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Penguin Ponders

@penguin-ponders.bsky.social

470 followers 540 following 2.6K posts

I just want a place to talk about books again. Neurodivergent, Disabled, Queer. Canadian Any pronouns Trans rights are human rights. Support BIPOC folk. Everyone deserves rep, rights and access Post GenAI, get blocked

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Penguin Ponders @penguin-ponders.bsky.social · May 31

Master thread of my books on a theme posts, mostly because I forget what I've already talked about 😅

💬📚 🪐📚 #specfic #sff

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Penguin Ponders @penguin-ponders.bsky.social · 3h

Waypoint Seven by Xan van Rooyen

A dystopic tale that ends with a creepy vibe - this isn't marked as a series, but feels like the first book in one. I like the switches between the povs and the in-universe documents.

🪐📚💙 #specfic #sff 📚🌎 🌈📚 🌈🚀💫

Book cover for Waypoint Seven by Xan van Rooyen

A young man with a partially shaved head and light brown skin stands, face turned to the side, but eyes looking toward the viewer. One hand is held up, nearly grasping a bird pendant hanging from his neck.

The cover is split into angular chunks around him, most holding abstract symbols and patterns, but one shows a mountain with a bright white void above it.

Penguin Ponders @penguin-ponders.bsky.social · 1d

The mix of everyday with the lore worked well. There's a lot of slow reveal. This is labelled as horror. It's certainly very gory, with terrible actions taken, but I never had the sense that the characters would be broken, or otherwise come to bad ends.

2/fin

Penguin Ponders @penguin-ponders.bsky.social · 1d

Lone Women by Victor LaValle

Very much a 'the true monsters are' sort of book. The multi povs work well, and the cast of characters were interesting. Some leaning into archetypes, but the ones with more time on page moved beyond that.

🪐📚💙 #specfic #sff 📚🌎⏳ 🌈📚 🌈🚀💫 1/

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Penguin Ponders @penguin-ponders.bsky.social · 1d

This is new information. But then I generally don't know where most states are so it never occured to me they weren't actually west.

Penguin Ponders @penguin-ponders.bsky.social · 2d

The Weird Sisters by Helen Whistberry

The blurb says 'a touch of the paranormal', but I'd say, more like a faint whisper. Set in the 50s, with a gumshoe reporter, a possibly haunted cemetery, and a soap opera level plot. A light read.

🪐📚💙 #specfic #sff ⏳📚⚡️

Book Cover for The Weird Sisters by Helen Whistberry

A bloody hand, obviously attached to a corpse, lays on the ground, hidden behind a tombstone. Nearby grave markers are blood spattered.
A giant moon fills the background, partially covered by clouds.

At the top of cover, the series name and a fedora float.

Penguin Ponders @penguin-ponders.bsky.social · 3d

Yeah, it's so eye catching. Art by Khadijah Khatib

Penguin Ponders @penguin-ponders.bsky.social · 3d

The Bones of Ruin by Sarah Raughley

This is very comic book to me, with the cast of unique superpowers, the super villainy (and regular villainy) and secret society, and all the dramatics and scenery chewing.

🪐📚💙 #specfic #sff 📚🌎

Book Cover for The Bones of Ruin by Sarah Raughley

A young black woman wields two swords while walking on a tightrope, high above a flaming London. She wears a halter dress with fluffy skirt, hair pulled back in a tight bun, looking with quiet towards the viewer.

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Penguin Ponders @penguin-ponders.bsky.social · 3d

Who's reaching out to capture a moment?

Penguin Ponders @penguin-ponders.bsky.social · 4d

<.<
>.>

A - completely normal - amount.

Penguin Ponders @penguin-ponders.bsky.social · 4d

Yay Patreon decided to accept my credit card again.

Penguin Ponders @penguin-ponders.bsky.social · 4d

I feel like had I read it a decade ago, it might have hit me differently, as entirely unique. But I'm reading it after Murderbot and The Splinter in the Sky and A Memory Called Empire, and they all seem to be part of the same constellation or conversation.

I'll read the rest of the series.

2/fin

Penguin Ponders @penguin-ponders.bsky.social · 4d

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

This is twisty, with the various flashbacks and slow reveals, and the ambiguous relationship between Seivarden and One Esk. The world building is complex, and I appreciated how integrated the religious aspects were.

🪐📚💙 #specfic #sff 📚🌎 🌈📚 🌈🚀💫 1/

Book Cover for Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
Justice will come to the empire

Two space ships, somewhat resembling fighter jets, fly over a large metallic structure - another spaceship? a space station? One is red with white accent, the other white with red accent, flying slightly behind. Filling the background space is a large moonlight object.

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Reposted by Penguin Ponders

Edmonds Scanner @edmondsscanner.bsky.social · 22d

Never give up.
If you wish to convert a fleet of buses into traveling taverns & bookmobiles and set off on the open road, spreading the drunken joy of literature across the land, I know you can do it.
I believe in you.

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Penguin Ponders @penguin-ponders.bsky.social · 4d

I believe they did say there would be a sequel.

Penguin Ponders @penguin-ponders.bsky.social · 4d

I want one with that nice chewy crust. I don't get it often though because the non white bread options are all mid.

Penguin Ponders @penguin-ponders.bsky.social · 4d

Also the most quotable

The Whimsical Muse @whimsicalmuse.bsky.social · 4d

Surround yourself with the kind of people who consider The Princess Bride to be one of the greatest films of all-time.

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Penguin Ponders @penguin-ponders.bsky.social · 5d

A Puzzle of Poppies by Renee Edwards

I picked this up for the fae realm setting and half-fae Sherlock. While do get some descriptions of the city, most of the focus is with the humans, so I didn't get as much divergence from the original as I'd hoped.

🪐📚💙 #specfic #sff ⏳📚

Book Cover for A Puzzle of Poppies by Renee Edwards
A Sherwood and Jarvis Novella
He expected magic. What he got was murder.

The title floats over a red line drawing of a poppy plant, with both buds and a single bloom. Above and below are metallic scrolls with the author and series. The background is grey damask, looking like wallpaper.

Penguin Ponders @penguin-ponders.bsky.social · 5d

The art's by Jody Lee :)

Penguin Ponders @penguin-ponders.bsky.social · 5d

This is one of my favorite ADF books

Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 6d

The piece is here. I've so far covered six standalone novels in Foster's Humanx Commonwealth setting, and plan to cover the remaining two in due course. This is one of the better ones, I think.

Crystal methods: Sentenced to Prism (1985) by Alan Dean Foster [Review]

This is a weekly blog exploring classic science fiction , with a focus on the 1950s to the 1990s.

www.andyjohnson.xyz

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Reposted by Penguin Ponders

Edmonds Scanner @edmondsscanner.bsky.social · 23d

Relaxation tips:
- take a deep breath
- put down your phone
- find a sinister fog on the edge of town
- enter the fog and let it enter you, until you become one
- travel the countryside with the other fog spirits, spreading fear and wonder in equal measure
- have some tea

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Reposted by Penguin Ponders

George Penney @georgepenney.bsky.social · 5d

🧵Spotted on Market Day in Aotearoa New Zealand:

A young human (10?) reverentially pulls two brand new paperback fantasy tomes from a crisp paper bag. He examines the covers in fine detail before carefully stowing them away again. Magnificent treasures to read later. (1)

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Penguin Ponders @penguin-ponders.bsky.social · 5d

Inhuman from the perspective of some - there's a lot of fear from the people.

Non-human from the LI, he's mostly a trickster

Wouldn't call it 'monster', mostly he's a guy with a tail and a different skin color

1 1

Reposted by Penguin Ponders

deeg 🤍 @deegoo.bsky.social · 5d

Pyaari is so decent 🥺

Two drawings and two small photos of the cat, Pyaari. The drawing on the left is wearing a blue dupatta. The drawing on the right is in a gold sari with a dupatta on the head.

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Penguin Ponders @penguin-ponders.bsky.social · 5d

I really enjoyed Hobs Bargain, but it never occured to me to think of it as Beauty & the Beast. Definitly a inhuman groom story though.

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Penguin Ponders @penguin-ponders.bsky.social · 5d

Those are the only Salvatore books I've read :)