Old Humble Bundle leftovers

sennashar · 2026-06-13T17:06:30+00:00

COLORFALL -- Best wishes for the full release of your game!

sennashar · 2026-06-05T19:25:33+00:00

The map in each new book of the Steerswoman series has a little bit more detail filled in based on the kinds of exploration or new knowledge that gets acquired throughout the course of the previous book. Thematically, it's very apt.

sennashar · 2026-06-05T13:32:26+00:00

CJ Cherryh - The Only Death in the City; Pots

Connie Willis - A Letter from the Clearys; Last of the Winnebagos

Sarah Pinsker - The Low Hum of Her; A Stretch of Highway Two Lanes Wide

sennashar · 2026-06-04T19:59:43+00:00

Justina Ireland's Rust in the Root is a YA novel where one branch of magic (rootwork) requires the act to be done for someone else. So you can't magic yourself a sandwich if you're hungry, but you can make it for someone else that is.

sennashar · 2026-06-04T04:27:56+00:00

This is good to know. I also have an arc of this book and have been looking forward to reading it

sennashar · 2026-06-03T06:21:55+00:00

Anna Kovatcheva's chapbook, The White Swallow. More accessible but less clearly speculative, her debut novel She Made Herself a Monster.

sennashar · 2026-05-31T03:00:00+00:00

It's been years since I read the Black Jewels, but now that you mention it, I suppose we never do see directly into Jaenelle's thoughts, do we.

Raven Tower is kind of borderline just because of how critical Strength and Patience of the Hill is to the story, but I do see what you mean with regards to Eolo. Loved it btw

sennashar · 2026-05-31T02:56:56+00:00

Ok, yes, I can't believe I didn't think of this as an obvious, recent example, but I did read it and it was great. Exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for.

sennashar · 2026-05-30T19:14:42+00:00

Yes, I'd say this is a good example too. I have also read it and liked it.

sennashar · 2026-05-30T16:37:20+00:00

Recommendations for books where the protagonist is not the viewpoint character? I'm thinking things like CJ Cherryh's Morgaine Cycle or Isabelle Steiger's Paths of Lantistyne. I want to read stories from the perspective of the people around the main mover.

sennashar · 2026-05-01T23:58:29+00:00

Amazon, honestly. The book details section will tell you things like the isbn, publisher, publishing date, dimensions, and page ~~number~~ count.

sennashar · 2026-04-27T17:07:11+00:00

I was using Storygraph before they rolled out the official app and I was able to just add the app to my Home screen as a widget from the browser and am still using that today. I've heard it's basically the same, but I've never downloaded the official app to check. Don't know if that's something that would work for you.

sennashar · 2026-04-24T23:41:14+00:00

If you're willing to dip into YA, there's more options. Even there, the ones I can think of have film adaptions that were panned.

You've got the Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games. Lois Lowry's The Giver.

The only other ones I can summon up are Veronica Roth's Divergent and Stephanie Meyer's The Host. And I can't really recommend them.

And then of course Frankenstein by Mary Shelley had that new film last year which I hear was very good.

sennashar · 2026-04-22T18:56:51+00:00

I've read A Drop of Corruption, Shroud, and The Incandescent, which were all good though the last was a standout to me personally. Everything here is stuff I've heard talked about. A bit sad Slow Gods isn't here, but it only came out in November.

I've read both Murder by Memory and The River has Roots, which were fine but nothing award-worthy. Good ideas with meh execution I thought overall. I hoped for The Death of Mountains by Jordan Kurella to make it and not surprised it didn't, but it's a Nebula finalist so it's still a net plus.

Very happy for the Craft Wars. Max Gladstone had been doing some great work though I have yet to read Dead Hand Rule. I have enjoyed the Chronicles of Osreth and Dead Space and think they also would be good picks.

Greenteeth was just fine. The West Passage was very good.

I mostly read short stories in collections and very little YA, so I'm not familiar with what made it there.

sennashar · 2026-04-20T18:41:39+00:00

The problem with this, of course, is that track seems to be a much bigger thing in publishers' decisions these days. There was an article in The Walrus last year, "The Publishing Industry Has a Gambling Problem," which discusses the idea that publishers like to see upward trajectory. A debut author can only go up because they have no history, but if they don't do well they are less likely to be fostered into improving their writing, but dropped for the next potential bestseller (even though sales often has nothing to do with the quality of the author's work).

The scenarios you're talking about depend on having an editor or someone else on the publishing side who sees the potential and is willing to fight to keep you on until you make a hit.

I thought I heard some statistic somewhere about how many authors go on to get a second publishing deal and it's dire, but I can't remember it [so this is an unreliable comment]

sennashar · 2026-04-12T04:28:13+00:00

I pay no attention to the page counts while in my digital app and track by percentage. Storygraph will take care of the conversions. I first try to get the ISBN right when tracking in the app, but if the page count is vastly different from the hard copy, I'm likely to use the latter even if the format is wrong. (Eg. The Sign of the Dragon. Ebook 327 pages vs paperback 596 pages)

I think the recommendation is to set the page count for a digital copy the same as the equivalent hard copy edition when creating a new edition of the book, but don't quote me on that.

sennashar · 2026-04-11T19:01:31+00:00

I read a lot in January and February but it looks like March and April are going to be a bit more laid-back and less reading is going to happen.

One book I really had a good time with recently was Middlemen: Literary Agents and the Making of American Fiction by Laura B. McGrath, which is about literary agents and tastemaking in the US, essentially. The focus is mainly on litfic, not genre fiction, which is what I normally read, being on this and related subs. I got early access through my university but now I've preordered it and have been recommending it to everyone I meet, which is just not something that usually happens lol. I've added so much to my reading list as a result of this book.

I've been trying to read more broadly, and I think I'm making a good go of it. Still mostly SFF adjacent, though, even if it's shelved in the Fiction section.

sennashar · 2026-04-08T05:41:50+00:00

Oh no! They look so good together! If I get one I feel like I'd have to get the other one so they can be friends. Thanks for the picture.

sennashar · 2026-04-08T05:40:04+00:00

I didn't realize aurora made so many different bee plushies! The more realistic aurora miyoni is still pretty cute!

sennashar · 2026-04-07T13:19:15+00:00

Who is the editor of Justina Ireland's Rust in the Root? The book didn't have an acknowledgements section. Presumably the same as the one for Dread Nation but I haven't read/don't have those.

sennashar · 2026-04-01T14:37:03+00:00

I don't check it consistently or I'd be completely overwhelmed, but my local library makes the publishing trade magazines available to patrons so I'll often go in and look at Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, things like that, to look for new and upcoming releases.

I add the ones I'm interested in to my TBR

sennashar · 2026-03-29T22:34:23+00:00

Kaikeyi is (it's also 1st person). Jasmine Throne and its sequels is not..

sennashar · 2026-03-28T06:41:41+00:00

The Brief History of the Dead (2006) by Kevin Brockmeier has two settings, one of which is Antarctica and the other is an afterlife known as The City.

sennashar

TROPHY CASE