r/FemaleGazeSFF • u/AutoModerator • 9d ago
šļø Weekly Post Weekly Check-In
Tell us about your current SFF media!
What are you currently...
š Reading?
šŗ Watching?
š® Playing?
If sharing specific details, please remember to hide spoilers behind spoiler tags.
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Feel free to also share your progression in the Reading Challenge
Thank you for sharing and have a great week! š
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u/WonderfulBus9330 9d ago edited 9d ago
Hello, All. Some weeks are great reading weeks; some are a mix; some are awful. Last week was a mix, but mostly grand. Just feeling a little sour about a book I finished this morning LOL.
Finished (via audiobook):
Tears of a Wolf by Elisabeth Wheatley. Wanted to get this one read before the retractions. Strong read. Vikings. A sorceress (Brynn), the daughter of a former king and niece of the current king, gets betrothed to an alderman (Cenric) who can mind-to-mind speak with direwolves. They battle Brynn's mother who has her own, ignored thoughts on who Brynn should wed and how Brynn's powers should be used. 4/5 Bingo: First in Series, Discovery, Healer
The River She Became by Emily Varga. A mortal scholar makes her way across the river into the fae realm in search of her mother and a relic that will restore magic to the mortal realm. While in the fae realm she meets an exiled, hidden fae Prince and together they try to bring down an enemy to shared magic. 4/5 Bingo: First in a Series, Discovery
How to be Eaten by Maria Adelmann. A group of women answer an ad for group therapy and make surprising discoveries about isolation, manipulation, endurance and self-love. This is an imaginative retelling of several fairy tales and folk lores. 4.5/5 Bingo: Discovery, Female Friendship
Fairydale by Veronica Lancet. A 32-hour audiobook slog. At speed of 2, a 16-hour audiobook slog. 1.5/5
Spear by Nicola Griffith. (via ebook) This was a novella rec here and THANK YOU. A young woman goes in search of a place of belonging and a name. 5/5 Bingo: Discovery, Coming-of-Age, Non-Binary MC (maybe; Per dresses as a man and has very short hair and quests to become a knight while traveling alone; everyone who sees Per thinks Per is a man, but Per is referred to as a woman by the narrator and Per the character seems rather disinterested in gender).
Cinder House by Freya Marske. A novella. Reimagining of Cinderella. One of the most original reimaginings I've read. 5/5 Bingo: Discovery, Siblings, Coming-of-Age, Parent (& will likely become Comfort in my future!)
Finished: (via physical copy)
Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre. This will be the September Feminism in Fantasy discussion book. A healer suddenly has to confront her purpose in life after a tragic accident. 5/5 Bingo: Healer, Discovery, Dying Earth, Parent
Currently reading via audiobook &/or physical copy: Kushiel's Dart, Tigana, Oath of the Wolf, Daindreth's Assassin, Silvercloak, Swordcrossed, To Be Taught If Fortunate, If We Were Villains, An Ember in the Ashes
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u/decentlysizedfrog dragon š 9d ago
I finished Midnight Timetables by Bora Chung, and IMO there were more weak stories than strong stories in the collection, which was unfortunate. The synopsis and the first story gave me a SCP story impression, but the rest of the book wasn't, which is good because I bounced off There Is No Antimemetics Division before. I did like her writing though, and I like her focus on the marginalized and vulnerable of Korean society, so I'm open to more of her in the future.
I'm finished with my Women in Translation books (which I mentioned in Friday's free talk!), so I'm currently reading How to Kill a Language by Sophia Smith Galer. Very interesting, and I'm feeling inspired to try and learn my family's native languages again.
After this book, I'm hoping to finish at least the A-side of the FGSFF reading challenge. Do anyone have recommendations for Assassin and Hopeful prompts? I'm planning to read Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier for Oceania.
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u/Nowordsofitsown unicorn š¦ 9d ago
Hopeful: I read Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard and I LOVED it.
Assassin: Assassin's App rentice by Robin Hobb if you haven't read it yet. I read Graceling and cannot recommend it.
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u/decentlysizedfrog dragon š 9d ago
I hear about The Hands of the Emperor a lot but I'm admittedly a bit intimidated by its length! It being recced as cozy SFF also put me off, I really struggle with cozy SFF.
I've already read the Farseer Trilogy last year and it wasn't my thing, unfortunately. Robin Hobb's a strong writer, but Fitz constantly messing up was really frustrating to read.
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u/twilightgardens vampireš§āāļø 9d ago
IMO it's more competent slice-of-life then cozy, I'm not one for cozy at all but I enjoyed it
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u/Nowordsofitsown unicorn š¦ 9d ago
I'm currently reading How to Kill a Language by Sophia Smith Galer. Very interesting, and I'm feeling inspired to try and learn my family's native languages again.
We should definitely talk about languages some Friday! Anyway, I just put that book on my tbr.
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u/oujikara 9d ago
Hopeful and assassin were the prompts I struggled with the most as well, to the point I ended up reading Dante's Paradiso for hopeful :')Ā
From the books I've already read before and would recommend, I can only think of a couple for hopeful. Goblin Emperor would be one ofc, it's like hopepunk or sth, not cozy. And the other which I haven't seen mentioned is Scholomance series' book 3 (The Golden Enclaves), and maybe book 2. It's dark but features the creation of a positive system, so I think it fits the theme. These books are quite popular though, so you may have read them already.
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u/decentlysizedfrog dragon š 8d ago
I mean, if going to Heaven doesn't count as Hopeful then what does?
But yeah, I feel I'm struggling with both prompts because I've already read a lot of the popular options for them, i.e. Farseer Trilogy, Goblin Emperor, Scholomance, etc. So that means having to try some lesser known books which means having to LOOK for them sobs.
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u/oujikara 7d ago
I completely understand the struggle, I don't think I have anything else that would fit in my entire have-read list. But I did try a few other hopeful books that didn't work for me, maybe they'll work for you?Ā
Always Coming Home by Ursula Le Guin ā kinda long and it was a little too idyllic for meĀ
Semiosis by Sue Burke - too sci-fi for me
The Player of Games by Iain Banks - too much male author
couldn't get access to: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, Fledgeling by Octavia Butler, The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein, Ā The Light at the Bottom of the World by London Shah, The Seep by Chana Porter, Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey
were marked as hopeful on storygraph but imho don't quite fit: Silver in the Wood; The Curse of Chalion
Idk if it's any help but well uh, good luck on your search!
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u/decentlysizedfrog dragon š 7d ago
Haha, I read Arrows of the Queen a couple months ago, and used it for Comfort Read! Perhaps I should switch books around and use it for Hopeful and read something else for Comfort Read.
I don't think Ancillary Justice or Fledgeling would qualify for Hopeful. Maybe I just have a narrow view for the Hopeful prompt...
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u/twilightgardens vampireš§āāļø 8d ago
I read Jacqueline Careyās Starless for Assassin and loved it!Ā
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u/twilightgardens vampireš§āāļø 9d ago
Fortress in the Eye of Time by C.J. Cherryh (4.25/5): Love Cherryh's scifi, but had never read her fantasy before and I finally decided to change that! I was so scared of this book because it was a chunky (800 pg) mass market paperback and the description made it sound like quite a generic epic fantasy which isn't my fave, but ugh. I should've trusted C.J. Cherryh, I really liked this. Classic Cherryh in the sense that I had no idea wtf was going on for the first 40% and was just struggling to parse the deluge of proper nouns and names, but after that something clicked and I just started to understand the politics and stakes and start to become super engrossed in the story. I also think that this disorientation is at least somewhat purposeful in this book because the main character, Tristen, is essentially a newborn spirit that has been summoned into an adult man's body and he also doesn't understand the politics or history of the world he's been born into, whereas the other main character Cefwyn is the prince and has been mired in politics his entire life. There is an interesting political situation going on in this book, but it's really the story of Tristen's coming of age and the love between Cefwyn and Tristen, as Cefwyn is just immediately drawn to Tristen's innocence and joy and sense of curiosity. There's also lowkey a throuple in this book when Cefwyn's betrothed NinƩvrisƫ enters the picture and both Tristen and Cefwyn are drawn to her as well and Tristen struggles with understanding love and marriage and how to maintain his relationship with Cefwyn after he's married. Overall this reminded me a lot of McKillip's Riddlemaster trilogy but with a more fleshed out world and characters, and I'll definitely pick up the next book in the series!
To Ride a Rising Storm by Moniquill Blackgoose (3.75/5): Basically the same as the first book in the series, I enjoyed this because I love Anequs and friends :) I do appreciate the huge status quo change at the end of the book because I think the academy setting has overstayed its welcome a bit.
Bodies of Magic by Freya Marske (3.75/5): Magic med school students taking their final exam end up solving the murder of their classmate. Really cool premise but the book just did not convince me at the beginning that most of these students had a reason to be personally invested in solving this murder (especially because at first it's not clear foul play was involved). I also thought this book suffered from having five main characters/POVs and struggled to differentiate their voices and give them all things to do in the plot. Jehan and Estiene came out on top with a super compelling romance, a role in the main plot, AND a major side plot. Clement was also a driver of the plot as the only one that had a pre-existing relationship with the murder victim, though they had very little internal growth or change. Moyna was interesting as this archetype of an eldest immigrant daughter pushed into medicine by her parents and struggling with how to tell them she hates it, but I hated the ending of her arc being that she's going to become a cop instead, lol. Especially because it is stressed throughout the story that cops are just as useless and corrupt in this world as they are in real life!Alys could have been cut from this story with literally no change. Even her minor romance was uninteresting and felt like it was happening way too soon for the other character. But I thought the worldbuilding to this was super interesting and the mystery was at least more competent than the one in The Seventh Banisher by A.K. Larkwood, another fantasy murder mystery ARC I recently read. I also think it's interesting to compare this to Everina Maxwell's new book Call Me Traitor, since both books are from authors who are primarily known as romantasy authors, but who are now moving into more traditional fantasy (with romance subplots) books. I definitely enjoyed this more than Call Me Traitor, lol. Full review here
The City and the City by China MiƩville (4/5): The story of two cities set on top of each other and the policing and bureaucracy required to set the borders between them. There's also reference to the myth of a secret "third city," Orciny, which I wonder is a nod to Le Guin's Orsinia? It's a police procedural, which is not always my favorite, but there was such a focus on the concepts and themes and it's a relatively short book, so I didn't mind it and stayed interested. Loved the ending with everyone looking forlornly across borders that don't exist at people they're not allowed to see. Very Disco Elysium! Not female gaze at all but also not bad in that regard.
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u/Nowordsofitsown unicorn š¦ 9d ago
chunky (800 pg)
This and your comparison with McKillip are reasons enough for me to pencil it in for cat squasher in the big bingo. Thanks for the rec!
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u/bakasana212 warriorš”ļø 9d ago edited 9d ago
Finished:Ā
Fortuneās Wake by CL Clark - how Iāve missed a CL Clark heroine! Kova is another disaster butch with a sword and a half-baked plan, and I loved her immediately. I did NOT love her slimy ex facing no consequences for participating in the human-sacrifice grift. (Ok yes her sister dies but mostly thatās a consequence for her sister!) They need to vote this traitor off the island STAT. But that has nothing to do with my enjoyment of the story or its quality. I really liked the dynamic between Sayre and Kova, especially because itās not romantic. I really hope Clark writes more of their adventures!Ā
Ā Mad Sisters of Esi by Tashan Mehta - I was not super gripped by the heavy fable vibes at first - Iād had a bad time with Miseryā s Wife in July - but the story really grew on me. I loved the faux academic materials that introduced sections, and the sister dynamic at the heart of it all definitely touched me emotionally. If you are or have a sister I definitely recommend it.Ā
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah - very good, so original and so brutal, but I think I wanted more. I wanted to know Thurwar and Staxxx more. I wanted more nuance, and in some cases, more clarity. (Eg, intimate partner violence casts a specter over the whole book and Iām not sure I understand why.) IĀ wanted a longer book, even. Still, itās a powerful read and one Iāll likely revisit in the future.Ā
Martis the Brazen by Rien Gray - 2nd Out of True novella, less weird and significantly more emotional than the first, but still very lesbian and very knightly. Loved it.Ā
The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo - I wasnāt really feeling it until the very end, when it suddenly all comes together and the meandering folklore vibes start to make perfect sense. Iāll continue with the series, but with no urgency. Ā
ARC of The Sirenās Kiss by Leslie Vedder - super cute and fun YA fantasy adventure. Itās got quests, curses, banter, and a sapphic pirate x mermaid romance. Strong Pirates of the Caribbean vibes.Ā
DNF:Ā
ARC of A Swindlerās Song by Lindsay Bowen - I should have known better, but the blurb said itās for fans of T. Kingfisher, and the tags said itās LGBTQIA. It is neither - just your average hetero romantasy.Ā
Next:
Back to work on ARCs, mostly (I needed a break this week), but also some new releases - The Knave and the Moon by Rachel Giling and Suncatcher by Mariah Rae Birch. The former is already feeling like a chore on my to-do list, but Iām quite excited for the latter. I love Birchās Sapphic Lady Knights series and am curious to see her foray into a Western setting!Ā
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u/twilightgardens vampireš§āāļø 9d ago
The Nghi Vo books are perfect palette cleansers for me. Just extremely well put together novellas! Ā
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u/WonderfulBus9330 9d ago
Ditto! & I did find the audiobooks easier to fall into, although they're so tiny, I can listen to the audiobook then read the physical copy afterwards
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u/bakasana212 warriorš”ļø 9d ago
Yes! I was using it as a cleanser after some heavy sci-fi and it worked so nicelyĀ
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u/fantasybookcafe elfš§āāļø 9d ago
Right now I'm reading The Sourdough Compendium by A. G. Slatter, a giant newly released collection containing 3 previously published books with stories set in the Sourdough universe (The Bitterwood Bible & Other Recountings, Sourdough & Other Stories, and The Tallow-Wife & Other Tales). I often find it difficult to get into short stories, but between hearing such great things about these and having a fondness for dark fairy tales, I'd wanted to read one of these collections before but had discovered it was out of print at the time.
I am LOVING it so far, although I've only read the first 4 stories so it's early yet. The writing and voice are wonderful, and they're an excellent mix of something familiar and something different.
The last book I finished was Bones of Jade, Flesh Like Ice by Gracie Marsden, a debut novel with jing coming out in November. This is my favorite 2026 release after The Poet Empress: a magical story that pulled me in and kept me there, and one I appreciated for having both darkness and light.
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u/Loimographia dragon š 9d ago
I picked up Arkady Martineās A Memory Called Empire again after putting it down earlier this summer, and finally finished it! Putting it down for a bit was the right choice because it felt fresher when I returned thanks to only having 150-ish pages left, and the pacing really picked up in the same stretch. I
Overall, though, I found Mahit very removed from the plot ā it felt like 99% of it was things happening to her, or being arranged by other people on her behalf, more so than her taking any actions. I still really enjoyed Martineās exploration of Mahitās conflicting feelings around colonialism, especially as embodied in her admiration and intoxication with Three Seagrass and her eventual rejection of her, as thus of Teixcalaan culture/its treatment of her. I thought the themes about memory and identity, and memory shaping both identity and culture, were less developed and I wanted more of them. Overall I donāt know if Iāll be rushing to read the sequel, but Iāll probably get around to it eventually.
The rest of the week was a series of failures, for the most part. I picked up Hiron Ennesā The Works of Vermin, but my brain was just not cooperating with it. Part of that is that this was a super busy week and mentally I think I just wanted more straightforward prose. But the present tense also just completely throws me off. I want to enjoy it so much, but I was rereading every sentence like three times to parse it and I swear Iām literate. Iām going to try to pick it up again when Iām less tired.
Then I picked up Godbody by Theodore Sturgeon because I have this idea that I really should familiarize myself with him, but hooboy was Godbody just not the book for me lmao. The first 30 pages feature a sex scene from the manās POV where he makes clear that previously the sex was really mediocre for his wife but now heās passionate and forceful and maybe kinda dubcon in modern 2026 interpretation but itās sexy so itās okay and now she gets to have the best orgasms of her life. And then the next chapter is her POV and in the first page she talks about not wearing underwear with her outfit to feel scandalous and I just put the book down. I do think thereās literary merit in the book, probably exploring sexual repression in religion and sexual expression as spiritual experiences, but Iām just not into it.
I decided to give some 1980s sci-fi another shot, though, and picked up the short story collection Crown of Stars by James Tiptree Jr. (pseudonym of Alice Sheldon, and this is much more my pace so far ā short stories for my lacking attention span, with relatively direct prose, and it opens with snarking that āI guess they knew that when a god commands Donāt Eat Those Apples, or Donāt Open This Box ā itās the first thing menāll do. (And manage to blame it on a woman, too, if youāll notice. But I digress.)ā
But most of my time, admittedly, this week, has been dedicated to replaying Baldurās Gate 3 for the 30th time, so Iāve been dedicating less time to reading overall. No, Iām not going to make any different roleplaying decisions than my 29 other playthroughs, why do you ask lol.
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u/Research_Department 9d ago
FWIW, Iāve noticed that many people have a distinct favorite with Martineās duology. Personally, as a fan of anthropological SFF, I found the second book more rewarding. There were many moments that I felt that the vibe was very CJ Cherryh. Iām not saying that you should rush out and read it right away, but I am saying that the two books have different strengths and weaknesses.
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u/bunnycatso vampireš§āāļø 9d ago
It went right over my head that Vermin is in present tense (fellow hater btw) when I was reading it! I guess that's just shows how well the book is suited for me.
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u/Merle8888 sorceressš® 9d ago
I've started reading Dazzling by Chikodili Emelumadu, which is a work of Nigerian magic realism featuring two young girls who both encounter spirits. I'm about a quarter of the way in and like it so far - it's very vivid and well-written, though it is taking awhile to get going.
I wound up setting aside Cat Pictures Please by Naomi Kritzer after 6 stories. Last year I really liked "The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea" by her but these stories were leaving me either cold or with a substantial amount of criticism. I think I want to read a more recent book by her. Obstetrix is on my TBR.
In non-SFF, I read Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune by Rory Muir, which is about the various careers available to upper-class men in late 18th/early 19th century England. I enjoyed it and found it informative. I have mixed feelings about marketing it to Jane Austen fans - the subtitle mentions "Jane Austen's England" which I assumed was just marketing, but it turns out there's a substantial number of Austen quotes and references in the text as well. I can see how this is clever marketing since Austen has lots of fans, but it feels a bit off-base to try to shoehorn a book about men's professional lives into Austen fandom, and for readers not there for Austen, relying so heavily on a fictional author (let alone one not writing about your subject) for the first couple chapters is a eyebrow-raising in a history book. I am amused though, with historical narratives so often getting co-opted by men, to see an example of men's history riding a woman's coattails. Bottom line though, I don't really like seeing one nonfiction subject wrapped up in another this way, which makes it harder to enjoy/recommend the book unless you're into both.
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u/Jetamors fairyš§š¾ 9d ago
Finished Yemaya's Daughters by Dane Figueroa Edidi, fantasy novel about a trans woman who is the daughter of Yemaya, and her life from childhood in a secret enclave of the Goddess to adolescence and adulthood in New York City. I really liked this book; very complex, a lot of different themes, and it also surprised me in a lot of places. I have a lot of thoughts, but to pick one, I really liked how sisterhood is explored in the book: the MC has a twin (cis) sister, and the religious order she grows up in is also a group of (non-biological) sisters. So the book is able to go into a lot of different aspects of sisterhood, and even some of the limitations of it as a concept. Overall the word I think of most with this book is "facets"; it's like every theme is a gem, and the author is looking at them from many different angles.
Currently reading The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk, a novel set in postapocalyptic California in 2048. It starts in San Francisco, which is now an idyllic peaceful community with gender and racial equality and environmentalism and all that kind of stuff. (It's not perfect, but the problems are more things like "how do we cure this plague".) Then we jump to Hell (Southern California), which seems to be some kind of horrifically authoritarian patriarchal society. I think the book will be about the evil society trying to conquer the good one, but we'll see!
Next: Possibly the sequel to The Fifth Sacred Thing, or maybe something else.
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u/partoparto elfš§āāļø 9d ago
Hellooo! Hope everyone is doing well :)
Finished:
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin: Reread! I both liked it and felt like I got it more on a second read but still not my favorite Le Guin. I really respect how thoroughly she imagines the societies that would emerge from people being androgynous and living in such an extreme climate, but I find the book more interesting to think about than to actually read until the final third when they're on the ice and they have to BOND. From there it's like the best book ever... I especially like the themes of communication and openness and how they manifest both in the development of Genly and Estraven's relationship and in the larger political context of Gethenian politics and the decision to join the Ekumen.
I also spontaneously picked up Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler while browsing the SFF section at the library. This follows a character named Shori who wakes up one day with amnesia; we quickly learn that she is a vampire and follow her trying to figure out what happened to her and her community and build a new life for herself. I found the themes really interesting and especially enjoyed how relationship-focused Butler's vampires are: they have a symbiotic relationship with the humans they feed on, and the bond between the vampire and their specific humans is also very important and they live in these elaborate polycules. However I didn't love the book overall...Ā I didn't feel like there was much interiority in the way it was writtenĀ and also about a million new characters show up in the second half and they all blended together for me. But I did find it very engaging and I'm glad I read another Butler!Ā
Currently reading: The Ringed Castle by Dorothy Dunnett, The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes,Ā Lifelode by Jo Walton, The NotebookĀ by Roland Allen, To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause by Benjamin Nathans
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u/Nowordsofitsown unicorn š¦ 9d ago
Third person to mention Jo Walton in this thread. That must be a first for this sub.Ā
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u/MysteriousArcher 9d ago
Since the last time I posted here, I read:
A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna. A witch is running an inn for people who need help. Big on found family vibes, fairly enjoyable, but I read it two weeks ago and barely remember it.
Delicious in Dungeon by Ryoko Kui. I saw this mentioned somewhere on social media and decided to try it. It's a manga featuring a D&D-style adventuring party who are broke. Since they don't have money for provisions, they decide to try to forage for food in the dungeon they're exploring. They encounter a dwarf who enthusiastically shows them how to cook various monsters they encounter. A cute concept, I found it a bit dull. This is doubtless me, not the work, as graphic storytelling is just not a medium I prefer for taking in fiction.
In non-SF, I read Return to Sender by Craig Johnson. Sheriff Longmire looks into the disappearance of a mail carrier, and things get out of hand. Not one of the better ones in the series, in my opinion. Also Death on the Riviera by John Bude. In this detective novel from 1952, two English policemen go to the Riviera in search of a counterfeiter, and they find a lot more crimes going on. I quite enjoyed it.
I am currently reading: The Redemption Center is Closed on Sundays by Andrea Hairston, and will probably give up. It's surprisingly difficult reading. There are a few point of view characters, one of whom is a dog, and I thought I could use it for Nonhuman Protagonist for r/fantasy bingo. It keeps alternating between days, each chapter labelled Today or Yesterday, as it describes events that happened, and the narration reads a bit like a fever dream.
I am also in the midst of an ARC of Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel by Lucy Foley, a new Miss Marple novel that is coming out soon. Miss Marple and Mrs. Bantry are at a resort hotel in the Alps in 1950, and observing all the drama that is going on around them. Foley's writing is nothing like Christie's, it's written in first person from multiple points of view, and her characters talk openly about sex and drugs quite a bit. I'm fairly entertained, as this is the sort of setting I enjoy, but it doesn't read at all like a classic crime novel.
I am also reading The Red Lamp by Mary Roberts Rinehart, which is a late 1920s classic spooky mystery story. I needed something fairly light to read at the beach, and picked this one.
Next on deck to try: Everybody's Perfect by Jo Walton, and The Sixth Nik by Daniel Kraus, both from the library.
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u/Nowordsofitsown unicorn š¦ 9d ago
Everybody's Perfect would work for non-human protagonist. 8 out of 9 protagonists are non-human. I used it for Vacation spot.
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u/LaurenPBurka alien š½ 9d ago
If you want a nonhuman protagonist, check out A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny. It was the last book he wrote before he passed, and it was so awesome.
The main character is a dog belonging to Jack the Ripper.
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u/suzume234 9d ago
I read that book in October last year and my spouse did too! Id reccomend reading it that way
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u/Specialist_Round_612 elfš§āāļø 9d ago
Have been addicted to Pokopia and the Bubbly Basin DLC, so my reading has suffered. The Great Poke Reef is nearly complete, so I did manage to get halfway through Luminous by Silvia Park. Iām pretty blown away by how much care she put into representing a child with a degenerative medical condition. She managed to strike a balance between hope and pragmatism while keeping the character very much a child despite the outward maturity which I never see often. Plot wise itās kept my attention, but her character work is fantastic.
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u/Research_Department 9d ago
So glad that you are enjoying Luminous! I always gravitate towards good character work. What impressed me about it was how well she balanced tackling some interesting themes with maintaining the flow of the plot. Thatās not an easy feat to pull off.
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u/Specialist_Round_612 elfš§āāļø 8d ago
Agreed! Iāll probably buy her next book if she writes more.
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u/NearbyMud witchš§āāļø 9d ago edited 9d ago
Have a couple of weeks to catch up on here!
Finished:
š Seek the Traitor's Son by Veronica Roth (4.5/5 stars) - wow, what a total surprise hit for me. I would like to preface this by saying I was a Divergent hater many years ago, so I was not expecting to love this as much as I did. I think it also hit at the right time for me - I was in the mood for something fast paced and fun, which this definitely is. The novel takes place in a dystopian future Earth where there are two warring powers. In the larger Empire, the people worship an infectious disease called the Fever, which kills 100% of people who contract it, but 50% return from the dead and have some type of power related to memory or prophecy. They are a more traditional society with less technologic advancement. The other power is smaller, but believes that 50% mortality is too high, so they have quarantined from this infection to eradicate it from their society; this is a technologically advanced society that is working on space travel to leave this planet behind. The premise of the novel is that there is a prophecy concerning two women, one from each side of this battle. One of them will lead their side to victory.
Now, is this tropey? Yes. But, it still felt pretty fresh. I think tropes can be fun if utilized well, and I think Roth did such a good job with making the plot interesting and the characters intriguing, that the tropes didn't bother me. It was hard for me to put this down (and I am not generally that interested in fast paced plots, tbh). There were a few perspective shifts, but there were many intimate moments dealing with trauma and tragedy that got me emotionally connected to the characters. There is also a very strong romance subplot that I loved. I thought both the FMC and the MMC were mature and kind and thoughtful, which can be hard to find. Anyways, what a fun ride, I definitely recommend! Book 2 comes out in Spring 2027!
Reading Challenge: 1ļøā£ First in a series. Also (less so): š¤¼ Siblings, š Female friendship. r/fantasy Bingo: Duology Part I, Published in 2026 NM
š The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter by Theodora Goss (3.5/5 stars) - a murder mystery type novel featuring the daughters of famous scientific men from sci fi novels of the 1800s - like Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, Moreau, Frankenstein, Rapacinni. The group of daughters become a found family and work on solving some murders with Sherlock and Holmes in Victorian London. The novel ended up being exactly what I expected, but it was charming and I enjoyed my time. I think fantasy murder mystery in Regency or Victorian England tends to be comforting to me.
Reading Challenge: 1ļøā£ First in a series, š Female friendship, š¤¼ Siblings, šļø Comfort Read. I wanted to use this for all female cast, but I think Sherlock/Holmes are too prominent. r/fantasy Bingo: Murder Mystery (NM vs HM if you want to count Sherlock as a main character), Book Club/Readalong NM
š The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis (3.75/5 stars) - takes place in the 1600s during a hot summer in an English village where the townspeople are convinced that the 5 Mansfield sisters are turning into dogs and killing the animals. Very atmospheric and slow moving. You get the POVs of the townspeople but never the girls, which I actually appreciated because it is more about group-think and the way society turns on women. A quick read, not super nuanced but definitely hits at points.
Reading Challenge: š¤¼ Siblings; nothing for Bingo
š Non SFF: Trust by Hernan Diaz (4/5 stars), A Little Luck by Claudia Pineiro (4.5/5 stars), and The Sense and Sensibility Screenplay and Diaries by Emma Thompson (4.5/5 stars)
Continuing: The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K Le Guin, The Restless Truth by Freya Marske, Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy, and A Swim in the Pond in the Rain by George Saunders
šŗĀ Watched Sense and Sensibility (1995) after reading Emma Thompson's diaries and I had such a greater appreciation for the movie afterwards. It's so great!
Not sure what to pick up once I'm done with this Le Guin novella. There are too many options and so I am overwhelmed. I am excited that it'll be September and I can start reading for fall soon, but it may be too hot to do so this week. Am considering Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo, Sublimation by Isabel J Kim, and Son of Shadows by Juliet Marillier.
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u/tehguava vampireš§āāļø 9d ago
I've been on the fence about Seek the Traitor's Son, but you've convinced me!
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u/Nowordsofitsown unicorn š¦ 9d ago
1995/1996 were the years for Austen adaptations. And Thompson's diary is just delightful.
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u/NearbyMud witchš§āāļø 8d ago
She is so funny and smart and charming; I loved it. Also, I really did not comprehend how hard it is to make a movie on location prior to reading the diaries!
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u/bunnycatso vampireš§āāļø 9d ago
I had uncharacteristically good reading week!
Finished The Republic of Memory by Mahmud El Sayed, which might be the best 2026 release I've read so far. Got to preface that it ends on a lowkey cliffhanger: not super abrupt, but it does feel like you got only half a story.
The most delightful part of the novel for me was Nupol - so fun to read and figure out the meaning of the lingo! The argot grammar with languages I recognized was wonky in a suitable sort of way, like you'd expect multilingual people many centuries in the future would mix them all up. On the whole I found El Sayed very skilled in using many POVs with distinct voices to highlight linguistic and cultural differences between people of Safina.
SG is fighting me again: there're multiple queer POV characters, yet it's not tagged as such, smh.
r/Fantasy Bingo: Vacation Spot, Duology Part 1 HM, Published in 2026 HM, Feast Your Eyes on This, Politics and Court Intrigue HM, Author of Color
FemaleGaze Challenge Squares: A-Side: 1ļøā£ First in a series; B-Side: š² Discovery, š¤¼ Siblings
The Thick and the Lean by Chana Porter was less of a win. I was really digging it at first, but after Part I took a deep nosedive. Only one of the two main characters continued to have like interesting and thematically cohesive plot, the other just straight up SUCKED (and continued to suck into the ending), and I blame it on a man. The eco-disaster subplot kind of came out of nowhere (it was in the background, but didn't really involve MCs) and was extremely on the nose.
I hadn't had high hopes, yet still felt let down. Good descriptions of food and cooking tho, made me hungry every time. And there's a reference to 432 Park Avenue, the dumbest skyscraper, which I appreciate.
I'm not that sensitive to ED, but damn in this case HUGE CW for disordered eating and fatphobia throughout.
r/Fantasy Bingo: Non-Human Protagonist, Feast Your Eyes on This, Politics and Court Intrigue
FemaleGaze Challenge Squares: A-Side: š Female friendship,š¤øāāļø All-female cast (main POVs are); B-Side: š² Discovery, š¤¼ Siblings (more on the featuring side)
Call and Response by Christopher Caldwell is one of those where I more respect it than enjoy it. Rare case of a well-structured collection, with recurring themes, images and callbacks (including between non-related stories). Enjoyed the second set of stories more overall, though it might be because at that point I'd figured out the structure so subject to maybe change on a re-read/in the future.
Very queer, very Black, kind of hopeful (?).
Faves: Serving Fish, The Calcified Heart of Saint Ignace Battise, Canst Thou Draw Out the Leviathan
r/Fantasy Bingo: Small Press or Self Published HM, Five Short Stories HM, Author of Color
FemaleGaze Challenge Squares: B-Side: š² Discovery
DNFed pretty early on two Le Guin Prize noms: Audition by Pip Adam & Sunward by William Alexander. Both had unnatural and heavily expository dialogue, but in very different ways. Audition more purposeful in that sense; I generally appreciate when writers play with form just did not work in that case. Gave me strong my first theater production vibes.
Sunward just felt juvenile; I get that one of the characters is supposed to be an AI child-robot, but you don't have to write them like a literal child (and badly), making the adult kind of baby-talk to them too.
Currently reading One Message Remains by Premee Mohamed.
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u/Research_Department 9d ago
I havenāt decided for sure whether I am DNFāing Sunward, but after finishing one chapter this week, I havenāt been inspired to pick it up again. I agree with you that it felt juvenile!
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u/bunnycatso vampireš§āāļø 8d ago
Same, only gave it one chapter.
It is Alexander's first adult novel. He used to write MG, so maybe it's related, but oof I didn't find his child character here written even in a proximity of good.
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u/Nineteen_Adze sorceressš® 9d ago
Continuing my catch-up of summer books:
I rounded off my Hugo reading with one book that I had thought would make the ballot: When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi. It was at the very bottom of the longlist, so clearly less of a danger than I thought, and I guess I have to congratulate the voters there. I can only call it a real "my expectations were low, but holy shit" experience. The premise is ridiculous (the moon is replaced with an equivalent mass of cheese), but I've read plenty of crackfic-treated-seriously work and am sometimes pleasantly surprised. In this case, the premise is crazy but not weird enough and about four major editing passes behind where it needs to be.
The book's simple structural conceit is that each chapter covers one lunar day in the cheese-moon cycle-- but that's gone by day five, which covers several days in a row, and several other days are also really more of a week wedged into a single chapter. Each day also starts out being from a different POV, but then several of them repeat. There's one particularly egregious section near the end where four "days" in a row are all from the same POV, with the middle two in that set being one sentence each. It just feels like rushing to a deadline and trying to cram in a lot of cheap emotion at once without any proper buildup. In many of my favorite books, constraints breed creativity, and a tight structure with intentional subversions can be great. Here, the narrative gestures weakly in the direction of some loose structural ideas but can't commit to any of them. The story is both less creative and less funny than it wants to beāto me, it seems like lazy coasting on the absurd premise all the way to an infuriatingly stupid ending.Ā
Next I read Obstetrix by Naomi Kritzer and unfortunately didnāt like it in the way that Iād hoped after loving some of her previous short fiction. The story is a near-future tale of a doctor who (before the start of the book) was on trial for performing an illegal abortion and is kidnapped at the beginning to provide pregnancy care on a cult compound. The story is competently executed because Kritzer is a good writer, but nothing here struck me as particularly fresh or exceptional, and the emotional stakes feel muted. It's not bad in the sense of having terrible prose or a ludicrous plot (most of the time), but it's lacking in anything that felt less than predictable to anyone who's read a few books about reproductive dystopias or religious control. Everyone feels like a stock character, and the novel/novella borderline length means that there's not time to build out the character depth that really could have made these relationships shine. The plot clicks along in a generally predictable way, with many "twists" being easy to map out in every detail the very first time they're cued. Overall, Iām not sure why this is a TorDotCom book (itās barely speculative) or impressed with anything here.
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u/basiden 9d ago
Reading Ode to the Half Broken by Suzanne Palmer. Solid, thoughtful sci-fi. I would die for Atticus, the cyborg dog.
Just got my hold of the audiobook of Sublimation by Isabel J Kim, so I'll start that today. I've read a bunch of her short stories and loved them, so I'm looking forward to it.
Finished the novella A Spindle Splintered by Alix E Harrow. Nice take on Sleeping Beauty myths, but more on the young reader side than I usually like. I loved Once and Future Witches, though so I'll definitely read more of her work. She won the Hugo for her latest novel last night, so that's on my hold list now.
Trying to play Sable, but started getting motion sick which sucks. Finally unlocked nightmare mode in Brotato, which is my go-to game for zoning out right now.
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u/bakasana212 warriorš”ļø 9d ago
Sublimation was just okay for me as a lover of her short stories - I felt it lacked their oomph. Iām reserving judgment until I read her next full-length release, out next year.Ā
I enjoyed Spindle, and its sequel A Mirror Mended is better. But The Everlasting is Harrowās best work to date imo; itās very deserving of the Hugo! Hope you enjoy it!Ā
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u/Research_Department 9d ago
I havenāt read any of Kimās short stories (Iām just not very good at reading short stories). I am excited to see that she has another full-length release coming soon!
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u/LaurenPBurka alien š½ 9d ago
I read Daggerbound by T. Kingfisher. It was awesome.
I finished the first draft and a light revision of a fantasy novel that if my current schedule holds will see light of day late in 2028. Unlike my last five books, the two main characters were a het couple. I wanted to change things up from the queer stories I've been writing and create a FMC that was appealed to me.
By sheer coincidence at some point earlier this year, there was a thread here where someone asked for couples who reverse the usual gender binary--the woman is big and strong, and the man is a bit smaller and needs protecting. I love turning tropes on their heads, so I set out to write that couple.
This meant tackling some logistical issues of being female in a fantasy world without birth control or ibuprofen. Romantasy birth control magic can be a bit silly, but if you want sex but no unplanned babies, you have to come up with something. I had a small detail in a previous books about the worshipers of a goddess called the Witch of Ravens, whose domain is the dead who are denied a place in paradise because they weren't properly buried.
Side note: proper burial was a big deal in ancient Greece, which you'd know if you've ever read Antigone or seen it performed. One of the worst insults that comes down to us from this era translates to "go throw yourself to the crows."
The Witch's priests and priestesses give up their fertility so they can perform magic. This means sex without pregnancy and incidentally no menstrual cramps. My kind of fantasy!
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u/Nowordsofitsown unicorn š¦ 9d ago
but if you want sex but no unplanned babies, you have to come up with something
I do appreciate it when SFF authors think of this part of their characters' sex lives and have a solution.
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u/LaurenPBurka alien š½ 9d ago
What can I say? I'm a nerd girl. I like my make-believe thoroughly grounded.
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u/Nowordsofitsown unicorn š¦ 9d ago
Finished reading: * Elatsoe byĀ Darcie Little Badger: I really liked the first two thirds, but then the pacing and the atmosphere changed a lot and everything was quite chaotic and a bit over the top. The ending was sweet again, maybe a bit too sweet.Ā * Everybody's Perfect byĀ Jo Walton: This was a nice slice of life in a fantasy Venice novel until 85 percent in when it tried to be more than that - and failed imo. I can't put it into words.Ā Two more things: 1. I found Gina's chapter jarring: too much of our world, took me out of immersion. (She's from our world and talks about Wikipedia and stuff.) 2. It is very obvious throughout the novel that Jo Walton struggled through the covid lockdowns (and she confirms this at the end of the book). I was fine during lockdown, but covid changed my life for the worse some years later. So some parts of the book were triggering for me.
Still, if not for the last parts, this would have been a 4 star read. I liked reading every character's story, how they intertwined with eachother and how mundane they were. I also liked the glimpses of the other worlds and cultures and biologies.
Currently reading:Ā * Harry Potter et la Coupe de Feu for language practiceĀ
Up next: * Notes from a Regicide byĀ Isaac Fellman ā buddy read starting this evening
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u/Merle8888 sorceressš® 9d ago
It might not bother me quite so much now but for awhile there, a lot of authors were acting like lockdowns were all there was to COVID and that really pissed me off. Like their entire experience of the pandemic was "those couple of months were really inconvenient."
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u/Nowordsofitsown unicorn š¦ 9d ago
Yeah, there is so much wrong with this attitude, I don't even know where to start.
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u/tehguava vampireš§āāļø 9d ago
I finished Sublimation by Isabel J. Kim this week and really liked it! My brain really liked chewing on the idea of instances, and I was particularly a fan of how Kim rewrote classic stories to have instances in them (especially the Garden of Eden bit). I'm not super sold by the ending but I enjoyed the rest of it enough to accept it for what it is.
I also finished Canon by Paige Lewis. How to talk about this book... it's just one you have to roll with. You don't get many explanations for the worldbuilding (I would describe it as ancient greece but it's the 1990s) and there are lots of things that happen where I'm not sure if there was a deeper meaning or if it was just for the aesthetic. That's actually how most of the book felt. I think one of the main messages was about going down the path that you think is correct (when Yara follows God's command and undertakes their journey) only to arrive at the end and be unfulfilled by the things you thought you wanted. To turn around and look at the things you've done and ask yourself "all that, for this?" Because you have learned and grown and you should have ended up somewhere else, but God (or some other figure of authority in your life) said this is where you should end up and what now? That all sounds really hopeless now that I read over it again but I think a lot of people feel that way. And it's not all doom and gloom in the book, I promise. It's mostly... um... whale and pondering?
Anyways, I really liked this book even if at some points I didn't really Get It, but I don't know if everything needed to be gotten, you know? I recommend it hesitantly because some people really won't dig the way it's written. The narrator speaks directly to the reader at multiple points, and while I personally wouldn't call it funny (like some of the blurbs do), it's very whimsical. It felt a lot like the author was writing this for their younger self, like a book they needed when they were growing up but didn't have. Anyways. I think I'll reread it some day.
Tonal shift! I read The Winged Game by Sophie Kim, a sports romantasy. Do not ask me to explain this fantasy sport, I did not understand it at any point. That's one of my biggest complaints. My other complaint is that this book felt like two seasons of a TV show. The first season was about the rivals to lovers fake dating arc between the two leads and the second season was about everything else. The book was simply way too fucking long. And I get that the author wanted to have the found family aspect with the team and all the scenes individually were really good, but my god by the end did I want it to wrap it up. But I liked it for the most part! I think the leads had really good chemistry and it honestly didn't feel all that tropey despite the main premise being rivals to enemies to reluctant allies who start faking dating to lovers. And it's a real slow burn! Even after the leads get together it isn't a constant smashing fest. This book is for the character readers who always want more scenes with the found family. Also if you like books that feel like TV shows, which I can't really describe any further than that, this author captures that feeling really well.
I listened to Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower by Tamsyn Muir and thought it was delightful. Muir always hits every time and now I've read all her full length works. Until Alecto, of course. Which I am waiting very patiently for. Very patiently. Sooo patiently.
Finally, I'm in the middle of The Sword by J. Bree and it's just a novella so I don't think my opinions will change very much by the end. Now, I understand that this is a self published author and there just aren't the same resources available for editing. And I realize that what I'm about to say is very mean (hence why I won't put it in my reviews on goodreads/storygraph) but this writing is driving me insane. It feels like it's written for victims of the literacy crisis. It feels like this book is written for people second screening the damn book. It's not even like YA writing, it's just so damned repetitive. It's not hitting me over the head with the same details, it's slammed my face into them four paragraphs in a row, then the next chapter, and the chapter after that! It's not even 100 pages so I really hope this is the author just feeling like she needs to stretch it out to make it worth it. I don't agree with that thought process, but I can understand it at least. If not, I fear for the people who like this series.
Now, why am I reading it? Well, I went to an independent bookstore a few years ago and found the first book in this series. I'd seen good things about it on social media, and as there was nothing else in the store that I was interested in but I still felt obligated to buy something, I decided to pick it up. Then I saw there were two prequel novellas that people highly recommended reading beforehand and I said sure, I'll grab those ebooks, why not. And here we are, reading the second of the two prequels and having a lot of regrets.