LINKDING

quote: The sand underfoot was still fresh with ripples where it had been raked to hide the blood. The sea rushed in over Leris’s feet, the wave in the water meeting the waves in the sand and smoothing out, inch by inch, the remaining evidence of the first bout. “Ready?” It was the first word Gerthe had spoken all day. The sun was just shy of its peak, bearing down on the spectators and the competitors in equal measure. It would have been different, in a proper amphitheatre: the two pairs of combatants would have regarded each other from the shaded safety of the tunnels, sizing the others up and taking the time to discuss strategy. But this was the archipelago, and one of the rimward isles besides, and the closest amphitheatre was a week’s sail away on Leshin. Here there was nothing but a patch of sand, bounded on one side by temporary wooden stands and on the other by the ocean. ➤ a full novella published online for free the same way a short story would be! ➤ secondary world fantasy about two women from the outskirts of empire, who don't fit the identities their cultures expect of them but are also out of place within the empire ➤ they're gladiators in a partnership where one in a pair of gladiators takes a "swordform" and the other wields them ➤ great characters and great worldbuilding and great reflections on identity in this context! ➤ I loved Leris and Gerthe, and Ulmo too ➤ and the Empress herself and her story is fascinating, and I can see how in a different narrative her backstory would be the focus of a heroic narrative, and I love that that's not the story we get, this isn't a "monarchy is good with the right person in charge" kind of story like so much fantasy is ➤ the narrative perspective on religion is really cool too ➤ 36k words in length

<blockquote>They did not want to accept me into their elite universities. It did not matter that I succeeded on every entrance exam I took; not only was I a woman, the first mark against me, but I also came from a nation that the fine people of New England regarded as “semi-barbaric,” to quote from one of the letters of rejection. But I persisted—more to the point, perhaps, my father’s connections and cheque book spoke eloquently on my behalf; and in the autumn of Meiji Year 41, or 1908 by European reckoning, I was invited to enroll at Norcross College.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Wakulla Springs, in the Florida panhandle, is the deepest submerged freshwater cave system in the world. “Wakulla Springs” is a novella by Andy Duncan and Ellen Klages, which we hope will surprise and delight you as much as it surprised and delighted us.</blockquote> ➤ Very good as historical fiction, but the final paragraph of the story that seems to be making it something sff just felt entirely out of place and also not well foreshadowed or anything. ➤ And anyways the first two parts of the story felt so fully realized and interesting and complicated, and then the latter two were so insubstantial and almost pointless-feeling coming after the first two parts. They didn't feel like they actually CONCLUDED the story that was begun in the first two parts. ➤ I suppose that sff ending paragraph might be about the minor running theme of believing things? But that theme was NOT important enough to be anything like a strong note to end on. ➤ At any rate - super definitely totally worth reading for the first two sections, which come to around ~28k of the total ~34k of the story as a whole. And the final two sections do have some good stuff too, they're just a lot less interesting or immersive.