fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #4225 ]

[ SECRET POST #4225 ]

⌈ Secret Post #4225 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01. [SPOILERS for Voltron?]

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 35 secrets from Secret Submission Post #605.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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What are you reading? What have you read recently? Any good?

Just finished, Catherynne Valente's "Space Opera," a farce inspired by Bowie, Douglas Adams, and Eurovision (at least one act is Lordi.)

Working on, Martha Wells, "All Systems Red" and Michael Moorcock, "An Alien Heat."

Been hearing a lot about the Valente - how'd you like it

My partner found the fourth-wall breaking, run-on sentences loaded with similes to be a bit much. I loved it.

The Joseph Muller detective novels by Auguste Groner - they're a bunch of detective stories written in pre-WWI Vienna, and they're pretty decent, not amazing or anything but likable and charming

also, The Black Opera by Mary Gentle, which is sort of an alt-history-fantasy thing about Italian opera, and I've only just started but it's really, really good so far

I need to find a new book. The most recent one I've enjoyed was The Psychopath Test. I can't find anything to engage me as much as that one did. :(

This title sounds promising! I'll add it to my to-read list.

It is pretty funny, which I enjoyed.

Re: Books

malurette - 2018-07-29 21:31 (UTC) - Expand

I've just finished book #6 in the Wardstone Chronicles series and I didn't like it. I was liking the series jsut fine until then, now I'm a bit wary of what happens next.

Edited 2018-07-29 21:03 (UTC)

A friend gave me a LGBT myths & fairytales compilation last month, I loved it to bits and I'd like to rec it everywhere, but it's in French and I don't think it'll ever be translated in any other language--but maybe some similar stuff already exists elsewhere? in which case I'd gladly take recs please!

Ooh, could you share the title anyway? I'm learning French and, while the book is likely outside my reading level now, I'd love to read it eventually.

"Contes et Légendes des Autres Amours" by Florence Azé--it's aimed at young adults so maybe you don't have to be too worried about reading levels?

I've got a book on the Armenian genocide coming in the mail, "They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else: A History of the Armenian Genocide". Because if I'm not reading kids books I'm reading about crimes against humanity, I guess.

Edited 2018-07-29 21:30 (UTC)

Have ordered this on ILL, and thank-you for the rec. Realistically I don't know if I'll be able to read it all - are there specific chapters that you can recommend?

I'm currently reading about 15 different Chinese danmei(BL) novels.
Quality varies because they are fan translations but I really love some of them.

Do you have any recommendations? I didn't really realize that original Chinese BL was a thing (not counting doujinshi) until relatively recently, with that one Chinese BL anime. I'd love to explore it more.

First of all: Most of the novels I read are in the Xianxia genre - which is basically the Chinese equivalent of high fantasy - lots of cultivation, getting power ups through magical items/pills, fantastical monsters and contract beasts, magic etc. - it can take a bit in some cases to learn some new terms that are fairly common in those types of stories.

There's also Wuxia, which is what most people already know from some Chinese martial arts movies - less magic, more emphasis on martial arts.

So the best thing to start is definitely Founder of Diabolism/Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation/Mo Dao Zu Shi. It's one of the most popular novels for a reason - it has a great plot, first and foremost, with the relationship being a really nice bonus, in a way. It's a bit of a slow burn, but it's well worth it.

It's not fully translated but new chapters are on a fairly regular schedule:
https://exiledrebelsscanlations.com/grandmaster-of-the-demonic-cultivation/
(That page also has a summary.)

It also has a manhua adaption, an audio drama AND a donghua/anime adaption (all still in progress)!

https://exiledrebelsscanlations.com/the-grandmaster-of-demonic-cultivation/
https://gdcsubs.blogspot.com/

The animation will cut back on the relationship quite a bit for censorship reasons but it's still quite nice. There's also a live action drama in production but there have been some very unpleasant rumours about it so I won't really count it.

Another novel I like very much so far is by the same author as the above novel: Heaven Official's Blessing/Heaven's Blessing: https://www.sakhyulations.com/novel/heaven-officials-blessing/ (Also includes a summary)
It doesn't have too many chapters translated so far but from the spoilers I read, it seems to be equally as interesting as the other novel. (It also has been confirmed for a donghua and manhua adapation afaik.)

The third novel by the same author is "The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System".

https://cnoveluv.wordpress.com/projects/the-scum-villains-self-saving-system/

I don't like it quite as much as the other two but it's nice nonetheless.
It has a type of trope that's apparently very popular in Chinese webnovels: The main character getting transmigrated into novels they read/games they played etc. and having to live as a character from those media. Usually, they're armed with some meta knowledge of the stories they read and try to keep the plot going the way they think it should be going.
In other cases, like this novel, they get reborn as villains or cannon fodder characters/mob character who they know will die so they have to try to keep that from happening. Often, they have a "system" - which works kind of like an AI that gives them cheats or puts up rules they have to follow and awards/subtracts points according to the MC's performance. For me, this genre is kind of hit-and-miss, some novels with that plot can be quite nice, others... eh.

Some of my favourites by other authors:

The Villain’s White Lotus Halo

https://www.sakhyulations.com/novel/white-lotus-halo/

This one also has the above mentioned trope but twists it in an amusing way - the main character is a villain who kept getting killed and reborn into different stories. Because he's tired of always getting killed of easily, he goes and purchases what he thinks is a great villain cheat item for his next incarnation. But he ends up getting the wrong item without his knowledge and is now stuck with a so called "white lotus halo" - a white lotus character in CN novels is a character who is very pure and innocent and who can do no wrong. It's gets kind of amusing.

Spring Trees and Sunset Clouds

https://exiledrebelsscanlations.com/spring-trees-and-sunset-clouds/

I like this one because instead of a huge, world changing conflict, it's more of a slice of life type story with emphasis on character development. It's a pretty fluffy, relaxing read for me.

A Thousand Autumns

https://www.ainushi.com/projects/chinese/thousand-autumns/

This is a Wuxia novel. I like it so far and I hope it stays that way. Basically: Head of a martial arts sect gets tricked into losing a fight, gets seriously injured and picked up by the head of a rival sect who nurses him back to life for unknown reasons. I like that the main character isn't a helpless drooping flower despite his injuries.

So What If You’ve Been Reborn?

https://lovelysweetdream959085286.wordpress.com/so-what-if-youve-been-reborn-bl/

I like this one as well so far. Summary included in the link.

Now one that I'm never 100 % sure about recommending is

The Legendary Master's Wife

https://exiledrebelsscanlations.com/the-legendary-masters-wife/

I kind of enjoy it as a slightly pulpy read, but the characterisations can be not everyone's cup of tea. I cringe a bit at the main character's antics from time to time.

In general: Some CN BL novels can get pretty damn rapey. Some may not be all-out rapey but still can have some non-con-y content that might not be for everyone. But that's not much too different from some yaoi manga, so if you've read stuff in that genre, you'd be used to it - same for the fairly strict seme/uke (or gong/shou in CN terms) allocation.

Another thing: There seems to be a bit of an obsession with mpreg and omegaverse in the Chinese BL community at the moment. I avoid those tropes/genres like the plague but from the spoiler threads I've seen on novelupdates, I could probably link you some if you like those topics.

Just finished "To The Lighthouse". I can see that it's good intellectually but I think I missed about a third of the book because I couldn't follow the sprawling narrative and kept reading on without digesting the words and didn't realise until five lines later.

I absolutely loved that book but it does take a bit of time to work through it and sit with everything. I oughta reread it sometime.

Re: Books

type_wild - 2018-07-29 23:38 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Books

(Anonymous) - 2018-07-29 23:55 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Books

type_wild - 2018-07-30 00:10 (UTC) - Expand

I just finished the new Thrawn book that came out. It was good. I liked it a lot.

Just began reading Arbitrary Stupid Goal by Tamara Shopsin. It's good.

I misread that as Arbitrary Stupid Gaol and got a very, VERY different idea of what the book was.

I just - just - started The Past and Future City by Stephanie Meeks, president of the US National Trust for Historic Preservation. I've barely gotten into it but love it so far. I'm pre-disposed to love it, I suppose, because not only do I work in a historic preservation-related field (archaeology, though, not buildings), but I'm one of those Young People Who Like Old Buildings and Mixed-Use Neighborhoods that the book is praising.

i have like 4 books on my reading list rn (which i am actually reading), my to-read-list is ab 20 books full.

currently reading anne bronte, bc tumblr said she was the best writer among the sisters and i was like BOOYA, lemme try this, bc i only got in like 5 pages into jane eyre and wuthering heights bc it's so freaking BORING, but alas, anne is not much better.
(First Person POV is so grating)

other than that, i can always recommend discworld novels. love them and can't wait to have read them all (have read 4 of them now)

I recently finished a gay urban fantasy House of Stone by Vaughn Demont and it's awesome. Reminds me of fanfiction but in a good way.

Now I'm reading Blood Song by Anthony Ryan. A bit dark for me but a page turner.

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