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Wednesday Reading Meme
Jun. 9th, 2021 05:47 pmWhat I Just Finished Reading
The reading slump continues. I still haven't finished reading anything, and sadly A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher didn't manage to hold my attention. :( I bounced around fanfic too.
What I'm Reading Now
I saw good and intriguing reviews for The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard on Goodreads, and started reading that. So far it's quite relaxing, with a gentle pace (I'm not quite a third in on page 250 of 950 or so as per my reader), and the worldbuilding is interesting, though it also is one of those fantasy novels where I'd really like maps, a glossary, a list of characters and mythological figures that get mentioned, notes on the magical systems and eventually a timeline of past events of that Empire.
Unfortunately at least the ebook doesn't seem to come with any LOTR-style appendices. I mean, I'm enjoying the gradual discovery the immersive way, but inevitably I'm kind of itching to take notes to piece things together. Anyway it's a vivid world, that seems to draw from a variety of cultures rather than just a variation of generic Western-fantasy and it's also the state of the (part-magical) technology is interesting.
The main character's people seem to be Polynesian inspired, and the central Empire somewhat African (at least the emperor is dark skinned, and guards are wearing ceremonial garb from leopards and ostrich feathers), though all regions seem to follow variations of the same kind of religion, i.e. agree on the god-emperor thing with sun and moon worship. I couldn't say how sensitively (or not) any of the cultural mining was done, but so far all the various people seem fairly realized and it's not obviously cringe?
Though mostly what I've been noticing is that the whole setup really works for my service kink on several levels, and it looks like it might satisfy competency kink as events get rolling more.
What I'm Reading Next
No idea.
The reading slump continues. I still haven't finished reading anything, and sadly A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher didn't manage to hold my attention. :( I bounced around fanfic too.
What I'm Reading Now
I saw good and intriguing reviews for The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard on Goodreads, and started reading that. So far it's quite relaxing, with a gentle pace (I'm not quite a third in on page 250 of 950 or so as per my reader), and the worldbuilding is interesting, though it also is one of those fantasy novels where I'd really like maps, a glossary, a list of characters and mythological figures that get mentioned, notes on the magical systems and eventually a timeline of past events of that Empire.
Unfortunately at least the ebook doesn't seem to come with any LOTR-style appendices. I mean, I'm enjoying the gradual discovery the immersive way, but inevitably I'm kind of itching to take notes to piece things together. Anyway it's a vivid world, that seems to draw from a variety of cultures rather than just a variation of generic Western-fantasy and it's also the state of the (part-magical) technology is interesting.
The main character's people seem to be Polynesian inspired, and the central Empire somewhat African (at least the emperor is dark skinned, and guards are wearing ceremonial garb from leopards and ostrich feathers), though all regions seem to follow variations of the same kind of religion, i.e. agree on the god-emperor thing with sun and moon worship. I couldn't say how sensitively (or not) any of the cultural mining was done, but so far all the various people seem fairly realized and it's not obviously cringe?
Though mostly what I've been noticing is that the whole setup really works for my service kink on several levels, and it looks like it might satisfy competency kink as events get rolling more.
What I'm Reading Next
No idea.