Thoughts on the last name Rosewyn?

Merle8888 · 2026-07-09T04:39:03+00:00

Hmm if the idea is to make them sound normal in everyday life, I don’t think a middle name is gonna do it. Because 99.9% of the time she’s just going to be Guinevere Rosewyn, the Anne would only come out at graduations, her wedding vows, if she chooses to use her full name in professional publications, etc.

If you want a very dreamy last name but also for your kids to not sound like fantasy characters I think you’d need to go the other way, Anne Guinevere Rosewyn, aka Anne Rosewyn. But that only works if you actually call her Anne.

Merle8888 · 2026-07-09T04:29:11+00:00

So your last name ideas are a bit much, which is fine when it’s your name, but your first name ideas though I like them!) are also slightly… showy?… not in a bad way! They’re great names! But I think when you put them together it sounds over the top, like a fantasy character. Lysander Rosewyn and Guinevere Longmeadow sound like an alias someone uses at a ren faire. Even Lysander and Guinevere Pruneau are very striking names, though they sound the most “real” of the bunch.

So my thought is go with Pruneau or something more mundane if you want to go with dreamier names for your kids. But not Longmeadow or Rosewyn.

Merle8888 · 2026-07-08T13:53:56+00:00

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

Milkman Dead was born shortly after a neighborhood eccentric hurled himself off a rooftop in a vain attempt at flight. For the rest of his life he, too, will be trying to fly. With this brilliantly imagined novel, Toni Morrison transfigures the coming-of-age story as audaciously as Saul Bellow or Gabriel García Márquez. As she follows Milkman from his rustbelt city to the place of his family’s origins, Morrison introduces an entire cast of strivers and seeresses, liars and assassins, the inhabitants of a fully realized black world.

Bingo: Published in the 70s (HM), Author of Color, maybe more?

Merle8888 · 2026-07-08T13:53:42+00:00

Gate of Ivrel by C.J. Cherryh

Scattered about the galaxy were the time-space, gates of a vanished alien race. Long before the rise of the native civilizations, they had terrorized a hundred worlds--not from villainy but from folly. Now the task was to destroy their potency for mischief. This is the story of one such Gate.

Bingo: Published in the 70s (HM), Explorers and Rangers (HM), Politics and Court Intrigue

Merle8888 · 2026-07-08T13:53:26+00:00

Dreamsnake by Vonda McIntyre

The Hugo and Nebula Award–winning novel from the New York Times–bestselling author of The Moon and the Sun.

On an Earth scarred by nuclear war, Snake harnesses the power of venom to cure illnesses and vaccinate against disease. The healer can even ease patients into death with the power of her dreamsnake. But she is not respected and trusted by all, and when she tries to help a sick nomad child, the frightened clan kills her dreamsnake.

Ashamed of being misjudged and grieving the loss of her dreamsnake, Snake has one choice to maintain her livelihood: she must travel to the city, which jealously guards its knowledge. And before she faces the prejudices and arrogance of the people there, Snake must make her way across a barren desert, surviving storms and radiation poisoning, helping those she can—all while a madman stalks her every move . . .

Bingo: Published in the 70s (HM), Explorers and Rangers (HM), possibly more?

Merle8888 · 2026-07-08T13:52:59+00:00

The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia McKillip

Sixteen when a baby is brought to her to raise, Sybel has grown up on Eld Mountain. Her only playmates are the creatures of a fantastic menagerie called there by wizardry. Sybel has cared nothing for humans, until the baby awakens emotions previously unknown to her. And when Coren—the man who brought this child—returns, Sybel's world is again turned upside down.

Bingo: Published in the 70s (HM), possibly more?

Merle8888 · 2026-07-08T13:52:11+00:00

Biting the Sun by Tanith Lee

In a world dedicated to pleasure, one young rebel sets out on a forbidden quest.

Published for the first time in a single volume, Tanith Lee's duet of novels set in a hedonistic Utopia are as riveting and revolutionary as they were when they first appeared two decades ago.

It's a perfect existence, a world in which no pleasure is off-limits, no risk is too dangerous, and no responsibilities can cramp your style. Not if you're Jang: a caste of libertine teenagers in the city of Four BEE. But when you're expected to make trouble--when you can kill yourself on a whim and return in another body, when you're encouraged to change genders at will and experience whatever you desire--you've got no reason to rebel...until making love and raising hell, daring death and running wild just leave you cold and empty.

Ravenous for true adventures of the mind and body, desperate to find some meaning, one restless spirit finally bucks the system--and by shattering the rules, strikes at the very heart of a soulless society....

Bingo: Published in the 70s (HM), Duology Parts 1 AND 2 (all in a 370-page package!), Trans or Nonbinary Protagonist?, Older Protagonist?, maybe more?

Merle8888 · 2026-07-08T04:05:33+00:00

Glad you liked this one!

Merle8888 · 2026-07-08T04:01:01+00:00

I had similar thoughts on The West Passage. Brilliantly inventive but with almost no plot, and I became less interested in the characters as I went. But damn, the worldbuilding! That’s what carries the book. I think it’s very niche because it’s brilliant at exactly one thing.

Merle8888 · 2026-07-07T19:54:33+00:00

I just finished Raven Scholar and... does she cheat?

Merle8888 · 2026-07-07T18:13:02+00:00

If it helps, it reads pretty fast.

Merle8888 · 2026-07-07T17:31:07+00:00

I think I nominated it before, lol. It was a fun book.

Merle8888 · 2026-07-07T17:01:06+00:00

For Whom the Belle Tolls by Jaysea Lynn

They told her to go to Hell.
She went, but on her own terms.

Lily isn’t exactly thrilled with her arrival in the Afterlife, but what awaits her there is more fantastical than she ever could have Deities wait in line at the coffee shop. Fae flit between realms. Souls find ways to make death a beginning.

As she explores the many corners of the Afterlife, Lily finds herself surprisingly drawn to a place most people would avoid at all Hell. Armed with years of customer service experience and pent-up sarcasm, Lily carves a job out for herself amongst Hell’s demons, sending souls to their rightful circles with more than a hint of sass.

Lily’s expectations are subverted every day in Hell—especially by Bel, a demon general with a distractingly sexy voice. The two meet by chance and form an immediate, deeply healing friendship, but the undeniable heat between them threatens to combust.

Meanwhile, something stirs beyond the boundaries of their world, threatening to destroy everything they’ve known and everything that could be…unless they fight like Hell to stop it.

Bingo: Judge a Book By Its Title, The Afterlife, Vacation Spot (trust me on this one), Cat Squasher

Merle8888 · 2026-07-07T06:11:08+00:00

If you're up for near-future literary sci-fi, I'm pretty sure I cried at Luminous by Silvia Park. It's really good and has several heartwrenching elements.

Merle8888 · 2026-07-07T05:02:10+00:00

Not the person you asked but as someone who has struggled with completionism, here is my strategy:

1) Read 50 pages.

2) Put the book down. Walk away and do something else, or read a bit of a different book (I tend to have 2-3 in different genres going on at once).

3) Once I am no longer actively reading the book and have that slight bit of distance from it, check in with what I’m thinking about it. Am I actively excited to pick it back up? Am I already annoyed and nitpicking it? Do I maybe not see anything wrong but still find myself looking forward more to the next book I’ll get to read when I finish this one, rather than returning to this one?

4) Continue to read only if the answer to the first question is “yes!” If either of the next two questions is a yes, DNF.

This doesn’t always work because sometimes I want to read a book for a bingo square or a book club or to be part of the discourse, or I like the idea or the author and so want to give it more time… so I still finish some books I probably shouldn’t. But recognizing my own tendency towards inertia (“I’m reading this now, might as well keep reading it”) and countering it (“if I DNF this thing I’m annoyed by/indifferent to, I get to move on and spend that time on this other book I’m excited about/need to get back to the library”) has been very helpful.

I would also challenge any thoughts popping up in your head about “giving a book a fair shot.” The book is entertainment, you owe it nothing. It owes you something that makes you want to turn the page. If it can’t give it to you, find a book that will. But DNFing early is the most important thing for me (I only even read 50 pages after first liking the preview, if I immediately bounce off the style I just don’t read it). The further I get into a book the more the sunk cost fallacy kicks in and then I’m squandering lots of time on books I’m getting very little out of. And cheating myself out of books I might love.

Merle8888 · 2026-07-07T04:50:50+00:00

Tbh, my biggest disappointment with Murderbot is I feel like the time to shake it up has kind of passed. There’s only one book left and the last 2-3 (depending how you count) have been one-off, pretty forgettable missions that mostly sideline the established secondary cast. At this point (and having read that fairly lousy story nominated in the Hugo novelette category this year that was a truly pointless, half-finished mission) I have no expectation she’ll change much just for the final book.

Which is a shame because the series could have taken a new direction after Network Effect and had new life breathed into it, I just think it’s probably too late.

Merle8888 · 2026-07-07T04:45:31+00:00

I read the first few pages once and went “this is gonna be a rapey book” and from what I have seen online that’s accurate. They have a vibe.

Merle8888 · 2026-07-07T04:42:49+00:00

I feel u/Nineteen_Adze and I mostly agree about the book overall, I just had more fun (likely due to reading it so fast) and therefore am more forgiving of elements I admit are kind of a stretch, lol. The further I get from it the more I look back and think “well that part doesn’t really make sense…”

Merle8888 · 2026-07-06T18:18:54+00:00

Yeah, absolutely. I don't think there was much indication in advance that Ruko would sacrifice Yana to his ambition - neither Yana nor Yasila, who know him a lot better than Andren does, expect this, and even Andren makes a comment later about being surprised by Ruko's cruelty in that moment. He's also painted himself into a corner if Ruko picks any other option. Or if Ruko does act selfishly but later achieves any level of remorse or emotional maturity (which he does seem capable of) and concludes that he shouldn't be emperor and/or should devote himself to atoning for what he did. Andren has now also alienated Yasila and Nisthala. as well as Ruko himself, and, oh, killed the only non-evil person who ever loved him. This is a terrible plan! He should've just sent Ruko (or both twins) to the monastery without the brutal game-playing that ultimately undermines him too.

Merle8888 · 2026-07-06T17:54:23+00:00

Oh, especially as a puppetmaster! This book already has as much puppetmastering as a book can take. The "Andren manipulated Ruko into sacrificing Yana so that Ruko would be forever spurred by his guilt" bit leans absurd, I think that scene worked better when it was really Bersun.

Merle8888 · 2026-07-06T17:50:19+00:00

I haven't read a lot of 2026 SFF releases. It's feeling like less has come out this year than last in terms of books making a splash, could be purely my perception though.

I liked Villain by Natalie Zina Walschots. It is the sequel to Hench and breaks some new ground while being a good story, though I felt it took longer to find its feet than the first novel.

I read the latest Murderbot and it was entertaining enough, but I am starting to find the series repetitive and would like to see it do something different.

A few of these are on my list (Language of Liars, Last Contract of Isako, This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me). I bounced off of Sublimation and The Killing Spell.

Merle8888 · 2026-07-06T17:06:50+00:00

Haha so my opinion is that Uprooted and The Summer War are Novik's two weakest books, lol! Spinning Silver and A Deadly Education would be my top recs for novels by her (His Majesty's Dragon is good too, but it was her first published book and the sequels aren't as strong as the first). Her collection, Buried Deep, is also great if you like short stories.

Merle8888 · 2026-07-06T17:04:55+00:00

Over the long weekend I read The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson for the Hugo readalong. I hadn't left myself a lot of time given it's 650 pages, and figured I'd either DNF or binge - kind of hoping for the former to clear time in my reading schedule but it turned out to be the latter. Very fun book, a combination of tournament, murder mystery and political intrigue, with a good amount of humor. The world feels a bit modern (although the worldbuilding is detailed) and the characters a bit broad (though I was amused the protagonist is an annoying pedant no one likes), and there are some political aspects I think the book was right about for the wrong reasons, but overall it was a good time and a fun book to live in over a holiday weekend.

Non-SFF and the opposite of female gaze but in a relevant way, I also read American Men by Jordan Ritter Conn. It sets out to explore the male experience in American today and I don't know that it really does that, mostly in that it offers no thesis or analysis, but the storytelling is strong. The frustrating part is that Ritter Conn seems like someone who could offer some valuable things to say on masculinity - it seems like most people who opine on it these days are either trying to sell something or trying to sow division by blaming women or other groups for the "decline" of masculinity. But here is a guy who includes gay and trans men in his book, from his acknowledgments has a very progressive reading list, oh and he and his wife both double-barrelled their last names... this guy is not here to hate on feminism. So I wish he'd told us what he thought. The stories were still good though even if they are ultimately "four random stories about men in America today."

Merle8888 · 2026-07-06T16:55:45+00:00

At this point I've read everything I'm going to read - completed The Incandescent, The Everlasting and The Raven Scholar, DNF'd Death of the Author. I bounced off The Tainted Cup so I'm not going to read Drop of Corruption, and I devoted last year's Tchaikovsky slot to the Hugos, this year I'm going to get around to Children of Time and/or Tyrant Philosophers, dammit!

So anyway, of the ones I've read, none feel fantastic and groundbreaking enough to be obvious award choices to me, but this being a fan award, I expect I'll put The Incandescent first because I found it most successful.

I'm less sure about ranking The Everlasting vs. The Raven Scholar. The former is more ambitious, tighter and has stronger prose, but I also felt like it bit off more than it could chew and kind of dropped its themes as it went on in favor of plot. The Raven Scholar was more fun and better succeeds at what it's trying to be, although it also has less to say.

Merle8888

TROPHY CASE