Post #2858172
2026-05-12 21:17 UTC
Replies (30)
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@aprilfollies@mastodon.online 2026-05-12 21:31
@swan_tower@wandering.shop “The Lies We Conjure,” Sarah Henning. Just happened across it in the library. A gathering of witches, a couple of imposters, a murder or three…
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@katfeete@wandering.shop 2026-05-12 21:43
@swan_tower@wandering.shop Ah yes not talked about everywhere *stuffs Murderbot recommendation under the couch* So more seriously I recently finished Yume Kitasei’s The Deep Sky and loved it! Generation ship of female-bodied 20yo graduates of a brutal “only the best” training program, far enough out to feel they can’t some back but still able to talk to the people they left behind forever. War breaking out behind them and murders on board. Really loved the plot and characters and rich emotional subtexts.
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@Twotired@universeodon.com 2026-05-12 22:21
@swan_tower@wandering.shop #ScienceFiction : #AutomaticNoodle #TheMountainInTheSea
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@cwg1231@defcon.social 2026-05-13 00:22
@swan_tower@wandering.shop Heavenly Tyrant, the sequel to Xiran Jay Zhao’s Iron Widow. Fantastic book. The series is mech sci-fi based on Chinese mythology. Has badass women and polyamory, but content warning for sexual assault because the series gets pretty real about the kind of sexual and political pressures that powerful women get.
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@Willowbriar@chaosfem.tw 2026-05-13 04:41
@swan_tower@wandering.shop DEED by torrin a. greathouse is a beautiful collection of poetry. Their previous collection, Wound From the Mouth of a Wound, is just as wonderful.
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@Usemame@mastodon.ie 2026-05-13 16:25
@swan_tower@wandering.shop The Lost Books of the Odyssey By Zachary Mason Sort of alternative versions of the well known story. I read one chapter a night for weeks and thoroughly enjoyed thinking about them
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@edhaswell@ohai.social 2026-05-17 18:54
@swan_tower@wandering.shop "Golem and the Jinni" by Helene Wecker.
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@codingcoyote@floss.social 2026-05-17 19:54
@swan_tower@wandering.shop Soon I Will Be Invincible ~ Austin Grossman I don't normally read "superhero novels' but the author is incredibly skilled at working it into an incredible narrative. Self-contained story with no sequel. Friend recommended it to me and I loved it so much he ended up buying me a signed copy the next year. It follows a villain through his stereotypical story arc, but Grossman really digs into the humanity of each character and how our choices sometimes cause us to overlook things.
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@michaelgemar@cosocial.ca 2026-05-17 20:20
@swan_tower@wandering.shop @quixoticgeek@social.v.st My friend (and award-winning novelist) KR Wilson just published Stan on Guard, a sequel to his novel Call Me Stan. The novels follow an immortal Hittite warrior in his picaresque adventures through history. Clever, funny, and surprising. (And really well researched.)
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@chiraag@mastodon.online 2026-05-17 20:39
@swan_tower@wandering.shop https://laurenleemerewether.com/products/the-complete-lost-pharaoh-chronicles
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@anotherdaniel@chaos.social 2026-05-17 20:46
@swan_tower@wandering.shop Many things to recommend - let’s start with anything by qntm Example: https://qntm.org/mmacevedo Hope this isn’t already well-known… am out of touch in that regard.
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@janggolan@mastodon.social 2026-05-17 21:40
@swan_tower@wandering.shop Ai Qing's Selected Poems translated by Robert Dorsett (2021) The Wall … How can it stop a billion people whose thoughts are freer than wind? whose resolve is more deeply rooted than earth? whose aspiration is more infinite than time? —May 1979
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@marionline@autistics.life 2026-05-17 21:41
@swan_tower@wandering.shop I don't know how famous Marc Uwe Kling's book Qualityland is in english speaking places. I'd also recommend The Patriarchs: by Angela Saini, but it is a non-fiction book.
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@glc@mastodon.online 2026-05-17 22:53
@swan_tower@wandering.shop An Immense World (Ed Yong). Not a very recent read in fact but it's stayed with me and probably is not as well known as it deserves. A good look at the evolving science around the various sensory universes occupied by a broad range of animals, eye-opening [sic]. Full of wonder. https://edyong.me/an-immense-world Goes well with the fiction of Sue Burke incidentally (notably Semiosis, another favorite from a ways back).
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@sillyCoelophysis@hachyderm.io 2026-05-17 23:28
@swan_tower@wandering.shop I just finished "If This Book Exists, You're in the Wrong Universe" by Jason Pargin for the second time. It's the fourth book in the John Dies at the End series. Disturbing and funny horror books about three young adults who repeatedly save the universe from certain doom despite their incompetence and lack of resources. I found all of the books to be laugh out loud funny, psychologically damaging, and they will probably leave you with some kind of cosmic curse or interdimensional parasite. The author says each book is a standalone tale, which is true, but I recommend them all.
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@Pinchy63@ottawa.place 2026-05-18 02:59
@swan_tower@wandering.shop Just finished Kurt Vonnegut Blue Beard. It was recommended to me about 6 yrs ago I bought a two packet with Cat’s Cradle as the second book. Finally tried to read them. Not sure if I enjoyed Blue Beard but it was nice to read something light for a change except I found it really jumped around a lot.
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@chocobo13@mastodon.social 2026-05-18 04:20
@swan_tower@wandering.shop Of the many, many pieces of fiction I've ever read, the unpublishable "Embers", by Vathara, is my all-time favorite. It's fan-fiction, so copyright gets in the way of a proper book form of it, but I love the research and history that inspired the various plot points
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@SRLevine@neuromatch.social 2026-05-18 05:02
@swan_tower@wandering.shop Adding to the replies so others might enjoy it: I got an eARC of RZ Nicolet's "The Cloak and its Wizard" and it was absolutely delightful. The main human character is imperfect in a real way and the cloak is probably my favorite non-humanish character in a long time.
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@uchujinfilms@social.tchncs.de 2026-05-18 05:19
@swan_tower@wandering.shop Not sure this counts, and might even be a little cheeky, but.... I wrote a book, a travel memoir that some of you may enjoy http://book.uchujin.co.uk
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@CliftonR@wandering.shop 2026-05-18 05:30
@swan_tower@wandering.shop A couple books I read recently that had me going "WHY didn't anyone tell me about this!?" Wylding Hall, Elizabeth Hand It's a sort of ghost story but there's no ghost. Or maybe it's a haunted house story but the house isn't exactly haunted. Or maybe it's a mystery with no answers. It's a folk horror book - I guess - but there is no blood, no gore, only one moment of actual horror and that's seen only in retrospect and with a magnifying glass. It's sure uncanny though.
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@Firlefanz@writing.exchange 2026-05-18 05:43
@swan_tower@wandering.shop Take a look at Frida of Hamelin, a very gentle, slow burn romance set in a very well researched and authentic medieval world. And it's tied to the Pied Piper legend, too. Written by an indie author who is here on Mastodon. ( @anderlandbooks@bookstodon.com )
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@Dofain@mastodon.social 2026-05-18 06:02
@swan_tower@wandering.shop @ploum@mamot.fr Not that recently but i really loved it: When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill: the journal of a girl in the 1950s when women mysteriously transformed into dragons, backed up by scientist's notes. A fantastic journey into feminism. I especially love the audiobook (i own both) for it has 2 voice actors and they are just perfect.
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@darrenmoffat@mastodon.social 2026-05-18 07:28
@swan_tower@wandering.shop Kings Watch series by Mark Hayden. Contemporary UK setting, fantasy/magic…
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@david_chisnall@infosec.exchange 2026-05-18 07:44
@swan_tower@wandering.shop And remember this works both ways. The thing that put me off movie / TV show piracy was a Harvard study that showed that it increased sales. People who pirate shows talks about them and this encourages other people to buy them (Microsoft’s ‘80s and early ‘90s strategy was built on the idea that software piracy led to lock in to your products, in a very similar way). If you’re not willing to offer your product at a price and in a format I’m happy with, I’m not going to advertise for you and I’ll avoid it entirely so I don’t accidentally advertise it.
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@KatKimbriel@raggedfeathers.com 2026-05-18 16:08
@swan_tower@wandering.shop Recommending LOOKING FOR THE HIDDEN FOLK by Nancy Marie Brown (S&S) It's nonfiction, a love letter to Iceland. And halfway through it, I am thinking all sorts of interesting things about time, space, quantum physics, and culture. Also realizing I don't look at time in an Eastern or Western fashion. #bookstodon https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Looking-for-the-Hidden-Folk/Nancy-Marie-Brown/9781639365746/
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@BentiGorlich@wehavecookies.social 2026-05-18 16:58
@swan_tower@wandering.shop I love "The Will Of The Many", but it is already a bestseller, so...
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@BillySmith@social.coop 2026-05-18 18:11
@swan_tower@wandering.shop I'm in the middle of re-reading "Somebody Stop Her" again... :D It's a thoroughly deranged take on the SuperHero genre. "Somebody Stop Her" by Vitaly S Alexius. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Somebody-Stop-Her-Superhero-Apocalypse/dp/1039481469
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@Kathmandu@stranger.social 2026-05-18 18:33
@swan_tower@wandering.shop I would like to recommend "Grist to the Cannon", a fantasy adventure story where our hero goes to a mining town to buy some star-stone...and has to fight the bandit who's taken over the town. It has comedy, friendship, fight scenes, and magic. It's the prose version of an online comic I'm enjoying, "Kidd Commander", adapted by the creator of the comic. Check it out at https://linktr.ee/kcnovels !
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@beasom@mastodon.social 2026-05-19 08:33
@swan_tower@wandering.shop The *Steerswoman* books by Rosemary Kirstein. They were out of print for ages and she got the self-publishing rights back. They’re well-written SF and the PoV character is a not-young female protagonist. There’s depth to the characters, cultures, and the world. Gene Wolf and Adrian Tchaikovsky are the only other authors I can think of who pulled off similar tricks of worldbuilding and narrative, where information in the story is meaningful to both characters and the reader.
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@mmb@subdued.social 2026-05-19 21:18
@swan_tower@wandering.shop Sometimes a series is a helpful immersion. While they are white English mysteries, authors Sherry Thomas (w Charlotte Holmes) and Laurie King (Mary Russell, wife of SH.) have each put a twist on Sherlock Holmes canon from much different perspectives. Stories and character studies leading with the women in those times. (Although some books are stronger than others in each series. And, very different from each author’s other series - putting in mildly.)