LINKDING

excerpt: She knew to expect Kierk’s homegrown MDMA analog to hit like a blissy staticky tsunami. She knew to expect Mona’s band—formerly the Noctambulists, now Gristleswing—to pack the dancefloor into an electric sea of skin and sweat. She knew to expect the long rambling goodbye pep-talk from Vawn on the rooftop and the frantic-turned-tender goodbye sex with Ilya at hers. She did not expect to stumble home and find a corpse on her doorstep. ➜ a short story about a dystopian future, a murder investigation, community, and someone who's trying to leave the only home she's ever known ➜ the information reveals over the course of the story are handled so well ➜ and the narrative tone of...hm. of inevitability? of sadness. of people trying their best to hold the line against the constant pressure of external forces. idk it's real good. ➜ written for a Stop Copaganda short story contest! ➜ 4.7k words

excerpt: Fig. 1. Gold coin, 356 P.F. (post-foundation). Obverse: profile of Auréle, right-facing. Legend: REGENT ETERNAL. Reverse: Tree, fruiting (symbolizing prosperity). This five-sorel piece is in fine condition. The design is sophisticated, improving upon the bronze Auréles minted throughout the 340s. Trees were a common peacetime motif and recur in coinage from Auréle’s accession in 339 onwards. They cut off Auréle’s head and they put it on a pike above the city’s third best bridge. To me, that seemed a shame. I had only just got his nose right. // ➜ SFF short story telling of a year of political upheaval through the eyes of someone who works in the minting of coins ➜ and through the coins' archaeological analysis, in the far future ➜ I love this double-vision on events, what the historians can and can't know through the coins, and the struggles and lives of the people who were just trying to get through those times, the desperation and the personhood ➜ 3.6k words

Summary: In which Mei Changsu takes the poison. And wakes in a universe where the Lin family fell ten years earlier. ➜ Nirvana in Fire fic where MCS bodyswaps with himself from an alternate universe where he's an imperial eunuch ➜ a fascinating little glimpse into this alternate world! I am so curious how this is going to go....for both versions of MCS ➜ 1k words in length

Summary: After the Immortal Alliance Conference, Shen Qingqiu eventually recovered from his grief. A reasonable man, he accepted his limitations. Of course, there were—other options. ➜ a genius svsss bingqiu canon divergence au fic ➜ sqq decides to take care of the unavoidable abyss plot-arc by body-swapping with lbh to do the abyss arc for him ➜ meanwhile the bodyswapping didn't work QUITE as intended so although sqq is indeed in lbh's body running the abyss, lbh is in lqg's body and lqg is in sqq's body ➜ cue: time for lbh and lqg to learn how to appreciate each other! ➜ anyway I loved EVERYTHING about this fic. sooooo many good things it's doing ➜ the way sqq has such a great time testing out his abyss speedrun ideas! lbh and lqg's gym bro friendship style! meng mo providing internal colour commentary the whole way through! ➜ and like holy shit, sqq’s weird as fuck identity issues wrt bodies and self and sexuality and stuff! EXQUISITE. ➜ a totally delightful fic, highly recommend ➜ 36k words in length

Summary: Final Paper for HIST-232, 19th Century Europe. Profile a change agent from between 1790-1910. Describe their influence on their social or political surroundings, and attempt to analyze the limits and drives behind their actions. // Temeraire's career, after the war. ➜ yuletide fanfic, for Temeraire ➜ in the form of a student's essay written centuries later about Temeraire's political career after the war ➜ absolutely delightful, the things you can see about what the standard narrative about Temeraire must have been, that this student is trying to upend! ➜ and it's so right about Temeraire, too....his temperament is revolutionary but he loves money too much to be in favour of any politics that might lead to him having less of it ➜ also, love the very Student Essay nature of it, with most of the footnoted sources leading back to a single book, lol ➜ 1k words in length

Summary: Martin Pale learns from Catherine of Winchester, several centuries too late. ➜ a yuletide fic, for Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell ➜ About the tudor-era magician Martin Pale and his relationship with his tutor, Catherine of Winchester, from the golden age of magic ➜ gosh wow I am just -- so blown away by this?! it feels like it fits so perfectly into the interstices of canon. The undeniable weight of reality that the whole piece has, even as it is shot through with shards of the numinous....the characters all being people who are difficult, and real, and not altogether pleasant, but you love them for how real they are. ➜ Pale and Catherine are so different from each other, yet so connected, and though we get to hear much of Pale's life, Catherine remains as mysterious to us as she is to Pale. And yet we know her from who she is. ➜ idk, idk, I'm not sure how to explain this better! I just....really recommend reading this fic. it is so satisfying. ➜ 16k words

Summary: A grim narrative of fraud, deception, false advertising, murders, robberies, puttings in fear and operating without a Board of Trade Certificate. ➜ yuletide fic - for the song Barrett's Privateers ➜ omg it's an outside pov of the events of the song, told through the medium of correspondence and other written records in relation to the ship the Antelope. and it's SO GOOD ➜ I love the way all these letters build up such a picture of what happened! and there are so many fun details ➜ 2k words in length

Summary: Falcon yao Liu Qingge, injured and trapped in a gulley, is taunted by his nemesis Shen Qingqiu (definitely not transmigrated monster enthusiast SY!SQQ). ➤ an svsss liushen au where lqg is an injured gyrfalcon yao who sqq wants to help ➤ it's both so sweet and so fun! lqg's pov with his total mistrust of the human cultivator, slowly evolving over time to becoming willing to let sqq help, is great ➤ and how clear it is that sqq finds lqg both fascinating as a creature of the world of pidw, and very handsome as a man ➤ the parts with the wing repair were soooo good to me, I love how seriously this fic takes the bird and feather details! ➤ a delightful fic from start to finish ➤ 12k words in length

Excerpt: Scene 1: The Wedding [ORION stands alone on an otherwise bare stage. He is dressed for a wedding, but the clothes are in a state of disarray. Tie loose, shirt unbuttoned. The overall effect misleadingly implies a walk of shame. There are stains on his sleeves that look like gold paint.] ORION: I met the Admiral of the Ocean Sea at a wedding. I’m not going to say his name. Not here. Not yet. Macbeth doesn’t really show up for every new staging of the Scottish Play, but the Admiral is always listening and hungry for praise. I come to bury him instead. But first, the wedding! ➤ an sff short story written as the script for an experimental theatre piece ➤ I love the conceit of the piece, and seeing as it unfolded more and more just where it's going with everything ➤ about the mythologising of history, the "discovery" of the americas by columbus, the power of theatre, and ghosts ➤ perhaps a bit blunt in its themes in the end but I had a lot of fun anyway! ➤ 6k words in length

Excerpt: I had warned a hundred mortals not to trust the boatman. I’d told them: No matter how much you pay him, no matter what you promise, it will never be enough. Yet somehow, I found myself surprised when he grabbed my wrist before I could step off the boat. I gave him my most forbidding stare, which only made him smirk as he held out his other hand. We had an agreement, I almost said. I caught myself just in time—I would have to shed my mainland habits, and fast, now that I was back. ➤ A novelette inspired by the fairy tale The Twelve Dancing Princesses ➤ about one of the princesses who managed to escape, but who comes back ➤ a fascinating reimagining, leaning into the dangerous appeal of the fae, and the desire for belonging, and what you will and won't do for love -- or for freedom ➤ I've read a lot of retellings of this fairy tale and there are a lot of good ones but this one definitely ranks pretty high on the list! ➤ 10k words

excerpt: This must be what happened: The head elder said I would find Ai-Lian in the wooded hills that bristle with red maples. As the evacuating townsfolk slung meager belongings onto packhorses under flickering torchlight, the ascendant moon enflamed the lavender canopy beyond the town walls. I handed the reins of my horses to the elder himself as he supervised the evacuation. His were an uncouth people—but terrified. They eyed my sheathed jian, Fate Cutter, immortalized in song by countless minstrels. That was how they knew me through my riding mask. I reassured each harried frontiersman and woman, each rough-clothed child, with the clasp of an elbow, the pat of a shoulder. I touched them all, saying in the strong northern dialect of the Zhong-ren, “ni-men bu pa. Ni-men yao shenma hao pa, fang kai ba. Ni-men fang xin.” But huddled before me, they were afraid. They would not let go their fears. They would not take heart. ➤ a fantasy novelette set in a historical china, and holy shit it is SO SO SO GOOD ➤ about two sword-brothers, meeting again after decades apart ➤ the way the story circles around itself over and over again, uncovering new layers each time, new complexities, new details about what happened and what is happening -- it's so beautifully constructed and leads the reader on so compellingly ➤ and the story it's telling.....one about love, and trust, and classism, and imperialism, and the threat of monstrous creatures inflitrating......about, at its heart, the relationship between these two men, their importance to each other, and the fractures at the heart of their relationship, and the wide-reaching consequences ➤ I love it so much, it's brilliantly and beautifully done and with such fascinating explorations of its themes! ➤ 10k words

excerpt: The oldest members of the asamblea all agree that the idea for El Zopilote came out of the Plantation in Texas, back when it was still one more state in the old US. The Plantation is what they called the Sysco-Bush Memorial Carceral Center and it had slaves’ quarters and a master’s house and Black and brown inmates working for no pay all the day long, so it earned its nickname. The white patriarchal establishment said they were criminals. The truth, however, even in Texas, was common knowledge. ➤ a near-future novelette telling the story of the dystopian breakdown of the USA ➤ told by the granddaughter of a black woman who escaped prison slavery to head south of the border and found a new community for fellow escapees ➤ I love the voice of the narrator, her efforts to tell Symphonie's story in an objective and appropriate historical style, but with occasional notes to herself interjecting, wondering about if she's approaching her writing in the right way ➤ I also love the relationship between Symphonie and Karla! ➤ and the themes about how the past can't be left behind, it is an important part of what makes you what you are today ➤ 8k words

Excerpt: Can someone get the doors? Thanks. Please remember we’re on an honor system for chairs—if you’ve eaten today, please leave them for someone who hasn’t. We don’t need another fainting incident. First of all, if you’re looking for a technical look at restoring and reconstructing lost Backwards Man episodes, that’s Greg Bakun’s panel tomorrow morning at 9:30, which I really recommend checking out if you’re not too hungover. This panel is about the recent recovery of clips of “The Goldenrod Conspiracy,” the changes to the story that arise from them, and what it means that every single surviving frame of “The Goldenrod Conspiracy” comes from censorship board clips. ➤ a short story with the conceit that it's a transcript of a con panel, in a futuristic dystopian world ➤ but even in this future where food is hard to come by, fans still gather to talk about their fave media ➤ I loved the history of the fan relationship to the (fictional) show in question, and in particular the lost episode that the panel is about! ➤ the rest of the worldbuilding about the dystopia was pretty broad-strokes and not particularly developed, but I enjoyed all the fan and panel content so much and that's where the focus really is ➤ 5k words in length

excerpt: Taifa of Tuluz Spring 1194 “A wondrous thing is happening at the university!” said Avram to Isaac the Blind. “Like nothing you’ve ever seen!” “I daresay you’re right,” Isaac answered, “since the last time I saw anything, I was younger than you.” ➤ historical fantasynovelette set in a muslim kingdom on the iberian peninsula in the 12th century, with a jewish scholar as the viewpoint character ➤ I love the setting, richly full of a wide variety of types of people and languages and religions, with universities and scientific progress and people doing magic, all interacting with each other ➤ the mystery at the heart of the story is that someone is stealing people's languages of study, on purpose, leaving behind only whatever their first language was. why, and how? and is it reversible? ➤ it's about people's relationships with language and with knowledge and with the world. it's great! ➤ 14k words in length

excerpt: Hello and welcome! Come on in! I’m glad To guide you through the halls of our Blue Palace, Pride of Antat City! It’s too bad That certain factions, bent on acts of malice, Would not spare these walls from laser blasts And plasma bombs. But see how they still stand! The best Antat construction lasts and lasts. Be careful on that stair there! Take my hand. Just stay upright, and walk along this line, And keep your wits about you. We’ll be fine. ➤ a scifi poem with a fun voice, the pov of a tour guide trying brightly to maintain the official story that nothing's wrong ➤ 500 words in length

Summary: <blockquote>interregnum /ĭn″tər-rĕg′nəm/ n. The interval of time during which a throne is vacant between the death or abdication of a sovereign and the accession of his successor. In the days between the death of Varenechibel IV and the coronation of Edrehasivar VII, more lives than Maia Drazhar's changed.</blockquote> ➤ Goblin Emperor fic set during the period between the crash of the Wisdom of Choharo and the coming of Edrehasivar VII ➤ featuring various other people whose lives were changed by what happened! ➤ I loved seeing all these other little perspectives on the upheaval of that time ➤ 5k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>An exploration of how different parts of Tortall dealt with the famine caused by the Dominion Jewel and Roger's earthquake</blockquote> ➤ Tortall fic set in the Alanna era, about the ways different parts of the country deal with the famine, in the year after the use of the dominion jewel ➤ I liked the realistic look at what the differences would be in how hard the famine is depending on the main sources of food, eg in Pirate's Swoop which can look to the sea, vs Trebond with its field crops, and the people who have to go hungry vs the people who merely have to eat less deliciously than usual. ➤ I would have loved the inclusion as well of a place where the people in charge don't care as much about the well-being of the commoners through the famine, but I understand why the fic didn't want to go there! ➤ 2k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>Mel during the Wars, told through the eyes of a tattoo artist.</blockquote> ➤ fic for Robin McKinley's novel "Sunshine" featuring Mel and Mel's tattoo artist! ➤ told through the notes kept by the tattoo artist on each tattoo associated with Mel ➤ Such a great glimpse into Mel's side of Sunshine's world! ➤ 1k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>All of Heaven has been brought to its knees by the hot new gatcha game, Celestial Confluence/Cultivation Cross. The gods are at each other's throats, and are at the brink of civil war, in pursuit of the rarest of .pngs. Chaos reigns. And it is most emphatically Hua Cheng's fault.</blockquote> ➤ a silly funny fic about hua cheng causing chaos in heaven by creating a trendy new gacha game ➤ xie lian, bewildered, ends up on shi qingxuan and ming yi's livestream about the game ➤ hua cheng is absolutely willing to get distracted from the game by gege ➤ there's some excellent comic timing in here! ➤ 6k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>Mirae sits on her bed, parting her hair with one hand and feeling for the access port on the back of her head with the other. She finds the notched edges of the cap and twists counterclockwise until it comes loose. Her eye twitches as she slides the plug into her skull. The sensation isn’t strong enough for her to say it hurts, but she doesn’t know how else to describe it. Her post-op recovery had been difficult. She had fever dreams of worms crawling into her brain through the still-healing metal port. Even after she was fully recovered and ready to be plugged in for her first update, images of the plug’s pin connectors piercing too deep and puncturing her occipital lobe made her hands shake.</blockquote> ➤ a short story about a young woman who was given a neural implant to improve her abilities and skills in school to be able to get a good job ➤ about parental expectations and abusive control ➤ trying to figure out who you are and what you care about when you've never been given the opportunity to be anything but obedient ➤ I had feelings ➤ 4k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>The tenth time Jakey broke the rules, he put a sandwich in the mailbox where the window boy could get it. Mom had taken her sleep-quick pills and gone to bed after dinner, on account of her headaches. And Dad was dozing in front of the TV, chin on his chest and a half-empty glass clutched in his hand. It got still enough that the only sounds were Dad’s shows and the hum of the house filters, so Jakey slipped into the kitchen and put together a ham and cheddar on a plate, then placed it in the parcel chamber near the front door. He sat by the parlor window for a good long while after, curled up at the bench cushions, and his eyelids drooped now and again until he began to see the shadows move.</blockquote>

Summary: <blockquote>I’ve always loved birds. When I was five I asked my dad for a bird feeder so I could see birds out my window when I was sitting at my desk doing remote school, but he just handed me his phone and said, “you know how to look up videos.” I do know, but bird videos aren’t as cool as having my very own bird friends that came up to my window to say hello. And anyway, I already had a tablet when I was five because kindergarten went on remote school after the wildfire that burned down the school building and made us have to drive in the middle of the night to my uncle’s house and sleep on his floor for two whole weeks, so I just used my tablet.</blockquote>