ink-of-fallen-stars

[ink-of-fallen-stars]

We started reading Project Hail Mary for class this week and I'm loving it! Fun is a good verdict, especially since I've been listening to Red Mars (Kim Stanley Robinson) lately. It's the month for space travel books, apparently.

Weekly Bookish Question #375 (February 4th - February 10th 2024)

What’s the most recent book you’ve bought, borrowed or received? Have you started reading it yet?

[ink-of-fallen-stars]

Book Review #8 of 2024--

The Exiled Fleet by J.S. Dewes. Rating: 3.25 stars.

Read from February 4th to 6th.

Man, can books stop getting printed with such absolutely TINY font? I ended up checking the ebook out from my local library to read this one because I was getting a headache from reading the small print. I know publishers want to save money by using fewer pages per book or whatever, but I'm getting older and my eyes cannot take the abuse. It doesn't help that I read two different books back to back that had such small font. Complaint over.

As some might know, I've been missing The Expanse a lot over the past several months. So, when a booktuber recommended this series I jumped on it so fast. I've been craving some Sci-Fi in my life. And I did enjoy book number one in this series. I read it last month and rated it 3.75 stars. This one doesn't live up to that first one for a couple of reasons. 1) It uses a lot of the same tricks or conveniences from the first book to make everything work out for our main characters. 2) When we weren't running into the same tricks over and over, we were running up against problem after problem for what felt like no reason. There's a specific moment in the book that I'm thinking of where they have to travel pretty far in order to get something to help with their task...but then they don't get it...and technically don't need it? Which felt weird. I know this was probably only there to move a certain aspect of the plot forward but it felt so clunky.

And maybe I need to put some of the blame on myself for not giving this book a fair enough shot. It isn't fair for me to want the first series from an author to live up to my love for The Expanse series. I heard someone say a while back that we need to meet books where they are in order to give them a fair chance and I think that's what I really should have done with this series as a whole.

Don't get me wrong though, there are aspects of this world that I love. Adequin Rake and Cavalon Mercer are such a wonderful set of characters. These are the two point of view characters we get throughout the novel and they're so absolutely different but there's something about their personalities that really make them play off each other really well. The side characters are also really great and deserving of so much love. There's also such a great moment in this one where Adequin, who has been away from any real society outside of the crews of the ships out at The Divide for over 5 years at this point, ends up on a station with a lot of civilians wondering around and we see her having to reign in her feelings about being around other humans she's not in charge of. And we get a moment like this again when she ends up planetside for the first time in that long and she has a weird sort of culture shock. Those moments really made me feel something about her and her life since arriving at The Divide. It was so good.

I do plan on reading the next book when it comes out at the end of the year. Maybe a little time away from these characters, this plot, these settings will make the heart grow fonder. And hopefully I can meet that book where it is when it does come out.

#review reblog

[ink-of-fallen-stars]

Here's a potentially fun one:

#footnotes my beloved

[ink-of-fallen-stars]

Decorative front cover of ‘The Fern Garden’ by Shirley Hibberd.

Published 1870 by Groombridge.

Smithsonian Libraries 

archive.org

[ink-of-fallen-stars]

#ohhh I LOVE the fire within #poll reblog

[ink-of-fallen-stars]

#Mossflower by Brian Jacques I have two of #(one copy was damaged and I got it fixed #but Mum forgot and found another one second-hand #so I have two now xD)

[ink-of-fallen-stars]

Just chillin

#video reblog #pffff #silly lil guy

[ink-of-fallen-stars]

Never Whistle at Night

As with any dark fiction, I needed to be in the right headspace to read this, but once there, I encountered a number of great stories. This collection is accomplished in its darkness, in that it manages to discomfit not just by suggesting grim or scary concepts in fiction, but addressing many dark realities faced by indigenous people. Typical of short story collections, I had a few faves among the bunch. While there were a number more disturbing than I was expecting, there were also a few that startled me by ending with chosing the less violent option towards healing/justice. I won't say reconciliation/forgiveness was a theme, this isn't that kind of book. 1/2

Faves include:

Scariest. Story. Ever

Dead Owls

Uncle Robert Rides the Lightning

The Scientist's Horror Story ( Darcie Little Badger never misses)

Eulogy for a Brother, Resurrected

⚠️SA, miscarriage, body horror, mental health concerns, racism, ableism, child abuse

#review reblog

[ink-of-fallen-stars]

Hey Tumblr, we're Queer Liberation Library (QLL)

we're a queer digital library, by & for the LGBTQ+ community

Our Mission: Queer Liberation Library fights to build a vibrant, flourishing queer future by connecting LGBTQ+ people with literature, information, and resources that celebrate the unique and empowering diversity of our community.

Learn more about us on our website: https://www.queerliberationlibrary.org/

or other socials:

Twitter: @queerliblib 

Instagram: @queerliblib 

Tiktok: @queerliblib

QLL launched on October 23rd, 2023, and are currently accepting membership applications on an ongoing basis! Please note we are a US-based organization and are currently only able to make our library available to patrons in the USA. If we are ever able to expand internationally we promise to shout the news from our proverbial rooftops <3

[ink-of-fallen-stars]

The Magic of Found Family in The Magician’s Daughter by H.G. Parry

The Magic of Found Family in The Magician’s Daughter by H.G. Parry

By Vanessa Armstrong Published on March 1, 2023

It’s a rare book that is able to create a detailed, immersive world that also has richly developed and complicated characters. The Magician’s Daughter by H.G. Parry, I am happy to write, is one of those books.

The novel takes place in a 1912 version of our world and follows Biddy, a 16-or-so-year-old girl who has lived on the magical island off the coast of Ireland called Hy-Brasil her entire life. She was raised by a magician named Rowan and his rabbit familiar, Hutchincroft, and she has met no other person since she washed up on the island’s shores as a baby.

Biddy loves her home but yearns to see the world beyond, a place she knows is full of people and a place that no longer has magic. Even Hy-Brasil, an isle once rife with magical energy is waning—the interdimensional rifts where magic had seeped into the world started closing up 70 years ago, making magic a scarce resource. In 1912, Rowan and the other magicians out there believe all of those rifts are gone, making the remnants of magic that remain something that other mages seek to hoard and have control over. Those other magicians find Rowan, Hutch, and Biddy one day when creatures made up of dead bone and sinew come to the island and attack Biddy. It turns out, Rowan hasn’t been honest with her about the state of the world or about Biddy herself, and the three leave Hy-Brasil for the deary streets of Whitechapel on a mission to protect themselves. That mission soon goes awry, and Biddy finds out there’s even more that she’s been left in the dark about. Her journey goes on from there, where she seeks to save those she loves and possibly even save magic itself.

The plot, however, is arguably the least interesting thing about The Magician’s Daughter. That’s not to say the plot is bad, it’s perfectly fine, although those looking for a fast-paced, plot-driven story won’t find it here. There’s so much else to really love about the book, however, to make up for the relatively slow pace of the prose (if that’s even a negative to you to begin with).

Parry, as in her other works, weaves a rich version of the world the story takes place in. Her 1900s Britain isn’t without its sharp edges and dark sides, and the places that are meant to be damp, deary, and sad are exactly that. But then there’s Hy-Brasil, a beautiful, wild place that people from the mainland can only see once every seven years, and that you can’t help but want to visit as you read.

The magic that suffuses Hy-Brasil also suffuses the rest of the book, and as such, becomes a character in itself, with its own personality and wants. In this world, magic is an untethered thing, an essence that, when it was plentiful, helped people when they were at their worst. How magic helped, however, was a fickle thing, and may make things change in ways that the receiver might not accept or even, in certain circumstances, appreciate. That doesn’t stop Rowan, however, from expending what little magic is left when he wants to warm his cup of tea, and that doesn’t stop Biddy from always yearning to be able to touch magic directly like Rowan can.

This world and the chaotic fantastical power that once infused it is enough to get lost in on its own. But the heart of the story is the relationship between Rowan, Hutch, and Biddy. They are an unexpected family, but a family that couldn’t love each other more, although their relationships still have complexities and problems. The love the three have for each other is heart-aching, however, and I couldn’t help but want to give them all (but especially Hutch in bunny form) a hug.

It’s Biddy, however, who Parry eloquently describes as a “liminal person, trapped between a world she’d grown out of and another that wouldn’t let her in” that makes The Magician’s Daughter so refreshing and so compelling. She is the protagonist of the story, and while it seems at first that she’ll be a protagonist who follows the Chosen One path, Parry instead subverts that trope and gives us something different. Biddy isn’t special—she cannot wield magic and is, by one definition, one of the least special characters in the book. Despite being adopted by a mage and tied to magic in a way that few others are, her strength and ability to achieve remarkable things come from her unremarkable but solid convictions. She knows she is loved, and she also knows that she is, in many ways, alone. And while she finds herself thrown into a maelstrom of power grabs, undying vengeance, and mystical creatures beyond the confines of time, she is able to remain true to herself.

It’s through this harrowing journey that Biddy comes into her own. And you can’t help but feel for her and root for her—not just to save magic as well as her found family, but to figure out who she is and who she wants to become. If you’re looking for a book about found family, coming of age, and a tale with beautiful worldbuilding, then this is a book you should definitely pick up. And if you’re also looking for an adult book that reads like a fairy tale, where the plot is secondary to just wanting to spend time in this world and with these characters, then you should not only pick The Magician’s Daughter up but put it on the top of your TBR list.

#interesting books

[ink-of-fallen-stars]

@beardedbookdragon

[ink-of-fallen-stars]

If you see this you’re legally obligated to reblog and tag with the book you’re currently reading

#seraphina #(reread) #for class #also listening to Red Mars by Kim something

[ink-of-fallen-stars]

TREE OF KNOWLEDGE

#oh NEED

[ink-of-fallen-stars]

The Tree by Colin Tudge

Not sure this book knew what it wanted to be.

It succeeded at being a book about trees written by a zoologist who seems just as happy to talk about other living things.

First part does have tree history, right back through evolution, but it does seem to get snagged up in the greater story of the evolution of life.

The second part has at least as many mentions of beings in Orders that are not trees, as trees themselves.

Also wasn't really expecting the frequent listing of all the uses that humans put the various tree parts to, apparently there are lots and lots of different timber with different colours and patterns. This makes a bit more sense linked to the point made in the last chapter about a tree-based economy, but it's a long time between evidence and argument.

First and second parts could be a reference guide, if colour photos were added.

I think I'd excerpt into a separate paper the many mentions/discussions of the recategorization and renaming of various levels of trees and tree families (order, genus, etc), because it comes up a lot, and isn't necessarily helpful in keeping straight what a tree is, or how it relates to other trees.

I just needed a one time disclaimer that 'this may be out of date in five years and won't match up with older sources based on the ongoing science.'

The author seems happy to list encounters with various trees, pleasant and unpleasant, which I think would have been suited better to a brief memoir of his traveling and encountering various trees in various parts of the world; I would have loved to read it.

Probably written with the understanding that people may dip in and out of the book, but it makes a fun fact less fun when I kept encountering them in duplicate.

I think part three was mostly what I thought this book would be, but even it reflects the problems listed above.

I will always be grateful for works written by scientists with last chapters that end with hopes, with suggestions for the future, but I'd rather it not be the only bright spot in a long DRY spell.

#review reblog

[ink-of-fallen-stars]

Just realized that the reason I love making friends on tumblr is because it’s exactly how you make friends on the playground as a six year old. No, I don’t know their name but they love mermaids too and built this awesome sand castle. No, I don’t know their age but their imaginary cheetah is friends with mine. You like this show? You like this character?? You can sing the theme song really loud??? Here is a flower crown. Here is a juice box. You can share my time and I might never see you again but part of you stays in my soul forever. In my mind we’re still on the swing set and the sky is blue and nothing will ever be wrong again.

[ink-of-fallen-stars]

vote yes if you have finished the entire book.

vote no if you have not finished the entire book.

(faq · submit a book)

#poll reblog #yep

[ink-of-fallen-stars]

'Sweetblood'- Hautman, Pete

Disability Rep: Type 1 Diabetic

Genre: Contemporary, Realistic Fiction

Age: Young Adult

Setting: USA

Additional Rep: Goth Culture, Vampire Subculture

For more information on summaries, content warnings and additional tropes, see here: