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A guide of books to gift the people in your life and yourself!

For the person who made a 200+ slide powerpoint about Neon Genesis Evangelion for a presentation party… Also for those who attend presentation parties…

The Archive Undying by @emcandon

For all former and current theater kids (affectionate)...

Will Do Magic for Small Change by Andrea Hairston

For the reader who prefers their off-the-wall science fiction tempered with social commentary, or enjoys social commentary in a space opera font…

The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport by Samit Basu

━ ˖°˖ ☾☆☽ ˖°˖ ━

For the friend with the SHUDDER account…

Piñata: A Novel by Leopoldo Gout

For the burned-out chosen one who’s so, so tired…

The Saint of Bright Doors by @adamantine

For the tumblr mutual that fell down the wuxia cdrama hole…

The Water Outlaws by S. L. Huang

━ ˖°˖ ☾☆☽ ˖°˖ ━

For the gamer who fondly remembers their confrontation with Rayquaza atop the Sky Pillar…

Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee

For the “smash first, questions later” friend in your life…

Ebony Gate by Julia Vee & Ken Bebelle

For a tragic superwholockian in dire need of restorative sapphic fiction…

The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older

━ ˖°˖ ☾☆☽ ˖°˖ ━

For the reader who wished Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell was actually Jonathan Strange/Mr Norrell…

The Last Binding trilogy by @fahye, including: 

● A Marvellous Light

● A Restless Truth

● A Power Unbound

━ ˖°˖ ☾☆☽ ˖°˖ ━

Not enough books? We agree. Check out our other GET BOOKT guide.

faves of 2023: adult high/historical fantasy

The Art Of Prophecy + The Art of Destiny

The Stones Stay Silent

The Water Outlaws

He Who Drowned The World

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi

A Day Of Fallen Night

A Strange and Stubborn Endurance

The Heretic’s Guide to Homecoming: Book 2 Practice

The Pomegranate Gate

A largely genderswapped retelling of the classic Chinese novel Water Margin (called Suikoden in Japanese, I mention for no reason in particular.)

Water Margin is about 108 dudes rocking - being violent, amoral and unstoppable all over the countryside, eating people, etc - and this book is about how girls can also rock, but it also tries to be an uplifting and empowering story about queer women, and an action movie, and a parable about fighting the deep state by assassinating rural judges. It's a mess, but so is the source material.

My next read: The Water Outlaws by S. L. Huang 🌊

August Preorder Haul! Featuring LOOK NO FURTHER and THE WATER OUTLAWS, both of which I have been anticipating for a long time!

The Water Outlaws review

4/5 stars Recommended if you like: Wuxia fantasy, action adventure, renegade heroes, political intrigue Big thanks to Netgalley, Tordotcom, and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review! TW attempted sexual assault This book is interesting because the characters, by and large, don't turn out to be who you think they're going to be. I don't mean in a bait and switch kind of way or that the characters experience growth, but rather a realistic way. The characters themselves have their own self-conceptions about who they are and what they would do in certain circumstances, just like we form perceptions of the characters, and then over the course of the book, those self-perceptions are repeatedly and thoroughly challenged to get at the heart of who the character actually is. Lin Chong, for instance, has a very strict code of values and believes in both justice and the law, but as the synopsis says, she ends up as a criminal running from the empire. So how does what she's experienced and what she does next fit into her self-conception, if at all? I really enjoy how the characters answer these questions for themselves and it's interesting to see internal conflict dealt with in this manner. The story is told in multiple POV, so we get multiple angles of the things happening both in the capital and in Liangshan. While it might seem redundant to have two POVs for both locations, I actually think it adds to the story because then we can see the various schemes and layers that are going into each move on both sides. Lin Chong is definitely a character that grew on me. She's a straight arrow and believes the law, and empire, is just and that criminals are criminals for a reason. Unfortunately, she still struggles with the idea that the law can be wrong, that the government can be corrupt, even after she's branded a criminal. I'm not a fan of characters who think like that, especially when the corruption is right in front of them, but Lin Chong grew on me. She started to question her own line of thinking and began putting those martial arts skills to use for a good, albeit illegal, cause. Once she decides to be loyal, then she's loyal, and I liked seeing her friendships grow with the other women. Lu Junyi is a savvy intellectual who is a friend of Lin Chong's before she has to go on the run. Surprisingly, Lu Junyi remains an important character throughout the story. When the book opens, Lu Junyi is a socialite who hosts salons where intellectuals can gather and debate anything from science to poetry to politics, with Lu Junyi often taking an active and liberal role in these meetings. As the book goes on, however, she's faced with needing to put that knowledge to use in a dangerous endeavor. Like Lin Chong, she has to examine who she thinks she is and who she actually is. Lu Da is introduced as a friend of Lu Junyi's but ends up becoming sworn-sisters with Lin Chong. In contrast to the other two women, Lu Da is brasher and more impulsive, interested more getting things done than in thinking things over thenacting. She's an exceptionally loyal character and willing to fight to the end to protect those she cares about. Lu Da is also someone who isn't afraid of owning up to their mistakes. At times her narrative did make her feel younger than she actually is, like a child in an adult's body, which I wasn't a fan of. Wu Yong is another bandit with Liangshan and is the major strategist of the group. While we did get her POV, it was hard to fully grasp her plans and motivations since so much was left unsaid. I didn't really like her at first, but once we got a peek inside her head, I ended up liking Wu Yong a lot more. She has, as mentioned, a tactician's mind and I liked seeing how she schemed and came up with contingency upon contingency. Cai Jing is the grand chancellor for the empire and is really a mixed bag. He's definitely not a good person, but he's also not totally unlikable (which is kind of shocking). He fully believes that everything he's doing is for the good of the empire, which makes him a dangerous enemy to have. And like Wu Yong, he's good at planning for multiple contingencies. With him as one of the antagonists, I really did question whether the Liangshan Bandits could/would win. The last 20% or so is probably my favorite. There's a lot going on there but it's fast paced and interesting. I liked the battle in particular since we get to see a lot of different strategies brought out and it's really the only major showdown in the book, so I enjoyed being able to root for the bandits. I will say that I think this book could've been shorter. It was hard for me to get going and the action doesn't really pick up until ~40-50% of the way through. I would've liked to see some of the earlier parts compressed so that we can get to the main plot faster. The science bits were kind of hard for me to follow. There was a lot of technical work going on and some of the speakers weren't always coherent, so I had difficulty understanding what was happening. I know what the end goal of the experiments was, but I suppose I'm kind of confused still about what exactly the scientists were doing and how they were doing it. Overall this is a good book, particularly if you're looking for an action/adventure. Some parts of it dragged and I found some parts hard to follow, but the Liangshan Bandits definitely make up for it and I enjoyed reading their parts.

Really enjoying the trend of fantasy that is retellings of stories I know of, but only in the broadest strokes. (This also works for historical events.) Anyway, fun, almost pulpy adventure about a group of lady outlaws in semi-historical China, oversized personalities clashing with a world too small for them.

watch your purse, and your heart 💰🗡️🪙📚🏳️‍🌈

"You have great potential, if only you changed the way you do nearly everything."

(The Water Outlaws, S.L. Huang)

Adaptation and the Powers of the False: A Review of The Water Outlaws by S. L. Huang

(I try to avoid “spoiler warnings” but, as a courtesy, since this book is not yet published I will note that my approach to review will include discussion of plot elements including from the end of the book. Please consider yourself forewarned.) This book kind of drove me crazy. The Water Outlaws is an upcoming 2023 novel written by S.L. Huang and published by Tordotcom. It is a loose…

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She hadn’t wanted to admit that injustice was anything more than a rarity, the sad result only when a thousand turns of luck all landed wrong. How could it be the usual way of things? How could civilization be rotten to its core and still function?

The Water Outlaws, S. L. Huang

2023 reads

The Water Outlaws

fantasy inspired by a wuxia classic

a woman who’s an expert arms instructor is labelled a criminal after being assaulted by a powerful man

she joins a group of rebellious bandits who fight for justice, and becomes entangled in politics both with the group and the empire - who are trying to develop powerful magical weapons

mainly queer & female cast

Absolutely epic feminism. This is empowering. It made me want to conquer and spread equality everywhere. It is truly inspiring.

This book feels like a classic, but it boasts modern ideas and deals with timeless issues, particularly for women, but really any gender or sexuality.

I loved this so much!

Out August 22, 2023!

Thank you, Netgalley and Publisher, for this Arc!

Absolutely-NO-Shelf-Control August is Totally A Thing, Right??

I might've, uh. Acquired Some Books This Month (Oops). Between preorders and impulse little press purchases AND impulse IRL-but-it's-buy-3-paperbacks-get-1-free-and-look-we-have-so-many-Tor-things-that-have-been-on-your-list, I was only ever doomed.

Lin Chong is an expert arms instructor, training the Emperor's soldiers in sword and truncheon, battle axe and spear, lance and crossbow. Unlike bolder friends who flirt with challenging the unequal hierarchies and values of Imperial society, she believes in keeping her head down and doing her job. Until a powerful man with a vendetta rips that carefully-built life away. Disgraced, tattooed as a criminal, and on the run from an Imperial Marshall who will stop at nothing to see her dead, Lin Chong is recruited by the Bandits of Liangshan. Mountain outlaws on the margins of society, the Liangshan Bandits proclaim a belief in justice—for women, for the downtrodden, for progressive thinkers a corrupt Empire would imprison or destroy. They’re also murderers, thieves, smugglers, and cutthroats. Apart, they love like demons and fight like tigers. Together, they could bring down an empire.

"We shall be the storm of silk and steel that shelters all those in need". S.L. Huang's The Water Outlaws is a standalone anti-hero journey that genderbends a classic Chinese novel, Water Margin, mixing things up with interesting magic. It's a violent tale about rebelling against a broken system - one that allows rape and abuse of power, where dissidents are thrown into prison - and making the most of what one has, about finding community even amongst violent people. The cast is huge, but the two main characters, once friends and now possibly on opposite sides, undergo major character development that feels organic and earned. The tale slows down towards the middle only to pick up towards an explosive finale that accounts for all the loose threads.

✨ 4 stars

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📚📚📚 IF YOU LOVE THIS, YOU MIGHT LIKE:

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

for: banditry, queer wuxia

[You can find more of my reviews about queer speculative fiction on my blog MISTY WORLD]