kitewithfish

What I've Read
In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan - Storygraph tells me that I most recently read this in 2022, but I remember reading it back when Brennan was putting it together on her livejournal in a short story format, sometime before it was published in 2018. I really felt so attached to the main character, an abrasive young bi man who lands in an portal story and rather than taking up a sword, figures out that the place desperately needs diplomacy and the ability to make treaties. Elliott spends a fair time getting rejected and somewhat ill-used, but he's so used to benign neglect that he simply doesn't bother with resentment. He simply understands himself as a person who other people will tolerate at best. This boy's self image is like catnip to me, in a terribly self indulgent way. Get loved, idiot.

I'm gonna love you with my hands tied by kaasknot https://archiveofourown.org/works/34586794 - Love this fic. Will not make much sense without reading a couple of the Karen Traviss Star Wars Republic Commando fics. Suffice to say: Some clones from The Clone Wars are raised to be way more badass and Mandalorian than average, and this fic focuses on the random normal trooper they run into on a mission and adopt. The books skip the time period where Corr, our POV character, gets his prosthetics upgraded from basic to badass and gets trained as a Commando - this story covers that period of training with his extremely skittish Commando battle buddy, Mereel. Mereel is a study in weird cultural hangs-up and parental neglect. This fic is a great character study of Corr and his development from a disabled soldier who has lost his family and purpose to a badass commando who will likely be able to handle the weird cultish mentality of the clone family he's kind of marrying into. Corr is thoughtful and morally solid and I liked being in his head.

What I’m Reading
City of Lies by Sam Hawke – 67% - I am technically re-reading this but have no actual knowledge of the book’s plot. Did I finish this?
Tomb of Dragons by Katherine Addison
How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying - Django Wexler
Male Order – Unwrapping Masculinity -edited b y Rowena Chapman

What I'll Read Next
I am free as a bird now.