#sff recs

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

booklr, arise!! i am once again soliciting recs. specifically, i need your Best SFF/Generally-Speculative Books About Revenge (or at least with a Prominent Revenge Subplot). i will also accept Classics™, but they’re on thin ice.

preferably not YA (no shade to YA, but it’s not what i need Material for right now), preferably not a series--i’m looking for self-contained and actualized Revenge Stories. sci-fi or weird preferred to fantasy; magical realism also good. bonus points if it’s vaguely superpower related, more bonus points if it’s also queer.

hit me with your best recs, please!!

(an incomplete list of relevant things i have already read are below the cut!:)

- VICIOUS/VENGEFUL by Schwab (you see what i’m looking for, huh)

- THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO

- SIX OF CROWS/CROOKED KINGDOM by Bardugo

- THE LIES OF LOCKE LAMORA by Lynch

- THE PRINCESS BRIDE by Goldman

- RED RISING by Brown

please note: i am NOT interested in THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO et al. OR anything ~Steamy~, which is what Goodreads keeps giving me

thanks for reading this far, y’all!!

#text #personal #books #booklr #book recommendations #seeking recommendations #revenge #books about revenge #sff recommendations #sff recs #i have no idea how to tag this for visibility but please do reblog!! #also tagging as: #nano 2023 #wallflower #wf #why yes i am in fact beginning to marinate on a NaNo Profile thanks for noticing!!! #i have like. thirteen post-its and no plot yet lmao #i wanna try revenge because i haven't done that yet but i don't know what i'm doing #i will accept movie recs too but i'm really mostly here for books at the moment!!

[lastseenleaving]

Penguin Cover Generator

#a marvellous light #freya marske #the last binding #fantasy books #fantasy reads #fantasy recs #sff reads #sff book #sff recs #lit edit

[isabelpsaroslunnen]

My best friend and I are both Star Wars fans, and we have an ongoing amicable debate about the merits of A New Hope vs Return of the Jedi.

We tend to agree that ANH is the smoother of the two films in terms of executing its vision and general craft. It doesn't have the unevenness of, say, the somewhat bloated Jabba's Palace sequence or the weird pacing and structure of some aspects of the Battle of Endor sequence. ROTJ, on the other hand, is (in our view) the more ambitious film, and when it does manage to fulfill those ambitions, it's better than almost anything in ANH. The characters are more nuanced, their dynamics are more intense and complex, the great scenes are just, by and large, richer and more evocative. When ROTJ is bad, it's worse than ANH, and when it's good, it's better.

The debate for us is not about whether those things are true, but whether the consistent quality of ANH or the more ambitious and (sometimes) powerful quality of ROTJ is "better." At the end of the day, the distinction is not incredibly important and both of us love both films. But it is interesting, to us, to think about the merits of execution vs ambition in storytelling and craft.

I was thinking about this, of course, because I read The Thief and then The Queen of Attolia in rapid succession, and I feel like there is something of that ANH-ROTJ dynamic between them. The Thief is the smoother, more precisely crafted book, IMO, but The Queen of Attolia is doing so much more.

There's so much development of the characters (especially my favorite, Attolia/Irene), so much more intrigue and just substance, so many wild twists and turns along the way, and the last quarter was both gripping and just swept me off my feet. I loved The Thief, but there's nothing in it that I felt as strongly about as I feel about ... I don't know, 2/3 of QoA.

But I also have some gripes with QoA that I don't really with TT—I think the use of secrets, whodunnit-style semi-unreliability, and unexpected revelations, was structured better or at least more smoothly in TT. There were points in QoA where the "aha! actually, the whole time..." revelations started to feel repetitive to me, and certainly points where I would have preferred to see more onstage development, or at least more hints coming earlier, and less shocking twists.

That said, the escalation of intrigue, the deeper characterization, Eugenides's recovery, the glimpses of young(er) Irene along with her development and fantastic maneuvering, and basically everything Helen chooses to be, made it not only worth the price of admission, but feel like the richer and more substantial work of the two. It's not as "clean" as TT, much as ROTJ is not as clean as ANH, but it does realize many of its ambitions in a more powerful way.

#isabel talks #text: the queen of attolia #text: the queen's thief #text: star wars #text: a new hope #text: return of the jedi #isabel recommends #ch: attolia irene #ch: eugenides #ch: eddis helen #artist: megan whalen turner #i was thinking about how very very little in all of sw gives me the intensity of feeling of anakin's pyre in rotj #and i don't think anything in anh does even though i love anh #and qoa was like that! the plotting was not as perfect as tt but. damn. #long post #sff recs #sff chatter

[readsofawe]

#readsofawe #books #jewish #jewish books #judaism #rosh hashanah #yom kippur #days of awe #readathon #amreading #sff #sff books #sff recs

[aquila1nz]

Every Speculative Fiction Book I Read This Year Featuring Queer Women, the 2023 Edition

Ask me if you want to know which ones I liked the most!

#book recs #sff #queer #lesbian books #wlw #sapphic books #2022 wrap-up #my posts

[earthsoulbarbie]

I got my ex (cishet man) to read gtn and one of his comments was that gideon as a character felt "a bit too much like fan service for women who like women", and i keep remembering it because its SO FUNNY as a "criticism". Like what about it??? Was it disorienting to read the female gaze for once in your life? Let us be served, haven't we suffered enough

#gideon nav #the locked tomb #gideon the ninth #i think my response at the time was 'so?' lol #this book rec was part of my effort to make him read SFF by women #i also had him read frankenstein and kindred #which to his credit he did appreciate #this comment about gideon though.

[hedgehog-moss]

do you ever read scifi or fantasy in french? i am trying to read more sff that was originally published not in english but it's not easy to find 💀

I do! It’s not my favourite genre but one of my friends loves it so I read a bunch of SFF books every year ahead of her birthday to try and find a gift for her. I’m glad I do this because it’s allowed me to discover N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy which was amazing, and I don’t know if I would have picked it up otherwise!

Here are some French-language authors I’ve read or plan to read (unfortunately English translations are few and far between :( I bolded the names for which I found English translations—if you read in another language you can check out the non-bolded authors, there are often translations available in other languages long before English ones)

When it comes to classics you've got Pierre Boulle (Planet of the Apes of course; also Garden on the Moon, which is (deservedly imo) less known), Jacques Spitz (La Guerre des mouches—it was translated but not into English), René Barjavel (The Ice People, Ravage, Future Times Three—I read them a long time ago but I remember them as very sexist even by French classic standards), Bernard Lenteric (La nuit des enfants rois), Alain Damasio (La Horde du Contrevent—maybe too recent to be a classic but it’s everywhere. I was surprised to find no English translation!), Bernard Werber (I feel like he rehashes the same 3 ideas again and again but some of his earlier stuff was fun), Alexandre Arnoux (Le règne du bonheur), Jules Verne of course, Stefan Wul (Oms en série which was adapted into the film La Planète sauvage—Fantastic Planet in English. I like the film better!) And some I haven’t read: Georges-Jean Arnaud, Serge Brussolo (I liked his Peggy Sue series when I was in middle school but it spooked me so much I haven’t dared to pick up any of his SFF for adults, like Les semeurs d’abîmes), Élisabeth Vonarburg.

Newer authors: Estelle Faye (L’arpenteuse de rêves, Un éclat de givre—I tend to like her worldbuilding more than her plots); Sandrine Collette (The Forests—if you count speculative fiction as SFF) (I didn’t like it at all personally but others might), Jean-Philippe Jaworski (I really liked Janua Vera; didn't like Gagner la guerre but it was mainly because I have a low tolerance for rape scenes in fantasy books) (he’s about to be translated into English according to his editor), Stéphane Beauverger (Le déchronologue)

More authors I haven't yet read: Pierre Pevel (The Cardinal's Blades—I've been told it's "17th century Paris with dragons"), Romain Lucazeau (Latium), Laurent Genefort (Lum’en), Christian Charrière (La forêt d’Iscambe), Roland Wagner (La saison de la sorcière), Aurélie Wellenstein (Mers Mortes—I love the synopsis for this one), Magali Villeneuve (La dernière Terre, trilogy)

And non-French, non-anglo SFF authors: Maryam Petrosyan (my review of the Gray House last year was that I understood maybe 1/3 of it but I liked it anyway!), Hao Jingfang (haven’t read her yet), Arkady & Boris Strugatsky (idem), Jaroslav Melnik (I’ve read Espace lointain (originally Далекий простір) but didn’t like it much), Andreas Eschbach (The Carpet Makers), Walter Moers (I read The City of Dreaming Books back when I was still learning German and found it very charming), Liu Cixin (I loved The Three-Body Problem but The Dark Forest was so sexist it made me not want to pick up the third volume), Lola Robles (El informe Monteverde, translated as Memoirs of an Interstellar Linguist), Elaine Vilar Madruga (Fragmentos de la Tierra Rota), Tatiana Tolstaya (The Slynx), Karin Tidbeck (Amatka), Emmi Itäranta (Memory of Water, The Moonday Letters), Angélica Gorodischer (I’ve read Kalpa Imperial and found it only so-so but it always takes me a while to warm up to characters or a setting so I struggle with short story collections. I’ll still give Trafalgar a try) Also my favourite fantasy book as a kid was Michael Ende’s Neverending Story, I was obsessed with it. I re-read it in the original German a few years ago and it was still great.

#ask #book recs #i feel like sff has long had a poor reputation in france. like it's seen as 'not real literature' #not necessarily by readers but by literary awards and mainstream outlets that promote books #the genre doesn't get a lot of attention from those so it's hard for authors to become well-known #it's often seen as a genre for kids and teenagers—i know i had an easier time finding sff books by french authors when i was younger #scifi for primary school kids like christian lamblin's le survivant or philippe ebly's space operas in bibliothèque verte #or sff for middle school kids: the peggy sue series; linus hoppe by a-l bondoux; more recently the nuées series by nathalie bernard #but yeah in the adult sff aisle of nonspecialised bookshops it's mostly anglo authors + always the same handful of french ones

[lilareviewsbooks]

Queer Normal-World in SFF Books

Here are five books where being queer is the norm, aka there is no homophobia or transphobia at all! Not all these books are fluffy though -- most of them have heavy conflicts and a bunch of shit going down, but at least no one has a problem with anyone being gay!

These are my favorite kind of books and I have so, so many recommendations, so let me know if you ever want more of these :) And I can also absolutely do only fluffy queer books, too!

The Genesis of Misery, by Neon Yang

Mx. Yang's books are perfect for this type of prompt. The Genesis of Misery is their most recent, and the premise is absolutely killer. It follows Misery Nomaki (she/they), who is haunted by an apparition of an angel. While she is convinced she is mentally ill like her mother, and that her visions are a symptom, people around her seem more and more certain that she is actually some sort of messiah. 

I have my issues with The Genesis of Misery, but it’s a very creative sci-fi that’s worth the read. It includes mecha, interesting depictions of religion, which permeates the entire story, and, of course, excellent queer rep. We have characters who use neo-pronouns, a polyamory situationship and most characters are queer. Not to mention, it’s written by a queer and non-binary author, which is always a plus. It’s part of an on-going series, though, so be prepared to wait a little while for the sequel! 

Plus, The Locked Tomb fans might be interested to know that there’s a very cavalier-necromancer dynamic in this, and that Rebecca Roanhorse (who wrote Black Sun) described it as Joan of Arc meets Gideon The Ninth. 

Yep. You wanna read it, don’t you?

(Also, if for some reason you’re like: “gee, I really wish there was a black-and-white silent movie with a killer score that touched on these same themes”, then you should probably watch The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928). It’s not explicitly gay, but it is queer in my heart. And it rocks.)

The Locked Tomb Series, starting with Gideon The Ninth, by Tasmyn Muir

Since I mentioned it, I guess I might as well include The Locked Tomb in here! This is a Tumblr favorite, and with good reason, because The Locked Tomb fucking rocks. It’s hard to pitch it to someone without ruining the whole point of the series, but the first book follows a necromancer, Harrowhark and her sworn swords-woman, her cavalier, the butch-as-hell Gideon, as they’re summoned to the First House to compete to become Lyctors, the companions of God. 

Yeah, I know that’s a lot, and, to be honest, it’s probably not gonna make much sense to you at many points throughout the story, but that’s the point of The Locked Tomb - everything is confusing, and it’s about sapphics in space! 

The thing about this series is they’re the most unique books you’ll ever read. Every volume has a different approach to telling its story. There’s so many mysteries and it’s almost impossible to understand all the intricacies without sitting down and doing some work. The magic system is also the wonkiest, coolest thing - it involves eating people, sometimes, y’know. And, I promise, you’ll love every single second of it. Especially because there’s absolutely no homophobia or transphobia in any of it, and almost every character is queer as fuck - especially after the second book, when gender starts getting a little funky!

Winter’s Orbit, by Everina Maxwell

I love this book so much, and so know that it comes highly, highly recommended! I have a whole five star review on it you can check out here. (Do check trigger warnings, though! You should always, but especially for this one. I didn’t and they really got me!). 

Winter’s Orbit features my absolutely favorite trope - queer arranged marriage. (Nothing better - those three words and you know it’s gonna be a queer normal world, have some politics and probably be really fucking sweet.) This one is probably one of only ones out of this list where the romance is very predominant and serves as an important B plot. It’s also a standalone, but has a companion book in the same universe, called Ocean’s Echo, which rocks, too!

This one follows Jainan, a recent widower who is rushed into an arranged marriage with Prince Kiem in order to keep the alliance between their homelands intact. Together, they must navigate court intrigue I’m trying my best not to spoil and investigate Jainan’s ex-husband’s death, which might not have been an accident, after all...

In this sci-fi fantasy world, being queer is completely normal, and their system when it comes to gender is absolutely fascinating. People will wear little gender signifiers, like a wodden token for female, for instance, so that others know how to refer to them. It’s super cool to see these kind of things incorporated into the world-building, and it’s something you really only get when queer authors are behind the helm.

(Also, this was originally written online, and it was actually picked up and traditionally published! Which is so cool! Queer fics becoming traditionally published books is so rare, it’s so nice to see it actually happen!)

The Teixcalaan Series, starting with A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine

This is another one of my favorites! I read it last year and it blew me away - so much so that I’ve been itching to re-read it ever since I finished the second book.

The Teixcalaan Series is a political sci-fi duology focusing on the themes of language, empire and cultural domination through imperialism. It’s amazing, and I wrote about it in a full-length review, here, if you wanna take a look! 

It follows Mahit Dzamare, from the tiny Lsel Station, who becomes the ambassador to the huge Teixcalaan Empire, whose culture she’s been in love with for ages. The problem? Something happened to the Lsel ambassador, and the Empire’s control over the Station has been growing ever bigger. To make matters worse, Mahit’s imago machine - the cerebral implant full of her predecessors memories and experiences - doesn’t seem to be working properly, leaving her with a ghost of her predecessor inside of her head...

With all the problems the Teixcalaan Empire has, it’s not homophobic or transphobic, which is a plus for us gays who want to read in peace. Mahit has a charged relationship with her cultural liason, Three Seagrass (yes, that’s her name; yes, there’s an in-world explanation; no, I won’t tell you what it is, you’ll have to read it and find out), not to mention all the hijinks she finds out her predecessor was up to. And none of it needs to be justified or explained at all - people are just gay, and that’s fine!

On A Sunbeam, by Tillie Walden

This graphic novel has a stunning art style, and, listen closely sapphics, absolutely no men at all. Yep. Literally there’s only women and non-binary people in this comic! 

And guess what? It’s available to read for free, here. Thank you, Ms. Walden!

Here, romance is also an important plot point. On A Sunbeam follows Mia, who starts working for a crew of repair-people who rebuild broken down structures. In another timeline, we flashback to her experiences at her boarding school, and to her relationship with a new student.

What’s most unique about On A Sunbeam - apart from the fact that there are no men at all - is it’s unique version of outer space. It’s almost historical, with huge sprawling marble structures decaying, surronded by trees. The ships are shaped like huge fish. You can feel the whimsy in your bones from the colors and the art style that Ms. Walden uses, here.

This standalone is definitely worth a read. And if you like it, you should definitely check out the rest of Ms. Walden’s work - it’s all as beautiful as this is, if not more. Her The End of Summer was one of my favorite reads, last year.

That’s all I’ve got, guys, but lemme know if you want more of these - I have so many, I can definitely recommend you more! Drop me an ask if you have specifications, too - I’m always happy to do some digging :)

#booklr #book recommendations #book recs #queer books #sapphic books #lgbtq books #book review #queer sff #sff books #the locked tomb #the genesis of misery #neon yang #gideon the ninth #winters orbit #a memory called empire #teixcalaan #on a sunbeam #tillie walden

[chadsuke]

post the sites!!

I’ve got quite a few!

gaylactic spectrum awards - sff + horror lgbt awards, ran from 1999-2018. I’ve linked the archived website bc their current website is broken (at least on mobile, where I’m accessing it).

otherwise award - formerly known as the tiptree award, speculative fiction that explores/expands upon gender. running 1991 to present day.

lambda sffh award - while I’m sure a million of you have heard of the lambda awards, there’s a specific section for sff + horror. 1989 to present day.

queer horror - while the site was updated in 2020, in practice most of the books are on the older end of the spectrum. there’s a section for queer horror books, queer vampire books, queer werewolf books, and queer ghost books.

lesbian science fiction - literally exactly what it says. science fiction books written about wlw or by wlw, with the occasional “badass straight woman” thrown in. has almost 500 books, still updating in present day.

queer scifi - while the site in general is worth checking out for some great reads, I want to draw special attention to the “out of the past” blog post series, which focuses on lgbt sff by decade. for some reason the first post in the series doesn’t have the tag, you can find it here.

Finally, here’s an article on feminist lesbian scifi from the 1970s.

please use this opportunity to read some older lgbt books!!! there is nothing more satisfying than reading a book older than you and deeply clicking with it/the characters. I’m throwing myself deep into this so I will be happily posting recs as I find/finish them.

#asks #lgbt books #queer books #book recs #q slur #please appreciate my many links thank you… #obviously there’s much more than sff stuff but that’s. what I was looking for. #so.

[chamerionwrites]

“I like reading [X] because [Y]” ≠ “I like reading every single version of [XY] without any other preferences, standards, or selectivity.” What even.

#eg: i like reading spyfic because it often deals with issues of identity #i also think that if you can’t or won’t write geopolitics astutely then your spy fiction will inevitably be kinda mediocre at best #in a similar way that SFF with weaksauce worldbuilding is mediocre at best. the narrative stakes have no context or grounding #this doesn’t mean i’m *not* here for the identity stuff. it means i am *also* here for the well-executed political intrigue! #anyway vagueblogging ig but like. you can be after multiple things in a reading experience. this is why reading recs are a personal thing #reading tag #spies #my posts

[a-kind-of-merry-war]

I finished Our Hideous Progeny today (pictured here with one of my wonky gingerbread dinosaurs, I thought it was fitting) by C. E. McGill (@c-e-mcgill) and my review is: aaaaaaa

Think a Frankenstein sequel but with dinosaurs and that's the most important thing you need to know. There's also a TRULY terrible husband (dump your loser husband and run away with his sister, Mary!! Do it!!) and loads of really juicy thoughts on the role society forces you to play when you're not one of the people on top.

I loved this, it was dark but also had such a strong sense of love and purpose and passion. Would highly recommend for fans of gothic sci-fi/fantasy, marvellous commentary on Victorian society that's still (somehow) relevant today, and sprinklings (well, more than sprinklings) of queerness.

Also: I spent the WHOLE of the end on the edge of my seat being TERRIBLY NERVOUS. I was very concerned there would be tears.

Go read it!!

#our hideous progeny #ce mcgill #books #book recs #bookblr #SFF books

[mspencerdraws]

I've been thinking a lot lately... I frequently have the honor of working with fantastic indie publishers who are putting out great books, especially from diverse and often historically underrepresented perspectives. In a world increasingly politically hostile towards trans/queer folks, and in an industry increasingly permeated by AI garbage, working w/ these excellent people over the last few years has helped me stay sane, & feeling like the work I'm doing matters. So here we go, Some Really Cool People making some Really Cool Things (that I am vaguely or specifically involved in):

Neon Hemlock is funding their 2024 Novellas! They're super close to funding, and have plenty of time left to possibly discover some stretch goals?👀

Neon Hemlock consistently puts out amazing queer sf/f/h and the lineup this year looks incredible.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/davering/neon-hemlocks-2024-novella-series

Atthis Arts' Be the Sea is out now! Climate-conscious Science Fantasy. Queerly Diverse/Diversely Queer. Sea Creatures & Mysterious Dreams.

Also! Author Clara Ward will be donating 100% of their royalties to conservation efforts for our global ocean.

New Edge Sword & Sorcery is funding their 2024 issues of New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine! I got to illustrate a trans revenge story last time. 👀 so I'm very excited to see what the next issues have in store! https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/brackenbooks/new-edge-sword-sorcery-2024?ref=bk-social-project

And finally, If a "contemporary romantic drama about sad archaeologists" sounds up your alley, check out A.M. Weald's novel "Even if We're Broken" (out in April this year)!

#my stuff #book recs #crowdfunding boost #kickstarter promo #support small press #indie publishing #indie books #queer sff

[lastseenleaving]

— This is How You Lose the Time War - Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

#this is how you lose the time war #max gladstone #amal el mohtar #sff fiction #sff reads #sff recs #science fiction #speculative fiction #lit edit

[isabelpsaroslunnen]

I watched the first Netflix ATLA episode!

[spoilers below the cut]

The dialogue is frequently clunky (especially poor Aang's), some of the costuming (especially in the Southern Water Tribe) is middling cosplay level of convincing, and I would have preferred to keep more of the humor of the original (this is particularly felt with Iroh).

Still, I liked it more than not, particularly Aang, Katara, and Zuko, who are all really compelling (Sokka's arc is flattened in a way that does not quite work IMO and his actor doesn't do as much with it). I love Zuko's Avatar murder wall, some of the bending looked really cool, and I'm curious how the other episodes will play out now that we've gotten through so much of the expository heavy lifting (hopefully).

The choice to show the Air Nomad genocide playing out is neither a hit or a miss for me. The original handles it with a fairly light touch and a lot is accomplished through implication and through Aang's feelings about it. In some ways, I think it's possible that its centrality to Aang's arc and motivations will benefit from the impact being front and center from the first episode (the airbending children being backed into a corner with the clear indication that they all got burned alive after Gyatso died certainly makes for a different experience of it). In other ways, it feels a bit condescending and Sozin is so muahahaha that it doesn't hit as hard as it could have done. It functions as intended but in a somewhat unwieldy way, I guess. Gyatso is fantastic, though.

I did appreciate that Katara's flashback to Kya's death was such a brief fragment—it's not clear from this show alone what she's alluding to or what happened, but we get a sense of what it means for Katara, which I did like.

Reading over what I've said, it sounds pretty meh, but I actually did have a good time watching it and the cast (and presumably direction) carried it off fairly well. So I'll definitely keep watching.

#text: avatar the last airbender 2024 #ch: aang #ch: katara #ch: zuko #ch: gyatso #sff recs #with some reservations but still

[ilikereadingactually]

The Raven Tower

The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie

yet again, WOW. i will never get tired of being swallowed in the delights of Leckie books. i read this one in just over a day, and even though i have the paperback, i also borrowed the ebook from the library so i could keep reading in the waiting room at the dentist and in the bathroom at work.

so many catnips for me in this book! tender first person direct narration, which always makes me want to giggle and kick my legs in the air. folklore, and language fuckery! a reveal i did see coming and was pleased to be right about, and then another one that i didn't see coming and was pleased to be surprised! a trans main character whose gender was important to him, but not central to the plot! Leckie also has this wonderful talent for creating near-omniscient characters whose perspectives and personalities feel fully realized, even though their experiences are so alien to the perspective of any single reader, and seeing that at play in a fantasy setting with gods and god magic was so fascinating!

also i guess this review is just going to be me listing things because i can't get over the beautiful parallels of this book--the way Eolo parallels the Strength and Patience of the Hill, in particular. how they each are inconvenienced by the shapes their bodies take, and yet are reluctant to leave or alter them, because those bodies are home. how they think quietly before acting, exploring and observing in secret, gathering what intelligence they can, and how their truths are met with disbelief and violence. how they each use and bend language to find the best outcome among bad options. the ways in which they both seek, first, to help people who need help. i adore them both so much, and their juxtaposed narratives delight me.

the tl;dr is that this book was deeply enjoyable, and i'm so eager to go back to Lake of Souls and read the stories set in this universe!!

the deets

how i read it: as i said above, a paperback copy i picked up a while ago that's been patiently waiting for me, and also an ebook from the library because i needed constant access lol

try this if you: dig stories about small and large gods, enjoy a little bit of mystery in your fantasy, delight in main characters who think things through, or (of course) have enjoyed other Leckie books.

a bit i really liked: there were so many bits i liked, but this one really encapsulates the cool things this book is doing with perspective and language

Any unusual animal (an all-white reindeer, a particularly large eagle, a by then rarely spotted mammoth) or particularly striking natural feature might be the sign of a god's presence. Once a priest had noticed or heard tell of such a thing, they would confront the animal or object, if possible, and speak a series of predetermined words paired with specific actions, and make a series of set offerings. They would repeat this over a series of years, or even generations, passing the details of the procedure down to their successor, until eventually the god responded, or the priest's regular travels stopped bringing them into the vicinity of the possible divine presence. This priest knew to be patient. She knew from experience, hers and her predecessors', that it could take a very long time to teach language to a god.

#books and reading #booklr #bookblr #queer fantasy #queer sff #book recs #book reviews #the raven tower #ann leckie

[literaryelise]

Romantic subplots in fantasy books with astronomical levels of tension✨

#fantasy books #sff books #book recs #books #emery robin #shakespeare #the stars undying #queer books #julius caesar #shakespeare retelling #the wolf and the woodsman #ava reid #historical fantasy #romance subplot #enemies to lovers #reluctant allies #the jasad heir #egyptian inspired #egypt #arab #diverse books #book recommendations #sapphic books #lesbian #sapphic #sara hashem