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Common Bonds: An Aromantic Speculative Anthology
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Common Bonds is an upcoming anthology of speculative short stories and poetry featuring aromantic characters. At the heart of this collection are the bonds that impact our lives from beginning to end: platonic relationships. Within this anthology, a cursed seamstress finds comfort in the presence of a witch, teams of demon hunters work with their rival to save one of their
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Start your review of Common Bonds: An Aromantic Speculative Anthology
Oct 15, 2019
leo | 飛べ
marked it as to-read
Ehm, excuse me why is no one talking about this?
Full disclosure: I was a Kickstarter backer for this book. I was very excited for Common Bonds, because I am aromantic, but that’s an identity that isn’t well-represented in mainstream media (and when it is, it’s usually conflated with/paired with asexuality—I am also asexual, but I like the split attraction model because it helps me discuss my experiences with nuance). A great deal of this review will be me talking about the importance of books like this. But first, stories!
Honestly, none of th ...more
Honestly, none of th ...more
Mar 05, 2020
Ace
marked it as release-2020
ANTHOLOGY ABOUT PLATONIC BONDS THAT HAS THE WORD AROMANTIC ON THE COVER IS LITERALLY ALL I'VE EVER WANTED.
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I was excited to back this on Kickstarter, and excited to read it when I got it! It's a fun and engaging anthology. It leans much more heavily fantasy than sci-fi, and as with any anthology the stories are of variable quality, but they were all clearly heartfelt.
Some standout star stories were "Busy Little Bees" by Polenth Blake (my favorite!) and "Spacegirl and the Martian" by Cora Ruskin. I also quite liked "A Full Deck" by Avi Silver and "Not to Die" by Rosiee Thor.
Through the collection, it ...more
Some standout star stories were "Busy Little Bees" by Polenth Blake (my favorite!) and "Spacegirl and the Martian" by Cora Ruskin. I also quite liked "A Full Deck" by Avi Silver and "Not to Die" by Rosiee Thor.
Through the collection, it ...more
Everything I dreamed of
This anthology was everything I wanted from it and more. It felt like the warmest hug and the comfiest blanket. Read it.
This anthology was everything I wanted from it and more. It felt like the warmest hug and the comfiest blanket. Read it.
Rating anthologies is always hard. I liked some of the stories more than others, as I always do, but this was definitely a nice collection of works.
Most of the poetry wasn't actually explicitly speculative, but it was heartfelt, so I'm not mad about it, it just made me go "Hmm" when I realised that.
Also, just wanted to let you know that I read part of this book on Valentine's Day out of spite lol.
Also also, I'm honoured to be internet friends with Laya who did the cover art for this book. Beauti ...more
Most of the poetry wasn't actually explicitly speculative, but it was heartfelt, so I'm not mad about it, it just made me go "Hmm" when I realised that.
Also, just wanted to let you know that I read part of this book on Valentine's Day out of spite lol.
Also also, I'm honoured to be internet friends with Laya who did the cover art for this book. Beauti ...more
I don't have words to describe how much I loved this. This was incredible
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Really liked it! This has a range of different kinds of love: not just friendship and queer-platonic relationships (which are my first associations with platonic relationships) but also found family, birth family, mentor-mentee relationships and bonds with pets.
The different flavours of speculative elements were also pretty diverse: a lot of fantasy, including urban fantasy, high fantasy, and superheroes; some fairy-tale retellings/remixes; and a little bit of what I think of as sci-fi. In gene ...more
The different flavours of speculative elements were also pretty diverse: a lot of fantasy, including urban fantasy, high fantasy, and superheroes; some fairy-tale retellings/remixes; and a little bit of what I think of as sci-fi. In gene ...more
Mar 08, 2020
Pippin Hart • The Pigeon
marked it as to-read
I CAN'T WAIT!
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I am very glad that I KickStarted this anthology. There are some really good stories in here, and overall I enjoyed it. As an asexual I'm very glad to see more ace representation. The three star rating is because of the unevenness of the stories, but if you'd like to see some ace representation, or a whole anthology that is focused around non-romantic relationships (though there are quite a few queerplatonic relationships), give this a try.
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4.5 / 5: what mattered most to me was that as i’m still coming to terms with being aro, i found an anthology that explored all these different worlds and characters through the lens of those on the aromantic spectrum. i got to witness how far and wide our desires lead us, completely away from the expectations society places on us when it comes to romance. to have little to no romantic attraction is seen as a phase or being a sign of being “abnormal”, but in these fantastical stories and poetry,
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I knew that I would love this anthology from the moment I saw the Kickstarter link on Twitter. I am so grateful it was able to make its way into the world. It's easy to feel isolated and misunderstood when you're aromantic, but this book is like the community pulling you into a metaphorical hug and telling you that you aren't alone. Each story is unique, creative, beautifully told, and shows the depth and complexity of platonic and familial relationships.
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For a book that I backed because it was supposed to be about platonic relationships I nearly gave up in the first half for the amount of sex and repetitive gender announcements, felt like half of every story was spent waffling about pronouns p, which was a bit pathetic in short stories.
The second half rescued the collection with three really stand out stories - Astoria III, Seams of Iron and Busy Little Bees were all excellent
The second half rescued the collection with three really stand out stories - Astoria III, Seams of Iron and Busy Little Bees were all excellent
This is an excellent collection of short stories featuring aromantic characters. As an arospec person myself, I was pleased to see the wide range of representation along the aromantic spectrum. My two favorite stories were "Moon Sisters" and "Seams of Iron".
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This starts with a society that's centered around aromatics (just *chefs kiss*) and continues to have fun gems throughout. I love the broad range of aromanticism shown and how central or not it is to the stories.
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Wonderfully written stories that most definitely deserve more attention. I was really tired of seeing romance being put everywhere so I bought this book and I was impressed by the quality of the stories and the creativity put behind every single one.
Jan 07, 2021
Tanvi
marked it as to-read
*implodes* Please let this be good
Apart from a couple of poems I didn't really cared for this anthology was very enjoyable. I deffinetly going to check out quiet a few authors whos works has been featured in this book.
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