Delusions of Grandeur

In conjunction with cyanmnemosyne and hamsterwoman (and whoever else wants to join!), I'm finally! getting around to reading Moniquill Blackgoose's To Shape a Dragon's Breath, which I was gifted by...hamsterwoman , I think? at least 2 years ago. XD It's always been one of those "I'll get around to it one of these days" books, but now that I know the sequel is coming out on Jan. 27, I figured I'd finally better get a move on. And oh man, am I in the mood for "magic school + scrappy underdog protagonist WITH DRAGONS"! :D

Usual rules apply:

• Anyone is welcome! The post and comments are both public.
• Spoilers will be unmarked up to the listed chapter(s), but please try to avoid spoilers from beyond that point.
• No schedule/time limit - I'm hoping to have it done by the 27th, when To Ride a Rising Storm comes out, but that's not a hard deadline; the post will remain open pretty much indefinitely.
• Have fun!

So it's been a while since I've posted here!

I'll try to avoid talking about IRL politics/world events, especially US ones. Things are bad and scary for all of us, in various permutations. Those "joy is an act of resistance" posts that keep going around have never really worked for me. If even things that are supposed to be escapist are suddenly Heroic Political Resistance, then all this awful shit is truly inescapable. Let's just say that I'm taking Tolkien's direction to "think and talk about other topics than jailers and prison-walls" very much to heart. I'm also making a lot of soup. (I hate making soup. I'm not a fan of cooking in general. But it's something that I like to *have done*, and making soup in particular weirdly makes me feel better. Maybe it's a control thing - everything that's happening feels so wildly beyond my personal ability to affect it, but at least I can make sure my family has something nutritious and okay-bordering-on-good to eat, so that's one less thing to worry about. Or maybe it's so I can tell myself that I'm stressed and upset because I had to spend all afternoon making fucking soup, rather than all the other reasons to be stressed and upset. I dunno.)

So, yeah. I hope you're all escaping your prisons, making your soup, making somebody you love smile, whatever works for you.


Geopolitical aaaaaaaa aside, weirdly, the news in my life has been mostly good. R2 continues to be the Actual Best Husband, and a few years ago we adopted two extremely fluffy and wonderful cats, Jasper (who is voluminous and gentlemanly) and Sammy (who is paranoid but slowly coming to accept that we're not trying to eat him *all* the time). Pics to come!

( My brother P moved in with us temporarily... I think two years ago now? )

( I'm a capital-L librarian now! )

Overall, my IRL life has been a series of surprisingly bright spots!


Reading/fandom stuff has been... a bit up and down, actually. There were quite a few things that looked promising but staggered in vital ways/failed to fulfill their early promise, but there were also a few solid hits, and a few at least interesting failures! (Or at least "I respect what you're doing even if I don't like it.")

First, because it's what everybody is talking about: the Murderbot TV show. I know I always harp on about how I miss the old 24-episode format, which allows for broader and less-hurried character development, but for this, the 10-episode prestige miniseries format worked perfectly. For a short, tightly-written, fairly high-octane story, it made a short, tightly-written, fairly high-octane miniseries.

Did I like it? ...I think so. I definitely liked that everyone involved seems to have been a massive fan of the books, that Martha Wells was involved so heavily, and (it sounds like) that she was given so much creative control. I think most of the things that annoyed me are actually either "they changed it and now it sucks" or inevitable consequences of the print-to-screen process. So while my overall enjoyment might have been like a 7/10, fairly I think this is a solid 9-9.5/10 show.

( My thoughts (spoilery for the show, plus all books through System Collapse)... )
I had planned on writing about a whole bunch of other stuff (Le Guin! Romance novels! Hugo nominees!) buuut I do want to get this post out sometime this week, so I'll have to save those for next time. XD

'Tis the season, right?

But seriously, I am so goddamn lucky to have such a wonderful life. Every year at Thanksgiving, I used to say "I'm grateful for my problems," since holy shit they could be worse. These days, I think "I'm grateful for my problems" sounds a little smug and facile, so I don't say it anymore, but I'm very aware, and very fortunate, that my problems are along the lines of "I don't get along particularly well with one of my siblings, although we're both trying" or "I have a weird sensory processing disorder that gives me a hard time at work" or "I worry a lot about climate change." I have a roof over my head, a fridge full of food, a meaningful job that pays well, and a life full of wonderful people who love me, and this situation is likely to continue on pretty much the same. Oh, and great wi-fi. What more could I ask for?

( R2, my cats, the rest of my family, Bestchat, my health, my job, my home - that's a lot to be grateful for! )

 

Next up!


Seven Surrenders, by Ada Palmer.

( Usual disclaimer: spoilers for this and the previous volume. I did my best to avoid spoilers for book 3, but I wrote this after finishing book 3, so I can't make any ironclad promises... )( Extra cut because the formatting to messed up somehow... )
 Seven Surrenders really upped the ante of Too Like the Lightning, and some of the murkier plot threads have started to come home to roost. But the best is yet to come!

I am now officially up to date with the Tarot Sequence! :D

The Eidolon, by K.D. Edwards

Apparently this was a whole subplot that had to be excised from The Hourglass Throne for length reasons, and KDE used the opportunity to expand it into a whole-ass novella. In some ways, this really shows - it doesn't stand on its own or anything like, and it did have a certain Lower Decks Episode feel - but overall it feels more cohesive than the mishmash I was expecting.

( Terrible Teens shenanigans, more Portenteousness, and the requisite Big Bad scenery-chewing... )

Continuity-wise, I held off posting this review because I wanted to pair it with my review of "The Separation," the last of the free stories on KDE's website, but it's all of four pages long, and the plot is thus: a tutor tries to separate toddler!Rune and toddler!Brand, and gets whacked on the ankle by Brand, glowed angrily at by Rune, and yelled at by Lord Sun for his troubles. It's cute, but there's not exactly a lot to unpack. XD


But hey, since I did hold off, I've had time to dive into the fandom a bit, and I have fic recs! Only a couple so far, but as predicted, this is a fandom that lends itself *very* well to fanstuff.

You and Me, You and Me, You and Me, by Z_Aggro: one snapshot of Rune&Brand per year, from birth to age 20. Some are cloying (the cookie heist thing), some are heartbreaking (Rune after his own assault vs. Rune after Brand's whipping), and some are actually pretty goddamn adorable (their superhero game!!!). We also got some good insights into Brand's character - apparently he's a sci-fi nerd/Trekkie, or at least he was before the fall of the Sun Court! His favorite color is yellow for totally not-Rune-related reasons! Mayan taught him to play the guitar as post-Sun Court therapy! Anyway, this was sweet and incisive, with spot-on characterization and some great moments.

The Past Rewinds, by TheWriterWhoNeverWrites: Addam takes a hit meant for Rune, and temporarily loses the last ~15 years of his memory; implied to take place about 2/3 through The Hourglass Throne. I really want to see this idea explored more, because what we got is excellent. The surface stuff is mainly funny, fluffy, casefic/slice-of-life stuff (Addam immediately hits on Brand the mysterious hot Companion who apparently saved him, for example, and comes to some...interesting conclusions about what's up with his hand), but the undercurrents are all actually kinda heartbreaking. It's clear that Lady Jade, who launched the spell in the first place, meant to incapacitate Rune by sending him back to the time immediately after his assault, which would have been Very Bad, and Addam is heartbreakingly happy to see Quinn, who he last saw as a tiny baby, already deeply beloved but with very low chances of survival, as a happy, healthy (minus some nosebleeds and the occasional training-induced bruise), and thriving teenager. Again, great characterization, and leaning in an OT3 direction that I'm entirely happy with. :D

Scenes from Quarantine, by K.D. Edwards

( Apparently COVID happened in this 'verse! Look here for all the 'love in the time of COVID' fluff you can shake a stick at but not so much for plot or structure... )


Scenes from the Holidays, by K.D. Edwards

( A step up, in that there was something vaguely approaching a plot (invlolving stakes, conflict, etc.), but still with a highly fanfic-y vibe... )


The Great Atlantean Battle Royalchemy, by K.D. Edwards

( The best of the bunch - there's an actual plot this time! With a potentially deadly problem to solve and everything!... )


So that's it for the novellas/short story collections! They increased dramatically in quality (or at least in my enjoyment of them) from earliest to latest, but even the...least engaging of them was short enough to go down smooth, and the most engaging of them was a damn good time.

This was supposed to be a long and hopefully not too maudlin post about Big Family Health News, but then I tripped and fell headlong into this book, so y'all are getting the fun review first and the waily-waily-waily IRL stuff whenever I finish the post a little later. :D


The Last Sun, by K.D. Edwards.

May I just say: I fucking LOVED this book. It has so much of what was good about the Dresden Files - the snappy smartass dialogue, the cool fight scenes, the tight pacing, the genuine noir feeling - but so few of what was... less good. I certainly don't get the feeling that "yiiiiiiikes, Harry's attitude towards women isn't just a narrative choice, is it? D:", and when Rune's teenaged apprentice(/ward) develops a crush on him, he shuts that shit right down instead of awkwardly ruminating about how hot said teenaged apprentice(/ward) has become, But I Mustn't.

( As promised: snappy dialogue, cool fight scenes, tight pacing, genuine noir, and now with bonus found family!... )

So, yeah, I liked this book a normal amount. I've already requested the next novel, The Hanged Man, from the library, and I've discovered a delightful treasure trove of bonus stuff on the author's website, including an interim novella, which I've barely begun but hope to have finished in short order. :D

First, the big news: I had my first Actual Grownup Surgery with general anesthesia and very serious instructions for incision care and everything! I got my tubes tied last Friday. Or rather, I guess I should say I had my tubes removed - apparently the risk of ectopic pregnancy is to high with tying/clamping/burning/otherwise separating the Fallopian tubes, so now they just remove them altogether, which also greatly decreases the risk of ovarian cancer. Yay!

( I've known I didn't want to have kids ever since I became aware that it was an option... (TW: abortion, miscarriage, generally unpleasant medical/childbirth stuff) )

Anyway, tl;dr: getting one's tubes tied is a big decision, and not one to be made lightly, but I made it, and here I am!

( The actual procedure went pretty smoothly... (TW: medical stuff) )
Speaking of! I inhaled Paladin's Strength pretty much as soon as I got it, but overall I think I liked Paladin's Grace a little better. I was very much looking forward to a longer Saint of Steel novel, but ultimately I think this one could have been a good 15% shorter with not much lost.

( A little too much yearning for my taste, but plenty of  )

Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir.

Overall, I liked Gideon the Ninth? I think??? I certainly came away with very...mixed feelings about it. I spent most of the book preemptively mad at it for what I thought would be the reveal that Magnus and Abigail were the villains all along - I thought I'd been spoiled for that at some point in the past, but I guess not. I didn't much like Gideon as a protagonist, although I did like her as a narrator. (More on this later.) I thought that both she and Harrow were interesting characters, and I liked some of their couple-y moments, but ultimately they fell flat as a couple for me. I liked a lot of the other Houses a LOT, and I wish we'd gotten to see way, way more of them, particularly the Fourth and Fifth.

You see what I mean about mixed feelings. XD

( Spoilers herein... )

Overall I think I enjoyed Gideon the Ninth, even though I did find it frustrating a lot of the time. From what everybody has said, both aspects are amplified in Harrow the Ninth, so while I probably will read it eventually, I think I'll have to let the frustration/annoyance fade a bit before I do.


Mélusine, by Sarah Monette.

( I hope you like your swashbuckling and political intrigue with a side of Oh No That's Actually Horrifying... )

TL;DR: All of the trigger warnings for sexual assault and very child-unfriendly violence. That said, though, this was a great mix of deadly decadent court politics, good old-fashioned skulduggery, and intense magical WTF-ery. Actually, "intense" is a good word for Mélusine in general - it sucked me in early on, and I was *gone* until almost the very end. And yes, I do have the second volume on order from the library. :D

I'm about to dive headfirst into a syncread of Everina Maxwell's Winter's Orbit with hamsterwoman, ikel89, and cyanshadow (plus a few other people, I expect) (syncread post here, for my own reference), but before I immerse myself in Space Gays, I thought I'd get down my thoughts on my latest batch of Fantasy Gays, to make sure I do them justice. :D

Master of One, by Jaida Jones and Dani Bennett, was another one I came across at work. It seemed to be a mildly entertaining popcorn read - a YA fantasy heist with a soupcon of queer romance. The professional reviews were good and there were no holds, so I thought, "why not?"

Hoo boy.

Maybe it was because I was coming off of a losing streak (To Sleep in a Sea of Stars shaded from Actually Bad to He's Trying, and Shadows Rising never rose beyond the level of middling fanfic) so anything even marginally good would spark joy, or maybe it was just a right place, right time thing. I'm not sure what it was, but I fell HARD for this book. Like, reading it was such an experience of pure and utter joy like I haven't felt in *years*. I've certainly read better books recently, but none that were as *fun*. This is exactly what would happen if you told Scott Lynch to re-write Six of Crows but Make It Queer. All of the delicious fantasy heist elements, snappy dialogue, creative swearing, and magnetic characters, with much less Teen Angst and virtually no meandering flashbacks.

( Extensive squee (spoilers abound...) )

TL;DR: I'm not sure I'm qualified to write an objective review on Jaida Jones and Dani Bennett's Master of One, because it apparently reaches deep into my id and presses every trope button I've got. It's occasionally a bit silly, but I'm afloat on a sea of Found Family/Battle Couple/honorable faerie knights/smartass Master Thieves/good queer representation/badass ladies/schemes/etc./etc./etc. I loved it wholeheartedly and I Cannot Fucking Wait for the sequel it's clearly setting up. :DDD