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melanielocke · 5 months

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Here are some of my favorite books I read this year, divided into three categories because I'm not good at choosing.

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aroaessidhe · 5 months

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read in 2023: climate themes

Alebrijes

The Deep Sky

The Impossible Resurrection of Grief

Turtles of the Midnight Moon

The Surviving Sky

Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach

The Free People’s Village

Margins and Murmurations

The Mimicking of Known Successes

American Mermaid

#I have mixed feelings about some of these lol #read in 2023 #The Mimicking of Known Successes #The Surviving Sky #The Free People’s Village #alebrijes

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marlowethelibrarian · 4 days

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Reading The Surviving Sky by Kristina H. Rao

It's fucking good y'all. Ive never read a scifi fantasy book before where the main characters are a married couple. Their marriage is fucking strained as hell rn, but they're still married. It's such a rich vein of character interaction to tap.

And the world building is fucking great

#wizard liveblogging #The surviving sky

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lasersheith · 10 months

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I just finished "The Surviving Sky" by Kritika H. Rao and it was pretty good! Solid 3.5 from me.

It's a Hindu-inspired fantasy novel that has big Broken Earth trilogy (NK Jemisin) vibes (but a lot less graphic), which I loved a lot. The basic gist is humans all live in flying cities that fly because of the plant-based magic of the Architects, and they have to live in flying cities because the Earth is covered in huge natural disasters that would otherwise kill all of them.

minor spoilers and my own thoughts below the cut

The main characters are an estranged wife and husband, who are really interesting apart and almost intolerable together and their whole issue with each other at first appears to be man want baby woman no want baby, which I almost didn't read past but I'm glad I did. The resolution of that arc wasn't my favorite but it was fine and narratively satisfying imo.

The real way this book shines is the world building. The magic system is so cool!! The magic-users are kind of arrogant and stuffy about how they make it so everyone can live because they control the plants that make the city fly and stuff, which gives the political intrigue bit of the story an interesting flare that got resolved in a way I didn't really expect but was foreshadowed well. I loved a lot of the stuff about the society and there were several named queer side characters and no homo/trans phobia present which was nice to see. There was also a lot of philosophical stuff about identity and reincarnation and cognition, which I thought was really really interesting.

I found the main tension between the wife and husband kind of annoying all throughout the book, tbh. Like they really could have just calmed down and talked stuff out without getting defensive and accusatory at each other and saved everyone a lot of trouble and pain in the ass, but gotta do it for the drama I guess lmao. It was fine in the end, I actually liked the resolution of their interpersonal stuff for the most part, except the baby thing (which is always a personal ick for me. Minor spoiler: she does get pregnant but there is no miscarriage or birth or anything, the book ends when the baby has just started baking lol)

The whole "why is the world trying to kill us" part was so fuckin cool. I loved the way she laid out the creation myth and the restraint she had in some of the foreshadowing that I think a less talented author would have either hidden completely so it was A Big Reveal (which I personally hate, give me a chance to figure it out before the reveal!!) or foreshadowed it to death so it didn't hit as hard. I think she threaded that needle perfectly for the biggest story beats and I appreciated it a lot. At times there was a lot of telling instead of showing, but I didn't mind it too badly. This was Rao's debut novel and it was a really promising start, I'm for sure going to be on the lookout for new stuff she publishes in the future.

#the surviving sky #book review #no one is paying me my irl friends are just tired of hearing me talk about books

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berethnara · 11 months

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nothing i love more than a marriage in crisis, iravan and ahilya you will forever be famous 🫶🫶

#the surviving sky

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lastseenleaving · 7 months

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High above a jungle-planet float the last refuges of humanity—plant-made civilizations held together by tradition, technology, and arcane science. In these living cities, architects are revered above anyone else. If not for their ability to psychically manipulate the architecture, the cities would plunge into the devastating earthrage storms below. Charismatic, powerful, mystical, Iravan is one such architect. In his city, his word is nearly law. His abilities are his identity, but to Ahilya, his wife, they are a way for survival to be reliant on the privileged few. Like most others, she cannot manipulate the plants. And she desperately seeks change. Their marriage is already thorny—then Iravan is accused of pushing his abilities to forbidden limits. He needs Ahilya to help clear his name; she needs him to tip the balance of rule in their society. As their paths become increasingly intertwined, deadly truths emerge, challenging everything each of them believes. And as the earthrages become longer, and their floating city begins to plummet, Iravan and Ahilya's discoveries might destroy their marriage, their culture, and their entire civilization.

#the surviving sky #kritika h. rao #sff books #speculative fiction #science fiction #sff reads #lit edit #sff fiction #sff

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thegirlwiththelantern · 11 months

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Insta: @ littlepiscesdreaming

#The Surviving Sky #Kritika H. Rao #fantasy #book #books #booklr #bookstagram #asian #south asian

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judgingbooksbycovers · 1 year

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The Surviving Sky

By Kritika H. Rao.

#The Surviving Sky #Kritika H. Rao #books #book covers

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saturdaysky · 9 months

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you lose sight of it, somehow, when you consort with gods: how fragile mortals are, and how precious.

[gale of waterdeep & my pc, mayhew of nowhere in particular]

#mayhew is a gnome warlock/wizard who makes bad choices #mild act 1 goblin camp spoilers in tags that follow:#the fight was bc Mayhew hubris'd his way into Dror Ragzlin's mind but failed to hubris his way out #for some reason dror and all 99 of his favorite friends got mad about that #Shadowheart got HORRIBLY murdered in the spider pit. Mayhew got ensnared in vines while in an acid pool and taking arrows (lol)#i ran out of healing potions #gale and lae'zel survived to flee with the bodies of their friends #play on tactician guys it makes your games deliciously dramatic #anyway the rituals between mayhew and gale are intricate #mayhew #gale dekarios #gale of waterdeep #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #sky does bg3 #my art #referenced a pose from pexels -- they're a great site check em out #galehew

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marte-14 · 4 days

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The First's Fury

(I would like to do a complete version of this, but I don't think I have the time, this sketch took like 3/4 hours??? But I have very happy with the result)

Finished version!

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gabitzart · 8 months

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It hit me that I never drew Copia with his Watcher in the Sky hat so...

Commission for @hobbittastic

#the band ghost #ghost bc #papa emeritus #papa emeritus iv #papa copia #watcher in the sky #hope this silly old man survives..

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aroaessidhe · 11 months

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2023 reads // twitter thread

The Surviving Sky

adult scifi/fantasy about a fracturing married couple who live with the last of humanity on a floating city powered by arcane science

Iravan is a privileged and powerful architect, who keeps them afloat with his plant magic

Ahilya has no magic - and is deeply interested in studying the magical megafauna which are the only thing that can survive the cataclysmic jungle on the ground

#The Surviving Sky #aroaessidhe 2023 reads #ok concept; vibes; immaculate #(also they're yaksha not megafauna but. for context that's not an innacurate description)#it didn't Quite go in ways i wanted in some ways #me at the dudes first POV: bro what are you ON ABOUT #fr tho the description of how the plant magic works is super interesting. it's all like. idk reaching into the quantam universe and changing #the way things Exist. or something. it all sounds very complicated #one thing that kinda bugged me is how it seems to be like. there is no (non-plant) life on earth at all and im like???#there’s no way there’s NO life on earth???? ya heard of bugs????? the concept of a jungle existing with nothing survivng except megafauna #doesn’t make sense to me… i mean it is all very magical plants and tbh them saying there's nothing else doesn't mean that's true #however i couldn't stop thinking about it #I do feel like it keeps having the dude do something terrible that she should leave him before. and then explaining why it wasn’t that bad /#he had no choice….when she doesn't really do anything bad to him back........idk. i mean we're aware he's pretty shitty but also?#DIVORCE HIMMMMMMM #i understand the plot couldn;t have gone in the way it did if she did but also DIVORCE HIMMMMM #regardless i do think the concept and worldbuilding is all very cool and im sure i'll pick up the next one

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bonefall · 3 months

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.. opinions on wind runner? i feel like im one of the only ones that genuinely hates her sometimes

If you feel like the only one who genuinely hates her, I think you need to look around more. Wind Runner is a very widely disliked character, because she's often used within the story as a small antagonist who "threatens" the authority of Tall Shadow. Gray Wing dislikes her. Thunder is openly cat-racist to her. She spends several books trying to break through the moor cats' xenophobia to join a group that came to HER LAND.

Then, when Moth Flight is old enough to be a relevant character in Forest Divided, Wind Runner is turned into Yet Another mean mom the very moment Moth displays ADHD. She's contrasted to her mate Gorse Fur, who is a Soft And Good Dad, and ultimately MASSIVELY punished with the harrowing events of Moth Flight's Vision (even though, for most of that book, she's completely right.)

Ask yourself why they're especially harsh on WIND RUNNER for being mean to her child, in the arc with Tom the Fucking Wifebeater and his redemption death, plus Thunder being forced to stop being mad at his abuser Clear Sky, please.

To me, Wind Runner is an intense, ambitious woman who's demonized for it in a way that men just aren't. She's subject to several misogynistic trends within WC, plus a huge helping of xenophobia that goes absolutely unexamined. If DOTC cared at all about women, it would have treated her with the nuance she deserves.

Wind Runner is treated with nearly endless suspicion by Gray Wing through books 1 - 3, while he's bending over backwards to suck Clear Sky's toes.

Her wanting to join the group that came TO HER HOME and being a bit pushy about it earns a stronger reaction from Gray Wing than Clear Sky murdering people.

She's pressured into changing her name "to fit in," and it's still not enough. She wanted to join the group so bad she changed her name, at the request of the Mountain Cats, for a chance of being better accepted

This came after she'd already saved Jagged Peak's life when a burrow collapsed on him. She's plenty trustworthy.

She keeps doing shit to try and prove herself to this group of assholes. Remember Bumble being dragged back to her domestic abuser? Gray Wing interprets this as a power struggle, when WIND RUNNER WAS NOT EVEN PART OF THE GROUP AT THE TIME.

From Wind Runner's POV, she did something that the Moor cats wanted done. It was fucking evil. It was committing violence against another member of the out-group the cats see her as.

But who actually has the power here? Tall Shadow does.

Gray Wing said it himself that she could have come up with some excuse for Bumble to stay, and she didn't. In fact, any cat could have spoken up. No one did.

and still. STILL. Wind Runner gets nothing. Her reward is Gray Wing surmising that actually, her doing their sick dirtywork was a political move.

It's more consistent as a motivation with how Wind Runner wants to join their group. The thing she's been doing.

She only actually gets to join the group after Thunder starts publicly hurling slurs at her for suggesting they need to be ready for Clear Sky to attack them. "What do you know about peace? Last time I was here you were NOTHING BUT A ROGUE WITH A ROGUE'S NAME"

Gray Wing even starts purring when she gives birth, because her ambition goes away briefly and she "stops bossing everyone around." this is treated like a sweet thing. god forbid women retain their personalities when they have kids

She loses her first premature child to a seizure and Gray Wing starts proselytizing his religion to her. "Maybe it's a good thing your weakest child died because Jesus has them now" I want to beat him with a hammer

When her second child gets sick, Clear Sky has a bright idea that involves killing it. I refer to this as his "reverse leper colony" suggestion. He only develops a sense of humanity towards the sick when his brother's pregnant wife is in danger. Wind Runner and her kitten barely seem to clock as people to him.

It's only after her SECOND baby succumbs to a horrible, painful death that she decides the moor cats are assholes, and she goes to start her own group. It's LONG overdue. I was extremely excited to see it.

Now. Listen.

I've been treated just like Moth Flight before. I've practically heard the scolding in Book 6 Chapter 3 verbatim. I'm not downplaying anything about Wind Runner being harsh to her; being yelled at like that never fixed the problem.

What I'm saying is that this is the SAME arc that summons the hollowed-out ghost of Storm to coo that Clear Sky "never drove anyone away" with his abusive behavior and gives Tom the Wifebeater a heroic redemption death.

So why is the scolding from Wind Runner treated as unambiguously harsh? What's the difference between her and them?

Why is it that outside of this little bubble of the community, you can get buried in a flood of people crying about how "Clear Sky made Summisteaks Butt he thought it was the right thing :((( He feels bad about shoving Thunder's face in a weeping, pus-filled wound and trying to kill him :((((" but Wind Runner is mean about Moth Flight not catching a rabbit and she should be skinned alive

Why is WIND RUNNER held responsible for the death of Clear Sky's child in Moth Flight's Vision, WHEN IT WAS COMPLETELY HIS OWN FAULT??

So, why should I hate her? Because she's mean to the idiot protagonists? Because she's Yet Another Bad Mom whose actions ARE treated as Bad in the story, in the arc famous for openly weeping whenever someone's mad at their abusive dad?? When she has this whole horrific, unexamined story about how incredibly bigoted The Settlers are towards her and the extremes she goes to in order to please them?

I'm glad she's mean, actually. She should have been even meaner. I think she should have a gun