bl1nk

25 . it/its . many people in one brain . space opera fiend(s)

1482 points

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My Taste

Reading...

55%

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The Final Strife

Saara El-Arifi

Red is the blood of the elite, of magic, of control. Blue is the blood of the poor, of workers, of the resistance. Clear is the blood of the slaves, of the crushed, of the invisible. Sylah dreams of days growing up in the resistance, being told she would spark a revolution that would free the empire from the red-blooded ruling classes’ tyranny. That spark was extinguished the day she watched her family murdered before her eyes. Anoor has been told she’s nothing, no one, a disappointment, by the only person who matters: her mother, the most powerful ruler in the empire. But when Sylah and Anoor meet, a fire burns between them that could consume the kingdom—and their hearts. Hassa moves through the world unseen by upper classes, so she knows what it means to be invisible. But invisibility has its uses: It can hide the most dangerous of secrets, secrets that can reignite a revolution. And when she joins forces with Sylah and Anoor, together these grains of sand will become a storm. As the empire begins a set of trials of combat and skill designed to find its new leaders, the stage is set for blood to flow, power to shift, and cities to burn.

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sammimag

Thoughts from 36%

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Thirst

Marina Yuszczuk

Across two different time periods, two women confront fear, loneliness, mortality, and a haunting yearning that will not let them rest. A breakout, genre-blurring novel from one of the most exciting new voices of Latin America’s feminist Gothic. It is the twilight of Europe’s bloody bacchanals, of murder and feasting without end. In the nineteenth century, a vampire arrives from Europe to the coast of Buenos Aires and, for the second time in her life, watches as villages transform into a cosmopolitan city, one that will soon be ravaged by yellow fever. She must adapt, intermingle with humans, and be discreet. In present-day Buenos Aires, a woman finds herself at an impasse as she grapples with her mother's terminal illness and her own relationship with motherhood. When she first encounters the vampire in a cemetery, something ignites within the two women—and they cross a threshold from which there’s no turning back. With echoes of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and written in the vein of feminist Gothic writers like Shirley Jackson, Daphne du Maurier, and Carmen Maria Machado, Thirst plays with the boundaries of genre while exploring the limits of female agency, the consuming power of desire, and the fragile vitality of even the most immortal of creatures.

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Fervor

Meg Smitherman

He has called to her all her life, but she could never reply. . . Midonia, a freelance interplanetary transporter, is on thin ice after a fatal accident on the job. So she doesn’t argue when she’s given the tedious task of flying devout Sister Irena to a remote fringe planet, where a tiny religious colony worships a strange deity called Anguish. Until now. When a solar flare grounds her ship, Midonia finds herself stuck with the cult-like sisters. Even worse, he comes to her in the night, his familiar voice louder than ever. He invades her mind with his hunger, sparking a ravenous obsession that will be near-impossible to escape.

bl1nk commented on Bookpossum's update

Bookpossum DNF'd a book

A Master of Djinn

P. Djèlí Clark

Nebula, Locus, and Alex Award-winner P. Djèlí Clark returns to his popular alternate Cairo universe for his fantasy novel debut, A Master of Djinn Cairo, 1912: Though Fatma el-Sha’arawi is the youngest woman working for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, she’s certainly not a rookie, especially after preventing the destruction of the universe last summer. So when someone murders a secret brotherhood dedicated to one of the most famous men in history, al-Jahiz, Agent Fatma is called onto the case. Al-Jahiz transformed the world 50 years ago when he opened up the veil between the magical and mundane realms, before vanishing into the unknown. This murderer claims to be al-Jahiz, returned to condemn the modern age for its social oppressions. His dangerous magical abilities instigate unrest in the streets of Cairo that threaten to spill over onto the global stage. Alongside her Ministry colleagues and her clever girlfriend Siti, Agent Fatma must unravel the mystery behind this imposter to restore peace to the city -or face the possibility he could be exactly who he seems…

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One for My Enemy

Olivie Blake

In New York City where we lay our scene, two rival witch families fight to maintain control of their respective criminal ventures. On one side of the conflict are the Antonova sisters, each one beautiful, cunning, and ruthless, and their mother, the elusive supplier of premium intoxicants known only as Baba Yaga. On the other side, the influential Fedorov brothers serve their father, the crime boss known as Koschei the Deathless, whose community extortion ventures dominate the shadows of magical Manhattan. After twelve years of tenuous coexistence, a change in one family’s interests causes a rift in the existing stalemate. When bad blood brings both families to the precipice of disaster, fate intervenes with a chance encounter, and in the aftershocks of a resurrected conflict, everyone must choose a side. As each of the siblings struggles to stake their claim, fraying loyalties threaten to rot each side from the inside out. If, that is, the enmity between empires doesn’t destroy them first.

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The Two Lies of Faven Sythe

Megan E. O'Keefe

55%

bl1nk commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

iyllia

What is the one book you would recommend to anyone and everyone?

I want to try making a personal list of books to read that have at least one diehard fan. I'm looking for the book that you bring up when someone says they want to get back into reading. The one you don't think ever gets enough attention because something else in that genre became popular. The one where people say "that was a book?" after discovering a movie or tv show they enjoyed was based on a novel.

My list starts with Howls Moving Castle, my own personal choice, that I have actually recommended to anyone asking.

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The Two Lies of Faven Sythe

Megan E. O'Keefe

52%

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Red Sister

Mark Lawrence

The international bestselling author of the Broken Empire and the Red Queen's War trilogies begins a stunning epic fantasy series about a secretive order of holy warriors... At the Convent of Sweet Mercy, young girls are raised to be killers. In some few children the old bloods show, gifting rare talents that can be honed to deadly or mystic effect. But even the mistresses of sword and shadow don't truly understand what they have purchased when Nona Grey is brought to their halls. A bloodstained child of nine falsely accused of murder, guilty of worse, Nona is stolen from the shadow of the noose. It takes ten years to educate a Red Sister in the ways of blade and fist, but under Abbess Glass's care there is much more to learn than the arts of death. Among her class Nona finds a new family—and new enemies. Despite the security and isolation of the convent, Nona's secret and violent past finds her out, drawing with it the tangled politics of a crumbling empire. Her arrival sparks old feuds to life, igniting vicious struggles within the church and even drawing the eye of the emperor himself. Beneath a dying sun, Nona Grey must master her inner demons, then loose them on those who stand in her way.

bl1nk commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

toadboyroy

unhinged bookmarks

hello all! my girlfriend and i are curious - what is the most weird or unhinged thing you use as a bookmark?

i'll start off tame - i use the receipts from checking out books at the library as bookmarks!

107

bl1nk commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

Haley_s

Edited

What literary awards do you follow?

This year I've, for the first time, intentionally read a book from a literary award's longlist (it was from the International Booker). Can't say it was really an enjoyable read, but now I am longing to try doing it again with a different award. Maybe you have your faves that you recommend giving a chance?

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Neon Gods

Katee Robert

80%

bl1nk commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

KnightOfThePort

Where my genderfluid monarchs at??

I came out a bit ago being genderfluid and a big thing for me and helping to accept myself better (because I'm not great at self love - peer love is easy and great though) is reading/watching films or books with characters going through similar struggles. Kaladin and his depression in Stormlight, Alice and her obsession with study in Katabasis, Terry being trans in the Dragon Prince show etc etc. But I haven't really come across anyone genderfluid or distinctly enby.

It might be my own fault where I almost exclusively read fantasy/horror/sci-fi but the world is hard enough so that gap of reality and fiction is better for me to enjoy with fantastical elements, and surely there's some characters in those genres out there identifying that way right? I'm aware of Loki just not a comic reader and didn't click with the show.

It's not a case where I need it central to the plot or anything but again it's like with Terry it's established through like two conversations max and it's so subtle but always there. Any recs?

bl1nk made progress on...

Neon Gods

Katee Robert

73%

bl1nk made progress on...

The Two Lies of Faven Sythe

Megan E. O'Keefe

38%

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