A new review over at Tor.com:
…The Unbound Empire builds on everything that came before it, mounting to a stunning conclusion—one that more than pays off three volumes of character development and political shenanigans.
Melissa Caruso
Interesting links and a book to look forward to
Aliette de Bodard has a short novel in a new continuity forthcoming in October: clocking in at a little under fifty thousand words, In the Vanishers’ Palace (Kobo; Amazon; print not yet available for preorder) is a closely-observed and darkly compelling Beauty-and-the Beast retelling between a scholar and a dragon. (Both main characters are women.) I intend to review it at length in another venue, because this is a story that deserves attention: you should all keep an eye out and read it.
Melissa Caruso has a Twitter thread on chapter breaks and tension.
Sometimes these are smack in the middle of a scene. I’ll throw in the chapter break anyway.
Someone just got stabbed? CHAPTER BREAK.
Shocking secret truth-bomb dropped? CHAPTER BREAK.
The villain unexpectedly shows up? CHAPTER BREAK.
(Honestly, I live for this stuff.)
— Melissa Caruso (@melisscaru) August 17, 2018
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Ann Leckie talks about taste and enjoying things.
Autostraddle, an excellent website for queer lady culture, needs more members to support its continued existence into 2019.
An older thread from Dr. Mary McAuliffe, on queer Irish women of the early 20th century. (Queer Irish female revolutionaries included.)
A Twitter thread I have been holding close to my heart:
what if our present historical moment is in part the consequence of sheering away from popular consciousness all the parts of stories that taught us about defeat & sadness & consequence & enduring misery
— Amal El-Mohtar (@tithenai) April 12, 2018
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A tumblr post, likewise.
THE DEFIANT HEIR by Melissa Caruso
A new review over at Tor.com:
It is difficult, sometimes, to speak about something that you loved wholeheartedly. To set out to review a work that carries you away and lifts you out of yourself with delight is to set out to reveal the vulnerability of your joy—and that can be a frightening thing.
Sleeps With Monsters: Melissa Caruso Answers Six Questions
A new column over at Tor.com, my first Q&A in a long while:
MC: Probably the single biggest influence on me as a young writer was Robin McKinley’s The Hero and the Crown. It felt like the book I’d always been waiting for. I took it out of the library again and again as a kid, then bought a used copy with my own money and read that over and over, too. I love so many things about that book, from the wonderful heroine to the voice and the deep sense of setting (so many little real-feeling details!).
THE TETHERED MAGE by Melissa Caruso
Reviewed over at Tor.com:
The characters in The Tethered Mage are a delight and a joy. Although it’s told in the first person from Amalia’s point of view, the other characters come through sharply, as whole people with their own ideas and concerns—even if Amalia, as a narrator, doesn’t have a full picture of what’s going on. Zaira’s confrontational, brash, and complex. Her confrontational approach comes in part from a history of pain. The slow dance of prickly mistrust that grows into co-operation and eventual friendship—well, sort of friendship—between her and Amalia is one of the novel’s delights, along with Zaira’s pragmatism and her snark.
