Art is one of the best things in the world, no matter whether it's about visual art, music, literature etc. 🩷 Pat, 29, they/them, Ger/Eng/Fr/(learning) Hu, space ace * See /about for my About page, and /nice-things for resources if you need some cheering up.
Anyone got any good (sci-fi or fantasy) books they can rec me?
(Becky Chambers is like. My favorite kind of sci-fi, with feel-good stories with little angst and lovely characters. Also Valerie Valdes's books abt Captain Eva Innocence are great! I'm looking for something like that, with the same kinda feel and just. Good characters that make it out of things alright.)
The art of the fic rec list is dying. WHERE am i supposed to get vetted recs that isn't just sort-by on ao3.... i want the hidden gems, the ones that have cool premises, ones that sell themselves short. And i want them delivered to me by the guy who is certified insane about the ship
there's a family of local sandhill cranes that adopted an abandoned goose last summer and they're STILL together today even after migration.... i love them + they're local celebrities + nature is beautiful
This is embarrassing, because the source material are just so unhinged, but I’m obsessed with them (and every thing SFTH did, really) to the point that I’ll simply fail as an artist if I don’t draw fanart of them, so I did. Anyway, I’m glad I found the fandom here, I don’t interact with people much, but more fanart to come (question mark, question mark?)
Hey capri community! I would love to hear some book recs from you! Setting: prefer fantasy/otherworldly/period over the real current world.
Gender doesn't really matter, there can be romance and spice (slowburn is always fun). Can have darker topics if done well.
Most importantly I really want to feel what the characters experience. Can be love/deep connection, fear/panic or whatever emotion but I want to gasp or laugh when reading… It's really hard to describe.
Pacat gave all that to me, but it's hard to find in other books so far. (Freya's A Marvellous Light was one of the ones that managed to do it, the second book less so tho, haven't read the third yet.)
So if anyone has a recommendation, please drop it in the comments. 👉👈
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EDIT: OMG thank you so much for all the recommendations! I compiled them in alphabetical order, so other people can refer to the list in case they need a recommendation as well:
(I'm currently reading: Gideon the Ninth )
A-Z
(☑ read / ☐ not yet read /❤️fav)
☐ A Ballad for slayers & Monsters - Rita A Rubin
☐ A bone in his teeth - Kellen Graves
☐ A Gentleman's Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel - KJ Charles
☐ A Master of Djinn - P. Djeli Clark
☑ A Spear cuts through water - Simon Jimenez
☐ A Strange and Stubborn Endurance - Foz Meadows
☐ A taste of Gold and Iron - Alexandria Rowland
☐ All for the game - Nora Sakavic
☐ Angels & man - Nicolás Rafael
☐ Angels before man - Nicolás Rafael
☐ Ballad of Sword and Wine: Qiang Jin Jiu -Tang Jiu Qing
☐ Beacon Hill Sorcerer series -Sheena Jolie
☐ Betrothed to the Emperor - Kai Butler
☐ Blood Over Bright Haven - M. L. Wang
☐ Crier's War - Nina Varela
☑ Dark Rise - C.S.Pacat
☐ Glitterland - Alexis Hall
☐ Heaven Official's Blessing Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
☐ Iron Breakers Trilogy - Zaya Feli
☐ Long Live Evil - Sarah Rees Brennan
☐ Lymond Chronicles - Dorothy Dunnett
☐ Iron Widow - Xiran Jay Zhao
☐ Murderbot Series - Martha Wells
☐ Nightrunner Series - Lynn Flewelling
☐ of Knights and Books - Rita A Rubin
☐ Pansies - Alexis Hall
☐ Parasol Protectorate - Gail Carriger
☑ Priory of the Orange Tree - Samantha Shannon
☐ Realm of the Elderlings/Farseer Trilogy - Robin Hobb
☐ Reforged - Seth Haddon
☐ Rose of the Prophet Cycle - Margret Weis/Tracy Hickmann
☐ Scum villain's self saving system - Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
☐ Shades of Magic -V.E. Schwab
☐ Silver Blood - TL Morgan
☐ Simon Snow Trilogy - Rainbow Rowell
☐ Six of Crows - Leigh Bardugo
☐ Skulduggery pleasant - Derek Handy
☑ Something Human - AJ Demas
☑ Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller
☐ Song of the bullrider - Alex "Muun" Singer
☐ Swordcrossed -Freya Marske
☐ Sword Dance -A.J. Demas
☐ The Alexander Trilogy - Mary Renault
☐ The Binding - Bridget Collins
☐ The Crossroads trilogy - Kate Elliott
☑ The Darkness Outside Us - Eliot Schrefer
☐ The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison
☐ The Grandmaster of demonic cultivation (Mo Dao Zu Shi) - Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
☑ The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue - Mackenzi Lee
☐ The Hair Carpet Weavers Andreas Eschenbach
☐ The Hands of the Emperor - Victoria Goddard
☐ The husky and his white cat - Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou (check TW)
☐ The Hyperion Cantos - Dan Simmons
☑ The Last Binding Trilogy - Freya Marske
☐ The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin
☐ The Magpie Ballads- Vale Aida
☐ The Magpie Lord Series- Kj Charles
☐ The Prince's Psalm - Eric Shaw Quinn
☑❤️ The Queen's thief series (Book 1-6) - Megan Whalen Turner
☐ The Queer Principles of Kitt Webb - Cat Sebastian
☐ The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater
☑ The Rifter Series - Ginn Hale
☐ The Scottish Boy - Alex de Campi
☑ The Tarot Sequence Series - K.D. Edwards (check TW)
please read this even if you're not indian. especially if you're not indian.
you've seen the jokes. india is "dirty", indians are "everywhere", why don't they fix their own country. ok. let me tell you why, and what's happening right now while nobody's watching.
first, the history you skipped: britain ruled india for two centuries and drained it. economist utsa patnaik's research estimates around $45 trillion in today's money was taken. the india that got independence in 1947 was one of the poorest countries on earth. every "why is india like this" question starts there. you don't get to profit off a robbery and then mock the crime scene.
now, what's happening RIGHT NOW:
in may the question paper for NEET leaked. that's the national medical entrance exam. over 2.2 million students took it. cancelled. years of studying, families' savings poured into coaching, gone overnight because someone sold the paper. students died by suicide after. these were kids who wanted to be doctors.
and out of that came a protest movement. a gen z group called the cockroach janta party, started by a 30 year old named abhijeet dipke, got 22 million instagram followers within DAYS. they've been doing a sit-in at jantar mantar in delhi demanding education minister dharmendra pradhan resign.
and then there's sonam wangchuk. if you've watched 3 idiots, he's the real engineer the character was based on. built solar schools in ladakh. invented ice stupas so himalayan villages have water. spent his whole life on education. he's 59 and he's been on hunger strike for 17+ days now. reporters went to see him this week and he was too weak to talk. and the troll armies are calling him "anti national" and "foreign funded". a man starving himself for other people's children. that's the thing here, anyone who asks a question is suddenly a traitor.
it's not one incident, it's everywhere you look:
• infrastructure worth thousands of crores failing within months of the ribbon cutting. tunnels collapsing in regions where heavy rain is a guarantee, not a surprise.
• youth unemployment near 10% for ages 15 to 29, 13.6% in cities. in a country of 1.42 billion where more than half the population is young.
• only about the top 3% of indians earn above 10 lakh a year. meanwhile billionaire wealth keeps ballooning and the headlines celebrate it.
• manipur burned for over two years. an ethnic conflict, tens of thousands displaced, and the prime minister barely said the word manipur while it happened.
• journalists raided. critics' houses bulldozed. activists sitting in jail for years without trial under laws like UAPA. our press freedom ranking has cratered.
• even the petrol is a fight now, ethanol blending pushed through while drivers complain about their engines and get no straight answers.
and through all of it, the PM, who came to power on religious polarisation (americans, sound familiar?), travels abroad for photo ops and has not held one single open press conference in over a decade. not one.
what i'm asking:
if you're not indian: share this. our media mostly won't cover any of it because the big outlets are owned by the same billionaires the government serves. the only reason wangchuk's fast is getting any coverage is people refusing to look away.
if you ARE indian: speak up even if you're comfortable. especially if you're comfortable. join the protests. add to this, correct me, translate it. staying quiet is a choice when nothing in this post touches your life.
india is not "dirty". india was robbed, and it's being robbed again, from the inside this time. but it's also the country where a 59 year old will starve for strangers' kids and 22 million young people will rally behind a party literally named after cockroaches, because cockroaches survive everything.
Apparently some people still need to hear this so: using an 'ai checker' is still using ai. If you are feeding someone's fic to one of these checkers, you will still not be sure their fic is ai because they are not 100% accurate, but you can be 100% sure that you are using ai. For fic. Furthermore you are doing the work of an ai scraper for them. You are, personally, feeding the machine. There is no actual excuse for using an ai checker on fanfic as a hobby. YOU are the problem.
If you think a fic is ai, mute it and move on. That's it. That's all you do.
Doing a little something something , n wanted show you all how to make a 16 page zine (as feel theyre rlly uncommon and underrated)
imo its extremely easy and more interesting engage with as can open them in multiple ways !
All you need is just a piece of paper and scissors (you also dont need scissors if youre confident in doing clean tears) , however you may want glue and some cardstock / cardboard for covers
example of one we made while back , you can open them as book , as 4 spread , or fully unfurl all of it and show all pages at once ! (keep in mind this can only work as single sided , other side doesnt work)
--
Tip here is to fold middle folds first , then fold rest them to line it up with middle line . you dont need measure or ruler at all for this project
for crisp folds we use bone folder , but you can use things like a card (you can of course use your nails but we personally find it uncomfortable)
Easy way remember folding steps is "middle vertical line always goes upwards , and all hinge / horizontal folds go down"
And youre done with all the cutting and creasing steps !
Easy way remember how cut is that the pages basically makes a snake shape
!! if your zine reads right to left , make the cuts instead go "right - left - right" instead of "left - right - left" . think of it as "you want to start and end with it in your reading order"
-
Also , pay attention to the page numbers and where hinge is , theres two options (1st page either being top left or bottom left) you can do and it Does Not change how the zine is cut and folded , just where you personally want the art and order to be
We personally recommend test both number variations to see which one like better as both open and feel different
if yours open right to left instead , the number order is reversed but still works same way
-
If idea of numbering is too complicated , you can instead either number the first or last row "1 2 3 4" , then fold up whole thing into book form , and number it as you flip through it !
its lot faster and easier do if don't want think about technical aspect
Biggest con is that this zine format tend naturally want to puff out or open , so we recommend gluing cardboard or heavy cardstock as covers
We also recommend leaving the zine under some weights (something like under heavy books or other heavy thing) to flatten it
Doing a little something something , n wanted show you all how to make a 16 page zine (as feel theyre rlly uncommon and underrated)
imo its extremely easy and more interesting engage with as can open them in multiple ways !
All you need is just a piece of paper and scissors (you also dont need scissors if youre confident in doing clean tears) , however you may want glue and some cardstock / cardboard for covers
example of one we made while back , you can open them as book , as 4 spread , or fully unfurl all of it and show all pages at once ! (keep in mind this can only work as single sided , other side doesnt work)
--
Tip here is to fold middle folds first , then fold rest them to line it up with middle line . you dont need measure or ruler at all for this project
for crisp folds we use bone folder , but you can use things like a card (you can of course use your nails but we personally find it uncomfortable)
Easy way remember folding steps is "middle vertical line always goes upwards , and all hinge / horizontal folds go down"
And youre done with all the cutting and creasing steps !
Easy way remember how cut is that the pages basically makes a snake shape
!! if your zine reads right to left , make the cuts instead go "right - left - right" instead of "left - right - left" . think of it as "you want to start and end with it in your reading order"
-
Also , pay attention to the page numbers and where hinge is , theres two options (1st page either being top left or bottom left) you can do and it Does Not change how the zine is cut and folded , just where you personally want the art and order to be
We personally recommend test both number variations to see which one like better as both open and feel different
if yours open right to left instead , the number order is reversed but still works same way
-
If idea of numbering is too complicated , you can instead either number the first or last row "1 2 3 4" , then fold up whole thing into book form , and number it as you flip through it !
its lot faster and easier do if don't want think about technical aspect
Biggest con is that this zine format tend naturally want to puff out or open , so we recommend gluing cardboard or heavy cardstock as covers
We also recommend leaving the zine under some weights (something like under heavy books or other heavy thing) to flatten it
