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bulwark_of_the_week

bulwark_of_the_week

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Hello! I'm bulwark (they/them), nice to be here.
Professionally I'm a computer science PhD student in my 3rd year. I mostly work on data visualizations for my work. I've also worked as a software engineer in the past. I have also been making video games for about a decade, primarily programming and game design. We successfully self-published our first commercial project this year (me and one other person). We're knee deep in the prototyping stage of our second project right now, and I'm trying to wrap up some of my research and its relevant papers for publication so I'm starved for a more creative outlet.

I really want to practice getting my stories written, since I find writing very meditative and I find thinking about my stories to be enjoyable. So that's why I'm here! Mainly to get feedback, but also because I'm curious about the writing journals, and the competitions, so I might give those a shot.

I read a TON (67 books this year), mostly Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, Horror and Thrillers. I like stories that are a bit sentimental, and I'm a sucker for a strong romance (not as the main conflict though). I also crave novelty to an intense degree. I'd usually rather read a book with some issues that has an emotional core, lovable characters, and an interesting premise than a traditionally popular and well received book that is treading old ground (no matter how well it does it). Not to say I don't like familiar stories done well, but it's usually not what I'm in the mood for.

Some of my favorite books are The Broken Earth series by NK Jemisen, The Imperial Radch series by Ann Leckie, Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, the Teixcalaan series by Arkady Martine, The Devoured Worlds series by Megan E. O'Keefe, The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey, and The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. I also love the writing in Disco Elysium and Caves of Qud. If you have suggestions send them my way!

I am also a huge linguistics nerd. I am only fluent in English right now, but I have studied Dutch (4 years pretty consistently and recently with a tutor. About B1 proficiency), Japanese (12 years, very inconsistently. mostly reading), and Spanish (big time out of practice, but I used to be comfortably conversationally fluent). Because of this I like to get weird with grammatical structures and to use a lot of archaicisms.
 
Hello, welcome!

bulwark_of_the_week said:
I read a TON (67 books this year), mostly Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, Horror and Thrillers. I like stories that are a bit sentimental, and I'm a sucker for a strong romance (not as the main conflict though). I also crave novelty to an intense degree. I'd usually rather read a book with some issues that has an emotional core, lovable characters, and an interesting premise than a traditionally popular and well received book that is treading old ground (no matter how well it does it). Not to say I don't like familiar stories done well, but it's usually not what I'm in the mood for.
Click to expand...
I feel like I could have written this! I've also read and enjoyed a lot of the books you listed this year. (I'm a sci-fi junkie.) For more books that fit that kind of feeling, I've gone looking for ones with the "literary" tag, and by tag I mean it's labelled as such under the genre in the app I use to log and find new books, StoryGraph. The literary tag usually means the book goes beyond genre tropes with a lot of focus on character. Some recent reads that had that: Parable of the Sower, Life Ceremony, The Glass Hotel and Sea of Tranquility (St. John Mandel is always literary). I would also say Becky Chambers' A Closed and Common Orbit is in the same vein.

And if you want to go way out in the vein of "an emotional core, lovable characters, and an interesting premise" I can recommend Lincoln in the Bardo. Heartfelt, but heavy, and very difficult to read.

@CatrionaGrace's book The Song of the Blue Bottle Tree was also labelled as literary and I loved it :)
 
Tallyfire said:
Hello, welcome!


I feel like I could have written this! I've also read and enjoyed a lot of the books you listed this year. (I'm a sci-fi junkie.) For more books that fit that kind of feeling, I've gone looking for ones with the "literary" tag, and by tag I mean it's labelled as such under the genre in the app I use to log and find new books, StoryGraph. The literary tag usually means the book goes beyond genre tropes with a lot of focus on character. Some recent reads that had that: Parable of the Sower, Life Ceremony, The Glass Hotel and Sea of Tranquility (St. John Mandel is always literary). I would also say Becky Chambers' A Closed and Common Orbit is in the same vein.

And if you want to go way out in the vein of "an emotional core, lovable characters, and an interesting premise" I can recommend Lincoln in the Bardo. Heartfelt, but heavy, and very difficult to read.

@CatrionaGrace's book The Song of the Blue Bottle Tree was also labelled as literary and I loved it :)
Click to expand...
I use storygraph also! And I have read Becky Chambers' books as well! They're sooo good. I'll have to check out the Blue Bottle Tree as well! I know I'm going to like St John Mandel's other stuff, so I'm saving them for rainy days where I need something I know is going to work for me. You should DM me your storygraph account or share it here if you want. I'm just "@Bulwark" on storygraph. I've found that the "similar users" feature is very helpful and it would be good to follow other people with similar tastes! I try to keep up with what's good and interesting but it's hard when what I want is so vibes based.
 
bulwark_of_the_week said:
I know I'm going to like St John Mandel's other stuff, so I'm saving them for rainy days where I need something I know is going to work for me.
Click to expand...
Oh god, I’m the same. Unfortunately I’ve read all her recent ones. I’m so looking forward to whatever she publishes next! Station Eleven was not my favourite when I read it, but it’s stuck with me the longest now - the way she tied all her narratives in knots with so much echoing of themes forwards and backwards was just incredible.

bulwark_of_the_week said:
You should DM me your storygraph account or share it here if you want.
Click to expand...
I sent you a friend request! (Correction: I’ve followed you. Can’t see the “Add friend” button on your page. Is it disabled?) Apparently you read “adventurous, dark and mysterious” books, while I lean into “adventurous, dark and reflective” so we’ve already got vibing 2/3rds of the way already on there.
 
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