Book Talk

Dedicated place to go feral over what I'm reading. currently reading:

[v-shelf]

Valen

they/them

Main @valen-but-not-tine

[aweirdlyspecificamountofsnails]

The Queen's Thief series is literally like the perfect series to reread. There's so much foreshadowing that I've noticed something new Every. Single. Time.

I love it with all my heart

[silver-and-shadow]

Attolia Irene The Queen's Thief | Charcoal on paper

"She thought of the hardness and the coldness she had cultivated over those years and wondered if they were the mask she wore or if the mask had become her self. If the longing inside her for kindness, for warmth, for compassion, was the last seed of hope for her, she didn't know how to nurture it or if it could live." - Megan Whalen Turner, The Queen of Attolia (The Queen's Thief, #2)

---------

The Queen's Thief is one of my favorite book series and I've had this drawing brewing in my head for a while. #WinASignedSetofTheQueensThief2024 was a great excuse for me to finally get it on paper!

[saessenach]

"Wedding customs were said to change, at first in Attolian temples and later in the Peninsula whole, after Attolia's wedding to the would-be Annux. Some speculate that is why, to this day, only brides carry candles and fresh flowers during wedding processions, not only to light the way forward, but perhaps because Attolia's own husband did not have two hands to hold his own, as bridegrooms were shown to in earlier depictions. Speculation on this topic has been widely spread, ever since the discovery of a portrait reportedly depicting Attolia's second wedding in a recent dig of the palace ruins in the capital."

A wedding portrait for Attolia and her boytoy husband for @laurentarzan as a part of this year's @hamiathesgiftexchange ♥️

[paradoxspaceheater]

very interesting to me how quickly and how perceptively pashavar clocks what's going on between setheris and maia without ever seeing them interact

[voidartisan]

been reblogging a lot about maia's initial impression of beshelar but it's just. assuming the guard also only takes volunteers for nohecharei. (which seems logical to me; you don't want the guys with 24/7 access to the most important person in the empire, including while he sleeps, to be holding any kind of grudge). that would mean beshelar, likely with full awareness that maia is half-goblin, pretty young, previously relegated, rumored to be half-mad, and has a neon target painted on his back, 100% voluntarily decided to take an oath staking his own life to maia's anyway. and for a couple of hours he's very possibly the only person present in the entire unthileineise court who had already decided that he was absolutely in maia's corner rain or shine, and maia immediately assumed that the guy hated him

[dont-stop-her-now]

With tags because this is so important! Beshelar for sure volunteered! He's In This. He's also doing his best to keep this extremely alone and extremely In Danger emperor from getting killed day 1. I'm sure he wishes he could put Maia in a room for 3 years until he has a better system of alliances. I feel like half of what he says that first day can be interpreted as "serenity, please, your operational security..."

[autistic-beshelar]

yes i love this take! and whether beshelar and telimezh originally volunteered, or they were chosen, one thing remains the same:

orthema.

orthema, a half goblin just as maia is.

orthema, who would have experienced the same discrimination and racism that maia does, for his entire life.

orthema, who himself has been called an abomination for his race.

orthema, who disapproved of the emperor's conduct in relegating his son.

whether beshelar and telimezh volunteered for the role, or they were chosen and accepted it, i don't believe orthema would have ever permitted someone to take the role who he could not be assured would have maia's best interests at heart.

[girl-blorbo-polls]

Does your girl blorbo carry a legacy title?

Yes

No

Sort of

She originated a legacy title

Other

Remaining time: 5 days 17 hours

[paradoxspaceheater]

can someone explain to me what a legacy title is...?

[v-shelf]

Whoops, accidentally monologued.

Legacy character explanation under the cut

I think part of the confusion might be from the use of legacy title instead of legacy character, but that might be a semantic difference between 'is your girl blorbo a legacy character?' Vs 'does your girl blorbo carry a legacy title?' Like the legacy title would be robin or batgirl and the legacy character is Stephenie Brown (my girl has been both ✌️), but ime you see the term legacy character used more often.

But yeah, your tags kinda hit it, in that i think of it as more of a comics/superhero thing.

Tvtropes defines legacy characters as:

[A Legacy Character is a character whose identity is passed down to them from an older character in the form of a title, job or persona for the newer character to assume.]

And i don't think the courtly titles of osreth count as an identity/persona in the way the term is typically used. So Csethiro I'd vote as a sort of or as a no, as Zhasan she would have a title, but that's not really how I've seen legacy character or legacy title used. (Though in universe i might consider the cavaliers to be legacy characters? Hard to say with how little we know of them, but i could see the argument.)

Donna Troy or Cassie Sandsmark as Wondergirl are both legacy characters, whereas Koriand'r as Starfire is not.

[porterdavis]

[myrandomstuffpage]

Support your local library 📚

[remnantglow]

LINK: tinyurl.com/oldgaySF

I'd like to share with y'all a project I've poured my heart and soul into over the last couple of years: a database cataloguing every single older queer science fiction book I've managed to track down, consisting of just over 200 titles with LGBT characters/themes & by LGBT authors, spanning over a century (1880-2000) 🚀

The database can be filtered by representation, subgenre, whether the book is currently in print, and more; additionally, it includes my own ratings & brief thoughts on the ones i have read, if anyone needs a suggestion on places to start! (or feel free to shoot me an ask for a more personalized recommendation)

[queer-joy-detector]

Queer joy detected!

[ellynneversweet]

On malia, the creation of enclaves, and the Scholomance.

We know that the enclave spells include a binding of secrecy that compels those who know how mawmouth-enclaves are made to protect the knowledge of them against non-initiates and this is fairly powerful, but if you were an initiate, you know what you probably could do and what every one of them would do? You’d encourage the people you love, especially your children, to cheat. To use malia just a little bit — not enough to really harm them, but just enough to make sure that they weren’t eligible to be the channel for a new foundation. You’d make being strict mana something ridiculous, something only indie wizards do. You wouldn’t (couldn’t) say why, but you’d nudge society just enough to keep the people you loved safe.

And when El says that the Scholomance tries to create malificers, I think she’s partway right. The school wants to protect wizard children — and one of the ways it can do so is by using that same sort of logic. Strict mana students, unless they are ridiculously powerful or well connected, are in danger from other wizards.

[beardedmrbean]

Next up someone is going to claim that the Narnia series isn't kids books.

Kids books is probably not the best way to word it, you can enjoy them at every age, including your childhood, as you get older you may find new truths in them, but they're still good for any age.

[cookingwithroxy]

I want you to understand this. I NEED you to understand this. My mother read me the hobbit as bedtime story, and I started pushing myself to read before pre-school so I could in fact read the hobbit for myself instead of having to wait for bedtime.

I didn't do so right away but jesus wept I PUSHED myself to learn to read SPECIFICALLY so I could read The Hobbit! It is, in fact, a children's story! And children only see page count as 'there is a lot of this fun story to read!'

[iwontknowyouanymore]

me when im reading a good book, and it’s a good book, and i love a good book

[dr-dendritic-trees]

He was sure there were many whom he offended by refusing to acknowledge the grief he did not in fact feel, but the dishonesty would be an insult to himself, to the dead whom he had not loved, and to his mother, for whom he had not been allowed to wear mourning after the funeral because Setheris considered it unseemly.

I think this is the most evil thing we learn about Setheris. I think this is worse than all the violence.

[phantomsofyourformerself]

girl who finally is going back to reading by finishing one book: now i'm going to read all the books in the world.

[klarionthewizard]

in hindsight, I feel kind of silly for not noticing why the suggestion to name Galadriel Higgins’ mouse familiar Precious was so funny to everyone

[afarai]

everybody read a deadly education now!!! behold my blorbo

[ao-ihinata]

Magnus (to Orion): You could have literally ANYONE in the school and you want HER ?! No offence, El

El : normally I would take offence to anything that comes out of your mouth just out of spite but I actuality agree with you on the topic about Lake's taste in partners