the deep moans round with many voices

It's time for the continuing adventures of Liz and her reading list! These are the books I read in November and December of 2019. Click on the cuts for summaries and reactions. I reserve the right to spoil all hell out of any book if spoilery bits are what I feel like talking about.

The Edge of Worlds, by Martha Wells
-----( thoughts )

Harbors of the Sun, by Martha Wells
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All Systems Red, by Martha Wells
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Artificial Condition, by Martha Wells
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Rogue Protocol, by Martha Wells
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Exit Strategy, by Martha Wells
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This Star Shall Abide, by Sylvia Engdahl
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Beyond the Tomorrow Mountains, by Sylvia Engdahl
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The Doors of the Universe, by Sylvia Engdahl
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Opium: How an Ancient Flower Shaped and Poisoned Our World, by John H. Halpern, MD, and David Blistein
-----( thoughts )

Nine Goblins, by T. Kingfisher
-----( thoughts )

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I'll get the audiobook post up later today, but right at the moment I am going to take a nap.

I meant to do this yesterday, but I had social interaction comedown and ran out of spoons. So I will tell you about my Yuletide gift today instead!

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You and Me, Alone Together (1228 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Books of the Raksura - Martha Wells
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Moon (Books of the Raksura), Fern (Books of the Raksura)

Summary: In a world where Moon wasn't the only survivor of the Tath attack, his Arbora sister still has nightmares.

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...And I still don't really have enough spoons to explain adequately why this is great and you should read it immediately, but trust me, okay, you want to go read this immediately. It is a wonderful character study and a simultaneously heartbreaking and hopeful AU. ♥

Things I have done Thursday and Friday:

1. Wrote and mailed all my holiday cards. (No cute doodles this year, alas. I am tired and my hands are sore.)

2. Bought gifts for Dad, Mom, and Nick. Also bought a birthday present for Mom. As part of this project, I signed up for a $1.99 one-week trial of Amazon Prime, which I will promptly unsubscribe from by next Thursday. I used to be able to get a whole month's trial for free, but times change. (This is my yearly plan to get free holiday shipping for basically nothing. It's super effective! *evil grin*)

3. Finished rereading my Yuletide source canon. (Yes, this is hideously late. Sue me.) In conclusion, it has not been visited by the suck fairy in terms of content (aside from the general "needs more women!" issue that applies to most work from that time period *sigh*), but the writing is significantly clunkier than I remembered on a word-and-sentence level. Also I had entirely forgotten massive chunks of plot stuff, though I'd retained the entirety of the thematic arc... which is fair, since I'm pretty sure the thematic arc was the author's main point of interest.

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Things I intend to do on Saturday:

1. Poke at Cat and Susan for gift suggestions. Order stuff if they provide ideas. Failing any clearly expressed desires on their parts, I will buy them interesting books from the local co-op bookstore. (Yes, Ithaca has a co-op bookstore. It's Ithaca. What ELSE were you expecting???)

2. Start writing my Yuletide fic, in which I intend to make a stab toward addressing the "needs more women!" thing, along with general thematic arc thoughts and explorations.

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Hi, and thank you in advance for writing a story for me! I'm pretty easy to please -- unless you write a context-free sex scene, I'll be thrilled just to get a fic in one of the fandoms I asked for. *grin* But I realize that's not terribly helpful, so here's the (very!) long version. (I am sorry for the tl;dr, but I like to talk about things I love and I figure more details are better than fewer.)

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( General Information )

Okay. On to specific fandoms.

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( The Darkangel Trilogy )

( Saga of the Skolian Empire )

( Books of the Raksura )

And that is that. Thank you again, and happy writing!

Things in no particular order:

1. More car trouble struck this weekend, by which I mean that sometime between when I got home from work on Friday and when I got home from work on Saturday (I didn't drive Saturday, because I got a pre-work haircut and for various logistical reasons that works better when I walk and catch a bus than when I drive), the hard plastic sheet/shield that runs under the engine from the front fender came loose and is now dragging on the ground. Ugh. So I walked and bused to work on Monday, and this afternoon I'm taking the car in to Goodyear for repair. The guy I talked to on the phone says it shouldn't take more than an hour to fix, maybe only half an hour, depending on exactly how and where/why it came loose.

2. I should get in my Yuletide nominations today, shouldn't I? I'm not sure what I want to nominate this year. Definitely the Saga of the Skolian Empire, because I still want my Lisi-centric fic so I need to make sure both the fandom and the relevant characters are available. I think maybe the Books of the Raksura? Unless somebody else has already taken care of that. The question is what other tiny fandom of the heart I want to ensure is available, and with what specific characters. I might go for the Darkangel Trilogy again, since I am always game for more fic in that fandom (and definitely more minor-character-centric fic), but I dunno. I'm trying to think of things I've been fannishly passionate about this year, and which other people are unlikely to nominate so I need to cover them. (I am quite sure someone has already covered Murderbot.) Hmm. Possibly N. K. Jemisin's Dreamblood Duology? I'd enjoy spending some more time in that world, and it sure as hell meets the rarity qualifications...

Well, I will keep thinking about that this afternoon.

3. I've been poking at yet another old Homestuck oneshot WIP (this seems to be my season for clearing out old ficlets, I guess) and I have finally hit the emotional crux of the story. The thing is, I'm not quite sure where to go from here. Like, there's a certain action inherent in the prompt I'm working from, but I'm not quite sure how to verbally/emotionally get there from here, nor how to do another emotional pivot after that. Ah well, I'll keep plonking away and if the initial attempt is terrible, that's what edits are for.

4. I finished the test for my other CE tax course, which means I'm now at 26 credit hours (not counting tax update and ethics) for the year. The requirement is 13, so I am in very good shape, and I think I may get through another course or two before the cutoff at the end of November. Learning is good! I also need to look into taking the exam to move up a level in company internal rankings, because reasons, but that's annoying and also involves logistics, so. Maybe tomorrow. (It's definitely something I want a working car before attempting, since the test has to be done in an office under supervision, and I'd rather not deal with bus schedules on top of that.)

5. I still need to reply to comments on my remix, but at this point I've been putting that off for so long it's turned into a kind of looming dread. Which is dumb, but brains and emotions aren't logical so whatever. I will find a way to talk myself around that block sooner or later.

...

6. I think I'm going to go eat lunch and then take the car in to Goodyear.