Snowflakes and Spider Silk

Okay friends, strap in, this is going to be quite a rant about cultural appropriation and all the interactions that have been bothering me lately. I am just sick of hearing from my (predominantly white) friends how indignation at cultural appropriation is so "extra" and unnecessary, so here is my attempt to explain through my south Asian/desi lens exactly what I consider to be cultural appropriation and why it bugs me. Basically it boils down to this: If I get fun of for a certain part of my culture or heritage, but a white person can do the same thing and is applauded for being "boho chic", it's cultural appropriation. If a bunch of white people start profiting off of a part of my culture or start a "trend" without acknowledging the source, that's cultural appropriation too. Golden Milk Lattes This beverage has been making the rounds on all the health-focused hipster health blogs, and is essentially an up-cycled version of a tr...

There's no shame in loving genre fiction When I first meet people and we start talking about things we like to do, I always mention my love of sci-fi TV shows and fantasy books. There's always one of two reactions: 1) OMG I LOVE THEM TOO or 2) Aaaaaaaah I see (accompanied by eyes glazing over and a slightly vacant nod). I once had a friend tell me, "Oh, I don't read genre fiction anymore, it's too childish for me." It crushed me because I felt like I was being judged for enjoying what I did, and if I didn't have a taste for the more "refined" or "literary" works, did that make me a second-class reader? Is loving the emotional journey and entertainment value of a story somehow less valid than loving the intricacies of prose and metaphor? To be completely honest, one reason I love genre fiction is that it's all about transporting you to another world, whether it's in the past or future or on a magical world we'v...

Title:  The Tiger's Daughter Author:  K. Arsenault Rivera Genre: Fantasy My rating: 5 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: Even gods can be slain…. The Hokkaran empire has conquered every land within their bold reach―but failed to notice a lurking darkness festering within the people. Now, their border walls begin to crumble, and villages fall to demons swarming out of the forests. Away on the silver steppes, the remaining tribes of nomadic Qorin retreat and protect their own, having bartered a treaty with the empire, exchanging inheritance through the dynasties. It is up to two young warriors, raised together across borders since their prophesied birth, to save the world from the encroaching demons. This is the story of an infamous Qorin warrior, Barsalayaa Shefali, a spoiled divine warrior empress, O-Shizuka, and a power that can reach through time and space to save a land from a truly insidious evil. This was such a beautiful book! (It's been 6 months since I read th...

Title:  Mask of Shadows Author:  Linsey Miller Genre: Fantasy, young adult My rating: 3 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: Sallot Leon is a thief, and a good one at that. But gender fluid Sal wants nothing more than to escape the drudgery of life as a highway robber and get closer to the upper-class and the nobles who destroyed their home. When Sal Leon steals a poster announcing open auditions for the Left Hand, a powerful collection of the Queen's personal assassins named for the rings she wears -- Ruby, Emerald, Amethyst, and Opal -- their world changes. They know it's a chance for a new life. Except the audition is a fight to the death filled with clever circus acrobats, lethal apothecaries, and vicious ex-soldiers. A childhood as a common criminal hardly prepared Sal for the trials. But Sal must survive to put their real reason for auditioning into play: revenge. The premise sounded so cool (Assassin school! politics! revenge!) and I was really excited about the g...

I was on vacation for about a week, so that's why I haven't posted anything in a little while! Now that I'm back, I wanted to give you all an update on my first week of The Reading Quest. I ended up shuffling the books that I picked for the Mage, some of them I replaced and some I moved to side quests. I got a bunch of library books off of holds all at once, so I was trying to make most of them count towards the Reading Quest! And as always, I want to try to read more stuff by marginalized authors/about diverse MCs so I might end up shuffling some more if I can find more diverse books to read :) I also made a spreadsheet to keep track of points: Definitely spent waaaaaaaaaay too much time picking the perfect fonts for my headers HAHA So far I've finished two books for side quests and I'm currently reading two more for the Mage. The ones I've finished are The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi (which was okay), and The Tiger's Daughter by K....

Title:  Stormdancer Author:  Jay Kristoff Genre: Fantasy, steampunk, YA My rating: 5 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: (read at your own peril, I recommend picking this book up blind!) A DYING LAND The Shima Imperium verges on the brink of environmental collapse; an island nation once rich in tradition and myth, now decimated by clockwork industrialization and the machine-worshipers of the Lotus Guild. The skies are red as blood, the land is choked with toxic pollution, and the great spirit animals that once roamed its wilds have departed forever. AN IMPOSSIBLE QUEST The hunters of Shima’s imperial court are charged by their Shōgun to capture a thunder tiger – a legendary creature, half-eagle, half-tiger. But any fool knows the beasts have been extinct for more than a century, and the price of failing the Shōgun is death. A HIDDEN GIFT Yukiko is a child of the Fox clan, possessed of a talent that if discovered, would see her executed by the Lotus Guild. Accompanying her...

While I'm in the middle of my year-long SFF challenge, I thought it would be fun to join a month-long challenge along the way! I'm not sure if any books will overlap, but both challenges encourage reading diverse authors and own-voice books so I'll have double the reason to pick up more diverse sci-fi and fantasy :) I'm The Reading Quest by Aentee @ Read at Midnight (you can sign up here , sign ups are open until August 12!). I've chosen to be a Mage at first, but I'm hoping to finish the Mage squares and then do the Knight or Bard. Here's my character card! I couldn't get the base image from the original link to work, so I made up my own. (Shout-out to    CW of Read, Think, Ponder  for creating these characters, and for including characters of a bunch of different skin colors!) The challenge starts August 13, so I have a bit of time to change my mind on these, but so far here's what I'm planning to read for Mage: A book with o...

It looks like I'm doing pretty well with staying on top of this challenge! I should be about halfway through since it's July, and I've completed 14/23 books (the creator skipped 11, oops). It's definitely going to be challenging to find a manga to read, but I think I can do the rest no problem! Purple  books are ones I've finished since the last update, black books are ones I finished earlier this year, and the ones in gray are books I'm planning on reading for the challenge.  1) Fairy tale retelling: Miranda and Caliban by  Jacqueline Carey - A retelling of Shakespeare's The Tempest 2) Historical Fantasy: Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear - an alternate history/fantasy based on Mongolia in the time of Genghis Khan 3) NPR top 100 books: Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson 4) non-British Steampunk: Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo - Russian/Scandinavian steampunk?  5) Crossed with another genre: The City & The City by China Mieville - a police...

Title:  Range of Ghosts Author:  Elizabeth Bear Genre: Fantasy, historical fantasy My rating: 5 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: Temur, grandson of the Great Khan, is walking away from a battlefield where he was left for dead. All around lie the fallen armies of his cousin and his brother, who made war to rule the Khaganate. Temur is now the legitimate heir by blood to his grandfather's throne, but he is not the strongest. Going into exile is the only way to survive his ruthless cousin. Once-Princess Samarkar is climbing the thousand steps of the Citadel of the Wizards of Tsarepheth. She was heir to the Rasan Empire until her father got a son on a new wife. Then she was sent to be the wife of a Prince in Song, but that marriage ended in battle and blood. Now she has renounced her worldly power to seek the magical power of the wizards. These two will come together to stand against the hidden cult that has so carefully brought all the empires of the Celadon Highway to st...

We're about a quarter of the way through the year, so here's an update on how I'm doing on the reading challenge! Purple  books are ones I've finished, and ones in gray are books I'm planning on reading for the challenge. 1) Fairy tale retelling: Miranda and Caliban by  Jacqueline Carey - A retelling of Shakespeare's The Tempest 2) Historical Fantasy: Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear - an alternate history/fantasy based on Mongolia in the time of Genghis Khan 3) Anathem or Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson 4) non-British Steampunk: Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo - Russian/Scandinavian steampunk?  7) Comic book: The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi 9) A classic: Foundation by Isaac Asimov 13) earth-based sci-fi: Station Eleven by  Emily St. John Mandel - a beautiful post-apocalyptic story about how people find their humanity after the end of the world 16) POC MCs: Seveneves by Neal Stephenson - multiple POC main characters, including...

I was looking online for a reading challenge to do this year, and I found an awesome one at Pages of Starlight ! You can check it out by clicking on the link. I love that this challenge is mostly sci-fi/fantasy and speculative fiction, because that's what I usually read. Still, it has enough unique criteria that it's going to be challenging to read them all. I really like how a lot of the challenge focuses on diverse books, because that's something I care a lot about. I keep saying I'm going to do more DiverSFFy posts, and even though I read a lot of books featuring POC and LGBTQ authors/main characters, I don't feature them enough. I'm hoping this challenge will help motivate me to expand my horizons and actually feature some awesome diverse books. Here's the challenge grid: I have a few ideas for books I want to read that fulfill the challenge, so I'm going to list them here: 2) Historical Fantasy: Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear ...

Title:  Carry On Author:  Rainbow Rowell My rating: 3 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: Simon Snow just wants to relax and savor his last year at the Watford School of Magicks, but no one will let him. His girlfriend broke up with him, his best friend is a pest, and his mentor keeps trying to hide him away in the mountains where maybe he’ll be safe. Simon can’t even enjoy the fact that his roommate and longtime nemesis is missing, because he can’t stop worrying about the evil git. Plus there are ghosts. And vampires. And actual evil things trying to shut Simon down. When you’re the most powerful magician the world has ever known, you never get to relax and savor anything. Carry On is a ghost story, a love story, a mystery and a melodrama. It has just as much kissing and talking as you’d expect from a Rainbow Rowell story — but far, far more monsters. I feel like Rainbow Rowell is just not my thing. Sorry friends! This is the second Rainbow Rowell book I've read, and...

Nevernight by Jay Kristoff My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars Genre: Fantasy, mystery Goodreads Summary : In a land where three suns almost never set, a fledgling killer joins a school of assassins, seeking vengeance against the powers who destroyed her family. Daughter of an executed traitor, Mia Corvere is barely able to escape her father’s failed rebellion with her life. Alone and friendless, she hides in a city built from the bones of a dead god, hunted by the Senate and her father’s former comrades. But her gift for speaking with the shadows leads her to the door of a retired killer, and a future she never imagined. Now, Mia is apprenticed to the deadliest flock of assassins in the entire Republic—the Red Church. If she bests her fellow students in contests of steel, poison and the subtle arts, she’ll be inducted among the Blades of the Lady of Blessed Murder, and one step closer to the vengeance she desires. But a killer is loose within the Church’s halls, the bloody secrets of Mia...

Title:  Court of Fives Author:  Kate Elliott Genre: Fantasy My rating: 3 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary : On the Fives court, everyone is equal. And everyone is dangerous. Jessamy’s life is a balance between acting like an upper-class Patron and dreaming of the freedom of the Commoners. But away from her family, she can be whomever she wants when she sneaks out to train for the Fives, an intricate, multilevel athletic competition that offers a chance for glory to the kingdom’s best competitors. Then Jes meets Kalliarkos, and an improbable friendship between the two Fives competitors—one of mixed race and the other a Patron boy—causes heads to turn. When Kal’s powerful, scheming uncle tears Jes’s family apart, she’ll have to test her new friend’s loyalty and risk the vengeance of a royal clan to save her mother and sisters from certain death. In this imaginative escape into an enthralling new world, World Fantasy Award finalist Kate Elliott’s first young adult novel we...

DiverSFFy is a feature hosted by yours truly! The goal is to get the word out about books in science fiction and fantasy that do a good job of portraying people from diverse backgrounds and perspectives - be it race, sexual orientation, gender, socioeconomic levels, etc.  I'd love it if you joined in - just link me to your posts in the comments or on twitter (@spidersilksnow)! This week's pick:  Karen Memory  by Elizabeth Bear The Rundown Title: Karen Memory Author: Elizabeth Bear Genre: Steampunk, fantasy Goodreads Summary : "You ain't gonna like what I have to tell you, but I'm gonna tell you anyway. See, my name is Karen Memery, like memory only spelt with an e, and I'm one of the girls what works in the Hôtel Mon Cherie on Amity Street. Hôtel has a little hat over the o like that. It's French, so Beatrice tells me." Set in the late 19th century—when the city we now call Seattle Underground was the whole town (and sti...

Title:  Empire Ascendant Author:  Kameron Hurley Genre: Fantasy, grimdark, adult My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: In this thrilling sequel to The Mirror Empire, Kameron Hurley transports us back to a land of blood mages, sentient plants, and warfare on a scale that spans worlds. Every two thousand years, parallel dimensions collide on the world called Raisa, bringing a tide of death and destruction to all worlds but one. Multiple worlds battle their dopplegangers for dominance, and those who survive must contend with friends and enemies newly imbued with violent powers. Now the pacifist country of Dhai's only hope for survival lies in the hands of an illegitimate ruler and a scullery maid with a powerful – but unpredictable –magic. As their dopplegangers spread across the world like a disease, a former ally takes up her Empress’s sword again to unseat her, and two enslaved scholars begin a treacherous journey home with a long-lost secret that they hope...