u/sardonisms

I hope it's okay to ask this here. I've asked in a fantasy server, but the suggestions are somewhat limited, and I'm hoping mystery readers might have more. As the title says, I finished A Drop of Corruption the other day and have really wanted to find another murder mystery in an "imaginary garden."

I don't necessarily need fantasy, in that I'm not necessarily looking for magic to be actually involved in the story (or even exist). What I'm hunting for is well-written murder mysteries set in worlds that run on laws and systems completely alien to ours. If you haven't read the Ana and Din mysteries, they're set in a world where people kill Leviathans and turn their blood into "grafts" that they use to enhance humans in various ways, or to grow houses, or to breed plants and animals and insects that can do any number of things that we use technology for in our world. (When my boyfriend overheard the audiobook for A Drop of Corruption, he asked of Ana, "So is she like a mentat?" and he's... not wrong.) So it doesn't have to be fantasy per se; alternate history, steampunk/solarpunk/etc., far future, Eldritch horror, any of that is on the table as long as it's an "imaginary garden" and a good murder mystery.

Honestly, the mystery is the hard part for me to find. I want the well-crafted mystery with the hints that are dropped that make me feel clever for catching them, then make me feel that the author and detective are infinitely more clever when they point out all the clues I missed. I've read a ton of fantasy and have an endless TBR for that genre, but mystery is a newer genre for me. I picked up A Drop of Corruption because I happen to have been on a bit of a murder mystery kick lately, but most of the ones I know and reach for are still modern settings.

Here's what I've got so far:

• Murder at Spindle Manor and the rest of the Lamplight Murder Mysteries series--I started this one today and it's charming and enjoyable but isn't grabbing me as much. That might change, because I remember The Tainted Cup didn't grab me as much as the sequel did at first. This is a closed-circle mystery set in an inn in a gaslamp fantasy setting.
• The Thief who Pulled on Trouble's Braids by Michael McClung--I haven't started this one, sounds like it's a bit of an adventure/mystery blend from the synopsis.
• The Witness for the Dead and its sequels, about a medium who can sometimes talk to the recently dead. I believe this is a fully alternate world setting, given that it's in the same universe as a book titled The Goblin Emperor, but I haven't read either of them.
• Station Eternity--this one was already on my TBR from when I was looking for more sci fi, and it seemed to fit the bill so I put it back on my short list. The MC has one of those fascinating afflictions that only exist as literary devices: murders just happen around her, no matter where she is and entirely without her involvement. Even if she goes to the most remote possible place, where she's almost the only human around. You see where this is going.

The only other "weird" setting murder mystery I can think of that I've read is Fugitive Telemetry, book 5/6 of the Murderbot Diaries (#6 by publication order, #5 by chronological order (and my recommended reading order)). I love the Murderbot Diaries series and this one is a pretty self-contained murder mystery set between the two major arcs of the series.

I have a decent short list of modern murder mysteries, so I'm set on those. I'm just really trying to find an excellent murder mystery in another world with its own set of rules and laws and ways of leaving clues. I hope someone has some suggestions. TIA!

I'm behind in story but was trying to catch up and was going to finish "Beneath a Melting Night Sky" today but NOPE. Literal nightmare fuel. I got as far as being told to get emergency key #1 and I was going to just keep my back to the wall and edge around the room... then realized there was a FIFTH Nivora Doll coming at me from my blind spot and noped the f*** out. Why can't I skip this? How long is this hell sequence? If I get dragged into the void enough times will it put it on an easier difficulty or let me just watch the cutscenes? Because the only way I see myself getting through this is to make someone play it for me. I'm a wuss and this is one of the exact most terrifying tropes I've ever encountered and it messes me up badly, it has ever since the Weeping Angels were first introduced in Doctor Who. Looking up guides is not encouraging. Six dolls??? This isn't a horror game, I did not sign up for this.

So far this year, there have been three fantasy novels I've read that have been absolutely stunning and left me with book hangovers:

1. The Poet Empress by Shen Tao
2. The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan
3. A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett

The problem is, I read A Drop of Corruption to cure the book hangover from The Red Winter, but now I find I don't have anything ready to cure the book hangover from A Drop of Corruption. My audiobook request for Blood Over Bright Haven came in on Libby right as I was finishing up A Drop of Corruption, and I've started that, but I'm craving another really good fantasy murder mystery (preferably in another really weird fantasy world like the Ana and Din mysteries but I know I can't have everything). I want the detective work, the snooping, the collecting clues, the game of trying to guess the twists before the heroes do, but I want it in a fantasy setting. I have several non-magical murder mysteries on the shelf, but I have no idea where to look for another good fantasy murder mystery while I wait impatiently to see if my ARC request for A Trade of Blood will be approved.

https://preview.redd.it/sl80jsfu0y9h1.png?width=3840&format=png&auto=webp&s=34fa80a513faec38e1fce049a7467b104f1bf0fb

So I was just trying to catch up on main story a bit and on my way I stumbled on the little purple highlight saying there was some kind of objective here. It said to take a photo of the infirmary. I tried about a dozen times with different zoom levels, angles, and parts of the infirmary in frame. It always says "Target photo not captured." I can't find a quest associated with this in my list. The only possibility I've found is one random Twitter post suggesting that I actually have to take the photo when Luuk is in there. Unfortunately I don't know how to make that happen, or if it even can happen if I'm running around with him or if I need to switch teams just to get this little random objective done. I'm hoping someone can tell me what this is for, or if it's worthless and I should just ignore it.

These are two separate requests but if you happen to know something that has both, I'm all ears.

The first request is a second chance where the end result is that none of the people who made the first chance shit are part of MC's life at the end. It can be rebirth or a rescue from an abusive environment or running away or any other situation that removes the character from their miserable life. I just want the character who got the second chance to fuck off and be happy without anyone from their old life. No taking over the company/sect/country/etc and lording it over them. No making up, but also no locking them in a torture chamber and tormenting them forever. Just ignoring them. They become nonentities while MC lives his own life, like Cinderella's stepsisters trying to show up at her wedding and getting their eyes pecked out by crows without Cinderella even knowing about it. If they die, whether at MC's hands or not, it's not the climactic moment and MC doesn't spend any time on them after their death, just moves on like they never existed.

The second is a good *open* pursuit. I'm very averse to stealth pursuit, which is usually why I end up disliking the would-be love rival. I've had people tell me to my face they understood I didn't want to date them and then turn around and try to guilt or coax me into dating them without admitting it. I didn't like it IRL, and it's given me a powerful dislike of it in fiction too. I like pursuit that's open about what it is, like in Wait For Me After School. I'm fine with stories where they continue the pursuit after the person expresses disinterest, *unless* they force intimate contact on the person before they've "won" the pursuit (why I DNFed Dissatisfied [E-Sports], ML kept forcing kisses on MC and being really creepy about it and then there was a line that straight up sounded like a rape threat that was supposed to be romantic and that combination of action and framing made me feel sick so I quit). Respect the physical boundaries but otherwise pursue away. I enjoy a good yandere and the occasional black flag, but that's a different mood than I'm looking for right now. I'm looking for open pursuit, the more romantic the better. Like, I think it was After A Flash Marriage With The Childhood Sweetheart where ML just lavished all the cliched Disney level moves, taken to their Rich Modern Gong™ logical extreme, while MC was so self-deprecating that he didn't believe it was an actual pursuit even though ML was very upfront and open about it. (That book was almost really good. Unfortunately then it really wasn't.)

Both of these are on my mind because I'm currently reading Accidentally Added A Wealthy Old Man After Having Insomnia and by the 40% mark >!MC has completely cut ties with both "families" and I'm so happy for him, and meanwhile ML has set up a half-hour fireworks display for him but still hasn't figured out he's in love.!< And it made me think about what I really wish for in such stories. And this group is excellent at finding things for any mood, so I'm hoping someone has some good recs. HE only ofc, completed TL preferred but if it's modern I'm not opposed to attempting to finish via reading the raws (my vocab is nowhere near ready for historical or xianxia or such). TIA!

So I don't normally do Infinite Torrents (I always feel like I should stop when I can't get an S in the Wastes), but I decided to max the battle pass at the last minute and that was one of the places I could squeeze out some points. So I took Phrolova into the first half and Luuk into the second.

Now, to be fair, Phrolova is on a budget team with S6 Danjin and S4 Buling and I still need to get some more crit on her, *but* she's also S3R1 (she's my one and only double drop so she started at S1, and this patch I bought a waveband from the shop and then managed to get another copy from the gacha even after getting Denia). Luuk is S0R0 running the new standard gauntlet, and while I was running his premium team, Denia is only level 80 (because I'm behind in story and can only get her flowers from NANA), she doesn't have her Echo set (see above), none of her skills are above level 6, she's running a Jinzhou Keeper that isn't even max level, and I don't know her rotation (because I'm exceptionally lazy about looking those up). Both carries have all skills at level 10 except intro is still at level 6. So, based on their investment and their tiers, even if Phro can't use any of the golden tokens, I would have expected Phro to outperform Luuk or at least to go even.

Final score:

Phrolova: 1000

Luuk: 1260

Like the title says, this is super unscientific and anecdotal, but I was surprised by just how effective Luuk is with Denia in place of Lynae or Sanhua and wanted to share.

So I'm caught up on Silent Reading until Tuesday and started in on A Break In The Clouds. I know Hunt For The Leviathan is a direct sequel to Break In The Clouds and has a spoiler at the very start, so I'm waiting to get that until BITC is complete... So while I have a little left to read, I'm looking to prep my TBR with some more really good murder mysteries. I adore the characters and relationships in Silent Reading (not far enough to have an opinion on BITC but I'm sure I'll love them too just based on the reviews of the author I've seen) but I extra adore the twists of the mysteries and the tight pacing so I'm hoping someone has some similar recs. TIA!

Hello lovely Korean BL readers, like the title says, I've been reading almost exclusively danmei for over a year now and trying to branch out a little. Just a little. Like BL from nearby countries. That's a nice amount of branching out.

Ahem.

There's a couple genres I'm super curious about. One, I'm curious because I don't know if it exists in Korean BL: esports. I've been wondering if there's esports Korean BL since I got into esports danmei last April. Because I love esports danmei. I love watching pro League. And I have wondered what a Korean esports romance would look like. I don't know if it exists. I've had no luck finding any on NU, but they only added the esports tag fairly recently, so I'm hoping maybe there's some that haven't been tagged.

(Adjacent to esports, I also enjoy gaming and entertainment industry genres. I've found Love Game and The Guild Member Next Door for gaming, but that's all I'm familiar with. And I don't even know where to start looking for entertainment industry.)

The other genre is one that I know is big in Korean BL and I really need help figuring out a starting point: guideverse. I have loved Guides as a trope since they were still limited to Sentinel AU fanfiction, and the guideverse genre is now so big that I just have no idea where to start. So I'm looking for help there. TIA!

There's a specific trope/vibe that I adore and am hunting for, and it goes like this: MMC1 is a feral cat in human form. Broken home, abused and/or neglected, no healthy relationships, and has learned all the unhealthy coping and defense mechanisms. Snaps at the hand offering food because he thinks it's going to hit him. I don't mean tsundere, I mean going full hedgehog quills out mode the second he thinks someone might leave him. Absolutely no trust, no sense of security, assumes everyone will always hate him and treats himself as worthless. Probably thinks his hellish life is normal, and even if it's not normal, has fully internalized that that's just what he deserves.

And then there's MMC2.

Depending on the iteration, MMC2 might be incredibly indulgent and doting, or might be strict and paternal, or might be both at different times depending on what MMC1 needs. But he always, always loves MMC1, and when everyone else is only looking at MMC1 clawing at anyone who gets close, he's the one who notices all the scars MMC1 is covering up and distracting people from. (Like our actual IRL cat who grumbled and hissed when he first showed up as a stray looking for food, because the last humans he saw shot him and left him with BBs under his skin. He's fine now and has gleefully adapted to life with humans, which is also the end state I look for for MMC1.) MMC2 is the stubborn one who refuses to let MMC1 hedgehog or run under a car to hide and who continues to love MMC1 in all his flaws and claws. Even if MMC1 panics and leaves, he will come find him every time. To quote one such "rescuer dog," and I wish I remembered what book I read this in, "If you (MMC1's family) don't want him, I do."

I've mostly read this in danmei, where I seem to have already read all the ones people can recommend me; but I've also read this in the excellent MM {Brat and the Beast duet by Misha Horne}, so I know it's out there in MM romance and I'm desperately hoping someone knows some more like this.

I'm a sucker for the trope of a character coming from a broken home, feeling abandoned and unloved, and the one person who notices he's hurting and reaches out and holds him very carefully and takes care of him and makes sure he's safe. Or steps in more firmly to teach the feral cat healthy ways of living and expressing himself. Like *After Kissing The Esports God He Keeps Flirting With Me,* or *After The Reborn Young Master Embraced A Life Of Wellness,* or the western MM *Hurt Me, Daddy* and its sequel *Comfort Me, Daddy.* Most recently I've been reading *I Became Popular After Online Dating With A Big Shot,* but... I'm bored. This book is so long and I'm almost 40% through it and we're suddenly spending a ton of time on a side quest instead of the romance or the family problems. And what I'm here for is the feral cat getting domesticated. So I'm looking for a new rec to scratch that itch. I'm on a modern kick right now but I'm open to anything. Arranged or forced marriage is fine but for this particular request I prefer if the feral cat thinks the dog has no reason to stay with him. HE only please, either complete translation or at least one that isn't currently in the middle of a sad part. TIA!