I’m going to have a lot more time for reading and less time for writing the next couple of months because it’s the school summer holidays. I am therefore putting together my summer reading list!
Anything I should add? I loved the excitement and plotty politics of Spectres of the Deep, the spaceships and found family of Asteroid Run, the gender politics of Creme de la Creme.
Current list:
Lamplighters guild
Choice of Rebels
Pactbinder
Hexfinder
To reign in hell
Officer of the fleet
The lost bride
If you liked Asteroid Run, I’d recommend Heart of Battle and the Heart of the Mountain WIP (I’m biased, I’m married to the author!)
I really liked Stars Arisen so I’d recommend that since you enjoyed Specters of the Deep. For Regency fantasy-of-manners, I’d recommend Westwood, and for Victorian gothic horror/romance, I’d recommend Heart of the House.
I imagine you may have played them already, but Choice of Broadsides and HMS: Foraker may also be up your street!
Politics + gender politics + a bit of excitement: Shattered Eagle: Fall of an Empire is really excellent - if you haven’t already checked it out! Whilst the political intrigue and world are the big appeals, I think it’s one of the rarer IFs which leans into gender inequalities in the worldbuilding (the setting is a matriarchal fantasy world with heavy Rome flavouring), in a really excellent and (IMO!) well-handled way. It’s a WIP, but a very meaty one.
If you like Abby’s game (Specters of the Deep), then you might appreciate her other works, Stars Arisen and Heroes of Myth. Both of them have political elements and plenty of excitement as is her signature at this point I think, lol. And regarding queer stories, I’d highly recommend The Ghost and the Golem which in my opinion has some of the most compelling reactivity to the MC’s gender/sexuality from the CoGs I’ve played. Additionally, it’s hilarious and heart-warming (or heart-wrenching!) in equal measures.
And even though I can only assume @HarrisPS was too modest to recommend their own games despite those being obvious suggestions based on your previous enjoyment and your described interests, just so you know, they have a handful of games set in the Crème universe! I especially appreciated Royal Affairs and Honor Bound (there’s Noblesse Oblige as well, which is pretty different from the other three so YMMV), personally. For you, you might like HB best of the two as it has probably the most emphasis on queer representation.
Cool, thanks! Is one a sequel, or can I jump straight in with the newer one?
Awesome, adding Westwood to the list, but I am too much of a wimp for horror, so not the other one!
I am very familiar with Choice of Broadsides, but I actually haven’t come across HMS Foraker! I think that probably needs to go to the top of the list!
Sounds good - thanks! I am quite into reading WIPs. I am so new to the genre that I really like to get a sense of what people are doing at the cutting edge, as well as learning about the established canon.
Thanks, @fablesoffortune! I am going to go with Ghost and the Golem first, because I already love Harris and Abby’s work, and I am trying to learn about as many different writers as possible right now!
I am always here for book recs! Especially if there is an audio version - my available time for listening to things while tidying the kitchen is vastly more than my available reading time!
Heart of the Mountain is chronologically after Heart of Battle but they’re about different characters and places, so you can start with the WIP without problems! It’s just a couple of chapters shared at the moment but if you like intense forced proximity, magic, and extreme icy conditions (who doesn’t, in these heatwaves??), then you may like Heart of the Mountain! Fay builds a fantastic atmosphere and I’m very fond of it.
For gender politics and found family, I really enjoyed Belle-de-Nuit, from Heart’s Choice. It’s a historical romance (no fantasy) set in a Paris brothel run by a very protective madam. The player character is a duelist who acts as a bodyguard of sorts to the ladies. I liked the feeling of transgression that came from playing with gender presentation, I found that it made the f/m romance path I chose vastly more satisfying.
I’ll throw in some “I second these recommendations”:
Stars Arisen is great if you enjoyed Specters of the Deep.
Also, Honor Bound is one of my favorites of @HarrisPS , so I also recommend that one.
As for new suggestions:
If you like spaceships and found family, Saturnine is a great read. Life of a Space Force Captain is another good one in that genre.
As for just some personal favorites of mine:
I love The Fog Knows Your Name, it’s a horror title where a creepy fog that may or may not be supernatural threatens a town, and everyone in that town suspects you killed your classmate six months ago.
I, The Forgotten One has plenty of the politics, and nasty family dynamics around succession. You play the bastard child of the late king, sent to die on the front lines of a war as a child, now returned to grapple with the political realities of your siblings and a new threat to the kingdom looming.
That one is possibly my absolute favorite, but it’s VERY dark with your character dealing with PTSD due to the awful things down to them as a child and then years at war. It’s very Game of Thrones, with a much more realistic medieval world than we normally see in the genre. And it does have a lot of gender acknowledgement without blocking the player from doing what that want to do, but for instance, men will be skeptical about a woman being a fighter, etc. until you prove them very wrong.
I will defo check out the spaceships ones, and I will at least try your favourite ever, but I suspect it will be too upsetting for me! I am the biggest wimp imaginable!
