queenslayerbee | Entries tagged with fandom: the essence of the equinox

Cover Reveal Cover shows a demon rising up from below, lava dripping out of his hands. He stares menacingly ahead, black-skinned and cat-eyed, with a body of lean musculature. A frame surrounds him with red oak leaves and twin hippogriffs at the bottom. Titled: We Will Devour The Night by Camilla Andrew The Essence of the Equinox Book 2 The cover has been blended with a gif of slowly moving flames at the bottom of the image.

sequel to the marvellous “WHEN THE STARS ALIGHT”

Twenty years after that fateful voyage north, Laila has been slowly prepping for her campaign to become the next Impératrice of Soleterea. Unfortunately, she must also contend with competitors attempting to wrangle the throne from her dynasty by capitalising on the negative attitudes towards chaos magic and the demons who wield it. In the meantime, Darius has settled into his new position as the Rex of Mortos, but his rule has not been without conflict and conspiracy.

When her mother suggests that Laila help herself politically by lending a hand to Darius, she finds herself once more crossing paths with her old lover and confronting the whirlwind of emotions that twenty years apart had done little to settle. Determined to put her feelings to one side, Laila throws herself headfirst into the pit of vipers that is Mortesian court politics in the interest of charming them under her influence. However, Darius continues to have an allure of his own - one that is not quite so simple to resist.

I've been eager for this cover to come out since I got the first inklings of it. The artist, Eeva Nikunen, is here in tumblr, but I recommend visiting her instagram page especially.

She also drew the cover of the first book in the trilogy, and she's made a wonderful job in illustrating both the story each book tells, and the progression the series follows. We're really in it now! Things are going to get darker and meatier. WWDTN delves further into the horror that WTSA slowly unraveled under its rosy, lyrically-prosed veneer, and I love it.

THERE'S STILL TIME TO GET AN ADVANCED READER COPY. If you haven't read WTSA, do not fret: when you sign up, there's a chance to request both books. Since the sequel comes out on September 22nd (you can pre-order the ebook too!), there's also plenty of time to read both. There's also a limited offer to get the ebook for only 99p, either in amazon, or in kobo if you're in the UK/AUS/NZD!

I encourage people who love high fantasy, doomed romances, powerful female characters, and lyrical, descriptive prose to give this author a chance!

Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: Kendrick Lamark - Euphoria

Three book covers. -We Will Devour The Night. Early Release. Book 2 of The Essence of the Equinox. The cover shows leaves, mushrooms, accorns, butterflies and snakes over a black background with scattered stars. -Why Does He Do That? Inside he minds of angry and controlling men. Lundy Bancroft. The cover has a red background. -Wuthering Heights by Emily Bront�. Penguin Popular Classics edition. An obscured figure sits over a fence with their hand up, giving their back to the audience.

Three comic book covers: -Batman: Huntress/Spoiler - Blunt Trauma. Part of the Cataclysm event. In the cover a car flies in the background, while Helena in costume is jumpint towards it and Steph as Spoiler stands in the front. -Green Lantern: Willworld. Hal Jordan is at the bottom of the image with his unifrom, and a string of images are coming directly from his head, forming buildings and strange creatures. -JLA: World Without Grown-ups. Some members of the Justice League are in the bottom half, in colour (Wonder Woman, Batman, Kyle Rayner, Wally West, Superman...). Kon as Superboy, Tim Drake as Robin, and Bart Allen as Impulse are in the top half, in faded grey colour.

Three comic covers. -A vibrant red and black image drawn by Dustin Nguyen that shows three obscured figures: Batman at the back, on the right, looking ahead with his eyes as red slits; Damian in the middle, with his back turned and his sword pointed down, dripping red; and Colin at the front in the left, enlarged by Venom, with his "abuse" brass knuckles and his trenchcoat, his face completely out of the picture. In front of him there's an arm on the ground, as from someone beaten and struggling. -Batman: Li'l Gotham. The "Batfamily" stands on a rooftop with a gargoyle, with the batsignal on the sky behind them. The image includes Batman in the middle and front, with Oracle, Huntress, and Nightwing at his left, and Damian, Tim, Jason and Katana/Tatsu at his right. -Batman Tales: Once Upon a Crime. The cover shows Batman and Robin (Damian) sitting on top large vines.

Three comic book covers. -Batman: The Chalice. Batman is at the front, holding a cowl that projects some light above. His figure is mostly obscured, projecting a large shadow in the wall behind it, covered with various small clocks. Behind him there's a strange machine, with lightbulbs encassed in glass on its sides. -Ghost/Batgirl. The front shows Cass in Batgirl costume, in a fighting pose. Behind her it's Barbara sitting on her wheelchair; Behind htem, and large, there's an image of Ghost (Elisa Cameron) dressed in a white hood and holding a gun. In the background behind barbara there are two small, obscured figures of goons holding weapons. -JLA: Tower of Babel. The cover shows Batman with a calculating expression as he moves some of his teammates like marionettes (Wally, Diana, Kyle, and Clark).

BOOKS

We Will Devour The Night by Camilla Andrew. The version I read is available in the author's ko-fi (aninkwellofnectar), and the final version will come during fall of this year. I've talked about this saga before (The Essence of the Equinox, and its prequel), and I still recommend it to those of us who like complex characters (especially female characters), gothic horror, and lush prose. This is a sequel, and I like it even more than the first instalment. It gets deeper into the darkness of the world and it's an amazing read. The third and final part has started been posted on ko-fi as well, for anyone interested.
Why Does He Do That? Inside The Minds of Angry and Controlling Men by Lundy Bancroft. I wish I could make everyone read this book. It wouldn't fix everything, because it runs against a lot of people's deep-seated belief systems, but maybe it would make SOME of them start second-guessing those beliefs... Anyway. A MUST read in terms of abuse and intimate partner violence.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. I read the book for the first time about 15 years ago, and only reread it now. I loved it even more than the first time. The atmosphere, the revenge tale, the love story between Catherine and Heathcliff, all the ways these families' lives affect the others, how you have to parse through Nelly's account of events... I still wish I could hit Lockwood in the head with a stick lol. Just once. Not even too hard! But hit him in the head, I would xD

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COMICS

Batman: Huntress/Spoiler - Blunt Trauma. One of those "it could've been so good if it was good" comics. It would've had to NOT been written by Dixon, of course. His ideas about these two characters are palpable here. He's met real women and girls, I know this, but he's completely failed to take anything from these meetings into account to understand them as people. And boy, does it show in his writing.
Green Lantern: Willworld. I've had this comic in my list for aeons and I moved it up when I found out its author would be writing Jason's upcoming ADITF "what if" story starting July. I really liked this one, and how it showcased Hal's character. It's not a guarantee I'll like his Robin Lives run, because comic writers have biases and blind spots and huge gaps in their knowlege regarding certain characters, but "he seems to be a good writer" is already a huuuuge leg up compared to most modern Jason content lol.
JLA: World Without Grown-ups. This was interesting because I've watched the Young Justice (cartoon) version of this premise, which is VERY different, from the villains to their goals to the handling of the crisis (since the cartoon had an established teen team), down to the emotional beats (the Zataras). They're too different to be compared, tbh. This one was quite fun though, and it made me feel very fond of Bart. Also Tim's parasocial relationship with Jason's memorial made an appearance LOL.
Colin Wilke's appearances. I am MOURNING this kid. He has like 9 appearances (and a couple of them are barely a few pages) but each one is gold. Bring him back. Make HIM Damian's best friend. Integrate him in the storyline!! His character and his dynamic with Damian had so so much potential. I am definitely going to include him in my fics.
Batman: Li'l Gotham. (plus the two stories introducing it in Batman Annual #27 and 'Tec Annual #11). A couple of things conspired (including me finding out there's a version of Colin in this lol) and I ended up reading it while I was sick. It's mostly fun fluff (as opposed to just corny fluff) and a quick read without much meat in it, but a few things nudged the inspiration muscle and Dustin Nguyen's art is adorable.
Batman Tales: Once Upon a Crime. I liked this one more than the above! It follows in that universe (a Gotham where everything is smaller and cuter lol), mixing it with some fairy tale vibes. Pinocchio!Damian is A Concept. Although my favourite story was "The Snow Queen", with Mister Freeze. The art goes into a whole other level in all of these, but especially that one.
Batman: The Chalice. Bruce Wayne receives the Holy Grail. I read this one in my list of Talia appearances and hers is the part that interested me: Ra's wants the Grail to make her immortal, like him, and Talia tells him that she has no desire to live forever. Her words are "Having lived my life in your company, the prospect of eernal life is not the attraction for me it might be for another." There are A LOT of things you can read into that sentence, and one of them, to me, is the idea that death to Talia would be an escape from Ra's, which is... interesting. Sidenote: this one was written by Dixon, who once in a while gets his wired crossed and is not wholly terrible with female characters xD
Ghost/Batgirl. I hadn't heard of Ghost before but I'm kinda curious after reading this mini run. I found a lot of the concepts it worked on (resurrection, mind control, etc.) quite interesting, although I ended up feeling the execution didn't delve too deeply into them. It's an story I might want to reread and pick apart at some point, though.
JLA: Tower of Babel. Yeah, THAT arc lol (also part of my Talia-reading). I also read JLA Secret Files and Origins #3 (in May, though), which shows Talia's whole thoughts on it as she steals the plans + some of the consequences the whole thing has for the other bats whose teammates no longer trust them (Dick, Tim, Barbara) + the wording of Bruce's contingency plans (which btw includes acceptance of lethal methods against Clark lol)... he certainly got off easy after this añsdlkfjasdf. Honestly, imo, the most selfish, cowardly thing he did was walking out before the JLA could tell him they'd voted him out. I know he and the comics probably won't frame it like that afterwards, but that's how it felt to me. The very least he could've done is face his teammates.

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: Anastacia - I'm Outta Love

WHAT I JUST FINISHED READING:

Quiiiiiite a few things, as it happens. Last week I finished "The Scarlet Letter" and "Pride and Prejudice", two classics that had been on my list for a long, long time. "The Scarlet Letter" I liked a lot better than I expected, from the moment I met Hester. It's a book I know I'll reread eventually, and meditate over. OTOH, P&P started as a really nice read; I like Austen's style, and I like her character work both for those I find endearing or admirable AND those that make me want to tear my hair out xD. Halfway through, with the first proposal and the letter is when it starts really picking up, fully exploding with Lydiagate, as I've seen it called. Speaking of, I don't think there are words that would suffice to describe my hate for Wickham! What he tried to pull with Georgina in particular was so, so despicable... it's absolutely infuriating he gets away scot-free AND keeps taking money from the rest of the characters, even if it makes the story objectively more interesting and therefore better LOL.

I finished reading a couple comic runs as well; DC has me in its clutches again, tragically xD. I decided to give a go to "Batman: The New Adventures" and read issues #1-14, aka, DC's attempt to introduce Jason Todd, aka my favourite DC character, to the Timmverse. DO NOT RECOMMEND

( spoilers from the run & what I would've preferred )

Like... I know after ADITF DC turned Jason into a cautionary tale for other sidekicks full of good ol' victim blaming but. That's not The Point of Jason. He was not some psycho violent kid doomed to become a murderer or an idiot who died because he didn't listen to wise old Batman. He was a kid eager to help people and to find a loving connection that got killed for reasons beyond his control, just like everyone who comes face to face with a repentless killer. It's that simple and that sad. Smh.

I also finished reading "Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow", which I liked far, FAR more. Superb art, interesting storyline (and a nice homage to "True Grit", although the differences in genre/rules make me think I shouldn't rewatch the film, in case the comic looks worse in comparison lol), and a Kara I utterly fell in love with like never before.

I also reread a friend's debut novel now that I have the paperback, "When The Stars Alight", which I recommended here. It came with a little extra scene that wasn't in the ARC that I delighted on, as it's about one of my favourite secondary characters.

WHAT I'M READING NOW

Well, first of all, I've started beta-reading the final draft of "We Will Devour The Night", the next book after WTSA. I have read a previous version and loved it even more than the first book, and I'm excited to read the non-insignificant changes that have been implemented ^-^

I'm also keeping up with my substack newsletters: we finished "Inferno" in Divine Comedy Weekly and will start with "Purgatory" tomorrow; this week Letters from Watson started with a new Sherlock Holmes short story; and this Saturday they'll start sending the third book in the Oz world in Beyond the Wizard.

Other than that... comics. Comics, comics, and more comics (DC only, for now, although eventually I want to catch up with a few Image runs).

I've picked up a few issues from the latest cross-runs event, Knight Terrors, where some new (?) villain is hunting the nightmares of the characters looking for a magical stone. My favourite so far has been Poison Ivy's two-part run (SUPER creepy, reminiscent of Stepford Wives ~~although obviously not nearly as great~~), although I have some hopes for Robin (with Tim & Jason) and Nightwing (who is trapped in Arkham after supposedly killing [redacted]).

As for current runs I'm also at day with "The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing" (with the usual problems of a Joker story nerfing other characters to keep him breathing, but with some great Jason moments), "Waller vs. Wildstorm" (Lois AND Amanda Waller in the same run?), "Tales of The Titans" (heartwarming first issue with Kory), "Justice Society of America" (Helena Wayne travels in time, changes the past, saves her parents, and becomes stuck), and "Spirit World" (a new nb spirit hero + Constantine + Cass as Batgirl -IDEK what hero names the batkids have rn and at this point I'm too afraid to ask).

I've also started the webcomic "Red Hood: Outlaws" in my quest for decent Jason content (mixed feelings so far, but gr10 art. A very punchable Bruce, I have to say xD), and I read the first issue of "Harley Quinn: Black and White and Red" , since the run is getting a sequel and I've wanted to read it for years. Loved this one; the art is amazing, Harley was written perfectly in those few pages, and Harlivy was at the heart of it in a very evocative way. And I keep re-reading over Jason's Robin Era comics, of course.

WHAT I'LL READ NEXT

The to-do list goes:

a.) Keep up with all of the above as long as it remains interesting.
b.) Pick (back) up even more comics as the mood takes me, probably xD (it's the summer, when else will I have the time?)
c.) Finish "Angels in America", since I kind of dropped it last month to finish those other books.

This list probably looks excesive but lbr: comics are a super, super short read, thankfully!

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Paris Paloma - Yeti (ft. Old Sea Brigade)

This upcoming Sunday there's a national election here in Spain that has everyone in a frenzy, and with good reason. In a few days I'll find out whether or not I'm going to be governed by a coalition of fascists, so I'm understandably stressed xDD

I'm semi-active in the political landscape of my area (semi, because for professional reasons, it would NOT be a good idea for me to officially join a party), so I've been doing stuff these past weeks and I'll continue to do it on D Day -basically offering free car rides to the polling station. So I really, REALLY need to decompress for a few days. In case I really, REALLY can't do it on Monday...

In that vein, I thought I'd offer a few recommendations, Just Because. It might become a semi-regular thing, but for now...

-ONE SHOW: a little while ago I finished THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL. I had watched all previous four seasons last year, and although I did enjoy it, I was a pretty casual fan. But the choices they made in the final season impressed me, and were a balm after one too many disappointing journeys for female leads I've had to witness. Both Midge AND Susie were characters that resonated a lot with me, each for their own reasons, and I'm immensely happy with how the last season decided to close their stories. In hindsight, I should've had more faith: I'm one of those (inexplicably few) weirdos who LOVED the Gilmore Girls revival LOL. I think its ending AND TMMM's show that ASP knows how to stick the landing with endings I will find satisfying and, most of all, true to her characters, without concerning herself for the wrongful assumptions, misconceptions and spectations tha audience might've built in their heads along the way.

-ONE BOOK: I wanted to give a shout out to a friend's book, "WHEN THE STARS ALIGHT". The novel, the first installment in a trilogy, came out last month. If you think you'd enjoy a high fantasy book with a setting very different from the clichés of the genre, a majority female cast with weight in the narrative, heavily descriptive and immersive prose, and a gothic heroine/villain Romance (capital R) under no illusions, I'd recommend it. I posted a more detailed review of the ARC here, for anyone curious. And check out the author's page, for info on where to buy a copy (especially if you don't want to depend on amazon), other material she has like newsletters, short stories or merch, etc.

Here are a couple of pictures of my copy, because it's beautiful and I wanted to share them:

Photograph of a book, focusing on the cover. It's "When The Stars Alight" by Camilla Andrew. The cover has a dark blue background, with the title in golden yellow and the borders adorned with golden roses and stars. The bottom corners have two mirroring unicorns framing the author's name, and at the centre there's an oval framing a night sky, with falling stars, the protagonist Laila among them, falling into the earth.

Photograph of a page inside the book. It shows the beginning of a chapter (XXII, the twenty second one), preceded by a small, greyscale drawing of a rabbit in a wolf's embrace, with the wolf holding a rose in its mouth. The first paragraph it's completely visible, with the first letter adorned with flowers. It says, "AMIRA ROSE SAT HIGH ON HER SOLAR THRONE, its name reflected in the gilt carvings of sun rays that ringed the head of the ivory chair. Her brown, beautiful face emitted enough rage to outshine the merciless radiance of ten thousand burning suns. Such was the fury she felt towards the accused standing opposite her." The second paragraph is partially visible, interrupted by my fingers. "Since word had travelled [...] the water of the attempt on her daughter's life she had [...] for [...] extradition. While [...] way of tenderness [...]."

-ONE FILM: today I'm going to go with a very short film (only 4 minutes long, really), a revenge tale called "SNOW STEAM IRON", by Zack Snyder. I know he's a polarising director LMAO, but as a lover of Beautiful Aesthetics fuck anybody who objects to them, as if they mean a story lacks substance by default. This one doesn't IMO, despite its shortness. Warnings for violence, specifically violence against women, but it's not particularly explicit, by my standards.

-ONE ESSAY: "FAME, MALE PRIVILEGE AND A MEDIA CIRCUS - REVISITING ERROL FLYNN'S RAPE TRIAL 80 YEARS ON" by Patricia A. O'Brien. If this brings to mind recent events... well. Join me in my despair and fury about how we're definitely, definitely never getting out of the patriarchy.

Aaaaaand to not end on that depressing note. I made a new icon! It's Lisa Simpson, because I've randomly had her on the brain lately. If you're asking if I was one of those annoying little girls that seriously related to her... you're onto something LMAO. I'll be using her for more fandom-y stuff, since all my other icons minus my default are specific to an original WIP.