#NK jemison

[daisieshaites]

international covers for the fifth season

#the fifth season #nk jemison

[butterbeerandlemoncakes]

Books of 2023

The ABC Murders, Agatha Christie--This is probably one of my favorite Poirot novels. It keeps you on your toes and as always with Agatha Christie, there’s a surprise twist (or two!)

1984, George Orwell--I feel like this is another book that has been lost to the times. When it first came out, I’m sure it was a phenomenal read--it predicts a dystopian future in a surveillance state, which, at this point, maybe hits a little too close to home for some. The ‘big bad’ and scary suggestions for the future in this book are, at this point in our lives, fairly normal feeling, or things that we’ve since in more recent sci-fi novels and tv shows, done bigger and scarier. So, while I’m sure it set up the foundation for which many of these new things were based on, I was fairly bored reading this book, and did not finish it.

Finn Fancy Necromancy, Randy Henderson--This was a fun, light read. It follows the story of a boy who was framed for a crime he didn’t commit, and his journey of discovery after completing his sentence. 

The Diviners, Libba Bray--A supernatural-esque mystery story set in New York in the 1920s? What else can you ask for? This book was actually really good, it had a well rounded set of diverse and interesting characters, and was a good mix of a scary read and a fun read. 

The City We Became, NK Jemisin--This was a really interesting book--it’s hard to explain without giving too much away, but it was a very unique writing style overall, with subtle shifts in narration for when a different character was telling their part of the story. It explored a new concept, I think, in writing and storytelling, which I really enjoyed.

Shadow and Bone, Leigh Bardugo--I’m a bit biased because I saw the show first, but that and a friend convinced me enough to read the book, and I loved it! The TV show stays pretty accurate to this book, at least (I’ve heard it strays from some of the later ones). Although it has some of the typical fantasy YA romance tropes, I still really enjoyed this book, and it had enough new and interesting ideas to keep me hooked and interested in the book. I can’t wait to read the rest of the series!

Moby Dick, Herman Melville--It’s taken me literal years to finish this one because I was reading it on my phone so would read it while riding to work and then forget about it for months on end and then pick it up again. BUT regardless, I really enjoyed it! I can see why a lot of high schoolers hate it, she’s DENSE. There’s a lot of explanation and things that aren’t necessarily plot-related going on in the book, which I enjoy, but I can see why others wouldn’t. Another one that I’d maybe recommend reading the abridged version of, but I really liked it!

Dune, Frank Herbert--Having watched the newest movie beforehand really helped me with this one. It’s a FANTASTIC book, but there are a lot of moving parts, politics, and characters with similar names, that I definitely would have gotten confused and frustrated if I hadn’t have had the movie to base things off of. That being said, would highly recommend reading. A lot times with old sci-fi books like this, they don’t live up to the hype because like, they may have been groundbreaking at the time they came out, but our expectations have risen so much since then. However, for a book that came out in 1965, this one still holds up. It definitely kept me interested throughout the book, which is saying something, because she’s THICK.

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Eveyln Hardcastle, Stuart Turton--This was a really good book with a fresh new take on murder mystery/whodunits. Essentially, the narrator wakes up each day as a new person, reliving the events of the same day over and over again until he can solve the murder. It was a really interesting concept and I thought very well executed.

#the abc murders #agatha christie #murder mystery #1984 #george orwell #finn fancy necromancy #randy henderson #the diviners #libba bray #the city we became #nk jemison #shadow and bone #leigh bardugo #fantasy #moby dick #herman melville #classics #dune #frank herbert #sci fi #the 7 1/2 deaths of evelyn hardcastle #Stuart Turton

[taz-writes]

i need to introduce more Fun Fantasy Books Actually Meant For Adults into my literature ecosystem, all i’ve read in the last like three years is discworld and legal textbooks/treatises and it is doing WEIRD things to my brain. & my discord friends have some good solid novel recs, but they’re 90% nonfiction/realism Issue Books about characters dealing with Serious Societal Problems… and i am like perpetually burnt out on Serious Societal Problems these days courtesy of the legal textbooks and treatises so i just find those works exhausting

i should probably pick up dn bryn’s new thing, i read their mermaid book that came out like 3-4 years ago and it was very nice, but like apart from that one author i just have no clue where to start

anybody got any decent suggestions? especially for secondary world SFF the genre love of my life, since my only functional familiarity with that genre For Adults is shit written by dudebros in the 80s who don’t understand paragraph breaks and who were probably jerking off to it, and that is not my jam these days

#taz talks #i’m dying squirtle #like nothing against Social Issue Books(tm) i just… i see enough of it in day to day life #i like to read for escapism and ‘minority exists on modern earth as a minority’ is not escapism #gimme some ‘minority exists on weird alien planet and does cool stuff’ instead pls #like i LOVE a good relevant hard hitting theme!!! but it is more interesting to me when it’s fantastical #eg i really loved the uh. what the fuck were they called. that one nk jemison series with the earthbenders #those books fucked #jade city was also nice tho it didn’t hook me QUITE the same way

[july-19th-club]

god gotta be a wild work experience. you're some fucking guy who until your late twenties has been working for a clickbait aggregate and your creative career is only just now starting to coalesce and you land the nate stevenson movie. and they put you. they put you opposite riz fucking ahmed and say okay guys get to it . i mean i'd develop some kind of fatal anxiety event, probably

#the only equivalent i can possibly think of for my genre and medium is if i was exactly three short stories into the publication world #in mid-size sff zines. and i got invited to do a collection with muir or nk jemison or somebody #q

[ahagisborn]

🗣️FANTASY written by. WOMEN. HITS DIFFERENT(it’s better)🗣️🗣️🗣️

#priory of the orange tree is so good #this goes out to the guy at my friend’s bday party who told me he didn’t like nk jemison and then in the same breath recommended mistborn #begone THOT #book club #thots on genre fiction

[evermorre]

if you have fantasy or historical fiction book recommendations, would you send them to me please? :)

#also i do really like sci fi SOMETIMES #like i liked NK Jemison's broken earth series #and ursula le guin #and parable of the sower #but sci fi is not my favorite genre #also prefer women or queer authors bc idc what cis men have to say to me thx

[madtomedgar]

Continually mad that we are getting more store wores movies, dramatizations of fantasy series *that were never finished* by straight white dudes, yet another dramatization of dune, an objectively bad series that is remarkable mostly for its influence on the genre and as a look into the culture of 60s sci-fi and how racist and sexist it was, another dramatization of... Not-not lotr that no one asked for, dramatizations of old video games, and the HP franchise is still wringing itself out for more cynical coin

Meanwhile there are So Many incredibly good series by amazingly talented authors just. Sitting there. That would adapt to the screen really well. But oh no that would be a risk that author isn't um. Famous/acclaimed/popular by which we mean traditional dude sf/f... Sorry Hugo winners are just too fringe. Anyway lets see if we can get the rights to Heinlein or Card or some other bore

#what if the Next Big Show was an nk jemison series #what if they did a 3 movie release of poppy war #what if some authors got some money and fame #that would be so much better than like... oh we did color blind casting #on the space manifest destiny bloated saga #wouldnt it

[nameonthespine]

Catra from she ra for unhinged character bingo? Or just whoever you're currently obsessed with :)

i did catra

and Honestly im not really obsessed with anyone unhinged right now ?? all my obsessions rn are in-universe hinged and/or i am not finished with the game yet

#i am playing bioshock for the first time and MAY END UP loving tenebaum but it is still too early #catra #also just read the new nk jemison book and everyone i like is reasonably hinged #ALSO THANK YOU

[hxans]

Goal met!

Today I finished Firebrand, which is the latest book in the Green Rider series that we own. I've spent the last few weeks rereading the series, and catching up with two we had I hadn't read, Mirror Sight and this one. It was the last book in my TBR pile.

Starting in October or November of last year? I began my goal to reread and complete several series. The Wheel of Time (minus New Spring, but in addition tracking down and buying thr final three written by Sanderson), 14 books. The Deed of Paksenarrion, Legacy of Gird, and Paladin's Legacy series by Elizabeth Moon, 10 books. Percy Jackson series and the Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan, 10 books. The Tiffany Aching discworld novels by Terry Pratchett, 5 books. The Dragonlord trilogy by Joanne Bertin, 3 books, and lastly the 6 books of the Green Rider series.

48 books in 12-14 months, which is a great improvement on previous years when I have read zero or 1-3 books. Not that I didn't read at all during those years, because yay fanfiction, but it bothered me that I seemed to have lost my ability to binge novels once I became a mum. The ability to focus is still there, but there are a lot more adult tasks to deal with that I have had to figure out how to accommodate around to find reading time.

And now we have a new year on us, and Inhave to figure out what my reading goal for 2023 can be. We have a lot of older stuff I can reread, but I'm thinking I should also try some newew authors. Probably I should renew my library acct so I can try before I buy. It's just since living here, I've been a snob, because the last two places I lived had the non-fiction divided into genres. Here the libraries are so small It's sectioned between kids/ya and adult, but all general fiction in one big section so if I don't have a specific author in mind I'm forced to browse everything.

#hxans rl #also I guess I need recs on sci-fi/fantasy from the last 10 years #I've heard good things about nk jemison? #beyond that I haven't kept up #(also the last three wot books did not endear me to that author to try his stuff but maybe I can be convinced...)

[patadave]

A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None

"No geology is neutral, writes Kathryn Yusoff. Tracing the color line of the Anthropocene, A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None examines how the grammar of geology is foundational to establishing the extractive economies of subjective life and the earth under colonialism and slavery. Yusoff initiates a transdisciplinary conversation between black feminist theory, geography, and the earth sciences, addressing the politics of the Anthropocene within the context of race, materiality, deep time, and the afterlives of geology."

You can read the afterword here - https://read.dukeupress.edu/environmental-humanities/article/15/3/284/384010/AfterwordGeotrauma-or-Geology-as-a-Praxis-of

#some NK Jemison inspired scholarship #geotrauma

[oysters-aint-for-me]

books ive read so far in 2024

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers

A Closed and Common Orbit, by Becky Chambers

Record of a Spaceborn Few, by Becky Chambers (are you seeing a theme)

The House on the Cerulean Sea, by TJ Klune

The Galaxy and the Ground Within, by Becky Chambers

A Psalm for the Wild-Built, by Becky Chambers

A Marvellous Light, by Freya Marske

A Restless Truth, by Freya Marske

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, by Becky Chambers

Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Under the Whispering Door, by TJ Klune

Affinity, by Sarah Waters

The City We Became, by NK Jemison

A Power Unbound, by Freya Marske

Passing Strange, by Ellen Klages

The Fifth Season, by NK Jemison

Witchmark, by CL Polk

The Obelisk Gate, by NK Jemisin

The Color of Magic, by Terry Pratchett

Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsin Muir

Winter’s Orbit, by Everina Maxwell

The Stone Sky, by NK Jemisin

Last Night at the Telegraph Club, by Malinda Lo (5/27/24)

Light from Uncommon Stars, by Ryka Aoki (5/31/24)

Tinkers, by Paul Harding (5/31/24)

(i only just decided to start dating when i finished each book oops)

#posting so i can add a link to my pinned post so i can find this list more easily in the future

[gatheringbones]

do you have any fantasy book recs? i'm looking for new stuff, and was going to try out the locked tomb series, but was put off by the quotes i've seen on my dash :/

hell yeah. fortress in the eye of time by cj cherryh— and her Foreigner sci fi series. fierce femmes and notorious liars by Kai cheng thom. the farseer books by robin hobb. anything by nk Jemison.

[thethirdromana]

I have a big clump of thoughts that have been prompted by reading the LOTR newsletter and Dracula Daily at the same time. I haven't quite figured them all out yet, but I'm going to see if writing them out helps.

Specifically the thing I'm interested in is how these books relate to the time at which they were published.

Let's start with the Lord of the Rings. No matter how much I know that the Lord of the Rings was published in the 1950s, there's always a record scratch moment when I'm reminded of it, for instance by discussion of connections to World War II or even World War I.

Because it feels older, right? That's not just me? It feels like it could plausibly have been published in the 1850s rather than the 1950s. A tweet that I now can't find claimed that the Lord of the Rings is among the only exposure that people today have to non-modern ways of thinking. It's a story that Tolkien consciously crafted as mythology. It should feel old, it's supposed to.

But there's also a relationship between this and the response to Tolkien. There's a quote which I also now can't find, which could equally plausibly have been from Ursula Le Guin or some random tumblr post, which says - to paraphrase - Tolkien is the father of all fantasy, and fantasy writers either accept that (Robin Hobb, Brandon Sanderson) or yell "you're not my real dad!" and write in conscious opposition to him (NK Jemison, George RR Martin, in very different ways). But there's no escaping him.

[Edited: @elven-child suggests this could have been Terry Pratchett, who said:

J.R.R. Tolkien has become a sort of mountain, appearing in all subsequent fantasy in the way that Mt. Fuji appears so often in Japanese prints. Sometimes it’s big and up close. Sometimes it’s a shape on the horizon. Sometimes it’s not there at all, which means that the artist either has made a deliberate decision against the mountain, which is interesting in itself, or is in fact standing on Mt. Fuji.

... which I like better than the Oedipal Tolkien-as-father version.]

Game of Thrones was published in 1991. Assassin's Apprentice in 1995. And those are just the examples I chose from books that I can see from where I'm sitting right now. The all-consuming influence of the Lord of the Rings happened very fast after its publication - again, being published in the 1850s would feel more reasonable for the depth and breadth of its cultural impact. It feels like that should take longer!

Then there's Dracula. Which is as consciously modern as the Lord of the Rings is consciously... historic? Medieval? It's remarkable how little effort it would take to move the story of Dracula to the modern day - if Dracula's castle has no wifi and dodgy mobile phone reception, the rest of the story can play out pretty much as-is, with WhatsApp messages standing in for the telegrams and emails for the letters.

(The only bit I would struggle to believe is that Van Helsing could travel back and forth to Amsterdam that often on the Eurostar or Ryanair without once being delayed.)

That's fascinating to me because Dracula is also a call-back to an older mode of writing, just as Tolkien drew on Norse sagas and Old English literature. An epistolary gothic novel is very 18th century. Even in terms of the late 19th century gothic revival, Dracula came along pretty late - Carmilla was 25 years earlier. But instead of the weight of the history of gothic literature dragging Dracula backward, it feels like Dracula drags the rest of it forward instead.

In some ways, I think this is literally what happened. The horror tropes of Dracula became the horror tropes of 20th century cinema, and the result is that the content and themes of gothic literature are familiar to us. We understand most of what Northanger Abbey is parodying even if we've never read the Mysteries of Udolpho or any of the other novels that Austen satirises. The effect of Dracula's popularity has been to keep itself current in ways that Bram Stoker could never have anticipated or planned.

I'm not sure I've figured out exactly what my point is here, but it was fun to think about anyway.

#dracula daily #lotr newsletter #lotr #dracula #long post #ty if you made it to the end of this ramble

[bonesandthebees]

Okay I'm on desktop because my mobile Tumblr is bugged and won't let me view profiles so I haven't been able to send any asks but I'm here now.

Spoilers for The Priory of The Orange Tree btw for anyone who hasn't read it yet (do it. Go in as blind as possible)

I have been reading Priory and was slowly reading a few pages at a time but because I was sick and getting used to some new meds I'm on (hurray for experimentation and diagnosis on the horizon), I found it hard to actually sit down and just read it but I did it today (yesterday? it's 2am) and holyy shit. I went from being just under 20% through the book to 51% (I track my progress with books w a Notion to motivate myself to read lol) in one day and read about 400 pages. I have just hit part 3 after Ead is exiled.

The world is so rich and the characters are so interesting and I can already feel the ideas I have for my own fantasy world and how I can improve on writing / world building from this since complete fantasy is one of my weaker points as a writer but I want to try my hand at doing one that I would maybe publish in the future.

Tane my beloved. I love Tane so much and as much as I love Ead and Loth's povs, I always found myself wanting to go back to her perspective and learn more about dragonriding and the culture of the East, especially in the earlier parts of the book. Loth is a pov I wasn't expecting but I liked more than I thought I did. Especially when he gets to the Priory it is so interesting to see the reaction of someone who believes so much in the religion of the Vitrudom. Also the Yscalin situation breaks my heart. I felt so bad for the Princess during her entire conversation with Loth.

Niclays is the only pov that I don't particularly enjoy. I like his personality and I find his backstory to be interesting but I'm just not as invested in his storyline as I am in everyone else's.

I have stopped myself from reading just to have some restraint and try to get some sleep but I am so excited to read more. Wish I had someone to talk to in person about it but none of my friends are as into books as I am or as fast at reading.

But overall I love this book so far and I am already planning on locating and devouring other books by Shannon, including Day of Fallen Night and her other series I believe the first book of which is called Bone Season? Anyway feel free to give fantasy book recs as I want more. Poppy Wars and Unwind are already on my list.

I generally like darker books but I also like romance from time to time (sapphic preferred but I am not heterophobic)

Splitting into 2 parts because this is already really long.

-Shark anon (it's me I swear)

shark hi omg you have priory talk for me I'm THRILLED

that is so much of the book to read in one day holy shit good job. usually I read for about an hour to an hour and a half every night of whatever book I'm on (although I was reading 2 hours every night with both priory and a day of fallen night bc I was so into them all I wanted to do was read them) and that's about the max my attention span for reading can handle before my brain gets tired

okay you ask for more fantasy recs at the end so I'll answer them here and then put all my priory thoughts in the read more below

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan is less fantasy focused (although there are fantasy elements in it) but it's really interesting with the historical setting (1300s mongol-ruled China) and has incredibly fascinating themes and conversations about gender and masculinity and all that. there are both sapphic and gay relationships focused on in the book. it's definitely darker than priory with a lot more discussions around moral greyness and complicated characters. also, I actually liked the sequel to this one He Who Drowned the World more, although it was way darker than the first book and also made me cry. twice.

right now I'm reading a book called The Fifth Season by NK Jemison, and I love the worldbuilding in this one so much. the POV and narration in the book is done in a fairly unique way at certain points, but the world itself is really what's drawn me in. it's fantasy but in a darker way. the world of The Fifth Season is one that is constantly torn apart by earthquakes so it focuses on a culture that is used to the apocalypse happening basically every few centuries. it's just so interesting to explore a culture so deeply rooted in survival and doomsday prepping and there's also a very fascinating magic system at play here. there is a queer relationship featured in it (only for a part of the book), but it's not sapphic

also right now I'm reading a book called The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri. there's absolutely no reason for me not to be obsessed with this book, but I'll be honest it hasn't grabbed me quite like Priory did. I'm taking a break from it to read the Fifth Season so maybe when I go back to it I'll be more invested? but it's very good! It features incredibly rich worldbuilding with a fantasy empire inspired by Indian culture/history, with a somewhat toxic sapphic romance/dynamic blooming at the center. definitely a lot of potential for this one so we'll see how I feel after I finish it

okay now priory talk time spoilers under the cut

but yes the world is SO rich and all the characters are so interesting. the reason I wanted to read priory in the first place was bc I was trying to read a lot of royalty-centered fantasy to help me write rose, and then I just got completely sucked into the book itself. samantha shannon's worldbuilding is just so richly layered and complex but it never feels too dense to understand. like it's a Lot, but it all flows together so well

definitely agree with your opinions on the POVs. when I was reading I was mostly interested in Ead and Tane, and then Loth got way more interesting to me once he left Yscalin for the Priory. Niclays was the only POV I really struggled to connect to. I liked him a lot more towards the end but even then I still preferred the other POVs. I really like him as a character and I think Shannon does an amazing job with his arc, I just didn't click with him as much as I did the other three POVs

if you're interested in learning more about the East you'll LOVE a day of fallen night. we get to see so much more of Seiiki history with the dragonriders and the government and all that. actually adofn just gives you so much more worldbuilding in general which was incredible for me, because the world and history of the roots of chaos series is what has really roped me in. like I love all the characters so much and I'm usually a character first girlie, but I honestly would read about any characters Samantha Shannon wants to write about in whatever point of history in the roots of chaos world because I just love the world itself so much. but yeah adofn is incredible both story wise and worldbuilding wise (and tbh I think I felt more attached to the characters in adofn than the first book but that might be recency bias). you get to learn so much more about the East as a whole (not just Seiiki, but you spend time in the Empire of the Twelve Lakes AND another country not mentioned in the first book called Sepul), you get to learn about and see a ton of Hróth which is only mentioned in the first book, and you get to see a lot more of life in the Priory as well. it's just so so good you'll love it

I haven't read the bone season and I don't know if I plan to because I read the description for the series and it doesn't seem to be my type of vibe, but I'll consider it if I get through my current reading list (which is ever growing tbh)

so so glad you're enjoying priory so far I'm so happy that so many of you have taken my recommendation

#ask #shark anon #the priory of the orange tree #roots of chaos #book recs

[theinquisitxor]

Top 23 books of 2023

Here are my top books I read in 2023, with a few honorable mentions and rereads below!

A Day of Fallen Night by Samatha Shannon

Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn

Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

The Glass Hotel by Emily St John Mandel

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

The Broken Earth trilogy by NK Jemison (all three books)

The Shadow Histories duology by HG Parry

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

The Age of Darkness trilogy by Katy Rose Pool

11/22/63 by Stephen King

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Starling House by Alix E Harrow

Leviathan Falls (Expanse 9) by James SA Corey

Kaykeyi by Vaishnavi Patel

Damar duology by Robin McKinley

Thornhedge by T Kingfisher

House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones

The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno Garcia

The Adventures of Amina al-Sifafi by Shannon Chakraborty

All the Hidden Paths by Foz Meadows

Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses

A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall

Honorable mentions:

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson

The Sea Around Us by Rachel Carson

The Fragile Treads of Power by VE Schwab

The Hollow Places by T Kingfisher

The River of Silver by SA Chakraborty

Rereads (that were very good):

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

The Wicked King by Holly Black

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows

#2023 reading wrap up #top 23 books in 2023 #my post

[appeypie]

I love your Ghirahim hcs, they're clearly well-thought-out. Love the idea of gender transing magic being a thing. Love the no-gender-having spirit that decides it wants to be a dude thing he and MTT share. Love how Ghirahim is so proud of his body because he made it.

I also love the implication that, since he chose his Hylian form through transformative magic, he chose to have zero ass, lmao.

thank you!!! this guy does indeed take up a lot of space in my brain!!!!

YES i was going to point out how he and mtt are both nonbinary-beings-to-male and i forgot!!! its becoming my favorite thing. absolutely perfect

there's so much swag and euphoria about trans bodies imo so i really love exploring that in fantasy situations. i remember reading a book in high school (the fifth season by NK jemison, i believe) where a trans character had some like, HRT potion or something. i guess it stuck with me!! i love being able to make my flesh vessel my own

and yes, he also chose to have no eyebrows. who knows what is going on in that mind of his

#ask #anon #hes got that s/cout t/f2 concave ass #(and we love him for it)