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liesmyth · 1 year

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locked tomb characters ranked by how cringe they are

because this post by @wifegideonnav reminded me that they’re all losers, but some are even more losers than the others

Hot Sauce: 1/10. This girl is cool in all possible ways and definitely future lead researcher material. No cringe, zero notes.

Pyrrha: 2/10. By far the least cringe of The Olds. Yes her nicknames for Nona have dad joke energy but she’s very earnest about it and it’s cute.

Juno Zeta: 2/10. Total MILF. Very smart and should know better than to get flirty with We Suffer, but I get it.

Marta Dyas: 3/10. A complete badass with a very sensible outlook on avoiding unnecessary forms. Call me Judith because I would also make a pass at her at the first possible chance.

Commander Wake: 3/10. She made Pyrrha fall in love with her, seduced ever-loyal G1deon into hatefucking and galvanized a dying resistance movement. She was genuinely nice to Gideon those 3 seconds they interacted in passing! Then she had to go and hide under the bed of a mentally ill teenager.

Dulcinea: 4/10. Her horniness for revenge is epic. Let down Pal as nicely as she could and managed to outwit Cytherea when it mattered. Not cringe at all.

Camilla: 4/10. Yes, she could kill you in seconds but she did once sell cigarettes, her most liquid asset, for about a third of their market value.

Alecto: 4/10. Scary eldritch woman-shaped creature with a sword, comes highly recommended by Pyrrha Dve. Loses points for confusing Middle English and thinking John was the best possible Sailor Earth when he was clearly the worst.

G1deon: 5/10. Utterly willing to burn for what he believes in. Yes, he probably needs some perspective but he made sure the baby had enough air before kicking Wake out of the airlock and Matthias Nonius thinks he’s an okay dude.

Pash: 5/10. She has that freedom fighter swag and the cool hair but she is a terrible bodyguard coasting on nepotism, sorry to say.

Palamedes: 6/10. He didn’t clock the serial killer pretending to be his ex because he was too busy going to painfully extreme lengths to avoid interacting with her.

Naberius: 6/10. My controversial opinion is that Babs is the least cringe of the Third House throuple. Yes he looks and acts like a peacock but he puts up with Corona snacking on him for no reason and is still nice to her, and gives Ianthe solid romantic advice.

Nona: 6/10. Cringe in the unselfconscious way of a young teenager, and put this ability to use making Pal fess up to his nurse kink. She will never be cool but it’s part of her appeal.

Mercymorn: 7/10. Speaks in onomatopoeias. She knows she is insufferable so she’s gonna do her best to make sure to be the most insufferable person in every room. Once called John Gaius “the best man I who ever lived” to his smug face and not even blowing him up later makes up for that.

Ianthe: 7/10. Looks like a wet rat. Hopelessly dramatic but she pulls it off. Declares her love for Harrow at every turn in the most transparent possible way then pretends she’s just being snarky. Some cool points for actually getting shit done

Coronabeth: 7/10. Terrible taste in love interests. Her freedom fighter era was hot but she thinks pompadour hair is a good look? Also, the way she spent her whole life lying about necromancy speaks of extreme conflict avoidance. Cringe move.

Judith: 7/10. She deserved to suffer and has suffered more than she deserves. It’s cringe how she clings to her imperialist brainwashing but she gets a point for rightfully understanding she should be wary of Corona, something Ianthe still can’t even grasp.

Ortus: 7/10. Yes he quotes his own epic poetry WIP at people but he also had to grow up on the Ninth with nothing better to do. Genuinely a very nice guy.

Cytherea: 8/10. Her unhinged vibes are very hot but she killed a couple of nerds and two teenagers instead of anyone who was actually dangerous. Cringe of her!

Silas: 8/10. Smarmy cloud-looking motherfucker. He is a child Pope and I guess he can’t help the inherent cringe of the Eight. But that’s still no excuse for bringing a portrait of John all the way to Canaan House just to hang it in your bedroom, dude.

Gideon: 8/10. Babygirl is a horny virgin with the vocabulary of a nerd. Harrow is bones over tit in love with her and she fails to notice after living in Harrow’s brain for eight months. Gets points for managing to maintain impressive biceps on a diet with no protein.

Augustine: 9/10. Extremely cringe because of how hard he tries to pretend he’s not cringe. Cigarettes on a space station and effectively performing swag don’t make up for how much he clearly wants to suck John’s dick. Which he did at least twice.

Harrow: 10/10. Spent most of her life being mean to Gideon because she was too hot to deal with and lobotomized a coffee shop AU into existence. Thinks Ianthe Tridentarius is beautiful. Once built a bone cocoon to sleep in after not drinking water for two days. Should’ve told God months ago that she just didn’t want to eat his fucking biscuits and stop offering.

John: 10/10. Unfortunately, this scale only goes up to 10 but we all know it’s not enough. Deeply cringe in a myriad of ways, chiefly among them the way he inflicts his barely veiled incest kink on all his friends. That one dad joke was gold, though.

This was getting too long but for the record: Aiglamene is cool and so is Abigail Pent. Magnus is not cool but he’s a fun time. The Terrible Teens are exempt from judgement on account of being 14.

#i wrote this on my phone on the metro spelling what's spelling #will this finally be the post I send to L. to convince her to read the books?#tlt memes #the locked tomb #tlt

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charlesf1leclerc · 10 months

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KEEPING UP WITH THE LECLERCS

Warnings- poorly translated French, childbirth, not very well edited, cuteness, babies idk ahha I think that’s it

Summary-The little moments of welcoming Charles and y/n’s first child into the world

Finding out your pregnant

You and Charles and been together for years. Dating two years before he proposed to you and you became Y/n leclerc. Charles always wanted to be a dad he loved growing up with his brothers and always dreamed of having a few little kids so they could replicate the relationship he and his brothers had. You and him had decide to spend the first year of your marriage together being in the ‘ honeymoon stage’ although you had gotten off any sort of birth control months ago because whatever will be will be that’s your motto.

Now at the age of 24 and 25 here you were about to be parents, well 9 months away from being parents. You leaned on the bathroom counter as Charles stood in front of you holding the stick that read two lines ‘Pregnant’. You and Charles were going to be parents. You were going to have a little cute tiny baby. Charles was going to be a dad and you knew he would be the best dad, everyone saw the way he acted with kids in the paddock it always made yo ur heart hurt and your ovaries explode but you knew one day it would happen for you and that day was today.

“ We’re gonna be parents Cherie! You’re gonna be a mummy” He had a glimmer in his eye or maybe it was a tear but either way he was over the moon.

“ and your gonna be a daddy, the best daddy”

He moved forward to put the test down on the counter and put his hands on your stomach

“ I can feel it, it’s in there, baby”

“ Charles that’s just my stomach rumbling, there is something in there but the baby is to small for that to be what your feeling” I laugh

“ shh let me have my moment, I’m gonna be a daddy, our little boy”

“ so it’s a boy” I raised an eyebrow

“ well I have brothers so it’s understandable for it to be a boy the baby is my child”

“ ok whatever you say leclerc, now can we please eat dinner now or anything I’m starving”

“ 5 more minutes” he said still holding his hands on my stomach

Yeah he’s going to be the best dad

Telling friends and family

Charles could not wait to tell his friends and family about the baby, but of course you made him wait because you wanted to wait until you were at least 12 weeks to tell anyone like it was recommended. So as soon as you were 12 weeks charles was already organising how he was going to tell everyone.

First he told his mum and brothers. He had taken you all out for dinner all families. You both sat at the table next to each other and when he squeezed your hand you knew what he was going to do. He coughed to get the attention back into him.

“ uh…. I have an announcement, me and Y/n have an announcement I mean” he spoke

“ omg a divorce, uh it was only o a matter of time, y/n just know that I am hear for you your going to be ok without him” Arthur spoke coming to rest a hand on my shoulder

“ what no no we are not getting a divorce sit back down” Charles looked irritated at the younger brother

“ don’t get to defensive y/n will come to her sense’s one day” Arthur spoke

“ shh thur, yes Charles we are listening” Pascale broke the brewing argument apart

“ well me and y/n are going to have a baby” Charles revealed

“ oh my Charles that’s amazing I couldn’t be more proud” Pascale jumped up to hug her son and daughter in law giving them multiple kisses

“ aww damn y/n now your really tied down to him no escaping now” Arthur still got up to hug you though but received a slap on the back of the head from Charles

“ fermez-la” ( shut up ) Charles growled

“ I’m so happy for you guys, uncle Enzo sounds pretty good to me” Lorenzo stood up hugging you and patting Charles on the back.

Having their good blessings meant the world to you and Charles it made very thing 100 times better.

As well as his family he also had his other family his off grid friends Joris, Riccardo and Marta .you were currently all at Marta and Riccardos house in Monaco all sat springs the living room. And just like with the family Charles speaks up.

“alors nous avons une petite nouvelle à vous annoncer” (so we have abit of news to tell you).

“ pourquoi avez-vous toujours des nouvelles” ( why do you guys always have news ) Joris responds humorously

“ Eh bien, je pense que tu vas aimer cette nouvelle”( Well I think your going to like this news ) Charles smiled

You handed Charles the ultrasound picture and he took it from you before laying it out on the coffee table

“ Qu'est-ce que c'est ça “ ( what’s this ) Marta spoke as she leaned toward to pic up the image holding it in her hands

“est-ce que je pense que c'est? es-tu enceinte” ( is this what I think it is are you pregnant ) she questioned

“ oui” ( yes ) I replied

“ eeeeee “ Marta jumped up to run and hug me and jump around

“ Bravo mec” ( congrats mate ) Riccardo and Joris got up to congratulate their friend

“Attends tu dois voir ces petits vêtements de bébé y/n chaira a grandi si vite j'ai des sacs et des sacs de vêtements à te donner” ( Wait you have to see these little baby clothes y/n chaira grew so fast so I have bags and bags of clothes to give you ) Marta was definite more excited then anyone else so far.

“ il y aura des meilleurs amis comme nous “ ( there going to be best friends just like us ) I smiled back at her

“ aww c'est le meilleur bews jamais “ ( aww this is the best news ever ) she squealed as I followed her up stairs

“ Préparez-vous mon ami pour les hormones, puis les pleurs sans fin et les changements de couches de ce bébé “ ( Prepare yourself my friend for hormones and then endless crying and diaper changes from that baby ) Riccardo patted Charles on the back

“ Tout en vaudra la peine même si cela ne me dérange pas” ( It will all be worth it though I don’t mind ) Charles smiled to himself

But the hardest challenge was telling the other drivers so you left that up to Charles. This time it was very much informal. He simply told them when he saw them on that track not really wanting to make to big of a fuss in public places as you still had yet to announce your pregnancy.

First was Max.

To say he was excited was an understatement. He was over the moon for you and Charles already taking about how the baby and Penelope could be the best of friends and how he and Kelly would be able to babysit whenever they need. Being a kinda stepdad to Penelope meant max already has experience with kids so he was already giving tips and offering advice

“ I’m sure Kelly has heaps of bags of P’s old clothes we could give you and y/n” max offered

“ That’s very nice I’m sure y/n would love to look through that with Kelly one day, but we may not need it as I’m sure it’s a boy, just a feeling” Charles replied

“ every man thinks he wants a son until he gets a daughter and then he realised he can never live anything more trust me” max leant out his hand to rest on Charles shoulder again giving him his congratulations.

Carlos and lando were well carlos and lando about the whole situation.

“ hey my man does have some skills in him, I’m proud of you my friend” carlos said about the whole announcement.

“ that baby is going to be so attractive like look at you and look at y/n”…. “ hey watch it norris trays my wife and baby your talking about”

“ what I was only telling the truth” he replied like a child who had been scolded

“ so do you know the gender? A little Leclerc or a little y/l/n?” Carlos inquired

“ no we don’t yet and either way it’s going to be a little leclerc you dumbass” Charles laughed

“ yeah yeah you know what I meant” Carlos rolled his eyes.

Telling pierre was probably the highlight to Charles his best friend for many years. He was so excited to break the news and see his reaction.

“ Sweet man your gonna be a dilf” wa Shia first answer to the reaction

“ uh what’s that? “ Charles asked

“ or maybe you’ll just be a weird old man who can’t keep up with the trends” Pierre patted his back sympathetically

“ wow thanks for the support my friend”

“ no really I’m happy for you guys, and for myself of course I’m going to be the cool uncle and now I get to hang with a baby but also be able to give it back and not have to worry about it myself”

“ remind me to never let you be alone with my child” Charles looked judge meant all at pierre

“ what are you saying I’m not the god father?” Pierre put his hand to his chest in fake offence

“ calm down I’m not saying anything yet drama queen”

“ yes that’s right I’m the queen of godfathers” Pierre shouted and Charles face palmed himself in the face. This was the guy who was his best friend…

Gender reveal

Today was the day. The day that Charles was so much more excited for than anyone else in the whole wide world. Your gender reveal. You had decide to do an intimate reveal just the two of you. You were going to do the trend with the wine glasses and the cake where you put the glasses in the cake and pulled it out to reveal the coloured dye within the cake.

Currently you and Charles were sitting in your back garden in a picnic rug ready to reveal the gender of your little bean.

“Still think it’s a boy” I inquired

“ yes but I really don’t mind either way Cherie as long as I have you and this baby I’m happy” Charles leaned in to give you a kiss on the lips

“ now can we please get on with this I need to knowwwwww” you laughed at his excitement as he was practically going to burst with anticipation

“ yes yes ok let’s look away and put our glasses in” you both turned away from the cake

“ you ready?” You asked

“ yes hurry up”

You both put your glass into the cake

“ 3,2,1”

Pink the icing was pink you were going to have a little baby girl

“ a girl” Charles remarked

“ a girl” you replied with a big grin on your face

You both leaned in to hug one another charles planting a kiss on your forehead

“ your not upset it’s not a boy” you inquired still engulfed In his arms

“ a friend once told me a man always once a boy until he has a daughter and realised he can never love anything more, so no Cherie I’m not upset one bit”

Baby preparation

The next few months we’re hectic with Charles attending races and you staying home to work on the nursery and get things done and ready for the baby, all with the help from yours and Charles family’s and Charles himself of course as he spent every minute he was home doing something baby related.

The room was coming along nicely. It was very girly and it was just they way Charles wanted it. From the flower wallpaper and little pink blankets to the thousands of colourful outfits in the far to big closet for a baby. Charles instigated on buying anything he saw for the baby from toys to clothes and anything to make her room even more beautiful than it was. “ it needs to all be fit for a princess” he would say . And of course you let him do it thing because really how can you say no to him

“ we need a name” you spoke up one night when you and Charles were sitting on the couch after dinner. Your legs were drawn over his lap and he was rubbing circles on your thighs

“ I suppose we do, right now?” He replied

“ well not right now but we do need some ideas”

“ I think I want her middle name to be Jules if that’s ok with you” he looked over at you

“ of course that’s such a pretty name and a nice meaning for you and her too”

“ I’ve always kinda known I wanted to incorporate that into my child’s name if your sure your ok with that” he looked into your eyes

“ of course i am it’s beautiful” you replied moving to snuggle further into him as he smiled and kissed top of your head.

The arrival

It was a warm night in Monaco. June 16th to be exact. You and Charles were well asleep until you were woken up to a sharp pain in your stomach. Your eyes shot open and you places your hand onto your swollen belly.

You leaned over to see the time read 1:45am. You didn’t want to wake Charles yet incase it was only Braxton hicks you were feeling so you attempted to go back to sleep.

1:50

1:55

2:00

2:05

2:15

It was to much you couldn’t take it and that when you felt it. The cold drizzle of water down your leg and onto the bed sheets below you.

That’s it

“ Charles” you gently shock him

“Mmm” he hummed

“ Charles my water broke”

“ WHAT” he jumped up

“ my water broke she’s coming”

“ ok ok calm down it’s alright you, you put some clothes on and I will get the bag then meet you in the car” he spoke frantically

I got out of need to put some sweats and a jumper on I didn’t really care about my apparence at this point in time.

But Charles was still pacing around the house

“ Ok si seulement je peux me rappeler où j'ai mis ce foutu sac” ( ok if only i can remember where I put that bloody bag ) he mumbled to himself

“ it’s on the bench by the door over there” I spoke up from the bottom of the stairs and he jumped in fright

“ Cherie don’t sneak up on me like that, ok ok I got it let’s go let’s go move women”

I smacked his head“ you will not rush me Charles Marc Herve Perceval leclerc”

“ ok sorry darling my bad” he spoke as he rubbed where I had slapped him.

3:30

3:35

3:50

4:00

4:30

“ Charles how could you do this to me” I yelled all sweaty as I pushed a live human beating from me.

“ I know I’m very sorry, if I could take this all away I would” he spoke as he was rubbing my hair and holding my hand at the same time. His poor hand was probably broken by now

“ well you can’t physically take the pain away cause your a boy so SHUT UP DONT MAKE PROMISES YOU CANT KEEP”

“ ok ok Cherie I’m sorry I’m sorry but she’s nearly here you’re doing amazing”

“ it hurts Charles it really hurts, I don’t think I can do it”

“ no none of that yes you can your the strongest women I know, she’s nearly here ok just think about how cute she will be and how excited you will be when she’s here” he softly stroked your head.

“ ok mrs Leclerc one more push ok you can do it hun”

“ see one more push you got this you can do it” he whispered encouraging

I pushed as hard as I could then I heard the little cries. I feel back into the bed tears flowing down my face. Happy tears.

“ you did it shes here omg she’s beautiful”

“ here you go momma your beautiful baby girl” the nurse spoke as she placed your daughter on your chest

“ Charles look she has your nose”

“ she’s… she’s”

You looked up at Charles and he was crying unable to get the words out

“ she’s you Charles she’s gorgeous” you cried as well

“ hi baby I’m your daddy”

“ the best daddy” you smiled

“Cherie I now know what max was talking about” he smiled stroking your daughters head

“ welcome to the world Indy Jules leclerc” you whispered

And like that the Leclerc family had started to form

———————————————————————

Tysm for reading I hope you enjoyed! Pls feel free to leave requests for this story in my inbox or any little messages you have you can leave in my request inbox as well xxx

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multifandominfj · 17 days

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You know, you KNOW, if Goodreads existed in the 50’s, Marta de la Reina’s choices and recommendations, and “read/want to read” lists would be ✨PERFECTION✨ 🤌🏻.

She would probably be like, “Need a book rec? I got you bestie.”

Or if it were someone she didn’t like, she’d probably be like “I really think you’d like this. Hopefully it speaks to you.” and hope they got the message. 😂

#mafin #marta y fina #marta x fina #marta belmonte #marta de la reina #fina valero #alba brunet #suenos de libertad #sueños de libertad #funny memes

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carolineshairtie · 3 months

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can you do more recs?

WOSO FIC RECOMMENDATIONS PT.2

DAISYCHAINS @woso-dreamzzz

- Marta Torrejón x Caroline Graham Hansen x Child!Reader (mostly fluff)

PUPPY LOVE @awfcspencer

-Alexia x reader (fluff)

OUT OF THE BAG @barcaatthemoon

-Alexia x reader (angst)

SUNSHINE @pixiesfz

-Steph Catley x child!reader (angst with fluff)

STUCK @gunnerfc

-Alexia x reader (Smut and angst)

I LOVE YOU @ale-wosofan

-Alexia x reader (fluff)

PRETZEL CHOCOLATE @magics-neptunes-things

-Lia Wälti x reader (Angst with a happy ending)

MOST LIKELY TO @mapiforpresident

-Alexia x reader (fluff)

#woso #woso community #woso imagine #woso soccer #woso fanfics #woso incorrect quotes #woso incorrect #awfc #barca femeni #arsenal #woso x reader #alexia putellas

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sixteenseveredhands · 2 months

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The Oriental Blue Clearwing Moth: these moths were regarded as a "lost species" for more than 130 years, until they were finally sighted again in 2013

For more than 130 years, the Oriental blue clearwing moth (Heterosphecia tawonoides) was known only from a single, badly damaged specimen that was collected in Sumatra in 1887. There were no recorded sightings of this species again until 2013, when entomologist Dr. Marta Skowron Volponi unexpectedly found the moths feeding on salt deposits that had accumulated along the riverbanks in Malaysia's lowland rainforest.

These moths were observed by researchers again in 2016 and 2017, and research indicates that the moths are actually bee-mimics, as they mimic the appearance, sound, behavior, and flight patterns of local bees. Their fuzzy, bright blue appearance might seem a little out of place for a bee-mimic, but those features do appear in several different bee species throughout Southeast Asia.

When the moths are in flight, they bear a particularly strong resemblance to the bees of the genus Thyreus (i.e. cuckoo bees, otherwise known as cloak-and-dagger bees), several of which are also bright blue, with banded markings, dark blue wings, fuzzy legs, and smooth, rounded antennae. The physical resemblance is compounded by the acoustic and behavioral mimicry that occurs when the moths are in flight.

Cloak-and-Dagger Bees: the image at the top shows an Indo-Malayan cloak-and-dagger bee (Thyreus novaehollandiae) in a sleeping position, holding itself upright with its mandibles clamped onto a twig, while the image at the bottom shows a Himalayan cloak-and-dagger bee (T. himalayensis) resting in the same position

The moths also engage in "mud-puddling" among the various bees that congregate along the riverbanks; mud-puddling is the process whereby an insect (usually a bee or a butterfly) draws nutrients from the fluids found in puddles, wet sand, decaying plant matter, carrion, animal waste, sweat, tears, and/or blood. According to researchers, the Oriental blue clearwing moth was the only lepidopteran that was seen mud-puddling among the local bees.

Dr. Skowron Volponi commented on the unusual appearance and behavior of these moths:

You think about moths and you envision a grey, hairy insect that is attracted to light. But this species is dramatically different—it is beautiful, shiny blue in sunlight and it comes out during the day; and it is a master of disguise, mimicking bees on multiple levels and even hanging out with them. The Oriental blue clearwing is just two centimeters in size, but there are so many fascinating things about them and so much more we hope to learn.

This species is still incredibly vulnerable, as it faces threats like deforestation, pollution, and climate change. The president of Global Wildlife Conservation, which is an organization that seeks to rediscover "lost species," added:

After learning about this incredible rediscovery, we hope that tourists visiting Taman Negara National Park and picnicking on the riverbanks—the home of these beautiful clearwing moths—will remember to tread lightly and to take their trash out of the park with them. We also recommend that Americans learn about palm oil production, which is one of the primary causes of deforestation in Malaysia.

Sources & More Info:

Phys.org: Bee-Mimicking Clearwing Moth Buzzes Back to Life After 130 Years

Mongabay News: Moth Rediscovered in Malaysia Mimics Appearance and Behavior of Bees to Escape Predators

Journal of Tropical Conservation Science: Lost Species of Bee-Mimicking Clearwing Moth, H. tawonoides, Rediscovered in Peninsular Malaysia's Primary Rainforest

Frontiers in Zoology: Southeast Asian Clearwing Moths Buzz like their Model Bees

Royal Society Publishing: Moving like a Model - mimicry of hymenopteran flight trajectories by clearwing moths of Southeast Asian rainforests

Medium: Rediscovery in a Glint of Blue

re:wild.org: The "Search for Lost Species" Project

#lepidoptera #moths #heterosphecia tawonoides #oriental blue clearwing moth #entomology #insects #cute bugs #nature #animals #lost species #mimicry #evolution #bees #southeast asia #Malaysia #colorful moths #bee mimic #science

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helloliriels · 8 months

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fallen back into my old bbc sherlock hyperfixation - do you have any blog recs? you’re one of the only blogs still around that i followed from the last time i immersed myself in the worlds only consulting detective and his blogger lol

HEYYYYY!!!! WeLCoMe BaCk!!!! 🥳

Always happy to recommend some great blogs to follow! (and very glad to still be here) ✌️

@john-smiths-jawline @topsyturvy-turtely @4thelneyj0nes @spooksicl-e @calaisreno @khorazir @bluebellofbakerstreet @sarahthecoat @7-percent @shiplocks-of-love @kettykika78 @discordantwords @chriscalledmesweetie @gaylilsherlock @meetinginsamarra @anotherwellkeptsecret @ceruleanmindpalace @raina-at @jobooksncoffee @blogstandbygo @inevitably-johnlocked @cupidford @swissmissing @safedistancefrombeingsmart @a-victorian-girl @gregorovitchworld @lisbeth-kk @petite-madame @whatnext2020 @chinike @rhasima @tiverrr @221beloved @arwamachine @londonlock @marta-bee @barachiki @myriath @holmosexualitea @jawnn-watson @aljedd @totallysilvergirl and anyone please add more!!!

(Hope these help with feeding the fixation!! hehe) 🥰💕😍

#sherlock fandom #sherlock #bbc sherlock #johnlock #liri answers

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fatehbaz · 11 months

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imperialism and science reading list

edited: by popular demand, now with much longer list of books

Of course Katherine McKittrick and Kathryn Yusoff.

People like Achille Mbembe, Pratik Chakrabarti, Rohan Deb Roy, Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert, and Elizabeth Povinelli have written some “classics” and they track the history/historiography of US/European scientific institutions and their origins in extraction, plantations, race/slavery, etc.

Two articles I’d recommend as a summary/primer:

Zaheer Baber. “The Plants of Empire: Botanic Gardens, Colonial Power and Botanical Knowledge.” Journal of Contemporary Asia. May 2016.

Kathryn Yusoff. “The Inhumanities.” Annals of the American Association of Geographers. 2020.

Then probably:

Irene Peano, Marta Macedo, and Colette Le Petitcorps. “Introduction: Viewing Plantations at the Intersection of Political Ecologies and Multiple Space-Times.” Global Plantations in the Modern World: Sovereignties, Ecologies, Afterlives. 2023.

Sharae Deckard. “Paradise Discourse, Imperialism, and Globalization: Exploiting Eden.” 2010. (Chornological overview of development of knowledge/institutions in relationship with race, slavery, profit as European empires encountered new lands and peoples.)

Gregg Mitman. “Forgotten Paths of Empire: Ecology, Disease, and Commerce in the Making of Liberia’s Plantation Economy.” Environmental History. 2017, (Interesting case study. US corporations were building fruit plantations in Latin America and rubber plantations in West Africa during the 1920s. Medical doctors, researchers, and academics made a strong alliance these corporations to advance their careers and solidify their institutions. By 1914, the director of Harvard’s Department of Tropical Medicine was also simultaneously the director of the Laboratories of the Hospitals of the United Fruit Company, which infamously and brutally occupied Central America. This same Harvard doctor was also a shareholder in rubber plantations, and had a close personal relationship with the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, which occupied West Africa.)

Elizabeth DeLoughrey. “Globalizing the Routes of Breadfruit and Other Bounties.” 2008. (Case study of how British wealth and industrial development built on botany. Examines Joseph Banks; Kew Gardens; breadfruit; British fear of labor revolts; and the simultaneous colonizing of the Caribbean and the South Pacific.)

Elizabeth DeLoughrey. “Satellite Planetarity and the Ends of the Earth.” 2014. (Indigenous knowledge systems; “nuclear colonialism”; US empire in the Pacific; space/satellites; the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.)

Fahim Amir. “Cloudy Swords.” e-flux Journal #115, February 2021. (”Pest control”; termites; mosquitoes; fear of malaria and other diseases during German colonization of Africa and US occupations of Panama and the wider Caribbean; origins of some US institutions and the evolution of these institutions into colonial, nationalist, and then NGO forms over twentieth century.)

Some of the earlier generalist classic books that explicitly looked at science as a weapon of empires:

Schiebinger’s Plants and Empire: Colonial Bioprospecting in the Atlantic World; Delbourgo’s and Dew’s Science and Empire in the Atlantic World; the anthology Colonial Botany: Science, Commerce, and Politics in the Early Modern World; Canzares-Esquerra’s Nature, Empire, and Nation: Explorations of the History of Science in the Iberian World.

One of the quintessential case studies of science in the service of empire is the British pursuit of quinine and the inoculation of their soldiers and colonial administrators to safeguard against malaria in Africa, India, and Southeast Asia at the height of their power. But there are so many other exemplary cases: Britain trying to domesticate and transplant breadfruit from the South Pacific to the Caribbean to feed laborers to prevent slave uprisings during the age of the Haitian Revolution. British colonial administrators smuggling knowledge of tea cultivation out of China in order to set up tea plantations in Assam. Eugenics, race science, biological essentialism, etc. in the early twentieth century. With my interests, my little corner of exposure/experience has to do mostly with conceptions of space/place; interspecies/multispecies relationships; borderlands and frontiers; Caribbean; Latin America; islands. So, a lot of these recs are focused there. But someone else would have better recs, especially depending on your interests. For example, Chakrabarti writes about history of medicine/healthcare. Paravisini-Gebert about extinction and Caribbean relationship to animals/landscape. Deb Roy focuses on insects and colonial administration in South Asia. Some scholars focus on the historiography and chronological trajectory of “modernity” or “botany” or “universities/academia,”, while some focus on Early Modern Spain or Victorian Britain or twentieth-century United States by region. With so much to cover, that’s why I’d recommend the articles above, since they’re kinda like overviews.Generally I read more from articles, essays, and anthologies, rather than full-length books.

Some other nice articles:

(On my blog, I’ve got excerpts from all of these articles/essays, if you want to search for or read them.)

Katherine McKittrick. “Dear April: The Aesthetics of Black Miscellanea.” Antipode. First published September 2021.

Katherine McKittrick. “Plantation Futures.” Small Axe. 2013.

Antonio Lafuente and Nuria Valverde. “Linnaean Botany and Spanish Imperial Biopolitics.” A chapter in: Colonial Botany: Science, Commerce, and Politics in the Early Modern World. 2004.

Kathleen Susan Murphy. “A Slaving Surgeon’s Collection: The Pursuit of Natural History through the British Slave Trade to Spanish America.” 2019. And also: “The Slave Trade and Natural Science.” In: Oxford Bibliographies in Atlantic History. 2016.

Timothy J. Yamamura. “Fictions of Science, American Orientalism, and the Alien/Asian of Percival Lowell.” 2017.

Elizabeth Bentley. “Between Extinction and Dispossession: A Rhetorical Historiography of the Last Palestinian Crocodile (1870-1935).” 2021.

Pratik Chakrabarti. “Gondwana and the Politics of Deep Past.” Past & Present 242:1. 2019.

Jonathan Saha. “Colonizing elephants: animal agency, undead capital and imperial science in British Burma.” BJHS Themes. British Society for the History of Science. 2017.

Zoe Chadwick. “Perilous plants, botanical monsters, and (reverse) imperialism in fin-de-siecle literature.” The Victorianist: BAVS Postgraduates. 2017.

Dante Furioso: “Sanitary Imperialism.” Jeremy Lee Wolin: “The Finest Immigration Station in the World.” Serubiri Moses. “A Useful Landscape.” Andrew Herscher and Ana Maria Leon. “At the Border of Decolonization.” All from e-flux.

William Voinot-Baron. “Inescapable Temporalities: Chinook Salmon and the Non-Sovereignty of Co-Management in Southwest Alaska.” 2019.

Rohan Deb Roy. “White ants, empire, and entomo-politics in South Asia.” The Historical Journal. 2 October 2019.

Rohan Deb Roy. “Introduction: Nonhuman Empires.” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 35 (1). May 2015.

Lawrence H. Kessler. “Entomology and Empire: Settler Colonial Science and the Campaign for Hawaiian Annexation.” Arcadia (Spring 2017).

Sasha Litvintseva and Beny Wagner. “Monster as Medium: Experiments in Perception in Early Modern Science and Film.” e-flux. March 2021.

Lesley Green. “The Changing of the Gods of Reason: Cecil John Rhodes, Karoo Fracking, and the Decolonizing of the Anthropocene.” e-flux Journal Issue #65. May 2015.

Martin Mahony. “The Enemy is Nature: Military Machines and Technological Bricolage in Britain’s ‘Great Agricultural Experiment.’“ Environment and Society Portal, Arcadia. Spring 2021.

Anna Boswell. “Anamorphic Ecology, or the Return of the Possum.” 2018. And; “Climates of Change: A Tuatara’s-Eye View.”2020. And: “Settler Sanctuaries and the Stoat-Free State." 2017.

Katherine Arnold. “Hydnora Africana: The ‘Hieroglyphic Key’ to Plant Parasitism.” Journal of the History of Ideas - JHI Blog - Dispatches from the Archives. 21 July 2021.

Helen F. Wilson. “Contact zones: Multispecies scholarship through Imperial Eyes.” Environment and Planning. July 2019.

Tom Brooking and Eric Pawson. “Silences of Grass: Retrieving the Role of Pasture Plants in the Development of New Zealand and the British Empire.” The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History. August 2007.

Kirsten Greer. “Zoogeography and imperial defence: Tracing the contours of the Neactic region in the temperate North Atlantic, 1838-1880s.” Geoforum Volume 65. October 2015. And: “Geopolitics and the Avian Imperial Archive: The Zoogeography of Region-Making in the Nineteenth-Century British Mediterranean.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 2013,

Marco Chivalan Carrillo and Silvia Posocco. “Against Extraction in Guatemala: Multispecies Strategies in Vampiric Times.” International Journal of Postcolonial Studies. April 2020.

Laura Rademaker. “60,000 years is not forever: ‘time revolutions’ and Indigenous pasts.” Postcolonial Studies. September 2021.

Paulo Tavares. “The Geological Imperative: On the Political Ecology of the Amazon’s Deep History.” Architecture in the Anthropocene. Edited by Etienne Turpin. 2013.

Kathryn Yusoff. “Geologic Realism: On the Beach of Geologic Time.” Social Text. 2019. And: “The Anthropocene and Geographies of Geopower.” Handbook on the Geographies of Power. 2018. And: “Climates of sight: Mistaken visbilities, mirages and ‘seeing beyond’ in Antarctica.” In: High Places: Cultural Geographies of Mountains, Ice and Science. 2008. And:“Geosocial Formations and the Anthropocene.” 2017. And: “An Interview with Elizabeth Grosz: Geopower, Inhumanism and the Biopolitical.” 2017.

Mara Dicenta. “The Beavercene: Eradication and Settler-Colonialism in Tierra del Fuego.” Arcadia. Spring 2020.

And then here are some books:

Africa as a Living Laboratory: Empire, Development, and the Problem of Scientific Knowledge, 1870-1950 (Helen Tilley, 2011); Plants and Empire: Colonial Bioprospecting in the Atlantic World (Londa Schiebinger, 2004)

Red Coats and Wild Birds: How Military Ornithologists and Migrant Birds Shaped Empire (Kirsten A. Greer); The Empirical Empire: Spanish Colonial Rule and the Politics of Knowledge (Arndt Brendecke, 2016); Medicine and Empire, 1600-1960 (Pratik Chakrabarti, 2014)

Anglo-European Science and the Rhetoric of Empire: Malaria, Opium, and British Rule in India, 1756-1895 (Paul Winther); Peoples on Parade: Exhibitions, Empire, and Anthropology in Nineteenth-Century Britain (Sadiah Qureshi, 2011); Unfreezing the Arctic: Science, Colonialism, and the Transformation of Inuit Lands (Andrew Stuhl)

Fugitive Science: Empiricism and Freedom in Early African American Culture (Britt Rusert, 2017); Pasteur’s Empire: Bacteriology and Politics in France, Its Colonies, and the World (Aro Velmet, 2022); Colonizing Animals: Interspecies Empire in Myanmar (Jonathan Saha)

The Nature of German Imperialism: Conservation and the Politics of Wildlife in Colonial East Africa (Bernhard Gissibl, 2019); Curious Encounters: Voyaging, Collecting, and Making Knowledge in the Long Eighteenth Century (Edited by Adriana Craciun and Mary Terrall, 2019)

Frontiers of Science: Imperialism and Natural Knowledge in the Gulf South Borderlands, 1500-1850 (Cameron B. Strang); The Ends of Paradise: Race, Extraction, and the Struggle for Black Life in Honduras (Chirstopher A. Loperena, 2022); Mining Language: Racial Thinking, Indigenous Knowledge, and Colonial Metallurgy in the Early Modern Iberian World (Allison Bigelow, 2020); The Herds Shot Round the World: Native Breeds and the British Empire, 1800-1900 (Rebecca J.H. Woods); American Tropics: The Caribbean Roots of Biodiversity Science (Megan Raby, 2017); Producing Mayaland: Colonial Legacies, Urbanization, and the Unfolding of Global Capitalism (Claudia Fonseca Alfaro, 2023)

Domingos Alvares, African Healing, and the Intellectual History of the Atlantic World (James Sweet, 2011); A Temperate Empire: Making Climate Change in Early America (Anya Zilberstein, 2016); Educating the Empire: American Teachers and Contested Colonization in the Philippines (Sarah Steinbock-Pratt, 2019); Soundings and Crossings: Doing Science at Sea, 1800-1970 (Edited by Anderson, Rozwadowski, et al, 2016)

Possessing Polynesians: The Science of Settler Colonial Whiteness in Hawai’i and Oceania (Maile Arvin); Overcoming Niagara: Canals, Commerce, and Tourism in the Niagara-Great Lakes Borderland Region, 1792-1837 (Janet Dorothy Larkin, 2018); A Great and Rising Nation: Naval Exploration and Global Empire in the Early US Republic (Michael A. Verney, 2022); In the Museum of Man: Race, Anthropology, and Empire in France, 1850-1960 (Alice Conklin, 2013)

Visible Empire: Botanical Expeditions and Visual Culture in the Hispanic Enlightenment (Daniela Cleichmar, 2012); Tea Environments and Plantation Culture: Imperial Disarray in Eastern India (Arnab Dey, 2022); Drugs on the Page: Pharmacopoeias and Healing Knowledge in the Early Modern Atlantic World (Edited by Crawford and Gabriel, 2019)

Cooling the Tropics: Ice, Indigeneity, and Hawaiian Refreshment (Hi’ilei Kawehipuaakahaopulani Hobart, 2022); In Asian Waters: Oceanic Worlds from Yemen to Yokkohama (Eric Tagliacozzo); Yellow Fever, Race, and Ecology in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans (Urmi Engineer Willoughby, 2017); Turning Land into Capital: Development and Dispossession in the Mekong Region (Edited by Hirsch, et al, 2022); Mining the Borderlands: Industry, Capital, and the Emergence of Engineers in the Southwest Territories, 1855-1910 (Sarah E.M. Grossman, 2018)

Knowing Manchuria: Environments, the Senses, and Natural Knowledge on an Asian Borderland (Ruth Rogaski); Colonial Fantasies, Imperial Realities: Race Science and the Making of Polishness on the Fringes of the German Empire, 1840-1920 (Lenny A. Urena Valerio); Against the Map: The Politics of Geography in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Adam Sills, 2021)

Under Osman’s Tree: The Ottoman Empire, Egypt, and Environmental History (Alan Mikhail, 2017); Imperial Nature: Joseph Hooker and the Practices of Victorian Science (Jim Endersby); Proving Grounds: Militarized Landscapes, Weapons Testing, and the Environmental Impact of U.S. Bases (Edited by Edwin Martini, 2015)

Colonial Botany: Science, Commerce, and Politics in the Early Modern World (Multiple authors, 2007); Space in the Tropics: From Convicts to Rockets in French Guiana (Peter Redfield); Seeds of Empire: Cotton, Slavery, and the Transformation of the Texas Borderlands, 1800-1850 (Andrew Togert, 2015); Dust Bowls of Empire: Imperialism, Environmental Politics, and the Injustice of ‘Green’ Capitalism (Hannah Holleman, 2016); Postnormal Conservation: Botanic Gardens and the Reordering of Biodiversity Governance (Katja Grotzner Neves, 2019)

Botanical Entanglements: Women, Natural Science, and the Arts in Eighteenth-Century England (Anna K. Sagal, 2022); The Platypus and the Mermaid and Other Figments of the Classifying Imagination (Harriet Ritvo); Rubber and the Making of Vietnam: An Ecological History, 1897-1975 (Michitake Aso); A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None (Kathryn Yusoff, 2018); Staple Security: Bread and Wheat in Egypt (Jessica Barnes, 2023); No Wood, No Kingdom: Political Ecology in the English Atlantic (Keith Pluymers); Planting Empire, Cultivating Subjects: British Malaya, 1768-1941 (Lynn Hollen Lees, 2017); Fish, Law, and Colonialism: The Legal Capture of Salmon in British Columbia (Douglas C. Harris, 2001); Everywhen: Australia and the Language of Deep Time (Edited by Ann McGrath, Laura Rademaker, and Jakelin Troy); Subject Matter: Technology, the Body, and Science on the Anglo-American Frontier, 1500-1676 (Joyce Chaplin, 2001)

American Lucifers: The Dark History of Artificial Light, 1750-1865 (Jeremy Zallen); Ruling Minds: Psychology in the British Empire (Erik Linstrum, 2016); Lakes and Empires in Macedonian History: Contesting the Water (James Pettifer and Mirancda Vickers, 2021); Inscriptions of Nature: Geology and the Naturalization of Antiquity (Pratik Chakrabarti); Seeds of Control: Japan’s Empire of Forestry in Colonial Korea (David Fedman)

Do Glaciers Listen?: Local Knowledge, Colonial Encounters, and Social Imagination (Julie Cruikshank); The Fishmeal Revolution: The Industrialization of the Humboldt Current Ecosystem (Kristin A. Wintersteen, 2021); The Earth on Show: Fossils and the Poetics of Popular Science, 1802-1856 (Ralph O’Connor); An Imperial Disaster: The Bengal Cyclone of 1876 (Benjamin Kingsbury, 2018); Geographies of City Science: Urban Life and Origin Debates in Late Victorian Dublin (Tanya O’Sullivan, 2019)

American Hegemony and the Postwar Reconstruction of Science in Europe (John Krige, 2006); Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power: Race and the Intimate in Colonial Rule (Ann Laura Stoler, 2002); Rivers of the Sultan: The Tigris and Euphrates in the Ottoman Empire (Faisal H. Husain, 2021);

The Sanitation of Brazil: Nation, State, and Public Health, 1889-1930 (Gilberto Hochman, 2016); The Imperial Security State: British Colonial Knowledge and Empire-Building in Asia (James Hevia); Japan’s Empire of Birds: Aristocrats, Anglo-Americans, and Transwar Ornithology (Annika A. Culver, 2022)

Moral Ecology of a Forest: The Nature Industry and Maya Post-Conservation (Jose E. Martinez, 2021); Sound Relations: Native Ways of Doing Music History in Alaska (Jessica Bissette Perea, 2021); Citizens and Rulers of the World: The American Child and the Cartographic Pedagogies of Empire (Mashid Mayar); Anthropology and Antihumanism in Imperial Germany (Andrew Zimmerman, 2001)

The Botany of Empire in the Long Eighteenth Century (Multiple authors, 2016); The Nature of Slavery: Environment and Plantation Labor in the Anglo-Atlantic World (Katherine Johnston, 2022); Seeking the American Tropics: South Florida’s Early Naturalists (James A. Kushlan, 2020); The Postwar Origins of the Global Environment: How the United Nations Built Spaceship Earth (Perrin Selcer, 2018)

The Colonial Life of Pharmaceuticals: Medicines and Modernity in Vietnam (Laurence Monnais); Quinoa: Food Politics and Agrarian Life in the Andean Highlands (Linda J. Seligmann, 2023) ; Critical Animal Geographies: Politics, intersections and hierarchies in a multispecies world (Edited by Kathryn Gillespie and Rosemary-Claire Collard, 2017); Spawning Modern Fish: Transnational Comparison in the Making of Japanese Salmon (Heather Ann Swanson, 2022); Imperial Visions: Nationalist Imagination and Geographical Expansion in the Russian Far East, 1840-1865 (Mark Bassin, 2000); The Usufructuary Ethos: Power, Politics, and Environment in the Long Eighteenth Century (Erin Drew, 2022)

Intimate Eating: Racialized Spaces and Radical Futures (Anita Mannur, 2022); On the Frontiers of the Indian Ocean World: A History of Lake Tanganyika, 1830-1890 (Philip Gooding, 2022); All Things Harmless, Useful, and Ornamental: Environmental Transformation Through Species Acclimitization, from Colonial Australia to the World (Pete Minard, 2019)

Practical Matter: Newton’s Science in the Service of Industry and Empire, 1687-1851 (Margaret Jacob and Larry Stewart); Visions of Nature: How Landscape Photography Shaped Setller Colonialism (Jarrod Hore, 2022); Timber and Forestry in Qing China: Sustaining the Market (Meng Zhang, 2021); The World and All the Things upon It: Native Hawaiian Geographies of Exploration (David A. Chang);

Deep Cut: Science, Power, and the Unbuilt Interoceanic Canal (Christine Keiner); Writing the New World: The Politics of Natural History in the Early Spanish Empire (Mauro Jose Caraccioli); Two Years below the Horn: Operation Tabarin, Field Science, and Antarctic Sovereignty, 1944-1946 (Andrew Taylor, 2017); Mapping Water in Dominica: Enslavement and Environment under Colonialism (Mark W. Hauser, 2021)

To Master the Boundless Sea: The US Navy, the Marine Environment, and the Cartography of Empire (Jason Smith, 2018); Fir and Empire: The Transformation of Forests in Early Modern China (Ian Matthew Miller, 2020); Breeds of Empire: The ‘Invention’ of the Horse in Southeast Asia and Southern Africa 1500-1950 (Sandra Swart and Greg Bankoff, 2007)

Science on the Roof of the World: Empire and the Remaking of the Himalaya (Lachlan Fleetwood, 2022); Cattle Colonialism: An Environmental History of the Conquest of California and Hawai’i (John Ryan Fisher, 2017); Imperial Creatures: Humans and Other Animals in Colonial Singapore, 1819-1942 (Timothy P. Barnard, 2019)

An Ecology of Knowledges: Fear, Love, and Technoscience in Guatemalan Forest Conservation (Micha Rahder, 2020); Empire and Ecology in the Bengal Delta: The Making of Calcutta (Debjani Bhattacharyya, 2018); Imperial Bodies in London: Empire, Mobility, and the Making of British Medicine, 1880-1914 (Kristen Hussey, 2021)

Biotic Borders: Transpacific Plant and Insect Migration and the Rise of Anti-Asian Racism in America, 1890-1950 (Jeannie N. Shinozuka); Coral Empire: Underwater Oceans, Colonial Tropics, Visual Modernity (Ann Elias, 2019); Hunting Africa: British Sport, African Knowledge and the Nature of Empire (Angela Thompsell, 2015)

#multispecies #ecologies #tidalectics #geographic imaginaries

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stuff-diary · 1 year

Text

Smiley

TV Shows/Dramas watched in 2022

Smiley (2022, Spain)

Directors: Marta Pahissa & David Martín Porras

Writer: Guillem Clua

Mini-review:

This is the cliché gay romcom that we've always been waiting for and the one we deserve. It's hilarious, romantic, melodramatic, messy and full of feels, and I loved every second of it. The writing is fantastic, the acting feels absolutely natural and the whole cast shares some crazy chemistry that makes the relationships feel truly real. I also loved that it featured a wide array of LGBTQ relationships and characters of diverse age and looks, cause it's something that tends to be missing in the genre. This is definitely my favorite Netflix Spain Original (although that wasn't too difficult tbh) and one of my favorite romcoms of the last few years, and I strongly recommend you watch it. Hell, it's even holiday themed, so it's just perfect for the current season.

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lottes-little-place · 1 year

Photo

The Forbidden Fruit counter cabinets (and NeonServe kitchen islands) and the NeonBar in Cluedo Woods and Colors. Default and non default options!

For the countertops I’ve used the textures by Shasta for their pirate woods and yeti colors recolors because they were perfect already. I also recommend getting their CEP in the same post so the islands and NeonBar share countertop textures with the Forbidden Fruit counters. If you don’t, you can still use my cabinet textures for all of them, but the countertops of the bar and kitchen islands can’t change their color.

Credits: @shastakiss (textures and colors), Brusheezy, LilithDemoness and Marta Marcianek (brushes for the dirty state)

Download (recolors)

I’ve also made a .psd file so people can use it to make their own recolors, or use the dirty overlay to put on other counters. This includes shadow/detail overlays for both the counter and the bar. If you don’t have Photoshop, you can also use GIMP to open the file. I always make a mess of my .psd files so I cleaned it up and it should be clear what is what now. I’ve kept the Cluedo Woods Light recolor in it so that if you use wood textures you can see whether you need horizontal or vertical textures on what part. In short; just take a look if you think it will be useful to you!

Download (.psd file)

#sims 2 cc #s2cc #ts2cc #ts2 cc #sims 2 recolor #sims 2 recolors #sims 2 objects #sims 2 download #sims 2 default replacement #sims 2 default #cluedo woods #cluedo colors #default cluedo #mydownloads #mydownloads recolors objects #mydownloads default objects

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solarishashernoseinabook · 3 months

Text

Solaris reviews To Shape a Dragon's Breath, by Moniquill Blackgoose (2023)

*happy stimming*

Summary: Anequs of Masquapaug finds a dragon egg one day, the first her people have found for generations. When the egg hatches, the dragon chooses Anequs to be her companion. Anequs and the dragon, named Kasaqua, are then forced to attend a coloniser-run dragon school, facing prejudice and setbacks as they try to navigate a society that views Anequs as inherently lesser and dragons as merely a tool. Despite these problems, Anequs must do well - for the sake of her people, and the life of her dragon

Content: It was really good! Strong characters, strong worldbuilding, good lore - there's a lot to recommend in this book. Anequs is an active, determined protagonist, calling out racism, condescension, and revisionist history at every turn, and Kasaqua - a baby dragon throughout the course of the book - was a delight to read

Who I think would like it: Anyone interested in dragons, or looking for a good coming of age story

Things it does well: -copy/pastes the entire text of this 500 page book into a tumblr post- Okay, but seriously, this book handles prejudice and conflict with nuance and care, showing plainly how blatant I-hate-you-because-of-your-skin prejudice is merely one part of a larger problem. It has a canonically autistic character, portrayed with more care, accuracy, and attention to detail than I've ever seen in published fiction. The chapter titles were delightful - each was a short phrase describing the content of the chapter that, if you happened to read them all together, would give you a short summary of the novel. The book has a map, periodic table, and pronunciation guide right at the beginning, all of which were easy to follow

Things that could be improved: I had a bit of trouble following the chemistry in the book - the elements are given fantasy names, which fits the worldbuilding, but meant I had a bit of trouble following what was what. I've only got a high school understanding of chemistry, though, so I'm putting this down as a me problem instead of a problem with Blackgoose's writing

My review: This book was a breath of fresh air, especially compared to the last dragon book I reviewed. This was a book with emotional highs and lows, hard-earned happy endings, and a world that seems to leap off the page with how real it is. Definitely give it a try if dragon stories are your thing. Written by Seaconke Wampanoag author Moniquill Blackgoose, To Shape a Dragon's Breath is a masterfully-written dragonrider fantasy

Does this book have…: ✅= yes ❓= not sure ⭕= possibly/mixed ❌= no Romance? ✅ Anequs develops crushes, and her classmate Marta spends a lot of time discussing the importance of marriage to Anglish society and the need to make a good match Sex? ⭕ References are made to sex - mainly from a particular, rather bigoted character - but they're confined to a handful of scenes Racism? ✅ As mentioned above, Anequs must deal with a lot of racism from the colonisers, and it runs the gamut from outright, vile racism (openly calling her people savage or barely human) to ignorant condescension (charitably saying that Anequs's people are not terrible, they can be civilised if only they work at it!) Sexism? ✅ Anglish society is also highly sexist, another thing Anequs struggles to deal with. None of it is worse than you'd get in any other historical fantasy, though LGBTQIA-phobia? ✅ Anglish society is also homophobic, though it's more referenced rather than any characters actually facing violence for it Ableism? ✅ Sander, our autistic character, faces some ableism from his mother (forcing him to speak instead of letting him write, demanding he stop stimming, etc.), though this is countered by Anequs and Sander's sister fully supporting him Swearing? ❓ ⭕ I don't remember any, so if there was it was pretty minor Drug/Alcohol references? ✅ Characters drink and get mildly intoxicated a few times - mainly when celebrating holidays References to or actual violence or suicide? ✅ Yep. There's many references to war, genocide, brawling, executions, and so on. References to or actual animal death or cruelty? ✅ As per Anglish law, dragons who bind themselves to people considered "unsuitable" are put down. The fear of this happening to Kasaqua is one reason Anequs is so motivated to prove herself to the Anglish and succeed at school

Recommended: Yes

#to shape a dragon's breath #moniquill blackgoose #solaris reviews books sometimes #book reviews #book recommendations #books

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