niche crossover central

this is @treespeaking's book blog! (discworld, tamora pierce, cosmere, murderbot, abhorsen, and more) my storygraph is @loricality

[windspeaking]

mid-year book freakout

Tagged by @wearethekat (on my main), thanks! Number of books you’ve read so far:

thirty-six

Best book you’ve read so far in 2026:

best, probably Wolf Hall; favorite, probably Winterkeep by Kristin Cashore

Best sequel you’ve read so far in 2026:

Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except Me is a good followup to How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying, which wraps up much of the stuff it needed to and adds fun new complications

New release you haven’t read yet but want to:

I just got to read Platform Decay and received my copy of TAZ: Story and Song... nothing else that's out comes to mind

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year:

I'm also looking forward to Call Me Traitor by Everina Maxwell, and The First Flame by Lily Berlin Dodd is a sequel to a book I found really charming last year

Biggest surprise favorite new author (debut or new to you):

Kristin Cashore's books are exactly my taste, I'm glad a friend pushed me to give the Graceling series another try after I bounced off the first chapter

Book that made you cry:

Also Winterkeep by Cashore. Other books including the TAZ graphic novel made me cry but not nearly as much lol

Most beautiful book you’ve bought so far this year (or received):

TAZ: Story and Song graphic novel! I've mostly been reading from the library and not buying, but shoutout to the Graceling covers which really are beautiful

Book that made you happy:

Among Ghosts by Rachel Hartman - I love the world of Seraphina and I was so excited to see another book set in it, which delivered all the things I wanted to see including dragons, realistic religious conflicts, weird creatures, and messy fantasy queerness

What books do you need to read by the end of the year?

Rescuing the Enlightenment from the Europeans by Nikita Dhawan, which I picked up at a bookstore and haven't properly cracked open

[bodyintheriver]

“She died. She can’t come back, even if you keep her stuffed away in a drawer you can’t look at. You’re not waiting for her resurrection; you’ve made yourself her mausoleum.”

[tealfoxarts]

His Serenity Edrehasivar VII

Finished rereading The Goblin Emperor and wanted to try drawing Maia in his imperial robes.

[goddamnshinyrock]

the imperial couple going for a nice ride

(aka: found another excuse to draw horsies)

[bluecontactlens]

"At this time! In this place!" 🪻🥚 Happy Glorious 25th of May to those who celebrate. GNU Terry Pratchett

[vonnebenan]

Happy Glorious 25th of May

[prokopetz]

You are an unreliable narrator because your coping mechanisms for your deep-seated trauma forbid you from acknowledging the reality of the situation. I am an unreliable narrator because I sincerely have no idea what the fuck is going on.

[fernacular]

[ros-sauce]

I'm imagining a fortune teller who's also a child so her idea of what a good fate is vs a terrible one isn't really in line with her clients at all

[ros-sauce]

Imagine u go to visit the oraclet (oracling?) and she tells u there's untold riches in your future and later it becomes very apparent that what she was predicting was you winning $20 from a lottery ticket

[ros-sauce]

She dismisses every wedding she predicts as a Terrible Fate because she thinks the kissing is cringe

[bensiskos]

”Csethiro sat with an impassive countenance, fanning herself composedly and answering her sisters with less of her usual bite, clearly plastering her court face on; the effect was slightly ruined by Saleheio and Iru trying to work out the opera glasses to her right…” (ID in alt)

Fanart of All Your Sisters Wanna Fly by the amazing @muppetebbtide!!!

[callabang]

the cemeteries of amalo really is just thara going from the dmv to the post office to the bank to his boss's office and then back to the dmv. at every turn there is an employee of varying politeness saying "well you can't do X because you don't have the right form :( maybe you should just go home" and then invariably instead of going home celehar is like "okay. where do i get the right form?" and the employee says "you have to go talk to a hundred people and at least half are going to actively obstruct if not threaten you physically :(" to which celehar says "okay." and then he just does it. executive functioning king

[may12324]

Its been a while since i have stayed up past midnight to read a book. But when you have a beefy queer monster hunter? Hmmmmm.... then I dont need much persuading

[emily-e-draws]

Another sharp blow, at his right arm: he blocked it as well, but this time five inches of steel did indeed snap off, scoring a thin line across his jaw before it tumbled away, red-gold in the reflected firelight.

[cykelops]

I love all books but sometimes you read a book and you’re like so were all 21 thousand of you blindfolded and at gun point when you rated it 5 stars

[windspeaking]

the thing about the throwaway lines in ptolemy's gate about bartimaeus taking a lioness's form because manes block peripheral vision and then the brief reveal a few hundred pages later that he was a lion when ptolemy was attacked and killed is that it's obviously devastating but for me it's more about what it reveals about so much of bartimaeus' narration. he doesn't linger on this connection explicitly. the implication is that so so many of the quick comments he makes have extremely similar stories behind them he's not even revealing in the footnotes, not necessarily bc he doesn't remember but because he finds them painful, or embarrassing, or unimportant. fucked up about a character so very old who is mostly willing to explicitly reference his history only for a quick joke or brag, nothing too real

[half-orq]

I am BEGGING people to read The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson. this book captivated me so much.

Details and other info below the cut!

references for the wings and the pose were both @adorkastock

Flats

Some details: Your honor I just think Neema is Very Pretty

I was actually going to draw out the embroidery thread as a texture but as I was putting down some of the initial shadows I realized you super weren't gonna be able to see that so I skipped that step

and the background, all in its full glory. I didn't bother fixing a couple of things that were behind her wings such as the outer glow I applied to the stained glass that ended up on the stone, but again. it's behind her. I did end up putting down all of the windows, though, so if I wanted to move her position I wouldn't have to add to the drawing.

[naominovik]

Coming soon: Temeraire: The Roleplaying Game

The officially licensed tabletop roleplaying game set in the world of the Temeraire novel series by Naomi Novik!

This is launching tomorrow! Super excited; Magpie Games are doing this and they've got a really great approach to the RPG that lets players play both people and dragons \o/ Check out if you're into TTRPG!