Recent Reading: The Starless Sea
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2025 06:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rocky41_7 posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
booksThe most recent commute audiobook was The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, of The Night Circus fame (although admittedly I have not read that one yet). This is a fantasy novel about Zachary, a young man swept into the drama of a secret underground society and the mysterious figures who surround it.
I finished this book on Sunday morning, catching the last 7 minutes of a whopping 19-hour runtime over breakfast, and since then I've settled into a relative disappointment. On paper, this book has so many things that should make it an ace in the hole for me: Book lovers! Cats! Secret magical societies! Queer characters! Women who are something Other taking control of their destinies! And yet, overall, this book just did not land for me.
As is a risk, I think, with all stories that are about the power of stories, The Starless Sea comes off a little pretentious and self-important. It is a book lauding the unmatched importance of books. I felt aware at various points throughout the book of how hard it was trying to appeal to people like me, who would enjoy the idea of a dark-paneled underground room with endless books and an on-demand kitchen, and this sense of pandering did take away from it at times.
However, it also does some interesting things with regards to what it is like to be the person in a story (such as the fate of Eleanor and Simon, once their part in the story is done) as well as the risks of valuing preservation over change and growth. Without giving too much away, there is a secret society in decline, and a woman so determined to prevent its downfall that she ends up causing significant harm to the organization she's trying to save because she is unwilling to accept that an end comes for all things. I enjoyed this theme and I felt like it was echoed well throughout the story, and in many ways it's easy to sympathize with her ultimate goals, if not her methods.
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[Prompt #421 — Amnesty] teen Titans — Total Consumption
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2025 06:10 ampitchblackrenegade posting in 100wordsAuthor: Audrelite Title: Total Consumption Fandom: Teen Titans (2003) Prompt: #421 — New Rating: E (Sexual content) Characters: Leonid Kovar, Koriand'r Word Count: 100 Summary: The sensation: total consumption, a pressure shattering every limit, a rhythm building, breaking, rebuilding its exquisite loop.
[Prompt #429 (Amnesty] Winx Club — Icy And His for the Taking
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2025 02:04 ampitchblackrenegade posting in 100wordsAuthor: Audrelite Title: Icy and His For the Taking Fandom: Winx Club Prompt: #429 — Icy Rating: T Characters: Tritannus, mentioned Icy Word Count: 100 Summary: To lose sight of Icy would be to lose this new constant gifted to him within this desolate wasteland.
Prompt: #440 - Amnesty Week
Monday, April 21st, 2025 11:00 pmsweettartheart posting in 100wordsEvery tenth week on 100words is Amnesty Week, when all previous prompts are fair game. Did you miss a prompt the first time around? Write it now! Want to write a prompt again? Please do!
Your response should be exactly 100 words long. You do not have to include the prompt in your response -- it is meant as a starting place only. Please use the appropriate prompt tag with your prompt response.
Please put your drabble under a cut tag if it contains potential triggers, mature or explicit content, or spoilers.
If you would like a template for the header information you may use this:
Subject: Original - Title (or) Fandom - Title
Post:
Title:
Original (or) Fandom:
Rating:
Notes:
Here's the template as code for easier pasting:
If you are a member of AO3 there is a 100 Words Collection!
The prompts are:
439. refuse
438. shelter
437. flower
436. bitter
435. exile
434. cook
433. scrape
432. mudita (मुदिता)
431. toska (тоска)
( Earlier prompts )
100words is Amnesty Week, when all previous prompts are fair game. Did you miss a prompt the first time around? Write it now! Want to write a prompt again? Please do!Your response should be exactly 100 words long. You do not have to include the prompt in your response -- it is meant as a starting place only. Please use the appropriate prompt tag with your prompt response.
Please put your drabble under a cut tag if it contains potential triggers, mature or explicit content, or spoilers.
If you would like a template for the header information you may use this:
Subject: Original - Title (or) Fandom - Title
Post:
Title:
Original (or) Fandom:
Rating:
Notes:
Here's the template as code for easier pasting:
If you are a member of AO3 there is a 100 Words Collection!
The prompts are:
439. refuse
438. shelter
437. flower
436. bitter
435. exile
434. cook
433. scrape
432. mudita (मुदिता)
431. toska (тоска)
( Earlier prompts )
(no subject)
Monday, April 21st, 2025 12:39 pmquicktimeeventfull posting in 100wordsTitle: Certainty
Fandom: Death Note
Rating: Gen
Notes: Spoilers for the end of Death Note; death of a child
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Fandom: Death Note
Rating: Gen
Notes: Spoilers for the end of Death Note; death of a child
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439: Sherlock Holmes (ACD): Gen
Sunday, April 20th, 2025 01:38 pmstonepicnicking_okapi posting in 100wordsShin Megami Tensei: Law Unto Chaos
Sunday, April 20th, 2025 04:22 pmtehexile posting in 100wordsTitle: Law Unto Chaos
Fandom: Shin Megami Tensei
Rating: PG-13
Notes: bureaucracy, humour
Summary: When demon summoning becomes widespread, its just immigration paperwork.
( Read more... )
Fandom: Shin Megami Tensei
Rating: PG-13
Notes: bureaucracy, humour
Summary: When demon summoning becomes widespread, its just immigration paperwork.
( Read more... )