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Reading: I finished Trollope's The Warden and started Barchester Towers. It's been a while since I reread the Barchester books; I reread (some of) the Palliser novels pretty regularly but not these. My problem is that I did not remember how much I disliked Slope and everything about him, including how Trollope talks about him. Will I keep reading? Probably, but right now I feel like this is a book without any characters that I am particularly fond of, and that's not a great way to be embarking on a long novel. I know that Mr Slope will eventually meet his downfall but I'm not sure I want to hang around with these people long enough to see it come.

Watching: I subscribed to HBO Max when I re-subscribed to Disney (in order to watch the new Percy Jackson season with Spartacus) and have this finally been able to watch The Pitt. I am up to episode 5 of season 1 nd am really enjoying it! The characters are great, the medical plotlines are compelling and moving, and I feel like having the whole season take place on a single day gives everyone and everything a chance to breathe. In fact I'm going to watch a couple more episodes now.

isis

What I've recently finished reading:

The Tiger and the Wolf by Adrian Tchaikovsky, first book in the Echoes of the Fall series. This is a fantasy Bronze-Age-ish world where tribes not only identify with an animal-god, but tribal members can shapeshift into the form of that animal at will. Interestingly, people can see at a glance which animal-tribe people are part of, seeing their "soul"; each also has its own culture which seems appropriate for the associated animal, i.e. the Wolf people are pack-oriented, aggressive, dominating, while the Bear people are big and shambling and prefer their solitary caves. The story follows a teen girl, Maniye, who has two souls and therefore two forms - that of her father, the Wolf that raised her, and that of her mother, a captured Tiger - but it's more of an adult story than YA, even though it's largely a coming-of-age narrative. There are hints of dark things coming, the return of the "Plague People" who the people of this land came here to escape; these are people who have no souls, which again is something plainly visible. I liked this a lot! So I'm reading the second book now, The Bear and the Serpent.

(I should say, I really like the major Bear character, Loud Thunder, who basically wants to sit in his cave with his dogs and sometimes go out and hunt and not be bothered by, ugh, people, but unfortunately has a Destiny, and hates it. Also the major Serpent character - the Serpents in general are super interesting, sort of the wise elders of the world.)

What I'm currently watching:

We finished S1 and are now mid-S2 of The Empress. It's oddly butting up against The Leopard now as we're getting to the Italian provinces of the Austrian Empire agitating for freedom and a united Italy, even mentioned Garibaldi. I love the history of it all, the problems of an old world inexorably moving into the modern times, rulers having to face the collisions of the privilege they love and the reality of being a good leader. Also the costumes, especially the womens' gowns, are fantastic.

What I'm currently playing:

Still Ghost of Tsushima. It's so pretty! And I appreciate that there are a number of female swordsmen and archers, even if it's not strictly historically factual.

hiddencait

As stolen from

swingandswirl

01. Grab the nearest book.

02. Turn to page 126

03. The 6th full sentence is your life in 2026.

From THE RESURRECTIONIST by Kathleen S. Allen, one of several ARCs I won off Goodreads last year that uh... I have yet to finish. Oh well, they're on my priority TBR for the Beat The Backlist 2026 challenge.

Ready for the quoted sentence?

"Hmm."

......... ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW???

gelliaclodiana

I had a very successful Yuletide from my perspective! I received a really good story, Threads in the Weave, by tryphaine. It's based on a novella by an author from the 1920s named Eleanor Ingram; her stuff is very iddy if you like loyalty, as I do. There is also rather a lot of orientalizing and general othering, in a way reminiscent of Dorothy Dunnet but turned up a notch or three. In fact I would not be shocked to find that Dunnett had read Ingram's work at some point.

Anyway, you can read the novella here: Don Estevan's Honor, and more of the author's short stories are available on the same website here. it isn't all historical, except in the sense that some of it is about stuff contemporaneous with Ingram herself, like early automobile racing.

I also wrote a story I really liked, and the recipient enjoyed it too. (So, surprisingly, did a couple of other people.)

The Parthenos in All Her Glory (13335 words) by MagnithWrites
Chapters: 3/3
Fandom: Exiles Saga and Galactic Milieu - Julian May
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Felice Landry & Elizabeth Orme, Felice Landry/Katlinel the Dark-Eyed
Characters: Felice Landry, Elizabeth Orme, Creyn (Julian May), Epone (Julian May), Katlinel the Dark-Eyed (Julian May), Kuhal Earthshaker, Fian Skybreaker, Nodonn Battlemaster, Sebi-Gomnol (Julian May), Thagdal (Julian May)
Additional Tags: Felice as murderous horse girl, the horse is also murderous, Discussion of Forced Pregnancy, rejection of forced pregnancy, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, canon-typical sexual abuse of background characters, Minor Character Death, more than one severed head
Summary: At Castle Gateway, Felice makes an impression on the Tanu. The evolution of the maiden goddess, from Mistress of Beasts to Lady of the City.

I had no idea how much I wanted this story myself until I started writing it! I don't think it would make any sense to someone who hadn't read the books, since basically it involved putting one of the series villains into the position of one of the heroes, and seeing what happens. But it had been years since I reread the start of the series, and I know the first book was published in the early 80s but wow, there was A LOT of casual misogyny and homophobia in the supposedly enlightened future universe. I began to think that maybe this violent and uncooperative character had a point, right from the start.

I also had rather a lot of fun working all the mythological references in, since that's an underlying theme in the books; but mine were more classical than celtic, in the end.

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28

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