First—woo! Thank you for coming with me on the journey! A whole trilogy! About 480k words worth of Touraine and Luca being royal fuck ups. Literally.
So how to deal with your new book hangover?
I have compiled below a selection of books for the different things you might need after finishing the end of the trilogy. Comfort. More Exquisite Pain. More Lesbians. General Good Fantasy. Some of them, regular readers will recognize, but hopefully there will be something new to you here and you can go on a dive. If they are NOT new to you, drop a comment and how you feel and maybe I can find something—or another reader can help you out.
I also have not gone into depth on the #SapphicTrifecta because I assume many of you have already read them. If not, check out She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker Chan and The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri.
Also, a disclaimer: the links below are affiliate links to the bookshop.org US where available. This gives me a small kickback. If you’re shopping from the UK and would like to support me in a similar way, you can shop here.
More Pain
- The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson: This is one you’ve probably seen me rec before. It’s one of my favorites. It’s more colonial rebellion, only this time, your instigator and mastermind is an accountant who was raised by the machinations of Empire and swears to break it down. First of four, three of which are out. Worth going into regardless.
- A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine: First in a duology, also about who we become when we try to emulate the empire that stole our home from us. An emphasis on the languages we gain and lose in that taking.
- The Everlasting by Alix Harrow: Mythmaking and the lies our nations tell us to maintain their power. And love. Oh, it is about love, love, love.
- The Wings Upon Her Back by Samantha Mills: Another book about a soldier who has to unlearn her programming once she realizes how quickly she’ll be cast down for even a moment’s hesitation before obedience. I’ve long enjoyed her short stories, so I was thrilled to read the novel. Rightfully, it’s received many accolades and award nods.
- The Daughters’ War by Christopher Beuhlman: All the men died in the last goblin war. Now, it’s up to the women. And their giant ravens. Oh, Galva, my love. My love!!! This is a prequel-sequel to The Blacktongue Thief.
- Song of the Huntress by Lucy Holland: A woman falls in love with Hurla, the Lord of the Hunt who was trapped to spend her infinite years riding with a cadre of her hunters and only wants to be free.
Comfort
Admittedly, this is not my area of expertise. So instead of comfort, how about I just say these are a bit more of a joyful romp and can be read pretty quickly perhaps. So, if not excuse from pain, some little anodynes to deaden suffering.
- The Warden by Daniel M. Ford: Fun! Romps! A side of necromancy! A hot half-elf that the MC falls for (the later books explore the relationship a bit more, but it actually goes on a journey, not insta-love, and I enjoyed that). Think D&D creatures, but with a world where wizards have to go do a two-year residency in a town like doctors do.
- Floating Hotel by Grace Curtis: Not a cozy read, to be clear, as there are bloody empires and espionage and murder??? aboardship, but there are at least genuinely nice characters here, which is more than can be said for The Magic of the Lost. (Except for Aranen, shout out to the GOAT.)
- The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson: Hm. Maybe I don’t quite know the meaning of ‘comfort’ but this feels like it should go here. It was really fun, and really funny, so maybe that’s why? But it’s about a scholar who has to solve a murder mystery while stuck in a series of trials for who should be the next ruler. I did an interview with Antonia here.
More Lesbians
I’m going to be honest, most of the books on this list have lesbian MCs or primary lesbian relationships because that’s how I roll, but here are some more.
- Feast While You Can: A horror book. Normally I don’t do horror, but this one wasn’t scary-scary, not gory. It’s about a girl who gets possessed by the neighbourhood Venom and the crush she has on her brother’s butch ex-girlfriend. There is a packer involved. Need I say more?
- Spindrift by Anna Burke: The first entry in her great Seal Cove romances. They’re about a bunch of sapphic veterinarians in a blustery East coast town. I find that they don’t suffer from a lot of the pitfalls I find in romances these days, namely weak characterization. Also they’re hot.
- Metal from Heaven by august clarke: It’s a worker’s revolutionary tale, equal parts radium girls and Upton Sinclair’s the jungle, all wrapped up in a lesbian biker gang heist situation. Another author I’ve interviewed.
- Ammonite by Nicola Griffith: On a planet where all males die, one woman has been tasked with finding out how the local population continues to thrive. I wrote an essay about this one.
General Good Fantasy
- The Thousand Names by Django Wexler: If you want more of that military fantasy feeling, with a bit of holy magic, this is a shout. I used it to great effect as a comp in querying and pitch contests. (“The Unbroken is The Thousand Names but this time, the magic fights back!”) One of the main POVs is a woman soldier who pretends to be a man to get away from an ex-girlfriend and a shitty orphanage situation.
- Robin Hobb: Everything. Just. Start with Assassin’s Apprentice and work your way through. I’m only on the Tawny Man trilogy, trying to savor it all. Those books just show such mastery of the craft.
- The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein: A more gentle book, but it features a scholarly-type of woman with a brash fighter woman, so you know it’s exactly my thing. There is a great mystery at the heart and though it is quiet, I found myself inexorably compelled. In this world, a steerswoman must answer every question put to her. In return, she can ask any question she wishes. Anyone who denies a steerswoman will never have a question answered again. It’s a pretty cool worldbuilding aspect.
- A Necessary Chaos by Brent Lambert: Spy vs. Spy, imperial vs. anarchist, and in between clandestine meet-ups, they start to catch feelings just as their opposing factions start escalating the conflict. Not so much sparks flying as full on explosions.
And finally, you know, you can of course check out Fate’s Bane, by yours truly.
I thought about curtailing this to only the rarely recommended, but by then, I’d already written everything up. There are also other books that I would add, but haven’t finished them, so I’ll just save those for future recs.
Hopefully, this will give you somewhere to start. Bon appétit!
(And don’t forget to leave reviews on your favorite sites for The Sovereign, and tell some friends. Word of mouth is really one of the main ways books gain traction, and more traction means more books in the long run.)
