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@wearmanyhats
I am writing a book called Scoundrel, a high fantasy/urban fantasy/isekai adventure about Portland, an enchanted jungle, and a hot mess of a protagonist. Weekly-ish updates and whatever I feel like talking about will be going on the ticky tocks. Encouragement is highly appreciated.
I'll be doing my best to crosspost but if you really want, and in case I forget, here's where it'll happen.
I just made a set of animations with IDW ravage :)
~ bird ladies, getcher bird ladies here ~
Introducing a few of the main characters in Scoundrel-- Maura, our dubious heroine and the titular scoundrel, inspired by the common raven; Rafa, a very tired and scared new mother of twin hatchlings, inspired by the common kingfisher; and Diya, spy-handler and strategist for an incognito queen, inspired by the swallowtail kite.
Sideswipe: I saw 'Cons by the trees heading south.
Prowl: Copy, targets on the road, southbound.
Sideswipe: No, the TREES were going south.
Prowl: Trees are sessile lifeforms. They don't move.
Sideswipe: These trees were moving!
Prowl: Report to Ratchet for a drug test ASAP.
[b]
~ bird ladies, getcher bird ladies here ~
Introducing a few of the main characters in Scoundrel-- Maura, our dubious heroine and the titular scoundrel, inspired by the common raven; Rafa, a very tired and scared new mother of twin hatchlings, inspired by the common kingfisher; and Diya, spy-handler and strategist for an incognito queen, inspired by the swallowtail kite.
"Midmorning Étude" (procreate on ipad, oct.'24 to jan.'25)
Started out intending to just make a loose color/atmosphere rough to get a visual feel for the size of the jungle where most of the story is set, ended up drawing more and more foliage, before I knew it I had whole browser tab groups of reference photos of tropical plants. This was supposed to be a quick mood sketch with some trees Bob Ross'd in. Guess that'll teach me.
(Narrator: it will not, in fact, teach them.)
First rough, protagonist's detail, and timelapse:
Procreate exports timelapse video in only two flavors: full length (in this case over 13 minutes) and 30 seconds. Finally dug up a way to time-adjust for the length of an average piece of music, so here you go. Please enjoy.
Above image is a pride flag with every color band represented by a NASA image. White is Earth clouds, pink is aurora, blue is the Sun in a specific wavelength, brown is Jupiter clouds, black is the Hubble deep field, red is the top of sprites, orange is a Mars crater, yellow is the surface of Io, green is a lake with algae, blue is Neptune, and purple is the Crab Nebula in a specific wavelength.
I need some good fantasy or scifi to read that doesn't involve romance. preferably urban fantasy or cyberpunk or just downright weird shit, but I could do with more traditional stuff. as long as people aren't driven by lust. I'm so so soso so sososososoooooooo very tired of reading that sort of thing in traditional print novels.
#this is such a mood. i kind of stopped reading YA and even a lot of adult fantasy bc of the fixation on romance#op i'm preeeetty sure i didn't follow you for murderbot so forgive me if you know it but if not may i recommend the murderbot diaries#the imperial radch series is also some great non-romance-centric scifi#i've been recc'd several different books by Victoria Goddard for platonic/queerplatonic centered fantasy#only one i've read so far is Hands of the Emperor but it was GREAT#others who follow me probably have more ideas#(i hope i have not misread the room here by offering recommendations)
you weren't misreading, I was unintentionally unclear. recs are Very Welcome XD thank you!!
I keep a goodreads list of No Romance Books for exactly this reason lol.
ABSOLUTE FAVORITES
The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. Sci-fi series, space opera-ish. You've got a lot of recs for this already.
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. Sci-fi space opera. I've only read the first one still but it's brilliant.
Piranesi by Sunanna Clarke. Fantasy. A man lives alone in an infinite House over an equally infinite ocean. Ethereal and luminous and melancholy and beautiful.
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. Sci-fi thriller. Cloning! Dinosaurs! Math! I still love it.
WEIRD AND INTERESTING
The Jewels of Aptor by Samuel Delaney. Weird 1960s science-fantasy. The main characters could be read as romantic if you want - the homoeroticism can't be unintentional - but there isn't Romance Proper in it.
Werecockroach by Polenth Blake. Alien invasion/animal shapeshifter story. Novella. Zany and fast-paced. Aroace agender protagonist like the author.
And What Can We Offer You Tonight by Premee Mohamed. Sorta dystopian strange fantasy in an urban setting. Novella. The main characters are sex workers of the high-class courtesan prostitute type, and after one of them is murdered by a client, she comes back to life - and sets out on a whirlwind of freedom and revenge and justice she never got while alive.
Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower by Tamsyn Muir. Novella. Fractured-fairy-tale fantasy. Told in a snarky, sardonic style, not nearly as upbeat as it initially seems.
The Black God's Drums by P. Djèlí Clark. Steampunk-fantasy. Novella. YA-ish? Steampunk New Orleans and a Black girl who can talk to the Orisha falls into a plot to steal a scientist's superweapon.
Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger. Urban fantasy, YA. Urban fantasy in an all-myths-are-real kind of sense from a Lipan Apache perspective, starring an Apache girl who can talk to ghosts trying to solve her cousin's murder. Asexual protagonist with no interest in romance or partnering; it's refreshing and the sort of YA I would have loved as a teen.
HAVEN'T READ THIS BUT I KEEP MEANING TO
Firebreak by Nicole Kornher-Stace. Cyberpunk. No romance at all. VR and stuff. NKS is aroace and centering non-romantic experiences was her explicit goal here.
SOME ROMANCE BUT IT'S NOT A MAJOR FOCUS
Synners by Pat Cadigan. Cyberpunk. A kaleidoscopic whirlwind of a book with lots of characters with lots of varied relationships; romance is among them but not alone and certainly not the focus.
Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone. Urban fantasy, sort of - it's like a fantasy-kitchen-sink world with gods whose contracts power the magic in the world, so magicians are lawyers and lawyers are magicians and one lawyer-magician has to solve the murder of, and resurrect, a murdered god before his magic grinds to a halt and the city powered by his magic collapses. I'm not doing this description justice - it was vivid and compelling. The main characters do not have any romance, but a supporting character has a toxic ex she can't fully get over that features as a sideplot in the story.
Finna by Nino Cipri. Weird, universe-hopping science-fantasy. IKEA has a tendency to rip open portals to other universes and the minimum wage employees gotta deal with it. The two main characters were dating but have recently broken up, and they don't get back together but rather figure out how to be friends again after the breakup.
Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee. Military sci-fi space opera with a vast and interesting world and a very violent war. A military captain breaks rank and defies orders, so as punishment she has the digital ghost of a long dead war criminal downloaded into her head and she is pointed at a rebellion and told to crush it. I love Kel Cheris. No romance but some flashbacks to sex and sexual coercion.
I hope you don't mind if I jump in with recs because this is my favorite type of book!
The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett- many discworld books have little or no romance, imo. It's a fantasy series set on a flat or "disc" world. The books are only loosely connected so you can pick up whatever book catches your eye. Many readers recommend starting with Guards, Guards! (Fair warning, that one does have a romance, but it has my aroace approval)
The Earthsea cycle by Ursula LeGuin- this is one of my favorites because there is no romance in sight until book 4! And even so book 4 is quite good. It's a fantasy series set on a magical archipelago, and follows the epic highs and lows of life as a wizard struggling with hubris and mortality and destiny. You could read up to book 3 and it would have a satisfying conclusion, or you could read book 4 if you have the patience for romance. Either way its a fun read!
Fly By Night and Fly Trap by Frances Hardinge- this is a middle-grade/YA duology set in a sort of steampunk, vaguely European world where writing has been heavily censored and reading is considered a dangerous skill. The protagonist is a feral little 12 year old who is obsessed with reading. I love her dearly. There is some background romance happening with adult characters but the protagonist is so thoroughly uninterested it's hilarious to read from her perspective. I love this duology so much.
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison- Recommendations for The Hands of the Emperor seem to go hand in hand (lol) with The Goblin Emperor. If you enjoy one, odds are good you'll enjoy the other! The Goblin Emperor is a stand-alone fantasy about an unlikely heir who has to navigate court intrigue now that he is on the throne. There's also a series set in the same world (The Cemetaries of Amalo series) which follows a different protagonist, and is also very good but arguably does have romance in it. The final installment isn't out yet so the outcome remains to be seen, and again, it has my aroace approval.
The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison- while I'm at it I might as well recommend another one by miss Addison. This one is a Sherlock Holmes retelling set in a supernatural version of London. Its got a for reals, canon aroace + agender Sherlock and I love it for that reason!
Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson- fantasy YA set in a world plagued by ghosts and the undead, this one features an aroace protagonist as confirmed by the author. It's a stand-alone novel and a quick read, and I desperately wish there was more. Don't be put off by the blurb on the cover: "venom meets Joan of arc" sounds like trope-y booktok garbage but this book is actually extremely good. 10/10.
this picked up a lot more traction than I had expected. it's great to have so many titles to go check out. ^^ gonna reblog this version since it seems to have the most recs so far.
I'm regretting not listing a few of my faves in the actual post when I went on my rant, bc while I've seen Discworld and the Matthew Swift books recc'd (Matthew Swift is my GOLD STANDARD for urban fantasy), I hadn't seen two other really good ones that I'd mentioned in my tags.
The House of Discarded Dreams by Ekaterina Sedia is a wonderfully surreal story about being adrift in life, and finding strength by coming to know yourself. It features a poc lgbt protag (and a bit of a crush, but that's not at all the focus), and the action itself is a magical and bizarre blend of myth, folk tales, history, and dream-logic.
The Secret History of Moscow is also by Ekaterina Sedia. It's a melancholy and poetic story that follows a girl trying to save her sister from a curse, and meeting figures out of Russian folk tales along the way.
Zod Wallop by William Browning Spencer gets an honorable mention on this list, bc a pair of side characters have a...kind of romance. But it's not the focus, and the rest of the novel is a beautiful and heart-wrenching look at a father dealing with grief after the death of his child. I have never in my life read a novel that would have been more suited to be a Satoshi Kon film than this book.
Fantastic list, go check them out!
Also I'm writing a non-romantic book. Prett much all the main relationships are queerplatonic. In fact it's built into the biology of the harpies in this world.
I just have to finish writing it... and then edit... and then query... 🫠
Originally there were another characters, but they didn't fit well to a runaway scene as this fully legal duo who manages to do some clown acrobatic tricks on their way out
I love my job, but reblogging employment jelly for someone else I love.
given I just had to file for unemployment because my boss has NOT BEEN PAYING US--
the emotion i just experienced is kind of indescribable
"Midmorning Étude" (procreate on ipad, oct.'24 to jan.'25)
Started out intending to just make a loose color/atmosphere rough to get a visual feel for the size of the jungle where most of the story is set, ended up drawing more and more foliage, before I knew it I had whole browser tab groups of reference photos of tropical plants. This was supposed to be a quick mood sketch with some trees Bob Ross'd in. Guess that'll teach me.
(Narrator: it will not, in fact, teach them.)
First rough, protagonist's detail, and timelapse:
Why you should be reading and/or listening to The New Century series by Alex Shaw
Links:
Bandcamp
Podbean
Paperback and Kindle Books on Amazon
"Midmorning Étude" (procreate on ipad, oct.'24 to jan.'25)
Started out intending to just make a loose color/atmosphere rough to get a visual feel for the size of the jungle where most of the story is set, ended up drawing more and more foliage, before I knew it I had whole browser tab groups of reference photos of tropical plants. This was supposed to be a quick mood sketch with some trees Bob Ross'd in. Guess that'll teach me.
(Narrator: it will not, in fact, teach them.)
First rough, protagonist's detail, and timelapse:
Why you should be reading and/or listening to The New Century series by Alex Shaw
Links:
Bandcamp
Podbean
Paperback and Kindle Books on Amazon
Almost at 10k words and made progress on the jungle painting that was definitely only supposed to be a quick rough atmosphere sketch where I don't have to draw tons of foliage.
Guest appearance by the sketchy vague doodle of the protagonist just having a moment.
