• The Smiling Friends
• Bluey and Bingo
• 505 (Villainous)
• Grup (Mighty Magiswords)
• Adorabat (MMHOPH)
• Team Doki
• Fred Fredburger
• Pikwik Pack
• Unikitty
• The Powerpuff Girls
• Wander and Sylvia
• The entire SpongeBob cast
• Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, and Pluto
• The Canimals
• Juga, Yusi, Shumadan (Qumi Qumi)
• Smeshariki cast
• Kit and Kate
• The South Park boys
• Heartsping (Catch Teenieping)
• The Rubbadubbers
• Cupcake and Dino
• Peri and Entree (Spliced)
• The Mironins
• Willie the Operatic Whale
• Bubbie (TMMOF)
• Grizz, Panda, and Ice Bear
• Elinor Rabbit
• Mooncake
• Kiff
• Barry
• Oswald the Octopus
• The Checkered Eared Rabbit (Hungarian cartoon)
• Bloo (FHFIF)
• Wubbzy (Wow Wow Wubbzy)

⬇⬇⬇ Comment down below your thoughts about my favorite characters ⬇⬇⬇

Eu tenho segurado isso por muito tempo, mas preciso desabafar, e talvez este seja o lugar certo. (Inclusive, neste exato momento, estou tendo uma crise de ansiedade terrível). Recentemente, tive um término de relacionamento, e para ser mais preciso, vai fazer 2 meses. Mas vamos voltar ao início. Conheci meu ex entre idas e vindas de um noivado com outro rapaz. No começo, não rolou nada; só conversamos por redes sociais, pois ainda estava preso ao meu ex-noivo. Quando finalmente consegui me separar dele, decidi mudar totalmente de vida: mudei de cidade, de emprego, e após alguns meses solteiro, reencontrei esse rapaz que é meu “atual ex namorado”. Começamos a conversar novamente e decidimos nos conhecer melhor. No primeiro encontro, rolou um beijo, e daí em diante começamos a nos ver com frequência, sair juntos, ir ao cinema, bares, restaurantes, festas, e por aí vai. No entanto, ele sempre dizia que gostava de deixar as coisas fluírem no tempo certo, mas percebi que na verdade ele não queria algo sério, apenas não queria parar de ficar comigo. Talvez fosse apenas apego aos contatinhos. Após um tempo apenas ficando, tive a "brilhante"/ “burra” ideia de tomar a iniciativa e pedi-lo em namoro. Algo que nunca imaginei que faria, mas estava totalmente iludido, achando que ele seria a pessoa certa, pois parecia muito diferente dos outros caras que conheci. Então, lá fui eu programar o pedido de namoro: reservei um lugar para irmos jantar, comprei as aliança, combinei com o restaurante para fazer a surpresa e chegar com a aliança em uma sobremesa. A noite foi incrível, fiz o pedido, e a resposta foi SIM. Até aí, tudo bem. Porém, alguns dias antes do pedido, descobri o nome do ex dele e, por algum motivo, fui stalkeá-lo. Fui nos seguidores do "meu namorado" e bingo, encontrei o menino. Após o pedido, com o passar dos dias, percebi que ele ainda mantinha contato com o ex. Algumas pessoas vão me julgar, MAS EU NÃO ACREDITO EM AMIZADE DE EX. Então, depois de tanto ver o contato deles, resolvi perguntar sobre a história deles, e ele decidiu contar. O menino terminou com ele, não teve coragem de terminar pessoalmente e fez tudo isso por mensagem. O que percebi com isso é que ele ainda gostava do ex, o que é normal, já que descobri que o término deles era recente. Com o passar do tempo, aquilo começou a me incomodar, o contato deles, troca de mensagens no WhatsApp, memes no Instagram, até que um belo dia ele vacilou com o celular, e fiz a burrada de ir bisbilhotar. Foi aí que encontrei várias coisas, não só conversas com o ex, mas também com outros carinhas. E a maior descoberta foi quando olhei as publicações que ele fazia aqui no Reddit, e 3 dias após o meu pedido de namoro, ele postou em uma comunidade perguntando: COMO FAZER PARA TERMINAR? Que ele tinha aceitado o pedido por vergonha de falar não. Mesmo depois de ver tudo isso, ainda tentei seguir em frente. Os meses foram passando, mas o contato com o ex não parava. Até que um dia, depois de uma briga que tivemos na festa de uns amigos, decidi que era ele ou eu. Ele decidiu romper os contatos com o ex após quase 8 meses de namoro comigo. No entanto, isso já havia criado uma grande insegurança em mim, pois meu ex-noivo me traiu repetidas vezes. Estava me curando de tudo o que passei com ele, então automaticamente as minhas inseguranças voltaram. Estava fazendo tratamento com a psicóloga para que isso não interferisse na minha relação, mas sempre que ele vacilava com o celular, eu olhava para ver se havia algo ali. E aquele ditado nunca falha: QUEM PROCURA, ACHA. Eu sempre achava: carinhas mandando mensagem no direct, WhatsApp, e por aí vai. Acho que meu maior erro, tanto com meu ex-noivo quanto com meu ex-namorado, era não verbalizar as coisas que eu sabia e que me machucavam. Jogava algumas indiretas, mas além disso, ele não era assumido, então praticamente me escondia das pessoas: amigos, família. Não postava uma foto sequer comigo, e na questão sexual era extremamente limitado. Não vou entrar nisso em detalhes, mas algo que é normal em uma relação homossexual, eu tive que pedir a ele, e ele sempre arrumava um motivo para desviar o assunto. Um dia, vi um post dele em uma comunidade aqui no Reddit falando: COMO FAZER MEU NAMORADO ENTENDER QUE EU NÃO GOSTO DE CHUPAR? O detalhe é que ele não gostava de fazer em mim, mas adorava receber. Com ele, eu era só passivo, e como sou versátil, às vezes tinha vontade de ser o ativo, mas ele nunca quis ser passivo comigo, embora já tivesse experiências anteriores com outras pessoas nesse papel. Tivemos 2 términos e voltas, e o relacionamento chegou ao seu segundo ano. Eu tive um contratempo no trabalho e teria que ficar fora da cidade por 4 meses. Sentamos e conversamos para alinhar como ficaria a relação, e ele sempre falava que nada mudaria. No meio desse período de 4 meses, voltei para minha cidade para ficar 10 dias com ele, e aí veio a surpresa: ele terminou comigo assim que cheguei, me acusou de algo que não aconteceu, criou um enredo sem pé nem cabeça para terminar, e conseguiu. Após os 10 dias na minha cidade, tive que voltar para o outro estado onde estava trabalhando. Agora, aqui estou eu, quase 2 meses após o término, sem saber o que fazer ou pensar. Recentemente, tive um pressentimento estranho e fui stalkeá-lo. Parece que não paramos de nos seguir no Instagram, e percebi a movimentação de curtidas e comentários de um rapaz em suas fotos, assim como as curtidas dele nas fotos do rapaz. Recentemente, ele fez um post no Reddit pedindo dicas sobre como ser passivo, algo que ele nunca quis ser comigo, apesar de estarmos juntos por 2 anos. E hoje, veio a confirmação: o rapaz das curtidas e comentários postou uma foto dentro do carro dele. Estou sem saber o que fazer ou pensar. Não sei se eles já se conheciam, e minha cabeça está uma confusão. Não sei como me libertar desse mal. Alguma dica?

Eu tenho segurado isso por muito tempo, mas preciso desabafar, e talvez este seja o lugar certo. (Inclusive, neste exato momento, estou tendo uma crise de ansiedade terrível). Recentemente, tive um término de relacionamento, e para ser mais preciso, vai fazer 2 meses. Mas vamos voltar ao início. Conheci meu ex entre idas e vindas de um noivado com outro rapaz. No começo, não rolou nada; só conversamos por redes sociais, pois ainda estava preso ao meu ex-noivo. Quando finalmente consegui me separar dele, decidi mudar totalmente de vida: mudei de cidade, de emprego, e após alguns meses solteiro, reencontrei esse rapaz que é meu “atual ex namorado”. Começamos a conversar novamente e decidimos nos conhecer melhor. No primeiro encontro, rolou um beijo, e daí em diante começamos a nos ver com frequência, sair juntos, ir ao cinema, bares, restaurantes, festas, e por aí vai. No entanto, ele sempre dizia que gostava de deixar as coisas fluírem no tempo certo, mas percebi que na verdade ele não queria algo sério, apenas não queria parar de ficar comigo. Talvez fosse apenas apego aos contatinhos. Após um tempo apenas ficando, tive a "brilhante"/ “burra” ideia de tomar a iniciativa e pedi-lo em namoro. Algo que nunca imaginei que faria, mas estava totalmente iludido, achando que ele seria a pessoa certa, pois parecia muito diferente dos outros caras que conheci. Então, lá fui eu programar o pedido de namoro: reservei um lugar para irmos jantar, comprei as aliança, combinei com o restaurante para fazer a surpresa e chegar com a aliança em uma sobremesa. A noite foi incrível, fiz o pedido, e a resposta foi SIM. Até aí, tudo bem. Porém, alguns dias antes do pedido, descobri o nome do ex dele e, por algum motivo, fui stalkeá-lo. Fui nos seguidores do "meu namorado" e bingo, encontrei o menino. Após o pedido, com o passar dos dias, percebi que ele ainda mantinha contato com o ex. Algumas pessoas vão me julgar, MAS EU NÃO ACREDITO EM AMIZADE DE EX. Então, depois de tanto ver o contato deles, resolvi perguntar sobre a história deles, e ele decidiu contar. O menino terminou com ele, não teve coragem de terminar pessoalmente e fez tudo isso por mensagem. O que percebi com isso é que ele ainda gostava do ex, o que é normal, já que descobri que o término deles era recente. Com o passar do tempo, aquilo começou a me incomodar, o contato deles, troca de mensagens no WhatsApp, memes no Instagram, até que um belo dia ele vacilou com o celular, e fiz a burrada de ir bisbilhotar. Foi aí que encontrei várias coisas, não só conversas com o ex, mas também com outros carinhas. E a maior descoberta foi quando olhei as publicações que ele fazia aqui no Reddit, e 3 dias após o meu pedido de namoro, ele postou em uma comunidade perguntando: COMO FAZER PARA TERMINAR? Que ele tinha aceitado o pedido por vergonha de falar não. Mesmo depois de ver tudo isso, ainda tentei seguir em frente. Os meses foram passando, mas o contato com o ex não parava. Até que um dia, depois de uma briga que tivemos na festa de uns amigos, decidi que era ele ou eu. Ele decidiu romper os contatos com o ex após quase 8 meses de namoro comigo. No entanto, isso já havia criado uma grande insegurança em mim, pois meu ex-noivo me traiu repetidas vezes. Estava me curando de tudo o que passei com ele, então automaticamente as minhas inseguranças voltaram. Estava fazendo tratamento com a psicóloga para que isso não interferisse na minha relação, mas sempre que ele vacilava com o celular, eu olhava para ver se havia algo ali. E aquele ditado nunca falha: QUEM PROCURA, ACHA. Eu sempre achava: carinhas mandando mensagem no direct, WhatsApp, e por aí vai. Acho que meu maior erro, tanto com meu ex-noivo quanto com meu ex-namorado, era não verbalizar as coisas que eu sabia e que me machucavam. Jogava algumas indiretas, mas além disso, ele não era assumido, então praticamente me escondia das pessoas: amigos, família. Não postava uma foto sequer comigo, e na questão sexual era extremamente limitado. Não vou entrar nisso em detalhes, mas algo que é normal em uma relação homossexual, eu tive que pedir a ele, e ele sempre arrumava um motivo para desviar o assunto. Um dia, vi um post dele em uma comunidade aqui no Reddit falando: COMO FAZER MEU NAMORADO ENTENDER QUE EU NÃO GOSTO DE CHUPAR? O detalhe é que ele não gostava de fazer em mim, mas adorava receber. Com ele, eu era só passivo, e como sou versátil, às vezes tinha vontade de ser o ativo, mas ele nunca quis ser passivo comigo, embora já tivesse experiências anteriores com outras pessoas nesse papel. Tivemos 2 términos e voltas, e o relacionamento chegou ao seu segundo ano. Eu tive um contratempo no trabalho e teria que ficar fora da cidade por 4 meses. Sentamos e conversamos para alinhar como ficaria a relação, e ele sempre falava que nada mudaria. No meio desse período de 4 meses, voltei para minha cidade para ficar 10 dias com ele, e aí veio a surpresa: ele terminou comigo assim que cheguei, me acusou de algo que não aconteceu, criou um enredo sem pé nem cabeça para terminar, e conseguiu. Após os 10 dias na minha cidade, tive que voltar para o outro estado onde estava trabalhando. Agora, aqui estou eu, quase 2 meses após o término, sem saber o que fazer ou pensar. Recentemente, tive um pressentimento estranho e fui stalkeá-lo. Parece que não paramos de nos seguir no Instagram, e percebi a movimentação de curtidas e comentários de um rapaz em suas fotos, assim como as curtidas dele nas fotos do rapaz. Recentemente, ele fez um post no Reddit pedindo dicas sobre como ser passivo, algo que ele nunca quis ser comigo, apesar de estarmos juntos por 2 anos. E hoje, veio a confirmação: o rapaz das curtidas e comentários postou uma foto dentro do carro dele. Estou sem saber o que fazer ou pensar. Não sei se eles já se conheciam, e minha cabeça está uma confusão. Não sei como me libertar desse mal. Alguma dica?

Cada vez mais tenho começado a ficar mais interessado a tirar a carta de pesados, sou da zona de Almada e não faço a minima ideia por onde começar para que ao menos receba uma formação de jeito e eventualmente dar continuação para fazer disto a minha vida, ha alguma dica que sejam importante saber antes de começar, ou no que toca a formação é pegar na primeira escola que oferecer um preço mais baixo e siga para bingo?

I had it bad when I was pregnant with my children and I’ve noticed a few nights here and there with it. It’s so weird and I hate it. Anyone else?

Stars: 5
Bingo categories: Set in the Middle East, maybe Elemental Magic, HM? (the djinn are associated with fire, marid with water, peri with air and I think humans with earth?), maybe also Myths and Retellings, HM? [EDIT: Also Book Club or Readalong Book]
\*A note on categories*: Before learning more about the author, I assumed that this would also fit POC Author, but I was wrong—Chakraborty is actually a white convert to Islam and not a POC herself (Chakraborty is her married surname). So while this book is “own voices” in terms of its Islamic themes, it doesn’t fit that square, nor HM for Set in the Middle East.
Nahri is an orphan in 18th century Cairo with unexplained magical gifts for healing and language. When she accidentally summons an ancient Daeva warrior, Dara, she learns that she herself has Daeva blood and is the last descendant of an annihilated Daeva royal family. Now she is being pursued by malevolent ifrit, and her best chance at escape is to go with Dara to the djinn city of Daevabad. But even as she grows closer to Dara, she must reckon with his violent and complicated history, as well as the violent and complicated history of the djinn and Daeva people.
Meanwhile, in Daevabad, Ali is the second son of the djinn king, groomed since birth to be his older brother’s military right hand—but he harbors secret sympathies for the Tanzeem, a rebel group fighting for the oppressed, part-djinn/part-human Shafit population. Ali must weigh his loyalty to his family against his sense of justice—which becomes all the more difficult when Nahri and Dara are thrown into the mix…
The plot itself is one that initially feels pretty boilerplate—orphan with mysterious parentage and unusual abilities finds out she has magical blood and is whisked away on adventure by a mentor figure, while pursued by evil adversaries. But it is a very well-executed example of the form, and the Middle Eastern setting and Arabic mythology make it feel fresher than it otherwise would. And once the journey/pursuit sequence is over and Nahri and Dara arrive in Daevabad, the story takes on a more complex and original bent, full of social conflict and royal power politics.
The djinn are sharply divided into five tribes, which speak their own languages, generally do not intermarry and live in segregated quarters of the city. The Daeva, in previous centuries the dominant and ruling tribe, now feel themselves oppressed by the currently-ruling Geziri, who slaughtered their ruling family a few hundred years ago; however, now King Ghassan caters to them to maintain the peace, providing their quarter with higher levels of city services and granting them high positions in government—which causes resentment among others in the city. The Shafit, of mixed djinn and human blood, are more actively oppressed, by the Daeva most of all. And the other tribes are all constantly distrustful and scheming against one another. The king is complicit in maintaining this system, but he explains his position so persuasively to Nahri that it is very easy to understand his perspective and why he sees his as the moral high ground.
It is a bit difficult, amidst all these axes of tension and oppression, to tell who the “good guys” and the “bad guys” are. And I LOVE that. Obviously, we’re supposed to be rooting for Nahri, as our protagonist, but Nahri herself isn’t sure who she’s supposed to be siding with—she was thrust into this situation with so little historical context and zero familial or tribal ties beyond her connection with Dara. Being of Daeva heritage, she is expected to side with them, and yet she isn’t at all sure that they are on the right side of things—especially given the details of Dara’s history, which emerge very gradually and not completely until the end of the story. Some critical reviewers who prefer their worlds to be more starkly good/oppressed vs. evil/oppressors disliked this moral ambiguity, but this sort of thing is what I live for in fantasy. The message of good vs. evil that emerges for me is that tribalism itself is evil—that grudges held for centuries and the eternal cycle of tragedy and retribution are damaging for everyone.
Chakraborty does a wonderful job with characterizations: Nahri’s character leaps off the page in only the first two scenes. Her interaction with Yagub in particular brings her to life as smart, irreverent, willing to take risks but caring in her own way. Some critical reviewers have complained about how Nahri lacks agency for a good deal of the book, and I think that is true to some degree; she is a complete fish-out-of-water, and needs to learn about the context before she can exert any sort of control. A good portion of the story is devoted to her learning about that context and fighting to get her feet under her, while the players around her seek to use her for their own ends.
The djinn in this story do have some similarities to the fae in the more Western-oriented “human girl whisked away to fairyland against her will” stories that are currently very popular—they come across as very human in their thoughts and behavior, and in some ways feel more like “souped-up” humans than distinct creatures. In this instance, this quality is explained well by the mythology-based worldbuilding—Dara tells Nahri how the djinn were subdued by the prophet Suleiman, and in the aftermath of that, adopted more human customs (e.g. taking the human word “djinn” for their own people, and all the tribes but the Daeva converting to Islam). And the Arabic/Islamic aesthetic that infuses all the worldbuilding also helps make this use of the trope feel more distinct from the rest of the crowd (although… I have a genuine question… do djinn in Islamic mythology traditionally have pointy ears, or is that a Western import?)
Speaking of the worldbuilding and aesthetic—it was all impeccably done. Chakraborty strikes a wonderful balance of conveying authenticity while still translating for a Western audience—e.g. using the Arabic name for an article of clothing, but slipping in a few words of description so those unfamiliar with it can picture it. I also really appreciated the attention to detail with the naming—while the Geziri, from the Arabian Peninsula, have Arabic names, the Daeva, from Persia, have Persian names, including Darayavahoush (the Old Persian original form of Darius), Kaveh, Jamshid and Manizeh (which I was annoyed that the audiobook narrator mispronounced—it is the name of a character from the Persian epic poem the Shahnameh, and pronounced mah-nee-ZEH, not muh-NYE-za). Chakraborty even uses appropriate 19th century place names, such as siting Daevabad near the “Gozan River” (nowadays called the Amu Darya, which runs between Afghanistan and Turkmenistan). The Daeva also wear chadors, which are Persian garments. And Nahri referring to the French as “Franks” early in the story felt like a bit of an inside joke—the word that translates to “Frank” in Persian and Arabic, (ferenghi in Persian; I’m not sure of the transliteration from Arabic), had been generalized to mean “foreigner” by Nahri’s time.
Some of the more critical reviews of this book complain that they found the worldbuilding confusing. I find myself wondering if they are readers who skim very quickly and miss details, because I didn’t find it confusing at all—complex and detailed, yes, but everything was clearly explained. (E.g. I’ve seen multiple reviews complaining that they still don’t understand the difference between a djinn and a Daeva, and I think that was made abundantly clear—they’re just different naming conventions, one of which has been accepted by all tribes but one, the other which has been exclusively claimed by that one outlier tribe despite it technically applying to all. Is this really all that confusing? I thought it was a great illustration of how language and naming conventions get wrapped up in power politics). Similarly, some reviewers complained about the middle part of the book being slowed down by all the political machinations, with all the exciting action packed into the last bit. I didn’t have a problem with this—the “slow” parts were still full of tension, and I love stories that focus on interpersonal relationships and intrigue. A lot of the other critical reviews just bounced off the characters—they were bothered by Nahri’s seeming character regression after arriving in Daevabad, or frustrated by Ali’s naïveté and waffling (which, fair, but I don’t mind frustrating or misguided characters if they’re characterized WELL—and I think he was). And I see quite a lot of reviewers complaining that this is “very YA”—but I don’t think this was actually published as YA, though it would probably qualify as a crossover. The prose and perspective are certainly not what I would consider the standard "YA style." I think this is one of the more egregious examples of readers dismissing anything written by a woman and featuring a young-ish female protagonist as YA, regardless of how it was published.
I listened to the audiobook, and was generally satisfied with the narration, aside from the aforementioned mispronunciation and a few others that I was side-eyeing (I am not very familiar with Arabic, and I know there are a gazillion dialects, so I don’t want to jump to judgment when I could very well be wrong, but I’ll just say that some of the words were pronounced differently from how I have heard them said before).
In sum, I really enjoyed this book and look forward to picking up the rest of the trilogy. I would recommend it to readers who enjoy in-depth, morally complex worldbuilding in a non-Western setting, and don’t mind the framework of a more standard fantasy plot or the slower-paced building of tension and intrigue.

É um jogo simples e divertido, qualquer pessoa pode completar. Juntando duas ofertas conseguimos maximizar o lucro, sem investir nada, nem dar dados pessoais.
Primeiro, registamo-nos neste site: Swagbucks, procuramos pela offerwal Lootably, Lá dentro procuramos pela Gcloot ou Zoombucks. Fazemos uma destas ofertas para receber 12€.
Segundo, na Gcloot procuramos pela offerwall Ayet, lá dentro está o jogo Bingo Blitz a pagar 16.29€. Se concluirmos esta oferta, recebemos as duas ofertas.
Dicas para concluir o jogo facilmente:
1 - Ver no youtube o que é o bingo genérico, para se perceber como se joga. Este jogo é o jogo do bingo com extras e powerups.
2 - Aderir ao Bingo Blitz Plus logo de inicio, tem um trial de um mês, é preciso cancelar antes do fim para não cobrarem nada. Assim teremos mais créditos e addons.
3 - Aproveitar os créditos diários oferecidos em https://www.pockettactics.com/bingo-blitz/free, Procurar no Google por Bingo Blitz Gifts para encontrar mais.
4 - Jogar com 4 cartões para ganhar o máximo XP, mas não usar o multiplicador, senão ficamos logo sem créditos.
Ver este video para perceber melhor como usar os Powerups: https://youtu.be/_ny3C3mJOCQ?si=kQUVJFqHpVW1Y21d
Esta técnica de esperar que a rodinha do tempo deixe de estar castanha para marcar os números que temos e aproveitarmos os Powerups é muito importante para progredirmos rapidamente.
5 - Aproveitar os Powerups gratuitos de duas em duas horas
​
A Swagbucks tem sido bastante fiável nos pagamentos e não cobra comissão ao levantar por Paypal. Para além disso os SB points podem ser convertidos em euros e não em dólares o que dá para ganhar logo mais e não gastar mais dinheiro em câmbios.
Outras ofertas interessantes na Swagbucks:

• StormShot (jogo) 45€
• Farmville 3 (Jogo) 15€
• Remitly (25€)
• Wirex (25€)
• Binance (18€)
• Deco Proteste (4.80€)

Enjoy :)
Non ref link

Pessoal, ano passado a empresa fez um evento em Florianópolis e acabamos em um bingo com show de drags. Foi muito bom o evento.
Está semana estamos em Curitiba e queria dica de eventos análogos. Algo legal é fora do ordinário. Possuem dicas? Seria p quarta e quinta. Obrigado.

É um jogo simples e divertido, qualquer pessoa pode completar. Juntando duas ofertas conseguimos maximizar o lucro, sem investir nada, nem dar dados pessoais.
​
Primeiro, registamo-nos neste site: https://dollah.co/ref/1lhffdlt0, procuramos pela offerwal Lootably, Lá dentro procuramos pela Gcloot ou Zoombucks. Fazemos uma destas ofertas para receber 11.25$.
Segundo, na Gcloot procuramos pela offerwall Ayet, lá dentro está o jogo Bingo Blitz a pagar 20.42$. Se concluirmos esta oferta, recebemos as duas ofertas.
​
Dicas para concluir o jogo facilmente:
1 - Ver no youtube o que é o bingo genérico, para se perceber como se joga. Este jogo é o jogo do bingo com extras e powerups.
2 - Aderir ao Bingo Blitz Plus logo de inicio, tem um trial de um mês, é preciso cancelar antes do fim. Assim teremos mais créditos e addons.
3 - Aproveitar os créditos diários oferecidos em https://www.pockettactics.com/bingo-blitz/free, Procurar no Google por Bingo Blitz Gifts para encontrar mais.
4 - Jogar com 4 cartões para ganhar o máximo XP, mas não usar o multiplicador, senão ficamos logo sem créditos.
Ver este video para perceber melhor como usar os Powerups: https://youtu.be/_ny3C3mJOCQ?si=kQUVJFqHpVW1Y21d
Esta técnica de esperar que a rodinha do tempo deixe de estar castanha para marcar os números que temos e aproveitarmos os Powerups é muito importante para progredirmos rapidamente.
5 - Aproveitar os Powerups gratuitos de duas em duas horas
Já fiz levantamentos em ambos os sites, são seguros.
Enjoy :)
Non ref link
​

When I found out the story was going to be about the crazy kleptomaniac The Nine using River Song to help him capture the Doctor’s companions across time and space just for the fun of it I was thrilled! Because it was such a golden opportunity for companions to interact with each other and see what they think of the doctor’s other friends I can imagine some pretty fun conversations like Leela and Anya Kingdom would definitely hit it off with war stories of combat and danger prone Peri and Amy Will definitely play who’s had it worse bingo with there traumas experienced over there travels and of course Charley and Clara the doctors biggest cheerleaders that never quit. All and all of Say the story was good just I felt it could have been bigger if all of the prisoners banded together to rise up against the 9 instead of it just being and handful of Eights companions and River mainly does most of the fighting herself.

"Solitude e Solidão: Gêmeas Distantes, Irmãs Compartilhadas ou Companheiras Imprevistas?" Já se pegou em um momento de isolamento, mas completamente em paz, ou talvez afogado em uma sensação de solidão mesmo cercado de gente?
Pois é, muita gente confunde solitude com solidão, mas, meus caros, são duas irmãs com personalidades bem distintas. Neste artigo, vamos abordar o tema e procurar desvendar o que realmente significa cada uma dessas palavrinhas e como elas afetam nossas vidas.
Então, quer você esteja tomando um chá na companhia de seus pensamentos ou se sentindo perdido na multidão, vem com a gente. Vamos mergulhar de cabeça nessa jornada entre a solitude e a solidão, e quem sabe você não encontre uma parceira pra vida?

Qual é o Significado de Solitude

Qual é o Significado de Solitude? Vamos desenrolar isso juntos! Imagine que você acabou de chegar em casa depois de um dia estressante.
Você desliga o celular, prepara uma xícara de chá e se acomoda em sua poltrona favorita. A casa está em silêncio e você está sozinho com seus pensamentos. Esse momento, meus amigos, é a essência da solitude.
Solitude é como dar um abraço em si mesmo. É quando você escolhe ficar sozinho, não porque ninguém te quer por perto, mas porque você precisa desse tempo.
É uma pausa do barulho do mundo, onde você pode ouvir seus pensamentos sem ter que competir com as vozes e opiniões alheias.
Ah, não confundam com solidão, tá? Solidão é a prima triste da solitude; é quando você se sente sozinho mesmo quando não quer estar. Solitude, por outro lado, é tipo um encontro marcado com você mesmo.
E sabe de uma coisa? A solitude pode ser incrivelmente benéfica. Ela pode ajudar a reduzir o estresse, melhorar a concentração e até aumentar a criatividade. É como dar um ‘reset’ no cérebro.
Então, da próxima vez que você tiver um momento só seu, seja grato por ele. A solitude é uma amiga que, quando bem aproveitada, pode trazer paz, clareza e um senso renovado de propósito.

Qual a diferença entre Solitude e Solidão

Qual a diferença entre Solitude e Solidão? À primeira vista, podem parecer duas faces da mesma moeda, mas quando você mergulha um pouco mais fundo, percebe que são conceitos bem diferentes.
Comecemos pela solidão. Essa é a sensação de se sentir só de uma forma não muito agradável. É como se algo estivesse faltando. A gente pode estar rodeado de pessoas, mas se sente isolado porque as conexões significativas estão ausentes. A solidão pode ser como um buraco no peito que a gente não sabe como preencher, e às vezes até dói.
Agora, vamos falar da tal da solitude. Essa, meus amigos, é uma experiência totalmente diferente. É a escolha de passar um tempo sozinho e aproveitar a própria companhia. Não há um sentimento de vazio ou tristeza, mas uma sensação de paz e satisfação.
É quando você aprecia o silêncio, e os seus pensamentos têm o espaço que precisam. Pode ser aquele momento em que você decide dar uma caminhada sozinho, meditar, ou simplesmente sentar com uma xícara de café e pensar na vida.
Então, basicamente, a diferença está na satisfação versus o vazio. Solitude é quando você está sozinho e curte isso, é quase como um encontro com você mesmo. Solidão é quando você se sente só e gostaria de não estar, é como estar em uma sala cheia de gente, mas se sentindo invisível.
Compreender essa diferença pode ser fundamental para entendermos nossas emoções e necessidades e buscar um equilíbrio saudável entre momentos de solitude e interações significativas com os outros.

Qual é o sinônimo de solitude?

Quando falamos de solitude, a gente logo pensa em estar sozinho, mas não é só isso. Solitude carrega consigo uma sensação de paz e contentamento quando se está só. Então, quais palavras conseguem capturar essa essência?
"Retiro" talvez seja um bom sinônimo. Parece que você se retirou do mundo por um tempo, só para ficar com seus pensamentos. Outra palavra que chega perto é "recolhimento". Você recolhe sua atenção das distrações e foca em si mesmo.
Não podemos esquecer de "introspecção", que significa olhar para dentro de si, e é algo que acontece com frequência na solitude.
O mais importante ter em mente que, enquanto esses sinônimos tocam aspectos da solitude, ela é uma palavra com seu próprio sabor especial, carregando consigo a ideia de encontrar satisfação e tranquilidade na própria companhia.

Como viver bem na solitude?

Como Viver Bem na Solitude? Primeiramente, é importante entender que a solitude não é sobre isolar-se do mundo, mas sim sobre ter um tempo de qualidade com você mesmo. Vamos desbravar algumas dicas para aproveitar ao máximo esses momentos.

1. Aceite a Companhia de Si Mesmo: Entenda que você pode ser um ótimo companheiro para você mesmo. Aprecie seus próprios pensamentos e interesses sem julgamento.
2. Desconecte-se: Reduzir o barulho das redes sociais e mensagens pode ser um bálsamo para a mente. Dê-se permissão para não estar disponível o tempo todo.
3. Encontre Atividades que Você Ama: Ler, escrever, desenhar, ou até mesmo meditar. Faça algo que faça seu coração se sentir contente.
4. Reflexão e Autoconhecimento: Use esse tempo para refletir sobre suas experiências e emoções. Isso pode te ajudar a entender melhor quem você é.
5. Natureza é sua Amiga: Se possível, passe algum tempo na natureza. O contato com o verde e o ar fresco pode ser extremamente revigorante.

Lembrando sempre que a solitude é sobre equilíbrio. É bom ter um tempo só seu, mas também é importante cultivar relações e compartilhar momentos com outras pessoas.

Como saber se tenho solitude?

A solitude não é uma coisa que você tem, como um objeto, mas sim uma experiência que você vive. Então, como saber se você está vivenciando a solitude?
Primeiro, reflita sobre como você se sente quando está sozinho. Se você escolheu conscientemente ter um tempo para si e está sentindo uma espécie de tranquilidade e contentamento, bingo! Isso é solitude.
Se você consegue apreciar o silêncio, se perde em pensamentos ou em uma atividade que ama sem sentir a necessidade de ter alguém por perto, você está abraçando a solitude. É como estar em uma conversa agradável, mas com você mesmo, e sair dela se sentindo revigorado e em paz.

Leandro Karnal fala sobre a Solitude e Solidão

Neste vídeo abaixo, Leandro Karnal examina a essência de viver só, seja por um curto ou longo período, independentemente de estar acompanhado ou não, embasando suas ideias em pensamentos de filósofos, referências bíblicas, acontecimentos históricos e elementos de romances.

Conclusão

Chegamos ao fim do artigo sobre sobre solitude e solidão. Como a gente pode lidar com a solitude e solidão de forma inteligente?
Quando você sentir solidão, não deixe isso de lado. É essencial reconhecer esse sentimento. Ligue para um amigo, participe de grupos, ou faça algo que te conecte com outras pessoas. Estar em companhia e criar laços é uma parte importante da vida.
Por outro lado, quando você tiver a oportunidade de experimentar a solitude, vá em frente! Aproveite esse tempo para pensar, talvez ler, ou fazer algo que você goste. Mas também, não se isole demais. Encontrar um equilíbrio entre passar tempo sozinho e com outros é crucial.
Então, é isso. A ideia é compreender e respeitar os momentos de solidão, ao mesmo tempo em que valorizamos e aproveitamos os momentos de solitude.
Se você achou esse artigo esclarecedor ou acha que pode fazer a diferença para alguém, por favor, compartilhe. Vamos contribuir para que mais pessoas entendam esses conceitos e encontrem um equilíbrio saudável em suas vidas.
Leia também :

• Como a Inteligência Emocional Pode Ajudar na Educação Financeira
• 9 Sinais de que Você Pode ser Introvertido
• Como Tratar a Ruminação Mental essas Dicas

Time to Vote in the July 2023 Book of the Month Poll. The poll is open until June 28, 2023 11:59PM PDT. If you are not a member of our Fantasy Goodreads Group, you will need to join. Added advantage of joining? You can connect with more Fantasy members and check out what they are reading! (Stop by the Introduce yourself post to see who is who).
Also, be sure to check out this year's 2023 Bingo card.
This month's theme is Ladies of the 80's.

The Silent Tower by Barbara Hambly

In a world where wizards are relegated to ghettos, it is no surprise to see one murdered in the street. But for Stonne Caris, a young warrior monk who sees the killing and gives chase to the culprit, there is nothing ordinary about seeing a murderer disappear into a black, inky portal. The Archmage sends him in search of Antryg Windrose—a half-mad mage who understands the nature of these passages between dimensions.
On the other side of the Void is Joanna, a programmer as mild as Caris is deadly. She has spent her life in cubicles, staring into computer terminals, as far from heroism as she can get. But when the power that is crossing between dimensions draws her through the Void, she finds herself battling to save a world she never even knew existed.
With intricate worldbuilding and complex plot twists, The Silent Tower is a compelling introduction to one of this generation’s greatest female fantasy writers.

Bingo Squares: Multiverse and Alternate Realities

War for the Oaks by Emma Bull

Acclaimed by critics and readers on its first publication in 1987, winner of the Locus Award for Best First Novel, Emma Bull's War for the Oaks is one of the novels that has defined modern urban fantasy.
Eddi McCandry sings rock and roll. But she's breaking up with her boyfriend, her band just broke up, and life could hardly be worse. Then, walking home through downtown Minneapolis on a dark night, she finds herself drafted into an invisible war between the faerie folk. Now, more than her own survival is at risk—and her own preferences, musical and personal, are very much beside the point.
By turns tough and lyrical, fabulous and down-to-earth, War for the Oaks is a fantasy novel that's as much about this world as about the other one. It's about real love and loyalty, about real music and musicians, about false glamour and true art. It will change the way you hear and see your own daily life.

Bingo Squares: ???

The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein

Fascinated by the opalescent and perfectly smooth jewels--clearly no natural product--Rowan pursues the secret of their origin, a quest that leads her to secretive wizards who kill without compunction

Bingo Squares: Title with a Title

Sorcerer's Legacy by Janny Wurts

With her husband, the Duke of Trathmere, slain in battle, Elienne becomes a captive of the loathsome Prime Inquisitor of the conquering army. Her home is now a prize of war, and Elienne swept aside in the wreckage as chattel--until the Inquisitor vows to bed her as punishment for her defiance.
Locked in a dank cell awaiting her fate, Elienne is visited by a sorcerer, powerful beyond her imagining. Ielond seeks a bride for his prince, a man condemned to death by a council that has deemed him unfit for succession since he cannot father an heir. When Ielond tells Elienne she is carrying her husband's child, the recent conception offers hope to salvage the throne. To escape the Inquisitor's cruelty, Elienne agrees to pose her son as the royal heir. But in a battle to thwart black magic and intrigue, her bold heart will remain her own, self-reliant invention her solitary salvation as malevolent factions coalesce against her . . .

Bingo Squares: ???

The Changeling Sea by Patricia McKillip

Since the day her father's fishing boat returned without him, Peri and her mother have mourned his loss. Her mother sinks into a deep depression and spends her days gazing out at the sea. Unable to control her anger and sadness any longer, Peri uses the small magic she knows to hex the sea. And suddenly into her drab life come the King's sons—changelings with strange ties to the underwater kingdom—a young magician, and, finally, love.

Bingo Squares: Coastal Setting (?)
After the poll is complete, we will ask for a volunteer to lead discussions for the winning book. Head on over to Goodreads to vote in the poll.

So I’ve posted here before. From about 2016 - 2018 my libido was in overdrive. But since about 2019, I’ve not felt like myself. Started with anger / emotional stuff, then hot flushes at work with full body sweats, rosacea, no libido, weight gain but was on the pill. Had some irregular bleeding around 2017 / 18 that I sought medical help with and some low abdominal pain etc. they found an ovarian cyst but told me absolutely no way was I in peri menopause due to my age.
Advised to get off the pill in mid 2021, so I go buy all the sanitary items etc and nothing..no spotting, no period, zero. Go back to gp who says no way to menopause. Hot flushes worsen so I’m referred to an endocrinologist.
Now it’s 2022 and endo doubts I’m in menopause, maybe just peri, so she puts me on estrogen patches for the flushes and checks thyroid function which is just on the border for hypothyroidism but says we will just monitor. Mid 2022 flushes are out of control, weight is creeping up and body has changed significantly (I now look like my husband with his big stomach) so endo doubles the patches and gets me an internal ultrasound.
Bingo- what do you know? No eggs; not one. Lining looks like menopause, but, ‘cause of my age again, endo refers me to a gyno.
Gyno not convinced I’m in menopause, maybe just peri cause of my age and the fact that I was on the pill for so long and “the pill can do funny things”. Ok sure. She takes me off the patches for 3 months and when I mention the scan and zero eggs she says it’s because the “cyst could be caused by an unreleased egg, so let’s just see if you have a period and exactly what is happening.” I know what is / has been happening but ok let’s try it.
Now here I am, 5 months later and another scan done and now I am POST MENOPAUSAL. Yepppp, oh and you should now have “one ovary, both tubes removed and a Mirena inserted for progesterone plus back on patches. And that will be about 3k for the operation.”
Wow. Treated like an idiot all this time when I knew what was happening! Initially I agreed to the surgery but now am seeking a second opinion and asked for a script for oral progesterone as I had a Mirena once and hated it and took it out at 6 months.
Don’t make my mistake, lots of $$ later on appointments just to be told what I already knew. Take care
Edited to add I am turning 46 this year. Began periods at 10

Finally finished my all King Arthur card, down to the bingo wire!
You can see my first post here, which reviews and discusses the works I read (and didn’t read) up to and including the 20th century.
This post is for the modern works - 2000 up until today. Thanks for reading!

How I rate these books

In no particular order:

• Writing skill and prose
  
• Characters
  
• Level of depth and/or adherence to either Arthurian legend and myth, or subversion thereof, or interesting changes from the sources
  

Novels + Story Collections

The Doom of Camelot - edited by James Lowder (2000)

Two or More Authors (HM), Historical SFF, Five Short Stories
It’s quite fitting that this was my last read of the card, as every story is set around or after King Arthur’s time has come to an end.
The Doom of Camelot is another interesting gem that’s come out of Green Knight Publishing (see also: The Life of Sir Aglovale de Galis from my first post). Each story was well-written, keeping my attention all the way through, and worth reading, but not many of them appealed to me very strongly. There were two I liked best: “The Last Road” by Elizabeth Wyrick Thompson, Arthur’s end told by Sir Lucan’s nameless squire, and “The Battle, Lost” by Susan Fry, a story from a point of view you don’t see very often, a common farm woman during Arthur’s latter days. The anthology’s closing tale, the novella “Avilion: A Romance of Voices” by Verlyn Flieger, was ambitious, and I do think the author did a great job of capturing the unique voices and perspectives of all the prominent figures in King Arthur’s stories. The only thing I wished the author didn’t include was clear misogyny in many of the chapters. I thought to myself the first time, “maybe Kay’s opinion on women is supposed to be realistic for the time period…” but then each female character’s perspective after that calls Genever a bitch, and Genever’s chapter opens by directly stating she has no use for other women and continues in the same vein from that attitude, so, maybe the author was working through something, who knows.

3/5

Here Lies Arthur - Philip Reeve (2007)

Historical SFF, Standalone (HM), Anti-Hero (HM), Cool Weapon (HM), Name in the Title, No Ifs, Ands, or Buts (HM)
Gwyna is the offspring of an unnamed slave woman on Lord Ban’s holding who manages to escape into the nearby river when Arthur’s warband comes to burn and pillage. Myrddin finds her and takes her under his wing, disguised as his servant boy.
Here Lies Arthur won the Carnegie Medal for children’s literature in 2008, which is a bit surprising (to me, at least) because this story is quite dark. Reeve subverts the heroic Arthur and magical Merlin and reveals them for what they may have actually been - a petty, power-hungry warlord and his clever tale-teller. The book of course doesn’t have the detail and length of The Once and Future King, or Sword at Sunset, but still manages to fit in significant depth to most of the characters. I liked how gender was touched on with Gwyna living much of her life as “Gwyn”, and “Peri” being raised as a girl by his mother before becoming Peredur.
It can be read without knowing much of the original legends, but there are a few references here and there to the individual Arthurian figures’ tales, and on top of that the subversion doesn’t work as well without at least reading something like The Once and Future King first which explores Arthur and his knights’ tragedy from a heroic, sympathetic perspective.

3.5/5

Lancelot and the Lord of the Distant Isles: Or, the Book of Galehaut Retold - Patricia Terry, Samuel N. Rosenberg (2007)

Standalone (HM), Cool Weapon, Name in the Title, Author Uses Initials, Indie Publisher
Galehaut is a relatively obscure character from the original Vulgate Cycle (13th century), who nevertheless played a huge part in Lancelot’s life. Terry and Rosenberg’s book here is an effort to bring this character into modern consciousness again.
To understand the background of this character, if you’ve never really heard of him, I have a few suggested readings based on how deep you want to go.

1. Timeless Myths has a great quick overview
   
2. They also have longer summaries - an intro to Lancelot in the Lancelot-Grail, and the key section on Galehaut
   
3. For the real fans, Archive.org has all of Oskar Sommer’s early 1900s translations of the original French. Galehaut is not in all the pages in a row, but he first appears in Vol 3 page 201 in the book, page 206 in the archive copy, and goes until about Oskar Vol 4, page 160 in the archive, 155 in the book.
   

Going into this novel, I was expecting more of a retelling, not just a very similar style and tone to the original Vulgate cycle with some creative license/editing parts out - maybe because of the “Retold” in the title. As they state in the prologue, the entire first part of Lancelot’s story involves Galehaut heavily, so it is indeed surprising no one has really covered this topic before. This was to me a missed opportunity to tell the story in a way that gave dimension to the characters. In the original, Lancelot seems almost indifferent to Galehaut, and Galehaut’s instant love and admiration for the knight is much more one-sided. This could have gone into that aspect in depth - or could have even gone the other way, writing it as if Lancelot really was torn between Galehaut and the queen, loving each in his obsessive way. Except it just ended up as still one-sided, with a few lines here and there where these authors give Lancelot a few extra opportunities to tell Galehaut he also likes his companion a lot, but his actions being, as in the original, wholly revolving around Guinevere.
The book unfortunately ended up being slow to get through, since it is just the original text retold with a bit more extra detail. It might have been faster to get through if I hadn’t just read the translated original, because it was almost like I had read the whole thing over twice in a row, but at the same time it was also good to have a basis of comparison. If this version had done anything new or different, I would have appreciated having the Vulgate context even more.

2.5/5

Tarnished Knight - Jack Campbell (2012, The Lost Stars #1)

Set in Space (HM), Anti-Hero, Revolutions and Rebellions (HM), No Ifs, Ands, or Buts
The war with the Alliance has destabilised the Syndicate Worlds, and the Syndicate’s control over their empire is crumbling. In the Midway star system, CEOs Artur Drakon and Gwen Iceni form a tentative, secret partnership to take out the Syndic government’s Internal Security Service and establish independence for Midway and its neighbouring star systems.
Tarnished Knight is the first book in the series The Lost Stars, part of the larger Lost Fleet Universe that began by following the Alliance. The Syndic characters in The Lost Stars may have been introduced in previous books, but I picked it up without having read any of them and it wasn’t difficult to understand the premise. Although there is a bit of missing backstory with the Alliance and the mysterious alien enigmas, it doesn’t take away from the current storyline. Tarnished Knight was an easy read, which doesn’t try too hard to deviate from what seems to be standard Space Opera/Military SF fare, relying mostly on action and political dialogue to carry the story. For some reason, Campbell seems to be allergic to describing basically anything in his writing - after I noticed, I went back and skimmed some reviews of his first Lost Fleet book and readers had commented on the same thing even back then. There is not a single word of description given to the characters, so you have no idea what any of them look like, and many of the locations are briefly named halfway through an action scene as “the building” or “the facility”, if at all.
Character-wise, both Drakon and Iceni are similar, being former ruthless CEOs in the Syndic corporate structure who are now trying to figure out how they want to do things differently after achieving independence. The only Arthurian connection that goes deeper than just the name is the broad character strokes of Drakon’s subordinates: Malin, a loyal and technical “wizard”, Morgan, a scheming, bloodthirsty soldier, Gaiene, a womanising drunk, and Kai, dependable but unimaginative.
I enjoyed Tarnished Knight after accepting it for what it was - the space battles and political maneuvering were well done and interesting enough to make up for the two dimensional characters and the lack of description.

3/5

The Buried Giant - Kazuo Ishiguro (2015)

Historical SFF, Standalone (HM), BIPOC Author
An elderly couple in Britain struggle to recall any memory of their earlier lives while living in their village. They set off to visit their son, and on the way encounter a boy with a strange wound, a Saxon warrior, and a knight of Arthur’s court.
This was my first Ishiguro, and it seems like it was not a good one to start with. The premise was interesting: King Arthur has passed, and left behind a now peaceful land, with Britons and Saxons living and working together, but no one can recall any past events, and they even have difficulty remembering what happened an hour ago. The execution didn’t live up to the idea, however. Axl and Beatrice, the elderly couple the reader follows, are terribly boring. The boy who leaves his village with them is weird without any explanation, and only the Saxon and the knight have some depth, but they are secondary to the story. There is so much repetition and extraneous dialogue that it gets painful to read at points. Every paragraph of speech between every character is bizarrely polite, making every conversation twice as long as it needs to be. The book’s conclusion stops before the end of the couple’s journey, trying to leave it up to the reader to infer their fate, but it just ends up being confusing and unclear, and I still have no idea what happened to them.

2.5/5

The Lost Queen - Signe Pike (2018, The Lost Queen Trilogy #1)

Historical SFF, Family Matters (HM)
Adam Ardrey’s Finding Merlin presents historical evidence that the legend of Merlin originated in sixth-century Scotland with a man titled Lailoken (which Ardrey translates as “Chief of Song”). The historical Lailoken’s twin sister Languoreth is the protagonist of The Lost Queen, who was a queen of Britons in her own right but is now largely forgotten in modern times. The novel tells of the twins’ coming of age in the Kingdom of Strathclyde, which is undergoing social and religious change as a result of the rise of Christianity, and is also suffering from the incursions of the Angles from the East. Fortunately, a warrior named Emrys, the Pen Dragon, has risen to the challenge of defending the Britons’ lands and way of life.
I felt The Lost Queen was a bit of a simplistic tale at first, but about a quarter or a third of the way through it picked up and became more engaging for me. I give partial credit for this progression to the audiobook I listened to for a while, wonderfully narrated by Scottish voice actor Toni Frutin. The story’s plot even came together well enough for me to finish the last third in basically one sitting.
Languoreth is in a tough position, because while her father the king gives his daughter more freedom than most noble parents might have in that time, she is still bound to make a political marriage eventually. The first half or so of the novel follows her childhood and teen years as she grows and comes to terms with this fate, and the rest shows Languoreth’s involvement in Strathclyde’s political conflicts, and how they affect the fate of her family and her kingdom. Unfortunately, which might be historically accurate or might not be, Languoreth being a woman means she is not able to accomplish much. The men in her life make the decisions, and poor Languoreth generally suffers because of it. Perhaps she is able to gain more agency in the sequel, The Forgotten Kingdom, but she wasn’t given much opportunity to do so in this first part of her life, sadly. Meanwhile, the villains of The Lost Queen are one-note, each of them being power hungry, malevolent, and cruel, but for the most part the other side characters are developed well enough to be interesting and at least multi-dimensional.
It was certainly refreshing to read an Arthurian tale set so far north, and in my uneducated opinion, it seems that Pike succeeded at writing a reasonably historically accurate tale.

3.5/5

By Force Alone - Lavie Tidhar (2020)

Weird Ecology (HM), Historical SFF, Standalone (HM), Cool Weapon (HM), Revolutions and Rebellions, Award Finalist, but Not Won (HM), Shapeshifters (HM), No Ifs, Ands, or Buts (HM), Family Matters (HM)
What if Uther was just a soldier who wanted power? What if Arthur was just a leader of a bloodthirsty gang of boys that murdered his way to the top of all the criminal gangs?
If you want to read how about edgy this book is, how it’s a real missed opportunity, and how it has lots of weird shit in it, head to my Goodreads review.

2/5

Legendborn - Tracy Deonn (2020, Legendborn #1)

Historical SFF (HM), Book Club, Cool Weapon (HM), Urban Fantasy, Features Mental Health (HM), BIPOC Author, No Ifs, Ands, or Buts, Family Matters
Bree Matthews’ mother dies 3 months before she gets into Early College admission at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While she’s starting school there, still dealing with her grief, she witnesses what appears to be magic at an off-campus party. When she makes a connection between the magic she just saw and the magic she now remembers seeing after her mother’s death, she infiltrates the campus society known as the Order of the Round Table.
Legendborn was solidly written, and skillfully paced in most parts (less so the middle), but the typical tropes of YA present throughout the book really just didn’t work for me. It’s written in first person, an outsider girl who happens to be super special and unique stumbles into and joins a secret society (and a competition), naturally the two attractive and prominent boys of this society form a love triangle with the girl, and on top of that she and one of them are in love after the entire 2-3 week duration of the novel. Towards the end it was so egregious that I was rolling my eyes at any lines dealing with the triangle. Safe to say these types of books aren’t for me.
I thought the best parts were when Bree’s grief was addressed, and the moments with her family, and when she got to discuss and learn about her family’s history in Carolina. It was also important how the everyday and insidious racism she had to deal with was not brushed over for the reader. Otherwise, however, the majority of the character work outside of Bree was neglected. There were so many characters that she interacts with who belong to the Legendborn society and all of them outside a select few are so interchangeable it was hard to differentiate them when any of the names came up. Even her best friend, who is given some background and a bit of development early on, is shunted to the side as soon as Bree enters the Order and forgotten about until the end, where she comes back briefly to be given the role of following Bree the hero around.
By contrast, I did actually really like the take on a secret society revolving around the descendants of King Arthur and using Merlin’s magic, but that part of the book felt like it would have been way more interesting and relevant if it was set in Britain. It felt like with everything else about the American South the author was trying to address - racism, slavery, inequality - something like a secret Founding Fathers society would maybe have been more thematically appropriate and less disconnected from Bree’s local history and ancestry. Although of course, they don’t have a convenient, well-known magic user like Merlin. Maybe Benjamin Franklin could have turned out to be some kind of wizard instead.

3/5

Sword Stone Table - edited by Swapna Krishna, Jenn Northington (2021)

Two or More Authors (HM), Five Short Stories (HM)
A really solid set of short stories, divided into Once (more medieval/original myth settings), Present (more modern day, urban settings), and Future (futuristic - self-explanatory I suppose).
There were a couple duds, but for the most part they were all worth reading, and a few were standouts for me.
In Once, Roshani Chokshi’s “Passing Fair and Young” imagines that the Arthurian characters may have their fates and myths written on their bodies from birth, and Elaine of Corbenic and Lancelot determine for themselves how to interpret their own myth marks. Daniel M. Lavery’s “Galehaut” short story (available to read here at LitHub) is a shorter version of what I wish the earlier Galehaut retelling I read was like.
In Present, “Mayday” by Maria Dahvana Headley is pure brilliance. Written as an evidence report of items found in an abandoned lighthouse on a Lake Erie island, it tells of the Pendragon corporation’s rise and fall power in late 1800s America. It’s hard to live up to “Mayday”, but without going into all of them in detail, I did also really enjoy “Flat White” by Jessica Plummer - an Elaine of Corbenic coffee shop AU, essentially. What if a French guy named Lancelot walked into your coffee shop, and also had two best friends named Arthur and Gwen?
I think Future’s standout is Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s “A Shadow in Amber”, where Elaine of Shalott is a wealthy woman in a future city, living at the top of her skyscraper, paying a dealer to bring her illegal memories she can ingest and experience as if they were hers.

3.5/5

Sistersong - Lucy Holland (2021)

Historical SFF, Standalone (HM), Award Finalist, but Not Won, No Ifs, Ands, or Buts, Family Matters
SIstersong aims to retell and add detail to The Twa Sisters, a ballad whose earliest recording was in the 1600s. Holland sets her book in Arthur-adjacent Cornwall (“Dumnonia”), following King Cador’s three children as the kingdom begins to come under the threat of Saxon invasion, while also dealing with a Christian priest who wants to convert the Dumnonii to Christianity at all costs. The ballad sometimes has an extra sister in addition to the titular two sisters - here, Holland writes not only the sisters, Riva and Sinne, but a third sibling as well, Keyne, who is born as the middle daughter but comes to identify as a boy. The itinerant magician Myrdhin, who has secrets of his own, helps Keyne in his journey.
I went into Sistersong expecting a focus on the two sisters, and what I got was a book that ended up mostly focused on Keyne. The three siblings have relatively equal points of view for the first two thirds of the book, but as the Saxon threat increases and Keyne takes on more expansive and traditional male roles to help protect the kingdom, his sisters and their conflict over a man fade to the background. It seems like Keyne’s story was the one Holland really wanted to write, which is great, but Rive and Sinne could have been left out completely and Keyne’s story would not have changed. They loved him and he loved them, despite their conflicts, but his sisters’ tragedy serves as a sad chapter on his way to become who he is.
Many of the characters weren’t as fleshed out as I would have liked. Sinne, the youngest, is mostly a typical shallow, vapid blonde, and the eldest Riva is jealous of her looks and her beauty. Riva is probably the more developed of the two, as she has a physical disability and has to learn to overcome her fears and insecurities (thanks to a man, though, I suppose). The Christian priest is one-dimensionally cruel, except for one or two scenes where he breaks character for some reason and briefly treats Keyne with respect, and as for why the king and queen allowed him to terrorise their children and their villages, the belated half-baked explanations given don’t make a lot of sense. Myrdhin is just “mysterious” - Keyne even tries to learn more about him, asking where he came from, and Myrdhin refuses to answer, and it’s just never brought up again.
I would probably only recommend this to someone looking for a trans story set in Celtic Britain. If you’re looking for a multi-character-focused story with at least a semi-accurate historical focus, look elsewhere.

3/5

Blackheart Knights - Laure Eve (2021, Blackheart Knights #1)

Urban Fantasy (HM), No Ifs, Ands, or Buts, Family Matters
Set in an alternate, queernorm, Blade Runner-like London with circa 90s-00s technology, this is a very ambitious modern Arthurian story that I really enjoyed. I think I’ve learned that I’m easy to please with the modern retellings, and because there are so few of them, each one feels like a special find.
Blackheart Knights is well paced, with two interesting POV characters’ stories being told in alternating chapters in different time periods, building up to a meeting point. I thought the two protagonists were developed well, with some interesting nuances, but the side characters could have used some work, since for the most part the writing tells us about them a few times rather than giving them pagetime and showing us. One thing about the writing I would have changed is we are sometimes not given a character description at all, like we have no idea what even Artorias looks like until his hair colour is mentioned maybe two-thirds of the way through the book. The world is cool and has a lot of potential, being set in a London that’s split into multiple districts named after their founding seven Saints, each unique, and there are Kingdoms outside of London, but they’re never expanded upon and only a few of them are even named, in passing only. This modern London has knights that are essentially celebrities and fight in their arenas like gladiators for fame, money, and to settle legal disputes. Some people are born with magic powers, but are looked down upon by society, and are forced to register themselves by age eighteen. This part of the story was super interesting but underdeveloped. I did enjoy the references to the King Arthur mythos that I caught, and I’m sure I missed many at the same time, but for the most part only one key storyline from the original was kept close to intact. I was happy to see a Lailoken mentioned, who is the Merlin character in The Lost Queen.
I would recommend Blackheart Knights as a fun, fresh take on King Arthur, if you go in without expecting everything about the world to necessarily be explained in the first book and just enjoy the ride.

3.5/5

Spear - Nicola Griffith (2022)

Historical SFF, Standalone (HM), Book Club (HM), Cool Weapon (HM), Published in 2022, No Ifs, Ands, or Buts, Family Matters
Nicola Griffith pens a queer retelling of Percival, drawn mostly from Chrétien de Troye’s Perceval and Peredur Son of Efrawg, one of the Three Welsh Romances, along with an added dose of the Tuath Dé from Irish myth. Griffith was originally asked to write a short story for the Sword Stone Table anthology, but Spear grew into its own standalone novella instead.
Having recently finished Mary Sutcliff’s A Sword at Sunset, I felt the writing and the choices Griffith made in Spear were very much in a similar spirit, with a focus on what historical Britain was likely to have been like at the time, although Spear certainly has much more magic. Beyond the setting, the parallels include both Llanza (Lance) of Spear and Bedwyr of A Sword at Sunset being disabled but unmatched horsemen, and each being in love with not only the king’s wife, but their king as well. While Sutcliff wrote a gay relationship for two of Artos’s Companions (in 1963!) but kept Bedwyr’s love for Artos as only subtext, Griffith establishes many of her characters as explicitly queer, beginning with her protagonist, from the moment Peretur - a girl who has grown up alone with her mother in the wilds of Wales - encounters a pretty young woman in a nearby village. Spear is a lovely, well-written story, with a particularly fascinating take on Myrddyn and Nimuë - I only wish it could have been a full-length novel, with time and space to flesh out more of Peretur and her time in Wales and Caer Leon.

3.5/5

Dark Earth - Rebecca Stott (2022)

Historical SFF, Standalone (HM), Cool Weapon (HM), Published in 2022, No Ifs, Ands, or Buts, Family Matters
Set in and around the abandoned Roman city of Londinium (the “Ghost City”) circa 500 AD, Dark Earth follows two Saxon (“Seax”) sisters living near the Thames in Seax territory under the control of King Osric, who in this story is a recent descendant of Hengist and Horsa. Isla, the eldest sister, has been forging swords alongside her father the Great Smith even though Seax law forbids women from stepping inside a forge, and Blue, the youngest, has the makings of being a wicca.
I think I wanted Dark Earth to be more than what it was. Arthurian-era stories that touch on the Briton-Anglo-Saxon conflict are almost entirely from the Britons’ point of view. I enjoyed the writing and certainly appreciated the historically detailed setting, but I was hoping for more of a deep dive into Saxon settlements during this time period. Isla and Blue are both outcasts from their family’s original camp, so they’ve been isolated from all of their people from a young age, and only briefly do they visit Osric’s palace during the story and speak with other Seax again. The people the sisters do encounter after that are interesting, as at this time the area of Essex was occupied by a fascinating mix of Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Frisians, as well as any native Britons from various tribes who had intermixed with the mainland settlers, like the sisters’ mother who was Iceni (“Ikeni”). Unfortunately, the novel doesn’t go into as much detail as I would have liked about why the characters might have settled there, or much history of their lives in the Old Country, or their beliefs and how they’ve integrated their cultures now that they’re in Britain. King Arthur is briefly referenced as “the boy in the west”, but the larger political and cultural context isn’t expanded upon either.
Isla is the least interesting character in the cast, which is unfortunate because she is the point of view for the reader. Isla and Blue have been traumatised by the actions of Osric and his cruel son Vort, and have been deeply affected by their mother’s disappearance in a raid years ago. Isla’s smithing is forbidden by Seax culture, so she lives in fear and hesitation of anything bad that could happen to her or her sister - which is certainly sympathetic, but not the greatest to read about for basically a whole novel, especially when contrasted with her more courageous sister. Isla barely makes any decisions of her own, just goes along with Blue and their allies’ directions, after declining and protesting out of fear each time at first. There is a bit of growth towards the end, but it’s not enough to make up for the faults in Isla’s story during the majority of the book.

3/5

Short Stories + Novellas

The Green Knight’s Wife - Kat Howard (2016)

Didn’t end up fitting on the board
Available to read at Uncanny Magazine.
What if the events of Gawain and the Green Knight didn’t just happen to Gawain, but happened whenever someone asks for something wondrous, beginning in medieval times through to the present day? What if The Green Knight’s wife never had a say in her husband’s game?
An interesting short story from a different perspective - certainly the original poem doesn’t consider how the wife feels about the time when Gawain stays at their castle, or whether she was pressured to participate or chose to do so willingly when her husband suggested it.

3/5

Once, Future - Kat Howard (2018)

Standalone (HM), Cool Weapon (HM), Revolutions and Rebellions, Urban Fantasy, Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey, No Ifs, Ands, or Buts, Family Matters
Found in Kat Howard’s anthology A Cathedral of Myth and Bone, “Once, Future” takes place at Severn University, in the graduate seminar The Arthurian Legend in Time. The students’ discussion brings up a question: why are there so many retellings of this legend? Is it that writers are deliberately placing the elements to make it recognisable, or do the core aspects of the story somehow make themselves known and repeatable? Professor Link proposes the students each be assigned a name from the legend and keep a journal for the semester, to see if any patterns emerge in their lives.
I really liked this novella. Without spoiling too much, it questions the nature of fate, and how stories should end, and how the original legend was supposed to play out. As I find with many novellas, I would have liked more, since there isn’t enough time for in-depth explanations or backstory, when I would have liked to be able to dig deeper into many parts of the story. Even without that, however, if you just let it take you along for the ride, it’s a great blend of modernity and myth.

3.5/5

Didn’t Finish

Queen of None - Natania Barron (2020)

I wrote a pretty scathing review on Goodreads.

Half Sick of Shadows - Laura Sebastian (2021)

Half Sick of Shadows is set in a somewhat alternate Arthurian universe, where there was a “fey war” prior to Arthur’s lifetime, and Lyonesse is a kingdom in the north that Uther has been trying to conquer. Elaine of Shalott moved to Camelot with her mother when she was younger, and is now known as Elaine the Mad after she had a vision for the first time and went screaming through the castle. When she first meets Morgana, the fey-blooded girl with magical powers convinces her to come back to Avalon, where she can learn to control her skills as an Oracle, and where she meets and befriends Gwen, Arthur, and Lancelot.
Unfortunately, I dropped this one a quarter of the way through. The writing was adult enough, but many of the tropes employed are too simple for an adult novel. Morgause is a one dimensional Mean Girl, Mordred is Arthur’s Evil Stepbrother, and Camelot is a typical High Fantasy Court exclusively home to brainless, fancily-clothed nobles that none of our group of friends could possibly fit in with. Not enough is explained in the pages I read, like why Gwen has been on Avalon the whole time, or why Morgana left Camelot in the first place, or why when they all go back to Camelot, Elaine is suddenly a skilled political advisor to Arthur even though she was a shunned outcast at court and left in her early teens. I was interested to see how the mythical Elaine of Astolat could be retold in a feminist way, but I guess the author’s answer here was to change almost everything about the character and place her in a different setting altogether.

Other 21st Century Works I didn’t get to in time

• Under in the Mere by Catherynne M. Valente (2009, novella)
  
• Kingfisher by Patricia A. McKillip (2016)
  
• The Story of Silence by Alex Myers (2020)