Assorted Objects

So to not even try; deeply charmed by the bit where a succubus is sent by the conjurer whose bound her to corrupt and ruin the faith of a priest (as a bit of petty spite over losing a fencing match to his boss/overseer in the army, mostly) only for him to somewhat awkwardly explain that he's not technically a priest and he and his god have really had a more 'it's complicated' thing going for several years now. So not actually any oaths to break, properly speaking.

2tbsp of peanut butter. a splash of rice vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, maple syrup. some chili flakes, some sesame seeds. a splash of water to thin it out. now you put in your noodles (cooled!!!! boiled and rinsed so they’re cold!!) and then some chopped up cucumber or carrot or avocado or cabbage or any crunchy vegetable. i just used cucumber

Books of 2026: THE WATER OUTLAWS by S. L. Huang.

Am I daisychaining my way through Huang's catalogue? MAYBE SO, listen I REALLY liked BURNING ROSES okay

I also preordered this, which came out in 2023, and it's been sitting on my shelf since then, unread, because of Who I Am As A Person. Oops.

It's a retelling of the 14th-ish century Chinese novel Water Margin, which is about mountain/marsh bandits and imperial corruption, except Huang's version is hella genderbent and queer (like casually queer characters, not like That's The Plot--my speed!). It's martial artsy, it's epic fantasy/magic/sorcery, it's wuxia, it's smash the patriarchy, it's so very much longer than the other books of Huang's I've read.

The pacing in the front half was slower as Huang laid a lot of character groundwork, and then the action picked up in the second half A Lot (ouch, my bedtimes). I appreciated that we followed two women on very different character arcs: Lin Chong, an expert arms instructor for the Empire, as loyal as they come, and Lu Junyi, who starts borderline-seditionist and becomes [SPOILERS REDACTED]. Very intimate perspectives for both of them, and for our beloved Lu Da and also our Big Bad Antag--good stuff all around.

I also enjoyed being able to see Huang's areas of expertise on page: the author bio says, "Huang is a Hollywood stunt performer, firearms expert, and Hugo Award winner with a math degree from MIT and credits in productions like Battlestar Galactica and Top Shot." The fight scenes were peak, the magic scenes did read like they were straight out of a movie, and the weaponry was delightful! (I just think Huang is a supremely cool person, and Huang's author bio--totally pronounless, btw, Give Us Nothing <3--gets me every time haha.)

Pale Lights - Think of The Story

Song, Angharad and Maryam

Pale Lights book 3, chapter 61