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#machineries of empire
lilyblisslys · 2 days
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obsessed conceptually with a fire emblem 3 houses style murder academy sim, except you’re Jedao teaching ethics to Shuos assassins. Mikodez can still turn into a dragon for some reason though
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Character, book, and author names under the cut
James St. Clair- Dark Rise Series by C.S. Pacat
Shuos Jedao- Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee
Jack Alston/Lord Hawthorn- The Last Binding Trilogy by Freya Marske
Alastair Carstairs- The Last Hours by Cassandra Clare
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excavatinglizard · 6 months
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What if you were a guy who was actually a girl who was actually kind of the guy
And they were both war criminals <3
(Or, I hyperfixated on the Machineries of Empire series for a week and all I got was a handful of new blorbos and a desire to do more linear algebra)
There were a couple versions of this drawing before this one, here:
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First sketch, first digital drawing, finished the sketch since I didn’t like the digital version, did another digital version based off the finished sketch
Anyway
I love her <3 and her gender and identity fuckery <3
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laurelnose · 5 months
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and good sense won’t venture where the moth won’t let it
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chilled-ice-cubes · 2 years
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there should be a name for the genre of sff books that deal with colonialism/imperialism and have queer protagonists that commit war crimes
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deuceofgears · 7 days
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things I do instead of going to Urgent Care
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[a woman in a black military uniform pulls on a fingerless glove; in the background, a Sierpinski gasket and the Euler identity; Captain Kel Cheris, motto 'Do the math, fledge']
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[a smirking man in a black military uniform with red braid holds a smoking gun from which drifts the number 1,000,000 (one million); in the background, a fox-head emblem and the Roman numeral IX (nine); General Shuos Jedao, motto 'I'm your gun']
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[a woman in a black BDSM outfit and chain wings]
Well, it wasn't what I was aiming for but I ended up with Succubus!Cheris.
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[a man in a black military uniform with gold braid salutes fist to chest; in the background, a phoenix]
Nice!Jedao, who will massacre *the enemy* on command but is totes safe to babysit your kids and bring to the family BBQ, and only cheats at poker if you really have it coming.
Still trying to test the hypothesis that Evil = Hot, Nice = Not Hot (I am not sure about how Succubus!Cheris and Nice!Jedao fit into this schema)
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augustinajosefina · 5 months
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A request
Please suggest books to me! Preferably in the glove kink/lesbian space atrocities, urban fantasy or dark academia genres but I'll happily try any SF/fantasy at least once.
So far I've read and loved:
Before 2023
The Imperial Radch (Ancillary Justice/Sword/Mercy) - Ann Leckie
Jean le Flambeur (The Quantum Thief/The Fractal Prince/The Causal Angel) - Hannu Rajaniemi
The Windup Girl/The Water Knife - Paolo Bagicalupi
Memory of Water/The City of Woven Streets - Emmi Itäranta
2023
The Locked Tomb (Gideon/Harrow/Nona the Ninth) - Tamsyn Muir
The Masquerade (Traitor/Monster/Tyrant Baru Cormorant) - Seth Dickinson
Teixcalaan series (A Memory Called Empire/A Desolation Called Peace) - Arkady Martine
Machineries of Empire (Ninefox Gambit/Raven Stratagem/Revenant Gun/Hexarchate Stories) - Yoon Ha Lee
The Murderbot Diaries (All Systems Red to System Collapse) - Martha Wells
The Broken Earth (The Fifth Season/The Obelisk Gate/The Stone Sky) - N. K. Jemisin
Klara And The Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro
Xuya universe (The Citadel of Weeping Pearls/The Tea Master and the Detective/Seven of Infinities plus short stories) - Aliette de Bodard
This is How You Lose the Time War - Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
The Goblin Emperor/The Witness for the Dead/Grief of Stones - Katherine Addison
Some Desperate Glory - Emily Tesh
2024
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - V. E. Schwab
The Craft Sequence (Three Parts Dead/Two Serpents Rise/Full Fathom Five/Last First Snow/Four Roads Cross/Ruin of Angels) - Max Gladstone
Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution - R. F. Kuang
The Luminous Dead - Caitlin Starling
Last Exit - Max Gladstone
Dead Country - Max Gladstone
Read and liked:
The Moonday Letters - Emmi Itäranta
Great Cities (The City We Became/The World We Make) - N. K. Jemisin
Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
Autonomous - Annalee Newitz
Dead Djinn universe (A Master of Djinn/The Haunting of Tram Car 015/A Dead Djinn in Cairo/The Angel of Khan el-Khalili) - P. Djèlí Clark
Even Though I Knew the End - C. L. Polk
Station Eternity - Mur Lafferty
The Mythic Dream - Dominik Parisien & Navah Wolfe
Shades of Magic (A Darker Shade of Magic/A Gathering of Shadows/A Conjuring of Light/Fragile Threads of Power) - V. E. Schwab
The Stars Are Legion - Kameron Hurley
Ninth House/Hell Bent - Leigh Bardugo
Machine - Elizabeth Bear
Was uncertain about:
Light From Uncommon Stars - Ryka Aoki
The Kaiju Preservation Society - John Scalzi
Paladin's Grace - T. Kingfisher
The House in the Cerulean Sea - TJ Klune
In the Vanishers Palace - Aliette de Bodard
And read and disliked:
To Be Taught, if Fortunate - Becky Chambers
A Psalm for the Wild-Built - Becky Chambers
The Priory of the Orange Tree - Samantha Shannon
The Calculating Stars - Mary Robinette Kowal
The Space Between Worlds - Micaiah Johnson
How High We Go in the Dark - Sequoia Nagamatsu
Shadow and Bone - Leigh Bardugo
(My pride insists I add that I have, in fact, read other books as well. Just to be clear.)
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obsessed with mikodez' monologue where he goes "I don't torture people. but don't worry it's NOT because I'm a good person. it's just bc torture doesn't WORK"
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Round 1: President Snow from The Hunger Games vs. Shuos Jedao from Machineries of Empire
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Shuos Jedao art by @exmakina
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nellasbookplanet · 3 months
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Book recs: possession, bodysnatching and bodysharing
Demons, ghosts, aliens, sentient bacteria, artificial intelligences - isn't there something fascinating about the idea of sharing a body with another being like a giant get-along t-shirt? No? Too bad, because I'm going to tell you about books featuring this trope anyway.
A note: multiple of these books are sequels where the bodysnatching/possession aspect plays little to no part in the first book. In all these cases, I still recommend starting with book one. I also in one case chose not to include a certain sequel that I loved as even mentioning it in this context would be a huge spoiler, so, uh, sorry about that.
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For more details on the books, continue under the readmore. Titles marked with * are my personal favorites. And as always, feel free to share your own recs in the notes!
If you want more book recs, check out my masterpost of rec lists!
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Brain Plague by Joan Slonczewsji*
Chrys, a struggling artist, agrees to become a carrier for a sentient strain of microbes. With their help, Chrys breathes new life into her career and becomes a success. But every microbe society is different - some function as friends and brain enhancers to their carrier, while others become a literal brain plague, a living addiction taking over the life of their carrier. And like every society, the microbe community is in constant flux - including the one inside Chrys's head.
Children of Ruin (Children of Time series) by Adrian Tchaikovsky*
Sequel to Children of Time. Millenia and generation spanning scifi. After the collapse of the Earthen empire, a project to terraform various planets and use them to uplift other species to sentience in left unfinished. However, both species and planets continue evolving on their own, and when what remains of humanity flees the dying Earth millenia later, these planets might be their only hope of survival. But the uplifted species aren't the only intelligent life out there, and are far from the most dangerous as the survivors encounter something capable of terraforming the human body itself.
Leech by Hiron Ennes*
Unbeknownst to humanity, a sentient hive mind has taken over the entire medical profession to ensure the health of their host species. One of their doctors is sent off to an isolated location where they’re cut off from the rest of the hive mind, only to realize they’re faced with a rivaling parasitic entity. Leech hands you only just enough information to get by, and whether its historical fantasy, an alternate timeline, or futuristic post apocalypse is hard to determine. It’s spooky and a bit weird and wildly creative.
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A Memory Called Empire (Texicalaan duology) by Arkady Martine
Mahit Dzmare is an ambassador sent to the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire, where she discovers that her predecessor has died. Trying to protect her home, a small independent mining station, from being taken over by the empire, Mahit struggles to find out the truth of her predecessor's death while carrying the voice of his ghost in her head, guiding her as best he can. Features a sapphic relationship but focuses more on world-building than romance.
Ninefox Gambit (Machineries of Empire trilogy) by Yoon Ha Lee*
Military space opera where belief and culture shape the laws of reality, causing all kinds of atrocities as empires do everything in their power to force as many people as possible to conform to their way of life to strengthen their technology and weapons. It’s also very queer, with gay, lesbian and trans major characters, albeit little to no romance. Disgraced Captain Kel Cheris is given a second chance by allying with the undead Commander Shous Jedao, who in life never lost a battle, but also went mad and massacred his own army. Now, Cheris must decide just how far she can trust him, with her forces as well as with her sense of self.
My Heart is Human by Reese Hogan
Nine years ago, all complex technology was made illegal. This complicates life for Joel, young transgender single father, as a bionic just uploaded itself into his brain without consent. Scared of losing his daughter, Joel tries to keep the bionic secret while using it to fix his life, but things quickly get more complicated as the bionic gains more and more control of his body. A bit simplistic in writing style but makes a lot of cool parallels of bodily autonomy to Joel’s experiences as a transman.
Bonus rec: if you like the general concept of struggling for physical control over one’s body with an AI, may I also suggest the (much grittier and gory) movie Upgrade.
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The Host by Stehpenie Meyer*
The Host follows Wanderer, an alien part of an invading force on Earth. Humans have been defeated and are being used as host bodies, but Wanderer's host Melanie is being difficult and refuses to fade away. Instead she fills Wanderer's mind with images of Jared, the man she loves and who's still in hiding. With Melanie's feelings bleeding into Wanderer's the two reluctantly ally to find and keep safe the man they both love. While The Host does feature Meyer's trademark romance - of which I'm not the biggest fan - the more interesting and arguably more central relationship is that between Wanderer and her human host.
Needle by Hal Clement
1950s classic. A small island in the pacific ocean and a fourteen-year-old boy have just become the center of an interstellar chase between an alien Hunter and the criminal he’s pursuing. Robert is a regular boy, but he has a very special passenger: an alien symbiont hiding inside his body. The alien became stranded on Earth as he pursued a criminal of his own species, and now they are both trapped on the same island, playing a game of cat and mouse as Robert and the Hunter struggle to find their prey before it finds them.
Malevolent by Harlan Guthrie*
Lovecraftian horror mystery. Private detective Arthur Lester wakes up in his office, his partner dead, memories fuzzy, vision gone, and the voice of a malevolent entity in his mind. Unable to see, Arthur is forced to rely on guidance from the entity as he attempts to solve the mystery of what it is and where it came from. Is this a book? No. But as someone who reads mostly audiobooks, the difference between a book and a fiction podcast is negligible, and also I love this story and its characters and want all of you to do so too.
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Goddess of Filth by V. Castro
Novella. What starts as a drunken seance between friends ends with one of them chanting in Nahuatl, the language of their Aztec ancestors. Following that night, the formerly shy Fernanda has changed. While her family calls for priests, claiming her possessed by a demon, Fernanda's friends believe what has taken up residence in her is something decidedly older. A quick read featuring female rage, desire and empowerment, this is a different twist on the typical possession story.
This Alien Shore by C.S. Friedman
Space opera in which humanity found a way to faster than light travel and began establishing colonies all over the galaxy, only to belatedly realize the method of FTL caused irreversible mutations and disabilities and leaving their nascent colonies to die. Much later, many of the colonies have survived and thrived, and one has found a new method of FTL travel, allowing an interconnected space society to grow. However, Earth is on the hunt for their method and is prepared to do anything to steal it. Trapped in the middle of all this and forced on the run is young Jamisia, who is little by little coming to realize that not only might she be the very solution Earth is after, she's also not alone in her own mind and body.
Touch by Claire North*
Kepler should have died long ago, beaten to death in an alley. Instead, a switch happened as Kepler leapt into and took control of the body of the killer. Since then, Kepler has lived in body after body, having gained the ability to inhabit anyone with a touch and stay for anything from a few minutes to an entire lifetime. Kepler cares much for the host bodies, and when one of them is brutally assassinated, Kepler must find the killer, avenge the host's death, and stop it from happening again. You want a fucked up main character with fucked up morals who still genuinely cares for people? Then boy do I have the book for you!
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The Midnight Bargain by C.L. Polk
Fantasy romance. Beatrice Clayborn is a sorceress, but if her family gets its way she won't remain so for long. Married women are forbidden from practicing magic, and Beatrice's father is intent on marrying her off to save them from destitution. Beatrice has a different plan: become so powerful a sorceress that she can herself save her father's business and becomes too valuable to marry off. To achieve this, she strikes a bargain with a minor spirit of fortune. In return, the spirit demands to be present in Beatrice's body as she experiences her first kiss... a kiss with a man who might jeopardize all her plans.
Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory
Del Perce's world is almost indistinguishable from ours, the only difference being the presence of possessing entities that can strike with little to no warning. When he was young, Del was possessed by one of these demons, which was eventually exorcised. But now he’s experiencing a resurgence of symptoms, a voice in his head demanding to be freed. To save himself, Del races to find out the truth behind the possessions.
The Thousand Eyes (The Serpent Gates duology) by A.K. Larkwood*
Sequel to The Unspoken Name (please read that first, I promise this duology is very worth it). These books have a lot going on: portals, flying ships, orcs, elves, creepy snake gods, possessions, cults, immortal evil mages who traumatize teens as their hobby, gay and lesbian frenemies, the works. Csorwe, born and raised in a cult and meant as a sacrifice, escapes her intended death with a mage who becomes her mentor. But he has dangerous motives of his own, and Csorwe must decide where her loyalties lie.
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A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge
Young adult, historical. All her life, Makepeace's mother has been teaching her how to defend herself from the possession of ghosts, until one day her guard drops and a wild and fierce spirit slips in. When Makepeace's mother dies and she is sent to live with her father's family, this spirit might be her only defence. Because her family is harboring dark secrets, and they have plans for Makepeace... plans which do not care for her well-being. Unlike most other YA I've read in terms of vibes and plot, A Skinful of Shadows is a unique and intriguing read.
Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson*
Young adult fantasy. Artemisia prefers the dead to the living, and is training to become a Gray Sister, a nun who helps the souls of the deceased pass on to the afterlife rather than remain as dangerous spirits. To defend her convent, Artemisia accepts the help of a dangerous revenant, a powerful spirit which grants her great power but also could possess her the moment her guard is lowered. As evil threatens her homeland, Artemisia and the revenant must find a way to work together.
A Psalm of Storms and Silence by Roseanne A. Brown
Young adult fantasy. Sequel to A Song of Wraiths and Ruin. To save his family, Malik has made a deal with a dangerous spirit with equally dangerous demands - the death of the princess. Meanwhile, princess Karina is seeking her own power, meaning to resurrect her assassinated sister no matter what the prize. As their paths intertwine, the consequences of their pursuits keep getting higher, both for them, their nation, and the entire world.
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Grey Sister (Book of the Ancestor trilogy) by Mark Lawrence
Sequel to Red Sister. Fantasy with sci-fi flavor. Nona is being raised to become a killer at the Convent of Sweet Mercy. But dangerous classes aren’t Nona's only problem: her planet is slowly dying, and her own inner demons whisper in her mind. As the sun grows weaker and ice creeps ever closer, Nona and her allies race to save themselves from extinction.
Fifth Quarter (Quarters series) by Tanya Huff*
Sequel to Sing the Four Quarters. Fifth Quarter is only loosely connected to the first book in the series so you could read it as a standalone, however I still recommend starting with Sing the Four Quarters as it is very good. Bannon and Vree are siblings and highly skilled assassins, but they are put to the test when a failed assassination finds them sharing a body, their intended victim having stolen Bannon's. Now, they must choose between remaining loyal to their Empire, or helping their supposed victim find a new body to steal - and he doesn't want just any body, he wants the royal prince.
The Nein Eyes of Lucien by Madeline Roux*
Recommended with the caveat that you're unlikely to get the full experience unless you have also watched Critical Role Campaign 2 (which is quite the time investment, but very worth it). It follows the antagonist Lucien, first owner of the body we know as Mollymauk Tealeaf, both before Lucien lost his body and after he regains it in the ultimate struggle against Mollymauk's old friends, the Mighty Nein.
Bonus AKA I haven't read these yet but they seem really cool
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The Scratch Daughters (The Scapegracers trilogy) by H.A. Clarke
Sequel to The Scrapegracers. Sideways Pike used to be able to perform only party tricks, but in finding new friends and starting a coven, the four become powerful witches. But not everyone wants witches around. After having gotten her spectre stolen and losing her ability to perform magic, Sideways is forced to rely on Mr. Scratch, a book demon taking the place of her spectre to keep her alive. Now she must struggle to get her magic back before it’s too late.
Riding the Odds by Lynda K. Scott
Sci-fi romance. Tara Rowan is a spaceship captain with secrets - a past she wants to leave behind, and Zie, an organic symbiote which grants her greater strengths and reflexes. But when sexy Holy Knight Trace Munroe blackmails her in an attempt to rescue a missing princess, Tara's secrets are in danger of being revealed.
What Doesn't Break by Cassandra Khaw
Like The Nine Eyes of Lucien, you're unlikely to get the full experience of What Doesn't Break unless you're also a viewer of Critical Role. It follows the backstory of Laudna, undead sorceress and warlock with the ghostly presence of the necromancer who once murdered her keeping residence in her mind and tugging at her strings.
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Every Day (Every Day trilogy) by David Levithan
Every day, A wakes up with a new body and a new life. A has rules on how to deal with this existence - don't get attached, don't get noticed, and don't interfere. But when A finds themself falling in love, all their established rules no longer apply. This one has also been adapted as a movie!
This Body's Not Big Enough for Both of Us by Edgar Cantero
A. and Z. Kimrean are twin siblings and private eyes - they also share the same body, calling themselves A.Z. When someone starts murdering the sons and heirs of a ruthless crime boss, it falls on A.Z. Kimrean to solve the case and find the killer before all out gang war breaks out.
A Madness of Angels (Matthew Swift series) by Kate Griffin
Two years ago, sorcerer Matthew Swift was killed. Today, he woke back up. And he isn't alone in his body... Now, he seeks vengeance not only against the one who killed him, but also against the one who brought him back.
Honorary mentions AKA these didn't really work for me but maybe you guys will like them: Bone Rider by J. Fally, The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu, What's Left of Me by Kat Zhang, Hunter of Demons by Jordan L. Hawk, Odder Still by D.N. Bryn
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proto-language · 2 years
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ninefox gambit: there is a bisexual guy in my head when there shouldn't be, and it is making my life hard
a memory called empire: there isn't a bisexual guy in my head when there should be, and it is making my life hard
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vote YES if you have finished the entire book.
vote NO if you have not finished the entire book.
(faq · submit a book)
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laurelnose · 9 months
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cleaned-up dispatches from the sketchbook, where I am avoiding many different responsibilities (including the historical litfic I have to read for work...) by doodling terrible memes
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tin-tweezers · 1 year
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read “Ninefox Gambit”
I’m dead serious. the “Machineries of Empire” series - buy and read them immediately.
Do you like intricate genderfucked sci-fi world building powered by arcane mathematical space magic
Do you like raw characters careening back and forth between despair and mania, who want to make the world a better place, but commit atrocities and sacrifice the lives of millions in the name of that dream
Do you like piercing analysis of imperialism, empire manifested both in violence and in culture, the ways entire cultures are swallowed by empire but also resist and thrive in hiding and exile
Do you like mind control
Do you like characters who crave mind control and the security of conformity, a found family that would die for you, and have it taken all away
Do you like people being made into weapons, objectified to the point they can’t conceive of themselves any other way
Do you like immortals playing games of mutually assured destruction, cat and mouse enemies-to-allies-to-I-would-kill-you-but-I-need-you-you-are-the-only-one-who-understands-me-and-I-love-the-way-you-hurt-me
Do you like quiet little green onions growing in quiet little pots, kept on the desks of dictators to remind themselves that they are human
Do you like questioning the definition of human
Do you like unreliable narrators
Do you like conflicting factions and political alliances and backstabbing and assassins
Do you like canonical edge play dubcon sex scenes that expand the reader’s understanding of the characters’ emotional topography and motivations, and which ALSO scratch a deep and vicious Dead Dove Don’t Eat itch deep inside you
Do you like cats
Listen to me. This series is 50 content warnings in a trench coat. I read all the books and short stories in two weeks over the summer. I think they rewrote me on a chemical level.
You need to read “Machineries of Empire”
I am extremely normal about this
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deuceofgears · 13 days
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Ninefox Gambit comic
Where by "comic" I mean a cover page for #0 (Cheris's backstory) and p. 1.
It is age-locked (click-through) to 18+ due to (eventual) adult themes.
She’s a mathematician. He’s a mass murderer. Together, they fight crime will they save the Hexarchate—or destroy it?
A comic reboot of the Machineries of Empire space opera series by Yoon Ha Lee (NINEFOX GAMBIT, RAVEN STRATAGEM, REVENANT GUN, HEXARCHATE STORIES from Rebellion/Solaris; also NINEFOX GAMBIT RPG from Android Press in PDF and paperback).
For those familiar with the books, there are major changes. I have dialed things up to seven eleven. ‘Ware the content notes! Consider this fair notice.
Ninefox Gambit comic updates whenever I can find the time in between work, because calendrical heresy. (a.k.a. this is my hobby when I'm not working on the 2.5 books I'm contracted for lol.)
For news/updates, subscribe to the newsletter. (The newsletter updates will probably go out every time I finish an "issue" about ~22 pages, although I will update page by page as I complete them because life is short and tempus fugit.)
Dedicated to Eller, who gave me the gifts of watercolor and chess. Thanks for all the enabling encouragement.
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a-green-onion · 1 year
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hey. i'm sorry but we had to put your boyfriend in the black cradle. yeah he massacred his own troops so we had to court-martial him. you can still talk to him if you can find a living human to serve as an anchor. i'm sorry
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