#marshall ryan maresca
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Alright Book Lovers
I have a series recommendation for all of you.
If you like:
- Second World fantasy (as in, not our world)
- Magic
- Edwardian/Victorian aesthetics
- Complex stories that will have you cracking out the Red String Board
- Canonically/explicitly Queer characters (including Shield Lesbians, Ace detectives, Bisexual retired spies, healthy polyamorous relationships involving 7 or more people, and even trans characters!)
- So many female characters that one of the books even fails the Reverse Bechdel Test
- a wide array of sub-genres
Then may I present to you,
The Maradaine Saga
The Maradaine Saga is 14 core books that take place in the city of Maradaine, plus two novellas and one full length novel taking place in other parts of the same world. AND COUNTING (this series is still ongoing!)
The core 14 books contain Four main casts and their respective genres:
The Thorn of Dentonhill stars Veranix Calbert, magic student by day, vigilante hero by night, determined to rid his neighbourhood of efitte, the toxic drug sold by crime lord Willem Fenmere, who killed Veranix's father, and deliberately overdosed his mother. Aided by Kaiana, whose father also succumbed to efitte, and Delmin, his fellow magic student, and his cousin Colin, the street gang member.
A Murder of Mages follows Minox Welling, an inspector for the Maradaine Constabulary, a genius, if socially awkward, and considered a jinx around the station, because he is secretly an untrained mage. Assigned to be his partner is Satrine Rainey, mother of two, struggling to make ends meet with her husband who was gravely injured in the line of duty. Formerly of Druth Intelligence, she is 15 years out from her time as a spy, and forges her paperwork to get the only job she can do that will pay the bills- becoming the first woman inspector on the force.
The Holver Alley Crew- when Holver Alley goes up in flames, killing dozens of people and destroying the homes and businesses of many more, brothers Asti and Verci Rynax discover it was arson, and are determined to use their skills as thieves to track down who destroyed their neighbourhood. Asti, a former spy for Druth Intelligence, retired because of his recent escape from an enemy prison where he was tortured until it broke his mind, and Verci, husband and father and inventor of all sorts of gadgets. Recruiting old friends and new, they set to perform daring heists to make the arsonists pay.
The Way of the Shield- Dayne Heldrin is easy to spot in a crowd- towering at 7ft tall, and in his blue Tarian Uniform- he is a veritable Knight of the Modern era. He is a candidate in the Tarian order, a historic organization upholding values of Chivalry and Defending the Innocent, Shield on arm. He has just returned from being overseas, where his mentor was killed by the Gearbox Killer, a maniacal murderer who builds elaborate clockwork contraptions, designed to kill. Dayne barely survived, and his advancement to an Adept Tarian is in doubt. He befriends a young Initiate, Jerinne, and begins to mentor her, pushing her to be stronger, and uphold the values of the Tarians. Political Conspiracy is afoot, however, as a shadowy organization has fashioned themselves after the Grand 10, ten historic figures that helped turn the country of Druthal into what it is today.
All of these books take place in the same city, at the same time, and as the series goes on, recurring characters and crossovers begin to appear as these ragtag bunch of do-gooders find allies in each other.
I cannot stop talking about this series, its so good! The worldbuilding is immaculate (after all, the author, Marshall Ryan Maresca, is one of the hosts of the podcast Worldbuilding for Masochists), the pacing will keep you gripping your seat for dear life!
#maradaine saga#maradaine#marshall ryan maresca#holver alley crew#thorn of dentonhill#murder of mages#way of the shield#worldbuilding for masochists podcast#wfm podcast#books#reading#book reccomendation#book recc
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Alright, in the wake of the boops having dragged my dead blog back to life...
Hello friends! Many of you followed me because of my Miraculous Ladybug ficlets while we desperately awaited season 2 to drop. I've falled off the MLB train, but I am not out of the fandom scene yet
Mostly, I'm gonna start using this blog for my new Fandom Fixation
The Maradaine Saga by Marshall Ryan Maresca
Its a book series, and if you like:
- second world fantasy
- miss the days of reading about magic school students (and are intrigued by a magic student who goes vigilante hero on drug dealers in dark alleys)
- enjoy Procedural detective stories
- knights, Shield Lesbians, and political intrigue and conspiracies
- reformed thieves being forced back into performing heists to find out who burned down their neighbourhood
It has all of the above. There are 15 books and 3 novellas (and counting!) in this world. 4 main casts that the books follow, alternating, and slowly we begin to see their lives collide and they meet and interact! Its such a good series! It also gets Queerer and Queerer as the story goes on (i cant even count the number of queer characters, theres so many)
Book 1 is The Thorn of Dentonhill, which stars Veranix the magic student vigilante hero.
I'm obsessed with this series and I hope you'll join me!
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The Maradaine Saga
Reposting this from my bluesky account. If you're looking for some hella good fantasy, check these books out! If you liked HP back in the day, but you want something that hasn't been eaten by the TERF braineater? These are fantastic! Want some hard-nosed crime drama? How about a heist or two?
Marshall Ryan Maresca has it all, my friends! I was privileged to attend his very first reading of A Thorn of Dentonhill at Armadillocon lo these many moons and mango seasons ago, and I was hooked with the first book. I've gotten them all as they've come out and haven't regretted a thing. His worldbuilding is ambitious and his storytelling is gripping!
On top of all that, he has an amazing worldbuilding podcast that's been nominated for another Hugo!
Check him out at his blog!
#marshall ryan maresca#maradaine#mrmaresca#thorn of dentonhill#holver alley crew#paladins and mages and thieves oh my!
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Tues. Sept. 20, 2022: The Boostered Couch Potato
Tues. Sept. 20, 2022: The Boostered Couch Potato
image courtesy of Agata via Pixabay.com
Tuesday, September 20, 2022
Waning Moon
Pluto, Saturn, Neptune, Chiron, Jupiter, Uranus, Mercury Retrograde
Yup, Mars is still in Gemini (until March 2023)
Cloudy and cooler
Anyone else find all these retrogrades exhausting?
This will be short, because it was close to a Lost Weekend. Not due to alcohol (hopefully, I’ve matured beyond that by now).…
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#A MURDER OF MAGES#ANGEL HUNT#Authors Guild#bivalent booster#CAST IN SHADOW#chills#Greylock Federal Credit Union#KNOT AGAIN#Kwana Jackson#Legerdemain#Lenox#Marshall Ryan Maresca#Michelle Sagara#retrogrades#Roselle Lim#SOPHIE GO&039;S LONELY HEARTS CLUB#Stop & Shop#Tylenol
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The Hugo Awards nominating statistics don't add up
tl;dr Along with works arbitrarily being deemed ineligible for the Hugo Awards the underlying numbers for the nominating data don't add up. The nominating statistics are junk.
Yesterday the Hugo nominating statistics for 2023 were released. Initial discussion focused on several nominees including R.F. Kuang's Babel being deemed ineligible for seemingly no reason.
After people started looking at the actual statistics a number of oddities were apparent. Heather Rose Jones has released a blog post with some graphs neatly illustrating this.
She suggests a number of hypothesis for what's going on: bloc voting, certain nominees below the cut-off being omitted or the one I now think must be true "The math is bogus. That is, the reported nomination statistics include large numbers of nominations attributed to the "top group" that do not arise from an actual nomination process."
In a previous post I discussed Peter Wilkinson's comment that showed that there are mathematical impossibilities in the statistics:
As (I think) a quite separate final remark for now, I think I have found a small mathematical impossibility in the Best Novel nomination statistics as given. Because of the way EPH works, every valid ballot gets counted in the first round of an EPH count, but ballots get eliminated as and when the last nominee on the ballot gets eliminated. It is therefore quite impressive that, of the 1,637 ballots received for Best Novel, 1,652 remained after all but the final 15 candidates had been eliminated.
To elaborate on this each nominators is given a single point divided equally between the works they nominate. In the first round the number of points equals the number of nominators.
In subsequent rounds if a work is eliminated the point is redistributed between the nominators remaining nominees. If no nominees remain it isn't redistributed. In essence the number of points represents the number of nominators who have nominees remaining on the ballot.
The number of points should never be higher than the number of nominators.
The only explanation I can see is that the statistics are made up.
Following on from Peter Wilkinson's comment Marshall Ryan Maresca ran the numbers for all categories:
His results match the ones I have previously checked. I posted about novel and fanwriter in the previous linked post and had checked novella as well.
I've now checked the other two categories where he showed the result is over 100% and my numbers add up to the same as what he has shown.
I've posted my workings below for reference.
First lets look at best novel which had 1637 nominating ballots:
My calculation matches what Peter and Marshall found.
Best novella had 1393 ballots:
This again matches Marshall's result and is the only category I checked where the points sum to less than 100% of the ballots.
Best short story has 1500 ballots but 1568.96 nominating points, again matching Marshall's results:
Best fan writer which I discussed yesterday has the largest relative difference with only 241 people nominating but 364.01 nominating points (again matching Marshall's results).
Finally let's look at the Lodestar which had 280 nominating ballots:
Again my result matches what Marshall found.
Heather Rose Jones has illustrated why the nominating statistics are anomalous. Peter Wilkinson showed that the numbers for best novel reflected a mathematically impossibility.
Yesterday after seeing Wilkinson's comment I ran the numbers and got the same result and found the even larger discrepancy in the fan writer category.
Marshall Ryan Maresca separately saw Peter Wilkinson’s comment and went through the categories much more systematically and has shown several are unusually high and that four have impossible numbers based on the reported number of ballots.
I've double checked the categories where Marshall demonstrated that there were over 100% of votes being reported and got the same results.
I do not see how the above is possible without extra votes being added to the totals. The math doesn't add up.
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Hi do you by chance have any sapphic fantasy recs? preferably adult fantasy but YA is fine too
sure! tho this could will get quite long... no links, sorry!, bc it was kicking up a fuss with those for some reason
+ = ya
pennyblade by j.l. worrad
lady hotspur by tessa gratton
sofi and the bone song by adrienne tooley (+)
she who became the sun by shelley parker chan
the scapegracers by h.a. clarke (+)
the third daughter by adrienne tooley (+)
the daughters of izdihar by hadeer elsbai
the malevolent seven by sebastien de castell
blackheart knights by laure eve
the warden by daniel m. ford
the unbroken by c.l. clark
dark earth by rebecca stott
witch king by martha wells
scorpica by g.r. macallister
the mirror empire by kameron hurley
now she is witch by kirsty logan
silverglass by j.f. rivkin
the woman who loved the moon and other stories by elizabeth a. lynn
...(this answer is how i discover there's a character limit per block so. doing this in chunks.)
fire logic by laurie j. marks
a restless truth by freya marske
when angels left the old country by sacha lamb (+)
the traitor baru cormorant by seth dickinson
an archive of brightness by kelsey socha
the bladed faith by david dalglish
the winged histories by sofia samatar
dragonoak by sam farren
the forever sea by joshua phillip johnson
into the broken lands by tanya huff
the jasmine throne by tasha suri
daughter of redwinter by ed mcdonald
the last magician by lisa maxwell (+)
the fire opal mechanism by fran wilde
...
the black coast by mike brooks
high times in the low parliament by kelly robson
foundryside by robert jackson bennett
the enterprise of death by jesse bullington
mamo by sas milledge (+)
from dust, a flame by rebecca podos (+)
uncommon charm by emily bergslien & kat weaver
wild and wicked things by francesca may
the unspoken name by a.k. larkwood
brother red by adrian selby
the final strife by saara el-arifi
way of the argosi by sebastien de castell (+)
the bone shard daughter by andrea stewart
ghost wood song by erica waters (+)
into the crooked place by alexandra christo (+)
ashes of the sun by django wexler
the midnight girls by alicia jasinska (+)
the midnight lie by marie rutkoski (+)
the never tilting world by rin chupeco (+)
water horse by melissa scott
...
a master of djinn by p. djeli clark
the good luck girls by charlotte nicole davis (+)
among thieves by m.j. kuhn
black water sister by zen cho
the velocity of revolution by marshall ryan maresca
sweet & bitter magic by adrienne tooley (+)
the dark tide by alicia jasinska (+)
the library of the unwritten by a.j. hackwith
a dark and hollow star by ashley shuttleworth (+)
the chosen and the beautiful by nghi vo
the councillor by e.j. beaton
these feathered flames by alexandra overy (+)
the factory witches of lowell by c.s. malerich
fireheart tiger by aliette de bodard
...
city of lies by sam hawke
bestiary by k-ming chang
the raven and the reindeer by t. kingfisher
the winter duke by claire eliza bartlett (+)
master of poisons by andrea hairston
the empress of salt and fortune by nghi vo
night flowers shirking from the light of the sun by li xing
down comes the night by allison saft (+)
wench by maxine kaplan (+)
girls made of snow and glass by melissa bashardoust (+)
girls of paper and fire by natasha ngan (+)
the impossible contract by k.a. doore
burning roses by s.l. huang
the house of shattered wings by aliette de bodard
not for use in navigation by iona datt sharma
weak heart by ban gilmartin
girl, serpent, thorn by melissa bashardoust (+)
the devil's blade by mark alder
...
we set the dark on fire by tehlor kay mejia (+)
the true queen by zen cho
moontangled by stephanie burgis
a portable shelter by kirsty logan
sing the four quarters by tanya huff
all the bad apples by moira fowley doyle (+)
the drowning eyes by emily foster
the priory of the orange tree by samantha shannon
miranda in milan by katharine duckett
the afterward by e.k. johnston (+)
thorn by anna burke
penhallow amid passing things by iona datt sharma
in the vanishers' palace by aliette de bodard
summer of salt by katrina leno (+)
the gracekeepers by kirsty logan
out of the blue by sophie cameron (+)
black wolves by kate elliott
the circle by sara b. elfgren & mats strandberg (+)
unspoken by sarah rees brennan (+)
thistlefoot by gennarose nethercott
passing strange by ellen klages
(and breathe)
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✨📚54321 tag📚✨
Thanks for tagging me, @thecasualbookreviewer!
🌻 5 Books I’m loving/have loved:
One Verse Multi by Sander Santiago
The Velocity of Revolution by Marshall Ryan Maresca
The Unraveling by Benjamin Rosenbaum
Euphoria Kids by Alison Evans
The Uncrossing by Melissa Eastlake
🌼 4 autobuy authors:
NK Jemisin
SJ Whitby
Cordélia (French author)
Iria Parente & Selene Pascual (Spanish co-authors)
🌸 3 genres I love:
Fantasy
Sci-fi
Contemporary romance
🌺 2 places I love to read:
In my armchair
At my desk (I’ve got the Kindle app on my laptop)
🌷 1 book/series I promised to read:
The Dreamer Trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater, when they’re all available in ebooks or maybe in paperbacks
I’m tagging anyone who wants to do it.
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75 books in 2023. Not bad. I fell into a Julia Quinn hole in Nov/Dec, apparently (I didn't realize how many of her books I read during the Holiday season). I discovered a few new authors I really like. And I've realized that, given the option, I will almost always pick a female author (Ilona Andrews being the stand out exception, since I like the way the duo write together, and one of them is a dude).
Burn for Me - Ilona Andrews
Chasing Shadows - Maria V Snyder
Navigating the Stars - Maria V Snyder
The Apothecary Diaries V1 - Natsu Hyuuga
The Darkest Pleasure - Gena Showalter
The Darkest Kiss - Gena Showalter
The Darkest Night - Gena Showalter
Fledgling - Octavia E Butler
Master of None - Sonya Bateman
Iron Widow - Xiran Jay Zhao
Echo North - Joanna Ruth Meyer
The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea - Maggie Tokuda-Hall
The Siren, the Song, and the Spy - Maggie Tokuda-Hall
The Kings Beast, V1&2 - Rei Toma
Brighter Than the Sun - Julia Quinn
Secret Diaries of Miss Miranga Cheever - Julia Quinn
To Catch an Heiress - Julia Quinn
Dancing at Midnight - Julia Quinn
Minx - Julia Quinn
Ten Things I Love About You - Julia Quinn
The Secrets of Sir Richard Kentworthy - Julia Quinn
The Girl With the Make Believe Husband - Julia Quinn
The Sum of All Kisses - Julia Quinn
First Comes Scandal - Julia Quinn
Mr Cavendish, I Presume - Julia Quinn
The Lady Most Likely - Julia Quinn
Lady Whistledown Strikes Back - Julia Quinn
A Night Like This - Julia Quinn
Just Like Heaven - Julia Quinn
The Other Miss Bridgerton - Julia Quinn
Everything and the Moon - Julia Quinn
Romancing Mister Bridgerton - Julia Quinn
It's in His Kiss - Julia Quinn
To Sir Phillip, With Love - Julia Quinn
When He Was Wicked - Julia Quinn
An Offer from a Gentleman - Julia Quinn
The Bridgertons, Happily Ever After - Julia Quinn
On the Way to the Wedding - Julia Quinn
Queen of Myth and Monsters - Scarlett St Clair
King of Battle and Blood - Scarlett St Clair
The Innocent Sleep - Seanan McGuire
The Fenmere Job - Marshall Ryan Maresca
Lady Henterman's Wardrobe - Marshall Ryan Maresca
The Enforcer Enigma - GL Carriger
The Omega Objection - GL Carriger
The Sumage Solution - GL Carriger
Demons and DNA - Meghan Ciana Doidge
The Amplifier Protocol - Meghan Ciana Doidge
Of Noble Family - Mary Robinette Kowal
Without a Summer - Mary Robinette Kowal
Valour and Vanity - Mary Robinette Kowal
Shades of Milk and Honey - Mary Robinette Kowal
Demons of Good and Evil - Kim Harrison
Empire of Ivory - Naomi Novik
Backpacking Through Bedlam - Seanan McGuire
Blame it on the Early - Jane Ashford
Earl on the Run - Jane Ashford
The Duke Who Loved Me - Jane Ashford
Magic Claims - Ilona Andrews
Magic Tides - Ilona Andrews
Victory of Eagles - Naomi Novik
Black Powder War - Naomi Novik
Throne of Jade - Naomi Novik
The Atlas Paradox - Olivie Blake
The Atlas Six - Olivie Blake
A Darker Shade of Magic - VE Schwab
Lost in the Moment and Found - Seanan McGuire
The Marrow Thieves - Cherie Dimaline
Time's Convert - Deborah Harkness
VenCo - Cherie Dimaline
The Outsiders - SE Hinton
The Book of Life - Deborah Harkness
Shadow of Night - Deborah Harkness
Soul Taken - Patricia Briggs
Nona the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir.
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In my Q&A with fantasy writer Marshall Ryan Maresca, he explains how his new urban fantasy novel "The Quarrygate Gambit" is the 4th book in one series, the 15th in another...
📖🪄
#MarshallRyanMaresca#MarshallRyanMarescaInterview#MarshallRyanMarescaTheQuarrygateGambit#MarshallRyanMarescaTheStreetsOfMaradaine#MarshallRyanMarescaTheMaradaineSaga#MarshallRyanMarescaMaradaine#Books#Reading#AuthorInterview#Fantasy#EpicFantasy#UrbanFantasy#FantasyBookSeries
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The news that Leverage is slated to return to television rocked my social media feed last week, but it’s anyone’s guess when we’ll actually get new episodes. So I’ve assembled a crew list of books about heists, hi-jinx, the rich and powerful who take what they want, and the bad guys who are sometimes the only good guys you get.
The Heist, by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg: a determined FBI agent, a charming con-man, and a motley crew of crooks and wannabes team up to take down a corrupt investment banker.
Razor Girl, by Carl Hiaasen: Carl Hiaasen’s riotous and irreverent novels of corrupt and scheming businessmen versus eco activists, small time crooks, and down-on-their-luck detectives offer a lot of scope for Leverage fans. But Razor Girl might have the most criminality and conning per page.
The Con Job, by Matt Forbeck: I know IP tie-ins can be dicey, but the first book of the Leverage novels takes place at Comic-Con International, and I’m intrigued.
Immoral Code, by Lillian Clark: Physics prodigy Bellamy is getting screwed by the system. It turns out her absentee dad is loaded, and Bellamy doesn’t qualify for the financial aid that will send her to MIT. Nari isn’t about to let some deadbeat billionaire cost her friend her dreams, so with her hacker expertise and a band of ambitious adolescents, she hatches a plan to steal the money that Bellamy’s dad won’t pay.
Catch Me If You Can, by Frank W. Abagnale: the action-packed memoir from the famously prolific con artist.
The Holver Alley Crew, by Marshall Ryan Maresca: A couple of retired rogues find their aboveboard new life shattered by a terrible fire. But as they assemble a crew to rebuild their fortunes, they discover that the fire was no accident. This crew of crooks has wrongs to right.
The Thousand Dollar Tan Line, by Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham: welcome back to Neptune, a town ridden with corruption, class tension, spring breakers, and murder.
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers: if found family, competence porn, unconventional but tender relationships, and derring-do just on the other side of the law are your jam, then this spaceship’s for you.
Death Prefers Blondes, by Caleb Roehrig: a California socialite and a team of teenaged drag queens pull off high-risk heights, until their double lives cross.
Six of Crows, by Leigh Bardugo: Criminals, runaways, and exiles meet magic and high finance in the fantasy-heist favorite.
Hoot, by Carl Hiaasen: how are a few middle schoolers supposed to stand up to the pancake giant threatening the local owl habitat? Pranks. Sneaking. Anarchy.
Heist Society, by Ally Carter: Kat thought she’d pulled off her biggest con: getting into an exclusive private school and leaving the “family business” behind. But there’s always one more job.
#Leverage#Ally Carter#Carl Hiaasen#Lillian Clark#Janet Evanovich#Lee Goldberg#Matt Forbeck#Frank Abagnale#Rob Thomas#Jennifer Graham#Becky Chambers#Caleb Roehrig#Marshall Ryan Maresca#Leigh Bardugo#tv#Love That? Read This!#Rosalind recommends#fan art
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Just finished reading Murder of Mages by Marshall Ryan Maresca (book 2 of the Maradaine Saga, book 1 of the Maradaine Constabulary collection)
Second time reading this book, and so many of the plothooks i didn't grasp the first time fell into place here.
Spoilers ahead, you've been warned.
Still love my boys Evoy and Minox. And i remember why i started shipping Minox and Joshea. Minox being a Sherlock clone means he is also Autistic Ace coded, socially awkward but brilliant at pattern recognition and solving puzzles. Evoy even more so, being a shut-in too. Minox being the one person his cousin Evoy talks to just tears me apart. No one gets how deep into the red strings Evoy is, that its not madness of the hallucinatory variety, but that he is hyperfocused on these trails of a conspiracy in Maradaine and forgets to take care of his own needs in the process. Reading this the second time, hearing the pieces he is learning about and puzzling out, I can see it. The Grand Ten, the Brotherhood of Nine, missing women and children, etc. I know a lot of these pieces now and see that Evoy is laying groundwork of foreshadowing. Minox gets it, he sees some of the same pieces. He knows Evoy's work is digging up ugly and dangerous schemes beneath the city.
Minox being an uncircled, untrained mage, in a constabulary family that knows but doesnt talk about it. And Joshea being from a hyper-masculine military family that has no idea he is a mage. Both are such queer coded stories. The gay son that everyone knows is gay, and its the elephant in the room. The closeted gay son who is desperately hiding the truth from his father and brothers. And then Joshea's family being butchers now and (insert meat jokes here). Its just too easy 😂
Satrine. Satrine. Spitfire Satrine "Tricky" Rainey. Plucked from her life as a street kid and turned into a spy in the Waish nobility, still ready to brawl at a moment's notice. Her husband in his vegetative state. Her teenage daughters. Desperate to provide for them, when the only skills she has were a position she retired from 15 years ago, in a field she can't go back into. So she takes up the mantle her husband had, or tries anyways. Constabulary. Detective work. She's got the mind and skills for it. She's fast and eager to chase down fleeing criminals, and definitely too quick to beat them into submission. She's angry and could probably do with a therapist tbh. Its a bit refreshing to see a woman get to be angry and violent and not be forced into some ideal of decorum or "ladylike"-ness, and she's the first to break the nose of anyone who tries.
She respects Minox. She sees his intelligence and his eccentricities. She can keep up with him. She doesn't call him Jinx like everyone else, and he doesn't call her Tricky like everyone else. He sees her capability and fire and isn't bothered by the fact that she's the only woman inspector in the city, or that she had to forge her papers to get this position. And she doesn't care that he's a mage. He's still bothered when she uses his first name though- boy is nothing if not an adherent to manners!
Corrie. My girl Corrie. First in line to call her brother Minox on his shit. Her and Satrine sizing each other up in their first meeting by cussing up a storm was *chefs kiss*. Love her so much
Rian and Caribet. Satrine's daughters. Rian being into the boy, fine, sure, glad she saw the light that he was a shitter. Knowing what I know about her now? Even worse, yeah, no wonder Satrine lost her mind when she saw them on a date. Rian, girl, you got better things coming your way, and she's actually your age, unlike him ;) Caribet is such a sweet girl, just trying to hold her family together as her mom and sister fight and her dad is a vegetable.
Mirrell and Kellman. These two oafs. Idiots and bastards, but ready to crack the heads of their fellow (corrupt) officers given the chance too, and eventually overlooking Satrine's forgeries to save Minox. Theyre incompetent and sexist and racist (look, ACAB, but i love a good detective procedural story, so sue me), and yet. Kellman is quiet and indifferent, he does mean well but I know from later books he is trouble. Mirrell is upfront about his assholery, but even though he verbally is rude to Minox and Satrine, he knows they are good at their jobs and "have hearts of Green and Red". He knows they have the calling to be inspectors. I'm still glad Satrine broke his nose for being a jackass.
Rereading Thorn of Dentonhill, there was a lot of groundwork laid, but this one laid almost as much! Gods i love these books. They just get better and better as the story progresses.
Thats all for now, onto rereading Holver Alley Crew next week!
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With PEOPLE OF THE CITY now thirty-one days away (less than a full cycle of the white moon in Maradaine's sky), we meet another Champion of Maradaine: ex-street rat, ex-spy, working mom Satrine Rainey.
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What I'm re-reading: AN IMPORT OF INTRIGUE by Marshall Ryan Maresca. So love this series! #Reading https://www.instagram.com/p/Civ7-y1LLDf/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
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The book series that got me back into reading again
I used to devour books. Not a day would go by where I wasn’t reading something even, and especially, to the detriment of my sleeping schedule. I always had a book with me. (Bless Miss Ross in Algebra 2 for never once reprimanding me for reading in class instead of listening to the lesson)
Then.... events happened. The internet makes it so easy for me to be distracted by mindlessly scrolling and looking at funny pictures of cats. I also had depression and didn’t do anything I enjoyed. I worked weird/long hours and was too tired to focus on anything. Eventually, I fell out of the habit of reading all the time. Books didn’t really grab me as much.
Yet I still kept buying books and trying, because my love never truly faded. I just couldn’t get invested in most stories, and so unread masses were left to collect dust on my bookshelf. It was a tragic sight to behold.
But a couple years ago while once again wandering the bookshelves at a local bookstore, one in particular caught my eye. A Murder of Mages by Marshall Ryan Maresca. The title piqued my interest, as is usually the start. The summary: even better.
Satrine Rainey is a wife and mother of two who fakes her way into the Maradaine Constabulary as an Inspector (a staunchly male career, but an ex-spy raised by the harsh streets knows how to work the system). Minox Welling is an Uncircled mage (but that’s not something we talk about in polite company). Jinx, as the other Inspectors call him. Too smart, too obsessive for his own good. Why not throw the outcasts together to try and solve ritual murders of Circled mages?
A blend of crime drama, fantasy, and political intrigue, I was hooked from page one. I read an entire book in a matter of a couple days instead of struggling for weeks to get through one chapter. Satrine and Minox wormed their way into my heart and, more importantly, my brain. I needed to know more. About the characters. About Maradaine. About everything.
And wasn’t I just lucky enough that the sequel was right there waiting for me and my ability to click 1-day shipping on Amazon?
An Import of Intrigue continued to enthrall, this time delving into the wider cultures of Maradaine and its surrounding countries. Diplomacy and foreign relations are at stake when a foreign dignitary is murdered. Satrine has been exposed as a fraud, though with the success of the last case, she gets to stay on as an Inspector. Minox is confronting more what it means to be Uncircled and his powers may be getting too much for him to handle.
While Maradaine itself has a sort of fantasy England feel to it, none of the cultures feels like a direct counterpart to any real place. Whether they be Racquin, Fuergan, or Kieran, each culture is inspired by real places and cultures, but is entirely unique to this world. Maresca’s world building is such an incredible thing. Nothing feels like it’s been left out and I’d completely trust the author to teach a detailed history class on how Maradaine came to be, and leading up to where we are now in the story. A class I would thoroughly enjoy, much like the protagonist, Dayne, from Maresca’s Maradaine Elite series.
Yes. There are several connected series all taking place in Maradaine, and while focusing on the specific protagonists, do intertwine with each other at times. Minox meeting the mage college student/vigilante Veranix from the Maradaine series was a subtle yet impactful moment. I had originally just planned to only read the Maradaine Constabulary series. I didn’t want to go too crazy thinking I could actually read books again like I had before. So I didn’t seek out his other work at first, obstinately avoiding them.
I started in on a different book series by a different author and found that I could read that one just as well. (Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. This time a YA novel. Still fantasy. Still full of that sweet, sweet political angst that I love) I managed to read a couple other books. Different authors. Different genres. Fiction and nonfiction. I felt like myself again. I was actually reading again. Didn’t matter if it was physical or e-reader. I was there.
I’ve since delved into all the other Maradaine novels. (I’m working my way through Way of the Shield before I start in on A Parliament of Bodies) There is so much life and love put into all of his works and it shows. It’s apparent that Maresca cares deeply about what he’s saying about people in his novels and the kinds of representation he puts in his novels. Minox and Veranix are mixed race. Satrine and Kaiana (a close friend to Veranix) have their own agency and are often more competent than their male counterparts.
Which is another thing I’d like to briefly touch upon. The women in all of the books are so varied in terms of personality and goals, and it’s so refreshing to see so many well-rounded female characters when so often there are only three different two-dimensional archetypes to choose from. Even those that have smaller roles shine through, and Maresca’s use of POV characters works instead of feeling like I’m being jerked around from character to character.
There’s a lot I could say about the individual books, and I barely touched on the other series, but I highly suggest any and all of them to put on your reading list. You won’t be disapointed. And maybe, like me, you’ll be reminded why you love reading so much.
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FUNDAY MONDAY, OR THE BOOKS THAT WILL HELP ME SURVIVE THE WEEK AHEAD (MAY 14, 2018)
FUNDAY MONDAY, OR THE BOOKS THAT WILL HELP ME SURVIVE THE WEEK AHEAD (MAY 14, 2018)
Another week begins. I quickly slip into my business suit and head back into the office to save a few innocent people. While I try to fool myself into being excited about the promise of a new week and the continuation of the regular grind, deep down, I’m not, so I’m going to escape dreary reality by finishing up a book I began last week and starting a damn good looking book I just received in…
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#Craig Aird#DAW#Funday Monday#Lady Henterman&039;s Wardrobe#Marshall Ryan Maresca#The Afterworld#The Streets of Maradaine#Truth or Darkness
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The Thorn of Dentonhill (Maradaine) by Marshall Ryan Maresca
“But you will go after him.”
“Like fire and blazes. As long as he’s poisoning the streets.”
#litedit#yalitedit#the thorn of dentonhill#maradaine#marshall ryan maresca#*#*maradaine#look anon! i made it#hahah#books
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