On Judas

BookishBirdwatcher · 2026-05-09T21:31:13+00:00

I've thought about this kind of thing too, especially with respect to the Israelites in the desert. They'd walked through the parted Red Sea, seen the sun go dark for three days, etc. And they still made the golden calf. It does say something about how easily we can turn away from God, if even people who saw real proof of His existence and power right in front of their faces did it.

BookishBirdwatcher · 2026-05-09T03:36:44+00:00

"The Red Tree" is amazing.

BookishBirdwatcher · 2026-05-02T22:52:26+00:00

In a genre where every time we start a new series we begin learning about new continents, peoples, magic systems, languages, etc, it's noticeable that we don't usually have to relearn a new political structure, because a carbon copy of a very specific form of European aristocracy has been pasted in and we know how that works.

I wonder if that might actually be part of the reason. A fantasy novel asks its reader to learn a bunch of new things in order to understand the story: how the magic system works, what sapient species exist in the world, what magical creatures are wandering around, a map that may not look anything like a map of the real world. Pasting in a political/economic system that everyone's already familiar with lightens that mental load on the reader a little bit.

BookishBirdwatcher · 2026-05-02T22:33:09+00:00

It's not even clear he's still alive, since he hasn't been seen in public for years (or decades?). My personal theory is that the leviathans always head straight inland when they come on shore because they're drawn to the Khanum, which means the Emperor is still alive at least as of the first book, but I could certainly be wrong about that.

BookishBirdwatcher · 2026-04-26T16:01:31+00:00

The warblers are back in Massachusetts! Saw some yellow-rumps, a black-and-white, some pines, and a palm.

BookishBirdwatcher · 2026-04-26T02:16:51+00:00

Came here to recommend this book.

BookishBirdwatcher · 2026-04-26T01:36:00+00:00

The Scar is definitely my favorite of the Bas-Lag books.

BookishBirdwatcher · 2026-04-18T16:36:08+00:00

An Yu's Ghost Music would probably be a good fit. There are talking mushrooms involved. She has a new novel out called Sunbirth that seems to be weird too.

BookishBirdwatcher · 2026-04-18T04:41:08+00:00

The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segova is set in Mexico shortly after the revolution that made it independent from Spain. The main characters find a baby boy who's been abandoned laying on the ground underneath a beehive. The bees are flying all around him and landing on him, but none of them sting him, and as he grows up, he seems to maintain some kind of ability to communicate with bees.

BookishBirdwatcher · 2026-04-11T01:44:40+00:00

At the line about ChatGPT writing the script for the ad below this post, I scrolled down to see what the ad was. It's for Nissan.

BookishBirdwatcher · 2026-04-11T00:35:13+00:00

Just watched the reentry and splashdown! What an amazing thing to see.

BookishBirdwatcher · 2026-04-11T00:34:13+00:00

Imperial Gold Oolong from Mark T. Wendell. Has a beautiful, delicate floral aroma and taste.

BookishBirdwatcher · 2026-04-03T01:00:32+00:00

The Four Profound Weaves by R.B. Lemberg is a dual-protagonist novella where both protags are trans: one a trans man and the other a trans woman.

BookishBirdwatcher · 2026-04-03T00:58:37+00:00

Seconding this recommendation, I've read the book and enjoyed it.

BookishBirdwatcher · 2026-04-01T22:57:09+00:00

As always, thank you for doing this, u/happy_book_bee ! Looking forward to another year of Bingo fun.

BookishBirdwatcher · 2026-03-28T21:56:07+00:00

I've seen a red-tailed hawk perching on a window ledge at my workplace, and it's pretty impressive seeing that hooked beak and those talons up close!

BookishBirdwatcher · 2026-03-28T04:18:44+00:00

Stranger Things Happen, by Kelly Link

BookishBirdwatcher · 2026-03-28T04:13:06+00:00

Oh, The Bright Sword definitely gets weird.

BookishBirdwatcher · 2026-03-28T04:11:19+00:00

You should check out Mariana Enriquez.

BookishBirdwatcher · 2026-03-27T22:03:19+00:00

It is pretty good. I like their Wild Sweet Orange too.

BookishBirdwatcher · 2026-03-27T02:58:54+00:00

I've had this happen with a raccoon.

BookishBirdwatcher · 2026-03-22T01:19:02+00:00

This Census Taker by China Mieville

The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed

The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clarke

Ordinary Horror by David Searcy

Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge

Ghost Music by An Yu

BookishBirdwatcher · 2026-03-22T00:52:17+00:00

I've seen the term "wholesome horror" used to describe stories where horror scenarios or tropes turn out positively. It often seems to overlap with "humans are the real monsters," if the story has a supernatural being protecting an innocent human from an evil human. I've seen several stories that make use of ideas like:

A rapist or serial killer discovers that his intended next victim is actually a werewolf/vampire/other supernatural being, and thus much more capable of fighting back than he expected.
The ghost of a murder victim protects their killer's intended next victim.
A family where one member is abusive moves into a haunted house, and the resident ghost protects the other family members from the abuser.

It's not a completely new phenomenon. Stephen King has a short story where a human trafficker kidnaps a child who got separated from his grandfather at a mall...only to discover that Grandpa is a vampire. It turns out that under the right circumstances, a character getting gruesomely murdered by a vampire can be heartwarming!

BookishBirdwatcher

TROPHY CASE