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queer-ragnelle · 5 months

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favorite queer retellings/interpretations of arthurian legend

hello anon!

this simple question has a complicated answer if only bc some authors seem to have created queer stories unintentionally! & i like them! i'll include quotes from my suggestions below a cut as there will be some mild spoilers but that may help you decide what stories suit your tastes as they vary a lot. you can also just go ahead & assume kay & agravaine are always queer (bc they are, not accepting crit) which makes narrowing down the list difficult for me.

TL;DR: Camelot 3000 Mike W. Barr & Brian Bolland, Exiled From Camelot/Trial of Sir Kay/Hunt for Hart Royal by Cherith Baldry, Spear Nicola Griffith, Guinevere/Morgan/Morgawse by Lavinia Collins, The Queen's Knight by Marvin Borowsky, Arthur Rex by Thomas Berger, The Road to Avalon by Joan Wolf.

Camelot 3000 by Mike W. Barr & Brian Bolland: reincarnation story with transman sir tristan coming to terms with his gender & sexuality so he can accept isolde's love for him & reciprocate. it's really beautifully written imo plus the art is so 80s & my exact cup of tea. it's dated in some of its handling of the subject matter but i think it was done thoughtfully for the time.

Exiled From Camelot, The Trial of Sir Kay, The Hunt for The Hart Royal by Cherith Baldry: the way baldry writes is overall my favorite ever but her kay is unparalleled he is everything to me. unequivocally disinterested in women (without misogyny, very important note). codependent on gawain if not fully in love with him the crown style. lots of hurt/comfort, kissing, holding & worrying over each other. they exchange a ring for god's sake. in exiled it says ragnelle was the only woman for gawain (based) but after she passed he's all kay's basically so this checks all my boxes. love wins.

Spear by Nicola Griffith: butch perceval pulling bitches chapter after chapter it's glorious. ends up settling down with nimue. bonus throuple arthur/guin/lance with a very sweet moment with lance talking to percy about them both. no homophobia (external nor internal) to be found its very enjoyable. beautiful prose. audiobook was wonderfully narrated by the author, which is how i read it, thus i've written out a quote here:

"Secrets may prove a burden. So...Lance, my mother is indeed Merlin's sister but I am not Merlin's sister's son." Lance frowned. "I don't understand..." "I am not his sister's son." His eyes stretched wide. He reassessed the line of her jaw, the size of her hands. She nodded. Then he reassessed how she and Nimue sat with one another. This time, Nimue nodded.

Guinevere, Morgan, & Morgawse by Lavinia Collins: these aren't my favorite (did gawain really dirty, deal breaker) but the fact is they have multiple explicitly queer characters including: kay, lancelot, morgawse, agravaine, isolde, dinadan, etc. plus there were several poly scenes including one with guin/lance/kay, another morgawse/lot/visiting king/queen swinging. wild all around everyone is sleeping with everyone no character is unaccounted for. be warned these books are extremely graphic in every conceivable way. queer solidarity in the face of homophobia is a theme throughout. kay punches phobic urien & agravaine "saw nothing." shh its fine urien sucks. this hilarious convo between agravaine & morgawse kills me.

The Queen's Knight by Marvin Borowsky: an interesting retelling in which mordred is a grown up warlord right from the outset. he also happens to be queer. mind this came out in the 50s & contains pederasty, but mordred does later have a loving tragic relationship with fellow knight calogrenant (yay crackships<3), which others were aware of & helped conceal (kay, for example). agravaine is also queer, he only joins arthur's forces bc lancelot asks him to & continues to fixate on him for the whole book. typical.

Arthur Rex by Thomas Berger: so this book is super homophobic. but it's so homophobic that it circles back around to being pretty queer bc berger saw queerness everywhere, apparently. but the green knight is purposefully queer, so the kissing game's gender-role-reversal/bisexuality....escalates. david lowery wishes. both gawain & arthur are pretty homoromantic with lancelot to the point the narrative calls attention to it & then no-homos their closeness. agravaine appears to be queer too. he's the only unmarried brother (claims to be in love with guinevere but i don't buy it), he wants lancelot so bad he gets all tongue tied & stupid around him...wrecked.

The Road to Avalon by Joan Wolf: what's this? agravaine again? so in this version, lancelot is named bedwyr (inspired by mary stewart's quadrilogy) but he's lance in all but name. anyway agravaine constantly beefs with guinevere for his attention...& loses. plus it's implied agravaine slept with lamorak before his mother which is hysterical. (my fave crackship is thriving<3) agravaine topples the empire for a much older straight man. it would be funny if it wasn't so sad. let's give it up for problematic jealous slutty queers.

these are just the retellings i have read & liked. there are more on my retellings list but those were suggestions from others i haven't gotten to yet with the exception of dishonorable mention to the winter knight by jes battis. it has gay gawain & his bestie transgirl bi kay in that but the writing style was unbearable to me unfortunately i'm so sorry i just didn't like it. anyway thanks for the ask!

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camlannpod · 3 months

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hi! I'm sure someone's asked this before, but I've just listened to your podcast (I'm really enjoying it) and I was wondering if you had any good arthurian/medieval book recommendations (preferably queer)

OMG NO ONE HAS ASKED BEFORE AND I'M SO HAPPY YOU DID THANK YOU AND I HOPE YOU'RE WELL ALSO

Spear by Nicola Griffith - great trans focused novel about Peredur

Gwen and Art are Not in Love by Lex Croucher - sugary sweet YA queer romance where Gwen and Arthur are each other's beards

Here Lies Arthur by Phillip Reeve - bit edgy and not as explicitly queer because it's older, but it's very Welsh and I love it, again very trans Peredur

I've heard good things about Mordred, Bastard Son by Douglas Clegg, Legendborn by Tracy Deonn and Lancelot and the Wolf by Sarah Luddington. Next on my to-read list is Once & Future by Amy Rose Capetta!

In other mediums, I've heard great things about High Noon Over Camelot, a story album by The Mechanisms (guessing from your username you might be familiar :p), and I really love the comic series Once and Future by Kieron Gillen. (Tragically though, the comics aren't especially queer).

Honestly Le Morte d'Arthur, the Mabinogion and Gawain and the Green Knight are, in my opinion, pretty damn queer, as well as a lot of the other Arthurian source texts.

Also to be clear I am at all times extremely open to recommendations on this subject, so if anyone wants to recommend anything please do!

#arthuriana #arthurian legends #question this #griftersbone42

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ninja-muse · 4 months

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2023 Reading Wrap-up

I feel like this year was pretty average in terms of my reading. Some great books, some awful books, a lot of books in the middle. And while I feel as if I kept hitting slumps, I don’t think my stats really reflect that. I kept reading and even though I didn’t hit my goal of 140 books, that’s more because I read more thick and dense books, spent more time writing, and am one year further from the direness of 2020 and 2021.

This also seems to have been the year of T. Kingfisher for me (and also Ursula Vernon). I read several of her horror novels, as well as Digger and a bunch of the ebooks she makes free for patrons, which are really easy go-tos when you want something light and right now. I was kind of surprised when I realized she was my top author because usually that’s Seanan McGuire.

And I read more ebooks in general, because why should I wait for two months for the library to get a physical book in circulation when I can wait two weeks for it to come in on Libby? I’m still trying to reserve Libby use for lighter, faster, less involved books, because I tend to end up skimming a little more and there’s something about physical paper that helps me retain info better when the text is dense.

Now, stats! Yearly total: 128, excluding rereads and picture books Queer books: 44 (34%) Authors of colour: 15 (11.7%) Books by women: 74.5 (58%) Authors outside the binary: 7.5 (5.8%) Canadian authors: 14 (10.9%) Off the TBR shelves: 39 (30.4%) Books hauled: 41 ARCs acquired: 57 ARCs unhauled: 60 DNFs: 9 Rereads: 3 Picture Books: 6

If you look at last year’s stats and the year before’s, I’m pretty much holding steady in terms of my diverse reading—a little more than a third queer, about 60% female and 10% Canadian, around 6% gender-diverse authors. I’m way down on authors of colour though, and I didn’t hit my stretch goal of 20 Canadians, so those are things I’ll have to pay attention to in the year to come. It would be nice if I could manage more queer books too, but that’s not something I’m going to try for quite as much.

Two of my reading goals for the year were to read more books from my TBR than I acquired, and to keep my ARC levels about even. Seems like I pretty much hit them! I expect that 2024 will see fewer book acquisitions because a lot of my 2023 haul was bookstore visits with my dad and we’ve now hit pretty much every store in the city. I was honestly kind of surprised that my ARC problem stands where it does. I was so sure that I was going to have at least 10 more incoming books than outgoing. Go me! My spring ARC purge really, really helped.

I did all right on the rest of my reading goals. All but one book read (The Great Cat Massacre), which was the real point of the list! I only managed to finish one StoryGraph challenge, if you don’t count my pages goal, and as always I failed to read as many classics as I wanted. I’m starting to suspect I’m not a classics person, despite my interest in history and historical fiction. If anyone has classics recs for me, let me know?

To be completely honest, though, I'm not sure I'm going to continue posting to Tumblr. I pretty much stopped updating my feed in the summer and I've felt more relaxed, both in terms of Things To Do Each Day but also in terms of my reading. When I was more active on here, I felt pressured to read diversely at all times and though I try to have a healthy spread of perspectives, I know that I generally don't and am therefore a bad person by Tumblr standards. I am curious what my mutuals have been getting up to this year so please, sound off! And let me know if you do want to see reviews and wrap-ups continue here.

(Friendly reminder that I'm ninjamuse on Storygraph and LibraryThing, if you'd like to follow me there.)

And if anyone’s interested, here are the rest of my year’s highlights:

Top Five Fiction (not ranked)

The Hollow Places - T. Kingfisher

Menewood - Nicola Griffith

Bookshops and Bonedust - Travis Baldree

A Half-Built Garden - Ruthanna Emrys

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi - Shannon Chakraborty

Top Five Non-Fiction (not ranked)

Magisteria - Nicholas Spencer

Diary of a Misfit - Casey Parks

Evidence of Things Seen - Sarah Weinman, editor

Lay Them to Rest - Laurah Norton

Like Every Form of Love - Padma Viswanathan

Most Impressed By:

Shubeik Lubeik - Deena Mohamed

Diary of a Misfit - Casey Parks

The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard

A Half-Built Garden - Ruthanna Emrys

Most Disappointing:

Tortilla Flat - John Steinbeck

British Columbiana - Josie Teed

A Killing in Costumes - Zac Bissonette

Tauhou - Kōtuku Titihuia Nuttall

Longest Book: The Hands of the Emperor - Victoria Goddard

Best queer book: Diary of a Misfit - Casey Parks

Did I beat 2022? No. Did I beat my Best Year Ever? No. That would be 2021. Did I read more classics? Not even close. Did I read more Canadians? No. I held about steady. Did I whittle my TBR shelves down any? No. Was it a good reading year? Probably about average?

Breakdowns by month:

January February March April May June July August September October November December

#reading wrap-ups #read in 2023 #reading stats #rec lists

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literary-illuminati · 4 months

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Fourth Quarter of 2023 Book Reviews

October

50. Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel 51. Women Warriors, An Unexpected History by Pamela Toler 52. The Gods Are Bastards Volume 3 by D. D. Webb 53. The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi 54. Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher 55. The Gods Are Bastards Volume 4 by D. D. Webb 56. Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone 57. Pale by Wildbow 58. The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. LeGuin 59. Spear by Nicola Griffith 60. The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia 61. Helpmeet by Naben Ruthnum

November

62. The Balls of Perilous Graves by Alex Jennings 63. The Bruising of Qilwa Naseem Jamina 64. Poverty, by America by Mathew Desmond 65. System Collapse by Martha Wells 66. Prophet Volume 1 by Brandon Graham et al.

December

67. Saint Death's Daughter by C. S. E. Cooney 68. Babel by R. F. Kuang 69. Prophet Volume 2 by Brandon Graham et al. 70. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis 71. Prophet Volume 3 by Brandon Graham et al.

You can also seem them all on my Goodreads

#meta #book review #2023

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lord-aldhelm · 4 months

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About Me

Since somebody (who shall go unnamed) told me I talk too much about Aldhelm, I wanted to make a post about this.

Like, you know that there is more to me than this right? Like this man and TLK is my obsession but there is so much more to me than just this. It has become an important part of my life, a hobby and an obsession, and I feel like my life has become all the richer for it. I have gone WAY out of my comfort zone in so many ways because of this fandom and have done so many things that I never would have even considered because of it. And have met so many amazing and wonderful people and made some (hopefully) lifelong friends from this. Like it has seriously enriched my life way beyond my ordinary day to day hum-drum bullshit and I am eternally thankful for it.

I am 43 years old. I am married and have two cats (they are my kids lol). I was a veterinary technician (or veterinary nurse depending on your language) for over 16 years before it took such a toll on my physical and mental health that I had to quit. I do my art full time now, so I mostly stay at home. A good friend got me into doing pet portraits in 2017 so that has been my focus, although I also do original paintings, mostly of animals, that I sell online as art prints and merch (like stickers, blankets, totes, t-shirt designs, puzzles, etc). It is not a livable income but it is a nice supplement, and I can relax and work at my own pace and not get stressed out.

When I am not doing that we like to take walks in the forests near our house, go out and explore the local area, take little trips, watch TV and movies together, you know all those kinds of things. I love gardening and yard work, and can't wait until the weather warms so I can get more work done in our gardens. I am somewhat handy and can do some repairs around the house, which is a good thing because this house has a lot of issues.

I love to read, and am reading a book called "Hild" right now by Nicola Griffith, which takes place in the 7th century Britain. I have learned a lot about the Anglo-Saxon time period because of TLK and it has intrigued me to learn more about early British history. I also LOVE fantasy, especially Lord of the Rings and Neil Gaiman. I don't have a big collection of books but I get more all the time!

I love fantasy and Ghibli movies, and have a nice little collection of DVD's that we like to rewatch. I would love to do some fanart from LOTR and Princess Mononoke, and now that I feel more comfortable drawing people I may do so.

Maybe I draw Aldhelm a lot, but that is just because I love drawing him so much... I honestly don't have a lot of time to do personal art and when I do I want to do something that I love. And drawing him relaxes me and makes me very happy. And not only that it has taken me outside my comfort zone to do a subject that I typically don't draw, and gets me acquainted with drawing textures that I am unfamiliar with, like cloth, chainmail, human hair, skin, and metal. I have learned a lot in the past year doing these drawing and I will continue for a very long time. I might do other things if I feel up to it, but drawing him has become a cornerstone of my creativity and I will not stop.

I am sorry that I like to talk about TLK and Aldhelm a lot... when I am passionate about something I don't let up. I just don't want anyone to think this is ALL I do and I am one dimensional.

#about me

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sapphicbookclub · 6 months

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Author Spotlight: Louisa Vidal

Starting out November strong with a guest post from Louisa Vidal, author of club read Trash Planet Confidential! Read on to see why Vidal appreciates genre fiction.

The Joys of Getting Goofy with Genre

Genre fiction can be easily dismissed by those immune to its charms. But any fan knows that it’s often a method used to examine the biggest issues in the world and find a fresh angle on them. Science fiction itself has an impossibly rich canon of visionaries like Octavia Butler, Ursula K. le Guin, Anna Kavan, and Nicola Griffith, here to shock, educate, and inspire us. It can also be an excuse for intense silliness: make pretty girls green, stick a rubber mask on a dog and make it an alien, go for a joy ride in an asteroid shower.

When I got the prompt from Space Fruit Press that their 2023 queer romance anthology was going to be sci-fi themed, I’d like to tell you I immediately sprung into researching astrophysics and extra-terrestrial biology. Being well-read in the sciences is hot, right? But while I don’t mind a dilly-dally with quantum theory now and then, I knew what I really wanted to write about: Space Lawyers.

In the Venn diagram of my love of science fiction and legal dramas, the overlap is the procedural stuff. This is the backbone of Star Trek - the detail of people just doing their jobs, or trying to, while their colleagues drive them crazy by letting tribbles on board or ripping open a portal into another dimension. This is not a million light years away from the crime TV and film (I’m old enough to have lived through the John Grisham adaptation era), where the storyline may have involved murder, corruption, or the Mafia, - the core of the action is also workplace drama.

For my story, Trash Planet Confidential, I made a stack of my favourite legal eagle tropes - class differences, enemies joining together for a noble cause, archive-digging - then stuck them on a rocket and propelled them into outer space. The world-building came easy once I knew I was writing about main characters from very different socio-economic backgrounds, who were also both ambitious lawyers; that one of them was also bright green was a pleasing aesthetic addition, and making her politically powerful was a reclamation of the Sexy Green Alien Space Slave cliché.

As a reader of queer romance, I glory in the subversive power of a happy ending. In science fiction, the world the creator shapes is only lightly bound by the laws of physics, and in the fantasy of legal dramas, lawyers can fight on the side of good and win. For all that quantum physics can provide solace, so too can lesbian sex scenes. Having the freedom to have fun is a part of romance that queer women and femmes deserve, too.

- Louisa Vidal (Goodreads) Trash Planet Confidential

#wlw books #booklr #lgbt books #book recs #sapphic books #diverse books #scifi #guest post

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librarycomic · 2 days

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The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohammed. Tor.com, 2024. 9781250881786. 160pp. http://www.powells.com/book/-9781250881786?partnerid=34778&p_bt

Veris Thorn has been summoned by the Tyrant to his great castle. One of his soldiers throws her to her knees before the throne, where the Tyrant drinks from a cup made from a skull. She's not sure what he wants.

He knows she's the woman who went into the cursed woods and returned with a missing child. He tells her she will go into the woods to recover his children. They have been gone for two hours. Their trail led to the edge of the woods. The guards who went in after them disappeared; their dogs returned bloody.

Because of the nature of the woods, Veris has only a day to get the children back. The Tyrant offers her no reward; if she fails her family will be killed and her village destroyed. Worse than merely destroyed.

This book is about Veris Thorn's desperate, hurried quest into the woods, a magical realm with its own unique threats and rules. And it's the best novella I've read since Nicola Griffith's Spear.

Worth noting: I also loved Mohammed's The Annual Migration of Clouds, and there's a follow-up novella coming out soon, We Speak Through the Mountain.

#bookreview #fantasy #novella #cursedwoods

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cozycoffeereads · 10 months

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Books with Disability Representation

Unseelie by Ivelisse Housman: Autism, YA fantasy

You’re Welcome, Universe by Whitney Gardner: Deaf, YA contemporary fiction

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao: chronic pain, difficulty walking, YA fantasy

Song for a Whale by Lynne Kelly: deaf, middle grade contemporary fiction

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo: has a limp, uses cane. Author is also disabled. YA fantasy

Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headly: lung disease, YA fantasy

Marcelo In The Real World by Francisco X. Stork: Autism, YA contemporary fiction

Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law by Haben Girma: Deafblind, nonfiction

Get A Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert: chronic pain, romance

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr: blind, historical fiction

True Biz by Sara Nović: Deaf, fiction, lgbtqia+

One Two Three by Laurie Frankel: autism, wheelchair user using communication device. Contemporary fiction.

So Lucky by Nicola Griffith: multiple sclerosis. Author also has MS. Fiction, lgbtqia+.

Borderline by Mishell Baker: amputated legs, borderline personality. Fantasy.

#booklr #book recommendations #book recs #disability pride month #bookblr #book blog #disability community

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cantsayidont · 19 days

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September 2020. Not to be confused with the Nicola Griffith sci-fi novel, the Francis Lee film AMMONITE is a slow-moving, grey drama, positing a romantic and sexual relationship between paleontologist Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) and Charlotte Murchison (Saoirse Ronan), who later became a noted geologist. (They were friends in real life, although the movie's depiction of their relationship is speculative.)

Like the very similar PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE, the story wants to make a feminist statement about the social and professional marginalization of women (Anning is frustrated that the members of the Royal Geological Society — which she isn't eligible to join — are getting great mileage out of her work without compensation or credit, as she lives hand to mouth selling fossils and shells in a little shop), but it's also determined to separate its feminist thesis from socioeconomic class in a way that ultimately feels very uneasy.

Winslet is quite good, but the script doesn't ever really get into Anning's head, so her two main modes are prickliness and repressed wlw "I am, regrettably, attracted to you, so I must ask that you immediately go far away and never speak of this again." A subplot about Anning having previously had a fling with an older woman (Fiona Shaw) feels underdeveloped, and while the film centers on a particularly vivid sex scene, its version of the Anning-Murchison relationship isn't really convincing. It also ends on an odd note that doesn't seem to jibe with the fact that the real women remained friends for most of their lives, if more in correspondence than in person. CONTAINS LESBIANS? Indeed. VERDICT: If you're not just watching for that scene, it's typical underwhelming bourgeoisie art house filmmaking.

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ofliterarynature · 9 months

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2023 Reading Wrap Up: Favorites from the First Half

Not to sound like a broken record, but I can't believe we're already halfway through the year! (and even further, given how late I'm posting this lol). I've read an ungodly amount of books already, and while I try my best to shout out my favorites as I go or in my monthly wrap-ups, I don't always succeed. So Here I Am, to do a little more shouting about the 10 most memorable books or series I've read so far in 2023!

The God of Endings by Jaqueline Holland

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

Sword Stone Table ed by Jenn Northington & Swapna Krishna

Sea Hearts (The Brides of Rollrock Island) by Margo Lanagan

Spill Zone by Scott Westerfeld & Alex Puvilland

Will Darling/Lilywhite Boys by K.J. Charles

Lord Peter Wimsey by Dorothy L Sayers

The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green

84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein

More discussion below the cut!

The God of Endings by Jaqueline Holland had me entirely engrossed. It's slow and moving and dark, with it's own take on vampirism, with any number of the associated content warnings. All the content warnings actually (but harm to animals, harm to children, and domestic abuse are some of the big ones. Does the Nazi murder make up for it?). Best described as The Historian meets everything I wanted from The Invisible Life of Addie Larue but didn't get.

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez I have, in fact, already yelled about a bit. It was so good! Think A:TLA meets The Raven Tower and The Hundred Thousand Kindgoms, and queer! The thing that really blew my mind was the second-person narration, which is always a swing, and I think this nailed it! I loved how it worked with the story and frame narrative, and let me tell you, on audiobook parts of the story felt positively haunted. I won't say it's the perfect novel (I'm a little eh about the last third), but that in no way dampens my enthusiasm. cw for ritual cannibalism.

Sword Stone Table ed by Jenn Northington & Swapna Krishna is an anthology of Arthurian re-imaginings with about a 1-in-3 success rate (for me anyways. is that good for an anthology?) that snuck onto this list purely on the strength of Mayday by Maria Dahvana Headley. I just yelled about my love for unusual narrative structures, so when I tell you that this is a retelling of the Arthurian family drama set in late 19th century America, told only through found objects, newspaper clippings, and manuscript exerpts? I had *such* a great time trying to puzzle things out with my half-remembered memories of the lore (heavily corrupted by the show Merlin, lol). Additional shout-out to Spear by Nicola Griffith, which didn't make it into the collection due to length but was also amazing!

Sea Hearts (aka The Brides of Rollrock Island) by Margo Lanagan was an absolute surprise, for several reasons. For one, I own both a physical and digital copy under different titles and didn't realize it until I was cleaning up my goodreads account! And second, the Brides cover is an absolute travesty and is entirely the wrong vibe - this may be YA (technically?) but it doesn't read like it! Sea Hearts is the story of a small island community with a history of summoning wives from the sea, a tradition only whispered about until an outcast young woman revives the practices to sow discord and revenge among the community members we follow. Incredibly moving and sorrowful, this is for fans of literary, historical, and speculative fiction.

Spill Zone by Scott Westerfeld & Alex Puvilland. This graphic novel is about a city hit by an unknown disaster that has killed or mutated everything and everyone who wasn't able to evacuate in time. Our main character sneaks back in to take pictures to support herself and her little sister, and while I have some reservations about the larger plot, the art of the Zone is GORGEOUS. Sketchy, eerie, hauntingly beautiful, I loved it, enough that I have no regrets. I could see this making a great comic series or animated show instead.

Major, heartfelt shout-out to K.J. Charles, who absolutely saved my sanity for a few months there. My brain was in a weird spot for a few months and I burned through a good chunk of her backlist, so it's absolutely necessary to name drop a few of my favorites. The Will Darling series, a 1920's spy adventure/gay romance, did not immediately win me over, but exposure makes the heart grow fonder? I don't think they say that, actually, but I love a competent dumbass, and when I finally picked up on the crossover with Charles' England duo, I absolutely cackled. I can't wait to reread these! Any Old Diamonds of the Lilywhite Boys series did catch me immediately, even if I managed to read it out of order with one of it's prequel series. Jewel thieves, a heist, revenge, family drama, what's not to love? I loved every single book and novella in this series.

Lord Peter Wimsey (series) by Dorothy L Sayers. This has been a work in progress since 2022 and has consistently made my favorites lists, but truly, she saved the best for last! Murder Must Advertise was stellar, but everyone who said the Harriet Vane novels were the best is absolutely correct. I don't know why I love them, other than that they're wonderfully complex mysteries, but I do. I definitely need to find another long mystery series for my mental health or else I'm going to start these from the beginning again (I still need to read the short stories after all).

The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green. I'll be honest, I didn't write a review for this at the time, and my memory for non-fiction is terrible. But I loved this book, I love John Green, and this was fantastic on audio. Thank you John for putting hope and goodness and beauty into the world.

84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff was a beautiful little book for the book lover. It's a collection of letters between the American author and a used-book seller (and family and associates) in London in the 50s and 60s. Its funny, it's friendly, it's lovely, but there's also an underlying tension that builds throughout from the repeated invitations to the author to come visit, and the book copy saying that THEY NEVER MEET. It about killed me, and did make me cry. For further reading you can also check out the author's related memoirs, The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street and Q's Legacy.

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein. Frankly, I'm impressed by my nonfiction choices so far this year. This one is what it says and it HURT. SO. MUCH. I am absolutely a generalist and it's made life frustrating, so reading this was both extremely comforting but also enraging, because society doesn't need another reason to suck. Alas.

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le-trash-prince · 5 months

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Okay here is the final list of all the books I’ve finished this year! (since it doesn’t look like I’m going to get anything finished or even started this week.)

I tend to not finish things if I’m not enjoying them (two exceptions on this list because sometimes I am spiteful), so I liked all of these—but the ones in bold are those I particularly loved (I only bolded one per series or it would just be a wall of The Murderbot Diaries lol).

LGBT+ books read: 48

wlw books read: 22

trans/nb books: 17

I’m very happy with my year in reading. I hit my new year’s goal of 52 books finished. And I read a lot of things that I really fucking loved. Lots of robots. LOTS of scifi/fantasy sapphics which I am SO happy about. Some good horror, some good fucky “romances”. A lot of things written in response to the Trump era or written during 2020 lockdown.

I also enjoyed partaking in online book fandom for the first time in possibly ever! Especially Murderbot fandom, which is very active and creative and lovely.

(If you followed me for my bookblogging, thank you for enduring my Thai BL vroom vroom omegaverse brainrot. It will not be stopping anytime soon.)

For 2024, I am going to keep my goal at 52 books and save any extra time I have for rereading old things.

Anyways the list, for posterity:

After Midnight: A History of Independent India by Meghaa Gupta

The Old Place by Bobby Finger

Ocean’s Echo by Everina Maxwell

The Memory Librarian by Janelle Monae

Women and Girls With Autism Spectrum Disorder by Sarah Hendrickx

A Restless Truth by Freya Marske

Unmasking Autism by Devon Price

Divergent Mind by Jenara Nerenberg

Even Though I Knew the End by C.L. Polk

Strictly No Heroics by B. L. Radley

Love after the End edited by Joshua Whitehead

Juniper Harvey and the Vanishing Kingdom by Nina Varela

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

The Witch and the Vampire by Francesca Flores

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells

Exit Strategy by Martha Wells

Network Effect by Martha Wells

The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho

The Lies of the Ajungo by Moses Ose Utomi

Flux by Jinwoo Chong

Burning Roses by S. L. Huang

In the Lives of Puppets by T. J. Klune

Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells

No One Will Come Back For Us by Premee Mohamed

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

The Black Tides of Heaven by Neon Yang

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

The Witch King by Martha Wells

A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon

We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian

Last Dance on the Starlight Pier by Sarah Bird

Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree

Galveston’s Maceo Family Empire by T. Nicole Boatman et al

Blood Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max Fury Road by Kyle Buchanan

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Galveston’s Red Light District: A History of the Line by Kimber Fountain

Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail by Ashley Herring Blake

In the Vanisher’s Palace by Aliette de Bodard

The Red Scholar’s Wake by Aliette de Bodard

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Linghun by Ai Jiang

Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger

The Salvation Gambit by Emily Skrutskie

Spear by Nicola Griffith

The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older

Last to Leave the Room by Caitlin Starking

Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri

The Oleander Sword by Tasha Suri

The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport by Samit Basu

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders

A Power Unbound by Freya Marske

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

Sing for the Coming of the Longest Night by Iona Datt Sharma & Katherine Fabian

System Collapse by Martha Wells

Silver Nitrate Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Whalefall by Daniel Kraus

We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia

Out There Screaming edited by Jordan Peele

#if you are curious about any of these or are looking for 2024 recs please feel free to comment or shoot me an ask!#books #bookblr #em post #new years

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queer-ragnelle · 5 months

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do you have any arthur/guinevere/lancelot recommendations? if not, just stories where their characters were done justice and their friendship is explored and the love triangle comes to some satisfying solution.

i sure do! as always, with caveats. this list has two parts: films first and then books as i have suggestions for both! all of these movies can be watched here and the books read here.

TL;DR movies: Excalibur (1981), Camelot (1967), Knights of The Round Table (1953), Merlin and The Sword (1985), Sword of Lancelot (1963)

TL;DR books: The Birth of Galahad by Richard Hovey, Arthur Rex by Thomas Berger, Guinevere Trilogy by Persia Woolley, Guinevere by Lavinia Collins, Spear by Nicola Griffith, honorable mention to Arthurian Saga by Mary Stewart

MOVIES:

Excalibur (1981): for me it has everything. we get to see young stupid arthur and clever curious guinevere fall in love, their wedding is gorgeous, then nicholas clay my beloved lancelot throws a wrench in it as he loves and respects them both so much, and they love him. he gets to be crazy about it too like running off to the woods to beg god to take these feelings away, dreams he's fighting himself and ends up impaled<3 meanwhile arthur/guinevere leave a cup out for him even when he isn't there. the crux of it comes when guinevere is accused of cheating (which she hadn't even at this point) and arthur won't champion her because his kingship comes before husbandly duties, so lancelot fights for her honor instead. at the end, after guinevere has gone away to a convent (lancelot is a wildman with a full beard lost to them all) arthur comes to retrieve excalibur from her and his speech is so romantic about finding her in the next life. i die every time. here is my review of that movie.

Camelot (1967): i adoooore this guinevere. jenny<3 she does whatever she wants and i love that for her. the whole may day queen aspect of her is muah chef's kiss. small wonder arthur loved her immediately. this arthur gets to wear eyeliner which is a plus. lancelot almost kills arthur on meeting him and then falls at his feet on realizing it, only for guinevere to be really cold to him at first, trying to get other knights to defeat him, but ends up falling in love with him. which arthur totally knows and turns a blind eye to btw. even when pellinore brings it up in as gently as possible, arthur bites his head off, knowing he cant even entertain the rumor or else the kingdom is in danger, and he just wants his two favorite people to be happy....cries forever.

Knights of The Round Table (1953): the biggest downside to this one is that lancelot has a horrible insufferable american accent. however his celebrity worship/instant friendship with arthur is soooo good. he breaks his own sword for threatening the king and then arthur gives him his own....is that even allowed to be so adorable? anyway so lancelot had met guinevere before they were arthur's friend and wife, essentially had a charming meet cute, and went their separate ways, only to formally meet at the wedding in front of everyone....god, the eye contact could turn someone to stone. arthur is extremely sympathetic and compassionate, to the point that when he catches guinevere sulking alone on the roof with a gift from lancelot, he says "i miss him too..." bruh???? my heart?? all around delicious food.

Merlin and The Sword (1985): huge disclaimer...this movie is ugly as sin lol the only version available is ripped from a vhs tape so it might as well be a crunchy gif at this point. it was also cut down from the 3 hour tv version to 1.5 hours which is a tragedy. (i've tried emailing the studio for a rerelease to no avail...) however it has the most insane arthur/guinevere/lancelot ever i'll never be the same. arthur is played by malcom mcdowell who always brings his a game to roles. he's a bit older than guinevere, but she apparently taught him to read? he dotes on her but he's somewhat emotionally stunted which gets in the way. this guinevere is gorgeous i'm obsessed with her she has this deep sultry voice and a simple elegance that completely shatters lancelot's resolve. i get it, it would work on me. lancelot meanwhile is this incredibly lanky sometimes mute shy guy who is besties with gawain and his meet cute with guinevere involves the mingling of their blood after they are both cut on some rose thorns? hello???? they're freaks just like chrétien intended. the blood. they share bath water and fuck in a dungeon. then after guinevere is rescued from meleagant, arthur asks merlin for some sort of potion to help guinevere recover emotionally instead of like.....talking to her? he's trying but so so bad at it<3 he then takes her to bed to "treat her like a queen." IT'S ALL GREAT IT MAKES ME FERAL ARGH

Sword of Lancelot (1963): this one is fun because cornel wilde wrote it, directed it, and starred as lancelot himself!! the other fun factoid is the woman who plays guinevere is his real life wife. how stinking cute is that? so obviously their chemistry is ridiculous. but arthur is a cutie too. he's older and tends to talk down to guinevere a bit, which makes sense why she befriends lancelot in her loneliness. lancelot gets a lot of development, taking young tor under his wing, besties with gawain and lamorak and gareth. being irl married to guinevere also makes their disagreements feel very real. arthur is counseled by a ton of characters, bedievere, merlin, even mordred is here giving his two cents. so you really feel that tug of war pulling the throuple apart. it hurts.

BOOKS:

The Birth of Galahad by Richard Hovey: this play is wiiiiiild but the take away here is that guinevere is the mother of galahad. like what a twist. meanwhile all the men are away fighting rome so you get this tragic back and forth switching of perspective between lancelot and arthur missing guinevere (plus galehaut is here as counsel which really kicks this up a notch) then it cuts to guinevere with a new baby and tormented by the prospect of whether to write to rome with the news but afraid it will cause an upset where she cant be.....hovey you mad lad you've done it again.

Arthur Rex by Thomas Berger: i hate i keep having to recommend this bigoted book but damn it this arthur/guinevere/lancelot are so good. why are they sooo goood???? this arthur is compelling since he loses his virginity to morgause and is forever messed up after that, so he struggles to connect with guinevere in the way she needs, not really understanding her even though he bends over backwards to please her. meanwhile there isnt a word for what she and lancelot have here they need to be studied under a microscope so history doesn't repeat itself they're so twisted it's wild i can't look away. and the friendship between arthur and lancelot is so powerful and enduring that even at the end while joyous garde is under siege, arthur sends in kay with food the moment he hears their stores are low, and has him serve them like old times. he doesnt want it to be the way it is....sick and twisted narrative choices.

Guinevere Trilogy by Persia Woolley: i admit this isn't my favorite guinevere, but credit where it's due, she's a complex and fully realized character. through her we come to understand both arthur and lancelot as deeply damaged men, who had their emotional states devastated by the fall out of sexual abuse, and how that impacts their relationship with her (and their sons, mordred and galahad, who likewise suffer as a result of their fathers' emotional states). as a celtic queen, guinevere has every right to take a lover if she so desires, and arthur is not ignorant of his own failings as a husband, but the tragedy plays out anyway as the orkney brothers are there to wreak havoc on the place as usual. (you might find that this has a movie adaptation Guinevere (1994) don't watch it, trust me, it's not even fun bad, just cursed.)

Guinevere by Lavinia Collins: this is technically part of a series so you'll also get a lot of arthur and lancelot in the other three (Igraine, Morgawse, Morgan) but for the sake of this list, the guinevere one will suffice. anyway what i like about this is the strong contrast in relationships with both men. lancelot is bisexual and guinevere is the first woman he ever sleeps with (but not the last...) so theyre very tender and sweet together meanwhile arthur sired mordred before marrying her he's overall more adventurous while keeping entirely faithful to her for the rest of his life......there is a threesome in this but ironically its lancelot/guinevere/kay and not arthur but you know what? he deserves a win. this still goes on the list.

Spear by Nicola Griffith: this is perceval pov so the focus on arthur/guinevere/lancelot is minimal, but its delicious. arthur is kinda cold and mean here (falling back on the celtic "bear" thing, same as woolley does) but its revealed that he, lancelot, and guinevere are in a throuple, the characterization of lancelot's shy explanation of this was so good, and he goes on the grail quest to try and heal guinevere's womb so she can have their children, as it's a point of tension that mordred and galahad both exist, but guinevere wants to have children with arthur and lancelot. there's literally a part she faints and they both carry her off to bed like....they dont even pretend its any other way. no homophobia or slut shaming or anything like that in this book which is a huge plus. palate cleanser after arthur rex lol

Arthurian Saga by Mary Stewart: this is more of an honorable mention, as the first three books are merlin pov and the fourth is mordred. but book two (the hollow hills) has arthur raised alongside bedwyr (who is lancelot in all but name, son of ban, eventual lover of guinevere etc) they are the best of friends its adorable, bedwyr gave him his dog cabal, which is cute on its own, then fast forward to mordred pov (the wicked day) decades later and arthur is picking out a new puppy and names that one cabal too, its like this long homoromantic ritual that every dog descended from the first calls back to his original gift....im pulling my hair out. guinevere here is underdeveloped at best, as merlin doesnt really know her well and mordred's perspective on her is that shes (respectfully) hot lmao but worth mentioning as mary stewart is the goat, highly recommend her books.

and that's the list. hope that gives you some stuff to chew over!

#arthurian legend #arthurian legends #arthuriana #arthurian mythology #king arthur #queen guinevere #sir lancelot #ask #anonymous

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camlannpod · 2 days

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Just wanted to say, I absolutely adored the podcast and am currently on my first relisten of it now that it's all complete! <3 Loved the music, the characters, the voice acting; everything was fantastic from start to finish!!

I have to ask.. any recommendations for books inspired by Welsh mythology? Alternatively, are there any books you might recommend that would fill the Camlann-sized hole in my heart? 👀

Hello hello! Thank you so much for the kind words, I'm so glad you enjoyed the series!

Specifically books inspired by, rather than books that are - so I'm going to recommend you some fiction:

Spear by Nicola Griffiths, which specifically explores queer themes in urban fantasy Arthuriana, and uses a lot of Welsh inspiration

Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy (it's great and iconic, though mostly uses Norman sources)

The Pendragon Cycle by Stephen R Lawhead, which is a great classic high fantasy series, though has a slightly abrupt ending due to publishing drama.

The Owl Service by Alan Garner - this is a YA novel but does use the Mabinogi as a direct source!

Here Lies Arthur by Philip Reeve. It's a YA novel but one of my absolute favourites, and very much displays Arthur as deeply flawed, as well as including some subtle queer themes.

The Magician Trilogy by Jenny Nimmo, these are childrens books but also the most heavily inspired by Welsh mythology I know.

I hope this helps! And thank you so much again for listening to the show!

#question this #cherrywhite #arthuriana #arthurian legends

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ninja-muse · 6 months

Text

October was a month of tense, dark, violent books and I'm hoping to get some palate cleansers into my November reading before I completely OD on rebellions, murder, battles, and oppression. Not that I expect this to happen because I took home a true crime ARC last week and I know what's likely coming for me at the library, but hey. We can hope!

My reading count is once again lower than I'd like it to be, mostly because I refused to cart all 752 pages of Menewood back and forth on my commute and so it took me three weeks to finish in the bites of time I have at home for reading. (Also because I spent a week writing up a storm.) And my other stats are kind of equally disappointing as a result. Oh well, I guess. It is what it is.

I did get my hands on three anticipated library books though! That was good (and I hope the library keeps up the pace), but it's a shame that two of the three weren't as good as I was hoping they'd be. And equally a shame that I wound up DNFing the new Patricia C. Wrede… I was really hoping that might cut through all the doom and gloom, mid-month.

I need a good November, basically. I'm feeling a bit slumpy.

October was also a month of awesome 2024 release announcements and discoveries. There are so many books coming out I want to read, and a couple I didn't know where coming that showed up in my ARC haul. There's a genderbent fantasy retelling of Zorro, folks! Freya Marske, Micaiah Johnson, and Seanan McGuire are releasing exciting things! We're getting a sequel to one of my favourite SF books of last year! Someone is using American folktales to comment on race relations!

I'm sure my 2024 TBR will be an utterly normal and achievable number of books. And I'm sure all this excitement has had nothing to do with my slump.

I've still got a fair ways to go to hit my 2023 reading goals too. It's possible I might reach them. It's equally possible I might not. Wish me luck, I guess? And if you have any fast, light reads with which I can continue to not read the dark, heavy books in my goals, please pass them on!

And now without further ado, in order of enjoyment…

Menewood - Nicola Griffith

War is coming to Deira and Hild has vowed to protect her lands and people.

9.5/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (bi), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (sapphic, mlm), mute secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 author, #ownvoices for queerness

warning: pregnancy, death, war, death of a child, animal death, grief, sexual assault, mentions of rape

Like Every Form of Love - Padma Viswanathan

A writer digs into the strange, complicated life story of a man she befriended in a marina.

8/10

major 🏳️‍🌈 character (gay), Indo-Canadian author, 🇨🇦

warning: child abuse, domestic abuse, pedophilia, molestation, misogynistic character

After the Forest - Kell Wood

Greta wants to get on with her quiet life but her wayward brother Hans, suspicious villagers, and her memories of a certain witch’s cottage won’t let her.

7.5/10

warning: cruelty to animals, misogyny

Into the Windwracked Wilds - A. Deborah Baker

Avery, Zib, and their companions find themselves in the Land of Air—where the queen likes making monsters

7.5/10

Saga, Volume 9 - Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (illustrator)

Bad people are catching up to Alana and Marko’s family.

7.5/10

main characters of colour, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (gay, trans woman)

warning: major character death, blood, violence, sex

Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obulafon - Wole Talabi

Shigidi has incurred a debt to an old Nigerian orisha, who’ll erase it if he and his partner pull off a nearly impossible heist.

6.5/10

major and secondary Nigerian characters, major 🏳️‍🌈 character (pansexual), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (bisexual), Nigerian author, #ownvoices for race and culture

By Any Other Name - Erin Cotter

Will Hughes, unemployed actor, finds himself thrust into danger when his mentor Christopher Marlowe dies.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (gay), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (bi, lesbian)

warning: murder, fire

My Roommate is a Vampire - Jenna Levine

There’s a room-to-rent in Cassie’s low, low budget. The (hot) guy renting it acts like he’s from the 1800s but surely he’s just quirky.

6.5/10

Jewish protagonist, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (m/m)

The Remarkable Retirement of Edna Fisher - E.M. Anderson

Edna has been Chosen to stop a dragon menace. Highly untraditional but hey, it gets her out of the nursing home.

6/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (ace-spectrum), Black secondary characters, Latine secondary characters, secondary character with anxiety disorder, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (gay, sapphic/asexual), 🏳️‍🌈 author

DNF

The Dark Lord’s Daughter - Patricia Wrede

Kayla and her family are kidnapped to a fantasy world. Apparently she has magic and they think she’s the next Dark Lady?

Black secondary characters

Currently reading:

The Water Outlaws - S.L. Huang When Lin Chong is convicted of a crime she didn’t commit, she finds herself allied with infamous outlaws.

Chinese cast, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (lesbian, genderfluid), mute secondary character, Chinese-American author, 🏳️‍🌈 author, #ownvoices for race, culture, queerness

warning: death, violence, torture

Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century - Richard Taruskin A history of early written European music, in its social and political contexts.

Stats

Monthly total: 9 Yearly total: 109/140 Queer books: 3 Authors of colour: 2 Books by women: 7 Authors outside the binary: 1 Canadian authors: 1 Off the TBR shelves: 3 Books hauled: 0 ARCs acquired: 5 ARCs unhauled: 4 DNFs: 1

January February March April May June July August September

#books #booklr #bookblr #reading wrap-ups #book recommendations #my photos #read in 2023

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