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Show: The Orville

Move: Barbie

I’ve just been rereading old favorites, which is a joy, but I’m hankering for something new to surprise me and capture me. I’m open to anything but have particular soft spots for:

- narrators or POV characters with distinctive, atypical voices, perspectives, or assumptions who make an ordinary or extraordinary world more interesting by being seen through their lens (ex. Martha Wells’ Murderbot, owlet’s This, You Protect)

- clever, precise plotting and storytelling such that final conclusions or reveals click together like delightful, unexpected but perfectly predictable clockwork— the sort that you can see obviously in the first chapter but only after you’ve read the last page; stories where the authors trust the reader to pay attention and figure stuff out (ex. Megan Whalen Turner’s The Queen’s Thief series, The Westing Game, Pamela Dean’s The Secret Country)

- worldbuilding with depth and texture — it feels explorable, immersive, like you could study it, like you could get lost, like other stories are going on just off the page (The Secret Countey gets a second honorary mention here, great book, I highly recommend)

- characters you can root for, especially ones that are slowly, quietly, unregretfully tearing themselves apart for something they care about (Kip Mdang from Hands of the Emperor, Newt from Designations Congruent with Things, Nico D’Angelo from the Percy Jackson books, Arthur in rageprufrock’s Presque Vu)

Books that were recommended that I already read & loved & recommend myself :)

The Witch King by Martha Wells - after a betrayal, a tired demon helps his angry lesbian witch best friend go on a quest to rescue the witch's stoic paladin wife

Gideon the Ninth / the Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir - engaging puzzlebox story set in a spacefaring necromantic cult, multilayered & twisty worldbuilding, intense moral complexity

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar  & Max Gladstone - lyrical sapphic love letters between two agents on either side of a violent war across time and space

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison - A young man unexpectedly becomes emperor and befuddles the court with his kindness

The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud (though I hear there's a fourth book now!) - GREAT! Engaging, and I wouldn't describe it as "feel good." Sort of like Howl's Moving Castle if it was told from Calcifer's POV and also Howl was an adolescent British wizard who was trying to grow up to be evil in a British empire running on wizardry

Sunshine by Robin McKinley - a baker who specializes in cinnamon rolls escapes a vampire abduction--unheard of--and returns to baking cinnamon rolls. AMAZING first person rambling POV & also always makes me want to run off and start an imaginary bakery

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin 

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak 

Discworld by Terry Pratchett 

The Queen’s Thief by Megan Whalen Turner - stunning, engaging, delightful, twisty, read these sixteen million times and find some new double meaning every time. A young thief brags he can steal anything; and he's right.

Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card

So You Want to Be a Wizard by Diane Duane - iconic worldbuilding, lengthy ongoing series by a delightful author

The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation by Mo Xiang Tong Xu 

The Inheritance Trilogy by NK Jemisin 

Diana Wynne Jones in general

Beartown by Fredrik Backman - heavy subject matter, lyrical prose

Unread recommendations!

Piranesi 

Diaspora by Greg Egan 

Spinning Silver, Uprooted, or the Scolomance trilogy by Naomi Novik 

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia 

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse 

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine 

Little Thieves 

Thistlefoot 

Honor Harrington series by David Weber 

Arrows of the Queen (trilogy) by Mercedes Lackey 

The Raven Tower 

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, or the Monk and the Robot series by Becky Chambers

The Orphan Tales by Catherynne Valente 

Provenance by Ann Leckie 

Master of One by Jaida Jones and Dani Bennet 

Dragerea series by Steven Brust 

I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey Mcquiston 

The Library of the Dead by T.L. Huchu 

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab 

Time to Orbit Unknown (ongoing publication) 

The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin 

Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Amberlough 

Alexandria Quartet 

Ghost in the Shell by SoloMoon 

Cirque du Triomphe series by Kieron ODuibhir 

FOXTROT WALKER BLUE by antistar_e/kaikamahine 

4311 S La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90016 by avocadomoon 

Your body as a tourist by disco_vendetta/brinn 

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki 

Lamb by Christopher Moore 

The Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch 

The Warrior’s Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold 

Imperial Radch Trilogy by Ann Leckie 

Alchemy Wars by Ian Tregillis 

Forgotten Gods by Marie Rutkoski 

Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliot 

Carmilla by Le Fanu 

Ash and Huntress by Malinda Lo 

The Dark Days Club by Allison Goodman 

The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood 

Roses and Thorns by Chris Anne Wolfe 

Strange the Dreamer 

The Daevabad trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty 

Tuesday Mooney books by Kate Racculia 

The Spell Book of Listen Taylor by Jacklyn Moriarty

Enter Title Here by Rahul Kanakia 

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern 

Eleutherophobia (Animorphs fic) 

The Lilith’s Brood series by Octavia Butler 

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher 

Steerswoman books by Rosemary Kirstein 

Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey 

Meddling Kid by Edgar Cantero 

Stand Still Stay Silent (webcomic) 

A CIty Dreaming by Daniel Polansky 

In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan 

Ninefox Gambit 

Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher 

Some by Virtue Fall, or the Chant books by Alexandra Rowland 

Even Though I Knew the End by CL Polk 

The Memory Librarian by Janelle Monae (audiobook recommended) 

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger 

Peter Darling by Austin Chant 

The Memoirs of Lady Trent by Marie Brennan 

Martians Abroad by Carrie Vaughn 

Emily St. John Mandel 

The Traitor Baru Cormorant 

Nghi Vo 

Aliette de Bodard 

Jade City by Fonda Lee 

Zen Cho 

The Assassins of Tamarin by SD Tower 

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow 

Britt Marie was Here! 

Trader by Charles DeLint

Stone Moon trilogy by MCA Hogarth 

The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin 

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao 

The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin 

Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Torzs 

Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone 

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal 

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich 

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston 

Kindred by Octavia E Butler 

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor 

DEJ supplemental, where I'm drawing the queer D&D characters I wasn't able to get around to during Draw Everything June 2023.

This is Lenaria. She is @quixiiify's queer eladrin paladin.

"Keeping her devotion to her family in mind, there is nothing she couldn't or wouldn't do."

‘health, life, joy, peace, good cheer, hope’.

PRINCE ANDHERA and BINX CHOPPLEY in D20’S “A COURT OF FEY AND FLOWERS”: CHAPTER 7 — “THE MASQUERADE BALL”

bonus brennan:

I want to draw your cats as dragons, using the Smaugust prompts by @pencilcat as inspiration, and I’m making a different post for each day and its prompt. If it’s 30 August 2022 anywhere in the world, you can make a request on this post. (If it’s no longer that date, but it’s still August 2022, check here for my list of prompts and their posts.) Reblog this post, and add in a photo of your cat and the cat’s name, and I will draw that cat as a dragon, using the current day’s prompt (shown in the title; so for today, “wings”) as inspiration.

Similar rules apply as my previous art events:

Once you’ve made a request here, wait until I’ve drawn and posted it before making another request; this ensures that everyone has a chance, while not putting arbitrary limits on stuff if it’s a slow day. However, you can make a request on a new day’s post even if I haven’t yet drawn your request from the previous day’s post.

It is allowed, and encouraged, to make requests on multiple days, and to make multiple different requests of the same cat, so we can see different ways that the cat can be a dragon. I would prefer that different photos be used, but I understand if you don’t have many good photos.

Only one photo and only one cat per request. I won’t choose between multiple photos you provide, and I won’t draw multiple critters in one request. If the photo has multiple cats in it, be specific about which cat you want me to draw; if you want all of them drawn, then you’ll have to make separate requests for each one, as described in the first point.

It doesn’t necessarily have to be your current cat; it can be a past or present pet, or the cat of a friend or relative, but it needs to be a cat you have some kind of connection to, not just a random picture you found online.

I want to draw your cats as dragons, using the Smaugust prompts by @pencilcat as inspiration, and I’m making a different post for each day and its prompt. If it’s 19 August 2022 anywhere in the world, you can make a request on this post. (If it’s no longer that date, but it’s still August 2022, check here for my list of prompts and their posts.) Reblog this post, and add in a photo of your cat and the cat’s name, and I will draw that cat as a dragon, using the current day’s prompt (shown in the title; so for today, “fungus”) as inspiration.

(I realize that stuff associated with this prompt can be a common squick, so unless explicitly told otherwise, I’ll go extremely tame on the “fungus” aspect of the design, like on the level of “dragon tending a mushroom garden or eating mushroom pizza”, or possibly “wearing a hat that looks like a mushroom cap”, but no further.)

Similar rules apply as my previous art events:

Once you’ve made a request here, wait until I’ve drawn and posted it before making another request; this ensures that everyone has a chance, while not putting arbitrary limits on stuff if it’s a slow day. However, you can make a request on a new day’s post even if I haven’t yet drawn your request from the previous day’s post.

It is allowed, and encouraged, to make requests on multiple days, and to make multiple different requests of the same cat, so we can see different ways that the cat can be a dragon. I would prefer that different photos be used, but I understand if you don’t have many good photos.

Only one photo and only one cat per request. I won’t choose between multiple photos you provide, and I won’t draw multiple critters in one request. If the photo has multiple cats in it, be specific about which cat you want me to draw; if you want all of them drawn, then you’ll have to make separate requests for each one, as described in the first point.

It doesn’t necessarily have to be your current cat; it can be a past or present pet, or the cat of a friend or relative, but it needs to be a cat you have some kind of connection to, not just a random picture you found online.

This is my cat Noni.

I want to draw your cats as dragons, using the Smaugust prompts by @pencilcat as inspiration, and I’m making a different post for each day and its prompt. If it’s 18 August 2022 anywhere in the world, you can make a request on this post. (If it’s no longer that date, but it’s still August 2022, check here for my list of prompts and their posts.) Reblog this post, and add in a photo of your cat and the cat’s name, and I will draw that cat as a dragon, using the current day’s prompt (shown in the title; so for today, “celestial”) as inspiration.

Similar rules apply as my previous art events:

Once you’ve made a request here, wait until I’ve drawn and posted it before making another request; this ensures that everyone has a chance, while not putting arbitrary limits on stuff if it’s a slow day. However, you can make a request on a new day’s post even if I haven’t yet drawn your request from the previous day’s post.

It is allowed, and encouraged, to make requests on multiple days, and to make multiple different requests of the same cat, so we can see different ways that the cat can be a dragon. I would prefer that different photos be used, but I understand if you don’t have many good photos.

Only one photo and only one cat per request. I won’t choose between multiple photos you provide, and I won’t draw multiple critters in one request. If the photo has multiple cats in it, be specific about which cat you want me to draw; if you want all of them drawn, then you’ll have to make separate requests for each one, as described in the first point.

It doesn’t necessarily have to be your current cat; it can be a past or present pet, or the cat of a friend or relative, but it needs to be a cat you have some kind of connection to, not just a random picture you found online.

I want to draw your cats as dragons, using the Smaugust prompts by @pencilcat as inspiration, and I’m making a different post for each day and its prompt. If it’s 16 August 2022 anywhere in the world, you can make a request on this post. (If it’s no longer that date, but it’s still August 2022, check here for my list of prompts and their posts.) Reblog this post, and add in a photo of your cat and the cat’s name, and I will draw that cat as a dragon, using the current day’s prompt (shown in the title; so for today, “bones”) as inspiration.

Similar rules apply as my previous art events:

Once you’ve made a request here, wait until I’ve drawn and posted it before making another request; this ensures that everyone has a chance, while not putting arbitrary limits on stuff if it’s a slow day. However, you can make a request on a new day’s post even if I haven’t yet drawn your request from the previous day’s post.

It is allowed, and encouraged, to make requests on multiple days, and to make multiple different requests of the same cat, so we can see different ways that the cat can be a dragon. I would prefer that different photos be used, but I understand if you don’t have many good photos.

Only one photo and only one cat per request. I won’t choose between multiple photos you provide, and I won’t draw multiple critters in one request. If the photo has multiple cats in it, be specific about which cat you want me to draw; if you want all of them drawn, then you’ll have to make separate requests for each one, as described in the first point.

It doesn’t necessarily have to be your current cat; it can be a past or present pet, or the cat of a friend or relative, but it needs to be a cat you have some kind of connection to, not just a random picture you found online.