stronger than you seem

This is a side blog for all my book rants and related opinions. Here there be spoilers. Current subject(s): Liveship Traders, The Cosmere, anything i've ever read

[coolcurrybooks-deactivated20230]

I’ve done some Twitter threads on this topic, so thought it might be nice to do a Tumblr post too. One of my pet peeves is when people act like adult fantasy (or sci-fi for that matter) is just a straight white dude thing and that diversity only exists in young adult fantasy. That’s such a disservice to all the authors of marginalized identities currently writing adult fantasy!

Authors and books below the cut, including links to Goodreads. I’m not providing trigger warnings (if I make the post too long Tumblr starts freaking out about it), but you can use the search function on Goodreads reviews to find more specifics. 

Keep reading

[cielrouge]

2019 YA Reads by Authors of Color

96 Words for Love by Rachel Roy - While exploring her grandmother’s past at an ashram in India with her cousin Anandi, Raya finds herself and, perhaps, true love in this modern retelling of the legend of Dushyanta and Shakuntala.

After the Fall by E.C. Myers - A year after the destruction of Beacon Academy, Team CFVY answers a distress call and are forced to relive their former battles, from both the fall of Beacon and from everything that came before.

All-American Muslim Girl by Nadine Jolie Courtney - Allie Abraham has it all going for her—she’s a straight-A student, with good friends and a close-knit family, and she’s dating cute, popular, and sweet Wells Henderson. Only one problem: Wells’s father is Jack Henderson, America’s most famous conservative shock jock…and Allie hasn’t told Wells that her family is Muslim. 

All the Things We Never Said by Yasmin Rahman - 16-year-old Mehreen Miah’s anxiety and depression has taken over her life. So, she joins MementoMori, a website that matches people and allocates them a date and method of death. When Mehreen and her new friends change their minds, the website won’t let them stop, and an increasingly sinister game begins. 

The Athene Protocol by Shamim Sarif - Jessie Archer is a member of the Athena Protocol, an elite organization of female spies who enact vigilante justice around the world. But after Jessie goes her rogue, her former teammates have been ordered to bring her down. Jessie must face danger from all sides if she’s to complete her mission—and survive.

Barely Missing Anything by Matt Mendez - Three Mexican-Americans–Juan, JD, and Fabi–each try to overcome their individual struggles as they all grapple with how to make a better life for themselves when it seems like brown lives don’t matter. 

The Beast Player by Nahoko Uehashi - An epic YA fantasy about a girl with a special power to communicate with magical beasts and the warring kingdom only she can save.

The Beautiful by Renee Ahdieh - In 19th century New Orleans where vampires hide in plain sight and a serial killer is on the loose, half-Asian Celine Rosseau, a dressmaker from Paris, becomes embroiled in a murder mystery, connected to the glamorous supernatural cohort, known as the Court of Lions, and catching the eye of their mysterious, charismatic leader, Sèbastien Saint Germain. 

The Beauty of the Moment by Tanaz Bhathena - Saudi-Canadian Susan is the new girl. Malcolm is the bad boy. Susan’s parents are on the verge of divorce. Malcolm’s dad is a known adulterer. Susan hasn’t told anyone, but she wants to be an artist. Malcolm doesn’t know what he wants—until he meets her. Love is messy and families are messier, but in spite of their burdens, Susan and Malcolm fall for each other.

The Best Lies by Sarah Lyu - Remy Tsai was happy once. Remy had her boyfriend Jack, and Elise, her best friend—her soulmate. But now Jack is dead, and it was Elise who pulled the trigger. Was it self-defense? Or something deeper, darker than anything Remy could have imagined? 

Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America edit. by Ibi Zoboi - A short story anthology about what it is like to be young and black, centering on the experiences of black teens and emphasizing that one person’s experiences, reality, and personal identity are different than someone else.

The Boxer by Nikesh Shukla - When racial tensions are rising in the city, and when a Far Right march through Bristol turns violent, 17-year-old amateur boxer Sunny faces losing his new best friend Keir to radicalization.

Brief Chronicle of Another Stupid Heartbreak by Adi Alsaid - Teen relationship columnist Lu Charles navigates life in the wake of a devastating breakup, and her decision to chronicle the planned breakup of another couple, Cal and Iris, in the summer after they graduate from high school. 

The Candle and the Flame by Nafiza Azad - Set in the city of Noor, along the Silk Road which has become a refuge for those of all faiths, Fatima becomes embroiled in a war between two clans of powerful djinn who threaten to destroy her peace in different ways, forcing her to make unlikely alliances to survive. 

Caster by Elsie Chapman - In this Chinese-inspired, magical Fight Club, Earth is already at the brink of environmental disaster due to the magic overuse. And 16-year-old spell caster Aza Wu must navigate through an illegal, underground battle magic tournament, while evading local gangs and police scouts to save her family from ruin. 

Keep reading

[mesaaana]

Me: Rig should meet FM

Spensa, not even halfway down the page: "You sound like FM."

[secretlyatargaryen]

When dudes say that Sansa is annoying or that they hope horrible things happen to her I remember how the first time I read her chapters I was constantly terrified for her. What her chapters do really well is encapsulate the fear of assault that is in the back of every woman’s mind, so when men respond to that with annoyance and hate it does say something about their inability or unwillingness to empathize with women. Remember that post about the bank analogy that comes around every so often about how men do not understand why women are afraid of men unless it’s put in terms they explicitly identify with? One of the reasons Sansa gets so much hate is because she’s constantly under the threat of assault and men either can’t or don’t want to empathize with that.

That’s also the reason Sansa is getting less hate now that the show has “empowered” her (after fulfilling the wishes of everyone who wanted to see her be raped first, of course).

This is why the fandom needed to empathize with Sansa from the very beginning of the story regardless of how kind or empowered or good she was.

Of course, the fear of assault is present in the storylines of other characters, too (and I could talk for days about how this is overlooked or outright disregarded in the narratives of girls or women who don’t fit idealized expectations of femininity, like Arya or Dany, or even in Tyrion’s narrative, because he’s a disabled adult man. GRRM sets us up to constantly fear for Sansa’s sexual purity because she’s an idealized ingenue archetype, and there is misogyny in that narrative. I also think GRRM himself does not treat the characters fairly in this respect. I think he treats Arya like she’ll be fine no matter how many men leer at her because she’s spunky and unfeminine and not the type of girl we are supposed to worry about that happening to.) But that visceral fear is so present in nearly every aspect of Sansa’s narrative and women understand that much better than men do.

[turtle-paced]

I'm wondering why you think Jon's going to reconnect with his Stark 'siblings' instead the more likely path of him embracing his heritage as a Targaryen (dragon riding, Dany, fulfilling Rhaegar's prophecy)? Given that Jon gets killed for being trying to be a Stark (he reminisces about those siblings before he dies), Aemon's warnings about killing the boy and letting the man be born. Isn't him coming into his own as a Targaryen Prince much more thematically foreshadowed?

Simple - I don’t agree that it’s more likely Jon embraces his Targaryen heritage over his Stark heritage, and I don’t agree that this is more heavily thematically foreshadowed. Quite the reverse. I don’t see why Jon’s murder would cause him to reject the Stark family, and I read “kill the boy and let the man be born” as a comment on Jon’s maturity rather than his family identity.

Jon is established right at the beginning of the story as a member of the Stark family, even though he is somewhat set apart from them. He’s subject to the party scattering that the rest of the family is, and so he’ll be drawn back to Winterfell with the rest of his siblings. We see again and again and again through his story just how much he loves his siblings, and so I don’t think he’ll drop them like rocks because he found a shinier heritage. It’s a point of note regarding his bastardy that one of the things he hates about it is how it makes him not truly a part of the Stark family. 

We also know that Jon is proud of being Ned’s son. The reveal that Rhaegar’s his bio-dad, and the realisation of everything that came from Rhaegar’s desire to have Jon is not the sort of thing this character can celebrate. Jon grew up knowing how reluctant Ned was to speak of Jon’s mother; he can work out just how much grief all of Westeros went through for Rhaegar’s prophetic vision. I think it’s far more likely that Jon is horrified and rejects said vision.

If Jon fulfils Rhaegar’s prophecy, I doubt it has anything to do with Rhaegar, and everything to do with what Ned taught him was the right thing to do.

[samwpmarleau]

Rhaella x Doran She looks to the ruins, spying sparrows nesting in the eaves, and thinks I could be happy again.

She looks to the ruins, spying sparrows nesting in the eaves, and thinks, I could be happy again.

She had not thought she could ever visit this place, this place where still she remembers clear as day the smell of her family’s flesh burning, where her son had ripped his way from her too-small body. For decades, Summerhall had been her albatross, her nightmare, but now she can once more see its beauty.

They have grown old, the pair of them, her daughter years into her reign and his with a brood of her own; Aerys would call her a withered drab upon seeing the lines around her mouth and at the crinkles of her eyes, but not a day goes by that her prince does not call her radiant. With every touch, with every loving smile, the horrors of her youth fade ever fainter.

The sparrows chirp their song and the wind rustles the grass and the ghosts go quiet, and when she kisses him, she feels only peace.

[howlandreads]

Feminine Rebellion In ASOIAF

One of the things I love most about ASOIAF is how carefully crafted each of the female main characters are. GRRM has taken so much time to create meaningful characters that aren’t stereotypical, sexist, or caricatured. Though each female character is unique and shows a different perspective of what it’s like to live in such an incredibly patriarchal society, I think the three I find most interesting are Sansa, Arya, and Cersei.  Each of them shows one of the three main ways a woman can react to the expectations a patriarchal society places on them.  Sansa reacts by fully embracing society’s expectations of her, Arya reacts by rejecting the expectations she’s not naturally suited for and pursuing other skills, and Cersei reacts by becoming embittered towards everybody, but especially other women she views as not fighting hard enough for her idea of women’s equality in Westeros.  In their own way each of these points of views is fighting against the sexist society they’re living in (some in a much healthier way than others).  It’s fascinating what can be learned from the perspective of each of these three women, and I love that GRRM gave us these contrasting characters.  I think understanding how each of them relates to the societal expectations around them is crucial to understanding them fully as characters, so it’s worthwhile to break down each of these reactions to patriarchal society:

Sansa

Of all the female perspectives in ASOIAF, Sansa’s rebellion against her circumstances is often the most subtle, but it is effective and important nonetheless.  Though Sansa has mostly catered to the Westerosi male standard of what a woman “should be” (she excels at activities like needlework, is polite to a fault, and constantly thinks about the duties of a Lady) she still uses these attributes to help those around her and put herself in a better social position.  Despite being ridiculed endlessly by the likes of Cersei, Joffrey, and the Hound for her kindness and pleasantries, she still never gives up on her ideal of what a true Lady should be.  Instead of allowing her situation to make her bitter and resentful, she stays resiliently gentle throughout her whole arch, even when she’s in the throes of depression. Just because her rebellions against society are gentle doesn’t make them any less worthwhile.  Each time she refuses to play the part that’s expected of her, even when it’s subtle, ends up leading to a defining character moment or to an improvement in her circumstance – for instance, the Hound expects her to play the role of scared little girl, but instead she remains polite and caring just as a lady should, choosing to comfort him instead of shy away from him, which leads to him protecting her later.  This type of scenario happens over and over again – her decision to show no outer signs of distress while Joffrey torments her so as not to allow him the satisfaction, her choosing to de-stress the guests in Maegor’s Holdfast during Blackwater when Cersei expects her to beg for her life.  Westeros’s patriarchal society has forced roles upon Sansa, expecting her to be weak because of them, but instead she takes every opportunity to prove that courtesy, kindness, and goodness are strengths that shouldn’t be underestimated.  It should also be noted that Sansa’s strength can be seen in more obvious rebellions, like her actually physically fighting against her marriage to Tyrion:

“Sansa tried to run, but Cersei’s handmaid caught her before she’d gone a yard. Ser Meryn Trant gave her a look that made her cringe, but Kettleblack touched her almost gently and said, ‘Do as you’re told, sweetling, it won’t be so bad. Wolves are supposed to be brave, aren’t they?’

Brave. Sansa took a deep breath. I am a Stark, yes, I can be brave.”

- Sansa III, A Storm of Swords

Arya

Though some people view Arya as a simple tomboy, her character is actually much more complex than that.  Arya is naturally considerably less suited for Westeros’s idea of what a highborn lady should be, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t wish she was suited for life as a lady:

“Arya’s stitches were crooked again.  She frowned down at them with dismay and glanced over to where her sister Sansa sat among the other girls. Sansa’s needlework was exquisite. Everyone said so.”

- Arya I, A Game of Thrones

She is upset by the fact that she isn’t as capable of lady-like activities as Sansa is, and that constant feeling of inadequacy is mostly what’s driven her to pursuing other interests like swordplay.  But rather than wallow in her feelings of inadequacy, she embraces the talents she’s better suited for.  One of my favorite things about her character is that she never lingers too long on the conflict of her refusal to meet society’s expectations.  Instead of worrying about her identity as a female in a patriarchal society, she just digs deeper into her identity as a “wolf”:

“Arya was a trial, it must be said. Half a boy and half a wolf pup. Forbid her anything and it became her heart’s desire.”

- Catelyn VII, A Clash of Kings

“Yes, Arya thought. Yes, it’s you who ought to run, you and Lord Tywin and the Mountain and Ser Addam and Ser Amory and stupid Ser Lyonel whoever he is, all of you better run or my brother will kill you, he’s a Stark, he’s more wolf than man, and so am I.”

- Arya VIII, A Clash of Kings

Though Arya takes every chance she can get to rebel against the expectations Westeros has for women, it’s never a conscious decision she decided to make – it’s just her nature:

“’You look different now. Like a proper little girl.’

“I look like an oak tree, with all these stupid acorns.’”

- Arya IV, A Storm of Swords

Arya misses a lot about her life at Winterfell, but the fineries of highborn life aren’t one of them. Despite the fact that she’s slowly turning into a total badass, GRRM has still managed to make sure her character has a subtle feminism that’s never too on the nose.  She’s a strong woman, who can take of herself, but it’s never overly emphasized, and it’s never the only dimension her character has.  All of her development into a warrior of sorts is always tied to her inner struggle about what it means to be a Stark:

“’The wolf blood.’ Arya remembered now. ‘I’ll be as strong as Robb. I said I would.’ She took a deep breath, then lifted the broomstick in both hands and brought it down across her knee. It broke with a loud crack, and she threw the pieces aside. I am a direwolf, and done with wooden teeth.”

- Arya X, A Clash of Kings

Cersei

Of these three characters, Cersei’s method of coping with patriarchal expectations is by far the most maladaptive.  While Arya acknowledges that she’s very different from most women in Westeros, she still loves to befriend them and bares them no ill will.  Cersei, on the other hand, views herself as superior above all women because of her awareness of the expectations and men that are holding her back. Her resentment against patriarchy has actually led her to contribute to the problem by being horribly prejudiced against the majority of women who she views as unintelligent and weak.  Some of the best examples of Cersei’s prejudice against women is her unnecessary hostility towards Sansa and Margaery:

“Dontos chuckled. ‘My Jonquil’s a clever girl, isn’t she?’

‘Joffrey and his mother say I’m stupid.’”

- Sansa IV, A Clash of Kings

“The king studied her a moment. ‘Perhaps you’re not so stupid as Mother says.’"

-          Sansa I, A Clash of Kings

“If Margaery Tyrell thinks to cheat me of my hour in the sun, she had bloody well think again.”

- Cersei  V, A Feast For Crows

Though a lot of her hostility can be explained by her fear of the YMBQ, it still has a lot to do with her bitterness towards women.  Instead of viewing other women as her comrades in a fight for equality, she prefers to see herself as a pseudo-man, and uses that position to further oppress other women.  Though Cersei views herself as the only woman in Westeros who’s truly fighting the patriarchy, she’s actually contributing to the system that holds women back.

I love the contrast between these three.  Each of their actions makes total sense when considering their back stories and past traumas.  Though some view Sansa as weak, Arya as approaching sociopathy, and Cersei as a one note villain, GRRM has actually crafted them to be multi-dimensional characters that avoid tropes, while staying morally grey and intriguing.

[torpublishinggroup]

Our Favorite Female Captains in Sci-fi and Fantasy

Being the boss of a ship, whether on the high seas or in space, is a challenging job. But the #FearlessWomen in these books can handle it! Who's your favorite female captain?

[weneeddiversebooks]

What's better than a fairy tale retelling? A Thousand Beginnings and Endings gives us fifteen of them, each inspired by East and South Asian folklore!

“We never found similar compilations that were distinctly Asian. And so many times when we found Asian stories, they were ones retold by non-Asian writers that never felt quite right. They were always missing something.”

[roseflavoredvodka-blog]

Booklr come in clutch and send me book recs

[youthbookreview]

Insignia trilogy by S.J. Kincaid! It’s like Harry Potter meets Ender’s Game.

[elenajohansenauthor-deactivated]

Since I don’t know your genres, here are a few of my faves broken down according to theirs:

Fairy-tale-esque fantasy: Daughter of the Forest, Juliet Marillier

High fantasy: The Dragonbone Chair, Tad Williams

Sexy alternate-history fantasy: Kushiel’s Dart, Jacqueline Carey (this one’s definitely mature readers only)

Classy (non-romantic) alternate-history fantasy: River of Stars, Guy Gavriel Kay (bonus: not based on Western cultures, it’s set in China!)

Romantic science-fantasy blend: Archangel, Sharon Shinn

Paranormal romance: START READING THE KATE DANIELS BY ILONA ANDREWS RIGHT NOW OH MY GOD SERIOUSLY RIGHT NOW [that’s Magic Bites]

[these are all older works and should be easy to find cheap on used book sites like Thriftbooks; they also are first-in-series, with the exception of River of Stars, which is technically second of a loose duology but you DO NOT have to have read the first book.]

Apocalyptic sci-fi: Seveneves, Neal Stephenson

Hard sci-fi: Leviathan Wakes, S. A. Corey (first in The Expanse on which the television show is based, super-good even if/especially if you’ve already seen the show)

Classic sci-fi: The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury

[rhetoricandlogic]

Re-tellings of fairy-tales: T. Kingfisher’s The Raven and the Reindeer or Bryony and Roses

Sci-Fi: Martha Wells: The Murderbot Diaries, Becky Chambers: A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and its sequels; pure entertainment including sarcasm

Space Opera: Yoon Ha Lee’s Machineries of Empire trilogy; Catherynne M. Valente’s Space Opera (sic)

Steampunk: T. Kingfisher’s The Clocktaur Wars

Fitting No Genre: Claire North’s The Gameshouse “trilogy”; 

Fantasy with wonderful prose: Sofia Samatar’s A Stranger in Olondria (also: a book about books, so that’s o.k.); Benjanun Sriduangkaew’s Winterglass - these are both so excellent. Also: you’re gonna cry.

Dystopian Sci-Fi: C. Robert Cargill’s A Sea of Rust. Even without human protagonists. A marvellous book.

Paranormal urban fantasy: in no world known to us - Max Gladstone’s The Craft Sequence

[souberbielle]

For purposes of fanfiction, I counted every appearance of “Cat” as a nickname for Catelyn Tully Stark in A Song of Ice and Fire, as well as uses of “Catelyn” by people who also call her Cat. Here are my conclusions:

Edmure Tully never calls his sister anything but Cat, no matter who he’s talking to or how formal the context.

Catelyn herself names herself “Cat” only once in dialogue and twice in narration. Two of these instances (”It’s Catelyn. It’s Cat, Father.” and “Lord Hoster’s little Cat”) are directly in reference to her father. In the third instance, she calls herself Cat in the narration, after she’s been spending all her time with her father and has recently verbally identified herself as Cat to him. This might suggest that she used to think of herself as Cat, making it a habit she can easily slip back into. So, Riverrun-era Catelyn could feasibly be called Cat sometimes in her POV, but canon-era Catelyn definitely shouldn’t.

Hoster Tully, when (knowingly) speaking to his daughter, calls her “little Cat” exclusively. He also calls her “little Cat” when he thinks he’s talking to Minisa. When mentioning her to anyone else, he just says “Cat.”

The only other person to use “little Cat” is Brynden, when first greeting Catelyn in the Vale. Afterward (maybe influenced by her objection to being called “child”) he never says it again. He calls her Catelyn once when addressing her and three times to Jaime Lannister. Otherwise, the Blackfish is a Cat person.

Lysa, when speaking to her sister, calls her Cat. When talking to Sansa, she uses Cat three times and Catelyn seven. To everyone else, she just uses Catelyn.

Petyr Baelish is the first person in the books to call her Cat - and, before she accepts him as family again, she considers it “familiarity” she must ignore. Unlike Edmure, though, Petyr often refers to her as Catelyn to others. A breakdown: when he addresses her, or speaks of her to Lysa or Sansa she’s only Cat. To Ned, he calls her Cat four times and Catelyn or Lady Catelyn four times. In front of the Small Council, he uses Lady Catelyn once and Cat once. He uses “Catelyn” and “Lady Catelyn” once each to Tyrion. 

Ned only calls his wife Cat to her face once, versus Catelyn four times. He uses the nickname in dialogue only one other time, to Varys. Every time he mentions her to anyone else (five times to Littlefinger, four to Robert, and once to Jaime) she’s Catelyn. In his narration he thinks of her as Catelyn twenty-six times and Cat only twice. 

Nobody who isn’t on this list (unless we count Arya’s “could I be Cat?”) ever uses Cat in any capacity. It’s a family nickname only - and that family is House Tully, not Stark. Also, nobody ever calls her “Cat Tully” or “Cat Stark.” It’s more analogous to “Lya” for Lyanna than “Ned” for Eddard Stark.

So this is this and that is that, and that’s how you address a Cat.

[asoiafuniversity]

#there is little cat tully and lady catelyn stark #i also think the contrast between ned and petyr is intentional (via @onionjulius)

[turtle-paced]

Wouldn't Arianne be more powerful as princess than as some consort ? Why would Arianne get agree to a betrothal with her 'cousin' ? If she really wants to be more powerful than Quentyn while give Dorne up, she would 'seduce' Aegon to become his hand, not his queen.

Hands can be dismissed. Queens…well, it’s possible, but it’s way harder. Being Queen would give Arianne power, specifically over and above her brother, security in her position, the chance to influence the king after Aegon…

…and most of all it’s specifically outdoing Quentyn. Quentyn was sent to secure a Targaryen alliance, and as far as Arianne knows he’s off kicking around Essos, Probably having a real good time too. Where is he now, huh? When’s he going to bring Dany back? While here Arianne is back in Westeros, and here's her supposed cousin, and if he’s real his claim’s better than Dany’s, he’s already taken Storm’s End, and Arianne can get in right here on the ground floor. That should prove her skills and worthiness to Doran. That should prove she’s a better heir than Quentyn.

[goodqueenaly]

It’s also important to note that being Queen of the Seven Kingdoms and being Princess (or Princess-Apparent) of Dorne might not be mutually exclusive in Arianne’s mind; sure, Mariah Martell seems to have given up her inheritance rights to marry then-Prince Daeron Targaryen (in a move I think was carefully calculated by the Unnamed Prince of Dorne to avoid the Iron Throne claiming Dorne by marriage), but as she herself made clear to Arys Oakheart, Cersei Lannister is both (Dowager) Queen of the Seven Kingdoms (and its Queen Regnant) as well as the Lady of Casterly Rock. She might not believe she’s giving up any of her powers in marrying Aegon, but instead will be getting exactly what she wants - a future where she will never have to kneel to “King Quentyn”.

[marthawells-deactivated20181223]

Book Recs

I know shit is bad out there, but here’s some book recs.

(If you’ve been following my book rec and new book listing posts for a while, you may have noticed this already, but while most book lists emphasize books by popular straight white men, this one emphasizes everybody else. I include books by straight white men, but in about the same percentage that other book lists include everybody else. I also try to highlight books that are less well known.)

(I only link to one retail outlet in the book’s listing, but most books are available at multiple outlets, like Kobo, iBooks, international Amazons, Barnes & Noble, etc. The short stories are usually on free online magazines.)

* Short Story: The Thing in the Walls Wants Your Small Change by Virginia M. Mohlere

* Short Story: I Frequently Hear Music in the Very Heart of Noise by Sarah Pinsker

* Short Story: Ally by Nalo Hopkinson

* The Amiestrin Gambit by J. Kathleen Cheney Ellis Dantreon is barely fifteen when she learns that her father–the king of Jenear–has decreed that she’s to be trained as a soldier. Thrust in among the others at the newly reopened War College of Amiestrin, Ellis must earn the other cadets’ respect and trust. Not all of them are pleased at having a girl among them.

* The Sisters Mederos by Patrice Sarath House Mederos was once the wealthiest merchant family in Port Saint Frey. Now the family is disgraced, impoverished, and humbled by the powerful Merchants Guild. Daughters Yvienne and Tesara Mederos are determined to uncover who was behind their family’s downfall and get revenge. But Tesara has a secret – could it have been her wild magic that caused the storm that destroyed the family’s merchant fleet? The sisters’ schemes quickly get out of hand – gambling is one thing, but robbing people is another…

* Preorder: Ruse by Cindy Pon Sequel to Want

* Preorder: The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa On an unnamed island off an unnamed coast, things are disappearing. First, animals and flowers. Then objects—ribbons, bells, photographs. Then, body parts. Most of the island’s inhabitants fail to notice these changes, while those few imbued with the power to recall the lost objects live in fear of the mysterious “memory police,” who are committed to ensuring that the disappeared remain forgotten. When a young novelist realizes that more than her career is in danger, she takes refuge beneath her editor’s floorboards. Together, as fear and loss close in around them, they cling to literature as the last way of preserving the past. Part allegory, part literary thriller, The Memory Police is a stunning new work from one of the most exciting contemporary authors writing in any language.

* Preorder: The Decent of Monsters by JY Yang Something terrible happened at the Rewar Teng Institute of Experimental Methods. When the Tensorate’s investigators arrived, they found a sea of blood and bones as far as the eye could see. One of the institute’s experiments got loose, and its rage left no survivors. The investigators returned to the capital with few clues and two prisoners: the terrorist leader Sanao Akeha and a companion known only as Rider.

* Preorder: The Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse Maggie Hoskie is a Dinétah monster hunter, a supernaturally gifted killer. When a small town needs help finding a missing girl, Maggie is their last best hope. But what Maggie uncovers about the monster is much more terrifying than anything she could imagine. and her Nebula-Award winning short story: Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience

[donewithwoodenteeth]

I've seen somewhere that in TWoIaF, Nymerya is described as a commander and princess instead of warrior and queen... do you think it has something to do with grrm plans for Arya?

Nymeria was a princess of the Rhoyne (like how Arya is technically a princess now,) but she became a queen later. To quote TWoIaF:

Nymeria herself remained the unquestioned ruler of Dorne for almost twenty-seven years, her husbands serving only as counselors and consorts. She survived a dozen attempts upon her life, put down two rebellions, and threw back two invasions by the Storm King Durran the Third and one by King Greydon of the Reach…

She was the ruler of Dorne. As for the warrior tidbit, it’s not really clear. I’ve spoken about the inconsistencies in describing Nymeria here, but in TWoIaF:

Nymeria, the fierce and beautiful warrior queen who had led her people across the world to keep them free.It is said that, amongst the Rhoynar who came to Dorne with Nymeria, eight of every ten were women … but a quarter of those were warriors, in the Rhoynish tradition, and even those who did not fight had been hardened during their travels and travails.

To me, that seems similar to the way Arya is a “warrior”. Despite a lack of physical strength or actual training in combat/arms, a hardened life in a kill or be killed existence and an expectation that you have to protect yourself, yeah, that sounds more like the way in which Arya is a “warrior”. 

But do I think that has anything to do with what GRRM plans for Arya? Oh, yeah. Seriously click on that meta link because it sums up my thoughts pretty well on the Nymeria/Arya connection. 

Really, all you need to remember in my mind to confirm the Arya/Nymeria connection is going somewhere is that 1) the direwolves are “a part of the Stark” as stated repeatedly and were the basis of the whole series, 2) Arya is the only Stark who named her direwolf after someone, a real person. It’s going somewhere, I’m positive. Read the linked meta because that maps it out pretty extensively.

For what’s not in that meta, there’s some speculation about Arya and Hardhome that kind of go with the Arya/Nymeria connection, which you may or may not know of. Basically here are the basic facts-

Arya is almost certainly heading to the Wall/the battle with the Others and going to play a role

Arya is 100% returning to Westeros, probably within the next book

Wildlings arrived in Braavos recently to escape it 

We know this through Arya’s chapter and she is aware of the situation at least partially and recalls tales of Hardhome

“I know why the Sealord seized the Goodheart. She was carrying slaves. Hundreds of slaves, women and children, roped together in her hold.” Braavos had been founded by escaped slaves, and the slave trade was forbidden here.

“I know where the slaves came from. They were wildlings from West-eros, from a place called Hardhome. An old ruined place, accursed.” Old Nan had told her tales of Hardhome, back at Winterfell when she had still been Arya Stark. “After the big battle where the King-Beyond-the-Wall was killed, the wildlings ran away, and this woods witch said that if they went to Hardhome, ships would come and carry them away to someplace warm. But no ships came, except these two Lyseni pirates, Goodheart and Elephant, that had been driven north by a storm. They dropped anchor off Hardhome to make repairs, and saw the wildlings, but there were thousands and they didn’t have room for all of them, so they said they’d just take the women and the children. The wildlings had nothing to eat, so the men sent out their wives and daughters, but as soon as the ships were out to sea, the Lyseni drove them below and roped them up. They meant to sell them all in Lys. Only then they ran into another storm and the ships were parted. The Goodheart was so damaged her captain had no choice but to put in here, but the Elephant may have made it back to Lys. The Lyseni at Pynto’s think that she’ll return with more ships. The price of slaves is rising, they said, and there are thousands more women and children at Hardhome.” Arya, ADWD

She’s going to have to go to somewhere when returning to Braavos and wind up at the Wall conflict, Hardhome’s possible

Thousands of women and children in Hardhome stranded and dying in need of salvationre/sea travel potentially… why that sounds like Princess Nymeria’s crew, doesn’t it?

The Hardhome plot is still affecting Jon and the Wall’s plotline and doesn’t have an obvious solution at the moment but needs to be resolved somehow

Jon was all set to go save those at Hardhome before he was stabbed, partially for “Arya”- seems like a good connector of those storylines and a fair bit of irony especially since Jon thinks of dealing with Hardhome while contemplating sending “Arya” to Braavos with protection because she’s just a child (dramatic irony there) on the same page

Those are just the bare basic facts and why people are speculating this. The fact is that Arya is the ultimate wildcard character. Jon, Dany, Tyrion, Bran, Sansa, Jaime, Cersei, and so on- you can kind of guess where their characters are going. In fact, the outlines seem pretty obvious, you can at least wager a guess.

Arya is a wildcard and her character could go in many different directions to affect the plot. All we really know is that she will greatly affect the plot- the hows, whys, and whens are yet to be determined though.

Do I think Arya/Hardhome speculation will happen? I definitely think it’s possible, but so are a lot of things with Arya’s storyline.

But yeah, I’m sure that the Arya/Nymeria connection is worth speculating about and going somewhere. 

[gladysplummer]

Is Moiraine still bound by the Three Oaths when she leaves the Tower of Ghenjei? Discuss.

[elan-morin-tedronai]

I don’t see any reason why she wouldn’t be. She didn’t die, she wasn’t severed. The Warder bond snapped because she was cut off from the world where the other participant of the bond was; the Oaths are part of her and would remain so.

[herenya-sedai]

So I think “we don’t know everything about the rules of Eelfinn-land” counts as a reason why Moiraine might possibly no longer be bound, but it’s not a strong reason. Based on everything we’re told about the circumstances under which one might be freed from them, we have many more reasons for assuming Moiraine remains bound.

From memory, she doesn’t do anything in the last two books which suggests she is free of the oaths. She hasn’t lost the ageless look – that’s something people would have certainly have commented on.

(Actually I’m not sure how fast one would lose the ageless look. It happens very quickly, but not immediately, when the oaths are removed due to stilling. Aes Sedai who use the oath rod to remove and then re-swear the Three Oaths – or to then swear new ones – don’t suddenly lose it  It takes “at least a year or two, sometimes five or more” (ACoS: 24) for an Aes Sedai to acquire the ageless look. If an Aes Sedai was released from her oaths using the oath rod, would she then lose the look at the same rate?)

[wheelofmeta]

I think in terms of losing the ageless look it’s implied in *how* the oaths get broken. For example, Siuan and Leane are both stated to no longer have the ageless look, and that’s got to be from having been stilled, which also snapped their connection to their oaths. Setalle is also strongly implied to have pretty much immediately lost her ageless look. Since you need a One Power connection (of some sort, since during the AoL there was a method of using the Rod on non-channelers) to use the Oath Rod, its fair to assume that destruction of the One Power connection also destroys the agelessness, or at least hastens the appearance’s destruction. Being actively released on the other hand leads to a delayed loss of the agelessness (or at least it could be assumed, since also rather obviously we don’t see anyone remove the Oaths willingly long term).

In terms of Moiraine and her Oaths. I would say without a doubt she’s still bound by the Three Oaths. The reason the bond with Lan snapped is because she got trapped in the Finnland. Their world is implied to be a step…sideways to the main reality. As such, when she gets trapped, rather than just going through the doorway to ask questions (as she does in The Shadow Rising), the bond snaps. She’s no longer on the same plane of reality, and she has no open connection anymore to the previous plane (like she would have through the first door when asking her questions). As such, no more bond because the weave fails due to being on a different plane of reality (while the World of Dreams is also arguably a different plane of reality, it runs along side the ‘main’ reality, while Finnland does not. I’d call it at being at a diagonal). The bond seems to connect two souls together; with one soul no longer in the same plane of reality, the bond can no longer exist. 

The reason the Oaths wouldn’t have snapped is because the Oaths are bound to Moiraine’s soul and to her ability to channel, which she maintained. The Oath Rod allows for the Oaths to be bound to you, rather than for the Oaths to bind you to something else (which is arguably the case of a Warder bond; it binds you to a second person). If being bound by the Oath Rod meant you were literally bound to the Oath Rod, then I would argue that it would be more possible that she’d have become unbound from the Oaths, but that’s not the case. I would argue had they completely drained her of her ability to channel, then she also would have lost the Oaths like Suian, Leane and Setalle did. But since she maintained her channeling ability, she stayed bound by the Three Oaths.

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

GRRM’s Chekhov’s guns - how can we tell what they are?

yeyaboya asked:

I love the way you analyze ASOIAF and its mysteries and how you made me enjoy them even more by revealing the “Chekhov’s guns”. The last list you made is amazing! I hope this question doesn’t bother you but how can we be sure that some minor mysteries are Chekhov’s guns and not just worldbuilding? Is there something as a literary rule to distinguish them? After all, not every story needs to be told in the books and some things may work better if left open…

Thanks so much! Regarding GRRM’s Chekhov’s guns, the most important thing to remember is where the term came from:

Remove everything that has no relevance to the story. If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it’s not going to be fired, it shouldn’t be hanging there. –Anton Chekhov

That principle can be understood in several ways: 1) if you intend to have something happen later in the story, you should set it up earlier in the story; and 2) if you mention a significant object or other element, it must be important to the plot, otherwise you shouldn’t mention it.

Therefore, deciding whether something is a Chekhov’s gun (for a plot point that hasn’t happened yet) is very similar to deciding whether something is foreshadowing (for a plot point that hasn’t happened yet). If you want to do literary analysis properly, you can’t look at an unfinished work and say definitely that things are foreshadowing or Chekhov’s guns – you need to wait until the work is complete, otherwise you’re only guessing. Sometimes you can guess in a way that turns out to have been pretty accurate, but sometimes the author was not going where you thought he was, sometimes the object was not significant at all, and you end up being just plain wrong.*

*(To step away from ASOIAF, consider the Harry Potter series: some thought that Neville’s parents giving him bubble gum wrappers was a Chekhov’s gun, and built theories about what the letters on the wrappers signified. Others thought that Lily Potter having been skilled at potions and charms was significant foreshadowing for Harry discovering that a potion or charm was needed to defeat Voldemort. Still others believed Harry and Hermione’s flight on the hippogriff was foreshadowing for their future romance, based on alchemical symbolism. While there were many arguments about the validity of these speculative Chekhov’s guns and foreshadowing during the time the story was unfinished, by the end they all turned out to be extremely wrong.)

However, even in an incomplete work, you can analyze pieces of foreshadowing where the thing they foreshadowed happened already, because there you can be definite. For example, the stag killing the mother direwolf, which foreshadowed conflict between the Starks and Baratheons, or all the visions and such foreshadowing the Red Wedding. (Sandor’s “maybe we’ll even be in time for your uncle’s bloody wedding” also counts as foreshadowing, though GRRM was extremely unsubtle by that point. Not that the visions were especially subtle, not at all.) To shift that to Chekhov’s guns (which are often but not always physical objects): for example, at the end of ACOK when Dontos gave Sansa the black amethyst hairnet, that was GRRM hanging the gun upon the wall (and we knew it was a gun because we had been told that strangler crystals looked like dark amethysts at the start of ACOK) – and then the gun was fired in ASOS at Joffrey’s wedding, with one of the “amethysts” in the hairnet used to poison his wine.

This example of Sansa and the strangler poison is therefore one of our baselines for determining whether a plot element is one of GRRM’s Chekhov’s guns to be fired in the future.

Keep reading

[argelladurrandon-deactivated202]

I have to ask...why is Melisandre your favorite character?

I just find her fascinating to be honest?? and kind of relatable as a young woman who doesn’t conform very well to social standards?? and I, too, make mistakes in a rather bombastic fashion,,,,

in regards to the former: Melisandre is a woman living outside every Westerosi expectation of womanhood—a patriarchal universe is rarely kind to witches. she is unmarried, self-sufficient, ambitious. highly educated, likely self-taught, a practitioner of sorcery. either a freedwoman or an escapee. foreign, from a city with a very unfavourable reputation. and…a very visible advisor to a king. she accomplishes all of this while being even less privileged than Davos. 

there are 2 things for certain about Melisandre. one of them is that she has never, ever been handed a thing in life. 

where other characters get her wrong, IMO, is in trying to pin down her identity or purpose or affiliation. she is not Stannis’s true queen, as Jon dubs her, or his red shadow, or his red whore, as Ramsay would name her. she is not Stannis’s downfall or Selyse’s downfall or Jon’s ticket to resurrection. she does not exist to be Davos’s enemy or to be ASOIAF’s token evil seductress. she is her own person, a person of her own making (no matter how she attributes her existence to R’hllor). she stood on her own long before ACOK began and I suspect she will long after Stannis is dead. there is a reason she is a POV character, albeit an abysmally under-utilised one, while someone like Stannis is not. she will not fail simply because Stannis fails and she is attached to him, like a by-product; she will fail because she has chosen the wrong path. and yet she will go on, because she exists independently of that path.

the second thing that is certain about Melisandre is that she is 100% genuine. given the narrative context, the transparency of her motives is kind of incredible. in many ways, she is one of the most human characters in the series, and one of the most selfless. she cares very deeply about the world, though the way she lives out her beliefs is deeply flawed. she reveals very little and it’s only when we get inside her head that we realise the majority of her persona is for show (“the trappings of power”). she is very skilled at reading people and tailoring herself to their expectations. it’s brilliant. she’s brilliant. with some pretty serious blind spots. I am hopeful that her plot going forward in the books will be complex and that she will be given the proper arc she deserves. because in terms of socio-religious commentary…Melisandre is a pretty tragic example of why you don’t buy a child and indoctrinate them with ideology. 

but most importantly…she has the most iconic style in the series and I will Fight anyone who comes into my house to claim otherwise.