Siavahda's Blog, page 94

2020 Wrap-Up: What Did I Read?

Way back in July, I did a mid-year book tag which was a lot of fun, so I thought I’d do something similar to cover the whole of last year! I took some questions from the Mid-Year Freak Out Tag and made up some of my own. Brace yourself for pie charts!

How much have you read?

Well now.

I call that pretty good, what with the pandemic and my health issues this year! My record, since I started keeping notes, is 313 books in one year, but that was back before I was working full-time; since I started working my private goal has been 200 a year.

211 is up from 205 books in 2019. I’d have liked to have had a bigger increase, but with everything that went on this year, I’m pleased I managed even just six more than I did in 2019.

What did you read?

AND HERE COME THE PIE CHARTS!

Fantasy made up just under 80% of my reading this year, which should surprise absolutely no one. What is surprising is that 10% of what I read this year was Not Spec-Fic (aka Other). 21 books is a lot of not spec-fic for me. Weird.

(Less weird is that Science Fantasy was my least-read genre. It’s not like there’s a whole lot of books to choose from there; it’s a teeny-tiny sub-genre.)

These numbers are just to the best of my knowledge; I can’t swear it’s completely accurate, especially because I’m not very comfortable scouring the internet for someone’s gender identity. But I started keeping track of author gender back when everyone was telling me women didn’t write fantasy. That baffled me, since I read women almost exclusively, and not because I go looking for them – they just happen to write what I read, seems like.

‘Mix’ here refers to books that had more than one author, for the record.

Honestly the biggest surprise here is that I read so many cis guys this year. Perhaps male authors are stepping up their game???

I’m pretty quick to DNF books these days (to think that once upon a time I considered not finishing a book blasphemy!) so it’s not surprising that most of my reads this year got five or four stars. Mostly I’m surprised that there are 19 three-stars; that seems like a lot for me.

Two of the books that got 0 stars were books I refused to rate, because something about them made me hugely uncomfortable even though, objectively, the writing was pretty good; Troll by Johanna Sinisalo, which had really creepy sex themes, and Tiger’s Daughter by K. Arsenault Rivera, which has been accused of racism and cultural appropriation and yeah, even I, the whitest of white not-girls, can see it.)

Next year I think I should start tracking the ethnicities of the authors I read. I’m sure THAT pie chart is going to be embarrassingly white…

Best Debuts You Read in 2020

Raybearer, Scapegracers, Dark Tide and Hench are all books I reviewed, and the other two I will review, damn it. But it is simply jaw-dropping to me that all six of these are debuts?! I know the first book you publish is often not the first book you write – if I’m ever published it certainly won’t be the novel I wrote at 11 about the multi-coloured unicorns! But still, all six of these books read like…like their writers are at the pinnacle of their careers; they’re polished and perfect. I am in awe.

I’m reminded of how no one was able to view the Greek gods in their true forms, which was why they always appeared as animals and such. Because if a mortal viewed a god in their true form, the mortal died.

I mention this because, given that most people get better at a thing when they practice at it… I suspect all six of these authors may end up killing me down the line. I mean, if their debuts nearly made me expire, what are their future books going to do to me?!

Best Sequels You Read in 2020

The Tyrant Baru Cormorant was exactly what the Masquerade series needed! After all the darkness in the first two books – well, I can’t say that Tyrant is all light and fluffy, because it isn’t, but it is about unlearning internalised prejudices and assumptions, and it is, overall, a manifesto on how the connections between people, and fighting to be a good person and treat other people well even when it’s hard, can overcome anything. Even magic.

The Faithless Hawk rocked, both on its own merits and as a sequel to Merciless Crow. So many of the subtle themes from the first book got expanded upon in Hawk, and the arguments made were followed through to their logical conclusions. And thinking of it in terms of a sequel, I loved that the ending we got wasn’t the generic happy ending most authors would have written. Instead it’s an ending that tears apart the whole infrastructure of the book’s world, because hey, it needs tearing apart. (Not because Owen is bad at worldbuilding – far from it! – but because it had flaws a lot like ours does, and those flaws needed addressing just like ours do.) Very few sequels/conclusions do that, and I loved that Owen went there, especially with this story.

Queen’s Bargain is an interesting one, firstly because the previous book in the series – Twilight’s Dawn – was intended to be the last. Bargain is pretty special in context, then, because it’s simultaneously a ‘what happens once the story’s over’ book, and what feels like the start of a whole new arc. Kind of slice-of-life but with the groundwork being laid for something potentially epic in scope. It was fascinating seeing Bishop pull that off, and although it’s very different from any other book in the series, I loved it. And I’m really interested in seeing where Bishop goes with this new start…

Biggest Disappointments



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I was massively looking forward to both of these, but I ended up DNF-ing them both. Profound Weaves had a wonderful story but writing I couldn’t deal with (which is weird, because I read all of Lemberg’s other Birdverse stories and loved them), whereas Star Daughter had gorgeous writing, and a wonderful concept, but the story itself felt really weak. I’m hoping to come back to them both eventually, but it probably won’t be any time soon.

Biggest Surprises

In Veritas and Lovequake were both indie books I bought on impulse, and they stunned me with how incredibly good they both were (although they’re very different!) Boyfriend Material is the kind of thing I usually don’t enjoy at all, but after someone I followed was raving about it I gave it a go – and I’m so glad I did!

Midnight Bargain was probably the biggest surprise, because I’m the only person on the planet who really didn’t enjoy Witchmark and wasn’t planning on reading any of Polk’s other books. I don’t remember what made me request an ARC, but once I got it I was hooked. I’m still not a Witchmark fan, but I’m definitely going to keep an eye on what Polk writes after the Kingston Cycle is done!

New (To You) Favourite Author/s

Everybody from my Best Debuts answer. Every last one of them instantly went onto my auto-buy list. I will read their grocery lists.

Rereads

Usually it’s the James Asher series of Barbara Hambly’s that I reread every year, but this year it was Benjamin January, in preparation for the new book.

Rivers of London was another I had to reread because I’d fallen two books (and gods knows how many novellas) behind! It’s always a chore slogging through book one, though, since despite the introduction of magic it’s the one I find most boring. I’m always so happy when I get to move to book two!

And Wayward Children is a series I reread every year. Can you blame me?

Books You Didn’t Quite Get To

Cute Mutants and Into the Real both have really interesting premises – Cute Mutants in particular was pitched to me as ‘queer X-Men’ – but somehow I didn’t get around to them. Dying With Her Cheer Pants On I did start – sort of – because it’s Seanan McGuire and I will read absolutely anything she writes, but I got distracted and put it aside after just a few pages.

All three of these are books I’ll have to make a priority this year!

Books That Got You Through 2020

Lovequake appeared when I was suffering the worst fibromyalgia flare in I’ve had in years, and it made me smile and laugh so much, and Humankind helped me fight off all my pessimism about the human race using Science, so. Definitely gotta give the credit for getting me through to these two!

Your Favourite Reads This Year

Nothing really surprising here; I’ve raved about all of these already, here or in other posts!

2021 Releases That Make You Do Grabby-Hands

…I am very excited for this year’s books, okay? Okay.112

Which 2020 Release Would You Make Everyone Read If You Could?

Humankind. No question. This is such a convincingly inspiring analysis of humanity, with all the #GivesMeHope feels. Given how dark 2020 was, I think a book that’s all about proving that humans are Pretty Good, Actually – and proving it with science and history – is something I’d like to make mandatory reading for everybody. No matter how awful things get and how miserable the news is, remember: people are Pretty Good, Actually.

The post 2020 Wrap-Up: What Did I Read? appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

WWW Wednesday: 30th Dec

I’ve decided that, at least for the foreseeable future, I’m going to be participating in WWW Wednesdays, which is a meme hosted over at Taking On a World of Words. To take part, you just answer the three questions below, and link back to TOaWoW!

WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY READING?







Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente
Representation: Bisexual MC
Genres: Sci Fi, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

Radiance is a decopunk pulp SF alt-history space opera mystery set in a Hollywood-and solar system-very different from our own, from Catherynne M. Valente, the phenomenal talent behind the New York Times bestselling The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making.

Severin Unck's father is a famous director of Gothic romances in an alternate 1946 in which talking movies are still a daring innovation due to the patent-hoarding Edison family. Rebelling against her father's films of passion, intrigue, and spirits from beyond, Severin starts making documentaries, traveling through space and investigating the levitator cults of Neptune and the lawless saloons of Mars. For this is not our solar system, but one drawn from classic science fiction in which all the planets are inhabited and we travel through space on beautiful rockets.

Severin is a realist in a fantastic universe.

But her latest film, which investigates the disappearance of a diving colony on a watery Venus populated by island-sized alien creatures, will be her last. Though her crew limps home to earth and her story is preserved by the colony's last survivor, Severin will never return.

Told using techniques from reality TV, classic film, gossip magazines, and meta-fictional narrative, Radiance is a solar system-spanning story of love, exploration, family, loss, quantum physics, and silent film.

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I’m rereading Radiance, which is a standalone sci-fi by our-lady-and-saviour Catherynne Valente. (Someday I will print out pamphlets to offer people.) It’s sort of about the mystery of a film-maker’s disappearance, but it’s also about creative freedoms and art and the magic of space travel. In the world of Radiance, films are still in black and white, but humanity has settlements on every planet in our solar system, and each planet has its own incredible habitat, with fantastical flora and fauna. It’s a book you can feast on, and I’m enjoying reading it again IMMENSELY.

WHAT DID YOU RECENTLY FINISH READING?







The Seared Lands (The Dragon's Legacy Book 3) by Deborah A. Wolf
Representation: Multiple PoCs, minor queer characters, background polyamory
Genres: Epic Fantasy
Goodreads

The Seared Lands (The Dragon's Legacy Book 3) by Deborah A. WolfThis book, while following the previous stories, focuses a great deal on the Illindrist, Aasah, and his apprentice Yaela, strange people with stranger powers who come from a land of salt and fire.

In the days of the Sundering, Quarabala--the Seared Lands--were cursed by Akari Sun Dragon and scorched beyond all recognition. Now a cruel place inhabited by nightmare beasts, the Seared Lands are home to a desperate few; and as fears of a second Sundering grow, these people look to greener lands. If no place is found for them, they will seize new lands from the soft hands of Those Who Dwell Above.

They have nowhere else to go, they have nothing to lose...

And this time, they are not alone.

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I can’t remember the last time I had this bad a book hangover. I love this trilogy so, so much, and now it’s over, and I’m not even a little bit okay about it. I’m extra distressed because, as beautiful as this final installment was, it felt like it should have been spread out over at least two books, not forced into one. My best guess is that the publisher didn’t sign on for any more books, so Wolf had to wrap everything up in this one. (This would also explain why Seared Lands wasn’t released in hardback, like the previous books, which means the copies on my shelf now don’t match. Sigh.) I’m bitter that this series didn’t reach enough readers to be as well-loved and popular as it should be/should have been; maybe we could have gotten more books that way.

Sigh.

My main objection to Seared Lands, though, is the disjointed feel of parts of it. This is something Wolf has done in every book of hers I’ve read so far, so I can’t blame it on trying to fit too much story into one book; random timeskips, things going unexplained, contradictions, point A jumping to point C without stopping at B… It’s frustrating, because the writing is so gorgeous, and I love the characters, and I’m so unbelievably invested in the world and its story! But at the same time – you have Ani make a bone dragon with forbidden magic because otherwise Sulema and Hannei will die…and the dragon never appears again? It never gets used??? What? The Veil between worlds must not be torn Or Else, but then the Sea King tears through it and…nothing? And why on earth didn’t Jian and Sulema’s storylines ever join up? What was the point of Jian’s inclusion in the story at all? We didn’t even get to see him defeat the emperor, the story just skipped to the aftermath!

So I’m conflicted. I loved it, but I’m also upset that it was so messy. I feel…let down and betrayed, I guess. I’m not used to this; I DNF books very easily these days, so I don’t get invested in authors that let me down very often. Whereas I worship this series. So, yeah. Betrayed.

And yet it was beautiful too. I loved how it all ended. I just wish the journey to that ending had been allowed to be as long as it needed to be, not cramped and forced into too small a space.

WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’LL READ NEXT?







Call of the Bone Ships (The Tide Child #2) by R.J. Barker
Representation: Matriarchy, queernorm world
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy
Goodreads

A brilliantly imagined epic fantasy of honor, glory, and warfare, Call of the Bone Ships is the action-packed sequel to David Gemmell Award-nominated RJ Barker's The Bone Ships.

Dragons have returned to the Hundred Isles. But their return heralds only war and destruction.

When a horde of dying slaves are discovered in the bowels of a ship, Shipwife Meas and the crew of the Tide Child find themselves drawn into a vicious plot that will leave them questioning their loyalties and fighting for their lives.

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I finished my reread of The Bone Ships, book one in this series, so now it’s time to dive into (…pun unintended) book 2! The worldbuilding in these books is incredible, and I’m in love with the sea dragons. I know fantasies about ships get a bad rep, but Bone Ships was stunning – by the end I was as in love with the ship as the crew was. And there were some tantalising details that hint at a Thing, and I really want to know if I’ve guessed right about it!

I really have no clue what’s going to happen after how the first book ended, but I’m excited to find out.

What is everyone else reading?

The post WWW Wednesday: 30th Dec appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

How Literally Dare: 3 2020 Releases That Didn’t Get the Love They Deserve

Every year, there’s books that get hyped, and others that don’t. Sometimes passionate readers help a book make a splash after it’s been released; sometimes reviewers help a book make waves before release day.

And sometimes really great books fall through the cracks.

I thought I’d try and draw attention to some brilliant 2020 releases that I haven’t seen people talking about. So here are three brilliant books that deserve way more love than they’ve gotten!

The Fell of Dark by Caleb Roehrig
Representation: Gay MC, M/M, M/M/M love triangle, WoC
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

The only thing August Pfeiffer hates more than algebra is living in a vampire town. Located at a nexus of mystical energy fields, Fulton Heights is practically an electromagnet for supernatural drama. And when a mysterious (and annoyingly hot) vampire boy arrives with a cryptic warning, Auggie suddenly finds himself at the center of it. An ancient and terrible power is returning to the earthly realm, and somehow Auggie seems to be the only one who can stop it.

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Not Meyer’s VampiresWe Don’t Talk About the Haunted DollThe Gay Kid is the Chosen Onebadass grandmasRespect Your Math Tutor

The Fell of Dark is a book that manages to be deep and meaningful…by letting its protagonist not be deep. What I mean is; August, the MC, is allowed to be a teenager in a way we actually don’t see very often in YA Fantasy. He’s into his art classes and he’s terrible at math and he has a crush on the guy at the ice-cream parlor…even while he’s simultaneously at the center of a world-changing prophecy. I deeply loved the fact that he’s allowed to cry, when things are overwhelming and terrifying; and I equally adored how the romantic storyline (storylines?) are handled, how the love triangle trope was subverted in way that felt much more true to life than how these things are usually handled in fiction.

Generally, I’m not a fan of first-person narration, but I don’t think Dark would have worked nearly so well if we weren’t in August’s head. Although the lore behind the Big Bad is fascinating (and I dearly hope we get a sequel), August is what makes this book stand out. It would have been easy to take this story and make it nothing but tropey fun (not that there’s anything wrong with that), but that’s not what Roehrig did here: instead it taps that vein of white-hot emotion that too many adults forget that teenagers have. August is allowed to cry – which is still something pretty new when most heroes are packed full of toxic masculinity – and he’s also allowed to be angry in a way that flashed me right back to my own teen years. Remember when every emotion was turned up to 11? Roehrig makes you feel that again, and makes you cheer for August when he unleashes that part of himself. It’s awesome.

Basically this is a wickedly clever, super fun, addictive-as-hell story with a chosen-one plotline like none you’ve ever seen before. I love it dearly, and I want everyone else to love it too!

Mermaid Moon by Susann Cokal
Representation: Minor queer characters
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy
Goodreads

An award-winning author tells of a mermaid who leaves the sea in search of her landish mother in a captivating tale spun with beautiful prose, lush descriptions, empathy, and keen wit.

Blood calls to blood; charm calls to charm.It is the way of the world.Come close and tell us your dreams.

Sanna is a mermaid — but she is only half seavish. The night of her birth, a sea-witch cast a spell that made Sanna’s people, including her landish mother, forget how and where she was born. Now Sanna is sixteen and an outsider in the seavish matriarchy, and she is determined to find her mother and learn who she is. She apprentices herself to the witch to learn the magic of making and unmaking, and with a new pair of legs and a quest to complete for her teacher, she follows a clue that leads her ashore on the Thirty-Seven Dark Islands. There, as her fellow mermaids wait in the sea, Sanna stumbles into a wall of white roses thirsty for blood, a hardscrabble people hungry for miracles, and a baroness who will do anything to live forever.

From the author of the Michael L. Printz Honor Book The Kingdom of Little Wounds comes a gorgeously told tale of belonging, sacrifice, fear, hope, and mortality.

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What if the little mermaid was the student of the sea witchmermaids = matriarchythe skulls have Opinionsis there a dragon under this islandbees

Mermaid Moon is a little reminiscent of The Little Mermaid, in the sense that we have a mermaid girl gaining legs and going onto land, and a sea witch who helped her do that. But the little mermaid isn’t looking for a prince she never spoke to – she’s on a quest to find her human mother, and as the student of her clan’s witch, she’s packing some impressive magic. Alas, that doesn’t mean her life with the matriarchal seavish (merpeople) has prepared her for the patriarchal, religious world she finds on land.

Of course, nothing’s prepared the land for her, either.

This is a book to linger over, with luxurious prose that turns the story into poetry. It’s pretty slow-paced, but that suits it, and I loved the worldbuilding and the various magics that come into conflict over the course of Sanna’s quest. It’s a really beautiful book with a wonderful take on mermaids, and it really ought to be getting so much more attention!

The Fascinators by Andrew Eliopulos
Representation: Gay MC, M/M
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

A magic-infused YA novel about friendship, first love, and feeling out of place that will bewitch fans of Rainbow Rowell and Maggie Stiefvater.

Living in a small town where magic is frowned upon, Sam needs his friends James and Delia—and their time together in their school's magic club—to see him through to graduation.

But as soon as senior year starts, little cracks in their group begin to show. Sam may or may not be in love with James. Delia is growing more frustrated with their amateur magic club. And James reveals that he got mixed up with some sketchy magickers over the summer, putting a target on all their backs.

With so many fault lines threatening to derail his hopes for the year, Sam is forced to face the fact that the very love of magic that brought his group together is now tearing them apart—and there are some problems that no amount of magic can fix.

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Our world but magicmagic club is geek clubsoft boisdON’t toUCh ThE sPOokY SpELlbOOk YOu MOroNfriendship is magic but we have no ponies

The Fascinators is a lovingly written story that is sweet and soft, but is playing for high stakes indeed. It’s set in a world that looks just like ours, except everyone can do at least a little bit of magic (and for the record, I really love the magic system Eliopulos has built here). Most people don’t really want to bother, because it’s hard work, which is why Sam and his best friends – the only members of their school’s magic club – are seen as geeks and a Little Bit Weird. Their group’s dynamic is thrown more than a little when the new kid wants to join in, but honestly, most of the drama comes from the fact that James – Sam’s bestie and crush – is an idiot who’s gotten involved with some really alarming people.

Like, really alarming. They’re basically a creepy magic cult.

The last third of the book ramps up the pace as the aforementioned alarming people do Alarming Things, but mostly this is a book about friendship and being queer and how those things intersect with each other – and with the end of high school. It’s a story that makes you ache at the sweetness and the longing, and in some way I can’t put into words it feels like a gentle story. And yet not one moment of it is boring. I’m kind of stunned that I haven’t been seeing this praised all over the place, because it has very much the same vibe as some hugely popular books – like the Raven Cycle, which is mentioned in the blurb. (Ignore the reference to Rainbow Rowell. I have no idea who came up with that, Fascinators has nothing in common with Simon Snow except genre.) If you like Maggie Stiefvater’s writing, you really ought to pick this one up.

Annnd, done! Have you read any of these? What 2020 books do YOU think didn’t get enough love this year?

The post How Literally Dare: 3 2020 Releases That Didn’t Get the Love They Deserve appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

State of the Sia

It’s been quiet around here, not because I’ve lost interest or gotten distracted, but because my fibromyalgia has flared very badly and I can barely touch a computer. I’ve been on sick leave from work for weeks. A whole lot of not fun!

But I’ve read so many incredible books in this last little while (what else can you do when you’re in pain?) and even started experimenting with audiobooks. I really cannot WAIT to write about my recent reads!

Until next time – which is soon, I hope!

The post State of the Sia appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Fire and Flowers: The Forever Sea by Joshua Phillip Johnson

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.

The Forever Sea by Joshua Phillip Johnson
Representation: Bisexual MC, F/F or wlw
Published by DAW on 19th January 2021
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Secondary World Fantasy
Goodreads

The first book in a new environmental epic fantasy series set in a world where ships kept afloat by magical hearthfires sail an endless grass sea.

On the never-ending, miles-high expanse of prairie grasses known as the Forever Sea, Kindred Greyreach, hearthfire keeper and sailor aboard harvesting vessel The Errant, is just beginning to fit in with the crew of her new ship when she receives devastating news. Her grandmother--The Marchess, legendary captain and hearthfire keeper--has stepped from her vessel and disappeared into the sea.

But the note she leaves Kindred suggests this was not an act of suicide. Something waits in the depths, and the Marchess has set out to find it.

To follow in her grandmother's footsteps, Kindred must embroil herself in conflicts bigger than she could imagine: a water war simmering below the surface of two cultures; the politics of a mythic pirate city floating beyond the edges of safe seas; battles against beasts of the deep, driven to the brink of madness; and the elusive promise of a world below the waves.

Kindred finds that she will sacrifice almost everything--ship, crew, and a life sailing in the sun--to discover the truth of the darkness that waits below the Forever Sea.

The first thing you need to know about The Forever Sea is that the setting is pretty incredible: in Kindred’s world, land is surrounded by the Forever Sea – an endless ocean of giant-sized grass, flowers with magical properties, and wild creatures that can tear ships apart. Because yes, despite the sea being made of grass, ships do sail it – using magical fires which are controlled with bones.

Are you wowed yet? Because you really should be. The worldbuilding is a wonder – simultaneously out-of-this-world, but with a culture familiar enough to not feel alien. It’s a delicate line to walk, but Johnson manages it deftly. And so much thought has gone into this! The hearthfires that power ships are an excellent example – they’re fueled with bones, but not just any bones. They must be the bones of a dead captain – presumably something to do with the mysterious, secret ritual that makes a sailor into a captain: it’s not as simple as someone just buying their own ship and putting on a captain’s hat. And it gets even more intricate, because it’s not as simple as putting bones on the fire – a Hearthkeeper builds, well, ‘builds’ out of the bones, and the different builds make a ship go up or down, left or right, faster or slower. Ships on the Forever Sea do have sails, but no steering wheel or rudder (as far as I could tell): it’s all down to the mysterious flames.

Flames which sing, if you’re able to hear them.

The problem is that the story doesn’t really live up to the world Johnson’s created. At first, it looks promising; we’re introduced to Kindred, Hearthkeeper of The Errant, as the ship flees from pirates, racing to reach Arcadia before the pirates can take them down. We quickly learn that Kindred has a relationship to the hearthfire that other Hearthkeepers don’t, and that they don’t understand or believe in, but that gives her a deeper understanding of the flames and how to work with them. And Arcadia, when they reach it, is a beautifully fleshed-out island where the people live by night and walk slow to conserve all the water they can. The initial conflict, in fact, is fueled by the scarcity of water – or rather, the man who’s taken advantage of that scarcity to somehow build up a monopoly, which in turn has given him control of the city-island’s politics and laws.

Honestly, the book is really strong throughout this part; it’s a very good beginning, with detailed worldbuilding and believable conflict, sketching out the characters and the culture they come from. The scene where Kindred learns of her grandmother’s ‘death’, and mourns with her grandmother’s crew, is beautiful and poignant; and the subsequent battle where Kindred and her fellow crew are driven out over a mistake/conspiracy about water supplies is powerful and cinematic in the best way.

But after that, it really starts to fall apart. Although the worldbuilding remains incredible, the characters wash out to 2-dimensional figures, and the various subplots are resolved mostly by incredible coincidence or too-simple solutions. Kindred becomes obsessed with following her grandmother down under the Forever Sea, but Johnson doesn’t really make this believable at all; never once did I understand why Kindred wanted this, and wanted it so badly, when her entire world insists that it’s death. I was shocked when she, in a move that seemed uncharacteristic of her, lied and manipulated her fellow crew into taking a more dangerous route when the captain is out of commission; something that is apparently motivated by her desire to go to the Deeps, except…that’s not where they’re going. Kindred directs them to the Once-City, a mythical giant tree/pirate city/titanic ship, because…? It’s not really clear. She associates the Once-City with her desire for the Deeps, but why isn’t really explained, nor why she thinks it’s okay to lie and manipulate her friends in the way that she does.

The Once-City feels like a conglomeration of too many ideas that Johnson couldn’t sort out, and at the same time, weirdly simplistic. On the one hand, one of the levels of the city is taken up by a magical (mini-?)forest full of ghosts that will rip people apart for no apparent reason; on the other hand, nobody comments on the fact that the Once-City houses Kindred + pals in a place literally called ‘Cruel House’, which is coincidentally run by a complete jerk. One of the city’s Council members is one mind in two bodies which speaks in utterly bizarre riddle-type things; this is never explained. The Once-City is also stuck in place because its hundreds of hearthfires have turned inexplicably grey; Kindred eventually discovers (in a move that, again, feels like Because Plot rather than anything organic) that some of the fires have a wrong kind of bone in them, but what that is or how they got there is also not explained. Kindred and co are warned that the magical healing of the Once-City’s physicians is dangerous and ‘will change you’, but that doesn’t make sense either; both Kindred and the captain receive this healing, and it doesn’t warp them the way the warnings implied that it would.

The book builds into a conflict between Arcadia and the Once-City, and in hindsight Kindred calls this a water-war, but…it makes no sense. For the Once-City to attack Arcadia; yes, okay, it’s revealed that they’re running out of water and they’re clearly trying to save themselves. But they’re not the aggressors, and it’s never clear to my why the hell Arcadia expends the resources they do in trying to annihilate the Once-City when they find it. This is a culture where people don’t raise their voices or let themselves get worked up, because it means losing sweat and saliva in a world where water is priceless. It’s not believable to me that a people who are careful to walk slowly would initiate a war.

While I was delighted that Kindred was queer – bisexual or pansexual isn’t clear – the romance also kind of comes out of nowhere. I actually didn’t mind that so much – quieter romance plotlines are my jam, generally – but it is mind-boggling how quickly her paramour agrees that sure, going into the Deeps would be great, let’s do it. What??? Just. No. Why don’t more people think Kindred is nuts? Why aren’t they scared for her? Why don’t they try to talk her out of it? I love my husband more than anything, but if he announced he wanted to rent a car and go driving under the sea I’d take him to the hospital, not the rent-a-car place! Just because you love someone doesn’t mean you go along with their (you think) suicidal ideas without batting an eye.

Really, all the characters lose more and more of their…their definition as the story goes on. By the end, several, especially the ‘villains’, have just become caricatures. It’s ridiculous and such a let-down.

With all that said? If you can sort of…let it go, that the characters are Like That, and that some of the problems are resolved a little too neatly…it’s a very readable book. It’s a very beautiful world. The theme of living in harmony with nature is a bit heavy-handed, but it’s still poignant. Once I put blinkers on to blind me to its flaws, The Forever Sea was a book I enjoyed reading. Johnson has no problems with prose: the scene where Ragged Sarah, crow-called of The Errant, summons the birds of the Forever Sea to tell her of the state of the sea? Is breathtaking, and will stay with me for a long, long time.

And I’ll probably pick up the sequel, because the ending sinks its hooks in deep, and a lot of the things that aren’t explained? I really want answers!

The post Fire and Flowers: The Forever Sea by Joshua Phillip Johnson appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

WWW Wednesday: 2nd Dec

I’ve decided that, at least for the foreseeable future, I’m going to be participating in WWW Wednesdays, which is a meme hosted over at Taking On a World of Words. To take part, you just answer the three questions below, and link back to TOaWoW!

What are you currently reading?







The Stone Knife (Songs of the Drowned, #1) by Anna Stephens
Representation: Cast of Colour, Deaf MC, M/M or mlm
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Epic Fantasy
Goodreads

An astonishing new fantasy trilogy of gods and monsters by the acclaimed author of GODBLIND.

In the humid jungles of Ixachipan, a war has been raging for fifty years as the Pechaqueh, by order of their supreme ruler the Singer, conquer their neighbouring tribes and bring them into the glory of the Empire of Songs. Only the Yaloh and their neighbours, the Tokob of the hills, remain.

Meanwhile, the Tokob fight a second war – against the Drowned. Clawed and fanged humanoid predators who dwell in water, luring unwary victims to their deaths.

As the Pechaqueh army advances ever closer, conquering Yaloh land and taking its people as slaves to the glory of the Singer and their gods, the Tokob must find a way to survive the war and the waters both. But within their home, the Sky City, not everyone is who they seem, and one people’s gods are another’s monsters.

I’m a little nervous of this one, because Stephens is known for her grimdark fantasy, and that’s not my thing at all. But I couldn’t quite resist an Aztec/South-American inspired epic fantasy with queer and disabled main characters. I mean, come on!

So far I’m enjoying it immensely; the worldbuilding is everything I could hope for, and it’s wonderful to see this kind of epic fantasy with a queernorm setting!

What did you recently finish reading?







The Tethered Mage (Swords and Fire, #1) by Melissa Caruso
Representation: important bisexual character
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy
Goodreads

CONTROL THE MAGIC, CONTROL THE WORLD

In the Raverran Empire, magic is scarce and those born with power are strictly controlled -- taken as children and conscripted into the Falcon Army. Zaira has lived her life on the streets to avoid this fate, hiding her mage-mark and thieving to survive. But hers is a rare and dangerous magic, one that threatens the entire empire.

Lady Amalia Cornaro was never meant to be a Falconer. Heiress and scholar, she was born into a treacherous world of political machinations.

But fate has bound the heir and the mage. And as war looms on the horizon, a single spark could turn their city into a pyre.

The Tethered Mage is the first novel in a spellbinding new fantasy series.

I read and loved Caruso’s Obsidian Tower which was published earlier this year; when I found out she’d previously written a trilogy set in the same world, I jumped on it! Officially Obsidian Tower is Adult and the Swords & Fire trilogy is YA, but I really couldn’t detect any difference. The Tethered Mage is set mostly in Fantasy Venice, which rules a big chunk of the world in large part because they conscript anyone born with the mage-mark (aka, powerful magic) and use them in war. Shenanigans ensue when a nobleborn young woman accidentally ends up bound to a mage who is really not interested in being conscripted.

I thought the worldbuilding was just detailed enough to make the world feel real, and the prose was lovely. It was impossible not to fall in love with pretty much every character, and I didn’t try. I’ve already started the sequel!

What do you think you’ll read next?







A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan, #1) by Arkady Martine
Representation: Cast of Colour, Sapphic MC
Goodreads

Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining Station, has died. But no one will admit that his death wasn't an accident--or that Mahit might be next to die, during a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court.

Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her Station from Teixcalaan's unceasing expansion--all while navigating an alien culture that is all too seductive, engaging in intrigues of her own, and hiding a deadly technological secret--one that might spell the end of her Station and her way of life--or rescue it from annihilation.

I was approved for an arc of A Desolation Called Peace, so I need to reread the first book in the series, A Memory Called Empire! I adored this when I read it last year – it made it onto my Best of the Decade list – and I’m hoping that this time, I can take notes as I read and write a review for it!

What’s everyone else reading?

The post WWW Wednesday: 2nd Dec appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Books I Want to Read Again

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Check out upcoming Top Ten themes on Jana’s blog!

I’ve skipped a few weeks since the prompts didn’t interest me, but this week it’s all about books you want to reread – or maybe books you’d like to read for the first time, again. Since I was just thinking about this, it was easy to put a list together!

Kushiel's Dart (Phèdre's Trilogy, #1) by Jacqueline Carey
Representation: Bisexual MC, Bisexual love interest, queernorm world, secondary M/M or mlm
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

The land of Terre d'Ange is a place of unsurpassing beauty and grace. It is said that angels found the land and saw it was good... and the ensuing race that rose from the seed of angels and men live by one simple rule: Love as thou wilt.

Phèdre nó Delaunay is a young woman who was born with a scarlet mote in her left eye. Sold into indentured servitude as a child, her bond is purchased by Anafiel Delaunay, a nobleman with very a special mission... and the first one to recognize who and what she is: one pricked by Kushiel's Dart, chosen to forever experience pain and pleasure as one.

Phèdre is trained equally in the courtly arts and the talents of the bedchamber, but, above all, the ability to observe, remember, and analyze. Almost as talented a spy as she is courtesan, Phèdre stumbles upon a plot that threatens the very foundations of her homeland. Treachery sets her on her path; love and honor goad her further. And in the doing, it will take her to the edge of despair... and beyond. Hateful friend, loving enemy, beloved assassin; they can all wear the same glittering mask in this world, and Phèdre will get but one chance to save all that she holds dear.

Set in a world of cunning poets, deadly courtiers, heroic traitors, and a truly Machiavellian villainess, this is a novel of grandeur, luxuriance, sacrifice, betrayal, and deeply laid conspiracies. Not since Dune has there been an epic on the scale of Kushiel's Dart-a massive tale about the violent death of an old age, and the birth of a new.

Kushiel’s Dart is one of my favourite books of all time… And I want little more than to sit down and reread it. I crave a big intricate sumptuous fantasy, with a queernorm sex-positive culture and gods and gorgeous prose, that I can just sink into. And Kushiel’s Dart fits the bill perfectly! But this year has been – well – and my flaily brain hasn’t been up to big intricate sumptuous fantasies, alas. My concentration seems to be shot and I think the baroque politics would make me even dizzier than usual. Mostly though, I just don’t have time – there are books I ‘have’ to read by the end of the year, and Kushiel’s Dart just won’t fit in-between them.

Mr. Big Empty (Hollow Folk, #1) by Gregory Ashe
Representation: Gay MC, Bisexual love interest, Gay love interest, mental health
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

Vie Eliot arrives in the small town of Vehpese, Wyoming with little more than the clothes--and scars--on his back. Determined to make a new life for himself after escaping his abusive mother, he finds that living with his estranged father brings its own problems.

Then Samantha Oates, the girl with blue hair, goes missing, and Vie might be the only one who can find her. His ability to read emotions and gain insight into other people’s darkest secrets makes him the perfect investigator, with only one small problem: he wants nothing to do with his gift.

When the killer begins contacting Vie through a series of strange cards, though, Vie is forced to hone his ability, because Samantha was not the killer’s only target.

And, as Vie learns, he is not the only psychic in town.

Besides being amazing all on its own, I really want to reread Mr Big Empty – and the entire Hollow Folk series! – so that I can jump into the sequel series, beginning with Ember Boys. But although it’s stunningly perfect, the Hollow Folk series is very dark, and I feel too fragile to survive it right now. Alas.

A Pale Light in the Black (NeoG #1) by K.B. Wagers
Representation: Asexual, Bisexual, Nonbinary, Characters of Colour, Pansexual, F/F
Genres: Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

The rollicking first entry in a unique science fiction series that introduces the Near-Earth Orbital Guard—NeoG—a military force patrolling and protecting space inspired by the real-life mission of the U.S. Coast Guard.

For the past year, their close loss in the annual Boarding Games has haunted Interceptor Team: Zuma’s Ghost. With this year’s competition looming, they’re looking forward to some payback—until an unexpected personnel change leaves them reeling. Their best swordsman has been transferred, and a new lieutenant has been assigned in his place.

Maxine Carmichael is trying to carve a place in the world on her own—away from the pressure and influence of her powerful family. The last thing she wants is to cause trouble at her command on Jupiter Station. With her new team in turmoil, Max must overcome her self-doubt and win their trust if she’s going to succeed. Failing is not an option—and would only prove her parents right.

But Max and the team must learn to work together quickly. A routine mission to retrieve a missing ship has suddenly turned dangerous, and now their lives are on the line. Someone is targeting members of Zuma’s Ghost, a mysterious opponent willing to kill to safeguard a secret that could shake society to its core . . . a secret that could lead to their deaths and kill thousands more unless Max and her new team stop them.

Rescue those in danger, find the bad guys, win the Games. It’s all in a day’s work at the NeoG.

I really, REALLY loved this book…and my review of it is languishing in my drafts. I wish I could sit down and reread it, and take notes properly this time so I could try writing it the review it deserves! But I suppose I don’t NEED 1000+ words to tell you to GO READ IT, it’s hilarious and heart-warming and queer as hell, and once I got into it I could not put it down!

Uprooted by Naomi Novik
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy
Goodreads

“Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.”

Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.

Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.

But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.

This is another book I really, really loved…but after I read it, some other reviews opened my eyes to how horribly toxic the romance in it is. So honestly, I’m scared that if I try to reread it, I’m not going to be able to enjoy it like I once did.

Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente
Representation: Queer cast, WoC MC
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Secondary World Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

In the Cities of Coin and Spice and In the Night Garden introduced readers to the unique and intoxicating imagination of Catherynne M. Valente. Now she weaves a lyrically erotic spell of a place where the grotesque and the beautiful reside and the passport to our most secret fantasies begins with a stranger’s kiss.…

Between life and death, dreaming and waking, at the train stop beyond the end of the world is the city of Palimpsest. To get there is a miracle, a mystery, a gift, and a curse—a voyage permitted only to those who’ve always believed there’s another world than the one that meets the eye. Those fated to make the passage are marked forever by a map of that wondrous city tattooed on their flesh after a single orgasmic night. To this kingdom of ghost trains, lion-priests, living kanji, and cream-filled canals come four travelers: Oleg, a New York locksmith; the beekeeper November; Ludovico, a binder of rare books; and a young Japanese woman named Sei. They’ve each lost something important—a wife, a lover, a sister, a direction in life—and what they will find in Palimpsest is more than they could ever imagine.

Palimpsest is, besides a beautiful and unique fantasy novel, a celebration of sex and sexuality. This was the first Valente book I ever read, and it has a very dear place in my heart, but I’ve had very painful issues with sexuality this year – especially in how sex and sexuality mesh, or rather don’t, with my fibro and the medication required to manage it – and I’m not sure it wouldn’t make a reread painful as hell, dragging up all that nonsense again.

War for the Oaks by Emma Bull
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Goodreads

Acclaimed by critics and readers on its first publication in 1987, winner of the Locus Award for Best First Novel, Emma Bull's War for the Oaks is one of the novels that has defined modern urban fantasy.

Eddi McCandry sings rock and roll. But she's breaking up with her boyfriend, her band just broke up, and life could hardly be worse. Then, walking home through downtown Minneapolis on a dark night, she finds herself drafted into an invisible war between the faerie folk. Now, more than her own survival is at risk—and her own preferences, musical and personal, are very much beside the point.

By turns tough and lyrical, fabulous and down-to-earth, War for the Oaks is a fantasy novel that's as much about this world as about the other one. It's about real love and loyalty, about real music and musicians, about false glamour and true art. It will change the way you hear and see your own daily life.

War for the Oaks was the very first Urban Fantasy novel, and it’s exactly as amazing as you’d expect of a book that launched an entire genre. As a rule of thumb I find urban fantasy frustrating and dull, and I’d like to reread War for the Oaks to remind myself how incredible it can be when it’s done right!

The Dark Tide by Alicia Jasinska
Representation: Bisexual MC, Pansexual/Demisexual MC, F/F or wlw, minor nonbinary character
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

A fast-paced, well-plotted fantasy retelling of an ancient Scottish fairy tale ballad, this exciting debut will appeal to fans of Stephanie Garber's CARAVAL, Shea Ernshaw's THE WICKED DEEP, and Kendare Blake's THREE DARK CROWNS.

Every year on Walpurgis Night, Caldella's Witch Queen lures a young boy back to her palace. An innocent life to be sacrificed on the full moon to keep the island city from sinking.

Convinced her handsome brother is going to be taken, sixteen-year-old Lina Kirk enlists the help of the mysterious Tomas Lin, her secret crush, and the only boy to ever escape from the palace. Working together they protect her brother, but draw the Queen's attention. When the Queen spirits Tomas away instead, Lina blames herself and determines to go after him.

Caught breaking into the palace, the Queen offers Lina a deal: she will let Tomas go, if, of course, Lina agrees to take his place. Lina accepts, with a month before the full moon, surely she can find some way to escape. But the Queen is nothing like she envisioned, and Lina is not at all what the Queen expected. Against their will, they find themselves falling for each other. As water floods Caldella's streets and the dark tide demands its sacrifice, they must choose who to save: themselves, each other, or the island city relying on them both.

This is one of my favourite books of the year – of ever – and I wish I could somehow experience the magic of reading it for the first time for a second time! This is such a lyrical, lush book; just thinking about it makes me swoon. I want to write love poems to this book, okay? If you gave me a magic bookmark that let me enter the stories I chose, I would jump into Dark Tide and never be glimpsed again!

The Scapegracers (Scapegracers, #1) by Hannah Abigail Clarke
Representation: Lesbian MC, queer cast, F/F or wlw, WoC, secondary M/M or mlm
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

An outcast teenage lesbian witch finds her coven hidden amongst the popular girls in her school, and performs some seriously badass magic in the process.

Skulking near the bottom of West High’s social pyramid, Sideways Pike lurks under the bleachers doing magic tricks for Coke bottles. As a witch, lesbian, and lifelong outsider, she’s had a hard time making friends. But when the three most popular girls pay her $40 to cast a spell at their Halloween party, Sideways gets swept into a new clique. The unholy trinity are dangerous angels, sugar-coated rattlesnakes, and now–unbelievably–Sideways’ best friends.

Together, the four bond to form a ferocious and powerful coven. They plan parties, cast curses on dudebros, try to find Sideways a girlfriend, and elude the fundamentalist witch hunters hellbent on stealing their magic. But for Sideways, the hardest part is the whole ‘having friends’ thing. Who knew that balancing human interaction with supernatural peril could be so complicated?

Rich with the urgency of feral youth, The Scapegracers explores growing up and complex female friendship with all the rage of a teenage girl. It subverts the trope of competitive mean girls and instead portrays a mercilessly supportive clique of diverse and vivid characters. It is an atmospheric, voice-driven novel of the occult, and the first of a three-book series.

See above. Scapegracers rocked my freaking world, and I just want to read it over and over again. I want the bliss of reading it for the first time again! But even with that off the table, I’d be happy just…reading it over and over again. Just cancelling life and diving into Sideways’ story and never coming out. That sounds pretty perfect, to be honest.

Sea Change by S.M. Wheeler
Representation: Physically agender MC, who presents as male but identifies as female; secondary M/M or mlm
Genres: Fantasy
Goodreads

The unhappy child of two powerful parents who despise each other, young Lilly turns to the ocean to find solace, which she finds in the form of the eloquent and intelligent sea monster Octavius, a kraken. In Octavius’s many arms, Lilly learns of friendship, loyalty, and family. When Octavius, forbidden by Lilly to harm humans, is captured by seafaring traders and sold to a circus, Lilly becomes his only hope for salvation. Desperate to find him, she strikes a bargain with a witch that carries a shocking price.

Her journey to win Octavius’s freedom is difficult. The circus master wants a Coat of Illusions; the Coat tailor wants her undead husband back from a witch; the witch wants her skin back from two bandits; the bandits just want some company, but they might kill her first. Lilly's quest tests her resolve, tries her patience, and leaves her transformed in every way.

Sea Change is another book I love dearly, but that I feel too fragile to face at the moment. This is a perfect dark fairytale for adults, with deft whimsy and ruthless streaks of darkness in perfect balance. I’d love to reread it, but I just know I’d end up crying.

That said, I do urge you to pick it up, if you think a girl who’s best friend is a kraken sounds like someone you might get along with. Because this book is amazing! Just. Don’t start reading it if what you really need is hot chocolate and cuddles.

The Fifth Sacred Thing (Maya Greenwood, #1) by Starhawk
Representation: Queer cast, PoC MCs, Jewish MCs
Genres: Fantasy, Science Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

An epic tale of freedom and slavery, love and war, and the potential futures of humankind tells of a twenty-first century California clan caught between two clashing worlds, one based on tolerance, the other on repression.

I discovered, inhaled and unabashedly adored Starhawk’s The Fifth Sacred Thing when I first discovered it at 16. Years later, I found out that Starhawk had crowdfunded the publication of a sequel, City of Refuge, and I was so excited! I bought a copy, of course, but I still haven’t gotten to it, because I need to reread Fifth Sacred Thing first! Unfortunately I keep getting stuck around the halfway mark and giving up, but I’m bloody determined to get through it eventually and make my way to the City of Refuge!

What books do you wish you could reread?

The post Books I Want to Read Again appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

WWW Wednesday: 25th Nov

I’ve decided that, at least for the foreseeable future, I’m going to be participating in WWW Wednesdays, which is a meme hosted over at Taking On a World of Words. To take part, you just answer the three questions below, and link back to TOaWoW!

What are you currently reading?







In Veritas by C.J. Lavigne
Goodreads

"Things that are and are not, she thinks, and the dog is a snake."

In this fantastic and fantastical debut, C.J. Lavigne concocts a wondrous realm overlaying a city that brims with civic workers and pigeons. Led by her synesthesia, Verity Richards discovers a hidden world inside an old Ottawa theatre. Within the timeworn walls live people who should not exist--people whose very survival is threatened by science, technology, and natural law. Verity must submerge herself in this impossible reality to help save the last traces of their broken community. Her guides: a magician, his shadow-dog, a dying angel, and a knife-edged woman who is more than half ghost.

With great empathy and imagination, In Veritas explores the nature of truth and the complexities of human communication.

The book that is currently consuming me is In Veritas, in which a synesthesiac stumbles upon real magic. My husband has synesthesia, and I’ve written about it for work, and it’s very, very cool to see it in a fantasy novel. I’m not sure I’ve ever come across synesthesia before in a novel, actually. Moments of synesthesia caused by something weird that happens in the story, sure. Characters who were born with it, no.

I like it because – besides the beautiful writing, and the really magical magic – this isn’t one of those times with a ‘you’re not crazy, you’re magic!’ thing. (Not that synesthesia is a mental illness.) The main character can tell truth from illusion because of how her synesthesia works, but it’s not that she was nuerotypical all along and just needs to learn to use her powers.

I’m also just ridiculously excited to see where the story is going, and more of the world in which it’s set and the characters who live in it!

What did you recently finish reading?







The Forever Sea by Joshua Phillip Johnson
Representation: Bisexual MC, F/F or wlw
on 19th January 2021
Goodreads

The first book in a new environmental epic fantasy series set in a world where ships kept afloat by magical hearthfires sail an endless grass sea.

On the never-ending, miles-high expanse of prairie grasses known as the Forever Sea, Kindred Greyreach, hearthfire keeper and sailor aboard harvesting vessel The Errant, is just beginning to fit in with the crew of her new ship when she receives devastating news. Her grandmother--The Marchess, legendary captain and hearthfire keeper--has stepped from her vessel and disappeared into the sea.

But the note she leaves Kindred suggests this was not an act of suicide. Something waits in the depths, and the Marchess has set out to find it.

To follow in her grandmother's footsteps, Kindred must embroil herself in conflicts bigger than she could imagine: a water war simmering below the surface of two cultures; the politics of a mythic pirate city floating beyond the edges of safe seas; battles against beasts of the deep, driven to the brink of madness; and the elusive promise of a world below the waves.

Kindred finds that she will sacrifice almost everything--ship, crew, and a life sailing in the sun--to discover the truth of the darkness that waits below the Forever Sea.

I just finished my ARC of The Forever Sea, and would be working on a review now if I was able to type, instead of picking out letters on my keyboard with a stylus. (It’s a very bad fibro day and my hands are Not Working.) This is being touted as environmental fantasy, which it kind of is, but that’s a very small part of what’s essentially an adventure story. The worldbuilding is amazing and unique, we have pirates and a bisexual MC and a missing Marchess… I enjoyed it a lot, with very few caveats.

What do you think you’ll read next?







The Bone Ships (The Tide Child, #1) by R.J. Barker
Goodreads

A crew of condemned criminals embark on a suicide mission to hunt the first sea dragon seen in centuries in the first book of this adventure fantasy trilogy.

Violent raids plague the divided isles of the Scattered Archipelago. Fleets constantly battle for dominance and glory, and no commander stands higher among them than "Lucky" Meas Gilbryn.But betrayed and condemned to command a ship of criminals, Meas is forced on suicide mission to hunt the first living sea-dragon in generations. Everyone wants it, but Meas Gilbryn has her own ideas about the great beast. In the Scattered Archipelago, a dragon's life, like all lives, is bound in blood, death and treachery.

The Bone Ships – gotta reread this because the sequel just came out! It’s a matriarchy whose greatest treasure is their made-of-seadragon-bone ships, and what they’re going to do when one of the thought-extinct sea-dragons appears. I loved it, can’t wait to dive in again, and then into the sequel!

And now, I’ve really got yo sign off. Until next time!

The post WWW Wednesday: 25th Nov appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Fantasy Featuring Fabulous Trans Leads

It’s the Transgender Day of Remembrance, coming at the end of Transgender Awareness Week. This is a day when we remember the ones we’ve lost, because of the entire queer community, trans people – especially trans women of colour – suffer the most violence. And the rest of us have to remember that, and work to fix it.

Throughout history, humans have told stories to remember the things that are the most important, and to teach others. We need to remember our trans siblings, and some of us need to learn that they exist and matter just as much as the rest of us. So it only feels appropriate to share some incredible reads that feature trans characters.

(I don’t know what it says that I had a far easier time finding books with genderqueer or nonbinary main characters, than characters with explicitly transgender leads.)

I haven’t checked whether these are #ownvoices, because when it comes to gender identity and sexuality, I don’t think it’s okay to demand authors out themselves to justify telling their stories. Take that as you will.

Transgender Pride dragon by Kaenith!







The Name of All Things (A Chorus of Dragons, #2) by Jenn Lyons
Representation: Genderqueer MC, secondary trans characters, minor gay character
Genres: Epic Fantasy, Queer Protagonists

You can have everything you want if you sacrifice everything you believe.

Kihrin D'Mon is a wanted man.

Since he destroyed the Stone of Shackles and set demons free across Quur, he has been on the run from the wrath of an entire empire. His attempt to escape brings him into the path of Janel Theranon, a mysterious Joratese woman who claims to know Kihrin.

Janel's plea for help pits Kihrin against all manner of dangers: a secret rebellion, a dragon capable of destroying an entire city, and Kihrin's old enemy, the wizard Relos Var.

Janel believes that Relos Var possesses one of the most powerful artifacts in the world―the Cornerstone called the Name of All Things. And if Janel is right, then there may be nothing in the world that can stop Relos Var from getting what he wants.

And what he wants is Kihrin D'Mon.

Jenn Lyons continues the Chorus of Dragons series with The Name of All Things, the epic sequel to The Ruin of Kings.

The Name of All Things is the second book of the Chorus of Dragons series, and focuses on Janel. Janel’s culture recognises biological sex, but only when it comes to actual sex – in the horse-mad land of Jorat, gender-wise, you can be a stallion, a mare, or a gelding (a catch-all term for genderqueer individuals). And although Janel is biologically female and uses female pronouns – she’s a stallion, what the rest of the empire would consider a man.

I’m not 100% sure she’d consider herself trans if someone explained modern Western labels to her – she has the option to change her sex and isn’t interested, but then, plenty of trans people aren’t interested in gender reassignment surgery either; wanting to change your body isn’t a prerequisite of being trans. But she is someone who has to fight to have her gender identity recognised and is misgendered more than once. Honestly, the Joratese gender roles, and how they interact with personal responsibility and honour, is absolutely fascinating, and would make for an epic read even if this book didn’t feature demons, dragons, and a quest to save the universe.

Just…it’s the bad guy on the quest.

You kind of have to read it to get it, and I really recommend you read the first book first!

Full Fathom Five (Craft Sequence, #3) by Max Gladstone
Representation: Trans WoC MC
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Fantasy
Goodreads

The third novel set in the addictive and compelling fantasy world of Three Parts Dead.

On the island of Kavekana, Kai builds gods to order, then hands them to others to maintain. Her creations aren’t conscious and lack their own wills and voices, but they accept sacrifices, and protect their worshippers from other gods—perfect vehicles for Craftsmen and Craftswomen operating in the divinely controlled Old World. When Kai sees one of her creations dying and tries to save her, she’s grievously injured—then sidelined from the business entirely, her near-suicidal rescue attempt offered up as proof of her instability. But when Kai gets tired of hearing her boss, her coworkers, and her ex-boyfriend call her crazy, and starts digging into the reasons her creations die, she uncovers a conspiracy of silence and fear—which will crush her, if Kai can’t stop it first.

Full Fathom Five often comes up on transgender fantasy recs, and for good reason. It’s briefly mentioned that the main character used to have a male body, but this is not a story about being trans: it’s about gods and law-magic, about history and culture and the cruelty of how we deal with people who have no other choice than a life of crime. Full Fathom Five is part of a larger series, in a world where gods trade souls like banks and humans have turned law into magic, but the novel stands alone perfectly, with a rich, Polynesian-inspired setting and layers and layers of plot and magic.

You should read this, and then you should read everything else by Gladstone, especially the rest of the Craft series!

The Bone Palace (The Necromancer Chronicles, #2) by Amanda Downum
Representation: Bi/Pansexual trans MC, bi/pansexual secondary characters, polyamory, minor trans/nonbinary character
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

Death is no stranger in the city of Erisén -- but some deaths attract more attention than others.

When a prostitute dies carrying a royal signet, Isyllt Iskaldur, necromancer and agent of the Crown, is called to investigate. Her search leads to desecrated tombs below the palace, and the lightless vaults of the vampiric vrykoloi deep beneath the city. But worse things than vampires are plotting in Erisén. . .

As a sorcerous plague sweeps the city and demons stalk the streets, Isyllt must decide who she's prepared to betray, before the city built on bones falls into blood and fire.

Like all the other books on this list so far, The Bone Palace isn’t the first book in its series – but it absolutely stands alone; you don’t need to read the prequel or sequel. The PoV switches between a necromancer and the trans lover of the prince, and the latter especially is just an amazing character. I don’t want to say too much because it’ll spoil the surprise, but if you like court intrigue, vampires in the sewers, and assassins – not to mention brilliant queer characters who get the happiest of endings – I really recommend picking this one up!

Pet by Akwaeke Emezi
Representation: Black trans MC who is selectively verbal, cast of colour
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Fantasy
Goodreads

A thought-provoking and haunting novel about a creature that escapes from an artist's canvas, whose talent is sniffing out monsters in a world that claims they don't exist anymore. Perfect for fans of



Akata Witch



and



Shadowshaper



.



There are no monsters anymore, or so the children in the city of Lucille are taught. Jam and her best friend, Redemption, have grown up with this lesson all their life. But when Jam meets Pet, a creature made of horns and colors and claws, who emerges from one of her mother's paintings and a drop of Jam's blood, she must reconsider what she's been told. Pet has come to hunt a monster--and the shadow of something grim lurks in Redemption's house. Jam must fight not only to protect her best friend, but also uncover the truth, and the answer to the question How do you save the world from monsters if no one will admit they exist?

In their riveting and timely young adult debut, acclaimed novelist Akwaeke Emezi asks difficult questions about what choices you can make when the society around you is in denial.

Pet has made it onto my queer rec lists before, but you can pry it from my cold dead fingers – I’ll always recommend it! This is a stunningly gorgeous book, with beautiful writing that deftly examines the reality of utopia – not in the sense that it’s secretly a dystopia underneath, but in really thinking about what it will/would take to sustain a near-perfect society. Don’t be fooled by the fact that this book is marketed as YA – it’s a lyrical, beautiful book that has plenty to say to adults too.

No Man of Woman Born by Ana Mardoll
Representation: Nonbinary and binary trans leads
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

Destiny sees what others don't.

A quiet fisher mourning the loss of xer sister to a cruel dragon. A clever hedge-witch gathering knowledge in a hostile land. A son seeking vengeance for his father's death. A daughter claiming the legacy denied her. A princess laboring under an unbreakable curse. A young resistance fighter questioning everything he's ever known. A little girl willing to battle a dragon for the sake of a wish. These heroes and heroines emerge from adversity into triumph, recognizing they can be more than they ever imagined: chosen ones of destiny.

From the author of the Earthside series and the Rewoven Tales novels, No Man of Woman Born is a collection of seven fantasy stories in which transgender and nonbinary characters subvert and fulfill gendered prophecies. These prophecies recognize and acknowledge each character's gender, even when others do not.

Note: No trans or nonbinary characters were killed in the making of this book. Trigger warnings and neopronoun pronunciation guides are provided for each story.

Tolkien allegedly wrote Eowyn’s arc because he was annoyed that Shakespeare’s ‘no man of woman born’ referred to a caesarean birth; well, Mardoll saw the potential for ‘no man of woman born’ to be trans and nonbinary. A collection of stories that belongs in the library of any queer fantasy fan!

That’s it from me today. What are your favourite trans fantasy stories?

The post Fantasy Featuring Fabulous Trans Leads appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

WWW Wednesday: 18th Nov

I’ve decided that, at least for the foreseeable future, I’m going to be participating in WWW Wednesdays, which is a meme hosted over at Taking On a World of Words. To take part, you just answer the three questions below, and link back to TOaWoW!

What are you currently reading?

Right now my Currently-Reading shelf on Goodreads is at 41 books, because I am terrible, but my main read of the moment is probably The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach.

The Dawnhounds (Against the Quiet, #1) by Sascha Stronach
Representation: Bi/Pansexual MC
Goodreads

"Come here, my dearest calamity. I’ve a story to tell— it starts with a shipwreck, and ends with a kiss."

A ship rolls through the fog, its doomed crew fallen victim to an engineered plague. Yat Jyn-Hok—disgraced cop, former thief, long lost love to a flame-haired street girl—stumbles across its deadly trail, but powerful men will do anything to keep it secret.

They kill Yat.

It doesn’t stick.

An ancient intelligence reanimates her, and sends her out to enact its monstrous designs. She has her own plans: to find her lost love, and solve her own murder before the plague tears the city to pieces. But what are the golden threads she sees running through the city walls? What does her inhuman saviour want from her? Why can’t she die?

Set in Hainak Kuay Vitraj—where lost gods live in the cracks in the sidewalk, where the miracle of alchemical botany makes flesh as malleable as clay—The Dawnhounds is a story of rebirth, redemption, and the long road home.

I’m absolutely in love with it. The worldbuilding is extraordinary, with a city mostly built out of programmed plants – there are living houses made out of a kind of moss that lives on particles of shed skin and hair, so all a person has to do to take care of it is live in it! I’m at the 25% mark, which has mostly been introducing us to Yat, a pansexual police officer whose career has been stimmied by her being outed, and to the incredibly strange and wonderful city she lives in. But she’s just died and been brought to life (not a spoiler, it’s in the book’s blurb), so I think the supernatural shenanigans are about to start.

Like I said, I love it so much right now, and I’m hoping I can review this one properly when I’m done. I discovered it when Foz Meadows’ 5-star rating of it popped up on my Goodreads timeline, and Meadows being a) one of my favourite authors and b) one of my favourite bloggers/critics, I knew I had to check it out. And I’m so glad I did!!!

What did you recently finish reading?







The Tyrant Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson
Representation: Lesbian WoC MC, sapphic characters, gay characters, cast of colour
Goodreads

Seth Dickinson's epic fantasy series which began with The Traitor Baru Cormorant, returns with the third book, The Tyrant Baru Cormorant.

The hunt is over. After fifteen years of lies and sacrifice, Baru Cormorant has the power to destroy the Imperial Republic of Falcrest that she pretends to serve. The secret society called the Cancrioth is real, and Baru is among them.

But the Cancrioth's weapon cannot distinguish the guilty from the innocent. If it escapes quarantine, the ancient hemorrhagic plague called the Kettling will kill hundreds of millions...not just in Falcrest, but all across the world. History will end in a black bloodstain.

Is that justice? Is this really what Tain Hu hoped for when she sacrificed herself?

Baru's enemies close in from all sides. Baru's own mind teeters on the edge of madness or shattering revelation. Now she must choose between genocidal revenge and a far more difficult path—a conspiracy of judges, kings, spies and immortals, puppeteering the world's riches and two great wars in a gambit for the ultimate prize.

If Baru had absolute power over the Imperial Republic, she could force Falcrest to abandon its colonies and make right its crimes.

I’m SO GLAD I decided to reread the first two books in this series before jumping into Tyrant. GOOD CALL PAST!ME. For one thing, I think I understood much more of book 2 than I did the first time I read it. But especially coming right on the heels of the bleakness of The Monster Baru Cormorant, I was surprised that I ended up loving this as much as I did. I mean, there were, as usual, so many moments when I wanted to throw up, but altogether Tyrant is very much a hopeful book – making it very different from the rest of the series! And I really feel like Dickinson is growing stronger as a writer with each book – this was genuinely a masterpiece, dissecting and overcoming the poisonous conditioning Baru has undergone. In Tyrant Baru really starts healing, and it’s beautiful and powerful and validating and triumphant, even when it isn’t.

It’s also such a Big Name book that I don’t feel like I have anything to add to the discussion around it, so I’m unlikely to review it properly.

What do you think you’ll read next?

I mean, my currently reading shelf is VERY FULL, but the next book I need to get to is this one!

Brothersong (Green Creek, #4) by T.J. Klune
Representation: M/M, queer cast
Goodreads

In the ruins of Caswell, Maine, Carter Bennett learned the truth of what had been right in front of him the entire time. And then it—he—was gone.

Desperate for answers, Carter takes to the road, leaving family and the safety of his pack behind, all in the name of a man he only knows as a feral wolf. But therein lies the danger: wolves are pack animals, and the longer Carter is on his own, the more his mind slips toward the endless void of Omega insanity.

But he pushes on, following the trail left by Gavin.

Gavin, the son of Robert Livingstone. The half-brother of Gordo Livingstone.

What Carter finds will change the course of the wolves forever. Because Gavin’s history with the Bennett pack goes back further than anyone knows, a secret kept hidden by Carter’s father, Thomas Bennett.

And with this knowledge comes a price: the sins of the fathers now rest upon the shoulders of their sons.

I’ve been rereading the series so I’m all prepped and ready to dive into the finale, and currently I’m reading Heartsong. But once I’m done with that, it’s on to Brothersong…and a whole lot of sobbing and FEELS, probably.

I’M NOT READY FOR THIS SERIES TO BE OVER, OKAY?

What is everyone else reading right now?

The post WWW Wednesday: 18th Nov appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.