Skip to main content

Featured

I've Joined The Creator Accountability Network

I've joined the Creator Accountability Network (CAN) as a provisionally credentialed creator! The provisional period is three months long, and at the end of that time I'll be fully credentialed if nothing disqualifying comes to light.  I'll be excerpting details from their website as the best way to explain what this is and what it means for me as a content creator and for you as readers and audience members. The short version is that I've undergone ethics training as part of the credentialing process, and that if you feel my actions have harmed you (now or in the future), you can report harassment, abuse, or other harm to CAN. Quotes in the rest of this post are from CAN's website as of August 16th, 2025. Here's the long version: From CAN's mission and purpose statements:  "The Creator Accountability Network empowers Community Members to build trust with Content Creators through ethical training and credentialing, victim-centered reporting of unethical...
Post a Comment
Read more
Labels

The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie

The Raven Tower is a fantasy succession struggle murder mystery, where part of the mystery lies in whether there was truly a murder. An immersive setting and slightly disconcerting second person narration create a tale of gods, the price of power, twisted language, and loyalty. 

The story was interesting but mostly fine, but, for me at least, the real strength in this book is in how it slowly revealed what the story actually was, like a tide slowly going out. Most of the pieces were technically in place early on, but the way their importance is revealed creates a slow-burning mystery with a pretty dramatic finale. The world-building is great, the interpersonal relationships are complex in a good way without being too much to keep track of. It felt calm and meditative to read, prompting a lot of interesting thoughts about the nature of language and communication in a practical way (which I quite enjoyed). 

This was good but disconcerting for me personally, especially in the early part of the book. A large portion of it is written in second person, and the character addressed in this manner is male, which caused some trouble since my pronouns are they/them (not he/him). After I adjusted to it and felt less like I was being personally being addressed with incorrect pronouns it was fine, but that took at least fifty pages. The narrative decision to use a mix of first and second person results in a book that is narrated from a single point of view while following two main characters. Overall I think I like it, it works very well for this story. Both main characters are very different and I like them a lot. The tropes that were put together to create the characters are ones I've seen before, some of them many times, but something about the way they come together to make them (especially the non-human ones) feel fresh, As much as I like the POV character, I think Myriad is the one I'd most like to meet (followed closely by Eolo). 

CW for brief transphobia, discussion of infanticide, discussion of suicide, anti-twin prejudice in a fictional culture, massacre, parental death, major character death. 

Bookshop Affiliate Buy Link

A close-up view of an ornate gold door-knocker on a black door.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment