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October Daye / Inheritance - Essay Series Part Five: Long Series and How to Read Them

Hello Patrons and general audience members! Welcome to another Books That Burn essay by Robin. Thank you to Case Aiken, who receives a monthly Patron shoutout. [Full Audio Available Here] This is the fifth and final entry in a five-part essay series discussing two long-running book series by queer authors: October Daye by Seanan McGuire, and Inheritance by A.K. Faulkner. I chose these series because I love them both, they were intended from the start to be long series, neither of them are finished yet, and the authors have different structural approaches to developing each series across so many volumes. Purely coincidentally, they are both long-running contemporary fantasy series mainly set in California in or near the 2010's, with major characters named Quentin, and whose fast-healing protagonists have a tendency to quasi-adopt a gaggle of magical teenagers. After a brief moment in the 1990's, October Daye begins in earnest in 2009 and has reached 2015 as of the eighteenth boo...
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Dragons Within: Guarding Her Own - Anthology

A truth-seeker becomes imbued with the power to tip the scales of justice.

A headstrong privateer tempers her courage in the heart of a violent storm.

A pair of mittens leads to a family history rich with dragons.

Sparks fly when a chronically single pilot finally meets her match.

Enter the world of Dragons Within: a place where woman and dragon are one in the same: reigning strong, fierce, and free. Forging bonds with the world of mankind, these unconquerable beings discover a love for the vulnerable, the fragile, the broken.

A pregnant goddess seeks refuge for her children during war. A telepathic soldier finds the courage to claim her humanity. A dragon in human form uses her gifts to protect abuse victims in need. A girl chases a soldier through a desert wasteland to find her missing brother.

Featuring twelve new and emerging speculative fiction writers, this power-driven book delves deep into the journey from treasure hunter to guardian, mercenary to savior, fire-breather to martyr. Transforming rage into righteousness, the women of Dragons Within claim their people, pledging their lives to...guard their own.

TITLE: Dragons Within: Guarding Her Own 
AUTHOR: Celosia Crane, Kimberly Gail, Hayley Green, Kristine Haecker, Shannon McRoberts, Finn O'Malley, Leo Otherland, D. Marie Prokop, Jess Reece, Theda Vallee, Deana Rose Wilson, and Amanda Mills Woodlee. Introduction by Dorothy Tinker. Cover Art by Eben Schumacher.
PUBLISHER: Balance of Seven
YEAR: 2019
LENGTH: 194 pages
AGE: Adult
GENRE: Fantasy, Science Fiction
RECOMMENDED: N/A

Partial Queer Rep Summary: Genderqueer/Nonbinary Main Character(s).

*I received a free review copy in exchange for an honest review of this book. 

DNF 51 pages in (26%).

The stories shared a style that I didn't like but don't know how to describe. Since this is an anthology I thought maybe I'd like some stories better than others, but partway through the fourth one I tried, I stopped. The stories tended to gesture at deeper backstories but leaned overly on telling what cool stuff happened before, without letting any of that happen in the present narrative. 

One of the stories contains a graphic depiction of pregnancy and I wasn't able to handle much more after that, so I stopped shortly thereafter.

“Fire Dance” - CW for cursing, misogyny, sexual harassment (brief), fire, torture, death.

“Last Scion” - CW for ableism, genocide (backstory), violence, parental death (backstory), death.

“Rebirth” - CW for pregnancy (graphic), violence, murder, death.

“Fire Legacy” - Partial CW for ableism, misogyny.

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A red dragon and two people stand on a cliff overlooking a river through green fields leading to a shining white castle in the distance


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