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It's been a minute. I'm okay. Just trucking along day by day in this weird post-COVID world. There has been some major depression. I'm still living in Pelican Town pretty much full time. (Where would we all be without Stardew Valley?)
Every day at work is incredibly frantic and I don't really understand why? It's numerically not much busier, but everything is more difficult. It's like someone turned the gravity up, and all tasks are effortful. Not just for me, but for everyone at work. We're all getting mystery illnesses that I can only put down to stress. Kidney stones and cellulitis and shingles. I've cracked two teeth this year.
In better news, the cats are getting friendlier and friendlier, though they're still acquaintances rather than friends. As of today, though, they're acquaintances who sniff each other's butts. Huge strides in cat society.
( Tenuous cat harmony under the cut )
This is technically a reading post. Reading is a thing I can do while working out or crafting or just staring at the wall, so I've actually read a fair bit!
The Just City by Jo Walton, narrated by Noah Michael Levine (Book 1 of the Thessaly Series)
- amazing premise: Athene creates a planned community based on Plato's Republic, then grabs idealists from all parts of the timestream to govern and raise orphan children in perfect platonic conditions.
- did not stick the landing, and the closer I got to the end, the more I felt the whole story start to collapse.
- was still a worthy read, because wow, what a concept.
( spoilers are a thought experiment )
This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron, narrated by Jordan Cobb
- AAAdorable
- a perfect gift for queer nerdy teenagers
- protagonist is a queer nerdy POC teenager
- who happens to have magic plant abilities
- and a weird affinity for poisonous plants
- really creative ideas in this
- tone pitches at the younger end of YA
- without being patronising or saccharine
- kind of a cross between X-Men stuff and magic
- don't usually see mutant/magic kids coming from happy homes
( Keep spoilers out of reach of children )
Velocity Weapon by Megan E. O'Keefe, narrated by Joe Jameson
- Soldier is kidnapped by a grief-mad ship
- Yes, this is a plot in Radchaai dramas
- I think it was probably done better in the Radch
- They would certainly say so, anyway.
( Spoilers saw the target as they went whistling past )
Circe by Madeline Miller, narrated by Perdita Weeks
- gorgeous, dreamy writing
- Real Housewives of Mythology but in a good way
- Circe is compelling, empathetic, a great character voice
- Narration is intimate, enfolding, beautifully done
- Scylla will be in my nightmares forever
- Wtaf happened to Madeline Miller that she thought of this?
- I bet she met something very nasty in the garden, with too many legs and possibly mucous
- Old gods are great and terrible and make the worst relatives
- And new gods are that newly rich family with the big big house and a swimming pool
- while you're stuck in your cave with all your cousins who are also your sisters somehow
- You can tell I devoured this book like it was a big messy delicious peach
( Cut is delicious right up until the last mouthful )
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison, narrated by Kyle McCarley
- First up, I liked this book a lot, jsyk
- but it's not a good one for audio
- not because of the narrator, he was fine. He was great.
- The problem was the abundance of Elvish words
- It took me 2/3 of the book to figure out what was terminology or titles of address, and not actual names
- SO MANY DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE COURT all with different elvish names
- ALL THE SEXY YOUNG THINGS ARE CALLED MIN WHY
- (Min is a pretty sexy name, much sexier than Miss)
- It seems obvious when I write it down
- but at the time I was very confused
- I did enjoy it very much once I realised
- Maia is a true cinnamon roll
- Might go back and relisten now I have a better idea of the language
Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, narrated by Yetta Gottesman
- Ohhhhh lovely
- Okay. I think I found a new author to follow
- (Oooh, she has so much to read!)
- This is set in Jazz-age Mexico
- starring a clever maid on a quest
- alongside an ancient Mayan god of death fighting to regain his throne
- and a supporting cast that will dazzle and delight you
- and yet retain historical context
- it's honestly so fucking good
- cannot endorse more highly
- where are my five seasons and a movie???
The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, narrated by Kevin R Free
- caught myself all the way up
- but read the last two out of order, I think?
- didn't matter, I figured it out
- I like Kevin R Free's narration, it reminds me that I have a tendency to slide into a head voice for Murderbot that is distinctly feminine, and kind of pulls me back into an ungendered POV
- Huh, I didn't read them out of order, now that I look on Audible
- Network Effect (the novel) is fantastic, omg, how far our little murderbot has come!
- It still seems to me like Fugitive Telemetry (the novella Audible calls #6 in the series), is set before the novel. There's none of the consequences we see in Network Effect. It's weird.
- I love the series but I am confuse.
The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri, narrated by Shiromi Arserio
- *screams in happy lesbian*
- this is very beautiful and very gay
- it has all the fairytale tropes, and an Indian-inspired world
- only gay
- gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous magic system
- I love everyone in thisbar novel
- cannot wait for the sequel
( this content warning cut is on fiyah )
The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison, narrated by Imogen Church
- First comes the moment when you realise you're reading Sherlock Holmes wingfic
- Then comes the moment when you say 'fuck it, I'm enjoying it'
- Confused as to why names had to be changed
- and frankly, calling Watson 'Doyle' is a little on the nose
- This is not a Jam Watson though
- He will certainly fuck you up a lot if you cross him
- The good thing about Holmes AUs is picking up on which canon stories are being used
- This was well done in the book! Comfy and familiar, but with interesting twists
- Angel society was beautiful and layered and weird
- It was very clear that this came from the hand that wrote The Goblin Emperor
- Narration was a bit odd, with heavy emphasis on the LAST. WORDS. OF. EACH. SENTENCE.
- It took a while to get used to, but fortunately the drama of the book rose to a point that NEEDED. EMPHASIS.
( Spoilers have unexpected twists )
Stories of the Raksura Book 1 by Martha Wells, narrated by Christopher Kipiniak
- Short stories
- These books are always fun
- I love these poly matriarchal dragon folk
- not much else to say? These books are a known quantity to me
- but if you're into found family, non-human dynamics, magic
- you're probably going to like this series
- and there's a bunch of them yay
Welp, this post has taken me a week to write. I'm going to cut it short here and keep going on a new post that will probably take me a whole week again.
It's still nice to post, I have to say. *waves*
Every day at work is incredibly frantic and I don't really understand why? It's numerically not much busier, but everything is more difficult. It's like someone turned the gravity up, and all tasks are effortful. Not just for me, but for everyone at work. We're all getting mystery illnesses that I can only put down to stress. Kidney stones and cellulitis and shingles. I've cracked two teeth this year.
In better news, the cats are getting friendlier and friendlier, though they're still acquaintances rather than friends. As of today, though, they're acquaintances who sniff each other's butts. Huge strides in cat society.
( Tenuous cat harmony under the cut )
This is technically a reading post. Reading is a thing I can do while working out or crafting or just staring at the wall, so I've actually read a fair bit!
The Just City by Jo Walton, narrated by Noah Michael Levine (Book 1 of the Thessaly Series)
- amazing premise: Athene creates a planned community based on Plato's Republic, then grabs idealists from all parts of the timestream to govern and raise orphan children in perfect platonic conditions.
- did not stick the landing, and the closer I got to the end, the more I felt the whole story start to collapse.
- was still a worthy read, because wow, what a concept.
( spoilers are a thought experiment )
This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron, narrated by Jordan Cobb
- AAAdorable
- a perfect gift for queer nerdy teenagers
- protagonist is a queer nerdy POC teenager
- who happens to have magic plant abilities
- and a weird affinity for poisonous plants
- really creative ideas in this
- tone pitches at the younger end of YA
- without being patronising or saccharine
- kind of a cross between X-Men stuff and magic
- don't usually see mutant/magic kids coming from happy homes
( Keep spoilers out of reach of children )
Velocity Weapon by Megan E. O'Keefe, narrated by Joe Jameson
- Soldier is kidnapped by a grief-mad ship
- Yes, this is a plot in Radchaai dramas
- I think it was probably done better in the Radch
- They would certainly say so, anyway.
( Spoilers saw the target as they went whistling past )
Circe by Madeline Miller, narrated by Perdita Weeks
- gorgeous, dreamy writing
- Real Housewives of Mythology but in a good way
- Circe is compelling, empathetic, a great character voice
- Narration is intimate, enfolding, beautifully done
- Scylla will be in my nightmares forever
- Wtaf happened to Madeline Miller that she thought of this?
- I bet she met something very nasty in the garden, with too many legs and possibly mucous
- Old gods are great and terrible and make the worst relatives
- And new gods are that newly rich family with the big big house and a swimming pool
- while you're stuck in your cave with all your cousins who are also your sisters somehow
- You can tell I devoured this book like it was a big messy delicious peach
( Cut is delicious right up until the last mouthful )
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison, narrated by Kyle McCarley
- First up, I liked this book a lot, jsyk
- but it's not a good one for audio
- not because of the narrator, he was fine. He was great.
- The problem was the abundance of Elvish words
- It took me 2/3 of the book to figure out what was terminology or titles of address, and not actual names
- SO MANY DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE COURT all with different elvish names
- ALL THE SEXY YOUNG THINGS ARE CALLED MIN WHY
- (Min is a pretty sexy name, much sexier than Miss)
- It seems obvious when I write it down
- but at the time I was very confused
- I did enjoy it very much once I realised
- Maia is a true cinnamon roll
- Might go back and relisten now I have a better idea of the language
Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, narrated by Yetta Gottesman
- Ohhhhh lovely
- Okay. I think I found a new author to follow
- (Oooh, she has so much to read!)
- This is set in Jazz-age Mexico
- starring a clever maid on a quest
- alongside an ancient Mayan god of death fighting to regain his throne
- and a supporting cast that will dazzle and delight you
- and yet retain historical context
- it's honestly so fucking good
- cannot endorse more highly
- where are my five seasons and a movie???
The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, narrated by Kevin R Free
- caught myself all the way up
- but read the last two out of order, I think?
- didn't matter, I figured it out
- I like Kevin R Free's narration, it reminds me that I have a tendency to slide into a head voice for Murderbot that is distinctly feminine, and kind of pulls me back into an ungendered POV
- Huh, I didn't read them out of order, now that I look on Audible
- Network Effect (the novel) is fantastic, omg, how far our little murderbot has come!
- It still seems to me like Fugitive Telemetry (the novella Audible calls #6 in the series), is set before the novel. There's none of the consequences we see in Network Effect. It's weird.
- I love the series but I am confuse.
The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri, narrated by Shiromi Arserio
- *screams in happy lesbian*
- this is very beautiful and very gay
- it has all the fairytale tropes, and an Indian-inspired world
- only gay
- gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous magic system
- I love everyone in this
- cannot wait for the sequel
( this content warning cut is on fiyah )
The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison, narrated by Imogen Church
- First comes the moment when you realise you're reading Sherlock Holmes wingfic
- Then comes the moment when you say 'fuck it, I'm enjoying it'
- Confused as to why names had to be changed
- and frankly, calling Watson 'Doyle' is a little on the nose
- This is not a Jam Watson though
- He will certainly fuck you up a lot if you cross him
- The good thing about Holmes AUs is picking up on which canon stories are being used
- This was well done in the book! Comfy and familiar, but with interesting twists
- Angel society was beautiful and layered and weird
- It was very clear that this came from the hand that wrote The Goblin Emperor
- Narration was a bit odd, with heavy emphasis on the LAST. WORDS. OF. EACH. SENTENCE.
- It took a while to get used to, but fortunately the drama of the book rose to a point that NEEDED. EMPHASIS.
( Spoilers have unexpected twists )
Stories of the Raksura Book 1 by Martha Wells, narrated by Christopher Kipiniak
- Short stories
- These books are always fun
- I love these poly matriarchal dragon folk
- not much else to say? These books are a known quantity to me
- but if you're into found family, non-human dynamics, magic
- you're probably going to like this series
- and there's a bunch of them yay
Welp, this post has taken me a week to write. I'm going to cut it short here and keep going on a new post that will probably take me a whole week again.
It's still nice to post, I have to say. *waves*
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