A Coldfire Blog

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[geraldtarrant]

Main @straysinfiltrator. This is a fan blog for The Coldfire Trilogy books by C.S. Friedman.

My Coldfire fanfics on Ao3 My Coldfire fanart Coldfire Shipyard - unofficial Coldfire Discord (come and say hi!)

[wiltking]

finished black sun rising by c.s. friedman - notqueer 90s scifi fantasy (heavy on the fantasy) about a planet brimming with 'fae' magic and the descendants of humans who travelled through the stars to colonize it centuries ago. and the sorcerers who must now figure out the source of an emergent evil feeding on people's memories.

first a disclaimer that there are no fairies or elves in this book and that 'fae' only serves as a word subsitute for 'magic' in this world. that made me a little sad, so im mentioning it. but there are other creatures like demons and vampires and more, and the world here was one of my favorite things about the book. the mysteries of its night and the creatures that thrive in its deepest darkness. the Hunter, as a character, and everything about him. his relationship to Damien, rife with potential for a queer reading, with all the shame and hatred to make it interesting. all of this was good.

but i think what held it back from me 'loving' it was its writing - which felt just a little lackluster for a story so heavily woven around magic and its workings. i dont think its poorly written, exactly. whenever i would actually pick it up the story itself would suck me in and there were definitely some standout scenes. but i didnt always feel the desire to pick it up. and there are some scenes i wish had played out on the page real-time rather than explained after the fact. and i wasn't ever as captivated by damien as i like to be with any main character.

but the concepts were good, and i did like it overall. not everything can be a banger, and im still curious to see where the story goes in the next book, and if damien will more successfully endear himself to me.

[evilwizard]

I’M RIGHT BEHIND YOU

[cowboybarbaryn]

Thank you Evil Wizard, it’s good to know someone has our backs

[evilwizard]

IN A SCARY WAY

[queenofskys5]

Thank you Evil Wizard, finally someone to scare away the creeps!

[evilwizard]

I FEEL LIKE WE NEED TO WORK ON OUR COMMUNICATION

[the-punforgiven]

I'm just saying, if you're going to worldbuild magic being a "raw, primal force, akin to and interweaving with nature itself" you gotta explain to me why animals don't use it

[the-punforgiven]

I know the normal answer is "they just aren't smart enough for it" but idk I've seen enough media where a character uses a spell in a moment of brain-off panic ilI feel like animals could probably stumble into a spell or two like, accidentally

[the-punforgiven]

Also how funny would it be to see a completely normal regular bear cast magic missile outta nowhere

[the-punforgiven]

Also there is no way ravens wouldn't figure out spells, tbh

They're smart fuckin birds, I believe in them

Either through observing or just figuring shit out ravens could 100% learn how to cast spells I'm sure of it

[the-punforgiven]

Dogs can also cast Magic Missile but every time they do the projectile is shaped like a bone or a stick and they chase after it

[rathayibacter]

group of wizards who ask this in-universe, and after extensive study learn to their surprise that animals are casting spells all the time, just that their magic is so fundamental as to be unrecognizable to humans. turns out the only reason acorns grow on trees is because squirrels keep wishing for them.

[death-rebirth-senshi]

[fractally]

don't worry about me when I say this but I think in a way being hunted for sport would be a relief. my nervous system would be like, wow. finally, a proportional reaction

[fairycosmos]

getting older is funny because characters you used to look up to and see as very established and grown up people are like 29

[penny-anna]

Bookriot 100 Must-Read Sci-Fi Fantasy Novels by Female Authors

Bookriot 100 Must-Read Sci-Fi Fantasy Novels By Female Authors Bookriot 100 Must-Read Sci-Fi Fantasy Novels By Female Authors

ok let's do another one! this time we have Bookriot's 100 sci-fi fantasy novels by female authors.

just to pre-empt a few possible objections to the list, it was published in 2016 and:

JK Rowling's public transphobia downward spiral began in 2018.

All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, Martha Wells) was published in 2017 and Gideon the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir) was published in 2019.

The Fifth Season (NK Jemisin) was published in 2015 & given that the editor included a different NK Jemisin I presume Fifth Season simply hadn't hit all-time classic status yet.

The editor stated upfront that they included 1 book per author.

I have no idea what We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Shirley Jackson) is doing there given that it categorically is not SFF.

How many of Bookriot's 100 sci-fi fantasy novels by female authors have you read?

0-10

11-20

21-30

31-40

41-50

51-60

61-70

71-80

81-90

91-100

Voting ended onMay 24

[geraldtarrant]

May I add to this list: The Coldfire Trilogy by C.S. Friedman aka Celia Friedman. She was pressured to use initials at the time these books were first published because sci-fi written by women wasn't supposed to sell.

[subzeroparade]

babygirl you're not gonna make it

[silknink]

Time to reread C.S. Friedman for some prose inspo

[memewhore]

[owenology]

what’s the opposite of a poor little meow meow. this man is pathetic but he’s unfathomably cocky and i want to make him cry

[st-dionysus]

woem woem

[st-dionysus]

hold up mfers in the notes saying" Stupid big bark bark" are onto something

[bark-barkley]

sometimes the only explanation for what just happened is sex like it wasnt sex but narratively they just fucked we all saw it

[filmnoirsbian]

Had a dream about a haunted forest

[susiephone]

obsessed with characters who snapped because their circumstances were so fucked that losing it was literally the sanest response

[gayfrasier]

i love the phrase "which could mean nothing" i think its my favorite thing to come out of the internet ever i love saying it. it could mean nothing but we all know better. we know the truth.

[secunitscompromisedbrain]

excuse me, no I wasn't???

[beguilingcorpse]

congratulations to today’s lucky 10000

[001x456]

do you even like your blorbo if you don’t like them pathetic and half dead