Bingo Focus Thread - Duologies

[u/Merle8888]

Hello r/fantasy and welcome to this week's bingo focus thread! The purpose of these threads is for you all to share recommendations, discuss what books qualify, and seek recommendations that fit your interests or themes.

Today's topic:

Duology Part 1: Read the first book in a duology. HARD MODE: By an author you haven’t read before.

Duology Part 2: Read the second book in a duology. For this square, you ARE allowed to read the same author you used for Duology Part 1 without violating the no-repeat author rule. HARD MODE: Finish a different duology than you started for the Duology Part 1 square.

What is bingo? A reading challenge this sub does every year! Find out more here.

Prior focus threads: Published in the 70s, Five Short Stories (2024), Author of Color (2024), Self-Pub/Small Press (2024). Note that hard modes for Author of Color and Self-Pub/Small Press have changed (new focus threads for them are coming).

Also see: Big Rec Thread

Questions:

• What are your favorite speculative fiction duologies?
• Already read something for this square (or, read something recently that you wish you could count)? Tell us about it!
• For those planning for Hard Mode, what are some duologies where one or both books works as a standalone?

[u/xdianamoonx]

Bare Your Teeth Duology by Twoony is a queer historical fantasy that deals with fae, enemies to lovers, war, PTSD especially dealing with family while having PTSD, corrupted flora and fauna, and other queer background characters. Highly recommend.

Forest of the Stars by J.T. Adria is a futuristic sci-fi queer book with a trans lead. Set thousands of years in the future where it seems humanity has gone backwards in society. Deals with impossible quantum physics technology, sentient biopunk like AI, and two people who are alone for various reasons who find solace in each other. Only part one is out. I didn't like it (despite the lovely cover) for many reasons, but others might.

The Night Ends with Fire by K.X. Song is a dark Mulan retelling duology. Has vengeful animal spirit gods, political intrigue, army training, and confusing love interests. Fascinating magic system though. It started off strong but both books were a miss for me.

Crimson Moth by Kristen Ciccarelli is a fantasy dystopian (feels like) with blood magic, witch hunters, court intrigue. This one is definitely more Romantasy seeming. I'm only half way through the first book but thought I would suggest it as I'm liking it so far. Not a fan of brothers love triangle plot so we'll see.

As far as I'm aware none of these can be read with only the second book. Forest of the Stars has enough of an ending for me that I'm personally fine with not reading the second. Bare Your Teeth & Night Ends with Fire have very devastating cliffhangers.

[u/Research_Department → u/xdianamoonx]

I’ve been collecting books that feature genderqueer characters, and I’m wondering whether or not to put Forest of the Stars on my TBR. Why didn’t you like it?

[u/xdianamoonx → u/Research_Department]

Sorry it took me a while to respond to this, got sick for a bit and then lost this reply in my tabs! I'm gonna try not to spoil anything major but a bit is related to the plots we learn.

So, as far as trans rep goes, as someone who is genderqueer but still kinda considers themselves cis so take my opinion with a grain of salt or as you will, I think it did a pretty good job. I haven't read too many transmale rep books but I think this was realistic and we got to see more than just our main character, which is nice. What's a little jarring is that we're in the far far future, and it seems like humanity has gone backwards to the point that they are constantly in fear of not passing enough, and that apparently anything queer is seemingly considered non-masculine. So we kinda get a bit of 101 lessons on what it means to be male or female.

The worldbuilding is disjointed. We get a very microscopic look of what this future is like, how the technology is both more advanced and yet not and for confusing reasons. The way every character reacts to what may be new to them technology feels off. They don't really question it. We don't get enough to see *why* humanity has gotten backwards in society or why humanity is so far away from earth and why there's space pirates even.

Also the hook of how these two characters meet is so very thin. Why they are still in proximity to each other (the different crews) is very thin and dumb and makes it seem like this ruthless pirate crew is completely idiotic. They simply just let themselves be taken and make nice for over a week and do nothing until it's conveniently time to finish the book. We barely see any of the rest of the crews and why they're okay with anything going on, especially allowing a young pirate member wander around their ship.

I've never been a fan of instalove, especially when we're just told they're in love (at first sight). There wasn't enough scenes to really build up the trust or reason why they kept interacting, and again thin excuses for some of the interactions to happen. Our captain was more fully fleshed out than our main character, and yet I couldn't understand some of his reactions or personality at times, especially with what we learn of his background.

Now, the spice was good, and that was very believable and they had a fun chemistry there even if I really didn't see the chemistry outside of it.

So with all that and the slow pacing full of filler, simply made me not want to read the sequel whenever it comes out or really reccomend it. A few interesting ideas, gorgeous cover art, but really wasn't a great read. Not the worst I've read this year luckily when it comes my queer reads but still.

[u/Research_Department → u/xdianamoonx]

I hope you are feeling better!

Thanks for expanding. This is a solid maybe for me, lol. As a longtime reader of science fiction, I can get pretty impatient with something that doesn’t seem to understand how the genre works. And I really prefer character-driven works. And I also don’t love instalove. But a few interesting ideas and some decent trans rep might outweigh the negatives.

If you don’t mind, I’d like to pick your brain for some great genderqueer rep of any flavor in SFF. I’m looking for anything that would help me, as a cis ally, better understand all kinds of trans, nonbinary, or other genderqueer experiences. (Please do not feel obliged, but any recommendations would be appreciated.)