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Best books read 2021

Tuyo - excellent and criminally underrated book. Set in a fantasy world divided into perpetual Winter and Summer countries, this is an amazing and gradual enemies to friends story between a prince and a general of two warring sides. The characters are adults prone to cool-headed decisions, there are fight scenes, but overall the story is very cultured and careful, builds the alliances well and comforting, with amazing magical twists and power of will themes. Also warrior cultures that are so damn polite. Completely platonic male friendships with great comfort scenes, that I reread in cold winter nights to warm up. The prose is beautiful. Third book comes out in 2022. The author's blog gives insight into her process and it's so sweet.

Transformation - close contender to first place, a book that along with Red Winter, Tuyo and Uprooted won the best books of all time for me. Enslaved magical warrior helps his own ruthless captor to change his ways and face a demonic threat. The hate is build so carefully you think you couldn't forgive that cruel loathsome prince... until you can and that friendship is well-earned and noble and continues in the next books.

Uprooted - a charming fairytale retelling inspired by slavic myths I grew up with, where a menacing living forest battles a mysterious cold mage and his reluctant but cheerful apprentice. It's magical, a delight to read style, fluffy enemies to lovers plus great female friendship stand alone with great fight scenes and magic with stakes.

Hammer and Blade - action high fantasy about two rag tag fighters adventures and tomb riders, too good for their own good. Nuanced, great male friendship, magic that wrecks havoc.

Bruiser - you want a book with 4 main characters written in first person done in a mind-blowing way? Read this. Family drama, slight romance, bromance, hurt/comfort to the max and excellent themes woven in. Urban fantasy.

His majesty's dragon - dragons bonding with their riders in a dragon like military facility. It's more of a slice of life than action, very heartwarming, very relationship and character centric.

#books #reading

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They’re not quite in the same vein as Uprooted, but I adored the Sevenwater series by Juliet Marillier. They are more fae but still very tied to the woods and old magic. And each book follows a different female member of the family. All of Marillier’s books are so atmospheric and lovely.

You know there’s this lovely subgenre of feminist fantasy novels and I think I’ve only managed to find it twice, maybe thrice. They’re probably something you have to find, you know, because they end. There isn’t any make series out of them because that defeats the purpose, but fantasy novels tend to lend themselves to popularity in sets. 

Anyway, these sorts of stories heavily focus on this girl who lives on the very border of the woods, which spread or work acts of malice via their own desperation and sorrow. Obviously, the girl has to save the people being threatened by this encroaching wood, but she ends up saving the woods instead. In the end, she saves the day with a rambling sort of peace and compassion and humanity. And then, she stays. Either in the woods or on the border, living in this sense of rambling peace. It’s a sort of witches story, different from our wizard and knight and warlock and prince/cess stories and dragon stories and fae and rogue stories (even though in both cases the story involves the other familiar fantasy figures. These sorts of stories are all wonderful, in their own way, and they have all their opportunities for feminism, but I don’t know in a way a witches story are inherently feminist, because witches are inherently womanly (at least in an extremely eurocentric sense that seems to predominate fantasy. if the predominant shape of fantasy ever changes to something more diverse, obviously this will be different. and hopefully, then, all our stories will be feminist in a way that need not be recognized), even when the patriarchy tries to make monsters of them. They’re stunningly independent and rambling and so wholly a part of nature that their defiant femininity seems to pour out of them. 

The two that I’ve found so far are Hahn’s A Creature of Moonlight and Novik’s Uprooted. (There’s also Black’s The Darkest Part of the Forest, which is related, but does not belong. There’s the same sort of wood, but it’s a knight’s story and a fae story, and so the protagonist, the themes, and the resolution is all very different, though the themes and resolution around the woods is very similar.)

Now the thing about Uprooted, though, is that it has a companion novel, which is a very different kind of story, but it mirrors it. And if you read the one you simply must read the other. Novik’s other masterpiece is Spinning Silver. It’s less a witch’s story and more of a story of angry girls getting their due via their own enraged grasping. It’s beautiful and I almost love it more than Uprooted, but it’s simply not the witch’s subgenre I now have to find everything of.

The two novels that absolutely belong also involve a deep homoerotic friendship with a woman who falls in with the wood and is deeply changed by it and a simply impossible man who can’t seem to figure out if he’s a love interest or not. These two loves sort of pull the protagonist in two different direction, usually away from her peace at the end, but it’s the pulling of different wants, and the love is still very deep and nuanced. I don’t think this is an essential part of the genre, but it’s another pull to these two novels. 

All this to say, if anyone else has found any of these, do me a favor and add ‘em.

#uprooted #reading #feminist #sevenwaters #juliet marillier #naomi novik

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Agnieszka learning to summon the illusion of a rose.

I'm too in love with Uprooted by @naominovik

Somebody send help...

#uprooted

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Orion: *saves El's life multiple times*

El: *answers with aggression and rudeness and doesn't even say thank you*

Orion:

#a deadly education

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#a deadly education

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So excited to reveal the papercraft artwork featured on the Illumicrate September 2020 mug! This was inspired by #Uprooted by Naomi Novik and features a scene with Sarkan, Agnieszka and the Wood Queen in the heart of the Wood. 🍂 The orange entry in the series of rainbow mugs! (have y'all noticed that yet?) Funny enough, this scene IS described as orange in the book, which was so coincidentally perfect? 🍁🍂 We did a last minute color change to the artwork after the papercraft was finish to push back the green a bit, which is why the close ups look a bit different. I posted both versions here, but I really love how fully autumnal the mug turned out with the alternate scheme! 🍂🍁🍂 This was BY FAR my favorite use of vellum in a papercraft. It gave such a great fade out so that it really looked like our grumpies-to-lovers pair are standing in water! 🍂🍁🍂🍁

#uprooted

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A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik review: 

My rating: 4 stars

Review addition based on controversy:

I've seen many reviews stating that this work has severe racist connotations. I wholeheartedly support people having their own opinions and speaking up about what they believe. And if you were offended by this book your emotions and voice are 100% valid. That being said, I did not find this book racist personally and feel that many have missed the point of the book completely.

Many reviews are upset in the off-handed way diversity is described in the book by El (the main character). Students of other races/from other countries are often described as "InsertXLanguage speakers," which I don't find offensive in and of it self. I think mostly it reflects El's analytical and unsocialized nature. Throughout the book she categorizes people quickly in her head based on usefulness, intelligence, and languages they speak because in the school's extreme survival environment she seems to have little use for people except as assets. This is a reflection of El as a character, not Novik herself. And El is a flawed character (as many are!). She has been raised in the middle of nowhere Wales in a YURT. She is prickly and unsociable, but she is also only 16 and has been in survival mode since birth. El has little experience with having friends or talking to people, so why would she have an in depth knowledge of all the countries of the world and how they would want their culture to be represented?

And the school IS diverse! It's not even in Britain like I have seen a few reviews state - it's in The Void. With all the diversity of the school, no outside prejudices or racism is mentioned or has any part of the story. There are no culture clashes or attributing so and so's behavior to being X race. Most of the students that do bad things and are ostracized are from the New York enclave and it's not because of where they are from or their cultural background it's because of the choices they make.

There are two passages that have sparked the most controversy and I agree the dreadlocks commentary is unnecessary/doesn't add anything to the story and can be seen as offensive since dreadlocks to have high association with the Black community. This probably should have been edited out or caught in the editing process, but sadly it wasn't and I do think Novik should have it removed in future editions and release an apology. (edit: she did)

The second controversial section is as follows:

“Predictably, an Arabic worksheet appeared on my desk the instant I sat down that morning. There wasn’t a single word of English on it; the school didn’t even give me a dictionary. And judging by the cheery cartoonish illustrations next to the lines—most notably a man in a car about to mow down a couple of hapless pedestrians—I had the strong suspicion that it was modern Arabic, too. I should’ve got a book on Classical Arabic out of the library before going to class.”

I understand people have been taking this as a backhanded comment about all Arabic people being terrorists. I agree the sentence could have been worded better, but I do not think this passage has the malicious intent that many think it does. Firstly, El assumes it's modern Arabic because there is a car in the illustration. Secondly, it's a violent scene because EVERYTHING the school gives El is violent/destructive because that is her propensity (as is stated many times). She has received this worksheet because she found an Arabic book by chance and the school is forcing her to learn Arabic as a new language. The Arabic book in question El ADORES and treats like a pet. It's an extremely powerful spellbook, which if you did want to read between the lines could mean that Novik finds that culture to be powerful, intelligent, and worthy of praise. All this being stated, I do still think the passage could have been written differently to not cause any confusion.

The thing that saddens me the most about all this controversy is that I feel many people are missing the truly brilliant subtext of the evils of social inequality and how the wealthy hoard life-giving resources at the expense of the poor. This book isn't about race at all! IT'S ABOUT CLASSISM!!! Bong Joon-Ho would love it! What a perfect message as many countries are suffering from the extremes of capitalism! How perfectly does it reflect my anguish as an American in 2020, fearing for my life not because of sickness itself but because knowing that if I get corona I will be in crippling debt for the rest of my life. El understands the system isn't made for her and is furious about it. And if anything the diversity of the school and the world that Novik has created demonstrates that this is a worldwide problem! The rich are cozy in their power and don't care if the masses die! The thing I want to know is how do we fix it?? And I am eagerly looking forward to the other books in this series to see what Novik has to say about it.

Again, I understand that everyone is entitled to their own opinion but I invite you to read this book though the lens of social structure instead of race and see where you come out! I know in the real world those two issues often go hand-in-hand, but I still think the message in this book has value even if Novik didn't tackle both topics at once.

------------------- Original Review Below -------------------------

What an interesting world! Definitely the first magical world that I can’t think of that I don’t want to live in. Being a magic user in this setting sounds awful to be honest. I did enjoy this book a lot and finished it fairly quickly but I will say it wasn’t as good as Uprooted or Spinning Silver. I did enjoy it more than Temeraire (and exceedingly more than the last books of the Temeraire series). There was certainly a subtext of classism and the unfairness of the wealthy not caring about the plebs, which is very relevant to the current state of the US and other parts of the world.

My main complaint was the extensive portions of info dump that continued through most of the book that broke up the action and momentum of the story. I do appreciate that they gave background and depth to the world and main character but sometimes it was just too much. The ending of the book picked up momentum since there wasn’t as much info dumping but hopefully there won’t be so much in the next book.

As a side note, the dust jacket of the book is pretty but sadly gets fingerprints very easily so I took it off while reading. However the book itself left black coloring on my fingers for days so I’m not sure which is worse.

#a deadly education #naomi novik #book #book review #mine #fantasy #magic #social commentary

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I’ve done some Twitter threads on this topic, so thought it might be nice to do a Tumblr post too. One of my pet peeves is when people act like adult fantasy (or sci-fi for that matter) is just a straight white dude thing and that diversity only exists in young adult fantasy. That’s such a disservice to all the authors of marginalized identities currently writing adult fantasy!

Authors and books below the cut, including links to Goodreads. I’m not providing trigger warnings (if I make the post too long Tumblr starts freaking out about it), but you can use the search function on Goodreads reviews to find more specifics. 

Keep reading

#reading #books

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#reading #books

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someone recommend me some good fantasy books that aren’t centred on a war, please, my crops are dying

#reading #fantasy #books

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This was so hard! I’ve been tracking and reading LGBTQA+ books for 10 years and picking 3 for each was tough! There are so many more I love so if you have specific ones you are looking for, or want more in these sub-genres you can totally ask me for recs. I’ll do my best.

fanart credit: @ace-artemis-fanartist

Below undercut is the Goodreads links to these books:

Keep reading

#books #books recs #reading #carry on

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books read in 2019: naomi novik

“There was a song in this forest, too, but it was a savage song, whispering of madness and tearing and rage.”

#books #uprooted

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Top Five Ships- Part 3??

I realized I haven’t done one of these in awhile, so I thought I’d partake, since I like to put one of these lists together every so often. Ships!

1) Drarry

I want to talk about how I thought this was disgusting when I first found out it existed, and then it slowly crawled from the bottom all the way to number one on this list. I don’t know how or why but I think this one is here to stay for good. 

2) Snowbaz

This is a new one since I recently read Carry On by Rainbow Rowell, but I adore it!

3) Elu

Again, kind of recent, but for those of you who haven’t watched Skam France yet, you MUST watch it. I actually started watching it (a year after I saw OG Skam) to help me learn French, and I was pleasantly surprised to how quickly I got pulled in and really connected with the characters. 

4) Kanej

For all of those Six of Crows people, oh my god. I am finally with you. I know I’m late to the game (I usually am) but I LOVED LOVED both Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom. I fell in love with the characters, world, and plot almost instantly. Everything about it whispered me and pulled me into its secrets until I was over my head in love for this story. And no one stole my hear quite like Kaz Brekker and Inej Ghafa. 

5) Blue/Gansey

Okay, I’m not sure of the ship name for these two from The Raven Cycle (Maggie Stiefvater) but no spoilers! I’m at the beginning of reading Dream Thieves currently, so no hints to what happen with these two. All I have to say as of now is that they’re driving me crazy, but I’m rooting for them. 

Wow! Okay, since I love doing these so much, I thought I’d tag some people who might want to do this! 

@slytherinhoebeforecoffee @oronka @rose-grangerweasleyisbae @professordrarry @a-dork-for-troye

If you want to find the first two parts, look in my tags for “top five ships.”

#ships #harry potter #carry on #books #reading

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“Seven lang years I served for thee, The glassy hill I clamb for thee,The bluidy shirt I wrang for thee; And wilt thou no wauken and turn to me?”

Fairy Tale Aesthetics || The Green Fairy Book ||Scottish Fairy Tales

#fairy tales #aesthetic #scotland

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I was bored out of my mind so I went on goodreads to find myself a book to read. Scrolling through some lists, I found myself here on - The Enemies to Lovers Trope list. I guess I really have a type huh

#books #reading

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Favourite books: Uprooted by Naomi Novik

There was a song in this forest, too, but it was a savage song, whispering of madness and tearing and rage. ― Naomi Novik, Uprooted

#uprooted

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#captive prince #reading #books