Secrets of Maradaine

[lizardsfromspace]

Casting Benedict Cumberbatch as Khan was the most galaxy brain racebending in Hollywood bc they really thought they'd get praise for making the character less racist by making him white, because they said it'd be problematic to cast someone who wasn't white to "play a terrorist", except Khan wasn't a terrorist before, so they invented a way for it to be problematic and thought people would say "good job" for avoiding that

Help, we took a tragic mastermind and turned him into a terrorist and then made him white to avoid the stereotypes we added to our script for no reason, why are you mad at us. Where's our kudos. We did a tie-in comic where we explain that Khan had plastic surgery to turn himself white so like, it's not even a plot hole

[lizardsfromspace]

Looked up commentary on this and saw defenses bc "well, Khan flies a ship into a city in this, it would be problematic to cast an actor of color in that role". And that makes me lose my mind bc at what point was "doing a 9/11" a core trait of Khan From Star Trek. Nothing forced them to write that in, or to keep it in; after all, they could have just as easily gone "this is problematic, we should rewrite this". But they didn't rewrite it, they did something way more complicated than rewriting it. Also, does it really evade stereotypes when he's still named Khan, and everyone watching knows what he used to look like

[abigailnussbaum]

The thing is, Star Trek: Into Darkness is 100% a 9/11 movie. Which is an absolutely wild thing to do in 2013 when most of Hollywood had already gotten that sort of thing out of their system, but there you have it: a villain whose terrorist attacks threaten to send the Federation down a dark path, and James Kirk who prevents us from going that way and then gives a speech about how we shouldn't lose track of our liberal values.

And then for some reason they decided to graft Khan onto that. (Well, I say "some reason"; the reason is that JJ Abrams doesn't know any other way to write franchise stuff except non-stop borrowing from other writers' original work.) And then you end up with his bizarre wrangle of "do we fix the whitewashing inherent to Khan's character"/"do we make a brown-skinned character a terrorist" that concludes with Benedict Cumberbatch playing a character named Khan Noonien Singh who has nothing in common with what the original Khan actually was. But the original sin of all this was the concept of "NuTrek does 9/11".

[maradainemaresca]

My die-hard tinfoil hat theory is that Cumberbatch was hired to play a younger Jean-Luc Picard who comes from the dark future of the Kelvin-verse timeline, and thus A. has a super powerful ship that Admiral Marcus commandeers and B. is deeply concerned about his crew. BUT then Abrams or some other executive chowderhead was all "Wait, the bad guy has to be Khan, that's Kirk's nemesis, we gotta make him Khan", even though Khan even being a thing or caring the slightest about Kirk in this timeline didn't make a lick of sense, so they did a quick copy-and-paste of the script to change names and added a scene where Spock phones a friend so the main characters would have a reason to care about who Khan even is.

[maradainemaresca]

The next champion of Maradaine: Kaiana Nell!

[maradainemaresca]

Another Champion of Maradaine!  Jerinne Fendall!

[maradainemaresca]

Thirty days until PEOPLE OF THE CITY! The massive Maradaine Crossover Event!  Today's champion is tinkerer and gadgeteer extraordinaire, Verci Rynax!

[maradainemaresca]

With PEOPLE OF THE CITY now thirty-one days away (less than a full cycle of the white moon in Maradaine's sky), we meet another Champion of Maradaine: ex-street rat, ex-spy, working mom Satrine Rainey. 

[maradainemaresca]

Today, thirty-two days from the release of PEOPLE OF THE CITY, the twelfth book of the Maradaine saga that weaves all the series threads together, we're looking at all our champions of Maradaine.   Today, the prodigious, pacifist paladin: Dayne Heldrin of the Tarian Order.

[maradainemaresca]

PEOPLE OF THE CITY, 12th book in the Maradaine saga, comes out in 33 days!  The threads from all the series are weaving together, and the champions of the city all have a part to play.  Today, from The Streets of Maradaine: the brilliant, broken Asti Rynax.

[maradainemaresca]

PEOPLE OF THE CITY, the finale to the first phase of the Maradaine Saga, comes into the world on October 27th. Time to learn about another champion of Maradaine: Brilliant inspector, untrained mage Minox Welling

[maradainemaresca]

PEOPLE OF THE CITY comes out in less than FIVE WEEKS. Which means you have time to check out all the Maradaine books and get to know all the champions of Maradiane, starting with today's entry: Veranix Calbert, aka The Thorn.

[thehuddledmasses]

The book series that got me back into reading again

I used to devour books. Not a day would go by where I wasn’t reading something even, and especially, to the detriment of my sleeping schedule. I always had a book with me. (Bless Miss Ross in Algebra 2 for never once reprimanding me for reading in class instead of listening to the lesson)

Then…. events happened. The internet makes it so easy for me to be distracted by mindlessly scrolling and looking at funny pictures of cats. I also had depression and didn’t do anything I enjoyed. I worked weird/long hours and was too tired to focus on anything. Eventually, I fell out of the habit of reading all the time. Books didn’t really grab me as much. 

Yet I still kept buying books and trying, because my love never truly faded. I just couldn’t get invested in most stories, and so unread masses were left to collect dust on my bookshelf. It was a tragic sight to behold.

But a couple years ago while once again wandering the bookshelves at a local bookstore, one in particular caught my eye. A Murder of Mages by Marshall Ryan Maresca. The title piqued my interest, as is usually the start. The summary: even better. 

Satrine Rainey is a wife and mother of two who fakes her way into the Maradaine Constabulary as an Inspector (a staunchly male career, but an ex-spy raised by the harsh streets knows how to work the system). Minox Welling is an Uncircled mage (but that’s not something we talk about in polite company). Jinx, as the other Inspectors call him. Too smart, too  obsessive for his own good. Why not throw the outcasts together to try and solve ritual murders of Circled mages?

A blend of crime drama, fantasy, and political intrigue, I was hooked from page one. I read an entire book in a matter of a couple days instead of struggling for weeks to get through one chapter. Satrine and Minox wormed their way into my heart and, more importantly, my brain. I needed to know more. About the characters. About Maradaine. About everything. 

And wasn’t I just lucky enough that the sequel was right there waiting for me and my ability to click 1-day shipping on Amazon?

An Import of Intrigue continued to enthrall, this time delving into the wider cultures of Maradaine and its surrounding countries. Diplomacy and foreign relations are at stake when a foreign dignitary is murdered. Satrine has been exposed as a fraud, though with the success of the last case, she gets to stay on as an Inspector. Minox is confronting more what it means to be Uncircled and his powers may be getting too much for him to handle.

While Maradaine itself has a sort of fantasy England feel to it, none of the cultures feels like a direct counterpart to any real place. Whether they be Racquin, Fuergan, or Kieran, each culture is inspired by real places and cultures, but is entirely unique to this world. Maresca’s world building is such an incredible thing. Nothing feels like it’s been left out and I’d completely trust the author to teach a detailed history class on how Maradaine came to be, and leading up to where we are now in the story. A class I would thoroughly enjoy, much like the protagonist, Dayne, from Maresca’s Maradaine Elite series.

Yes. There are several connected series all taking place in Maradaine, and while focusing on the specific protagonists, do intertwine with each other at times. Minox meeting the mage college student/vigilante Veranix from the Maradaine series was a subtle yet impactful moment. I had originally just planned to only read the Maradaine Constabulary series. I didn’t want to go too crazy thinking I could actually read books again like I had before. So I didn’t seek out his other work at first, obstinately avoiding them.

I started in on a different book series by a different author and found that I could read that one just as well. (Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. This time a YA novel. Still fantasy. Still full of that sweet, sweet political angst that I love) I managed to read a couple other books. Different authors. Different genres. Fiction and nonfiction. I felt like myself again. I was actually reading again. Didn’t matter if it was physical or e-reader. I was there.

I’ve since delved into all the other Maradaine novels. (I’m working my way through Way of the Shield before I start in on A Parliament of Bodies) There is so much life and love put into all of his works and it shows. It’s apparent that Maresca cares deeply about what he’s saying about people in his novels and the kinds of representation he puts in his novels. Minox and Veranix are mixed race. Satrine and Kaiana (a close friend to Veranix) have their own agency and are often more competent than their male counterparts.

Which is another thing I’d like to briefly touch upon. The women in all of the books are so varied in terms of personality and goals, and it’s so refreshing to see so many well-rounded female characters when so often there are only three different two-dimensional archetypes to choose from. Even those that have smaller roles shine through, and Maresca’s use of POV characters works instead of feeling like I’m being jerked around from character to character.

There’s a lot I could say about the individual books, and I barely touched on the other series, but I highly suggest any and all of them to put on your reading list. You won’t be disapointed. And maybe, like me, you’ll be reminded why you love reading so much.

[sapphicunicorn]

The Thorn of Dentonhill by Ryan Marshall Maresca (fantasy)

Veranix Calbert leads a double life. By day, he’s a struggling magic student at the University of Maradaine. At night, he spoils the drug trade of Willem Fenmere, crime boss of Dentonhill and murderer of Veranix’s father. He’s determined to shut Fenmere down.   With that goal in mind, Veranix disrupts the delivery of two magical artifacts meant for Fenmere’s clients, the mages of the Blue Hand Circle.  Using these power-filled objects in his fight, he quickly becomes a real thorn in Fenmere’s side.   So much so that soon not only Fenmere, but powerful mages, assassins, and street gangs all want a piece of “The Thorn.” And with professors and prefects on the verge of discovering his secrets, Veranix’s double life might just fall apart. Unless, of course, Fenmere puts an end to it first.

I don’t have many (or maybe any) vigilante stories, so when I spotted The Thorn of Dentonhill’s interesting cover–and the promise of wizards–I snatched it up. The set-up is so good but as the story goes on it just becomes predictable.

Veranix has devoted his life to being the thorn in Fenmere’s side. Fenmere killed Veranix’s father, addicted his mother to a drug called effitte, and now Fenmere has no idea Veranix is even alive, not to mention destroying his drug operation.

The book starts out so good! It’s action packed, it’s fast paced, Veranix’s struggle between getting enough sleep for school or spending all night fighting drug lords is fun–it’s all pretty fun in the beginning. The action scenes are well written and constantly moving. The introduction of street gangs, of the divide between the university students and everyone else, was interesting. But the characters absolutely can’t carry the story in the second half and it crawls to a snail’s pace.

Keep reading

[velvetblush]

The Thorn of Dentonhill (Maradaine) by Marshall Ryan Maresca

“But you will go after him.”

“Like fire and blazes. As long as he’s poisoning the streets.”

[maradainemaresca]

Love this.