Books That Burn

Hello Patrons and general audience members! Welcome to another Books That Burn essay by Robin. Thank you to Case Aiken, who receives a monthly Patron shoutout.

[Full Text Available Here]

This is the second in a five-part essay series discussing two long-running book series by queer authors: October Daye by Seanan McGuire, and Inheritance by A.K. Faulkner. I chose these series because I love them both, they were intended from the start to be long series, neither of them are finished yet, and the authors have different structural approaches to developing each series across so many volumes. Purely coincidentally, they are both long-running contemporary fantasy series mainly set in California in or near the 2010's, with major characters named Quentin, and whose fast-healing protagonists have a tendency to quasi-adopt a gaggle of magical teenagers. After a brief moment in the 1990's, October Daye begins in earnest in 2009 and has reached 2015 as of the eighteenth book, while Inheritance is ambiguously set in the mid-to-late 2010's. Each of my essays focuses on a particular topic of importance to long series such as these two. They're designed to be intelligible on their own, and can theoretically be read in any order, but most readers will have the best experience if they start with the first essay and proceed linearly.

This essay spoils major elements of the first ten books of the Inheritance series by A.K. Faulkner, as well as the first six books in the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire, while lightly discussing some spoilers from later books in that series. It touches briefly on themes of murder and death, as well as alluding to fictional depictions of kidnapping, torture, and harm to children. 

• What Is a Monster of the Week? (02:48)

Hello Patrons and general audience members! Welcome to another Books That Burn essay by Robin. Thank you to Case Aiken, who receives a monthly Patron shoutout.

[Full Transcript Available Here]

This is the first in a five-part essay series discussing two long-running book series by queer authors: October Daye by Seanan McGuire, and Inheritance by A.K. Faulkner. I chose these series because I love them both, they were intended from the start to be long series, neither of them are finished yet, and the authors have different structural approaches to developing each series across so many volumes. Purely coincidentally, they are both long-running contemporary fantasy series mainly set in California in or near the 2010's, with major characters named Quentin, and whose fast-healing protagonists have a tendency to quasi-adopt a gaggle of magical teenagers. After a brief moment in the 1990's, October Daye begins in earnest in 2009 and has reached 2015 as of the eighteenth book, while Inheritance is ambiguously set in the mid-to-late 2010's. Each of my essays focuses on a particular topic of importance to long series. They're designed to be intelligible on their own, and can theoretically be read in any order, but most readers will have the best experience if they start with the first essay and proceed linearly.

This essay spoils major elements of the following books: ROSEMARY AND RUE by Seanan McGuire and JACK OF THORNS by A.K. Faulkner, as well as lightly discussing some spoilers from later books in their respective series. 

Hello and welcome to Books That Burn with another book essay from Robin! Thank you to Case Aiken, who receives a monthly Patron shoutout. This essay discusses (and moderately spoils) the following works by Alexis Hall:

ROSALINE PALMER TAKES THE CAKE (2021)

10 THINGS THAT NEVER HAPPENED (2023)

GLITTERLAND (2013)

WAITING FOR THE FLOOD (2024 edition)

FOR REAL (2015)

A LADY FOR A DUKE (2022)

BOYFRIEND MATERIAL (2020)

HUSBAND MATERIAL (2022)

THE AFFAIR OF THE MYSTERIOUS LETTER (2019)

A brief note: when I first conceptualized this essay, I thought I was going to read every published novel by Alexis Hall, then I intended to discuss at least one book from each of their series. It turns out that their catalog is so extensive that even after taking two months to read (and occasionally, reread) as much of their work as I could get my hands on, I still haven’t gotten to everything. Neither do I, on balance, want to spoil major elements of their entire catalog. Therefore, I haven’t read everything they've written, and I don’t reference every single thing that I read. However, I read enough to be sure of my point generally, and am happy with what I’ve chosen to reference specifically.

Link to the full Essay.

Preamble (00:00)

Welcome to another book essay from Robin! Thank you to Case Aiken, who receives a monthly Patron shoutout. This was originally going to be an essay comparing The Hunger Games series to the Uglies quartet, but I ended up with so much to say about each series on their own that instead this discusses just The Hunger Games trilogy and the role of its prequel, "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes". 

This contains major spoilers for “The Hunger Games”, “Catching Fire”, “Mockingjay”, and “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes”, all by Suzanne Collins.

Link to the full essay text.

Welcome to another book essay from Robin! Thank you Case Aiken, who receives a monthly Patron shoutout.

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This essay contains spoilers for SHADES AND SILVER by Dax Murray. 

Many attempts at gender allegories in fantasy (or sci-fi) fall apart because they try to replicate binary gender in an attempt at gender essentialism in different trappings. SHADES AND SILVER deftly avoids this by starting without gender and then never focusing on it. 

Full Essay Text at link.

Sometime in the first year of my review blog, I developed a checklist which I use when reviewing sequels. It helps me qualitatively describe how they are composed, and how they interact with the surrounding books in their respective series. More recently, I added a much shorter checklist for describing the first book in a series.

Full Episode Text on Reviews That Burn

Ancrum, K. The Weight of the Stars. Imprint, 2019.

---. The Wicker King. Imprint, 2017.

Black, Holly. Ironside: A Modern Faerie Tale. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2020.

---. Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2020.

---. Valiant: A Modern Faerie Tale. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2020.

Brown, Roseanne A. A Psalm of Storms and Silence. HarperCollins, 2021.

---. A Song of Wraiths and Ruin. HarperCollins, 2020.

Callender, Kacen. King of the Rising. Hachette UK, 2020.

---. Queen of the Conquered. Hachette UK, 2019.

Cipri, Nino. Defekt. Tordotcom, 2021.

---. Finna. Tordotcom, 2020.

Grant, Mira. Blackout. Orbit, 2012.

---. Deadline. Orbit, 2011.

---. Feed. Orbit, 2010.

---. Feedback. Orbit, 2016.

Khaw, Cassandra. A Song for Quiet. Tor.com, 2017.

---. Hammers on Bone. Tor.com, 2016.

Maxwell, Everina. Ocean’s Echo. Hachette UK, 2022.

---. Winter’s Orbit. Tor Books, 2021.

McGuire, Seanan. Be the Serpent. Astra Publishing House, 2022.

---. Sleep No More. Astra Publishing House, 2023.

---. The Innocent Sleep. Astra Publishing House, 2023.

Reid, Ava. Juniper and Thorn. Random House, 2022.

---. The Wolf and the Woodsman: A Novel. HarperCollins, 2021.

Weir, Andy. Artemis: A Novel. Ballantine Books, 2017.

---. The Martian: A Novel. Ballantine Books, 2014.

Westerfeld, Scott. Extras. Simon and Schuster, 2007.

---. Pretties. Simon and Schuster, 2008.

---. Specials. Simon and Schuster, 2011.

---. Uglies. Simon and Schuster, 2011.

Greetings! Welcome to Books That Burn. I'm Robin, welcome to another book essay about something that was too big of a thought to fit into a normal review, specifically: Why Immortal Longings by Chloe Gong is not like The Hunger Games. Please feel free to send us suggestions for future essays. Before I get started, I'd like to thank our Patron who gets a monthly shoutout, Case Aiken. The support of our Patrons makes this podcast (and blog) possible, and we're grateful to all of you.

When perusing other reviews of Immortal Longings by Chloe Gong, I've seen many comparisons to The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. This comparison is both slightly true and mostly unhelpful as a generalization, as what they have in common are either superficial genre features or not unique to The Hunger Games. I understand why the comparison occurs to people so I'd like to take it seriously. Nicole and I have covered The Hunger Games on our podcast, and I recently reviewed Immortal Longings.  I'll also make some reference to an earlier book with many of the same elements as later appeared in The Hunger Games: Battle Royale by Koushun Takami. You can find both parts of our podcast discussion on that book here (Part 1, Part 2), as well as my written review of Battle Royale. While I think it does make sense to compare and contrast them, these books are not interchangeable. 

Please refer to the link for the full essay.

Greetings! Welcome to Books That Burn. I'm Robin, and this is the first essay I've specifically written for the podcast, to be made available first to Patrons, then to the main feed and on Reviews That Burn. Please feel free to send us suggestions for future essays. Before I get started, I'd like to thank our Patron who gets a monthly shoutout, Case Aiken. The support of our Patrons makes this podcast (and blog) possible, and we're grateful to all of you.

*This essay spoils major elements of NIGHT SHINE and MOON DARK SMILE by Tessa Gratton.

The written version of this essay can be found at the link.

*This essay contains moderate spoilers for the first sixteen October Daye books, major spoilers for SLEEP NO MORE and THE INNOCENT SLEEP, and minor spoilers for Babylon 5 (S3 E4 "Passing Through Gethsemane").

Link to the original essay.

INTRO (00:36)

When reading SLEEP NO MORE and THE INNOCENT SLEEP by Seanan McGuire (the newest October Daye books), I was struck by similarities in the ethical framework of these two books and certain aspects of the 1990's sci-fi show Babylon 5, particularly the way that changes in personality or memories are treated with relation to assumptions of personhood. I am certain that Seanan McGuire is also very familiar with Babylon 5 because one of her telepathic characters in the Incryptid series uses specific aspects of Babylon 5 as a framework for ethical telepathy.

THE DEATH OF PERSONALITY IN BABYLON 5 (01:12)

UNDERLYING ASSUMPTIONS (04:46)

MAJOR CHARACTERS (06:45)

Toby - Nickname for Sir October Daye, titular character of the series, changeling (fae mother, human father)

October - Toby’s current personality in SLEEP NO MORE and THE INNOCENT SLEEP, remembers a different history from Toby of the first sixteen books

Tybalt - Cait Sidhe (cat fae), Toby’s husband (October doesn’t remember him)

Amandine - October’s mother

Simon Torquill - Daoine Sidhe, Amandine’s husband, October’s father (not by blood)

Titania - One of the queens of Faerie, cast the illusion which created October from Toby and distorted many people’s memories

Quentin - Daoine Sidhe, Toby’s squire in the previous books, currently squire to someone else

August - October’s sister, daughter of Amandine and Simon

Stacy - Toby’s friend from childhood, recently removed by Titania

PLOT HIGHLIGHTS (07:47)

TOBY VS. OCTOBER (09:57)

WHY TITANIA DOESN'T THINK THIS IS HARM (11:17)

WHY OCTOBER WANTS TO REMAIN (13:06)

THE RIDE AND TITANIA’S ALTERATIONS (14:04)

TITANIA'S TRAP ON THE RIDE (16:19)

ETHICAL PARADOXES - PERHAPS UNSOLVABLE (17:42)

THE RESOLUTION (22:00)

A MASSACRE OF MINDS (25:00)

To tide you over between regular episodes, Robin reads their blog post from April 2023.

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This is a follow-up to my review of "Feed Them Silence" by Lee Mandelo, involving some thoughts that are too personal to make sense in the review as they swiftly veer away from the text specifically and instead into a broader meta-conversation of books like this which I have read previously, assumed correlations between emotional complexity and humanity, and how processing these thoughts has prompted me to make a change in my own life.

CW for discussion of ableism, dehumanization, animal cruelty/death, body-horror-adjacent concepts, and brief mentions of racism and genocide

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Wikipedia - Alexithymia

Wikipedia - Philosophical Zombie

Wikipedia - Masking

In Defence of De-persons by Johanna Hedva

The Ten Stages of Genocide