mean to Nadiya Loreni. Nobody should be mean to Nadiya Loreni.
youâll have one joke post complaining abt old misogynistic scifi blow up and years later youâll still get people reblogging it with tags like âwhy i donât touch scifi.â hey. im at your door with a pile of scifi in my hands. iâll lovingly read ursula k le guin or octavia butler to you aloud myself. let me in let me in please please please please hello
some ann leckie or martha wells even. samuel delany. nalo hopkinson. vonda n mcintyre. melissa scott. nnedi okorafor. adrian tchaikovsky. becky chambers. kim bo-young. cameron reed. ted chiang. temi oh. ryka aoki. sarah gailey. micaiah johnson. rivers solomon. TAKE MY HAND!!!!!!!!
Yoon Ha Lee. Arkady Martine. Paolo Bagicalupi. N. K. Jemisin. Aliette de Bodard. Emily Tesh. Emmi ItÀranta. John Scalzi. Mary Robinette Kowal. Max Gladstone. Amal El-Mohtar. Hannu Rajaniemi. Hell, Terry Pratchett depending on how scifi you insist on being.
So far, the orphan protagonist has discovered they have special powers while rescuing their childhood friend from certain death.
Consequently, in the book I finished last night the orphan protagonist used his special powers to rescue his adopted brother from certain death.
The main difference seems to be that childhood friend is being set up to be the love interest but I still don't understand what fantasy authors have against parents.
i need a harrowhark tamagotchi where you feed her little packets of nutrient paste and give her bones to play with and clean blood off her face. she dies if you give her too much attention
