Snowflake Challenge Day 6

[opensummer]

Day 6
In your own space, create a list of at least three fannish things you'd love to receive, something you've wanted but were afraid to ask for - a fannish wish-list of sorts. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your wish-list if you feel comfortable doing so. Maybe someone will grant a wish. Check out other people's posts. Maybe you will grant a wish. If any wishes are granted, we'd love it if you link them to this post.

1. Book recs! I read far too quickly and am always on the hunt for more. I like pretty much all sci-fi and fantasy and will read just about anything if I'm told it's good. I'm trying to getting away from reading just straight white dudes books so if you have recs by POC, queer people, woman, or some intersection of the three I'd love to hear about them.

2. People to write more Katara centric fic. Katara was the first fictional character I highkey identified with and the one who's fanfic I am consistently the most disappointed in. While there's some really good shipping fic, I can never seem to find Fic where Katara is in character, interesting, and Doing It for Herself. such selfish prayers by andromeda3116 is the only one I can think of and I've been reading the fic since the gd ship wars. So recs for fic like this, and also people to write good Katara fic.

3. I wish people would leave more comments on my fic. It's very frustrating to post and then get no feedback whatsoever. Though I gotta say, moving away from tumblr to dreamwidth has helped that already. So i'm gonna be greedy and say even more comments? 

Comments

[sperrywink]

Her stuff tends to go out of stock in Powells, but for an older fantasy writer from the 1980s with great female lead characters, try Claudia J Edwards, in particular Taming the Forest King.

https://www.powells.com/SearchResults?keyword=Claudia+J+Edwards

(If you really want to read it, I can loan you my copy. :-) )

[opensummer]

She sounds great!

I'm going to see if I can get a copy through my local library or overdrive but if that doesn't work out I will 100% take you up on that!

[mizface]

I'm on the last Martha Wells' Murderbot Diaries, and LOVE them.

Tanya Huff has a really cool fantasy series that starts with Sing the Four Quarters (the second book has an incestual slant, so be aware). She also wrote excellent modern day vampire books (Blood Price is the first). Oh! And The Fire's Stone.

And Kim Harrison has an urban fantasy series set in the Cincinnati area (starts with Dead Witch Walking).

PN Elrod has also written some cool vampire novels, set in 1930s Chicago (Bloodlist is the first). I found her through fanfic - she wrote a crossover for this series and Quantum Leap.

[opensummer]

They're AMAZING right!? I read the first two but haven't been able to lay hands on the last two yet.

I haven't heard of her before, but i did a quick google of sing the four quarters and it looks right up my alley. I'll have to see if I can run them down.

The Hollows were my go to urban fiction for a while until I tripped into Ilona Andrews' Kate Daniels series. I suspect that a few more might have come out since the last time i read them. Might be time for a reread?

Another one I haven't heard of. Please tell me the 1930s vampires are gangsters! Cause that would be excellent

[mizface]

I broke down and bought the whole set, because I love them so.

I hope you enjoy Tanya's books. I really enjoy her writing.

And the main vampire character isn't a gangster, but there are plenty of (human) gangsters around.

[spikedluv]

I have only read Tanya Huff's Blood and Smoke series (loved!) and The Enchantment Emporium (dear god don't read the third book), though I keep telling myself I need to check out other series of hers.

[opensummer]

+1 to Tanya Huff heard! Thanks for the rec

[mizface]

Oh the fantasy books she writes are really fun! I think I read at least the first Enchantment Emporium book - why avoid the third?

[spikedluv]

Because it ruined my two favorite characters for me (Jack and Charlie) by putting them in a creepy (imo) relationship.

Here's where I talked about it, if you want to read that: https://spikedluv.dreamwidth.org/1127387.html

(And this from someone who routinely writes underage and even incest, to it takes a lot to squick me.)

[opensummer]

yikes. I'll probably pass on that one. Thanks for the heads up!

[spikedluv]

You're welcome. I was so disappointed in it.

[skytintedwater]

I just finished reading 'The Fifth Season' by N K Jemisin and it's amazing!

[opensummer]

oh i adore NK Jemisin! I finished the broken earth trilogy and immediately went out and picked up her other books. I still need to finish the last book of the hundred thousand kingdoms but otherwise I've worked my way through her bibliography

[catdetective]

Ooh, I always rec Ursula K. LeGuin to people looking for inclusive sci-fi/fantasy. Her worlds are never populated by just white people, and my particular fave is The Left Hand of Darkness, which is set on a planet where everyone is genderfluid/neutral. (I'm also always looking for queer sci-fi/fantasy so I haven't got a whole lot of recs but I love seeing more of it)

[opensummer]

I love Ursula K LeGuin! Since she died I've been working my way through her canon and left hand of darkness is one of my faves.

NK Jemisin and China Mieville are both excellent contemporary writers and neither write solely white worlds. NK Jemisin in fact arguably has two series without any white people at all (The Dreamblood Duology and The Broken Earth) She's is a lot more explicitly queer than China Mieville is.

[catdetective]

Ooh, I'll have to check out NK Jemisin, thanks! I had China Mieville on my own list, but 'more explicitly queer' is exactly what I want to hear about... anything, honestly.

[opensummer]

amen to that!

[spikedluv]

Maggie Steifvater's The Raven Cycle and Seanan McGuire's October Daye series. Both have women as the main (or one of the mains) character and gay pairings (though not right off the hop) The pairing in the October Daye series is kinda background, but still cute and very much there, as in they talk about it.

Seanan also wrote the Newsflesh series as Mira Grant. There are zombies, but it's not ~about the zombies. Also, adopted sibling incest if that is a no-no.

[opensummer]

I've read both and adore them!

I've been trying to get the rest of Seanan's books for a minute now but the waitlist on libby is pretty long.

[glassesofjustice]

If you haven’t checked out An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon, it’s a great debut SFF. CW for violence and sexual assault against women.

Octavia Butler, while well know, is a good choice if you haven’t read her.

If you want something light and fluffy, all the lesbian romanantic comedies by Clare Lydon (can’t go wrong with London Calling) are fab and I have both audio/and ebooks of hers available through my library/overdrive.

If you are okay with YA, my favorite book I read last year was We Are Okay by Nina LaCour. CW for minor character death. It was one of my only ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ reads last year.

[opensummer]

Never heard of it but I will add it to the list as well as running down some information about the CW. I have a hard time with sexual assault narratives and sometimes can get around it, sometimes not.

Octavia Butler is alway fab. And Clare Lydon's books sound right up my alley.

And that's a +1 to We Are Okay. one of my friends recommended it to me about a week ago

[glassesofjustice]

Happy to answer any specific questions in DM, but it’s a spin on a futuristic slave narrative, and it’s pretty violent, so maybe give it a pass.

Yay for +1 on We Are Okay, and just adding another warning for that one that it’s sad in parts. My co-worker cried over it and was pretend mad at me for not telling her. I did not cry but did tweet a ton about how much I loved it at 3am when I finished it.

[opensummer]

yeah i'll probably wait on that one, at least until im in a better place mentally. It's looks worth a read when i'm a little less raw.

Honestly that sound perf! I like books where you get the full range of emotion

[osidiano]

I really enjoyed Nnedi Okorafor's Binti series. It was neat to see sci-fi with a non-European slant. I haven't started Akata Witch or Who fears Death yet, since my library doesn't have them yet, but I have high hopes once they come in

[opensummer]

I've never heard of them so they're going on the list for sure!

[nocowardsoul]

Snowspelled and Spellswept by Stephanie Burgis, set in an alternate Regency England where women run the government and men do magic.

[opensummer]

going on the list! Thank you!

[kiki_eng]

Books! (Also I am apparently bad at descriptions today and banking on you having read a chunk already, a bit?)

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

The Imperial Radch Series by Ann Leckie - vidded by bironic here

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley

I've enjoyed a couple of Zen Cho's short stories and she has a novel out that I just put a library hold on: Sorcerer to the Crown, and another coming out in March

[opensummer]

Me having read them is a safe bet! The Goblin Emperor is the only one I haven't read and it's been on my list for a bit now. The Imperial Radch series and Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell are among my favorite books, and I read The Blue Sword obsessively as a kid until somebody bought me Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness

Sorcerer to the Crown is incredible! I can't wait for the sequel

ALSO: I love the vid! so cool.

[spikedluv]

I think I've read The Goblin Emperor at least three times in the past few years. So good.

[opensummer]

Another +1 to the goblin emperor! I've heard nothing but good things about it

[kiki_eng]

I finished Sorcerer to the Crown this weekend! [...and feel like you should get to The Goblin Emperor if you were really into that one. :) ]

...also, yes, I found The Blue Sword as a young teen and it was kind of perfect. I think there's this kind of beautiful snapping in place when you find a book at a right time it slots right into you and you and gets its teeth into you right back.

[opensummer]

Isn't it good?! (I finally laid hands on a copy of The Goblin Emperor and it's excellent so far!)

...oh god yeah it was exactly like that. I laid hands on The Blue Sword at precisely the right age to identify so hard with a girl who had a funny name and felt out of place

[kiki_eng]

It was a lot of fun! I feel like Zen Cho's short stories have been stronger, but I am excited for the apparently Malaysia-based in-universe follow up novel, and seem to have taken off on an old school fantasy novel kick as a result of reading it, so: :)

precisely the right age to identify so hard with a girl who had a funny name and felt out of place
*nods* Those are the best books.

[opensummer]

old school fantasy novel kicks are where it's at.

[sunlit_stone]

Looks like a lot of my recs have been covered in other comments, but for sci fi by a woman I've got to recommend Lois McMaster Bujold! The Vorkosigan Saga is one of my favourite series, and also contains several of my favourite books :)

(I am not much of a Katara person--I mean, no, I like her a lot, I just don't feel very driven to read fic about her, if that makes sense. But my sister, who's a huge Zutarian, very much is, and has repeatedly expressed disappointment over Katara's characterization in fic. I asked her if she had any recs where "Katara is in character, interesting, and Doing It for Herself"/for fic like such selfish prayers. She said Forty Weeks wasn't bad? I can't second the recommendation, not having read it myself, but I thought I'd at least pass it along.)

[opensummer]

Oh I love the Vorkosigan Saga! It was the first sci-fi series I read that actually had ladies I could see myself in.

(That's totally understandable! Some characters are Like That. Thank your sister for the rec and I'll check it out!)

[sunlit_stone]

Yes! It's got such great characters <3 It's funny that you say that, though, because I hadn't thought about it before but I kind of feel like some of Sanderson's work played that role for me? Though with fantasy not sci-fi. So thanks for the revelation! :)

I told her, and she is glad to have helped. I hope you enjoy it!

[opensummer]

Happy to help! I spent a fair amount of time trying to figure out why I liked the books I liked as much as I did and came to the conclusion it was mostly due to how able I was to identify with the characters.