kitewithfish

Weekly reading Journal for Wednesday May 20 2026

(Updated now that I am back from my most recent travels and in a position to actually say something useful)

What I’ve Read

Xenoethnography Series by Therrae aka DashaMTE– I have been giving this series a well deserved re-read - https://archiveofourown.org/series/913458 I don’t think you actually need to know anything about the Transformers cartoons or movies to enjoy these – as I certainly didn’t. I suspect from the footnotes that it is actually full of little easter eggs that I didn’t fully appreciate at the time, and I’m looking them up this go-round. The main character is an anthropologist who is helping the Autobots explain themselves to humanity. (Edited 5/22/26) - I didn’t realize how much I had read of Therrae/DashaMTE in a previous fandom, The Sentinel, and how long she’s been actively writing some of the most tender and thoughtful characterization I know of. Please, go give her stuff a read.

Ancient Magus Bride vol 4 - Kore Yamazaki – nice to revisit the dragons. I think I am getting manga saturation.

Falling - Humani Nihil – Rengyuo by narayana – Maul/Amidala Phantom Menace fic, from 2001ish. I managed to find a copy of the series from the Darth Maul Estrogen Brigade 2.0, before it was taken down. It is written with some of the (now noncanonical) Expanded Universe novels but before the general shape of the prequel trilogy was known, so there is a lot of extrapolation and fun experiments. Maul, never sent to Naboo and never bisected, is sent by Sidious to seduce Amidala and pull her to the Dark Side. It works reasonably well. I have apparently memorized some sections of this and forgotten others, which is about what I would expect for a fic I remembered from 20+ years ago but hadn’t gotten to read in the interim.

Bonus: I really enjoyed Maul: Shadow Lord, in the recent Star Wars cartoon expansion - has some great elements of characterization and really lovely animation.

What I’m Reading
Isle in the Silver Sea – Read a lot of this on a recent journey – I feel like we are sloooowly getting to parts I find more interesting.
The Raven Scholar – Static
Inventing the Renaissance -About 8 hours in. I will almost certainly not get a chance to finish this before the Hugos, but it is a great piece of approachable writing about how historians work.

What I’ll Read Next
Tbd!