#spectregray

3. favorite female character?

i love them all but since i just reread most of the jl detroit run and bawled my damn eyes out over cindy and j’onn’s loving father daughter relationship and the christmas (redacted) is still haunting my nightmares i have to go with cindy reynolds/mordeth...My Lovely Girl.

12. favorite villain?

malcolm thawne i love you...bitch! i ain’t never gonna stop loving you..............bitch!

16. worst outfit ever?

this one...please let me DIE. (lmk if it doesn’t load-it’s the first vibe costume and i. it’s so bad.) however it’s very close to being surpassed by pretty much every original design for a female character Ever because artists can’t fucking draw women.

18. favorite writer?

the emperor: what are some names that you like?

i’m probably unbearably twee in the names i like: ella, ben, poppy, jack, etta, toby, and so on. anything you can see hipster couples naming their baby on instagram, i probably like it.

the devil: do you enjoy thunderstorms?

i live in phoenix, arizona. i am basically solar-powered- cloudy days throw me off. but there’s a period every summer called monsoon season where we get super intense thunderstorms. and you can tell when they’re coming, because the air changes and the desert smells different. i like being inside or in my backyard and watching it. so the answer is- yes and no! 

the sun: do you believe in magic?

All The Birds in the Sky definitely qualifies as weird, but there's something especially resonant and haunting about it

You bet I do!  I really love worldbuilding, and I think I tend strongly towards stuff that has fun with it.  So really, most stuff I like fits your description; for the purposes of this list, I’m gonna go with stuff that’s pretty out there or that does something especially unique in one way or another.  I did not adequately convey how cool some of these series are in my worldbuilding and plot summaries.  Note that the plot summaries are just for the first book in each series.

SciFi:

Machineries of Empire (currently Ninefox Gambit and Raven Stratagem) by Yoon Ha Lee.  This is what Ender’s Game wishes it could be, and they’re some of my favorite books.  (I have a problematic soft spot for military SciFi.)

Worldbuilding: The main empire that the series is set in has devised a type of… math, essentially that allows them to come up with all kinds of arcane effects when in combat.  (Illusions, heat beams, etc.)  The thing is, this all depends everyone in the empire rigidly adhering to the same calendar.  This calendar requires certain ceremonies to be performed on certain days, and sometimes those ceremonies involve human sacrifice.  Some people disagree and become heretics; they make up their own calendars, which clash radically with the official one.

Plot: Captain Kel Cheris is a brilliant mathematician and soldier who has been called upon to solve an incredibly difficult task.  Heretics have taken control of an impenetrable fortress and she is one of the candidates who is to propose a way in.  She suggests that she be allowed access to a powerful tool… the undead tactician Shuos Jedao.

Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve.  (Four books, with some prequels that aren’t quite as good.  The first book in the main series is Mortal Engines.)  Incredible characterization and a great grasp on emotions and complicated morals.  Hester Shaw is a really well-written anti-hero/morally grey protagonist.

Worldbuilding: These books take place on Earth, in the far future.  As society began to break down, and resources became scarce, humanity makes the completely reasonable choice to stick treads on the bottoms of their cities and go trundling around.  Survival of the fittest reigns, as bigger and stronger cities prey on weaker ones.  But now most of those weaker cities have been eaten up, and prey is scarce.

Plot: Tom Natsworthy is an unassuming Apprentice Historian in the great city of London, who idolizes the head of his guild–Thaddeus Valentine.  When someone tries to assassinate Valentine, Tom foils the attempt, but discovers a troubling secret along the way.  Soon he finds himself kicked out of London and his only companion is the assassin herself.

The Pit Dragon Chronicles by Jane Yolen.  (A quartet, starts with Dragon’s Blood.)  Yeah, you read that right--I’m saying that something with “Dragon” in the name is SciFi.  It is though; it takes place on another planet and they’re not actual dragons, just a native species that people call dragons.

Worldbuilding: Austar IV was a penal planet, where convicts were exiled.  While it isn’t that way anymore, the society that sprung up has rigid castes, and depends on a system of indentured servitude.  It’s a harsh planet, where the nights are so cold that they’re impossible to live through, and there’s little life that can survive on the planet--but there are dragons.

Plot: Jakkin is a bond boy, who works in a dragon nursery.  He’s good with the dragons, and he knows that he could buy his way out of his indenture if only he could raise one and teach it to fight.  Finally, he gets an opportunity to steal a hatchling.

Fantasy:

The Divine Cities (a trilogy; the first book is City of Stairs) by Robert Jackson Bennett.  These ones are weird and there are times that I dislike the writing, but the premise kept me interested.  And I can get picky about writing style, so that’s saying something!  It does have a bit of an annoying “oppressed overthrow oppressors, immediately become new oppressors” thing but it does kinda deconstruct it too.

Worldbuilding: The Continent used to a superpower, ruling the world with the help of their gods.  But one day, one of the countries they were oppressing (Saypur, if I remember correctly) rose up–and killed one of the Continent’s gods.  Now the Continent is irreparably broken.  The gods are dead, and with them went all the miracles they had created.  Continentals are forbidden to mention their gods, to worship them, or to display their symbols.  The first book takes place in Bulikov, the old capital of the Continent.

Plot: Shara Thivani seems to be a young, unimportant diplomat who’s been sent to Bulikov at a strange time–a Saypuri professor has been murdered, and the politicians are busy dealing with his death.  However, Shara is not what she seems.  She’s a spy, and she’s here to investigate the murder.  What she uncovers, however, is something she never could have dreamed of.

The Stormlight Archive (ongoing with ten books planned; first book is The Way of Kings) by Brandon Sanderson.  These are part of Brandon Sanderson’s bigger linked universe, the cosmere.  You don’t need to know all about the cosmere to enjoy one of the series that takes place in it, and really I’m recommending all of them here.  I’m just highlighting Stormlight because that’s my favorite of his series.

Worldbuilding: Roshar is a planet where everything has a “spren”; spirits that embody something about that thing.  There are spren for emotions, spren for natural phenomenon, spren that no one knows the purpose of.  Roshar is also periodically wracked by dangerous, violent storms.  On this planet, the kingdom of Alethkar has recently risen, due to the efforts of the now-deceased Gavilar Kholin.  He was assassinated while working out a treaty with the semi-non-human inhabitants of the planet, the Parshendi.  The Parshendi took the credit for his death, and the kingdom has been warring with them for… I dunno, a long time.

Plot: The series follows a few different characters–the two main ones are Kaladin Stormblessed and Shallan Davar.  Kaladin is a slave; he was a soldier but he rebelled against his commander and was branded and sold.  Now he has been bought by Highlord Sadeas to run bridges across the plateaus of the Shattered Plains.  It’s incredibly deadly and dangerous, but for some reason he keeps surviving…  Shallan is a young woman from a rural area who is fleeing from a horrible past.  She desperately wants to become the student and ward of the great Jasnah Kholin, but while Shallan is a devoted and brilliant academic, she also has a less noble purpose in mind.

Queen’s Thief by Megan Whalen Turner.  (There are currently five books, with a sixth planned; the first book is The Thief.)  This is seriously one of my favorite series of all time--it’s where my URL comes from!

Worldbuilding: The setting is one of the big things I mention when I try to get people to read these.  Are you tired of Fake Medieval England being the setting for every other fantasy novel?  Try Fake Kinda-Ancient Greece instead!

Plot: Gen is a highly skilled thief, who bragged to the wrong person and ended up in a Sounisian prison.  One day, he is visited by the magus, an advisor to the King of Sounis.  The magus says that he has a job for Gen, and that if he completes it, he can go free.  Gen just has to steal an ancient treasure... except said treasure is probably a myth.

Bonus:

The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein.  (Currently four books–the fifth has been in progress for a long time, but I have been assured it’s going to happen eventually.  The first book is called The Steerswoman.)  Telling you the genre of this series kinda spoils some big plot twists, which is why it’s the bonus.  I recently read these, after having them recced to me over a year ago, and I zoomed through them.  They’re enjoyable and inventive!

Worldbuilding: Oh shit this is really hard to describe without spoilers.  Just… trust me on this one, okay?  The worldbuilding is really cool, even if it may seem kinda generic at first.

He has eyebrows! They’re just VERY close to his eyes