wearethekat

[wearethekat]

attention this is your captain speaking chag sameach pesach to all celebrating and a reminder do not open the airlock to greet elijah the vulcan rabbinic council ruled that opening the door to the room where the seder is occurring is sufficient elijah can get on a starship just fine himself he just likes to be personally invited in to your seder we dont need another incident like last year thank you

[wearethekat]

honestly sometimes even if something is beautifully technically executed, I just don't gel with it. Forty to sixty pages is where I usually have enough of a feel for a book to say it isn't for me and dnf. If you're really determined, I'd suggest sticking it out for another forty or fifty pages max and see if you're enjoying it then.

going for double damage (inbox +1 AND another suggestion for the tbr). I think you might like The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera. It's a very odd fantasy book with gorgeously written prose about revolution and cults and the ol' imperialisms. Probably one of the best books on a craft and originality level I've read this year.

Oh, and while I'm here, unrecommending The Splinter in the Sky by Kemi Ashing-Giwa. It's covering a lot of the same ground as Memory Called Empire (excellent), and I'd say it's better at depicting the realities of cultural imperialism-- but also. It's also just not as good on a basic prose/craft level and it has a bad case of Surely We Can Solve This Systemic Issue Forever If We Just Kill This One Guy. Deeply frustrating since the premise has a lot of potential.

Surely We Can Solve This Systemic Issue Forever If We Just Kill This One Guy

Yeah this is increasingly becoming, well, not a dealbreaker, but at least a major demerit in books trying to deal with actual issues for me. (At the very least, if you're positing a load-bearing Pope Of Racism, the rest of the setting better be stylized and surreal enough for it to fit).

Anyway I have no memory of hearing of this book before but I did apparently because it's already on my giant tbr list. Will move it up, anyway! Thanks for the rec!

#I'm a big fan of the 'just walk out' school of book reading #if it turns out it IS something you'd like and you just needed to be in the right mood etc. #it's waiting for you at the library to be picked up again #book talk

[wearethekat]

hi hello thanks for the mention! I'm probably not going to pick back up reviewing everything I read anytime soon, but on tumblr my current favorite reviewer is Laya at @aroaessidhe.

personally I pick up recommendations from a variety of places. The site formerly known as tordotcom, now reactor, is pretty good for general reviews. In particular, their twice yearly anticipated new books roundup by Christina Orlando is really great. I also like Jo Walton's monthly column, which is a great eclectic mix of all the book's she's read that month. Author KJ Charles prolifically reviews a wide range of books on her goodreads. And just entering the books you've read on goodreads and going through their recommendations is pretty solid, although it takes a bit of sifting. Goodreads recommendations is probably where I'm getting the bulk of the books I'm reading currently.

Who are your favorite sci-fi and fantasy book reviewers on Tumblr?

Uhh @wearethekat only occasionally posts reviews these days but otherwise on tumblr the answer is 'functionally no one', honestly. I get my book recommendations by general osmosis and friends ranting about them and randon anons coming into my askbox, less so following dedicated reviewers.

#book reviewing brain is still not back from the wars :( #however I'm sending you basically all the books I think you'd particularly like in asks

[wearethekat]

#>:)

[wearethekat]

Already read:

The Familiar, Leigh Bardugo

The Fox Wife, Yangsze Choo

The Warm Hands of Ghosts, Katherine Arden

The Tainted Cup, Robert Jackson Bennet

Have not read and therefore not yet vetted:

Goddess of the River, Vaishnavi Patel

Evocation, ST Gibson

Rakesfall, Vajra Chandrasekera

Long Live Evil, Sarah Rees Brennan

A Sorceress Comes To Call, T Kingfisher

The Last Hour Between Worlds, Melissa Caruso

I also wrote up a post a bit ago for my upcoming anticipated releases of 2024 if you'd like to look through that here.

I'm out of the loop, what are adult fantasy books that came out this year and are good? Or that will come out this year and y'all are excited about?

(no YA please)

#left off the more romancey fantasy books since I couldn't remember how you feel about them #book recommendations

[wearethekat]

Poll for real people this time

#61 #poll

[wearethekat]

reblog to make prev stop having headaches

[wearethekat]

reblog to make prev stop having headaches

[wearethekat]

reblog to make prev stop having headaches

[wearethekat]

that's catnip, not mint, but we can go with it. *plants catnip directly on your dash* heehee :3

*plants mint directly in your dash* heehee :3

#the image is from a stock photo site called 123rf #and they *have* labeled it as Mint Growing In The Ground Stock Photo #however. they don't know what they're talking about. #6 am pedantry

[wearethekat]

Long time no see… so have some imaginary of the Valar Aule and Yavanna. I’ve my own thoughts and ideas why I drew them the way they’re shown but I’m gonna keep it for later :>

#art #lotr

[wearethekat]

jramseyi on Instagram

#art

[wearethekat]

Hold on, just adding to the entire “Noto is best Natasha illustrator” thing. 

Compare these covers illustrated by different artists.

to these covers illustrated by Noto

What a difference, am I right? 

#reblogging for comic artists managing to draw normal adjacent women

[wearethekat]

soothsayer at salt-pillar house

#art #time for fish

[wearethekat]

What's the fastest way to a girl's heart?

median sternotomy

#the locked tomb

[wearethekat]

The reason Ianthe is Like That btw is because the locked tomb is an video game told from the perspective of the NPCs and she’s the Player Character, hope this helps!

Trying to romance every character? ✅

Making the worst possible decisions for no reason other than “unlimited power, and my face on posters”? (That was definitely a multi-choice dialogue option) ✅

Constantly being relevant to the plot and thinking every character in the game loves her even though she has almost exclusively caused misery? ✅

First one to reach the big goal, but not a high enough level for the boss fight, so the NPCs had to step in to remind the game that they are also cool and powerful? ✅

Avatar and clothing change options she keeps using all the time? ✅

Had to level up in friendship with the major NPC of the second arc in order to unlock the legendary item that would boost her weapons damage because she accidentally maxed out on magic in character creation? ✅

#hm. yeah. okay I buy it. #the locked tomb

[wearethekat]

ibtisam! hello there!

are you familiar with Shostakovich's The Nose? It is a very interesting and unique performance.

I am speechless but in awe

#wait is anyone here NOT familiar with shostakovitch's the nose #you're one of today's lucky ten thousand #meet the tap dancing noses #opera