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What I've Read

I have read so, so much Star Wars: Clone Wars era fanfic this week and particularly while on vacation - it's going to be a bit of a slog to write them all here but I'll try!

Those Who Can by K_R_Closson - I read her always-a-girl underpaid teacher Obi-Wan who goes to teach clones troopers on Kamino - it's brilliant.

Thirty-One Sons, Thirteen Moons by sual - Fairy tale version of Cody has to sleep with Jedi witch Obi Wan to break a curse that spits out a new son of Jango Fett every year. Features 31 sons and some dang fun writing.

A Slow Fall Towards Grace by glimmerglanger - A hard read in places, but a great review of Obi-Wan's expanded universe and Clone Wars history, with the addition of some omegaverse tropes. Obi-Wan just... sincerely believes that he is completely unloveable, in the face to Cody's steadfast adoration. Love this.

Transactional States by glimmerglanger (Archive Restricted) - Jango/Obi-Wan. Sex slave Obi-Wan, and the slow redemption of Jango Fett after Galidraan. Just... excellent depiction of flawed, injured people choosing to be better.

Triple Zero (Republic Commando) by Karen Traviss - more in the same series as Hard Contact. There is a little less clarity of purpose here - Traviss introduces a bunch of new characters and the book gets weirdly heterosexual. I also realized that there's a lack of dialogue tags and characters speak in similar voices, so I often had to double back to figure out who was saying which lines. That said, I'm going to continue in this series.

What I'm Reading Now

Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott – Book Group - Plugging along with this until the next week book clubl.

Make Your Bed (Lie in It) by glimmerglanger

What I'm Reading Next

True Colors by Karen Traviss
Never Say You Can't Survive
Hugo short stories and nonfiction works

What I've Read

Star Wars Republic Commando: Hard Contact by Karen Traviss – I did not expect to like this as much as I did. I felt like I was back in middle school, reading a book a day and getting really sunk into the world. Like a knife to gut, this book is straightforward. Exactly what I wanted to read.

Strangers Like Me by K_R_Closson - This fic just really nailed for me a world in which Obi-Wan Kenobi was rescued by Mandalorians. It's very, very good. I am noticing that Obi-Wan's backstory in canon is an ongoing spiral of tragedies, and I adore that fanfic writers have quite simply not forgotten that. I know I read some of the novels that detail his early life in the Jedi Order and leaving it and coming back, but man, Closson really nailed this one. Bravo!

I have also been reading a lot of stuff that is moderately too short to mention, but mostly in Star Wars.

What I'm Reading

Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott – Book Group - Like Kate Elliot usually does, I'm off to a slow start meeting all the characters and seeing the world thru their eyes. I wish I could mainline this one, but it's for book group, so slow and steady. I want more Persephone.

Those Who Can by K_R_Closson -I'm currently reading her always-a-girl underpaid teacher Obi-Wan who goes to teach clones troopers on Kamino - it's brilliant.

Triple Zero (Republic Commando) by Karen Traviss - more in the same series as Hard Contact. It's got a lot to recommend it, not least of which is ease of reading. It's even in a shitty, 2006 trade paperback that is falling apart and losing pages - I am in love.

What I'll Read Next

Westerns by Lee Clark Mitchell - for Supernatural theory reading
Never Say You Can't Survive

What I’ve Read
Strange Adventures by Tom King – Hugo 2022 Nominated – Best Graphic Novel – Eh. This is good, but it’s incredibly Tom King-ish. By which I mean, an American gets involved in a war abroad, lies a lot, and the CIA could probably sue for co-author credit. King’s work is good, don’t get me wrong, but I’m not sure if the Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy angle is really working for me. It does finish out my Best Graphic Novel category, tho!

Tame a Wild Human by Kari Greg – I read this technically-a-book book on some curiousity – got it from the library, and at free, I think the price is fair. It’s unexamined werewolf porn – there’s better on AO3, but it’s not terrible, I just think that the happy ending is, uh, kind of soured by knowing that your “misunderstood” werewolf bf did literally order some torture and murder to occur in front of you? Which might work for some people, or even me, if the writing could pull it off, but uh, nope.

a simple thing by iridan – Star Wars & Mandalorian to season 2, not in continuity with Book of Boba Fett – This 650K work is technically lacking a chapter or two before it's complete, but I read it over the course of about 5 days, riveted. It’s a truly ambitious work that brings in a significant amount of Expanded Universe characters and backstory to flesh out a potential future for both Din Djarin and the Mandalorians as a culture in diaspora. Like. This is magnificent and I have enjoyed every word. I also really appreciated how the author was very careful about thinking thru what elements of fanon v canon v her own headcanon she wanted to include, and I think she did a really good job at that.

“Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather” by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny Magazine, Mar/Apr 2021) Hugo Nominated for Best Short Story - deliciously creepy, makes interesting use of an online medium, definitely recommend reading on a computer rather than a phone. An interesting blend of modern tech as the medium to explore a theme that is probably more in the realm of fantasy, and I enjoyed how carefully the metanarrative built on itself, slowly, comment by comment, until the story's conclusions arrived in your brain as gently as a needle.

What I’m Reading
Never Say You Can’t Survive by Charlies Jane Anders – Hugo Nominated Best Related Work – How to get Through Hard Times by Making Up Stories – Just started, we’ll see!

Star Wars Republic Commando: Hard Contact by Karen Traviss – Traviss laid the groundwork for a lot of Mandalorian cultural elements, including language, so I’m going to read this as backstory for Mandalorian fic. It’s compelling and I’m appreciating the fact that someone noticed that the Republic grew a slave army to fight their wars, and that’s BAD. Pages, they are turning. I'm not sure whether or not I would find this all so compelling if I didn't have the Star Wars gremlins living rent free in my skull, but they have indeed taken up residence there, so this is pretty great for me.

What I’ll Read Next
Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott – Book Group
Short stories and novelettes - Hugo Nominated

What I've Read

Claimed by the Orc Prince by Lionel Hart - Don't judge me, this was a fun little bit of porn, and I wanted to add another to the Books I Read in February List
Spring in Hell and Everything's Blooming by Blackkat - Star Wars Clone Wars - Ok, this was just an excellent Hurt/Comfort story with Jon Antilles/Rex the Clone Trooper. It's just dark and wonderful.
trade your heart for bones to know by Blackkat - Star Wars Clone Wars unfinished, read to chap18 - Oh, man, this is just catnip.
Pretty by astolat - Game of Thrones - Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth - a great little epilogue about Cersei on a great story.
"Hey, check it out, there's actually fans": (Dis)empowerment and (mis)representation of cult fandom in "Supernatural" by Laura E. Felschow - This was a very interesting look at the dynamics between cult fandom and producers of the shows they love. The focus on Supernatural was a little light and a little early - I would love to see this author revisit the show's last ten years - but a very solid entry into my reading. It's in Transformative Works and Cultures 4.

What I'm Reading

Still reading Running on Lightning Feet by Blackkat from last week - the last few chapters are getting a rewrite and there's an element of risk aversion to the fact that I don't want to finish it before then.
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston - I am about ten pages in, but this book is charming and I need to get the focus set up so I can get on it.

What I'm Going to Read Next

"Renegotiating religious imaginations through transformations of "banal religion" in Supernatural" by Line Nybro Petersen
"Good and Evil in the World of Supernatural" by Avril Hannah-Jones
I don't really know - I'm not super inspired about it just today, but I have no doubt it's going to be something by Blackkat
Maybe I'll just stick my hand into the To Read pile and grab something? Who knows, there's a lot there that I could get into!

Work in Progress Report

I've signed up for Sock Madness, and the qualifying round sock pattern has just come out - so I now have a bunch of things to get into.

What I've Read

Peter Darling by Austin Chant - This novel did not disappoint me. It really leaned into the idea of Neverland as an escape for Peter Pan, and gave him a lived reality as trans man to really need to find somewhere safe to escape to. It's got excellent character development for him, from a scared little boy to a more thoughtful man, and I love watching a fantastical landscape shape itself as an extension of character development. Also, this author understands that Captain James Hook is very gay and very hot.

The City We Became by NK Jemisin - This is great and just, so fast! A real driving plot with compelling characters and a real love of New York. An excellent book to read in companion with Light From Uncommon Stars. They are both stories that center what it's like to live in a city, as a person of color, and all the joy and life and connection and frustration that entails - loving but clear-eyed.

TV Horror by Stacey Abbott and Lorna Jowett -Meh. This felt like a book report, or a literature review. Valuable to read, just a bit dry.

What I'm Reading

One Last Stop by Casey Mc Quiston - Just getting started on this but I already feel a lot of sympathy for the main character - she feels very displaced and isolated but maybe, carefully, this is the place for her to find a landing spot.

running with lightning feet by blackkat - Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) AU Fic that's focused on an AU where the Nightbrother Feral, the little brother of Darth Maul and Savage Opress, survives longer than in canon, and falls into the hand of oddly compassionate Jedi. Blackkat does amazing writing, and while I watched some of the Clone Wars cartoon in the past few years, I clearly did not connect to it the way that this author did. They are bringing out so many nuance of the injustice and hardship and personal cost of war that this CHILDREN'S CARTOON set up and then could not fully delve into. This focuses on the parallels between the clone soldiers (Wolffe, mostly, but a large cast) and how they parallel the Nightbrothers' experience on Dathomir - property, with lives largely unimportant to the people who control their fate. It's great, it's sprawling, I am slightly afraid of the fact that the last few chapters are not posted. But I have been mainlining Blackkat's works for the past few days due to Anxiety About Real Life and there are so many very long works that are being continuously updated that I'm willing to roll the dice here.

What I'll Read Next

"Hey, check it out, there's actually fans": (Dis)empowerment and (mis)representation of cult fandom in "Supernatural" by Laura E. Felschow
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
Something from the To Be Read pile

What I've Read:
Inspired by my mainlining of The Book of Boba Fett*, I have read a good chunk of Mandalorian fanfic this week, so this list will contain some fic recs! (I'd love more, I'm finding them very entertaining.)

Don't Let it in (With No Intention to Keep it) by Purplesauris - Mandalorian cottagecore, set after The Mandalorian season 2, Din Djarin/Boba Fett/Luke Skywalker - Luke makes a cottage for himself and Grogu to find some peace. Then Din shows up and Luke falls in love with him, slowly, and they make a home together. Then Din's boyfriend shows up.

tell me what the bees say by petraquince (incomplete) - Mandalorian cottagecore AU, set somewhere in New England, Din Djarin/Boba Fett/Luke Skywalker - "It’s been three years since Luke inherited his Uncle Ben’s old house and garden after his death and he still finds himself reeling from the loss sometimes. But he buries himself in his raised beds and becomes a staple at the local farmer’s market. Life is serene, but he still feels like something is missing — until his new neighbors move into the dilapidated cottage down the road. Passion sprouts and love blossoms as he finds himself inextricably bound to the family that he has always been searching for."
Why I love it: Luke is awkward and sweet and there are bees. This is more of a romance with a touch of star wars.

Separate Ways by PepperPrints - the OG Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker fic, posted before the end of season one, and full of delightful found family vibes. A re-read.

staring down the barrel of the hot sun by magneticwave - An AU where Anakin Skywalker never fell to the dark side, and where Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker will follow Obi-Wan Kenobi to broker a peaceful transition of power for the unknown Mandalorian who just won his rule by taking the Darksabre from an unjust king. Short and sweet, love the writing and the cultural exchange.

And one that's not like the others: Ad Augustana per Sciencia by Star_flaming (still reading this, actually, it's 150K) Hux/Kylo Ren, written for The Force Awakens and does not include The Last Jedi

Summary: Hux prided himself on being a man who managed to have interests outside of the military. His newest interest; history so old that many thought it useless in the modern age. And he could have been quite content, reading articles and books on ancient cultures if it wasn't for Kylo Ren, who seemed to have made it his goal to inject himself into Hux's academic pursuits when he wasn't destroying the ship through his apparent self-destructive tendencies. Or: Academia brings two idiots together and builds a new regime"

My notes: Look, I normally think that Hux is a fucking Nazi and pretty repellent. (Full credit to Domhnall Gleeson on that bit of acting.) But this is written with a different mindset for the character and I am kind of able to work with this divergent military history buff who worries about the stress tolerances on their version of the Death Star and also if Kylo Ren is eating enough. There are some excellent bits of "military person being competent" here and some excellent fake academia, which, well, I am a sucker for. I haven't finished this yet.

Side note: I started this post by writing the section below, "What I'm (still) Reading" and felt a bit sheepish that I hadn't finished any books this week and now, looking back on this batch of fic, I feel less inclined to say that I did no reading this week.

What I'm Reading:
Paladin's Grace, by T. Kingfisher - Carried over from last week, I'm slowing down as we get more plotty but I would like to persevere in the face of the slower pace.

The City We Became by NK Jemisin is having the absolute opposite problem - I have to stop because it's a book club read and if skip ahead I don't get to do the fun part where we make mid-point predictions about where the book is going to go. In this case, oh, god I have no idea how this will get resolved but I am having a blast. Manny and Brooklyn and Queen are just delightful - it's a fast paced read and I read the whole first half in roughly a day. (To the point where I felt disappointed that I'd ""done no reading this week""" before I realized, uh, no, I had just devoured that book) This book is an excellent but really distinct companion piece to Light from Uncommon Stars - both have a deeply rooted experience of being a particular person in a particular place - Asian in LA and Black in NYC - and love that experience and convey some facet of that to the reader very well.

Sabriel by Garth Nix Audio book - ongoing.

What I'll Read Next
Honestly I am just going to aim to finish the books I have got going

Books I bought and don't yet have a planned time to read but really want to?

Something Fabulous - Alexis Hall
The Devil of Dark Hollow
King's Dragon - Kate Elliot - I read a LOT of this series when I was in maybe middle school and I 100% did not understand that I was slashing Alain/Fifth Son and was angry that the book didn't carry that thru.
Peter Darling - Austing Chat - TRANS PETER PAN. He can't explain to his family why he can't stand being "Wendy" so he returns to Neverland as an adult and has an enemies to lovers relationship with Captain Hook - the rec was so compelling from an online friend I just went for it.
Victoria Goddard books - The Bride of the Blue Wind, Stargazy Pie

*(Was that show good? Probably not. It felt really kind of confused about why the story was being told. There was a kind of purposelessness to it? Nothing bad, just. Why is Boba Fett doing this particular thing here and now? Because it makes Disney money. )