BOOK HYPE: Scarlett Gale, Red, The Wolf, And The Woods

BOOK HYPE: Scarlett Gale, red, the wolf, and the woods

Scarlett gale is the author of 2 books that I absolutely adore (His secret Illuminations and its sequel) which is so far up my alley it's embarrassing

I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am for this new work by her..it comes out September 1,2023

A hardworking farmer who moonlights as a dog trainer, Red longs for her brothers to step it up on the family farm so she can get a whole five minutes of uninterrupted time to herself. When her grandma calls down with a delivery request, Red jumps at the chance to go visit the house in the woods she loves so much. No farm chores and a good hike? It’s basically the perfect day!

…right until a wolf walks out of the woods and asks if he can join her.

Sound familiar? Red, the Wolf, and the Woods is a playful, modern take on the classic fairy tale, with a steamy romance at its core. Take some time away from your daily grind to join Red on a flirty, feral adventure!

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Tortall - Tamora Pierce Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Additional Tags: Meta, Art, Fanart, Heraldry, reconstructing heraldry, Art History, Medieval History, Embedded Images Summary:

A meta dive into the heraldry of Tortall, including drawings from the given descriptions and an attempt to blazon any coat of arms that was described enough.

Includes an instruction to basic heraldry concepts and conclusions about Tortallan heraldic traditions as distinct from real-world ones.

As a sort of spiritual successor to my Castlevania heraldry meta, have a meta on Tortall’s heraldic tradition and the arms of various characters.

The Archive Undying (thoughts in process)

I am still working my way through The Archive Undying (Emma Mieko Candon) but here are my in the middle thoughts.

Oh, and on the very off-chance that the author or a personal acquaintance of same is on this website, please don't read this post, thank you. (I posted about a recent release and then I'm 90% sure the author of that book liked the post and thought I was going to pass out. If you see something, say nothing.)

First impressions: Good gracious this book is making me work. I have completely filled the back of an envelope trying to keep track of the names of people, places, AIs, and in universe terminology.

This is NOT a book I can read before bed. Nor is it one I can read in an environment where i need to half-pay attention to my surroundings.

Due to the need to constantly take notes, I am progressing very slowly. I was like "sheesh this book is taking FOREVER" and then realized I was interrupting myself like every single page trying to keep my notes up to date.

If you have a better memory than I do, none of that might apply to you! I don't know why I've been relying so heavily on note taking while I read this year.

Characters: my personal favorite soft squishy boi got squished so that's a bummer. The protagonist and his love interest have a fucked up thing going on (I mean that in a positive way) (I'm radiating approval) (fictional fucked up relationships can be so interesting). I wish the women in the story got more time, but that's not a problem, I just think the women who are there are neat and I'd love to spend more time with them :)

World building: the world building is interesting, but it's hard for me to fully appreciate it because waves at notes I find it obfuscated by the terminology. I don't know why I can't keep the Harbor, Engines, Frags, Relics, and whatnot separate, but I can't. 😭

Writing style: the writing is good. It pulls me through and I want to keep reading. There is some playing with the person and tense for story reasons, which I enjoy.

Is it like Murderbot?: no absolutely not. Murderbot is snarky and very accessible. That series is super easy to read/jump into, and the pacing of murderbot is very fast and straightforward.

Is it like a memory called empire: also no. One thing it has in common with Memory called empire is a feeling of a big, unfamiliar world and these big political dimensions, and the physically big and intimidating spaces. Big!

Is it like the Locked Tomb 4-book-trilogy? A little? You might notice the cover quote is form Tamsyn Muir, the author of the locked tomb trilogy. But it's not similar because of the tone--the narrative voice is not snarky like Gideon the Ninth--but because if you want to know what the fuck is going on, you need to pay attention. (I myself am not good at paying attention in that way so I suffer as a result.) I guess I'll report back on whether Candon has the same... approach... to ending books as Muir.

What is it like? It's a little like ninefox gambit (Yoon Ha Lee). There's a lot of terminology and a strong sense of big things happening that aren't simply elucidated for you. The worldbuilding also reminds me a little of Ninefox Gambit because you know the author has it all in here *taps head* but only a fraction makes it onto the page.

It's a little like the fifth season (NK Jemisin) the terminology, playing with the narrative form, and a somewhat shifting cast of characters. Information about the characters is hidden from the reader in service to the story and to support an overall suspense. There is nothing wrong with that in and of itself.

Cool things list:

The opening quickly engaged my interest.

I think the world is interesting!

I love the names of the different AIs, and I think it's cool to think about how their different "personalities" shape the different cultures that spring up in their cities.

I like the characters; they have good texture and voice. The author does a great job of making me feel like I'm meeting these people at a point in their lives, like they really do have their own personal histories.

It falls into a school of 'oh hey casual queer representation' like yeah in the future no one has to explain they/them pronouns, everyone just Gets It.

It also isn't explicitly stated but, like, all the characters are POC. For real. It's like in Avatar Airbender, people don't bring it up because it's just there. And I respect that!

Also the cover art is dope.

In summary I like the book so far. It's going to take me a while to finish, but I'm willing to keep pushing.

This is doing something to my brain

There was nothing here dazzling enough to describe as magic. The spell was in the obsession, the relentless intensity.

From Diary of a Void by Emi Yagi, translated by David Boyd and Lucy North

EXCUSE ME, That Is My Emotional Support Bodyguard

If Artemis Fowl was originally planned as a trilogy (and I have no idea, I was literally too emotionally distraught from rereading this book to Google that), then this book is a really lovely ending. It's also just a massive emotional roller coaster, especially for a middle-grade series! Let's talk Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code.

*Spoilers Below the Break. Be Warned*

This book could honestly also be titled Artemis Fowl: American Businessmen are Scum and I Will Personally Make them Pay, because one of the very, very few flat-out mistakes we see Artemis make occurs in the opening chapters of this book. Our boy attempts to extort American businessman Jon Spiro into paying him an exorbitant fee to keep his C-Cube (a peice of tech that integrates fairy technology to make literally everything else on the planet obsolete, with the added bonus that if anyone looks too hard at it, the fairy world could be exposed) off the market.

Butler--bless his bodyguard heart--spends this entire meeting with his instincts screaming "Something is seriously wrong," but Artemis is so damn sure that he has the high ground that he ignores a couple of fairly blatant red flags to bait the already pissed-off businessman. And then, of course, the angry American does the most predictably fucking American thing in the world and pulls a gun.

And Butler does his job. This man who we have grown to love through two books literally stands in front of the bullet and makes sure that Artemis is safe before literally using his dying breath to tell Artemis his name before dying in his principle's arms.

Guys, gals, and nonbinary pals: This scene is DEVASTATING.

We are intimately tangled up in the moment, with Artemis and Butler's reactions. As someone who has had life-threatening medical emergencies, Butler's calm in the moment is totally understandable, but when I read this book for the first time, that calm was scarier than him panicking would have been. Artemis is a normal human boy with normal human boy emotions in this scene, and because he is so rarely that in these books, that is perhaps more devastating than if he had also been calm in the scene. Basically, if this death scene hadn't been reversed in later chapters, it would be #1 on my list of book death scenes that scarred me for life.

But Artemis being Artemis, he finds his criminal mastermind instincts and stuffs Butler's body in a fish freezer, gets help from a professional cryogenicist, and then gets Holly on the line to pull off a hail-Mary four-minute healing. And the best part is that there are actual consequences. The healing takes about a decade off of Butler's life, and because some kevlar fibers got caught up in the wound, his breathing is less free than it was before. But the important thing is that Butler. Is. Alive.

Then, of course, Artemis has to come clean to the fairies that he came within a hair's breadth of exposing their entire civilization to humans and that he has left the door unlocked and cracked open for Jon Spiro to expose them. This is, of course, wholly beyond the pale, so the Council authorizes them fairy help to retrieve the cube, but for a price: All the humans involved get mind-wiped after the cube is successfully retrieved. Artemis agrees, because this kid has eaten enough humble pie today to kill a large horse.

Butler, despite being alive, is not in any shape to go heisting, so Juliet and Mulch Diggums round out the heist team. Jon Spiro is rich, paranoid, and quite frankly evil, so this heist is a CHALLENGE, but ultimately they do end up succeeding, and Artemis, Butler, and Juliet submit to mind wipes. That scene is weirdly touching, but it is not without the caveat that allowed the series to continue beyond book three: They're wearing mirrored contact lenses to beat the mesmer, and Artemis slips Mulch a computer disc full of files that will spark enough memories to reverse the mind wipe.

This isn't my favorite Artemis Fowl book by any stretch of the imagination, but it's arguably the best heist in the series and the scenework and the development of Artemis's character is strong as hell. Plus, watching Jon Spiro spiral into a hell that is largely of his own making after he had Butler shot was deeply satisfying.

DIANA WYNNE JONES GIRLIES!!

If you haven’t checked out Tamora Pierce, Margaret Owen, or Intisar Khanani yet, please do!!! I’m noticing a lot of fans of DWJ enjoying these authors and vice versa AND YOU COULD BE NEXT