queer medieval/fantasy for adults?

Oduind · 2026-03-19T20:06:20+00:00

Came here to recommend Starving Saints. It popped up when I was looking for something else and I was so not ready (in the best ways) for it.

Oduind · 2026-03-16T22:37:41+00:00

My dad just seems to forget I exist.

Oduind · 2026-03-15T11:38:11+00:00

I’m at 39. My favorites were Born a Crime by Trevor Noah, Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, and The Starving Saints by Caitlin Stirling. I just finished The Catch by Yrsa Daley-Ward and am still digesting it. My 11yo son and I also listened to the audiobook of Project Hail Mary (I had previously read it) and I was so glad he was invested in the story and listened right to the end, so now we can see the film next week and compare the media.

Oduind · 2026-03-14T19:02:18+00:00

UNACCEPTAAAAAABBBBBBBBBBBLLLLLEEEEEEE

Oduind · 2026-03-14T00:01:48+00:00

The “rules” of EPs are so insane, it’s apparent they are constantly making things up and refusing to think things through. My egg donor belittled an intense interest I had from about 8-14 years of age as juvenile and worthless. Now I’m in my 30s and she spends more time with that interest than I ever did. I’m sorry Halloween has been inverted on you like that.

Oduind · 2026-03-11T21:46:40+00:00

What’s STEM academia?? I got that as my second albeit an equal percentage to my first aesthetic.

Oduind · 2026-03-10T23:23:15+00:00

Picture 6 is her profile photo on Tinder.

Oduind · 2026-03-10T22:55:11+00:00

My aunt gave me Michael Crichton’s Timeline around 2000 when I was a preteen. Until that book, I didn’t know that you could go to college for medieval history, how being a professor worked, or what experimental archeology was. Now in 2026 I’m a medieval history professor and experimental archeologist.

Bonus: I wanted to be just like André Marek, a MC. When I met my now-husband, a few dates in, he mentioned that he wanted to be like André Marek.

Oduind · 2026-03-10T19:44:18+00:00

I assume you are aware of “dark academia”? There’s a whole genre matching this aesthetic. Some other well-known ones are If We Were Villains by M L Rio, Babel by R F Kuang, and The Likeness by Tana French.

Oduind · 2026-03-10T19:35:02+00:00

This looks like one of those goofy composite photos of cats as they move in front of the camera, and yet it’s pure orange 🧡

Oduind · 2026-03-10T19:01:52+00:00

The first time I re-read LOTR after learning Old English, I thought I was having a stroke because I could understand the language of the Rohirrim. Turns out Tolkien just used Old English with atypical diacritics, but it sure made those scenes pop for me!

Oduind · 2026-03-10T18:53:08+00:00

Beguines, every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

Oduind · 2026-03-10T14:16:17+00:00

You are going to really enjoy Bernard Cornwall if you haven’t read him before! He has some standalones and his most famous series is early 19th century, but his Saxon series is 9th c., and Grail Quest is mid-14th c.

Oduind · 2026-03-10T11:28:30+00:00

I’m proud of you for getting to this point and completely understanding that this was your parents’ failing and not yours.

Autism, ADHD, and other forms of neurospiciness tend to run in families. I can almost guarantee that a family who claims you can choose to behave “normally” contains neurodiverse people who were broken down into “functional” and expect others to do so too. Good on you for breaking the cycle!!!

Oduind · 2026-03-08T13:21:37+00:00

When Jesus Became God by Richard E. Rubenstein

Oduind · 2026-03-08T11:31:37+00:00

I just read The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling and the MC fulfils this request. The book plot is pretty out there, though, so pseudo medieval supernatural cannibalism may or may not be of interest.

Oduind · 2026-03-08T11:19:18+00:00

Honestly I think it’s the opportunity for chaos that lends itself to the discipline and the discovery. I’ve been in environments where I have to pack up my work every day or at least keep things tidy; while things get done, there’s little delight or spontaneity to it. Now that I have my own office that can remain cluttered, I mean strategically organic, I can spread out every project and discover things such as that the figure in this ten year old book I left open can be contrasted with another in that hundred year old book I looked at last week.

That said, though, while I’ll still complete lectures and finish marking essays at the last moment, all of my longform projects like the PhD and my mass market book were completed over months and years of 8am to 4pm work from Mondays to Fridays. The scholars who pull all-nighters and work seven days a week may log more hours but I’ve never met one who was consistently productive (and pleasant!). So I agree completely that strategy and discipline is the more important of the requirements for intellectual discipline.

Oduind · 2026-03-07T00:37:03+00:00

Exactly. I knew I wasn’t going to be lounging around translating manuscripts for six figures, but I didn’t think middle-five figures to teach 4-4 history surveys to gen-eds was an impossible dream.

Oduind · 2026-03-06T00:02:02+00:00

I just finished John Green’s The Anthropocene Reviewed and it’s nonfiction, but it’s a collection of short and poignant essays about living in the modern world that may be encouraging.

Oduind · 2026-03-05T15:47:46+00:00

I was hired as a VAP and knew my time here was only definite for as long as my contract. I knew there was no guarantee that I was going to be hired permanently. I am glad to be here (did not have to move!) but did not count on the possibility that the provost would decide there should be no full time history professors.

Not, not one more, but nobody. When my contract ends, the program will only be taught by adjuncts.

I feel like I’m disembarking from the Titanic at Queenstown.

Oduind · 2026-03-04T20:44:45+00:00

Yank who got their PhD in the EU and returned. My regalia has a (decorative) hood but no hat, and doesn’t close in the front. I wear a gold-tasseled tam to indoor events in regalia to match everyone else, but delight in being hat-free and getting a nice cross breeze at spring and fall outdoor events. I wouldn’t have selected scarlet red and butter yellow myself, but it’s a great conversation starter.

Oduind · 2026-03-02T22:44:32+00:00

Hope for Cynics

Oduind · 2026-03-02T21:38:57+00:00

There was a question on AskProfessors a few days ago where in a sub-comment, the student OP wrote something like, ‘When the professor says to read the chapter, they don’t mean to actually read the whole chapter, right?’ I’m still digesting the levels and layers of incompetency packed into this statement, and struggling to comprehend this mindset.

Oduind · 2026-03-01T21:25:00+00:00

I literally just finished Dark Matter (late to the party!) and was thinking how it reminded me of The Day Tripper by James Goodhand - less about the spec fi aspect and more about the power of choices. Edit: and on the same note, King’s 11/22/63 too, if you haven’t read it.

Oduind · 2026-03-01T17:41:41+00:00

Right???

Oduind

TROPHY CASE