I’m In The Choir At First Presbyterian Church Of Atlanta. We Performed The Vivaldi Gloria With Our

Hey Cosmere fandom, it’s book rec time.

The book series in question is the Imperial Radch Trilogy by Ann Leckie. In order, the books are Ancillary Justice, Ancillary Sword, and Ancillary Mercy.

It’s a space opera with significant focus on character and relationships. The POV character is Breq, an aro-ace space warship AI in a human body who sets out on an impossible journey to kill the Lord of the Radch (the local 3000 year old space emperor) to revenge her beloved Lieutenant. Along the way she (unintentionally and reluctantly) collects people (humans, ships, aliens,…) in a gloriously messy found family.

* It’s super queer 

* Characters actively struggle with depression, anxiety, addiction, etc.

* Almost everyone is a PoC

* For the sake of Propriety everyone wears gloves and bare hands are super scandalous. 

These books are amazing and you should strongly consider reading them. The audio book versions are also fabulous.

If you’ve already read them, I’ve been Radch posting on my other blog (RithmatistKalyna) and I would love to talk with people both about the books/characters/tea sets/etc and all of the Cosmere crossover potential.

Frillbloom!  As with shalebark, frillbloom is a family of plants rather than a specific type.  Here is how I imagine a few different varieties, in both open and closed form.

Character, book, and author names under the cut

Nangong Jingnu/Qiyan Agula- Clear and Muddy Loss of Love/Jing Wei Qing Shang by Please Don't Laugh/Qing Jun Mo Xiao

Dr. Arada/Overse- The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

Harrowhark Nonagesimus/Gideon Nav- The Locked Tomb by Tamsyn Muir

Renarin Kholin/Rlain- The Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson

 All hearts that are gems do not glitter,      Not all those with blackbane are lost; Slaves that are old do not wither,      Rockbuds by the storm are not crushed. From the crem a fire shall be woken,      From the chasms a new hope shall spring; Renewed shall be Oaths that were broken,      Tanavast again shall be King.

Last night, taisharnumenore, Leinton and I reworked this J.R.R.Tolkien poem for the Stormlight Archive.  taisharnumenore posted it with the Bridge 4 patch, but this is the scene we really wanted to illustrate it with :-) (I also tweaked it slightly so the 4th line doesn't completely break the rhyme scheme..)

Alloy of Law:  make Sherlock and Watson vigilantes from the wild west and then send them to a steampunk city where they acquire a brilliant but somewhat naive badass girl apprentice.  Oh, and they all have magic.

Truth

White people need to tell each other the hard truths. This includes the fact that No, you aren’t colorblind. Nor should you strive to be. The point isn’t whether or not you see that a person is black. They are. The question is what you see when you see that they are black. Do you see competency? Do you see worth? You should.

(paraphrased (because I didn’t write it down during the service) from the sermon at the First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta on 25 September 2016)

I just finished Brandon Sanderson's The Rithmatist. Now, any time I read a fantasy novel with an interesting magic system, I imagine what it would be like to have said magic (don't we all?).  This magic system seems particularly well suited to me - it calls out to both my math and artistic sides.  I think I could make a rather good rithmatist.  The freaking 9 point circle is an important part of the magic system.  I can't even.  

I bet that the 6 point defenses don't actually require that the 6 points be equally spaced.  I bet they could actually be anywhere as long as you build the rest of the defense properly.  The Mystic Hexagon theorem has got to be relevant to this magic system.  I bet you can even use the Mystic Hexagon theorem to build 8 point defenses where the extra two points come from the line dictated by the Mystic Hexagon.  And when that line doesn't intersect the circle, it would be a natural (possibly required) place to put a Line of Forbiddance. There will probably be rithmatic drawings showing up here...

Also, my math notes often have non-math doodles in them.  <3 chalklings

Melody and Joel are fantastic. I like them a lot. There are things I need to process before you get more about them though.

PSA: Brandon Sanderson is holding a T-shirt design contest for the release of The Lost Metal. 

There are 3 design prompts to choose from:

*  Wayne’s Haberdashery 

* Take anything from the books and give us an Art-Deco design 

* An in-world product (you can also make up your own in-world product for Mistborn)

More details on Sanderson’s site at: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/design-contest/

Kickstarter

Spacefunk!

Space is the place! A collection of science fiction stories and poems by authors of African/African Diaspora Descent.

Hey tumblr, I stumbled across this kickstarter for a sci-fi anthology featuring stories and poems by authors of African and African Diaspora Descent. It sounds cool and when I tried to dig up a tumblr post to reblog about it I couldn't find one, so I'm making it myself.

The kickstarter is running through noon eastern on July 19th, 2024. The pledge level for the ebook with over 40 stories and poems is just $10. For $30 there's an ebook bundle with this new anthology and their previous anthologies (Steamfunk!, Dieselfunk!, Cyberfunk! ,and Spyfunk!). There are also options to get a physical copy of the anthology, cool posters, and more.

If you are interested in sci-fi from voices that are currently underrepresented in the community, go check it out!

Pattern pumpkin

It blows my mind that Brandon Sanderson managed to create a character that fits seamlessly into the stormlight world despite basically being a sentient fractal.  It also makes me really absurdly happy.  I love Pattern so much.  Here is my jack-o-lantern for this year :-)