larryhammer: a woman wearing a chain mail hoodie, label: "chain mail is sexy" (warrior babe)
Larry Hammer ([personal profile] larryhammer) wrote2025-06-17 12:53 pm

“yeah we’ve got a light / to see our way by / we’ve got what we need / when we’ve got you”

Links of varying relevance, both to currency and each other:

The ‘3.5% rule’: How a small minority can change the world. BBC summary of an academic study with historical data. Pull quote: “Nonviolent protests are twice as likely to succeed as armed conflicts – and those engaging a threshold of 3.5% of the population have never failed to bring about change.” For perspective, for the US that’s about 11 million people, to give a totally random example. (via [personal profile] janni)

Nicely thinky New Yorker profile of Martha Wells (archive version). CW: inconsistent misgendering of Murderbot (mostly in one paragraph). (via /r/murderbot)

Interview with the production designer of Murderbot, who is nicely thinky. (via [personal profile] marthawells)

---L.

Subject quote from We've Got You - i: Spark, Vienna Teng.
jesse_the_k: Photo of Pluto's heart region with text "I" above and "science" below. (I love science)
Jesse the K ([personal profile] jesse_the_k) wrote2025-06-17 10:33 am
Entry tags:

music: A Wistful Satellite Song

I’ve been a Karine Polwart fan for decades, which led me to her recent collaboration with Julie Fowlis and Mary Chapin Carpenter. "Looking for the Thread" mixes Scots Gaelic and US country and a little bit of rock’n’roll.

I was moved by this farewell from the POV of a dying satellite—can you tell me if this matches an actual satellite that circled our planet?

Stream here on YouTube )

Or on SoundCloud or on Spotify.

Lyrics in the cut )

duckprintspress: (Default)
duckprintspress ([personal profile] duckprintspress) wrote2025-06-17 09:34 am

Pride Dragons on Parade: Bi and Pan Solidarity!

Artwork of a cute yellow dragon in a "sit" position, looking over its shoulder toward the viewer. Its wings are striped in the colors of the pansexual pride flag. Below the dragon is an image of a magenta-yellow-cyan flag and text that reads "Pansexual Pride Flag."Artwork of a cute hot pink dragon curled around itself to grab its own tail. It is winking at the viewer. Its wings are striped in the colors of the bisexual pride flag. Below the dragon is a picture of the pink-purple-blue striped bisexual pride flag and text that reads "Bisexual Pride Flag."

The crowdfunding campaign to create stickers, magnets, key chains, earrings, and more from Florilège‘s adorable Pride dragon designs launches on Kickstarter TOMORROW! Today, meet two more of the dragons: our playful and adorable Bisexual Pride Flag Dragon and Pansexual Pride Flag Dragon. We’re posting them together because we are huge supporters if bi-pan solidarity.

You can learn more about this campaign and see the other 8 designs by visiting this tag on our blog!

Get notified when the campaign launches by following our Kickstarter pre-launch page!

Did you know that backers on our Patreon may be able to claim extras when they also back our crowdfunding campaign? Support us monthly Patreon and unlock discounts, stories, bonus merch, exclusive teasers, freebie art, and much more!



james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-06-17 08:54 am
Entry tags:

Disgraced Return of The Kap’s Needle by Renan Bernardo



When the target world proves too inhospitable for colonization, colonists make a desperate bid to return to Earth on a failing starship.

Disgraced Return of The Kap’s Needle by Renan Bernardo
sovay: (Sovay: David Owen)
sovay ([personal profile] sovay) wrote2025-06-17 01:59 am

With that you're-on-camera smile like she wants to try me on

Shortly after we had headed off to collect fish and chips for dinner with my mother, [personal profile] spatch's delivery of "Frying tonight!" led into my description of Kenneth Williams as the "total package." We had earlier in the day been discussing the cultural relativity of communicating in quotations. At one point in order to indicate that it was time to leave the house, I called, "To the lighthouse!"

(Fresh Pond Seafood gave us extra of everything and I had a lovely interaction with a young trans woman wearing all the jewelry she had been able to find in her newly moved house. The treasury looked spectacular on her, especially the rhyme of the silver heart bangle on her wrist with her heart-framed, literally rose-tinted glasses.)

WERS has introduced me to Muna's "Silk Chiffon (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)" (2021), which I assume is on rotation either because it's Pride or because it's a banger. I am as incapable of selecting one favorite fictional lesbian as any other single shot, but the first contenders look like the ironclad classics of Florian del Guiz in Mary Gentle's Ash: A Secret History (2000), Manke and Rifkele in Sholem Asch's גאָט פֿון נעקאָמע/God of Vengeance (1907), and Corky and Violet in the Wachowskis' Bound (1996).
musesfool: !!!! from Middleman (!!!!)
i did it all for the robins ([personal profile] musesfool) wrote2025-06-16 07:50 pm

i hear you went up to Saratoga, and your horse naturally won

I swear, sometimes I think my oven is some kind of black hole or something, because sometimes the laws of physics seem to weirdly not apply. Yesterday, as planned, I made teriyaki meatballs. Because I don't understand how the recipe author got 28 meatballs out of 16 oz of ground meat, I had 32 oz of ground chicken, from which I made 28 ping pong ball sized meatballs. I baked 16 meatballs on one tray at 400°F for 20 minutes. It was the only tray in the oven. FOURTEEN out of the 16 were at least at 170°F when I took them out of the oven (generally I aim for 165° for fully cooked ground chicken) and checked with my instant read thermometer. TWO were at 143°F. They weren't even next to each other! Just 2 random meatballs that somehow didn't cook to the same temperature as EVERY OTHER meatball on the same tray in the same oven. I mean, I know ovens can have hot spots, so does my oven somehow have cool spots? Less hot spots? I mean, what the actual fuck???

*
gentlyepigrams: (food)
Ginger ([personal profile] gentlyepigrams) wrote2025-06-16 04:18 pm
Entry tags:

We ate at: Uchiko Plano Father's Day omokase

At the last minute last week we got an email about Uchiko Plano having a Father's Day omokase so I got us a reservation. I documented what we ate on my instagram starting with the special menu.

When we started eating at Uchi and Uchiko when we moved to Austin almost 20 years ago (yikes) Uchi was more formal and Uchiko was more casual. Not that Uchi was ever really formal, just that the level of service was more formal and the menu was a little more upscale. Now that there are Uchi and Uchi variants everywhere, they all have a kind of personality, and Uchiko is the one with the wood grilled bold flavors.

This was our first time at the Plano Uchiko; it's less than a year old, IIRC. Our foodie friends from Austin were not impressed with it for an early try-on. It's still stumbling a little in the service: our dishes arrived out of order, we got an extra dish and a second dessert for the delay, and with a 7:45 reservation we had to rush to get our car out of valet hock at 10 pm. The food, however, was amazing and up to standard. The highlight was the duck confit, but everything was very good.

I would go back to Uchiko again, but I would park and walk so I could get my own car if they ran late and it would definitely be a Monday or Tuesday night kind of thing in the hopes that a slower evening would improve the order of food from the kitchen. That said, we're also very happy with making Uchiba our regular spot in the Uchi kingdom, so it's not a high priority. We have a list of sushi places we want to eat on our list and maybe Uchiko will come back after we've tried some of the ones new to us.
marthawells: (Witch King)
marthawells ([personal profile] marthawells) wrote2025-06-16 01:49 pm

Things Coming Out Next

Storyteller: A Tanith Lee Tribute Anthology

Out in ebook and paperback on July 1. My story is "Data Ghost"

https://bookshop.org/p/books/storyteller-a-tanith-lee-tribute-anthology/a74b320486117220?ean=9798992595406&next=t

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/storyteller-a-tanith-lee-tribute-anthology?sId=e0bafab6-32a8-4ffb-9436-2dcda473349c

Edited by Julie C. Day, Carina Bissett, and Craig Laurance Gidney. Stories by Martha Wells, Andy Duncan, C.S.E. Cooney, Nisi Shawl, Mike Allen, Alaya Dawn Johnson, CL Hellisen, Maya Deane, Rocío Rincón Fernández, Theodora Goss, Getty Hesse, Starlene Justice, Amelia Mangan, Michael Yuya Montroy, Marisca Pichette, KT Wagner.

Sixteen new stories from some of today's most renowned authors. All inspired by the master storyteller Tanith Lee.

Drowning cities and unicorns. Burning deserts and forgotten gods. Golems, elf warriors, and inner-Earthers. Alien lifeforms and museum workers. Ancient plagues and the future of humanity. The familiar and the fantastical. Each story in this anthology is both unique and compelling: from fairy-tale retellings to romance-tinged high fantasy, from nihilistic horror to gripping science fiction. Immersive, wide-ranging, and sublime, Storyteller features worlds and characters that are sure to travel with you long after the last page has been read.



***


Short Story: "Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy" by Martha Wells

will be available on Reactor Magazine on July 10

Illustrated by Jaime Jones
Edited by Lee Harris

Perihelion and its crew embark on a dangerous new mission at a corporate-controlled station in the throes of a hostile takeover...


***


Summer of Science Fiction & Fantasy: Martha Wells in conversation with Kate Elliott

https://www.clarionwest.org/event/summer-of-science-fiction-fantasy-martha-wells-in-conversation-with-kate-elliott/


July 30 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm PDT

The Clarion West Summer Reading Series will be held virtually and streamed live over Zoom during the Six-Week Workshop.

Join us for our final event, a conversation between Martha Wells and Kate Elliott!

This event will begin with a conversation between Martha and Kate. There will be time to take questions from the audience. Participants will be able to submit questions in the webinar.



***


The New Yorker announced "Platform Decay" will be the next Murderbot novella. No word on publication date yet.


***


Grimoire: A Grim Oak Press Anthology For Seattle Worldcon 2025

https://grimoakpress.com/products/grimoire-a-grim-oak-press-anthology-for-seattle-worldcon-2025

My story is a fantasy called "Birthright" which is reprint that's not currently available anywhere else.


***


Queen Demon, the sequel to Witch King, second book of the Rising World, is up for preorder and will be released in ebook, audiobook, and hardcover on October 7.

From the breakout SFF superstar author of Murderbot comes the remarkable sequel to the USA Today and Sunday Times bestselling novel, Witch King. A fantasy of epic scope, Queen Demon is a story of power and friendship, of trust and betrayal, and of the families we choose.

Dahin believes he has clues to the location of the Hierarchs' Well, and the Witch King Kai, along with his companions Ziede and Tahren, knowing there's something he isn't telling them, travel with him to the rebuilt university of Ancartre, which may be dangerously close to finding the Well itself.

Can Kai stop the rise of a new Hierarch?

And can he trust his companions to do what's right?


Bookshop.org https://bookshop.org/p/books/queen-demon-martha-wells/21751501?ean=9781250826916

B&N https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/queen-demon-martha-wells/1146167707?ean=9781250826916

Kobo https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/queen-demon

Audiobook Libro.fm https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9781250291981-queen-demon

Bakka-Phoenix (indie bookstore in Canada): https://bakkaphoenixbooks.com/item/3Czr8TaWU9-_fwJ25ytSCw
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-06-16 02:27 pm
Entry tags:

Bundle of Holding: Troika Warehouse



Many supplements and adventures for Troika!, the acid-fantasy tabletop roleplaying game from Melsonian Arts Council.

Bundle of Holding: Troika Warehouse
duckprintspress: (Default)
duckprintspress ([personal profile] duckprintspress) wrote2025-06-16 11:58 am

This Friday: Troy Pride Night Out!

A graphic designed to look like patches on a jeans surface. Text on the patches describes the event: Downtown Troy BID Presents Pride Night Out! Friday June 20th 5 PM to 9 PM Monument Square. Enjoy crafts, bites, and drag! Downtown Tory, City of Troy NY. Thank you to our sponsors!A graphic entitled A Big Gay Market + Downtown Troy Pride Night Out, eith logos from each. The Duck Prints Press logo is in the middle, beside a badge that reads "I'm a vendor!" Below this, text reads, Next Market: Friday June 20th River St - 3rd St Troy NY 5PM - 9PM. At the bottom, it says learn more followed by two QR codes and the URL www.abiggaymarket.com.

Come one, come all, to Troy Pride Night Out in Troy, New York, this Friday evening, June 20th, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.! There’ll be shows and crafts, food and vendors, and some kickin’ after parties, too. You can learn the deets about Troy Pride Night Out! on their webpage, here. The vendor logistics are being done with A Big Gay Market, more than 60 awesome Capital Region (and beyond!) creators coming to share what we do – Duck Prints Press included, obviously! You can read the full vendor list on abiggaymarket.com.

TL:DR: Troy Pride Night Out! More great Pride shenanigans with shows, vendors, food, and more! This Friday June 20th 5 p.m. – 9 p.m. at Monument Square in Troy, New York! Be there or be… not there!



larryhammer: a wisp of colored smoke, label: "softly and suddenly vanished away" (vanished)
Larry Hammer ([personal profile] larryhammer) wrote2025-06-16 07:42 am
Entry tags:

“one day i’ll watch as you’re leaving / and life will lose all its meaning / for the last time”

For Poetry Monday, one more late Shelly:

The flower that smiles to-day,” Percy Shelley

    The flower that smiles to-day
        To-morrow dies;
All that we wish to stay
        Tempts and then flies.
What is this world’s delight?
Lightning that mocks the night,
        Brief even as bright.

    Virtue, how frail it is!
        Friendship how rare!
Love, how it sells poor bliss
        For proud despair!
But we, though soon they fall,
Survive their joy, and all
        Which ours we call.

    Whilst skies are blue and bright,
        Whilst flowers are gay,
Whilst eyes that change ere night
        Make glad the day;
Whilst yet the calm hours creep,
Dream thou—and from thy sleep
        Then wake to weep.


Another poem written in the last year of his life and published posthumously with an editorial title, though this time the title Mary supplied was “Mutability.” It’s common to point out, for context, that Percy and Mary lost three children in early childhood. Like many of his shorter lyrics, it’s been set to music several times.

He nails that dismount.

---L.

Subject quote from Anti-Hero, Taylor Swift.
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-06-16 09:48 am
Entry tags:

Clarke Award Finalists 2001

2001: Labour narrowly wins a second overwhelming victory, Simon Darcount finds his calling, and Jeffrey Archer distracts people from that time he was accused of stealing three suits.

Poll #33257 Clarke Award Finalists 2001
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 58


Which 2001 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?

View Answers

Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
39 (67.2%)

Ash: A Secret History by Mary Gentle
24 (41.4%)

Cosmonaut Keep by Ken MacLeod
17 (29.3%)

Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler
28 (48.3%)

Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds
18 (31.0%)

Salt by Adam Roberts
4 (6.9%)



Bold for have read, italic for intend to read,, underline for never heard of it.

Which 2001 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
Ash: A Secret History by Mary Gentle
Cosmonaut Keep by Ken MacLeod
Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler
Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds
Salt by Adam Roberts
marthawells: Murderbot with helmet (Default)
marthawells ([personal profile] marthawells) wrote2025-06-16 08:42 am

Another Murderbot interview

In ‘Murderbot,’ an anxious scientist and an autonomous robot develop a workplace-trauma bond

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2025-06-13/murderbot-episode-6-alexander-skarsgard-noma-dumezweni


Leading a TV series is a first for Dumezweni, who has previously been cast in smaller roles. She wasn’t convinced by the initial pitch at first because sci-fi hasn’t traditionally had a lot of major roles for actors of color.

“Usually I’d come in and play the receptionist,” she says. “I love to watch sci-fi. But I wondered: Who am I going to be in this sci-fi world?”

However, once she learned more about the world and the character, the actor changed her mind.

“It was an absolute joy to discover that there was nothing that Chris and Paul had to change to make it representational,” Dumezweni says. “It’s lovely not to have to fight for people’s positions in the world based on their skin color.”




ETA: Wanted to add this one real quick from BlueSky:

Vestal Magazine: Noma Dumezweni -- Off Canvas

https://www.vestalmag.com/noma-dumezweni


Set in a near future where the line between machine and human is increasingly blurred, Murderbot explores themes of identity, autonomy, and what it truly means to be alive through the eyes of a self-aware security android. Adapted from Martha Wells’s beloved The Murderbot Diaries novels, the series blends gripping sci-fi action with sharp, witty humor. At the heart of the story is Noma Dumezweni’s portrayal of Dr. Ayda Mensah, the thoughtful leader of a pacifist civilization struggling to uphold her community’s ideals amid a universe dominated by corporate greed and political tensions. Noma brings to the role a grounded strength, embodying the delicate balance between idealism and pragmatism as her character wrestles with the burdens of leadership and moral compromise. The parallels between Noma and Ayda run deep: both choose to lead with heart, courage, and conviction. “Your head will try to talk you out of that feeling of expansion. It will tell you, ‘You can’t do this,’” Noma says. “Trust your body, trust your instinct. Your body knows the truth.” That instinct and bravery have guided her career, from becoming the first Black actress to portray Hermione Granger on stage, a landmark moment for representation in theater, to winning two Laurence Olivier Awards and becoming a beacon of inspiration for a new generation of actors. Like Ayda, Noma has forged a path not only of leadership, but of quiet, transformative power.

Lovely photos in this!
landingtree: Small person examining bottlecap (Default)
landingtree ([personal profile] landingtree) wrote2025-06-16 09:05 am
Entry tags:

The Death of Rasputin

Some of you may not know that I’m in the U.S. at the moment - in theory I may write more about that here at some point, though time is likely to get away from me. (I have been to Scintillation! I have visited ambyr!)

This is me cheating by copying messages to immersive-theatre-enthusiast ambyr into a post, and it has not been checked for coherence. All spoilers but by the nature of immersive theatre I do not know what happened and so cannot spoil everything. The play takes place in an arts center on Governor’s Island and the ticket price includes ferry. (This ticket was a birthday gift from leaflemming, by the way.)

The Death of Rasputin: feels like an incomplete experience but I made it especially that way by following no single actor and staying in no single place.

It began in a bar with the audience - all dressed in black as instructed - buying drinks and mingling. I eyed people but none were secretly actors so far as I learned. (The format made me much more of an eavesdropper than usual, I wanted to hear if people were talking about the revolution!) Oh and I’d also thought that some people in the queue were talking in Russian because they were actors but I’m now pretty sure they just spoke Russian.

The play began with actors bursting into the bar from the rest of the set, declaring that the revolution would soon come and that til then we should hang out in their bar and stay away from those filthy royals up in the palace. I promptly went to the filthy royals’ palace.

I several times hung back when big groups were leaving the room, which let me see some interesting aftermaths. Three times, I was in small groups of people who’d stayed behind after a big scene. Once was a general plotting the downfall of Rasputin (very engagingly, and he had audience members read out bits of various incriminating documents - he handed me a book and had me open it to reveal a secret page. Generally the cast were great at interacting in-character when issuing instructions, telling you to speak up or clear a chair for them, etc. It was a lot of people in sometimes confined spaces but it all worked
.
Another aftermath and one of my favourite single moments was having seen Rasputin and a character whose name I never knew - a witch - do a sex-magic dance in the downstairs cult forest (I barely saw what went on in the cult forest, there must have been so much else there!) and then seeing the priest making his way through the large departing audience crowd to look dumbfounded at the remnants, ‘sex magic’ being clearly not within his experience.

Then somehow I wound up upstairs following a maid into a revolutionary radio meeting, and then I followed the maid into someone’s private chamber where she poured out liquid into a small cup and I thought she was going to kill herself, but I never learned who drank from that cup because she moved into the next room and we helped her choose a dress for the big party which she had decided to attend despite the overtones of being a class traitor because she was going to finally kill the czar with a kitchen knife. She gave us scarves and bracelets to go over our black; me, she gave a small stone.

Then we whirled through to the ballroom where other revolutionaries one of whom she was in some kind of intense connection with were handing out dynamite, a plan that enraged her. And then everyone in the room was told to quickly start waltzing so I waltzed with a stranger and to audience members entering the room a moment later it must have looked like that had always been going on, with no trace of dynamite.

And then all the characters swept in and there was a grand final dance, and perhaps Rasputin died or perhaps the revolution began or both at once, and what I was mostly watching was the distress on the face of the maid who was standing there waiting for the palace to blow up and still not having the strength - would it have been strength? she’d asked us - to stab the czar.

This whole last passage was so, well, immersive - I loved being swept along in it. I could glimpse other things from context as I passed by - I know the czar was given a pig’s head in a macaron box. The czar gave a great speech at the end about there being no alternative to the pain spent building Russia, and Rasputin came sweeping in being a sort of counterstatement. Though at the same time he clearly had a thing for being debased by Mother Russia (who was usually the czarina but I think he seduced everyone possibly including the priest).

I have so many questions! What was the small white lounge? What could you have seen if you hid for long enough in the grandfather clock with a grille looking into the next room? Why did the general end up dancing with the witch at the end, and what became of his plan, and was she really a witch? What was the fully-furnished locked room connected to the bar? I think it would’ve been great to do with a group that could scatter across the experience and then debrief afterwards - as it was I did this just a little bit with some friendly strangers on the ferry back to the mainland.
sovay: (What the hell ass balls?!)
sovay ([personal profile] sovay) wrote2025-06-16 04:19 am

When you go to hell, I'll go there with you, too

I wish to express my strenuous distaste for this week starting off with the curtain rod falling onto my head as I stepped into the shower with such force that [personal profile] spatch heard the noise of stainless steel onto skull from the bedroom. It hurt appallingly. It still doesn't feel so hot. I called after-hours care and was duly presented with a checklist of symptoms of concussion and brain bleed to watch out for, an activity not exactly compatible with attempting to plunge myself into unconsciousness for the few short hours before I need to be functional for already scheduled calls and appointments. I would like to know who I need to sacrifice to get a break. I always liked haruspicy. I know it's your own liver that counts.
lannamichaels: Astronaut Dale Gardner holds up For Sale sign after EVA. (Default)
Lanna Michaels ([personal profile] lannamichaels) wrote2025-06-15 09:41 pm

"And Though The Static Walls Surround Me." (Vorkosigan Saga) G



Title: And Though The Static Walls Surround Me.
Author: [personal profile] lannamichaels
Fandom: Vorkosigan Saga
Series: Part 11 of Are You Out There, Can You Hear This?
Rating: G
A/N: The title is from Are You Out There by Dar Williams.
Archives: Archive Of Our Own, SquidgeWorld

Summary: Miles is hanging out with mercenaries. Gregor has a headache and would rather be listening to the radio. Or: Warrior's Apprentice in radioverse.


Let's do the time skip again! )

idficmod: black-and-white line art icon of a human brain (Default)
idficmod ([personal profile] idficmod) wrote in [community profile] yuletide2025-06-15 08:00 pm

IPQ 2025 PDPHs

Event: Id Pro Quo
Event link: [community profile] idproquo
Pinch hit link: https://idproquo.dreamwidth.org/tag/pinch+hits
Due date: June 20th, 10pm EDT
Work Minimums: 2k fic or finished artwork

PH 16 - 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia (Anime & Manga), 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia (Anime & Manga), NoPixel (Web Series), 鴨乃橋ロンの禁断推理 | Kamonohashi Ron no Kindan Suiri | Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective (Manga), Crossover Fandom

PH 21 - 阴阳师 | Yīn Yáng Shī | The Yin-yang Master (Movies - Guo Jingming), 陰陽師 | Onmyouji (Anime 2023), 밤에 피는 꽃 | Knight Flower (TV)

PH 22 - Vampire: The Masquerade — Parliament of Knives - Jeffrey Dean, Vampire: The Masquerade — Parliament of Knives - Jeffrey Dean, Vampire: The Masquerade — Parliament of Knives - Jeffrey Dean, Vampire: The Masquerade — Parliament of Knives - Jeffrey Dean, Vampire: The Masquerade Port Saga (Podcast), Path of Night (Podcast), Path of Night (Podcast)

PH 40 - 今際の国のアリス | Imawa no Kuni no Alice | Alice in Borderland (TV), The Ancient One - Cat2000, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes - Suzanne Collins, Mortal Kombat (Video Games 1992-2020), Mortal Kombat (Video Games 2023-), Marvel Cinematic Universe

PH 47 - Hazbin Hotel (Cartoon), Hazbin Hotel (Cartoon), Hazbin Hotel (Cartoon)

PH 49 - Clean Slate (TV), High Potential (TV), Crossover Fandom, Crossover Fandom, Crossover Fandom

Thank you for considering our pinch hits!

bloodygranuaile: (Default)
bloodygranuaile ([personal profile] bloodygranuaile) wrote2025-06-15 05:15 pm

In which everyone is really in the soup, and the soup is made out of bug vomit

June’s entry in the Vorkosigan Saga read was A Civil Campaign, which had been hyped to me as a Regency romance dropped in the middle of this futuristic mil-sci-fi series. I’m not a huge Regency romance reader unless it is by actual Regency-era social comic Jane Austen, but the mixing up of Regency romance with the futuristic mil-sci-fi world of the Vorkosigan Saga and its charmingly nasty throwback empire of Barryar intrigued me, plus I already know and am invested in most of these characters. I really enjoyed Komarr, and I was actually interested in the dynamic between Miles and Ekaterin, so I was quite curious to see how this went now that Ekaterin is back on Barrayar.

In proper romantic comedy style, it goes very poorly, for everybody. Now that the big bad terrorist plot of the previous book has been foiled, everyone is going full-bore insane about Emperor Gregor’s wedding, except possibly Emperor Gregor, who is patiently bearing up under the weight of all the imperial pomp and nonsense associated with the wedding, apparently grounded both by his entire personality and the desire to get to the being married part without incident. Ivan has been press-ganged into service to his mother Lady Alys and a battalion of Vor matron social captains; Ekaterin is fending off unwanted suitors with both hands–at one point, literally–and trying to find work; Miles is trying to court Ekaterin without her noticing and also engage in some politicking in the Council of Counts. Mark has adopted a brilliant but utterly common-sense-free bug scientist and is trying to develop a real company with him and the help of some of the younger Koudelka girls, which is complicated by the Koudelka parents’ reaction to his relationship with Kareen.

This is the base state of problems established in the first few chapters. Things get much more contentious as Ivan’s old girlfriend Lady Donna takes a quick trip to Beta Colony to become Barrayar’s first openly transmasculine Vor, squarely for the purpose of inserting herself into the line of succession for a Countship. One thing I liked about this particularly pseudo-Regency book was all the “battle of the sexes” type bullshit was put quite squarely on Barrayar’s patriarchal culture and not any kind of “men are from mars, women are from venus” type gender essentialist bullshit. The men and the women are both from Barrayar, and if Barrayar stays a man’s world for much longer, it might one of these days find itself shorter on women than it already is.

Anyway, resting upon this foundation of fairly serious commentary about gender roles, the book consists largely of Shenanigans. There is an utterly disastrous dinner party, an extremely silly scene involving the Koudelka girls throwing bug butter at a pair of Escobarian cops, some tragic letter-writing, a Very Dramatic Parliamentary Scene in the Council of Counts, multiple awkward marriage proposals, some very satisfying psychological warfare from Countess Cordelia once she shows up again, and a nice helping of competence porn from all quarters as everyone slowly pulls themselves out of the holes they’ve dug themselves into, stops stepping on every rake on Barrayar, and rediscovers their ability to kick ass and take names. All the men get engaged (except Ivan) and all the women get jobs. There is a little bit of And Then Gregor Fixes Everything which really highlights just how utterly fucked Barrayar would be if basically anyone else were Emperor and how utterly fucked it will become if it doesn’t change before somebody else becomes Emperor. But, given that the Council of Counts says trans rights (in a very roundabout and fucked-up way that really wouldn’t pass muster in a serious society), it appears Barrayar is changing, and there may be hope yet.
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duckprintspress ([personal profile] duckprintspress) wrote2025-06-15 11:08 am

A Rainbow of Queer Books for Pride 2025: Yellow

Graphic 1 of 3. Text over a yellow blot over the 8-striped 1978 Gilbert Baker Rainbow Flag. The text reads: Yellow Books for Pride.
Graphic 2 of 3. 10 book covers over the 8-striped 1978 Gilbert Baker Rainbow Flag. The books are: Golden Hue by May Barros; The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller; She Gets the Girl by Alyson Derrick & Rachael Lippincott; The Honey Witch by Sydney J. Shields; Burning Roses by S.L. Huang; Given by Natsuki Kizu; Ruin of Angels by Max Gladstone; The Persian Boy by Mary Renault; Crumbs by Danie Stirling; Days Without End by Sebastian Barry.
Graphic 3 of 3. 10 book covers over the 8-striped 1978 Gilbert Baker Rainbow Flag. The books are: The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay; Exordia by Seth Dickinson; Snapdragon by Kat Leyh; King Cheer by Molly Horton Booth & Stephanie Kate Strohm; The Brightness Between Us by Eliot Schrefer; Hitorijime My Hero by Memeko Arii; Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane; A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine; Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker; Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier

HAPPY PRIDE 2025! For Pride this year, we’re changing up our usual rec lists. Instead of doing books with specific identities or themes, we’re focused this time on cover color! Throughout the month of June, we’ll be doing 8 rec lists, each with covers inspired by one of the colors of the original Gilbert Baker Pride Flag. We drew a little additional inspiration from the meaning behind the color and why it was included in the original LGBTQIA+ flag (in this case, yellow = sunlight), but we prioritized color over meaning. The contributors to this list are: May Barros, Rascal Hartley, polls, Shadaras, Tris Lawrence, Shannon, Nina Waters, and Alex.

Find these and many other queer books on our Goodreads book shelf or buy them through the Duck Prints Press Bookshop.org affiliate page.

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