Pronoun Trouble

Okay, I know someone in my Reading Circle is responsible for recommending Xenotech Rising (A Novel of the Galactic Free Trade Association) by Dave Schroeder; now, which one of you was it so I can give you a sincere thank-you?

I just finished listening to the last ten minutes of the audiobook at work today, and was immediately disappointed that the rest of the series doesn't seem to have been recorded yet. I highly recommend it, and will definitely be getting print copies of the rest of the series in the meantime.

Humorous and thoughtful, Xenotech Rising covers less than a week in the life of Jack Buckston, founder and currently sole employee of Xenotech Support Corporation. The book starts by following Jack on a few jobs, all of which end up ultimately relevant to the overarching plot despite seeming closer to one-off events or interconnected short stories at first glance. We meet some of Jack's neighbors (giant pink space elephants and at least one wolf/bear man), some of his clients, and his love interest, the whip-smart and charming xenolinguistics expert Poly.

If any of this sounds good to you, I hope that the prospect of a dudebro tech billionaire getting his comeuppance and a (somewhat) self-rescuing pre-teen princess only sweeten the deal.

One detail in particular that stood out to me was an interface device on a particular alien species' ships. It's used by humans to replicate biological functions the other species uses to control their technology, but was originally designed for disabled members of that species who had lost (or perhaps never had) that particular ability. I found it to be a particularly well-thought-out bit of worldbuilding.

Overall, a delightful book, and I definitely want more.

Just finished the audiobook for Terminal Peace by jimhines/Jim C. Hines, third and final installment of the "Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse" trilogy.

Without spoilers, I will say that I was fully prepared to accept the pre-epilogue ending. Jim has gone through some serious shit over the past few years, even beyond Covid, and he hasn't shied away from bringing personal experience into his works. Nor is he shy about doing what needs to be done for the sake of story and character. That said, I 100% welcomed the epilogue with open arms; sometimes sweetness can be a flavor enhancer, just like salt is.

I will also say that Jim remains a deft hand at pulling an unexpected third option out from behind a rock when you aren't looking. One that still works. I had to reassure myself of his track record on that count several times during the course of this book, but he got us/the characters there in the end!

Long story short, I would absolutely read/listen to more stories set in this universe.

Decided to effectively pull a recs list for light novels from the TVTropes Iyashikei works list, since the anime and manga list seems to include them, and it is exactly the kind of thing I'm into right now. (Considering the state of the world, as well as my tendency to mirror the mood of whatever media I'm consuming, it shouldn't be much of a surprise.) Started reading "By the Grace of the Gods" by Roy, and I was really enjoying it! Up until about book six.

( Here there be spoilers (warning for discussion of treating people like things) )

Brief side note to say that I finished the audiobook of Zen Cho's The True Queen, and the queer subtext from the first book? Is officially canon text, and also the "general queerness" knob was turned up to, like, eleven for this book, so.

If you like period romances, or might like them if the were only more racially diverse and also had magic and dragons and queer people and stuff (and also I am 100% interpreting one of the main characters as dyslexic), I highly recommend this series. First book is Sorcerer to the Crown, only two out so far, hopefully more to come???

Ad by the author, who followed up by saying she is "the very best at marketing". Which must be true, because I absolutely went out and bought this book because of this ad.

The excellent news: Not only did I not regret it, upon finishing I went and immediately bought the sequel, and am now sitting on tenterhooks awaiting the third book.

The Queen of Ieflaria features alternating POV between the two main characters (and romantic interests), Esofi and Adale. Princess Esofi has been engaged to be married to Adale's twin brother since a very young age, in no small part to forge an alliance between their countries. Unfortunately, the brother in question dies shortly before the book begins, leaving Adale to take his place in the contract. At first unenthusiastic, Adale warms to the prospect almost immediately after meeting accomplished mage Esofi - only to be faced with competition from her grasping, power-hungry cousins. Esofi, meanwhile, must pick between the three of them, all while trying to figure out why the country she will so be queen of has so few mages, and, with help from the battlemages in her entourage, defending everyone in the capitol from dragon attacks.

Good, accessible high fantasy, with lots and lots of queer characters, including explicitly nonbinary characters (and gods!); no enby MCs yet, but I live in hope! To people who like dragons as things other than thoughtless killing machines, I promise that you will be satisfied by the time you get to the end. My only complaint is that the names didn’t always come naturally to my mental pronunciation, but that’s very minor on the scale of things. Also, like Shira Glassman, Effie Calvin is aiming to make the books possible to start from anywhere in publication order, so you don't have to read them chronologically for them to make sense (even though there's only two out so far).

The author's website is over here, with a map of the countries and a couple of free short stories - though Ioanna is very mildly spoilery for the second book, and The Gift is quite spoilery for the first.

Anyway, my brain has been on the fuzzy side for weeks now, so I'm going to leave it there, but definitely worth checking out if you like wish-fulfillment-y f/f fantasy stuff!

Oh my gosh, look at this! It's content! Content that I said I would write! And now I'm actually writing it, here and now! IT'S A MIRACLE!

Moving right along, here is some book-y backstory. It took me a loooong time to pick up this book. ("This book" being Cinder, by Marissa Meyer.) I looked at it in Barnes and Noble once, then put it back down, deciding that it didn't quite grab me. I walked past it in Target on my way to the DVD section with fair frequency, and still didn't think much of it past, "Eh, I dunno. I'd rather spend my money on DVDs or yarn." What finally got me to give it more consideration was when Audible was doing a two-books-for-one-credit sale and it was listed as one of the optional titles. I'm big on audiobooks these days, since I've got that long commute to work.

Not that I picked it up from Audible. No, I decided to wait and give it more thought, and maybe if I saw it again the next time Audible did such a sale, I would do it. And then I saw the audiobook on display at the library and decided to give the blurb a re-read. Set in New Beijing, it read. An Asian Cinderella? I thought. It could be, right? Nay, it must be! And you don't get a much better price than free, whether or not I'd have to return it. So I decided to check it out, in the interest of what I assumed would be both a fairytale revamp (one of my favorite things) with a main character of color (another one of my favorite things).

Oh what disappointment awaited me! ( Click the cut to find out exactly what disappointment did await me )

Anyway, that's what I remember being horrified by in the book. There are probably reviewers out there who would be able to critique every little sociological bit and piece and point out how wrongity-wrong-wrong it all is, but that's not what I was going for in this review (though I do enjoy reading that sort of review all too often). I was going for how this book is a hot mess of racism and ablism, and I think I proved that. Read with caution, or at least with knowledge, if you choose to read it.

So, guess what book I just finished? 8D Ahahaha, yeah, pointless question.

Before I get started, I'd like to offer some general Content Notes for the book itself, for those who choose to read it and might have triggers to deal with. They are pretty significant spoilers for the book, so I've hidden them under spoiler blockers. Highlight to read. [Content Notes: Violence, consent issues. Scroll to the sixth big paragraph under the cut for more detail on the latter.]

Now, be warned for YET MORE MASSIVE SPOILERS as I go over some details of the book itself 8) They're hidden under a cut, so if you don't want to be spoiled, go no farther.

( CUT FOR SPOILERS )