Siavahda's Blog, page 63

Behold the Perfect Vampire Book: Darknesses by Lachelle Seville

Darknesses (Darknesses #1) by Lachelle Seville
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Black bisexual MC, Black pansexual love interest, F/F, Black secondary characters
PoV: First-person, present-tense
ISBN: B09KB5XK5F
Goodreads

It’s been a year since Oasis stumbled away from Blessed Falls with wings carved into her back and too many scars to count.

A year spent razing delusions of being an angel's vessel, proving to her brother that she doesn’t belong in a psych ward, and mourning the loss of her mother's vinyl pressed ashes.

A year spent struggling to feel human again.

Enter Laura, the mesmerizing stranger who claims to hear Oasis’ heartbeat, who reads her hand-written memoir like scripture, who makes her feel closer to found than lost.

Laura is the most recent face of the eternal Count Dracula, ruler of the shadows, chimera of the Devil, and embittered victim of libel.

The Van Helsing Institute have been waiting for a glimpse of the dragon’s underbelly, and eagerly approach Oasis for her help in a ploy to kill Dracula for good. But not every wound from Blessed Falls has cicatrized, and Oasis realizes she may be a danger to Laura—and to herself.

Yet no one is as dangerous as Laura—the first vampire, the Devil's plaything, and the person with whom Oasis finally feels human.

Oceans of time have passed since she last had a drink, and she will not let Oasis go easily.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-11T08:31:00+00:00", "description": "Think Twilight, but grown-up, Black, queer as fuck, and featuring vampires that are unapologetically deadly.\n\n...So the anti-Twilight, basically.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/behold-the-perfect-vampire-book-darknesses-by-lachelle-seville\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Darknesses (Darknesses #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Lachelle Seville", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "B09KB5XK5F" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": 5, "bestRating": "5" }} Highlights

~Black vampires!
~so many flavours of queer
~own your scars
~#BatsAreBest
~beware pink flames

Darknesses is officially my new favourite vampire novel.

Seriously, there is nothing I do not love about this book! It had me laughing my head off, reading quotes aloud to the hubby, clutching my ereader to my chest, and breathless on the edge of my seat by turns. Once I started reading, I couldn’t stop until I reached the end – I ended up devouring the whole book in two sittings, and it would have been one if I hadn’t had to break to sleep!

Where do I even start???

If I were pitching Darknesses to a friend, I’d probably say something like: this is Twilight grown up, Black, queer as fuck, and featuring vampires that are unapologetically deadly.

…So nothing like Twilight, basically. The anti-Twilight, in fact.

IT’S SO FREAKING AWESOME!

Oasis is a survivor still adapting to the ‘normal’ world after years of being brainwashed and brutalised by a cult. Laura is the glorious woman who sweeps into the bookshop where Oasis works to buy every copy of Dracula she can find – so that she can burn them. Because they’re libel against the true Dracula – Laura herself.

When the two of them hit it off, it’s a catalyst that changes them both forever.

Oasis is no simpering, meek, swept-off-her-feet romance heroine, seduced to the dark side by the big bad vampire; she’s fragile in some ways after what she’s been through, and has healing to do, but she’s a survivor, tough as nails and fierce and infinitely far from passive. She accepts Laura’s strangeness lovingly, easily, and reading along as she grew into her confidence and strength over the course of the book was a joy. I can’t remember the last time I cheered on a character this much!

“You were born in the 1400s?”

Laura licks wine off her lips, nodding.

“January 26th, 1431, in Sighisoara.”

“I was born July 13th, 1996, in Wichita,” I say. “I should check and see if we’re astrologically compatible.”

And Laura. I love Laura. I LOVE LAURA! I cannot express the gleeful DELIGHT I felt as Laura was just…completely open and straightforward about being a vampire and also Extremely Intense. I gods-damn adored it. There’s no hiding. There’s no bs-ing. Laura just straight-up says what she means and it is both incredibly refreshing and so, SO funny!

“Did you follow me home because I look like Billie Holiday?”

“I followed you home because your heartbeat lives in my head. I wished to be closer.”

A line like that ought to make me cringe with second-hand embarrassment, but somehow Seville makes it work – Laura comes across as intense, and possibly alarming, but not over-dramatic, cheesy, or fake. She’s forthright and straightforward, and I think it’s that delivery that makes me sit up and pay attention, absolutely buying into every word. The effect is both funny – especially since the reader is in on the joke that Laura really is a vampire – and drives home her complete unhumanity, her very distinct Otherness.

“It’s like telling a stranger you love them.”

“Have you ever done so?”

“No.”

“Although we will not be strangers for long, I am here as one now, should you wish to change that.”

Some of that Otherness manifests itself in a kind of…cluelessness about certain aspects of modern life, or romantic relationships. These moments are brilliant not just for their comedy factor, but to…for lack of a better term, ‘humanise’ Laura for us. Yes, she’s ancient and powerful and dangerous – but that doesn’t mean she’s always untouchably perfect.

“There is no creature more noble than the bat,” Laura replies, turning to face me. “Were I alive, I would lay down my life for any bat that asked it of me.”

“As your human, I’m not sure how to feel about that.”

She opens her mouth, then closes it, looking at me like I’ve taken her off guard–confused her, even. “I must reevaluate.”

Suave and Intense one second – adorably confused the next. I recognise that this is a weird thing to say about Dracula, but – she’s so CUTE when she’s confused or flustered!!!

And her commentary on humanity??? Priceless.

“My wealth is vast, but it is also several centuries in the making,” Laura says as she steers the car towards the street. “I consider it reparations for having to witness mankind for this long.”

Darknesses is compulsively readable – the prose is quick and gleaming, managing to feel light and easy to read even when the narrative is tackling something heavy – but what also needs saying is: you have no idea where this book is going to go. I’m not kidding: I don’t care what you expect, Seville will still manage to take you by surprise. Darknesses has so many twists and turns, so much lore and worldbuilding, so many jaw-dropping reveals – this is NOT a simple vampire urban romance. It’s not even a simple reimagining of the Dracula myth and history – Seville has a lot more than vampires up her sleeve, and that’s after her incredible take on the First Vampire (which, genuinely, I adore and now consider canon), all of which is beautifully woven together into a cohesive whole.

I am in awe of the mind that came up with all this!

“You think I would be so shallow as to care whether you are a good person?” Laura asks.

This book is a gorgeous, addictive combination of darkness, sexuality, and unexpected whimsy; it’s vicious and tender and full of laughter; nuanced and intricate and utterly delicious. I want to eat it up with a spoon.

This is unquestionably one of the best books of 2022, and if you miss it, you are missing out.

The post Behold the Perfect Vampire Book: Darknesses by Lachelle Seville appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

From Nowhere, a Beast: Origin of Storms by Elizabeth Bear

The Origin of Storms (Lotus Kingdoms, #3) by Elizabeth Bear
Genres: Fantasy, High Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Third-sex/trans MC, disabled MC, South Asian-coded setting and cast
PoV: 3rd person past tense, multiple PoVs
Published on: 28th June 2022
Goodreads

Hugo Award-winning author Elizabeth Bear returns with the stunning conclusion to her acclaimed epic fantasy trilogy, the Lotus Kingdoms.

The Lotus Kingdoms are at war, with four claimants to the sorcerous throne of the Alchemical Emperor, fielding three armies between them. Alliances are made, and broken, many times over—but in the end, only one can sit on the throne. And that one must have not only the power, but the rightful claim.

The Rajni Mrithuri stands as the chief claimant to the Alchemical throne now, but she and her empire remain a prize to be taken unless she gets an heir. She has her allies--her cousin Sayeh, a dragon, a foreign wizard, a fearsome automaton, and the Dead Man--but the throne has the final say. And if it rejects her, the price is death.

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-09T08:01:00+00:00", "description": "The disappointing conclusion to an intricate South Asian-inspired fantasy.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/from-nowhere-a-beast-origin-of-storms-by-elizabeth-bear\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Origin of Storms (Lotus Kingdoms, #3)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Elizabeth Bear", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": 3.5, "bestRating": "5" }} Highlights

~blind dragons are still badass
~#transwomenarewomen
~literal bookworms contribute to empire
~goddesses are rarely what you expect
~wearing a crown is almost as complicated as claiming it

*Spoilers for The Bone in the Skull and The Red-Stained Wings!*

To be honest, the ending ruined it for me.

The first two thirds of Origin of Storms cover Mrithuri, Sayeh and the rest working to consolidate Mrithuri’s unexpected empire. It’s definitely slow to get moving, but something about the rhythm and cadence of the prose made it surprisingly readable and oddly soothing. It was easy to drift along with, enjoyably. It involved more military logistics than political manouvering, but there was manouvering, and it was sneaky and clever and well-done.

Even moreso than the rest of the trilogy, Origin of Storms is very much a book about women: royal women, noble women, educated women, loyal women, servant women, holy women. It’s about the restrictions placed on women – especially those who want to hold power that men will respect – and how to move within those restrictions to get what you want (or as close to what you want as can be managed). It’s about the nature of feminine power, which can’t look like power at all if you want to get things done. It’s about being women playing the traditionally-male game of kingdoms and thrones. It’s about how hard that is.

And it is very, very much about women – all kinds of women – working together.

One of the things that made me happiest about Origin is that Sayeh – who is third-sex, and identifies and presents as a woman – is never left out of this. Her place among the rest of the women is never even up for debate, is never questioned. Of course she’s one of them. She’s a vital and valued member of the sisterhood. Which is something that would make me happy no matter when this book was coming out, but it feels particularly important – and powerful – right at this moment, when so much transphobia is running rampant in the USA and UK.

But the last third or quarter of the book ruined the entire trilogy for me.

Look: in book one, we had glimpses of a creepy sorcerer, who might be genderfluid or might be two people, it was unclear. In book two, we had a few more glimpses of this character (or pair of characters), enough to make it clear they were up to something capital-b Bad, but not enough to know what exactly they were doing, and no clue at all as to why they were doing it. Also in book two, there were a handful of references to ‘beasts which feed on war’, which read to me like gnomic utterances, or at best a kind of metaphor for the sort of people who enjoy violence and chaos.

Spoiler: it was not a metaphor. Out of absolutely nowhere, it is suddenly announced that there is a literal beast and our beloved cast must defeat it in what I will allow is a hugely cinematic Final Battle.

What is the beast called? We don’t know. Where does it come from? We don’t know. What are its powers? We don’t know. What does it want? We don’t know.

What the fuck?

We don’t know.

And I mean, the characters themselves say this! It’s stated on-page that noone knows anything – there’s just some guesses. Which kind of feels like Bear admitting to the reader that she put almost no thought (or groundwork) into this at all, but is rolling with it anyway because…Well, because Reasons, I guess.

So for me, the big epic climax was frustrating as hell, because the Big Bad effectively came out of nowhere, at the very last minute, without even an attempt at an explanation. And that is not a thing I enjoy, no matter how cinematic you make it.

I really, really wish the Beast had been kept out of it – there was plenty going on, and more than enough to resolve, without it. Armies! Politicking! Alliances! Claiming the Peacock Throne! The secret behind the throne’s power! A dragon!!! Tossing the Beast in as well was messy and lazy, and if you were going to do it, you should have been laying so much more groundwork for it in the previous books.

Gah.

Vital reading for fans of the trilogy, but nonetheless a let-down.

The post From Nowhere, a Beast: Origin of Storms by Elizabeth Bear appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

I Can’t Wait For…Against All Gods by Miles Cameron

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about but haven’t yet read. Most of the time they’re books that have yet to be released, but not always. It’s based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme, which was originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. 

This week my Can’t-Wait-For is Against All Gods by Miles Cameron!

Against All Gods by Miles Cameron
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy
Published on: 23rd June 2022
Goodreads

The gods play their games, looking down on the mortal realm and moving men as pawns. Sacrificing lives, towns, even civilisations as they make moves against each other, oblivious to and uncaring of the suffering it causes.

They are above it all: worshipped, emulated and admired.

Yet there is one among them who exists to sow chaos, to challenge the way of things, and to stir up trouble. One who sees the gods growing indolent and contented and selfish . . . and who is ready to meddle in the world of men. Not as part of the immortal game, but because they believe it's possible for men to challenge . . . and even topple . . . the gods themselves.

An epic which draws on the Greek mythology of gods and heroes, this new trilogy is a must read for fans of Dan Simmons and Madeline Miller alike.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-08T14:14:23+00:00", "description": "Men vs gods in a new historical fantasy from one of my favorite authors!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/i-cant-wait-for-against-all-gods-by-miles-cameron\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Against All Gods", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Miles Cameron", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

If this was by almost any other author, I probably wouldn’t be interested. But I am, because it’s not: it’s by Miles Cameron, one of the only authors I’ve followed across genre lines (his debut sci-fi, Artifact Space, was one of my favorite books of last year). I’ve never been able to put into words what it is about his prose that I find so deliciously moreish – to the point that I’ve read every one of his books multiple times! – but it means that at this point, I really don’t care what he writes: I’ll read it!

Besides, I do love stories that explore the nature of gods and godhood, and Cameron has done an amazing job writing about challenging and overthrowing traditional power structures before – it’s a big theme in his Masters & Mages trilogy, and Artifact Space is set in a society that’s already done its restructuring.

And you’ve gotta love the tag line Absolute power corrupts…eternally. !

Will you be reading this too? Let me know!

The post I Can’t Wait For…Against All Gods by Miles Cameron appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Must-Have Monday #88

Story-wise, we have trans woman Achilles, monster-boys, and futuristic Indigenous American stories – and covers-wise, there are so many breathtaking ones that I had to show them in (almost-)full size! This week is just packed full of awesome!

Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane
Genres: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bisexual trans MC, F/F, secondary trans characters
PoV: Third-person, past tense
Published on: 7th June 2022
Goodreads

Drawing on ancient texts and modern archeology to reveal the trans woman’s story hidden underneath the well-known myths of The Iliad, Maya Deane’s Wrath Goddess Sing weaves a compelling, pitilessly beautiful vision of Achilles’ vanished world, perfect for fans of Song of Achilles and the Inheritance trilogy.

The gods wanted blood. She fought for love.

Achilles has fled her home and her vicious Myrmidon clan to live as a woman with the kallai, the transgender priestesses of Great Mother Aphrodite. When Odysseus comes to recruit the “prince” Achilles for a war against the Hittites, she prepares to die rather than fight as a man. However, her divine mother, Athena, intervenes, transforming her body into the woman’s body she always longed for, and promises her everything: glory, power, fame, victory in war, and, most importantly, a child born of her own body. Reunited with her beloved cousin, Patroklos, and his brilliant wife, the sorceress Meryapi, Achilles sets out to war with a vengeance.

But the gods—a dysfunctional family of abusive immortals that have glutted on human sacrifices for centuries—have woven ancient schemes more blood-soaked and nightmarish than Achilles can imagine. At the center of it all is the cruel, immortal Helen, who sees Achilles as a worthy enemy after millennia of ennui and emptiness. In love with her newfound nemesis, Helen sets out to destroy everything and everyone Achilles cherishes, seeking a battle to the death.

An innovative spin on a familiar tale, this is the Trojan War unlike anything ever told, and an Achilles whose vulnerability is revealed by the people she chooses to fight…and chooses to trust.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-06T11:54:50+00:00", "description": "TEN new releases this week, packed full of queerness and gorgeous covers!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-88\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Wrath Goddess Sing", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Maya Deane", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

This isn’t just one of the best books of the year, but one of the best ever. It’s not like any other retelling out there, and whether you’re familiar with the Iliad or not, it will enchant, surprise, and move you.

My review!

Buffalo Is the New Buffalo by Chelsea Vowel
Genres: Sci Fi
Representation: Metis MCs
Published on: 7th June 2022
Goodreads

Powerful stories of "Metis futurism" that envision a world without violence, capitalism, or colonization.

"Education is the new buffalo" is a metaphor widely used among Indigenous peoples in Canada to signify the importance of education to their survival and ability to support themselves, as once Plains nations supported themselves as buffalo peoples. The assumption is that many of the pre-Contact ways of living are forever gone, so adaptation is necessary. But Chelsea Vowel asks, "Instead of accepting that the buffalo, and our ancestral ways, will never come back, what if we simply ensure that they do?"

Inspired by classic and contemporary speculative fiction, Buffalo Is the New Buffalo explores science fiction tropes through a Metis lens: a Two-Spirit rougarou (shapeshifter) in the nineteenth century tries to solve a murder in her community and joins the nehiyaw-pwat (Iron Confederacy) in order to successfully stop Canadian colonial expansion into the West. A Metis man is gored by a radioactive bison, gaining super strength, but losing the ability to be remembered by anyone not related to him by blood. Nanites babble to babies in Cree, virtual reality teaches transformation, foxes take human form and wreak havoc on hearts, buffalo roam free, and beings grapple with the thorny problem of healing from colonialism.

Indigenous futurisms seek to discover the impact of colonization, remove its psychological baggage, and recover ancestral traditions. These eight short stories of "Metis futurism" explore Indigenous existence and resistance through the specific lens of being Metis. Expansive and eye-opening, Buffalo Is the New Buffalo rewrites our shared history in provocative and exciting ways.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-06T11:54:50+00:00", "description": "TEN new releases this week, packed full of queerness and gorgeous covers!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-88\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Buffalo Is the New Buffalo", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Chelsea Vowel", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

This sounds unbelievably amazing! Definitely one of the releases I’m most excited about this week!

Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White
Genres: Horror, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Gay trans MC, gay autistic love interest, QPOC secondary cast
PoV: First-person, present-tense
Published on: 7th June 2022
Goodreads

Sixteen-year-old trans boy Benji is on the run from the cult that raised him—the fundamentalist sect that unleashed Armageddon and decimated the world’s population. Desperately, he searches for a place where the cult can’t get their hands on him, or more importantly, on the bioweapon they infected him with.

But when cornered by monsters born from the destruction, Benji is rescued by a group of teens from the local Acheson LGBTQ+ Center, affectionately known as the ALC. The ALC’s leader, Nick, is gorgeous, autistic, and a deadly shot, and he knows Benji’s darkest secret: the cult’s bioweapon is mutating him into a monster deadly enough to wipe humanity from the earth once and for all.

Still, Nick offers Benji shelter among his ragtag group of queer teens, as long as Benji can control the monster and use its power to defend the ALC. Eager to belong, Benji accepts Nick’s terms…until he discovers the ALC’s mysterious leader has a hidden agenda, and more than a few secrets of his own.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-06T11:54:50+00:00", "description": "TEN new releases this week, packed full of queerness and gorgeous covers!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-88\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Hell Followed with Us", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Andrew Joseph White", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

This is a war-cry of a book, one that reclaims the concept of monstrousness and revels in it. I cwant to give a copy to every queer teen in the world – and a lot of the adults too.

My review.

Out There: Into the Queer New Yonder by Saundra Mitchell, Kayla Ancrum, K. Ancrum, Kalynn Bayron, Z Brewer, Mason Deaver, Alechia Dow, Z.R. Ellor, Leah Johnson, Naomi Kanakia, Claire Kann, Rahul Kanakia, Alex London, Jim McCarthy, Abdi Nazemian, Emma K. Ohland, Adam Sass, Nita Tyndall
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Queer MCs
Published on: 7th June 2022
Goodreads

Into the queer new yonder!

To conclude the trio of anthologies that started with critically acclaimed All Out and Out Now, Out There features seventeen original short stories set in the future from fantastic queer YA authors.

Explore new and familiar worlds where the human consciousness can be uploaded into a body on Mars…an alien helps a girl decide if she should tell her best friend how she feels…two teens get stuck in a time loop at a space station…people are forced to travel to the past or the future to escape the dying planet…only a nonbinary person can translate the binary code of a machine that predicts the future…everyone in the world vanishes except for two teen girls who are in love.

This essential and beautifully written collection immerses and surprises with each turn of the page.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-06T11:54:50+00:00", "description": "TEN new releases this week, packed full of queerness and gorgeous covers!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-88\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Out There: Into the Queer New Yonder", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Saundra Mitchell, Kayla Ancrum, K. Ancrum, Kalynn Bayron, Z Brewer, Mason Deaver, Alechia Dow, Z.R. Ellor, Leah Johnson, Naomi Kanakia, Claire Kann, Rahul Kanakia, Alex London, Jim McCarthy, Abdi Nazemian, Emma K. Ohland, Adam Sass, Nita Tyndall", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

The previous anthologies in this series have been great, so I’m assuming this one will be too!

The City Inside by Samit Basu
Genres: Sci Fi
Representation: Desi MCs and cast
Published on: 7th June 2022
Goodreads

“They'd known the end times were coming but hadn’t known they’d be multiple choice.”
Joey is a Reality Controller in near-future Delhi. Her job is to supervise the multimedia multi-reality livestreams of Indi, one of South Asia’s fastest rising online celebrities—who also happens to be her college ex. Joey’s job gives her considerable culture power, but she’s too caught up in day-to-day crisis handling to see this, or to figure out what she wants from her life.

Rudra is a recluse estranged from his wealthy and powerful family, now living in an impoverished immigrant neighborhood. When his father’s death pulls him back into his family’s orbit, an impulsive job offer from Joey becomes his only escape from the life he never wanted.

But as Joey and Rudra become enmeshed in multiple conspiracies, their lives start to spin out of control—complicated by dysfunctional relationships, corporate loyalty, and the never-ending pressures of surveillance capitalism. When a bigger picture begins to unfold, they must each decide how to do the right thing in a world where simply maintaining the status quo feels like an accomplishment. Ultimately, resistance will not—cannot—take the same shape for these two very different people.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-06T11:54:50+00:00", "description": "TEN new releases this week, packed full of queerness and gorgeous covers!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-88\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The City Inside", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Samit Basu", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

I’m not at all sure what to expect of The City Inside, but I’m intrigued. Definitely going on the tbr list!

Ordinary Monsters by J.M. Miro
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy
Representation: Black MC
PoV: Third-person, past-tense
Published on: 7th June 2022
Goodreads

A stunning new work of historical fantasy, J. M. Miro's Ordinary Monsters introduces readers to the dark, labyrinthe world of The Talents

England, 1882. In Victorian London, two children with mysterious powers are hunted by a figure of darkness —a man made of smoke.

Sixteen-year-old Charlie Ovid, despite a lifetime of brutality, doesn't have a scar on him. His body heals itself, whether he wants it to or not. Marlowe, a foundling from a railway freight car, shines with a strange bluish light. He can melt or mend flesh. When two grizzled detectives are recruited to escort them north to safety, they are forced to confront the nature of difference, and belonging, and the shadowy edges of the monstrous.

What follows is a journey from the gaslit streets of London, to an eerie estate outside Edinburgh, where other children with gifts—the Talents—have been gathered. Here, the world of the dead and the world of the living threaten to collide. And as secrets within the Institute unfurl, Marlowe, Charlie and the rest of the Talents will discover the truth about their abilities, and the nature of the force that is stalking them: that the worst monsters sometimes come bearing the sweetest gifts.

With lush prose, mesmerizing world-building, and a gripping plot, Ordinary Monsters presents a catastophic vision of the Victorian world—and of the gifted, broken children who must save it.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-06T11:54:50+00:00", "description": "TEN new releases this week, packed full of queerness and gorgeous covers!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-88\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Ordinary Monsters", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "J.M. Miro", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

I ended up not finishing Ordinary Monsters, but not because it’s a bad book! I was in the wrong headspace for it at the time, and I intend to give it another go later. I very much recommend it for fans of historical fantasy!

Game of Strength and Storm by Rachel Menard
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Brown MC, sapphic MC
Published on: 7th June 2022
Goodreads

Victory is the only option.
Once a year, the Olympian Empresses grant the wishes of ten people selected by a lottery—for a price. Seventeen-year-old Gen, a former circus performer, wants the freedom of her father, who was sentenced to life in prison for murders she knows he didn’t commit. Castor plans to carry the island Arcadia into the future in place of her brother, Pollux, but only after the Empresses force a change in her island’s archaic laws that requires a male heir.
To get what they want, Gen and Castor must race to complete the better half of ten nearly impossible labors. They have to catch the fastest ship in the sea, slay the immortal Hydra, defeat a gangster called the Boar, and capture the flesh-eating Mares, among other deadly tasks.
Gen has her magic, her ability to speak to animals, her inhuman strength—and the help of Pollux, who’s been secretly pining for her for years. But Castor has her own gifts: the power of the storms, along with endless coin. Only one can win. The other walks away with nothing—if she walks away at all.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-06T11:54:50+00:00", "description": "TEN new releases this week, packed full of queerness and gorgeous covers!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-88\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Game of Strength and Storm", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Rachel Menard", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

This is a YA retelling – or complete reimagining – of the Labors of Hercules, with one extremely stunning cover! I’m intrigued by how many early reviews have disliked Castor for being ruthless and cruel, which is a character type I’ve been pining for lately, so I’ll probably be giving this a go.

The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley by Sean Lusk
Genres: Fantasy
Published on: 9th June 2022
Goodreads

In 1754, renowned maker of clocks and automata Abel Cloudesley must raise his new-born son Zachary when his wife dies in childbirth.

Growing up amongst the cogs and springs of his father's workshop, Zachary is intensely curious, ferociously intelligent, unwittingly funny and always honest - perhaps too honest. But when a fateful accident leaves six-year-old Zachary nearly blinded, Abel is convinced that the safest place for his son is in the care of his eccentric Aunt Frances and her menagerie of weird and wonderful animals.

So when a precarious job in Constantinople is offered to him, Abel has no reason to say no. A job presented to him by a politician with dubious intentions, Abel leaves his son, his workshop and London behind. The decision will change the course of his life forever.

Since his accident, Zachary is plagued by visions that reveal the hearts and minds of those around him. A gift at times and a curse at others, it is nonetheless these visions that will help him complete a journey that he was always destined to make - to travel across Europe to Constantinople and find out what happened to his father all those years ago.

With a Dickensian cast of characters that are brilliantly bonkers one moment and poignant the next, Sean Lusk's debut will take readers on an immersive journey into the wonders of the world of Zachary Cloudesley.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-06T11:54:50+00:00", "description": "TEN new releases this week, packed full of queerness and gorgeous covers!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-88\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sean Lusk", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Whitfield is one of my favorite authors, and it’s criminal that more people don’t know about her! Her previous books were jaw-dropping reimaginings of werewolves and mermaids respectively, and I can’t wait to see her take on the Fae!!!

New Life in Autumn (Autumn #2) by Michael G. Williams
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Gay MC
PoV: First-person, past-tense
Published on: 9th June 2022
Goodreads

"I would have finished New Life in Autumn in a single session if life hadn't kept interfering; it's that gripping. Valerius Bakhoum, with his anger, his kindness, his determination to see justice done, and the way he staggers back to his feet every time he's knocked down, is a protagonist to take to your heart. I'm already looking forward to seeing where his next case takes him." - K.V. Johansen, author of Blackdog

RETURN TO THE MEAN STREETS OF AUTUMN

Valerius Bakhoum is dead and buried.

Too bad he’s still flat broke and behind on the rent.

Unsure what to do with himself—and of who he is—Valerius resumes his career as a detective by taking up the oldest case in his files: where do the children go?

Throughout his own youth on the streets of Autumn, last of the Great Flying Cities, Valerius knew his fellow runaways disappeared from back alleys and other hiding places more than anyone realized. Street kids even had a myth to explain it: the Gotchas, who steal urchins away in the night.

With nothing but time on his hands, Valerius dives in head-first to settle the question once and for all and runs smack into a more pressing mystery: who killed one of Valerius’ former lovers?

And do they know Valerius is still alive?

Stalk the shadows of Autumn’s hidden places by Valerius Bakhoum’s side as he shines a light on secrets both sacred and profane, ones with shockingly personal connections to who he was—and who he might become.

New Life in Autumn is the sequel to the Manly Wade Wellman Award-winning A Fall in Autumn.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-06T11:54:50+00:00", "description": "TEN new releases this week, packed full of queerness and gorgeous covers!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-88\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "New Life in Autumn (Autumn #2)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Michael G. Williams", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

This is the sequel to A Fall in Autumn (which I reviewed in brief here) and you definitely shouldn’t start with New Life! But if you like the sound of queer far-future noir, with interesting and excellent worldbuilding, then you should definitely give this series a go.

Odder Still by D.N. Bryn
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Brown queer MC, M/M
Published on: 9th June 2022
Goodreads

Rubem of No-Man’s Land was content keeping to his wine, his pets, and his extensive collection of fishnets.

But since a sentient, fuel-producing parasite bonded to his brainstem, every morally-depraved scientist and hardcore rebel for a hundred miles wants to ruthlessly dissect him. The parasite itself is no better, influencing his emotions and sassing him with his own memories as it slowly takes over his body.

The only person offering Rubem help is Tavish K. Findlay, a dashing and manipulative philanthropist whose mother’s fuel company monopolizes their corrupt underwater city with an iron claw. She desperately wants to tear Rubem apart for the parasite before those who oppose her can do the same. Her son is irresistibly charismatic though, and after a lifetime of being kicked out and disavowed, Rubem is desperate to believe in the friendship Tavish offers.

With revolutionary plots and political schemes tangling his every choice, Rubem must soon decide whether or not to trust Tavish in his fight against the parasite’s growing control.

Odder Still is a M/M fantasy novel with a class-crossing slow burn romance, murderous intrigue, and a Marvel’s Venom-style parasite-human friendship in an underwater steampunk city. This book exist in the wider These Treacherous Tides universe, coming chronologically after Once Stolen, but it is the first book in the No-Man's Lander series and is an easy entry point into the world. Each No-Man's Lander book has a romantically fulfilling ending and a final HEA, with steamy thoughts and foreplay but no explicit sex. (For more information on reading order, please visit D.N. Bryn's website.)

Content warnings include alcohol consumption and animal death.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-06T11:54:50+00:00", "description": "TEN new releases this week, packed full of queerness and gorgeous covers!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-88\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Odder Still", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "D.N. Bryn", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

This was pitched to me as a canonically queer Venom with an underwater, steampunk selkie city, so hell yes I’m going to be reading it!

The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley by Sean Lusk
Genres: Fantasy
Published on: 9th June 2022
Goodreads

In 1754, renowned maker of clocks and automata Abel Cloudesley must raise his new-born son Zachary when his wife dies in childbirth.

Growing up amongst the cogs and springs of his father's workshop, Zachary is intensely curious, ferociously intelligent, unwittingly funny and always honest - perhaps too honest. But when a fateful accident leaves six-year-old Zachary nearly blinded, Abel is convinced that the safest place for his son is in the care of his eccentric Aunt Frances and her menagerie of weird and wonderful animals.

So when a precarious job in Constantinople is offered to him, Abel has no reason to say no. A job presented to him by a politician with dubious intentions, Abel leaves his son, his workshop and London behind. The decision will change the course of his life forever.

Since his accident, Zachary is plagued by visions that reveal the hearts and minds of those around him. A gift at times and a curse at others, it is nonetheless these visions that will help him complete a journey that he was always destined to make - to travel across Europe to Constantinople and find out what happened to his father all those years ago.

With a Dickensian cast of characters that are brilliantly bonkers one moment and poignant the next, Sean Lusk's debut will take readers on an immersive journey into the wonders of the world of Zachary Cloudesley.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-06T11:54:50+00:00", "description": "TEN new releases this week, packed full of queerness and gorgeous covers!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-88\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sean Lusk", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

This is another one where I was seduced by the cover – can you blame me?! The story itself sounds interesting – I love historical SFF that involves a lot of travel – and I’ve been assured it’s a fair bit less dense than Dickens, for all that it’s being described as Dickensian. Fingers crossed!

Will you be reading any of these? Let me know!

The post Must-Have Monday #88 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Sunday Soupçons #13

soupçon/ˈsuːpsɒn,ˈsuːpsɒ̃/ noun
1. a very small quantity of something; a slight trace, as of a particular taste or flavor

Sunday Soupçons is where I scribble mini-reviews for books I don’t have the brainspace/eloquence/smarts to write about in depth – or if I just don’t have anything interesting to say beyond I LIKED IT AND YOU SHOULD READ IT TOO!

Two novellas and one novel this week, all very different!

Some by Virtue Fall (The Seven Gods, #1) by Alexandra Rowland
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic MC, brown sapphic love interest, minor trans characters, queernorm world
PoV: Third-person, past-tense
ISBN: B09NR6CVRS
Goodreads

By the King’s Edict, men have been banned from performing on stage. Everyone else is still out for blood.

Sabajan Hollant, director and co-founder of the celebrated Lord Chancellor’s Players, has one resolution: This time they’re going to do it right. If they want to keep their noble patron—hell, if they want to stay in the theater business at all—they’re going to have to keep their hands clean. No accidents, no rising to other troupes’ provocations and taunts, and certainly no more duelling in the streets.

But their arch-rivals have different plans, and soon enough, Saba and her troupe are caught up once again in an escalating drama of revenge, betrayal, and outright sabotage.

The men may have started this war—but Saba and her remaining players are going to end it.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-05T18:42:56+00:00", "description": "A troupe of actors out to triumph, a historical fantasy of dark family secrets, and a far-future queer noir!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/sunday-soupcons-13\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Some by Virtue Fall (The Seven Gods, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Alexandra Rowland", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "B09NR6CVRS" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": 5, "bestRating": "5" }}

This was SO MUCH FUN! Nothing magical happens – I have no idea if magic exists in this setting or not – but I didn’t feel the lack: there was so much drama, and drama that I think is very much geared towards Bookish Persons. Even if you prefer books to plays, I doubt there’s any reader whose blood pressure wouldn’t go through the ROOF when faced with villains who steal a writer’s masterwork!

More than anything, though, what makes Some By Virtue Fall really shine is the protagonist, Sabajan, who is – simply amazing. She’s a genius as a director, she’s quick and clever and extravagantly passionate, fiercely loyal, and just hysterically funny. Of the entire cast (who are all marvellous) I’m so glad Rowland picked Sabajan’s POV as the one to tell this story, because being in her head was just fantastic.

I devoured this in a couple of hours and cannot recommend it strongly enough!

Uncommon Charm by Emily Bergslien, Kat Weaver
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic MC, gay Jewish MC
PoV: First-person, past-tense
ISBN: 1952086388
Goodreads

A Champagne Gothic!

Three days after I was expelled from the Marable School for Girls, our poor Simon arrived.

In the 1920s gothic comedy Uncommon Charm, bright young socialite Julia and shy Jewish magician Simon decide they aren't beholden to their families' unhappy history. Together they confront such horrors as murdered ghosts, alive children, magic philosophy, a milieu that slides far too easily into surrealist metaphor, and, worst of all, serious adult conversation.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-05T18:42:56+00:00", "description": "A troupe of actors out to triumph, a historical fantasy of dark family secrets, and a far-future queer noir!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/sunday-soupcons-13\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Uncommon Charm", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Emily Bergslien, Kat Weaver", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "1952086388" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": 3, "bestRating": "5" }}

I’ll be honest, Uncommon Charm was…fine. Not bad! Just…fine. I found the take on magic really interesting, but also confusing, and although Julia is another brilliantly funny, clever MC, she was all that kept me reading. The actual story didn’t hold my attention very well, and I found the Dark Family Secrets almost as confusing as the magic.

A Fall in Autumn by Michael G. Williams
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Gay MC, M/M
PoV: First-person, past-tense
ISBN: B07MDXTT1W
Goodreads

WELCOME TO THE LAST OF THE GREAT FLYING CITIES

It’s 9172, YE (Year of the Empire), and the future has forgotten its past.

Soaring miles over the Earth, Autumn, the sole surviving flying city, is filled to the brim with the manifold forms of humankind: from Human Plus “floor models” to the oppressed and disfranchised underclasses doing their dirty work and every imaginable variation between.

Valerius Bakhoum is a washed-up private eye and street hustler scraping by in Autumn. Late on his rent, fetishized and reviled for his imperfect genetics, stuck in the quicksand of his own heritage, Valerius is trying desperately to wrap up his too-short life when a mythical relic of humanity’s fog-shrouded past walks in and hires him to do one last job. What starts out as Valerius just taking a stranger’s money quickly turns into the biggest and most dangerous mystery he’s ever tried to crack – and Valerius is running out of time to solve it.

Now Autumn’s abandoned history – and the monsters and heroes that adorn it – are emerging from the shadows to threaten the few remaining things Valerius holds dear. Can the burned-out detective navigate the labyrinth of lies and maze of blind faith around him to save the City of Autumn from its greatest myth and deadliest threat?

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-05T18:42:56+00:00", "description": "A troupe of actors out to triumph, a historical fantasy of dark family secrets, and a far-future queer noir!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/sunday-soupcons-13\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "A Fall in Autumn", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Michael G. Williams", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "B07MDXTT1W" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": 4, "bestRating": "5" }}

I kind of don’t want to rate A Fall in Autumn, because I took a long break from reading it in the middle (not on purpose, I just got distracted) and I think that affected my enjoyment of the second half of the book. And then there’s the fact that I’m not really into investigative stories – I pick them up occasionally, but because some other aspect of the book appeals to me, the worldbuilding or something. And I did love the worldbuilding in this! Especially whenever we got to see what mistaken ideas the far-future has about our present – I cackled when we learned that they think our society considered sex sacred, else why have so many rules about how and who and when to do it? That was just a cool thing in general – I’m a total nerd for anthropology, and I loved seeing how easy it is to misinterpret what a culture leaves behind.

I think Fall in Autumn probably qualifies as noir, which is not a vibe I really enjoy, but it very much worked here, the combination of old-school vibes with far-future setting. All in all I think it’s a very well-written book, but I’m not quite the right audience for it for a number of reasons…which may not stop me from picking up the sequel, because that ending!!!

What have you been reading this week?

The post Sunday Soupçons #13 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Fungal Houses & Queer Paladins: The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach

The Dawnhounds (The Endsong, #1) by Sascha Stronach
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Science Fantasy
Representation: Bi/pansexual MC, F/F, major sapphic character, major sapphic trans character, minor nonbinary characters
Published on: 14th June 2022
ISBN: B09JPHJ144
Goodreads

Gideon the Ninth meets Black Sun in this queer, Māori-inspired debut fantasy about a police officer who is murdered, brought back to life with a mysterious new power, and tasked with protecting her city from an insidious evil threatening to destroy it.

The port city of Hainak is alive: its buildings, its fashion, even its weapons. But, after a devastating war and a sweeping biotech revolution, all its inhabitants want is peace, no one more so than Yat Jyn-Hok, a reformed-thief-turned-cop who patrols the streets at night.

Yat has recently been demoted on the force due to “lifestyle choices” after being caught at a gay club. She’s barely holding it together, haunted by memories of a lover who vanished and voices that float in and out of her head like radio signals. When she stumbles across a dead body on her patrol, two fellow officers gruesomely murder her and dump her into the harbor. Unfortunately for them, she wakes up.

Resurrected by an ancient power, she finds herself with the new ability to manipulate life force. Quickly falling in with the pirate crew who has found her, she must race against time to stop a plague from being unleashed by the evil that has taken root in Hainak.

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-03T13:29:14+00:00", "description": "Queer fungi-punk where it's paladins vs cops.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/fungal-houses-queer-paladins-the-dawnhounds-by-sascha-stronach\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Dawnhounds (The Endsong, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sascha Stronach", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "B09JPHJ144" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": 4.5, "bestRating": "5" }} Highlights

~a ship of magic-wielding pirates
~bin-chicken priests
~the houses are mushrooms
~fuck the police
~what would you do if you couldn’t die?

If I had to pitch The Dawnhounds to someone, it would probably go something like this: queer fungi-punk where dead gods and their unkillable paladins are going up against the cops, the church, and capitalism in general.

It is very fucking cool, and very fucking weird, and seriously, seriously awesome.

Yat is an ex-street kid, now a cop who was just busted down for being caught at a queer club. The world she lives in is extremely strange; Hainak, her city, is made up of living mushroom houses; the scariest guns shoot man-eating grubs instead of bullets; and tattoos have been supplanted (hah) by living greenery that’s merged into human bodies as self-expression. Yat herself is much easier to understand; she’s genuinely out to help people, and truly believes enforcing the rules will do that…but of course, it isn’t so, and dying and resurrection is nothing compared to having those scales fall from your eyes.

Sometimes doing what she could meant following the letter of the law and not one letter more.

Between the Maori influences and Stronach’s creative brilliance, The Dawnhounds has a ton going for it: magic-wielding pirates, sword-canes, sorceress-queens, drugs that make you telepathic, all the queerness you could possibly ask for. There are dead gods and mad gods and at least one god in hiding somewhere. There are conflicting histories, mysterious backstories, and a wonderful, enormous middle-finger to the police as an institution. I’ve seen this book described as noir a lot, and that’s not inaccurate, but I think by the end Dawnhounds has twisted into an entirely different shape and become hopepunk instead. I’m pretty sure the point of Dawnhounds is hopepunk, even if it doesn’t start out looking that way; there’s very much a message of, yep, the world’s fucked up – now what are you gonna do about it? Whereas my understanding of noir is that it’s cynical to the bitter end, and Dawnhounds just isn’t.

“A hero,” she said, “is a young man–and it is usually a man, though not always–who wishes to die loudly. They want everybody to look and say, ‘What a hero!’ and to be remembered. They read too many stories and get this idea in their heads that death is noble and beautiful and glorious. A hero is impatient to die, and in their impatience, they have a habit of taking ordinary folk down with them–after all, death is glorious, and that means killing is, too. Whether they succeed or fail, a hero is defined by death, that’s why I don’t let heroes on my ship. I’d rather teach my people how to live.”

There’s so much incredible imagination here, so many brilliant ideas and concepts that are like nothing I’ve ever seen before. It’s equal parts exciting and beautiful and strange, in the best way.

But it’s majorly frustrating, then, that most of those ideas and concepts are only glimpsed, not fully explored. Things are mentioned then never brought up again; hinted at but not explained. I wish The Dawnhounds had been twice as long so there’d been room to do more than just mention in passing that one character is a living repository for her people’s cultural knowledge, or explain what the hell the pirate captain’s sidequest was all about. Yes, this is the start of a series, so presumably lots of our questions will be answered later, but this feels more like the first half of a first book in a series, not the whole first book.

I read the first edition of The Dawnhounds way back when it was first published by a micropress, and I was excited when I learned it was going to be traditionally published – and expanded. Unfortunately, most of the ridiculously cool things that were cut from the first edition and put back in for this edition aren’t given the room they deserve. So what we get is incredibly tantalising and exciting, but it’s also more annoying than not getting them at all. Although the paperback is allegedly 352 pages, on my Kindle it was closer to 250. The Dawnhounds has been expanded, but not expanded nearly enough, in my opinion.

It occurred to her as she watched him that she did not find men beautiful by default, with women as a defect, nor did she move between men and women; the contours of the body mattered less than the way it moved, how gentle its arms looked, how it made her heartbeat quicken. She loved men and women, not men or women.

None of this stops me from really, really loving this book, and wanting absolutely everyone to read it. The Dawnhounds is both forerunner and game changer, ahead of the pack in so many ways and altering the literary landscape before said pack catch up. It feels ancient and brand new, coming out of left field and simultaneously inevitable, like something we’ve all been waiting for.

Stronach is one to watch, and The Dawnhounds is one not to miss.

The post Fungal Houses & Queer Paladins: The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

I Can’t Wait For…June’s Queer SFF!

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about but haven’t yet read. Most of the time they’re books that have yet to be released, but not always. It’s based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme, which was originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. 

This week I’m doing things a little differently – here are ALL the queer SFF reads I’m excited for this month! Some of these I’ve featured for Can’t Wait Wednesday before, but I wanted to gather them all together in one place, so – ta daa!

These are not all the queer SFF releases coming this month, but they’re a) the ones I know about and b) the ones I think deserve hyping!

Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane
Genres: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Trans MC, F/F
Published on: 7th June 2022
Goodreads

Drawing on ancient texts and modern archeology to reveal the trans woman's story hidden underneath the well-known myths of The Iliad, Maya Deane's Wrath Goddess Sing weaves a compelling, pitilessly beautiful vision of Achilles' vanished world, perfect for fans of Song of Achilles and the Inheritance trilogy.

The gods wanted blood. She fought for love.

Achilles has fled her home and her vicious Myrmidon clan to live as a woman with the kallai, the transgender priestesses of Great Mother Aphrodite. When Odysseus comes to recruit the "prince" Achilles for a war against the Hittites, she prepares to die rather than fight as a man. However, her divine mother, Athena, intervenes, transforming her body into the woman's body she always longed for, and promises her everything: glory, power, fame, victory in war, and, most importantly, a child born of her own body.
Reunited with her beloved cousin, Patroklos, and his brilliant wife, the sorceress Meryapi, Achilles sets out to war with a vengeance.

But the gods--a dysfunctional family of abusive immortals that have glutted on human sacrifices for centuries--have woven ancient schemes more blood-soaked and nightmarish than Achilles can imagine. At the center of it all is the cruel, immortal Helen, who sees Achilles as a worthy enemy after millennia of ennui and emptiness. In love with her newfound nemesis, Helen sets out to destroy everything and everyone Achilles cherishes, seeking a battle to the death.

An innovative spin on a familiar tale, this is the Trojan War unlike anything ever told, and an Achilles whose vulnerability is revealed by the people she chooses to fight...and chooses to trust.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-01T17:30:33+00:00", "description": "All the queer SFF I'm excited about this month - including one or two books you might not have known feature queer characters!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/i-cant-wait-for-junes-queer-sff\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Wrath Goddess Sing", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Maya Deane", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

TRANS WOMAN ACHILLES.

Enough said.

(Except I did, in fact, say a bit more in my review!)

Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Trans gay MC, gay autistic MC, QPOC secondary cast
Published on: 7th June 2022
Goodreads

Prepare to die. His kingdom is near.

Sixteen-year-old trans boy Benji is on the run from the cult that raised him—the fundamentalist sect that unleashed Armageddon and decimated the world’s population. Desperately, he searches for a place where the cult can’t get their hands on him, or more importantly, on the bioweapon they infected him with.

But when cornered by monsters born from the destruction, Benji is rescued by a group of teens from the local Acheson LGBTQ+ Center, affectionately known as the ALC. The ALC’s leader, Nick, is gorgeous, autistic, and a deadly shot, and he knows Benji’s darkest secret: the cult’s bioweapon is mutating him into a monster deadly enough to wipe humanity from the earth once and for all.

Still, Nick offers Benji shelter among his ragtag group of queer teens, as long as Benji can control the monster and use its power to defend the ALC. Eager to belong, Benji accepts Nick’s terms…until he discovers the ALC’s mysterious leader has a hidden agenda, and more than a few secrets of his own.

A furious, queer debut novel about embracing the monster within and unleashing its power against your oppressors. Perfect for fans of Gideon the Ninth and Annihilation.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-01T17:30:33+00:00", "description": "All the queer SFF I'm excited about this month - including one or two books you might not have known feature queer characters!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/i-cant-wait-for-junes-queer-sff\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Hell Followed with Us", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Andrew Joseph White", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

This book is packed full of queer rage and flips the table on what ‘monster’ means – with plenty of biblical fuckery, the furious push-back that is specifically aimed at religious fanaticism, and a terrible and terrifying tenderness.

Here be monsters indeed, as I laid out in my review!

The Dawnhounds (The Endsong, #1) by Sascha Stronach
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists, Science Fantasy
Representation: Bisexual MC, QPOC cast
Published on: 14th June 2022
Goodreads

Gideon the Ninth meets Black Sun in this queer, Māori-inspired debut fantasy about a police officer who is murdered, brought back to life with a mysterious new power, and tasked with protecting her city from an insidious evil threatening to destroy it.

The port city of Hainak is alive: its buildings, its fashion, even its weapons. But, after a devastating war and a sweeping biotech revolution, all its inhabitants want is peace, no one more so than Yat Jyn-Hok a reformed-thief-turned-cop who patrols the streets at night.

Yat has recently been demoted on the force due to “lifestyle choices” after being caught at a gay club. She’s barely holding it together, haunted by memories of a lover who vanished and voices that float in and out of her head like radio signals. When she stumbles across a dead body on her patrol, two fellow officers gruesomely murder her and dump her into the harbor. Unfortunately for them, she wakes up.

Resurrected by an ancient power, she finds herself with the new ability to manipulate life force. Quickly falling in with the pirate crew who has found her, she must race against time to stop a plague from being unleashed by the evil that has taken root in Hainak.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-01T17:30:33+00:00", "description": "All the queer SFF I'm excited about this month - including one or two books you might not have known feature queer characters!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/i-cant-wait-for-junes-queer-sff\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Dawnhounds (The Endsong, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sascha Stronach", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Dead gods and their unkillable paladins running around a city made of mushrooms – this one’s for everyone who loves their SFF unapologetically weird and boundary-pushing. Drawing heavily from Maori influences and queer as fuck, Dawnhounds is one you need to strap in tight for

The Grief of Stones (The Cemeteries of Amalo, #2) by Katherine Addison
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Gay MC
Published on: 14th June 2022
Goodreads

In The Grief of Stones, Katherine Addison returns to the world of The Goblin Emperor with a direct sequel to The Witness For The Dead...

Celehar’s life as the Witness for the Dead of Amalo grows less isolated as his circle of friends grows larger. He has been given an apprentice to teach, and he has stumbled over a scandal of the city—the foundling girls. Orphans with no family to claim them and no funds to buy an apprenticeship. Foundling boys go to the Prelacies; foundling girls are sold into service, or worse.

At once touching and shattering, Celehar’s witnessing for one of these girls will lead him into the depths of his own losses. The love of his friends will lead him out again.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-01T17:30:33+00:00", "description": "All the queer SFF I'm excited about this month - including one or two books you might not have known feature queer characters!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/i-cant-wait-for-junes-queer-sff\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Grief of Stones (The Cemeteries of Amalo, #2)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Katherine Addison", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

The sequel to The Witness For the Dead is set in the same world as The Goblin Emperor, and since both those books were excellent I see no reason to think Grief of Stones will be any different!

The Ballad of Perilous Graves by Alex Jennings
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Black trans MC
Published on: 21st June 2022
Goodreads

In a fantastical version of New Orleans where music is magic, a battle for the city’s soul brews between two young mages, a vengeful wraith, and one powerful song in this vibrant and imaginative debut.

Nola is a city full of wonders. A place of sky trolleys and dead cabs, where haints dance the night away and Wise Women keep the order, and where songs walk, talk and keep the spirit of the city alive. To those from Far Away, Nola might seem strange. To failed magician, Perilous Graves, it’s simply home. Then the rhythm stutters.

Nine songs of power have escaped from the magical piano that maintains the city’s beat and without them, Nola will fail. Unexpectedly, Perry and his sister, Brendy, are tasked with saving the city. But a storm is brewing and the Haint of All Haints is awake. Even if they capture the songs, Nola’s time might be coming to an end.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-01T17:30:33+00:00", "description": "All the queer SFF I'm excited about this month - including one or two books you might not have known feature queer characters!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/i-cant-wait-for-junes-queer-sff\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Ballad of Perilous Graves", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Alex Jennings", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Blindingly original, Ballad is packed full of magic and music, an Adult Fantasy where kids are out to save their world – or at least their city, which might not exactly be a part of the world…

In the Shadow of Lightning (Glass Immortals #1) by Brian McClellan
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic MC
Published on: 21st June 2022
Goodreads

From Brian McClellan, author of The Powder Mage trilogy, comes the first novel in the Glass Immortals series, In the Shadow of Lightning, an epic fantasy where magic is a finite resource—and it’s running out.

"Excellent worldbuilding and a truly epic narrative combine into Brian's finest work to date. Heartily recommended to anyone who wants a new favorite fantasy series to read."—Brandon Sanderson

Demir Grappo is an outcast—he fled a life of wealth and power, abandoning his responsibilities as a general, a governor, and a son. Now he will live out his days as a grifter, rootless, and alone. But when his mother is brutally murdered, Demir must return from exile to claim his seat at the head of the family and uncover the truth that got her killed: the very power that keeps civilization turning, godglass, is running out.
Now, Demir must find allies, old friends and rivals alike, confront the powerful guild-families who are only interested in making the most of the scraps left at the table and uncover the invisible hand that threatens the Empire. A war is coming, a war unlike any other. And Demir and his ragtag group of outcasts are the only thing that stands in the way of the end of life as the world knows it.

"Powerful rival families, murderous conspiracies, epic battles, larger-than-life characters, and magic."—Fonda Lee, author of The Green Bone Saga

"Engaging, fast-paced and epic."—James Islington, author of In The Shadow of What Was Lost

"Clever, fun, and by turns beautifully bloody, In the Shadow of Lightning hits like a bolt through a stained glass window."—Megan E. O'Keefe, author of Chaos Vector

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-01T17:30:33+00:00", "description": "All the queer SFF I'm excited about this month - including one or two books you might not have known feature queer characters!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/i-cant-wait-for-junes-queer-sff\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "In the Shadow of Lightning (Glass Immortals #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Brian McClellan", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

I haven’t seen anyone talking about this as a queer fantasy, but one of the MCs is sapphic! Combined with one hell of a premise, I know I’ll be giving this one a go for sure.

Not Good for Maidens by Tori Bovalino
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic MC
Published on: 21st June 2022
Goodreads

They’ll lure you in with fruit and gems and liquor and dancing, merriment to remember for the rest of your life. But that’s an illusion. The market is death itself.

Beneath the streets of York, the goblin market calls to the Wickett women—the family of witches that tends to its victims. For generations, they have defended the old cobblestone streets with their magic. Knowing the dangers, they never entered the market—until May Wickett fell for a goblin girl, accepted her invitation, and became inextricably tied to the world her family tried to protect her from. The market learned her name, and even when she and her sister left York for Boston to escape it, the goblins remembered.

Seventeen years later, Lou, May’s niece, knows nothing of her magical lineage or the twisted streets, sweet fruits, and incredible jewels of the goblin market. But just like her aunt, the market calls to her, an echo of a curse that won’t release its hold on her family. And when her youngest aunt, Neela, is kidnapped by goblins, Lou discovers just how real and dangerous the market is.

To save her, both May and Lou will have to confront their family’s past and what happened all those years ago. But everything—from the food and wares, to the goblins themselves—is a haunting temptation for any human who manages to find their way in. And if Lou isn’t careful, she could end up losing herself to the market, too.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-01T17:30:33+00:00", "description": "All the queer SFF I'm excited about this month - including one or two books you might not have known feature queer characters!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/i-cant-wait-for-junes-queer-sff\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Not Good for Maidens", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Tori Bovalino", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

I’ve always loved iterations and reinterpretations of the Goblin Market, so I haven’t been able to wait for this since I first heard of it!

Of Charms, Ghosts and Grievances (Dragons and Blades, #2) by Aliette de Bodard
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer Vietnamese MC, M/M
Published on: 28th June 2022
Goodreads

From the author of the critically acclaimed Dominion of the Fallen trilogy comes a sparkling new romantic adventure full of kissing, sarcasm and stabbing.

It was supposed to be a holiday, with nothing more challenging than babysitting, navigating familial politics and arguing about the proper way to brew tea.

But when dragon prince Thuan and his ruthless husband Asmodeus find a corpse in a ruined shrine and a hungry ghost who is the only witness to the crime, their holiday goes from restful to high-pressure. Someone is trying to silence the ghost and everyone involved. Asmodeus wants revenge for the murder; Thuan would like everyone, including Asmodeus, to stay alive.

Chased by bloodthirsty paper charms and struggling to protect their family, Thuan and Asmodeus are going to need all the allies they can—and, as the cracks in their relationship widen, they'll have to face the scariest challenge of all: how to bring together their two vastly different ideas of their future...

A heartwarming standalone book set in a world of dark intrigue.

A Note on Chronology
Spinning off from the Dominion of the Fallen series, which features political intrigue in Gothic devastated Paris, this book stands alone, but chronologically follows Of Dragons, Feasts and Murders. It’s High Gothic meets C-drama in a Vietnamese inspired world—perfect for fans of Mo Xiang Tong Xiu's Heaven Official's Blessing, KJ Charles, and Roshani Chokshi’s The Gilded Wolves.
Cover design: Ravven

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-01T17:30:33+00:00", "description": "All the queer SFF I'm excited about this month - including one or two books you might not have known feature queer characters!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/i-cant-wait-for-junes-queer-sff\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Of Charms, Ghosts and Grievances (Dragons and Blades, #2)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Aliette de Bodard", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Set in Bodard’s incredible Dominion of the Fallen world, this is the sequel to the spin-off Of Dragons, Feasts and Murders. There is nothing about this set-up that I don’t adore!

Daughter of Redwinter by Ed McDonald
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bisexual MC, secondary gay character, secondary sapphic character
Published on: 28th June 2022
Goodreads

Those who see the dead soon join them.

From the author of the critically-acclaimed Blackwing trilogy comes Ed McDonald's Daughter of Redwinter, the first of a brilliant fantasy series about how one choice can change a universe.

Raine can see--and more importantly, speak--to the dead. It's a wretched gift with a death sentence that has her doing many dubious things to save her skin. Seeking refuge with a deluded cult is her latest bad, survival-related decision. But her rare act of kindness--rescuing an injured woman in the snow--is even worse.

Because the woman has escaped from Redwinter, the fortress-monastery of the Draoihn, warrior magicians who answer to no king and who will stop at nothing to retrieve what she's stolen. A battle, a betrayal, and a horrific revelation forces Raine to enter Redwinter. It becomes clear that her ability might save an entire nation.

Pity she might have to die for that to happen...

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-01T17:30:33+00:00", "description": "All the queer SFF I'm excited about this month - including one or two books you might not have known feature queer characters!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/i-cant-wait-for-junes-queer-sff\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Daughter of Redwinter", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ed McDonald", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

This is another that’s mostly slipped under the gaydar – but having just finished reading it I can confirm that the MC is bisexual and the book is epic. Glowing review to come!

The Origin of Storms (Lotus Kingdoms, #3) by Elizabeth Bear
Genres: Fantasy, High Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Trans/third-sex MC
Published on: 28th June 2022
Goodreads

Hugo Award-winning author Elizabeth Bear returns to conclude her acclaimed epic fantasy trilogy of the Lotus Kingdoms which began with The Stone in the Skull and The Red-Stained Wings, bringing it all to brings a surprising, satisfying climax.

The Lotus Kingdoms are at war, with four claimants to the sorcerous throne of the Alchemical Emperor, fielding three armies between them. Alliances are made, and broken, many times over—but in the end, only one can sit on the throne. And that one must have not only the power, but the rightful claim.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-01T17:30:33+00:00", "description": "All the queer SFF I'm excited about this month - including one or two books you might not have known feature queer characters!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/i-cant-wait-for-junes-queer-sff\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Origin of Storms (Lotus Kingdoms, #3)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Elizabeth Bear", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Definitely don’t jump into Origin if you haven’t read the other two books of the trilogy first, but if you have read them, then it’s time for the extremely cinematic finale!

What releases are you looking forward to this Pride?

The post I Can’t Wait For…June’s Queer SFF! appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

3 Years Blogging = Pride Flag SFF Book Recs!

It’s my blogiversary – Every Book a Doorway is officially THREE WHOLE YEARS OLD!!! – and since I started EBaD to talk about queer SFF, what better way to celebrate than with a bunch of queer SFF book recs?

Rainbow Reads came up with the Pride Flag Book Recs – which is exactly what it sounds like; recommending a book for every stripe in the (original) Gilbert Baker pride flag and what those colours represented, plus the new brown+black stripes for QPOC.

I actually went a little bit further, and added the stripes from the Daniel Quasar flag shown below – so, not just brown+black, but the trans colours as well!

So now, the books!!!

Pink – Sexuality Exodus 20:3 by Freydís Moon
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Trans Latino MC, M/M
Goodreads

Religious eroticism and queer emancipation meet in a claustrophobic monster-romance about divinity, sexuality, and freedom.

When Diego López is guilted by his mother into taking a low-key construction job in New Mexico, he doesn’t expect to be the only helping hand at Catedral de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. But the church is abandoned, decrepit, and off the beaten path, and the only other person for miles is its handsome caretaker, Ariel Azevedo.

Together, Diego and Ariel refurbish the old church, sharing stories of their heritage, experiences, and desires. But as the long days turn into longer nights, Diego begins to see past Ariel’s human mirage and finds himself falling into lust—and maybe something else—with one of God’s first creations.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-01T09:49:49+00:00", "description": "It is Every Book a Doorway's THIRD BIRTHDAY, and obviously the only correct way to celebrate is with some of the best queer SFF I know!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/3-years-blogging-pride-flag-sff-book-recs\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Exodus 20:3", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Freyd\u00eds Moon", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Exodus 20:3 is the intense, and intensely beautiful, story of a trans Latino sex worker who is not exactly looking for redemption when he signs up to build a church, but manages to find the divine anyway. It’s powerful, charged, and yes, big on the erotic – definitely fills the bingo square for sexuality! – but I can’t overstate how gorgeous and clever it is. If you’re used to writing off paranormal romance or erotica, this is absolutely the book that will change your mind about that.

Red – LifeSaint Death's Daughter (Saint Death #1) by C.S.E. Cooney
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MC, nonbinary love interest
Goodreads

Life gets complicated when Death gets involved.

To be born into a family of royal assassins pretty much guarantees that your life is going to be… rather unusual. Especially if, like Miscellaneous “Lanie” Stones, you also have a vicious allergy to all forms of violence and bloodshed, and an uncanny affinity for bringing the dead back to life.

To make matters worse, family debt looms – a debt that will have to be paid sooner rather than later if Lanie and her sister are to retain ownership of the ancestral seat, Stones Manor. Lanie finds herself courted and threatened by powerful parties who would love to use her worryingly intimate relationship with the goddess of death for their own nefarious ends. But the goddess has other plans…

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-01T09:49:49+00:00", "description": "It is Every Book a Doorway's THIRD BIRTHDAY, and obviously the only correct way to celebrate is with some of the best queer SFF I know!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/3-years-blogging-pride-flag-sff-book-recs\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Saint Death's Daughter (Saint Death #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "C.S.E. Cooney", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Despite featuring a necromancer, this is very much a book about LIFE and LIVING – which may in fact be the point, because surely only someone who really and truly loves life can bring someone back from the dead?

Saint Death’s Daughter is a phantasmagorical delight, whimsical and cheeky and wicked and brilliant, and I could not be more in love with it. It is perfect in every way.

My review!

Orange – HealingAnsible: A Thousand Faces (The Complete Omnibus of Seasons 1-3) by Stant Litore
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Middle Eastern cast, bisexual Muslim MC, Syrian bisexual MC, Black African MC, F/F, queernorm cultures
Goodreads

This omnibus edition includes the entire Ansible series: Seasons 1-3.

"My mind has touched the stars, wearing a thousand faces..."

In Ansible, 25th century Islamic explorers transfer their minds across space and time to make first contact...and get marooned in alien bodies on alien worlds. Along the way, they encounter the most dangerous predator humanity has ever faced. And that species knows where earth is. Now a hijabi shapeshifter and her band of time travelers are all that stand between humanity and the last dark.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-01T09:49:49+00:00", "description": "It is Every Book a Doorway's THIRD BIRTHDAY, and obviously the only correct way to celebrate is with some of the best queer SFF I know!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/3-years-blogging-pride-flag-sff-book-recs\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Ansible: A Thousand Faces (The Complete Omnibus of Seasons 1-3)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Stant Litore", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Ansible is a book that leaves you feeling healed deep down inside. It’s initially quite dark – Earth is attacked and overrun by horrific alien monsters – but after the first 15% or so, it becomes an incredibly hopepunk book, featuring an absolutely incredible cast fighting back and safeguarding humanity, always seeking peace, never giving up on love, holding on to their sense of awe and wonder at what people can accomplish and be. It’s both cinematic and deeply poignant, and a book I treasure.

My review!

Yellow – Sunlight Winterglass (Her Pitiless Command, #1) by Benjanun Sriduangkaew
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic MC, trans MC, F/F, queernorm world, secondary nonbinary characters
Goodreads

The city-state Sirapirat once knew only warmth and monsoon. When the Winter Queen conquered it, she remade the land in her image, turning Sirapirat into a country of snow and unending frost. But an empire is not her only goal. In secret, she seeks the fragments of a mirror whose power will grant her deepest desire.

At her right hand is General Lussadh, who bears a mirror shard in her heart, as loyal to winter as she is plagued by her past as a traitor to her country. Tasked with locating other glass-bearers, she finds one in Nuawa, an insurgent who’s forged herself into a weapon that will strike down the queen.

To earn her place in the queen’s army, Nuawa must enter a deadly tournament where the losers’ souls are given in service to winter. To free Sirapirat, she is prepared to make sacrifices: those she loves, herself, and the complicated bond slowly forming between her and Lussadh.

If the splinter of glass in Nuawa’s heart doesn’t destroy her first.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-01T09:49:49+00:00", "description": "It is Every Book a Doorway's THIRD BIRTHDAY, and obviously the only correct way to celebrate is with some of the best queer SFF I know!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/3-years-blogging-pride-flag-sff-book-recs\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Winterglass (Her Pitiless Command, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Benjanun Sriduangkaew", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

This is probably cheating, because there isn’t a whole lot of sunlight in the Her Pitiless Command trilogy – the known world’s been taken over by a demi-goddess of ice and snow – but the main character is out to bring the sunlight back by killing the queen. That counts, right?

Sriduankgaew’s prose is a decadent feast and I am madly in love with her worldbuilding and imagination – swords that cut shadow, snake-locks, golden mirror-cities… I love it all!

Green – Nature The Jasmine Throne (Burning Kingdoms, #1) by Tasha Suri
Genres: Fantasy, High Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Desi-coded setting and cast, sapphic MCs, F/F
Goodreads

Author of Empire of Sand and Realm of Ash Tasha Suri's The Jasmine Throne, beginning a new trilogy set in a world inspired by the history and epics of India, in which a captive princess and a maidservant in possession of forbidden magic become unlikely allies on a dark journey to save their empire from the princess's traitor brother.

Imprisoned by her dictator brother, Malini spends her days in isolation in the Hirana: an ancient temple that was once the source of the powerful, magical deathless waters — but is now little more than a decaying ruin.

Priya is a maidservant, one among several who make the treacherous journey to the top of the Hirana every night to clean Malini’s chambers. She is happy to be an anonymous drudge, so long as it keeps anyone from guessing the dangerous secret she hides.

But when Malini accidentally bears witness to Priya’s true nature, their destinies become irrevocably tangled. One is a vengeful princess seeking to depose her brother from his throne. The other is a priestess seeking to find her family. Together, they will change the fate of an empire.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-01T09:49:49+00:00", "description": "It is Every Book a Doorway's THIRD BIRTHDAY, and obviously the only correct way to celebrate is with some of the best queer SFF I know!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/3-years-blogging-pride-flag-sff-book-recs\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Jasmine Throne (Burning Kingdoms, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Tasha Suri", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Literally a sapphic epic fantasy about wielders of nature-magic! Perfect for this prompt! (Stripe?)

And, you know. It’s a Desi-inspired cast and setting, with complex characters all over the place, so many different kinds of strong women, a multi-faceted dissection of colonialism and fanaticism… All the good things, basically.

My review!

Turquoise – MagicWater Horse by Melissa Scott
Genres: Fantasy, High Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bisexual MC, M/M, M/F/M polyamory, queernorm cultures
Goodreads

For the last twenty years, Esclin Aubrinos, arros of the Hundred Hills, has acted jointly with Alcis Mirielos, the kyra of the Westwood, and the rivermaster of Riverholme to defend their land of Allanoth against the Riders who invade from Manan across the Narrow Sea. He has long been a master of the shifting politics of his own people and his independently-minded allies, but this year the omens turn against him. The Riders have elected a new lord paramount, hallowed servant of the Blazing One, a man chosen and fated for victory.

The omens agree that Nen Elin, Esclin’s stronghold and the heart of Allanoth, will fall when a priest of the Blazing One enters its gates. Esclin needs a spirit-bonded royal sword, a talismanic weapon made of star-fallen iron, to unite the hillfolk behind him. But the same vision that called for the sword proclaimed that Esclin will then betray it, and every step he takes to twist free of the prophecies brings him closer to that doom.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-01T09:49:49+00:00", "description": "It is Every Book a Doorway's THIRD BIRTHDAY, and obviously the only correct way to celebrate is with some of the best queer SFF I know!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/3-years-blogging-pride-flag-sff-book-recs\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Water Horse", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Melissa Scott", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

Water Horse is a standalone High Fantasy (how often do we get those?!) that feels a little reminiscent of Ancient Ireland while being wholly itself – and frankly, I think it’s a masterpiece. Magic is embedded in every page; the magic of harps, of stone, of metal, of fire, of wood and of water. And the magic of Scott’s prose, which is exquisite and quietly powerful, making this my favourite of her works and one of my favourite books of all-time, period.

Blue – Harmony Mazes of Power (The Broken Trust, #1) by Juliette Wade
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Goodreads

This debut work of sociological science fiction follows a deadly battle for succession, where brother is pitted against brother in a singular chance to win power and influence for their family.

The cavern city of Pelismara has stood for a thousand years. The Great Families of the nobility cling to the myths of their golden age while the city's technology wanes.
When a fever strikes, and the Eminence dies, seventeen-year-old Tagaret is pushed to represent his Family in the competition for Heir to the Throne. To win would give him the power to rescue his mother from his abusive father, and marry the girl he loves.

But the struggle for power distorts everything in this highly stratified society, and the fever is still loose among the inbred, susceptible nobles. Tagaret's sociopathic younger brother, Nekantor, is obsessed with their family's success. Nekantor is willing to exploit Tagaret, his mother, and her new servant Aloran to defeat their opponents.

Can he be stopped? Should he be stopped? And will they recognize themselves after the struggle has changed them?

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-01T09:49:49+00:00", "description": "It is Every Book a Doorway's THIRD BIRTHDAY, and obviously the only correct way to celebrate is with some of the best queer SFF I know!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/3-years-blogging-pride-flag-sff-book-recs\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Mazes of Power (The Broken Trust, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Juliette Wade", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

It’s not that this is a sweet, serene series – not at all! – but I cannot get over how harmonious the worldbuilding is, how well everything’s been thought out and thought through, how perfectly it all fits together. Few things delight me as much as exquisitely crafted worldbuilding, and I couldn’t not include the Broken Trust! It’s socio-political sci-fi that reads like High Fantasy, with queer characters featured throughout (the first book focuses on a homophobic caste, but don’t be fooled; all the other castes in the Broken Trust’s world are queernorm). I love it SO MUCH!

My review for Mazes of Power
My review for Transgressions of Power
My review for Inheritors of Power

Purple – Spirit Night Shine by Tessa Gratton
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: F/F, major genderfluid character, minor nonbinary character
Goodreads

An orphan girl must face untold danger and an ancient evil to save her kingdom’s prince in this “dark, sensuous…queer and lush” (Kirkus Reviews) fantasy perfect for fans of Girls of Paper and Fire and Tess of the Road.

How can you live without your heart?

In the vast palace of the empress lives an orphan girl called Nothing. She slips within the shadows of the Court, unseen except by the Great Demon of the palace and her true friend, Prince Kirin, heir to the throne. When Kirin is kidnapped, only Nothing and the prince’s bodyguard suspect that Kirin may have been taken by the Sorceress Who Eats Girls, a powerful woman who has plagued the land for decades. The sorceress has never bothered with boys before, but Nothing has uncovered many secrets in her sixteen years in the palace, including a few about the prince.

As the empress’s army searches fruitlessly, Nothing and the bodyguard set out on a rescue mission, through demon-filled rain forests and past crossroads guarded by spirits. Their journey takes them to the gates of the Fifth Mountain, where the sorceress wields her power. There, Nothing discovers that all magic is a bargain, and she may be more powerful than she ever imagined. But the price the Sorceress demands for Kirin may very well cost Nothing her heart.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-01T09:49:49+00:00", "description": "It is Every Book a Doorway's THIRD BIRTHDAY, and obviously the only correct way to celebrate is with some of the best queer SFF I know!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/3-years-blogging-pride-flag-sff-book-recs\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Night Shine", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Tessa Gratton", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

This is me cheating again, because Night Shine is very much about spirits rather than spirit – the world Gratton’s created is full of spirits, elementals whose kingdom can be as small as single flower or as large as a mountain. It’s a gorgeous setting and a marvellous cast, particularly the MC Nothing, who uses her name to slip through all kinds of magical loopholes (nothing can pass this ward??? Well, guess she can walk right through then, can’t she?) This is another book that’s extremely dear to me, and if you read it, you’ll see why!

My review!

Trans – A Trans Lead and Author Dead Collections by Isaac Fellman
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Trans MC, nonbinary love interest
Goodreads

A whirlwind romance between an eccentric archivist and a grieving widow explores what it means to be at home in your own body in this clever, humorous, and heartfelt novel.

When archivist Sol meets Elsie, the larger than life widow of a moderately famous television writer who's come to donate her wife's papers, there's an instant spark. But Sol has a secret: he suffers from an illness called vampirism, and hides from the sun by living in his basement office. On their way to falling in love, the two traverse grief, delve into the Internet fandom they once unknowingly shared, and navigate the realities of transphobia and the stigmas of carrying the "vampire disease."

Then, when strange things start happening at the collection, Sol must embrace even more of the unknown to save himself and his job.

DEAD COLLECTIONS is a wry novel full of heart and empathy, that celebrates the journey, the difficulties and joys, in finding love and comfort within our own bodies.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-01T09:49:49+00:00", "description": "It is Every Book a Doorway's THIRD BIRTHDAY, and obviously the only correct way to celebrate is with some of the best queer SFF I know!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/3-years-blogging-pride-flag-sff-book-recs\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Dead Collections", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Isaac Fellman", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

This is a slow, thoughtful, introspective book – definitely not recommended for anyone looking for fast-paced action! But for a new (yes, really!) take on vampires, many complicated flavours of queerness, and bonding over fanfic? *chef’s kiss*

QPoC – A BIPOC MC and AuthorThe Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Brown MCs, sapphic MC, asexual MC, achillean MC, queernorm world
Goodreads

A mysterious child lands in the care of a solitary woman, changing both of their lives forever in this captivating debut of connection across space and time.

"This is when your life begins."

Nia Imani is a woman out of place and outside of time. Decades of travel through the stars are condensed into mere months for her, though the years continue to march steadily onward for everyone she has ever known. Her friends and lovers have aged past her; all she has left is work. Alone and adrift, she lives only for the next paycheck, until the day she meets a mysterious boy, fallen from the sky.

A boy, broken by his past.

The scarred child does not speak, his only form of communication the beautiful and haunting music he plays on an old wooden flute. Captured by his songs and their strange, immediate connection, Nia decides to take the boy in. And over years of starlit travel, these two outsiders discover in each other the things they lack. For him, a home, a place of love and safety. For her, an anchor to the world outside of herself.

For both of them, a family.

But Nia is not the only one who wants the boy. The past hungers for him, and when it catches up, it threatens to tear this makeshift family apart.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-06-01T09:49:49+00:00", "description": "It is Every Book a Doorway's THIRD BIRTHDAY, and obviously the only correct way to celebrate is with some of the best queer SFF I know!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/3-years-blogging-pride-flag-sff-book-recs\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Vanished Birds", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Simon Jimenez", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

The Vanished Birds is like nothing else I’ve ever read, far-future sci-fi with ties to Earth’s distant past. It’s the embodiment of the found-family trope, mixing high stakes with quiet, languid, powerful emotion – this book had my heart in my throat so many times, and I flat-out broke down sobbing more than once. But not because it’s a tragedy – it isn’t – it’s just that it makes you feel so damn much, and it’s so beautiful, somehow incredibly tender and scalpel-sharp at the same time. I can’t recommend it enough.

There you have it – a book for every stripe. Happy blogiversary to me, and happy Pride to everyone else!!!

The post 3 Years Blogging = Pride Flag SFF Book Recs! appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

In Short: May

May was rough – I got hit with a depression spiral, the changing weather has dialled my fibro up to 11, and I switched hosting services without really being prepared for what that would mean. But I survived!

ARCs Received

SO MANY AMAZING ARCS!!! I didn’t expect to get approved for half of these, but I figured it does no harm to ask, so I did! EEE!

Read

20 books read this month – as many as April, but with fewer novellas this time!

New-to-me favourites were the Inda series by Sherwood Smith (The Fox, King’s Shield, and Treason’s Shore were books 2-4 of the series) which completely blew me away and had me glued to the pages; Osmo Unknown and the Eightpenny Woods, the latest from Catherynne Valente and a book with a huge heart and an enormous amount of whimsy; and Daughter of Redwinter, which kind of came out of nowhere to knock my socks off.

The King of Infinite Space and Some By Virtue Fall were both brilliantly fun as well.

But I didn’t have it in me to track my reading too closely this month, and without conscious effort otherwise, I didn’t read anything by BIPOC authors (unless The Dawnhounds count? I’m uncertain). Which is appalling, and an extra-disappointing drop after my record-breaking reads last month.

I hate that it requires concious effort and attention to read diversely. Urgh. It should be automatic, and easy. Am I really more drawn to stories told by white authors than others? Or is the dearth of BIPOC authors seriously so bad that no one is publishing BIPOC authors writing the kind of stories I like? I don’t like either of these options!

Reviewed

This was an absolutely terrible month for reviews – I only managed to write two. (More got posted, but most of them were written last month.) Sigh. Definitely gotta step up my game in June!

DNF-ed

One less DNF than last month, anyway! But I have to admit to being pretty disappointed by We All Fall Down and The Book of Gothel, especially – I had such high hopes for both!

ARCs Outstanding

A few of these I’ve now read, and need to write up into reviews, but 16 is still quite a lot. I’m not feeling overwhelmed, though, which is nice.

Misc

I didn’t manage to participate in Wyrd & Wonder much after all, but I did finish and post Ten (Even More) Ridiculously Cool Magic Systems and (Even More Of) The Coolest Magical Abilities in Fiction! Which I’m very happy about, because featuring magic systems and magical abilities has become an annual tradition for me.

Looking Forward

June is PRIDE MONTH, which means a ton of epic queer releases on top of all the other books I’m excited for! New books by KIT WHITFIELD and MILES CAMERON, hell to the yes!!! And I already know Wrath Goddess Sing and The Dawnhounds are wonderful, and can’t wait for everyone else to know it too.

Here’s to June being full of rainbows and brilliant books!

The post In Short: May appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

May DNFs

Five DNFs this month – three ARCs, and two books I bought myself.

We All Fall Down by Rose Szabo
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Fat Black achillean MC, genderfluid MC, Black trans MC, sapphic MC
Published on: 7th June 2022
ISBN: 0374314330
Goodreads

The first book in a dark fantasy YA duology by Rose Szabo, the author of What Big Teeth, about the power and danger of stories and the untold costs of keeping magic alive, perfect for fans of Aiden Thomas and Marie Rutkoski.

In River City, where magic used to thrive and is now fading, the witches who once ruled the city along with their powerful King have become all but obsolete. The city's crumbling government is now controlled primarily by the new university and teaching hospital, which has grown to take over half of the city.

Moving between the decaying Old City and the ruthless New, four young queer people struggle with the daily hazards of life—work, school, dodging ruthless cops and unscrupulous scientists—not realizing that they have been selected to play in an age-old drama that revives the flow of magic through their world. When a mysterious death rocks their fragile peace, the four are brought into each other's orbits as they uncover a deeper magical conspiracy.

Devastating, gorgeous, and utterly unique, We All Fall Down examines the complex network of pain created by power differentials, even between people who love each other—and how it is possible to be queer and turn out just fine.

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-05-30T18:47:00+00:00", "description": "Five DNFs this month. ", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/may-dnfs\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "We All Fall Down", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Rose Szabo", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "0374314330" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

I didn’t hate We All Fall Down…but there’s a problem when I’m at 61% and don’t care how a book is going to end.

On paper, this should have been a book I adored, and I went in hoping to love it. And I do think some of the critiques I’ve seen are unfair: I never had any trouble keeping up with what was going on, and it’s not misgendering when the characters themselves haven’t figured out their genders or pronouns yet. Very few of us wake up one day understanding we want to use nonbinary pronouns from now on, or are ready to come out as girls when people think we’re guys. That takes time, and these kind of character arcs should be messy and uncertain and complicated. They should be allowed to be.

Gender stuff aside, We All Fall Down just fell really flat for me. I just didn’t care about any of the characters, and I really wasn’t invested in most of the plotlines. It’s hard to put my finger on why. I was so happy this was written in third-person, not first-person, but the prose itself was nothing special, the worldbuilding felt frustratingly simplistic and yet went mostly unexplained, and the characters all seemed to be defined by just one or two traits. A fair bit of the book moved very slowly, but the story wasn’t really introspective enough to make that work – and at other times things seemed convoluted just because, with a very because I said so vibe.

It’s very readable – I got to 61% very quickly – but reading it felt like a chore. I don’t care about the characters or how this book is going to end, and that means putting it down and walking away.

Adrift in Starlight by Mindi Briar
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
ISBN: B09XSCHFTR
Goodreads

When set adrift in the universe, some things are worth holding onto.

Titan Valentino has been offered a job they can’t refuse. Tai, a gender-neutral courtesan, receives a scandalous proposition: seduce an actor's virgin fiancée. The money is enough to pay off Tai’s crushing medical debt, a tantalizing prospect.

Too bad Aisha Malik isn’t the easy target they expect. A standoffish historian who hates to be touched, she’s laser-focused on her career, and completely unaware that her marriage has been arranged behind her back. This could be the one instance where Tai’s charm and charisma fail them.

Then an accidental heist throws them together as partners in crime. Fleeing from the Authorities, they’re dragged into one adventure after another: alien planets, pirate duels, and narrow escapes from the law. As Tai and Aisha open up to each other, deeper feelings kindle between them. But that reward money still hangs over Tai’s head. Telling Aisha the truth could ruin everything...

Their freedom, their career, and their blossoming love all hang in the balance. To save one might mean sacrificing the rest.

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-05-30T18:47:00+00:00", "description": "Five DNFs this month. ", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/may-dnfs\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Adrift in Starlight", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Mindi Briar", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "B09XSCHFTR" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

This was just…not the right tone for me at all. It’s light and breezy and really doesn’t take itself seriously, and the worldbuilding was pretty stupid. (It’s four thousand years in the future, and there’s no way to signal/communicate gender or pronouns? How did we backtrack to having nobility? Artifacts that bring dead space ants back to life???)

I think the right reader would find it a lot of fun, but it hit too many nopes! for me.

The Book of Gothel by Mary McMyne
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy
Published on: 26th July 2022
ISBN: 9780316393317
Goodreads

"Smart, swift, sure-footed and fleet-winged, The Book of Gothel launches its magic from a most reliable source: the troubled heart. Mary McMyne is a magician."—Gregory Maguire, NYT bestselling author of Wicked

Everyone knows the tale of Rapunzel in her tower, but do you know the story of the witch who put her there?

Haelewise has always lived under the shadow of her mother, Hedda—a woman who will do anything to keep her daughter protected. For with her strange black eyes and even stranger fainting spells, Haelewise is shunned by her medieval village, and her only solace lies in the stories her mother tells of child-stealing witches, of princes in wolf-skins, of an ancient tower cloaked in mist, where women will find shelter if they are brave enough to seek it.

Then, Hedda dies, and Haelewise is left unmoored. With nothing left for her in her village, she sets out to find the legendary tower her mother used to speak of—a place called Gothel, where Haelewise meets a wise woman willing to take her under her wing.
But Haelewise is not the only woman to seek refuge at Gothel. It’s also a haven for a girl named Rika, who carries with her a secret the Church strives to keep hidden. A secret that unlocks a dark world of ancient spells and murderous nobles behind the world Haelewise has always known…

“McMyne’s shimmering debut gives a fresh, exciting backstory to one of the most famous villains in fairy tale lore: the witch who put Rapunzel in her tower… Fans of Circe and The Wolf and the Woodsman will devour this taut, empowering fairy tale.”—Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-05-30T18:47:00+00:00", "description": "Five DNFs this month. ", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/may-dnfs\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Book of Gothel", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Mary McMyne", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "9780316393317" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

I had really high expectations for The Book of Gothel, not least because of the excerpts of it I’ve seen on the author’s Insta…but once I had it in my hands, it bored me to tears. The first quarter of the book is just the dull miserable childhood of a young girl in Medieval Germany, and I’m sorry, but unrelenting misery is just not interesting. Every character seems defined by just one or two traits, simplistic and predictable, and the prose isn’t lush or pretty, isn’t enjoyable for its own sake.

Even once the proper plot showed up, I just wasn’t invested or interested. It felt like every aspect of the book – prose, plot, characters, dialogue – was dumbed down for some reason. Like the worst kind of YA, rather than the gorgeous Adult Fantasy I was expecting.

Rebel Skies (Rebel Skies, #1) by Ann Sei Lin
Genres: Fantasy
ISBN: 9781406399592
Goodreads

Teen fantasy adventure set in a world of flying ships and sky cities, where chosen ones have the ability to bring paper to life and work as Crafters - people who hunt wild paper spirits called shikigami. Inspired by Asian culture and exploring themes of empire, slavery and freedom.

Kurara has never known any other life than being a servant on board the Midori, but when her party trick of making paper come to life turns out to be a power treasured across the empire, she joins a skyship and its motley crew to become a Crafter. Taught by the gruff but wise Himura, Kurara learns to hunt shikigami - wild paper spirits who are sought after by the Princess.

But are these creatures just powerful slaves for the Crafters and the empire, or are they beings with their own souls - and yet another thing to be subjugated by the powerful Emperor and his Princess?

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-05-30T18:47:00+00:00", "description": "Five DNFs this month. ", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/may-dnfs\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Rebel Skies (Rebel Skies, #1)", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ann Sei Lin", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "9781406399592" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

This one really isn’t the book’s fault; it’s written and marketed as YA, and it turned out to read far too young for me (unlike, say, Night Shine by Tessa Gratton, or The Scapegracers by Hannah Abigail Clarke).

It would make an absolutely stunning animated film, but in written form it couldn’t hold my interest, unfortunately.

The Petting Zoos by K.S. Covert
ISBN: B09CCXY9TZ
Goodreads

In a virus-fearing world, skin hunger can drive you crazy — and human petting zoos can return you to yourself.

Ten years after the deadly virus nicknamed Henny Penny, the world has largely recovered — there’s at least an interim government and law and order for its greatly reduced population. But even though there’s been a vaccine for years, the law still requires people to wear protective masks and gloves at all times in public. Soft fabrics are dangerous. And people who haven’t been touched in years are going crazy from skin hunger. Lily has lived in isolation for ten years, afraid to rejoin the world. But a return-to-work order, and an invitation to go to a petting zoo, the most illegal game in town, start to bring her back to life.

A post-apocalyptic sex adventure, a woman’s journey of self-discovery, The Petting Zoos is an erotic love story for an age of extreme caution, in which the value of safety itself is questioned.

{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2022-05-30T18:47:00+00:00", "description": "Five DNFs this month. ", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/may-dnfs\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Petting Zoos", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "K.S. Covert", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "B09CCXY9TZ" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}

This was another one that was very readable, but was also pretty boring – I suspect I’m completely the wrong audience for this, really, since I’m a touch-averse asexual who has been very happy in strict isolation during Covid (granted, I have an amazing hubby with me, and am not alone like the MC of The Petting Zoos). I don’t know, I’m a cold terrible person who just had no sympathy for the protagonist – or at least, not enough sympathy.

Fingers crossed for fewer DNFs in June!

The post May DNFs appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.