Entries tagged with author: s

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"The Dawnhounds" by Sascha Stronach

This week I finished The Dawnhounds, the first book of the The Endsong series by Sascha Stronach.

This book has been compared to Gideon the Ninth, which I think does it a disservice, because while there are enjoyable things about it, if you go into it expecting The Locked Tomb, I think you're going to be disappointed. They are not on the same level.

Protagonist Yat's homeland—the port city of Hainak—is implied to have been colonized and fought a revolution to escape that, but while some of the changes have been welcome—the embrace of "biotech," freedom of determination—her home is in the throes of sliding from one abusive regime to another. They have thrown off the yoke of colonization, but as Yat comes to slowly realize over the course of the novel, what they replaced it with isn't much better.

Yat is in a prime position to realize this. A former street rat turned cop who joined the police in hopes of making a positive change for people like herself, she's been slowly worn down over the years into someone who simply closes her eyes to the worse abuses by the government and partakes herself in the lesser offenses. The kick-off for the story isn't any of that though—it's that Yat is demoted after her coworkers learn she's patronized a queer bar. She's blundering through the fallout of that—continuing to patronize that same bar, and using drugs to cope—when the fantasy plot hits her in the head.

Unfortunately, here is where the novel began to lose me. I think the comparisons with The Locked Tomb arise from the way The Dawnhounds throws the reader into the plot with the promise of revealing more information later. Except that where TLT is a masterclass in subterfuge and gradual reveals that make perfect sense in retrospect, and in some cases reframed entire characters and story arcs, The Dawnhounds just...never really reveals the information.

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author: s,
fiction

Recent Reading: Untold Night and Day

Book #7 from the "Women in Translation" rec list: Untold Night and Day by Bae Suah, translated from Korean by Deborah Smith.

Trying to accurately describe the plot of this book is an exercise in futility, so I'm not going to bother. All I can say is it centers around Ayami, a woman who is an actress, or maybe a poet, or possibly both, and is on her last day of work at an audio theater for the blind in Seoul.

This is a book I feel like I'd have to read at least one more time all the way through to be able to really discuss the themes and motifs at play. It's an incredibly cerebral novel that never gives up a clear answer about what's happening. What's real or not real changes from scene to scene. Is Ayami an orphan? Did she have a wealthy aunt? Is she the poet from Buha's youth? Is the director the bus driver? Who really got hit by the bus, and who was the murdered woman in the attic? Is Ayami Yeoni? The book leaves you to your own conclusions.

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Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud

So into my foray into reading more regularly again I picked this book up last year, read it and loved it, and I loved it so much that this year I will be re-reading it again because it is that helpful. I originally got this book because I wanted to improve my own comics and I finished feeling like I had gotten more than I could ever hoped for.

Understanding Comics is exactly what it says on the tin, learning how the medium of comic books work.

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The Priory of the Orange Tree

Last night I finished a behemoth of a high fantasy novel: Samantha Shannon's The Priory of the Orange Tree. Clocking in at 804 pages, I have to say the book did not feel like a slog at all. It actually flew by for the most part, and there was no part of the plot which I thought dragged, which is pretty impressive with this length. The description from Story Graph is:

The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction--but assassins are getting closer to her door.

Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.

Across the dark sea, Tané has trained all her life to be a dragonrider, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.

Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.

I thought Shannon did a neat thing in working in the mythology of both European and Asian dragons, but having them play wildly different roles in her world accordingly. The various countries and cultures in the novel all feel "real" and the different ways in which they interact (or do not interact) with the magic in their world is interesting.

Also fascinating is the mythology which underlays the world itself. The "present" state of Shannon's world is heavily influenced by quasi-mythical characters who lived and died long before our protagonists, and uncovering the truth of their lives and their deeds is a part of the current protagonists' story. It makes Shannon's world feel very rich, and it appropriately deals with the difficulty over time of separating fact and history from myth and legend.

The characters themselves were layered and nuanced, and while I don't want to give any spoilers, one character has a growth arc I particularly loved because she consciously puts effort into setting aside things she's been told her entire life when she understands they may not click with reality. All of the characters have their good and bad moments, and it makes them so real that I couldn't help but love all of them.

For a quick summary:

Recommend if you:

Want female-focused fantasy
Enjoy a romantic subplot but don't want it to take over the action
Want queer characters in your fantasy
Enjoy multi-POV stories that take time to roll out
Like the tension of "duty vs. love"
Want an epic dragon-on-dragon fight

Do not recommend if you:

Want to have more action than build-up
Prefer low-stakes conflict
Want romance at the center of the story
Do not like violence

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Book Rec: The Burning Kingdoms

As of now, only two books of the trilogy have been released, beginning with The Jasmine Throne, followed by The Oleander Sword. The author is Tasha Suri. The jacket description from The Jasmine Throne is:

Imprisoned by her dictator brother, Malini spends her days in isolation in the Hirana: an ancient temple that was once the source of powerful magic – but is now little more than a decaying ruin.

Priya is a maidservant, one of several who make the treacherous journey to the top of the Hirana every night to attend Malini’s chambers. She is happy to be an anonymous drudge, as long as it keeps anyone from guessing the dangerous secret she hides. But when Malini accidentally bears witness to Priya’s true nature, their destinies become irrevocably tangled . . .

I covered a more in-depth review on my blog, but TBK is a south Asian-inspired fantasy with a fantastic cast of characters and an interesting leading romance.

The books are ~500 pages each, but the prose makes for pretty quick reading.

Recommend if you:

Want to read some fantasy that is not culturally European/Western
Want a F/F relationship where the characters feel genuinely for each other but struggle with "duty vs. love"
Enjoy multi-POV stories that cover several plotlines simultaneously
Want female-centered fantasy

Do not recommend if you:

Are turned off by in-universe homophobia
Want an action-heavy story (there is action but it usually is not described in depth)
Want an uncomplicated "fluffy" romance

(Crossposted from fffriday)

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author: s

Witch Hat Atelier, Vol. 6

Witch Hat Atelier, Vol. 6 by Kamome Shirahama

Spoilers ahead for the first five volume.

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author: s

Virtual Unicorn Experience

Virtual Unicorn Experience by Dana Simpson

Phoebe and Her Unicorn book 12

A collection of strips, assuming only familiarity with the character's existence. Phoebe and Dakota's odd friendship over a show. Marigold's being confused over what a field trip is. Phoebe learns that unicorns put her on trial for not being a unicorn, and shows up to put in a plea, "Yeah, so?"

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author: s

Witch Hat Atelier

Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama -- volumes 4 and 5

Spoilers ahead for earlier volumes.

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author: s

Witch Hat Atelier

Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama -- volumes 2 and 3.

Spoilers ahead for 1. And even for 2 in 3's review.

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Witch Hat Atelier

Witch Hat Atelier Vol 1 by Kamome Shirahama

A manga work

A little girl is living with her widowed mother and dreaming of being a witch -- even though she knows that witches are born that way.

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Magic User

Magic User: Reborn in Another World as a Max Level Wizard Vol. 1 by Mikawa Souhei

An isekai novel. A forty year old professional dies and is transported to another world as his Dungeons and ~~Dragons~~ Braves character. With the twist that that is not actually how the magic of that world works. . . .

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author: s

Leaves from the Garden of Eden

Leaves from the Garden of Eden: One Hundred Classic Jewish Tales by Howard Schwartz

A collection of tales. A number from his earlier collections.

They range over. Fairy tales (and this has an appendix with Aarne-Thompson types) and anecdotes of the supernatural. Quite a bit about people's demonic doubles managing to dispose of them and take over their lives.

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author: s

Elijah's Violin and Other Jewish Fairy Tales

Elijah's Violin and Other Jewish Fairy Tales by Howard Schwartz

A collection of tales. From oral collection, and also from manuscript versions -- many of those, predating the Brothers Grimms, are pious tales. Several, the king is King Solomon or King David. Still, for most of them are distinctly fairy tales.

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The Golden Peaches of Samarkand

The Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A Study of T'ang Exotics by Edward H. Schafer

A discussion of foreign things brought to T'ang as tribute and in trade, and attitudes toward them.

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author: s

The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 13

The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 13: 1975-1976 by Charles M. Schulz

Sally talks to the school -- the school later falls down -- Charlie Brown has to share a desk with Peppermint Patty with complications. Spike appears and Lucy feeds him up -- later he invites Snoopy to Thanksgiving with the coyotes and misadventures ensue. Snoopy and Linus meet Truffles at her grandfather's farm, but it goes better for Snoopy. Baseball and Lucy chasing Schroeder. Snoopy and Woodstock worry about the tale of the Three Little Pigs. Charlie Brown tries to get hired for odd jobs. Snoopy breaks his leg. Marcie hates sports but wants a baseball cap.

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author: s

The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 12

The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 12: 1973-1974 by Charles M. Schulz

A lot of gag-a-day comics. Peppermint Patty does badly at school, and has a sequence about ice-skating. Snoopy is a Beagle Scout and gets lost in the woods; writes and submits stories; and does literature as puppet shows. Woodstock accidentally gets a bike for Christmas. Sally talks to the school. Rerun rides on his mother's bicycle. Charlie Brown goes to camp with a sack over his head and does very well.

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author: s

The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 10: 1969–1970

The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 10: 1969–1970 by Charles M. Schulz

Peanuts, continuing. The red-haired girl moves away without Charlie Brown having the gumption to say Good-bye. Snoopy is a hockey player and a checkout worker -- hangs out with a bird who is finally named Woodstock -- is reported by Frieda to the Head Beagle for not chasing rabbits and has a stint AS the Head Beagle -- and we have the return of "A dark and stormy night" as Snoopy takes up writing entirely. Lucy pursues Schroeder and sees Charlie Brown -- and Snoopy, and Woodstock -- at her booth. And more.

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author: s

The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 9

The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 9: 1967-1968 by Charles M. Schulz

Peanuts rolls on. The kite-eating tree finally appears, after all his adventures with kites. Baseball games with some interaction with Peppermint Patty -- she joins the team with a new character Jose, briefly -- and with the usual slew of loss. Linus tells his blanket-hating grandma that she has to give up smoking for him to give up his blanket, with the expected consequence. Camp -- actually that was more Peppermint Patty as tent monitor and her three charges. Snoopy as a flying ace, and a sequence with him skating and planning on the Olympics (until he tries to go and discovers there's an ocean in the way) and some as a vulture. He interacts with a single bird a lot -- still nameless, though. Linus's measles shot has him panicking. And more.

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author: s

The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 8

The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 8: 1965-1966 by Charles M. Schulz

Peanuts rolling along. Charlie Brown goes to camp for the first time; later, so does Linus. Snoopy becomes a WWI flying ace -- and "A dark and stormy night" makes its first appearance, for a sequence of about a week, after which he, having dragged his typewriter to the doghouse in the opening, gets rid of it. Peppermint Patty is introduced taking over the baseball team. Linus evades his blanket-hating grandmother by mailing his blanket to himself, and it goes wrong.

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author: s

The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 7: 1963-1964

The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 7: 1963-1964 by Charles M. Schulz

Old friends appear. The little red-haired girl, mentioned once in the last volume, here has a long sequence that turns her into the famous princesse lointaine. 5 appears, a bit-- the gag is a little quickly exhausted. Charlie Brown has trouble with his arm and so with pitching (but the status quo returns). Lucy tries to get someone to call her "cutie." Linus has varied adventures because of the blanket.