queenlua | Reading

It's time for the end-of-year fic meme! As is tradition, I'm doing this right at the start of December, because I'm impatient. Last year I ended up posting two more fics after doing the 'end-of-year' wrapup. I evidently learnt nothing from this.

I've written a lot of little ficlets throughout the year, e.g. for promptfests, but for the purposes of this meme I'm only counting fics I've posted to my main AO3 account, or I'm going to get overwhelmed by indecision.

Number of fics written in 2025: thirty. You can find them on my AO3 account:

Riona.

Fandoms: Danganronpa, Danganronpa 2, Danganronpa: Despair Time, Project: Eden's Garden, Final Fantasy XVI, The Coffin of Andy and Leyley, Severance, The Hundred Line, Horizon Zero Dawn, Deltarune, Star Trek DS9, Kingdom Hearts, Metaphor: ReFantazio, House MD. Ten videogame fandoms, three television fandoms, one web series. Mainly things I've written for before; only four of these are new additions.

One crossover: Kindred Spirits (The Hundred Line/Horizon Zero Dawn), in which Yugamu and Nil bond over their shared passion for murder.

( End-of-year fic meme, 2025. )

Here's to the next year of writing! And... possibly also the next month of writing, because this is by no means the actual end of the year.

I just tried to post this, and the Dreamwidth post editor told me 'you can't post this, it's got an unclosed italics tag'. Which is a useful feature! Unfortunately, Dreamwidth did not specify where the tag in question was, and there are ninety-four italics tags in this post, so I had a real adventure tracking it down.

mrissa

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Like Pueyo's debut, this is an extremely well-done example of something that is very, very much not my thing. This is another monsterfucking book! I am using that term as a genre term of art rather than a pejorative: there are guls, they eat human flesh, the main character ends up romantically/personally entangled with one despite or perhaps because of her complicated history.

There's vivid writing here--which if you are not interested in stories of human flesh being eaten is not necessarily going to appeal to you--and there are cultural touchstones I wish we saw more of in things published in the US. It's great to see a really Brazilian speculative novella--and the politics of contemporary Brazil give this speculative story weight and deep roots. It's done so well. It's just so beautifully written. But also, and crucially for me, it is body horror basically start to finish, so: approach with care, depending on your tastes.

ryulynn

But it's only December 1, you say. Too early to let go of your 2025 goals, you say.

I just want new shiny things and also I like having fun here! (Also I got into work early and don't want to actually start working yet.)

2026 games
( Read more... )

2026 writing
( Read more... )

2026 other things (personal)
( Read more... )

As for how I will update this journal... I think whatever I've been doing this year worked decently so I'll continue in the same vein?

lightreads

All That We See or Seem

3/5. Marketed as scifi, but it’s actually a near future AI tech thriller about the loner hacker who gets tangled up in the search for a missing woman whose job is weaving AI-enhanced mass dream experiences.

Meh. A lot of the AI speculation here is really interesting. It’s all extremely plausible – the internet mostly just bots shouting at each other, everyone with means having a personal AI assistant who is trained to think specifically like them, what new kinds of art really draw people in as authentic, etc. – but speculates about these things while touching lightly on how they are bad and how they are good. Letting it be complicated with AI, can you imagine? Is that even allowed? In the era where I have been told that I’m a “traitor to humanity” for occasionally finding a particular AI powered accessibility tool to be extremely helpful in ways no prior tool has ever come remotely close to? Oh but surely we can’t have nuance in these conversations, oh no.

Unfortunately, everything else about this book is meh. The villain POV (please stop), the weirdly flat delivery of events that are supposed to be tense or upsetting, the main character and the shallow thriller treatment of her trauma, the “twist” in the epilogue.

This makes me not want to read his fantasy, actually. Does it have the same problems, or is he trying too hard to write like a thriller guy?

Content notes: Violence, slavery.

ellerean

Stitches, by nightmarechild
The prose. The gritty interpretation of how magical healing works. And that Shinon.

Everything to Win, by Cavalierious
Nasir character study, ft. some very good moments with Mist

you know, you'll always know me, by budgiekaiser
per the tags: "that weird feeling of realizing you've become friends with your sibling." Ike & Mist

stamp out, by donor
Brief drabble, when Sothe receives boots

Between Stitches and stumbling upon this old Shinon & Rolf comic, I'm feeling some old archer stirrings again. Actual good Shinon characterization is so good, and I need more of it. Old loves die hard, you know.

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fffx

Thanks to everyone who has checked in so far! If you haven't had a chance yet, or you've been debating whether to continue or default, please make your decision and respond by 11:59pm EST, 30 November (see countdown).

For checking in, please click on this link and check in at the previous post.

Lost in Lualand

Reading

It's Hard To Be The Only Person At An Orgy.

Cabaret in Flames, by Hache Pueyo

2026 outlook

All That We See or Seem by Ken Liu

November 'fic recs

Prompts for December

Returning PHs 18, 20-25, 28, and new 29, 30

Returning PHs 2, 3, 5, 7-10, 12, 13, 15, 17

2025 pinch hitter treats

Last Day of Check-In

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