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bookishfeylin · 1 year

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Black Fantasy TBR Part 1

It's taking so long to compile all my books that I might as well release my tbr one portion at a time. This isn't really that organized, but here's the first part of my fantasy (and a little bit of scifi) tbr listed out for people who are curious and/or want to see more fantasy books with Black protagonists:

The Queens of Innis Lear by Tessa Gratton

Nubia: The Awakening by Omar Epps and Clarence A. Haynes

A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow

Abengoni: First Calling by Charles R. Saunders

Across the Broken Tide by Lakase Cousino

Iron Cast by Destiny Soria

That Self-Same Metal by Brittany N. Williams

Kingdom of Feathers by Deborah Grace White

Priestess of nKu by Milton J Davis

Promise of Shadows by Justina Ireland

The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson

Queen of Zazzau by J.S. Emuakpor

Elysium by Nora Sakavic

Daughters of Jubilation by Kara Lee Corthron

Zahrah the Windseeker by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu

Dream Country by Ashaye Brown

The Reluctant Sacrifice by Kerr-Ann Dempster

She Steals Justice by J. Clark

Skin of the Sea by Natasha Bowen

Queen of the Conquered by Kacen Callender

The Hope of Aferi: The Wolf Queen by Cerece Rennie Murphy

A River of Royal Blood by Amanda Joy

The Blazing Star by Imani Josey

A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne Brown

Bones to the Wind by Tatiana Obey

Treachery of Water by Angela J. Ford

Wings of Ebony by J. Elle

Beautiful Nightmare by L.C. Son

Conquest by Celeste Harte

Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye

The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin

Magic Dark, Magic Divine by A.J. Locke

Shadow's Dissident by Ariel Paiement

War Girls by Tochi Onyebuchi

Mirage by Somaiya Daud

A Conspiracy of Stars by Olivia A. Cole

This was mostly stand-alones and duologies, so the next part of my tbr should be mostly trilogies and longer series.

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captain-petty-ssjonsa · 1 year

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That one time I had an amazing moment I’d waited for over 20 years to experience, shared it on a few Tolkien/LOTR pages and got death threats. Like, is the message “fantasy is for all” THAT triggering???👀🤦🏿‍♀️Anyhoo, what an amazing memory to cherish forever!! (almost as great as meeting Kit…well, I did say almost)

#lord of the rings #diversity in fantasy #fantasy #hobbits #elijah wood #sean austin #dominic monaghan #billy boyd

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aboleth-eye · 2 years

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Hadozee in 5e Spelljammer: Or, How the Hell Does the Biggest TTRPG Company in the World Make Something So Racist in 2022?!

I wholeheartedly applaud the person who first posted about this egregious material, @KendoMakesFilms on Twitter, for sharing screenshots of the new 5e book’s lore for the Hadozee and alerting the community on how incredibly racist it is. But before I did my due research, my emotions were in absolute furious frenzy and I started a whole twitter thread pointing out stuff the old lore and getting even more horrified that somehow this is the most racist lore in all the poor hadozee’s history. And now I’m sharing it with you all, because this is absolutely not being talked out on the major d&d content creators and sites...

My day kinda got ruined after finding out the new lore for 5e Hadozee is incredibly racist. Ruined not because of anything that personally affects me (as a non-poc eldritch horror being on social media), but because one of the biggest tabletop roleplaying companies in the world just allowed something so racist to be put out on the consumer market... A market full of people (including a huge proportion of color) who are going to buy this book and either ignore the horrible racist “worldbuilding”, make excuses for a major corporation with bootlicking, or be hit in the face by “you paid for us to inflict racist horror on you”.

How does Wizards of the Coast, in 2022!, let this happen?! How does the world’s dominant tabletop roleplaying game’s production empire allow this horrible, insulting and degrading content to reach digital and print copy?!

Here’s the basics:

The hadozee are a race of simian-looking humanoids who have flaps of skin like flying squirrels. They have been in D&D since Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (2nd Edition), detailed in the Compendium Spelljammer Appendix I book. That was back in 1990, when monster and non-humanoid creatures were just monsters, before monster/non-humanoid races were a thing. And even then they had a bad connotation (not to mention were apparently a ripoff of a Star Wars expanded universe race). They were called “deck apes”; because they were great at working on ship/spelljammer crew sails. The elves of the setting “discovered” that the hadozee were intelligent and “granted” them respect and positions on their ships--all to face the orcs, who back then were the dominant nemesis race against the “oh so tolkienesquely perfect elves” in the lore.

Yeah, even back then they were quite already dipped in racist stereotype; only given respect when a more “perfect” race deemed them worthy to work “for/with” them. They were also much more monstrous, and more an amalgamation of simian traits rather than how they are depicted today.

Spelljammer is very much a product of science fiction/western tropes, and around that time it was steeped in Star Wars IV through VI, as well as its “gritty space adventure” clones. So a lot of stereotypes were just used to make monsters. Literally on the opposite page of the hadozee in this book are gorilla men, and holy heck it’s bad. I’m just glad we left that archetype to the dust, it is not worth knowing at all...

Moving on, Dungeons & Dragons had evolved to 3rd edition by 2000, now owned by early Wizards of the Coast. Then three years later there was a great big “patch” called 3.5 edition, and that became the definitive edition for many, many years. Monsters were more complex and customizable; and each supplemental book added new races to try out against new challenges and even settings. One such book was Stormwrack, a book about high seas adventure and pretty much nothing else! And that was the reintroduction of the Hadozee as a playable race for the first time!

In Stormwrack the hadozee (or “winged deck apes”) became developed enough to seek out adventure for themselves, aboard ships and among crews they chose. The lore really leaned into the curious monkey aspect and shed off the most obvious of racist tropes, but they do retain the adoration/fawning over elves--which is quite icky still. The elves were more wild folk and chaotic rather than a paragon race, though still very much tolkien levels of pale. But there’s no specific lore about their history that makes them only seen as good because the elves “chose them”, and the hadozee appear to have connections with other races and their crews.

And that’s the last we’ve seen of the hadozee until now. Stormwrack wasn’t a necessary book by any means, but the hadozee were worked more into just literally being fantasy orangutan people.

Also of note, Spelljammer never had an official 3.5 setting release. Certain elements were utilized, and books like Stormwrack started the trend of giving big vessels statblocks with the updated d20 system.

Now this is where things come to a head, and why this discussion is happening now. It’s 2022 and 5th edition D&D has been out officially since 2014. (We don’t talk about 4th edition, no no no...) And in 2021 an Unearthed Arcana article was released called Travelers of the Multiverse., written by Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford at Wizards of the Coast. That article had all the playtested races for an obvious Spelljammer setting that was in development; and the Hadozee were in it among other spelljammer races like astral elves and thri-keen. 5th edition players could now play these races in their own settings, as the article had no lore or artwork for what was to be in Spelljammer 2022. But 5e had been such a success across the board that no one expected what was to come out. And Spelljammer was a setting that inspired so many d&d players, entire forums and sites were made to try and update the setting from AD&D to 3.0/3.5 editions...

But we finally get three books for 5th edition Spelljammer. On August 16th 2022, the Astral Adventurer’s Guide was included in the book drop, which would include all the wonderful lore and options for d&d players to make setting-inspired characters...

And holy heck did the most racist lore for the hadozee drop ever! After doing all this research into the hadozee’s history in d&d, I am honestly shocked that in 2022 that is the case...

According to the Astral Adventurer’s Guide, and I paraphrase here: the first hadozee were originally tiny treetop creatures the size of housecats, flitting from branch to branch. That is, until several hundred years ago when a wizard named Yazir showed up with a bunch of apprentices on some spelljammer ships; and they captured the animalistic hadozee and perform experiments on them. The hadozee are given a “magic elixir” that makes them grow, become bipedal and intelligent. As well as “intensifying [their] panic response, making them more resilient when harmed”. All to make a slave army the wizard could “sell to the highest bidder”.

But luckily the white savior apprentices under Yazir “liberated” the hadozee and they all killed the big bad racist wizard. They all then took the experimental elixir, went back to the hadozee homeworld and used it to happily make more. Eventually the "enhanced” hadozee had children, and those newborns had their mutated parents’ traits--so they took to the stars.

How does someone not get whacked in the head for glamorizing the horrors and longlasting trauma of freaking slavery and all the inhumane atrocities committed by slavers?! Oh but wait, they’re so “enhanced” that rather than live with the horror of being twisted beyond your entire species they decide to be happy little deckhands and “give”/force the mutative unknown substance to more of their animalistic kind...

We’re not done yet... Apparently the current “enhanced” hadozee are curious to a fault, “unquenchable optimists” and expressive with “loud whooping, fang-bearing, and snarling”. They are specifically stated as not philosophers; simply wanting to “do good and happy work”. And apparently taking “great joy in the simplest of shipboard tasks and chores”. Lastly, the writers brought back the “great love of the elves”. Probably because astral elves are effectively the most “elf” they’ve ever been, way past original tolkienesque to the point of freaking Silmarillion immortal perfection. But the elves are written to “not mutually respect them”. Because of course they don’t have to see another sentient race as even close to equal and deserving of rights.

I bet they thought they were so smart to make “Abu from Aladdin” and “Jack the Monkey from Pirates of the Caribbean” as a playable race in the zip-zappy magic space setting...

One last thing of note, and this is up on D&DBeyond if you want to check; but the portrait artwork for 5e hadozee--what everyone will picture when making hadozee for 5th edition from now on--is a smiling simian-person dressed as a bardic “minstrel”. Yeah... We got minstrel shows in 5e now...

“Thanks for buying our overpriced 49.99 digital book bundle, spelljammer fam”, says the coastal Wizards lying on their 5th edition money, “There’s a super special surprise on page whatever just for black people! Vindictive hatred and glamourizing the slavery of this cute little monkeyman, see how they sweep and hoot and grin cheerily because they’re just so gosh darn lucky their ancestors were captured and forcibly experimented on to be war chattel/smiley labor for money.”

Somehow 5th edition’s writing team, especially Perkins and Crawford, decided to rewrite slavery for the ideal “happy little ship monkey” as a playable race. They took everything cheesegrated off of 3.5′s Stormwrack hadozee and just molded it together into the perfect little ship monkey. And they sprinkled on some “spicy” tropes to make it theirs and give it some “juicy” trauma... Stupidly (and most definitely with racial blindness to the point of willed ignorance) they remade slavery and the “happy slave’ stereotype in OUR scifi d&d setting.

Admittedly, I have not thought about the hadozee for a long long while since I first glanced through Stormwrack when I was starting out playing d&d 3.5. They’re not as prevalent in d&d content, and there are so many races that it’s very hard to dissect them all. Hadozee have been around for a long while but they are a very fringe race that rarely given a chance outside of high seas or spelljamming campaigns. And I haven’t played really in any of those campaigns, especially the latter because Spelljammer didn’t get an official update for 3.5 edition.

Also, I am not a black person. I am not a person of color, and my white privilege has definitely shielded me from recognizing the tribulations and obstacles that target those of different culture and skin tone. I am no expert on race; I’m just a near-thirty year old person who loves roleplaying fantasy. I am still learning how to expand my empathy and use my privilege and platform to help others targeted by racism and other forms of hate. When I saw the post from Kendo on Twitter I was beside myself with rage; tweeting honestly very messily trying to wrangle my feelings into a singular point. I felt horrified that the game, in its most accessible form that generates billions of campaign stories between friends, now would actively spear a huge chunk of the diverse population of players in the heart. It would actively disregard their history and the history of the United States of America, showing that “if this happy little flying monkey can go through all that and be fine then racism is over and you should get over your inherited trauma”.

And now, after doing research, I can wholeheartedly say that Wizards needs to burn these books before they go out on the shelf. The Astral Adventurer’s Guide, part of the Spelljammer bundle for 5e, is on sale for digital right now. Most content creators and ttrpg influences are shilling for this without warning people. Without having any qualms about the new shade of scifi/fantasy slavery, now available to digital download to perpetuate horrific stereotypes in freaking 2022!

You know, you could just NOT decide to include slavery in 5e lore. That just does NOT have to be a thing. You could have just made them from a world of simian people that decided to build magical spaceships and soar across the galaxy wherever they choose. You did not have to include evil racist wizard that’s already dead and then continue his atrocities to “enhance” the creatures experimented on to be mindless, resilient slaves. You can write absolutely anything for Spelljammer: it’s high fantasy magic in freaking space?! And yet we got this...

Were the hadozee always racist? Absolutely. Are they racist now just because “we’ve evolved as a society”? No, they were racist even for the far-off year of 1990! Are they ever not going to be racist? ... Probably not. Like how goblins and dwarves are never not going to have antisemitic roots. Like how drow/dark elves are never not going to be “different” for having different color skin. “Ape” is still such a derogatory word against black people, and with this new iteration of the “ape men” for the modern age now gaming tables around the world are gonna have a new archetype to introduce to their games without knowing better.

There are racists and other horrible people who should know better who play d&d and other games--being on twitter these last few weeks has really shown me that--and you can’t stop a bad person who willingly defies where we are as a society and where we hope to be. But there are kids who are just taking off their privilege blinders off that are getting into this game. Every day more and more interest in 5e builds, and those who have no way of knowing better will look at this depiction and might not recognize its horrors, or might not listen to their black friends about it being racist.

In closing, to the writers of the 5th edition Spelljammer race of Hadozee, Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford: you should absolutely be ashamed of yourselves. You created something that overshot racist stereotypes from three and a half editions ago by miles. You have failed, your proofreaders failed, your editors failed, your team of ghost-writers failed you (if they exist at all), your playtesters and friends failed you, and the company you work for failed to smack you upside the head. We are not “reading too much” into this; you willingly were ignorant, stupid and/or racist in creating this horrendous affront to black people and people of color. I and many others have read exactly what you wrote. And you are not only bad writers, but bad people who should have known better.

And to Wizards of the Coast. You deserve a lot of callouts for a lot of different reasons. But you are subjecting millions of your consumers, the community/fandom that keeps you printing money, to one of the worst modern forms of racist worldbuilding I have ever seen. Your company failed to oversee this abhorrent content being churned out from your content creation cycle; and now your company has profited off of a product that contains horrendous racism. Do damage control all you want; you just declared that you do not care about those directly harmed by this racist content with your stamp of approval on... Shut it down now before people literally get their hands on it.

With deep frustration and exhaustion, and with love for everyone except WotC and the spelljammer writers; this is Aboleth-Eye, sending you hugs and love!

- Aboleth-Eye 8/30/22

#d&d #dungeons & dragons #hadozee #tabletop resources #diversity in fantasy #KendoMakesFilms #aboleth eye #tw: racism #d&d races #fantasy races #wizards of the coast #i'm mad #player resources #wotc #wotc sucks

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agentem · 2 years

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Shut up about HotD casting Black actors

I am so frustrated people are still upset that there are Black actors in "House of the Dragon" (and also "The Rings of Power" but I didn't like the episode of that that I watched).

There were people of color in Medieval Europe. Stop saying it's "historically inaccurate." And also, even if it is, so are dragons.

These shows need actors and characters that will appeal to many demographics. Adding a couple Black actors isn't just the right thing to do, it's smart business.

Further, I will add that GRRM has stated that the Valyrians could have been Black in his blog:

Speaking of Valyria... right from the start I wanted the Targaryens, and by extension the Valryians from whom they were descended, to be a race apart, with distinctive features that set them apart from the rest of Westeros, and helped explain their obsession with the purity of their blood. To do this, I made a conventional 'high fantasy' choice, and gave them silver-gold hair, purple and violet eyes, fine chiseled aristocratic features. That worked well enough, at least in the books (on the show, less so).

But in recent years, it has occured to me from time to time that it might have made for an interesting twist if instead I had made the dragonlords of Valyria... and therefore the Targaryens... black. Maybe I could have kept the silver hair too, though... no, that comes too close to 'dark elf' territory, but still... if I'd had dark-skinned dragonlords invade and conquer and dominate a largely white Westeros... though that choice would have brought its own perils. The Targaryens have not all been heroic, after all... some of them have been monsters, madmen, so...

Well, it's all moot. The idea came to me about twenty years too late.

Giving this to the Velayrons, who are also Valyrian but not the murderous Targaryens is such a great move on HotD's part.

Corlys is a fascinating character. He made himself the richest man in Westeros (soon to be eclipsed by the Lannisters, but whatever). He was married to "the Queen that Never Was", who was a dragonrider. According to the showrunners theirs was a "love match" and he really believes she should have been queen. He's like a stan of his wife.

His two (acknowledged) kids were dragonriders. Both married Targaryen royalty. No further spoilers but, yanno.

He was Hand, twice.

He's kind of a big deal.

And, yes, I've said it before and I'll say it again, I think Steve Touissaint looks hot in the wig so there. I could just be because he loves his wife and I like that in a guy.

#corlys velaryon #house velaryon #diversity in fantasy #house of the dragon #the rings of power

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kitcranecc · 1 year

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The first portrait I did of Riley Averline, main character of Blood & Paradise which you can read for free on RoyalRoad: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/59428/blood-paradise

#digital art #original art #original character #urban fantasy #vampires #werewolves #magic #art share #digital portrait #trans man #trans character #diversity in fantasy

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ya-world-challenge · 1 year

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Book Review: Beasts of Prey (🇨🇫 Central African Republic *inspired)

[image 1: book cover: a teenage Black girl looks ahead with a determined face, beside her, a teenage Black man faces us with a softer look, they are surrounded by jungle-like fauna, tagline says “The hunt begins”; image 2: map showing the Central African Republic; image 3: Mbeli River falls - whitewater rocky falls surrounded by lush greenery; Source: wikimedia commons]

Beasts of Prey

Author: Ayana Gray

YA World Challenge read for 🇨🇫 Central African Republic

Seeing as I could not find a book for the Central African Republic, I chose Beasts of Prey as a fantasy world to represent this region. The author’s notes indicate that she wrote the book as a pan-African world, without narrowing it to a specific region of the continent and using inspiration from various areas. CAR, with a myriad of ethnic groups and smack in the middle of continent, seems a fitting enough setting.

First line

Baba says only wicked things happen after midnight, but I know better.

Review

Koffi is an indentured servant at the circus-like Night Zoo, working alongside her mother to pay off her late father’s debts. Ekon is a candidate in training to become one of the city’s elite guard. They are of different peoples, different castes, but their fates collide when they both decide to undertake a common goal, each for their own personal reasons. The goal: to track down and kill the Shetani, a beast responsible for hundreds of deaths that lurks deep in the Greater Jungle.

I do love the world in this book and especially the jungle. And this gorgeous cover!! I wonder if reading so many diverse books is spoiling me into not fully appreciating the uniqueness of these worlds. Many of the various beasts / inhabitants of the jungle that Ekon and Koffi encounter are based on African folklore and I love the colorfulness there. (Arachnophobia trigger warning for a brief but creepy scene with spiders!)

The narrative goes back and forth between Koffi + Ekon, and a girl somewhere in the past named Adiah. I found I liked the Adiah chapters more. I feel like the first-person view with her made her more accessible and interesting than the third-person chapters with the other two. For that or some other reason I never really connected well with Koffi and Ekon or their motivations. I found the ending sort of jumbled and anti-climactic as well. It does end on a cliffhanger, so warning, if you are reading and enjoying the first book, get ready to have the second on hand!

It was unexpected to find another OCD rep. At one point, Ekon gets unreasonably angry at having plans change, and as someone familiar with the condition I could appreciate this honest portrayal - that there is a dark side beyond the “quirky counting”.

I did like Adiah and the worldbuilding and I wanted more adventures in the jungle. I just didn’t connect with the rest of it and wasn’t excited at the ending. It is definitely interesting enough to give it a try, though, and I would pick up the second book out of curiosity if I had the time.

★ ★ ★ 3.5 stars

Other reps: #mental health (anxiety / OCD) #straight

Genres: #fantasy world #adventure #magic

Read it at Bookshop.org | Amazon

#book review #central african republic #ya world challenge #booklr #book lover #diversity in fantasy #diverse books #beasts of prey #ayana gray #mental health #ocd #straight #fantasy world #adventure #magic #africa

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rqg179 · 1 month

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there is something incredibly fucking comical to me about baron's profile having this horrifying fucking illustration and being caption Baron of the Baronies: Living Nightmare, Roëmænce Partnær and then just a little (he/they) off to the side

#diversity win! this nightmare manifestation born out of your fear of being isolated from your peers by your sexuality is nonbinary!#my post #fhjy #d20 #fantasy high

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aragornsrockcollection · 2 years

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Isn’t it funny that you never see anyone throwing a hissy fit over the inclusion of flora not native to Medieval Europe in Tolkien or other fantasy works.

Tomatoes, tobacco, POTATOES, tea and sugar, are all perfectly acceptable and normal for Tolkien to have included in Middle earth, but depict a single character with brown skin, and suddenly it’s not realistic, and WHAT ABOUT OUR HERITAGE.

Forget that we don’t analyze the heritage of white actors playing these rolls to make sure they’re from the proper culture to represent Tolkien’s extremely English story. Has a single person ever complained that Frodo and Sam were played by Americans when Hobbiton is CLEARLY based on rural England?

According to some, Hobbits can grow food and other crops that were only introduced into Europe through the violence of imperialism, but to have the hobbits look like the people who originally grew those crops is sacrilegious.

Medieval Europe, which wasn’t as homogenous as people think anyways, is only ever trotted out to justify hating the inclusion of black and brown characters.

If Sam can wax poetic about potatoes, he can look like came from Peru, like potatoes did.

And if that idea bothers you, maybe examine why.

#tolkien #the silmarillion #lotr #jirt #silm #jrr tolkien #I’m still not about rings of power but that’s because of every other choice they made #also why not take advantage of increasingly evil Numenor’s colonization of Umbar #a canon reality of the second age that saw relations turn from cultural exchange to domination #that is including diverse narratives and one of Tolkien’s opinions that aged great was his anti-imperialism #the condescending way he argued against it didn’t age as gracefully #but you can’t have everything #anyways people need to examine why non white people being included in a work of fantasy makes them angry #I mean we all know why

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tarvera · 2 years

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Excellent article with a host of resources for those of who want to rip through the shades and lens of 'white' europe, rome, and other settings, so we can present a diverse and dynamic fantasy or historical stories

#article #diversity #diversity in fantasy

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arostormblessed · 7 months

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I fucking love the wheel of time show everyone should watch it. Couldn’t understand why so many people were giving it negative reviews and then I came to the realization that it was made specifically for the weird gays on tumblr that actually appreciate interesting storytelling. it was made for the people who love awful women, unconventional relationships, negative character development, toxicity, polyamory, qprs, unhealthy devotion, etc etc

#wheel of time #wot #wot show spoilers #like do you get it. are you seeing the vision #everything they’ve done is just so fucking INTERESTING narratively I want to sink my teeth into it #plus #the diversity.. the banger soundtrack..#the women who get to have complex motivations and agency and #make bad decisions and fuck up and be awful and have fucked up relationships with each other..#the gay people. the list goes on #and overall it’s just a fun fantasy show. everyone watch it right now

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bookishfeylin · 1 year

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Black Fantasy TBR Part 3

Part 1 is here.

Part 2 is here.

This portion of my tbr has a few more sci-fi books than fantasy books, but I felt it still belongs :) So here is the third and final part of my Black fantasy TBR. You guys knows the drill--please look up all age ratings and trigger warnings, and ofc there is no particular order to this list.

The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton

Flameborn by Jamel Cato

Sweep of Stars by Maurice Broaddus

The Record Keeper by Agnes Gomillion

Fate of Flames by Sarah Raughley

Tentacles and Teeth by Ariele Sieling

Earthrise by M.C.A. Hogarth

Girl of Flesh and Metal by Alicia Ellis

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

Updraft by Fran Wilde

The Blood Trials by N.E. Davenport

The Sound of Stars by Alechia Dow

The Wonder of All Things by Jason Mott

To Find You by Cerece Rennie Murphy

The Kindred by Alechia Dow

Awakening by Rebel Miller

Immortal Plunder by Kelly St. Clare

Kill Three Birds by Nicole Givens Kurtz

The Dream Weavers by Chantae Oliver

Niko by Kayti Nika Raet

#black books #black authors #black sff books #black fantasy books #black ya books #ya books #bookblr #book tumblr #diverse fantasy books #diversity in fantasy #diverse books #fantasy #fantasy books #ya fantasy #diverse fantasy #TBR #booklr #representation matters #bookish rambles

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yvesdot · 7 months

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SOMETHING'S NOT RIGHT IS OUT!

“A quietly fantastical wonderland of creatures, queerness, and possibility.” — Max Franciscovich @goose-books, author of Night Shift

The debut collection returns in a special fifth anniversary edition, repackaged with three new short stories, a new cover, and additional bonus content! A vampire is forced into a compromising situation; a father fears his child's growing plant collection; the undead go to high school; a butcher contemplates whether or not she can be loved. In a captivating debut, yves. opens the door to our world, slightly askew—where the crows work for witches and telephone booths serve as secret channels for prophecy; where a diverse cast of monsters and humans alike are forced to contend with what the world believes is right.

Thank you to everyone who made my weird uncategorizable "Lemony Snicket meets Carmen Maria Machado" speculative fiction an instant bestseller! If you’ve ever felt like a monster, this book is for you.

PRESS: KZSC interview | Santa Cruz Sentinel interview

EXCERPTED SHORT STORIES

BUY NOW!

signed paperback | paperback & ebook (amazon) | ebook (itch.io)

& at all major retailers!

Thank you so much for reading this post about my book. I hope you will share it, and this image of my beautiful black cat, Andy, widely. To queer weird fiction and indie pub! To you, Dear Reader, with love.

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lilybug-02 · 4 months

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I got inspired by a stupid Youtube ad about Mythical "Mounts". AND I WANTED ONE. So I drew a cool Beetle...and I want to live in this fantasy world, so I drew two more cool Fantasy pets :)

#ive noticed I haven't been able to do a lot of other art bc Im so focused on the CT comic project. It's good to be able to diversity #art #my art #sketches #world building #fantacy #fantasy art

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prince-liest · 10 months

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I’m reading Witch King by Martha Wells, and now that I have read more than one (1) series by this author, I have been suddenly brained with a two-by-four sharpied over with “realizing that I really enjoy novels by Martha Wells because they live in the specific niche created by the intersection of casually and thoroughly queer casts and non-romance storylines”

I am as ever a sucker for non-human main characters struggling with their very human feelings, which is why I jumped on Witch King the moment I saw “the author of Murderbot wrote another book with a main character that’s non-human,” but I live in this dichotomy where I can really enjoy reading queer romances but I don’t really identify with non-ace characters (which is not actually something I figured out how to differentiate until I was Last Week Years Old). so there are lots of books out there that I enjoy reading but it’s comparatively rare for me to read something that feels like it was written For Me and Martha Wells does that very well

anyway, give me more ace it-pronouns human-spliced robot main characters and people-eating demons who consider rank over gender when finding new bodies to inhabit

#text posts #martha wells #witch king #personal #her castes and universes are also very culturally and ethnically diverse but I've had ace-ness on the mind lately #so it was relevant to my ongoing thoughts #I never really read books that are advertised as specific types of diversity representation #especially with queer books what I like to read is books that are very queer but aren't ABOUT being queer #so I tend to steer clear when people are like read this the mc is a nonbinary lesbian witch without even really saying what the plot is #but martha wells writes books that are queer and brown and INFLUENCED by being queer and brown but #the characters still get to have their stories be ABOUT whatever fun sci fi fantasy shenanigans are ongoing #((inb4: this is my preference not an overal value judgment))#((I just want to read the same books I read when I was a little kid and have them just ALSO be lovingly diverse))#((and I only really read SFF))#in other news I was trying to figure out how to name my flavor of ace #and then I looked up the difference between demi and gray #and I realized gray is what I am looking for #very very dark gray

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