beyondthealgorithm | Recbox for Shadaras

Username: Shadaras

Preferred Genres: Scifi and Fantasy (I like all subgenres within them!). I've been reading a lot of cnovels lately, too; mostly unlimited flow and things that care more about plot than romance.

DNW Genres: ~~I was trying to think of genres I'd DNW and kept coming up with exceptions, so I'm not gonna DNW any genres at all.~~ Sitcoms

Preferred Media Types: Books! I am happy to have recs for visual stuff too but I tend to read faster than I consume any other form of media.

DNW Media Types: Youtube. Audio-only content (if it has transcripts, then feel free to rec it).

General Likes: Queer stuff (especially polyam, bi, aro, and ace! I like both f/f and m/m.), competence porn, politics, characters being clever, military stuff (war and strategy and tactics), worldbuilding, philosophy, religion (especially when it's not Christian/Christian-expy), linguistics/fun things with language, anthropology, science!, plotty stories, gen shenanigans/team as family/found family, genre bending/blending, mysteries/casefic, romance so long as it's not the only plot

General DNWs: Anything to do with Nazis

Fandom Preferences: No preferences. (like, 90% of time I know nothing about the fandoms for media I consume?)

Requests for Content Warnings: Rape, transphobia, blood magic, extensive descriptions of self-harm or suicidal ideation

Examples of Media Enjoyed: Star Wars (movies, cartoons, legends EU, new EU, video games...), Modao Zushi (I like all the adaptations too), everything Max Gladstone has written (Ruin of Angels and Empress of Forever are special highlights), Quanzhi Gaoshou/The King's Avatar (Hudie Lan; I like the novel better than the adaptations), Tamora Pierce's works (Protector of the Small and Emelan especially), Nirvana in Fire (TV), Friends at the Table (Podcast), The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water (Zen Cho), anything Neon Yang has written (originally published under J. Y. Yang), The Goblin Emperor (Katherine Addison), Harrow the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir), The Coldfire Trilogy (C. S. Friedman), Always Coming Home (Ursula K. Le Guin), Atomic Blonde (movie), The Old Guard (movie), Battlestar Galactica (2003), The Expanse (TV), The Vorkosigan Saga (Lois McMaster Bujold)
[if you want more ideas of what I've consumed and like, look at the stuff I've written fic for at

Shadaras]

Examples of Media to Avoid: so I understand why this section is here but also I have no idea what to say about it because media that I don't like just kind of bounces out of my head because it just wasn't for me?

Streaming Services I Can Access: Paid: Netflix, VRV. Free: Anything that streams to the USA.

Languages I'm Comfortable With: English (including English subtitles and English translations)

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

You might like The Machineries of Empire trilogy by Yoon Ha Lee! It's a military space opera novel trilogy, plus some short stories.

Captain Kel Cheris can escape disgrace by re-taking the Fortress of Scattered Needles, and her best chance is by allying with the traitorous undead general Shuos Jedao. But there's a question of how much she can trust Jedao, and whether taking the Fortress is worth the price--

The series has some great space battles, and really creative worldbuilding (including sufficiently advanced math being indistinguishable from magic and a really interesting political system). The politicking in the series is also great, especially in the later books where it takes some more prominence. And while it doesn't have a mystery plot in the traditional sense, the first two books do have over arching myseries. (The first book's mystery being "how trustworthy is Jedao?" and "Why is Jedao the way he is?")

Also, multiple queer characters! Including Cheris and Jedao, and some of the characters introduced in later books are queer also.

Content warnings: rape, suicide, some transphobia. Depending on how you define it, there is some blood magic and self harm too.

Hey Shadaras! I've waxed poetic about my love for wlw Alpennia Series here, but what made me think you might enjoy it are these likes: queer stuff, worldbuilding, philosophy, religion, gen shenanigans/team as family/found family, genre bending/blending, romance so long as it's not the only plot. When I've tried to describe the genre of this series before I think it's historical fiction with light fantasy and romance elements. The most recent book, the fourth in the series really punches in the amazing worldbuilding that was laid in the first three books. The books can be read stand alone but the world and character building is all the richer as a series. The author is on the ace spectrum so while relationships feature prominently, both romantic and friendships, it is all fade to black. Also, I really enjoy the period specific language and character understanding of queerness. Mostly I think this stands out for me as a great example of the power of found family and how queer people found and made community in all periods of time. I'm not typically a historical fan, but the characters and rich storytelling sucked me in. In later books there are more POC and also what we might consider with modern language a trans character. Bonus: there is a small contingent of fanworks for it and a rallyable group in the exchange circuit (+Yuletide eligible for next year!).

I've read those! I keep meaning to go back and reread them (and read the short stories/novellas that go with them). :) So: You are absolutely correct that I would like them, because I do!

Alpennia is one of those series that absolutely everyone keeps talking about and that I have never really tried to get into. I think it's because it's mostly historical/not fantasy enough? Still, I'm definitely into it conceptually—maybe this'll be the year that I pick it up!

Hi!

I just finished reading Exhalation by Ted Chiang, and I highly recommend it. It's a collection of science fiction short stories, and there's a large range of topics he explores in the book. There's a story about time travel and how it relates to the past and future. There's a different story about the dichotomy of science and religion, and how it merges in the world of the story. There's nine stories in total, and all of them are written from varying perspectives and "styles." After I read it, it's definitely one of my favorite books.

I also recommend Babel-17, which was published in 1966 by Samuel R. Delany, and it's also one of my favorites. It's basically about this space captain (!!) who is wickedly good at anything language related, and during a space war, one of the sides develops a language (Babel-17) that can be used as a weapon. The story is the captain, Ryrdra Wong, learning more about the language, and it touches on how words can greatly impact people's actions.

I think you can lean more into the fantasy if that’s the part you care about. I will say the third and fourth book are really more steeped in fantasy, but obviously never leave the historical setting, so maybe that’s too big a barrier. The fantasy is tied into religion, but also into music, if that adds any extra intrigue. I also am not a frequent or big reader of historical. I got sucked into the found queer family and intrigue of being queer when our modern language didn’t exist to communicate it.

Not pushing extra for you to give it a go, just adding some more context.

I do like historical, sometimes! I think it's just that I need to be in the right mood for it?

I appreciate the extra context/hype for this series. :)

I've heard a lot of good things about Ted Chiang, and generally enjoyed what individual short stories of his I've encountered. :) I'm not usually great at reading short story collections, but I've been kinda meaning to try that one for a while.

Delany is one of those authors who I consistently hear about but haven't tried picking up; this rec definitely makes me more into trying him!

Thanks! :D

Recbox for Shadaras

no subject

Alpennia Series by Heather Rose Jones

no subject

Re: Alpennia Series by Heather Rose Jones

no subject

Re: Alpennia Series by Heather Rose Jones

Re: Alpennia Series by Heather Rose Jones

no subject