We are adrift, and the thinnest breeze may blow us where it will.

-- Rachel Hartman

(Emona, Bulgaria)

I wanted to work on volume (both in hair and fabrics).

So here’s Seraphina from Seraphina by Rachel Hartman.

18 August 2023: National Couple's Day

Good things come in duologies

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BOOK AESTHETICS — BOOKS I’VE READ

Avalon High by Meg Cabot Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron Dune by Frank Herbert Hatchet by Gary Paulsen Life of Pi by Yann Martel The Mountain Between Us by Charles Martin The Selection by Kiera Cass Seraphina by Rachel Hartman To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo

Round 1

It goes by many names: “The Crisis,” “The Dark Years,” “The Walking Plague,” as well as newer and more “hip” titles such as “World War Z” or “Z War One.” I personally dislike this last moniker as it implies an inevitable “Z War Two.” For me, it will always be “The Zombie War,” and while many may protest the scientific accuracy of the word zombie, they will be hard-pressed to discover a more globally accepted term for the creatures that almost caused our extinction.

-World War Z, Max Brooks

I remember being born.

-Seraphina, Rachel Hartman

Even in death the boys were trouble.

-The Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead

There is not enough Seraphina fan art in the world

Group D Round 1

[image ID: the first image is the book cover of Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman. it depicts the silhouette of a dragon made up of a dark, mountainous town. a figure stands below the dragon, facing it. the second image is of Heart, a Thai man with short black hair, wearing a blue shirt. end ID]

Tess

Tess is a wonderful, nuanced depiction of a girl who has been betrayed by a man and by the religious patriarchy she lives under, and is judged by everyone for it, including herself. But she’s a deeply hopeful and curious person, and the story she walks on is one that allows her good nature to blossom and unfurl even when her society would rather condemn her. Other things to know about her: she’s a science nerd in a medieval context; she named her child after a storybook pirate; on her sister’s wedding night, she broke the nose of her sister’s brother-in-law; she tries to fight colonialism; she’s a friend of funky little dragons; she has a male alter ego with a rude name; her half-sister is a saint.

Heart

Look, I just got a give a shout out to my special son! He's the first ever deaf love interest in a Thai drama AND he's gay. I love him so much okay and I just want people to see him please

So overjoyed (and startled!) that DREAMS BIGGER THAN HEARTBREAK is nominated for the Lodestar Award. (Not a Hugo, but given out at the Hugo Awards.) DREAMS is the middle book of the Unstoppable trilogy, where I really started to experiment more with breaking all the rules.

What started out as the middle book in an epic space fantasy trilogy turned into a meditation on the difficulty of creating art in the face of massive horror.

And how unbearable it is to be constantly aware of terrible things happening everywhere.

I'm especially chuffed because the Lodestar Award ballot is *stacked* this year, full of some of my fav writers and humans. Massive congrats to Tracy Deonn, Cat Valente, Nnedi Okorafor, Naomi Novik and Rachel Hartman, who all totally rock. It's an honor to be on this ballot with you!

Also massive congrats to all the finalists in all the other categories — my fingers are too sore and I'm on deadline, so I can't type everyone's name/handle, but y'all are the best!!! Congrats!

why arent more people talking about the tess of the road duology?? WHERES THE FANART AND THE FICS??

what is a scene from a book that messed with the chemicals of your brain and why is it the "body is born innocent" conversation from tess of the road by rachel hartman

okay so i’m sure i am SUPER late to this party, but i just need to air out some things as i have just started reading “in the serpent’s wake” by rachel hartman. also pls don’t spoil. first and fucking foremost, i have had spira for roughly 33 pages and i would fucking DIE for them. i genuinely do not know what it is about them that just caught my eye and my heart, but they did it and i am dying because there is quite literally no content ANYWHERE for them, and i need there to be so badly. god i’m just gonna have to make the fanart myself. i think a big part of why i just love their character so much is because they do not fit in anywhere in a world where both sides hate the other. dragons hate humans and quigs, humans hate quigs and dragons, and quigs hate dragons and humans. spira doesn’t fit in with the dragons because they have tathlann’s syndrome so they’re “too human”, they don’t fit in with the humans because they’re a little emotionally stunted so they’re “too dragon”, and of course they’re not gonna fit in with the quigs. i just think there’s something so poetically tragic in just not being able to fit in anywhere and i want to give spira the biggest fucking hug and tell them i love them so much god. and like i think rachel was trying to describe them as unsavory in appearance, but it has done the opposite. doughy body? oooo i love chub. curly, weird hair? FUCK yes. big autism eyes that just stare? GIVE ME. god now i’m gonna have to make fanart of them bc there is literally NOTHING on the internet and i’m so upset about it. okay goodnight guys.

vote YES if you have finished the entire book.

vote NO if you have not finished the entire book.

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