#second spear

Gandalf the Dog + Ocean’s Echo by Everina Maxwell

“Gandalf might be named for a fantasy wizard, but his reading interests lay firmly in the Gay Space Opera camp”

Ha, camp

Bao the Dog (x2) + Second Spear by Kerstin Hall

“Second Spear is full of butch spear-wielding ladies, mushroom gods, haunted places & apparently delicious pages”

since apparently Gandalf and Bao both enjoy the taste of books, maybe they should snack on The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean next

Rio the Cat + Forestborn by Elayne Audrey Becker

“Rio loves to cozy up with a good book!”

sorry lol i scheduled this on a friday and i’m tired

i really did spam a whole bunch of chats for this, to mixed success, however while SOME coworker’s cats r too broody for pics, others wouldn’t let even ‘not having pets’ stop them from submitting a pic

Bunnicula the Cat + Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

“Bunnicula the cat is a noted scholar of thalergy and thanergy and appreciates a realistic depiction of such forces. Moreover, Bunnicula, like Gideon, doesn't know how to properly eat a salad.”

Tom the Cat (x3) + A Collection of Titles from Katherine Addison

“While he’d pick a can of wet food over a cinnamon roll, Tom still appreciates kind-hearted protagonists.”

this cat’s human and i have played dnd together and Tom LOVES the camera. very biased but i think his strong kitty swag comes through in this photo series <3

Titles pictured include: 

The Goblin Emperor

The Witness for the Dead

The Grief of Stones

i realized that we had a lot of cats and dogs and nothing else, so i texted my friend who doesn’t actually work here but does have a lizard and a Deep Backlist of Tor titles. though ultimately unable to decide on one book, picture and lizard both go hard. look at this cool dude. look at him vibe

Copen the Lizard + Many Titles

“The reptilian mind boggles at the dynamics that have led to this situation.”

Pixel the (Shiny) Sylveon + Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

“The blade-sharp prose and scumbelievable gore balance with Pixel’s adorable cuteness to create the perfect image.”

yeah like i said i don’t have any pets but Bunnicula was inspiring

this is the end of the post and if you read this far you do have to buy a book so’s. Take to the notes and let me know: 

what you’re reading

what your pet is

Second Spear primarily follows Tyn as she reels from knowledge she gained in The Border Keeper: Vasethe knew her when she was alive. She had a different name, and she was no soldier; she was a scholar. Upon return to her realm, she finds she cannot just go back to the way things were. As the leader of her company, Vehn the First Spear, continues to mock Tyn despite how beloved she is by their ruler Res Lfae. The realms begin to shake with the echoes of consequences from The Border Keeper, Tyn finds herself thrust into the middle of a crisis. Stuck with the First Spear and a new, sullen recruit, Tyn must traverse the realms of Mkalis to find an answer to the conquering tide of an old enemy, while also coming to terms with her fracturing identity.

With the Mkalis Cycle books, Hall has literally hundreds and hundreds of fantastical stories she could tell across the 999 realms. And so far, based off of her first two stories in these multitude of realms, she’s having an absolute ball as she ricochets from realms of flame to realms of horror, from clockwork nightmares to mind-obliterating feasts, fog that lurks for souls, forests that yearn for bodies, and more and more. Pairing her intense and bountiful imagination alongside her rich prose that sings with momentum, each single sentence doing the work of ten, there is no way that anything Kerstin Hall creates won’t leave a lasting image in her readers’ minds.

But as in any story, the depth and imagination of worldbuilding can only be so enthralling without the care and richness of the characters who populate these myriad realms of the afterlife. Tyn is a worthy successor after spending time with the legendary Eris and the mysterious Vasethe; rather than having far too much knowledge of Mkalis or knowing practically nothing about it, we have Tyn who is squarely in the middle. In fact, her life-after-life had been fairly comfortable. She was a solider, she was good at it, she had friends, and maybe not a commander that loved her, but certainly a ruler that did. And yet, the reason Tyn makes such a good protagonist is that all of the normality of her life, the comforts she’s gotten used to, have been completely upended because of her encounter with her former life in The Border Keeper. Souls in Mkalis are not meant to remember their lives; the past is supposed to stay in the land of heartbeats and mortals. And poor, conflicted Tyn, so happy in her life as Second Spear, has had that comfort and happiness turned upside down.

And it’s here, Hall folds in world and character both as Tyn must solve the mystery of herself, not just who she was and who she’s been after death, but really: who does she want to be next? ith effortless grace, Hall folds the personal journey of Tyn into the journey of Mkalis as a universe as character actions, informed by their trauma and history, like the wings of a butterfly, can have ramifications and shape all 999 realms.