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Sunyi Dean

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Sunyi Dean

Goodreads Author


Born
in Denton, Texas, The United States
Website

Twitter

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Influences
gene wolfe robin hobb, michael moorcock, ada palmer, geroge macdonald, ...more

Member Since
April 2012

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Sunyi Dean is a writer of speculative fiction. Originally born in Texas and raised in Hong Kong, she now resides in a Yorkshire cottage full of music and books.

Her most recent novel, THE GIRL WITH A THOUSAND FACES, was inspired by her upbringing: her old high school was once a mission house on the edge of the original Walled City, and her grandparents survived the Japanese occupation during WW2.

In her spare time, she likes buying whisky, collecting dumbbells, and dying in jiu-jitsu. She also founded the Hugo-nominated Publishing Rodeo Podcast with fellow Tor author, Scott Drakeford.
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Popular Answered Questions

Sunyi Dean I would love to write one more standalone some day (same world, diff pov, that wraps up a few of the hanging storylines) but it's very much up to the …moreI would love to write one more standalone some day (same world, diff pov, that wraps up a few of the hanging storylines) but it's very much up to the publishers! We will see :-)(less)
Sunyi Dean Sure! There's never been any real interest though. Fantasy can be a tough sell, cost wise.…moreSure! There's never been any real interest though. Fantasy can be a tough sell, cost wise.(less)
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More books by Sunyi Dean…

New podcast episode!

Good morning from the UK!

We're pleased to launch Ep 7: An Epic Journey Through Self & Trad with Robin & Michael J Sullivan (transcripts incl!)

Check the show notes for this one - the Sullivans v kindly gave links to their many free lectures 🙂

https://publishingrodeo.wordpress.com...

#podcast #publishing #authorcareer #selfpublishing #tradtionalpublishing #hybridpublishing #michaeljsullivan #publishi Read more of this blog post »
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Published on March 31, 2023 22:18 Tags: michael-sullivan, podcast, sunyi-dean

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Viriconium
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The Book Eaters
Sunyi Dean is currently reading
by Sunyi Dean (Goodreads Author)
read in June 2020
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Sunyi Dean Sunyi Dean said: " Don't worry, I'm not going to star my own book. That would feel very strange! I'm just filling out this review form because YIKES, I have a novel on Goodreads!

This is not the first novel I've written, only the first I managed to get published, and I
...more "

 

Sunyi’s Recent Updates

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker
The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar
Sunyi Dean answered Briana Heine's question:
This question contains spoilers… (view spoiler)
Sunyi Dean
Not silly at all! Alcohol is technically poison, for both humans and book eaters. It is non-nutritious for Devon, and she wouldn't (for example) absorb any calories or nutrients from it, but it still negatively impacts her cognitively and slows her d See Full Answer
Sunyi Dean rated a book it was amazing
Phage by Mark Tamplin
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well researched and carefully plotted

I appreciated the work that went into this novel. It was helpful for a project I’m working on. Lots of science was lovingly poured into this.
Sunyi Dean wants to read
Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker
Japanese Gothic
by Kylie Lee Baker (Goodreads Author)
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If I don't get to read thsi book, I might literally die ...more
Sunyi Dean rated a book it was amazing
Phage by Mark Tamplin
Phage
by Mark Tamplin (Goodreads Author)
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well researched and carefully plotted

I appreciated the work that went into this novel. It was helpful for a project I’m working on. Lots of science was lovingly poured into this.
Sunyi Dean rated a book it was amazing
The Infinite State by Richard  Swan
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I read Justice of Kings as a netgalley arc back in the day, excited by the buzz and premise, and of course adored it. And pressured my friends to read it. It is once again my privilege to read one of his ARCs, because I loved the premise and knew tha ...more
Sunyi Dean shared a quote
The Girl with a Thousand Faces by Sunyi Dean
“On the surface, what we do will be an easy task. But the truth is, forgiveness is never easy. The heart is afraid to let go.

When hurt is all we’ve known, we are reluctant to relinquish it, and we fear to venture into unfamiliar lands.”
Sunyi Dean
Sunyi Dean shared a quote
The Girl with a Thousand Faces by Sunyi Dean
“When we met, a fire started again in my heart, one I thought had gone out forever. I saw in you the victory that could be won for our city. I believed again, after I had thought my faith in the cause turned to dust. In the darkest moments of that war, you burned through my despair.” He pauses, and you get the sense he’s fighting back tears. “Whatever else you may have done or be guilty of, I will never forget how you fought, or the gift of hope you brought to me and my soldiers.”

“I feel like all I did was destroy.” The words tumble out of you, unbidden. “I’m not a builder of anything, hope or otherwise.”

“I think you do yourself an injustice, Siu Yin.” Wing Yun dabs his eyes, and smiles. “The price of peace is always death. Every year of good fortune is paid for in war, and the cost of those lives means you and I can sit here, now, and breathe air quietly. You paid for us to live.”

“And when will it be my turn to live?” Heaviness squeezes your chest, a feeling not unlike the ache of dro
...more
Sunyi Dean
Sunyi Dean has read
The Girl with a Thousand Faces by Sunyi Dean
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After much struggling over the past few years, including a lengthy process that involved redrafting many times from scratch, I've finally got a book that both myself and my editors are happy with. I'm genuinely so excited for this one, and I hope rea ...more
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Quotes by Sunyi Dean  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“We can only live by the light we're given, and some of us are given no light at all. What else can we do except learn to see in the dark?”
Sunyi Dean, The Book Eaters

“For here was the thing that no fairy tale would ever admit, but that she understood in that moment: love was not inherently good.

Certainly, it could inspire goodness. She didn’t argue that. Poets would tell you that love was electricity in your veins that could light a room. That it was a river in your soul to lift you up and carry you away, or a fire inside the heart to keep you warm.

Yet electricity could also fry, rivers could drown, and fires could burn; love could be destructive. Punishingly, fatally destructive.

And the other thing, the real bloody clincher of it all, was that the good and the bad didn’t get served up equally. If love were a balance of electric lights and electric jolts, two sides of an equally weighted coin, then fair enough. She could deal.

That wasn’t how it worked, though. Some love was just the bad, all the time: an endless parade of electrified bones and drowned lungs and hearts that burned to a cinder inside the cage of your chest.

And so she looked down at her son and loved him with the kind of twisted, complex feeling that came from having never wanted him in the first place; she loved him with bitterness, and she loved him with resignation. She loved him though she knew no good could ever come from such a bond.”
Sunyi Dean, The Book Eaters

“None of us are truly good,” the vicar said, at last. He put a hand on her shoulder, so gently, so kindly, and she almost threw up on the spot. “All we can do is live by the light we are given.”

“Some of us don’t have any light,” Devon said. “How are we supposed to live, then?”
Sunyi Dean, The Book Eaters

Polls

What book would you like to read for our March 2025 Group Read? The theme is Food.

The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley
Mystery, Thriller
 
  16 votes 20.5%

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean
Fantasy, Horror
 
  15 votes 19.2%

Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Modern Classics, Science Fiction, Humour

 
  10 votes 12.8%

 
  9 votes 11.5%

Love & Saffron by Kim Fay

Historical Fiction
 
  8 votes 10.3%

 
  7 votes 9.0%

Butter by Asako Yuzuki
Mystery, Thriller
 
  7 votes 9.0%

The Rice Mother by Rani Manicka
Historical Fiction, Asian Literature
 
  3 votes 3.8%

Supper Club by Lara Williams
Contemporary, Literary Fiction
 
  2 votes 2.6%

My Favorite Kidnapper by Melanie Moreland
Contemporary Romance
 
  1 vote 1.3%

78 total votes
More...

Topics Mentioning This Author

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Turn of a Page: This topic has been closed to new comments. September BOTM Nominations 10 92 Aug 22, 2022 08:12AM  
Nothing But Readi...: This topic has been closed to new comments. Nominate our October 2022 Adult or Non-Fiction BOM 12 190 Aug 23, 2022 02:38AM  
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SFF Hot from Prin...: Nominations for November 2022 28 29 Sep 15, 2022 11:03AM  
The Reading For P...: TRenee's Reading Chamber 76 23 Oct 16, 2022 09:26AM  
“Two things are to be remembered: that a man whose opinions and theories are worth studying may be presumed to have had some intelligence, but that no man is likely to have arrived at complete and final truth on any subject whatever. When an intelligent man expresses a view which seems to us obviously absurd, we should not attempt to prove that it is somehow true, but we should try to understand how it ever came toseemtrue. Thisexercise of historical and psychological imagination at once enlarges the scope of our thinking, and helps us to realize how foolish many of our own cherished prejudices will seem to an age which has a different temper of mind.”
Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy

“An election is coming. Universal peace is declared and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry. ”
T.S. Eliot

“No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—
Almost, at times, the Fool.”
T.S. Eliot.

“In the beginning was the Word. Then came the fucking word processor. Then came the thought processor. Then came the death of literature. And so it goes.”
Dan Simmons, Hyperion

“Oriel didn’t move. But inside of his head, all was movement, like a river running over rapids, searching for the way through, trying routes around rocks and over shallows, a turbulence of thought more rapid than he could follow. Griff, he knew, would do and say nothing until he heard Oriel’s choice.”
Cynthia Voigt, The Wings of a Falcon

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