Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

This is a Buddy Read for Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame by Neon Yang starting on July 24, 2025.


Happy Reading!

Thank you!

Started! Through Chapter 5. Interesting worldbuilding. A more tell over show style at least at the beginning. Nice descriptive language. But I feel kind of one-step removed from the MC. I can't bring myself to care about her...

Finished. I've been trying to put my finger on why I wasn't overly engaged in the story. (view spoiler)[The worldbuilding was cool--but there wasn't enough of it to draw me in. The MC had a lot of good things going for her--outsider who never felt truly at home, identity questions, divided loyalties--but they never felt real or earned... The plot was predictable but it didn't make it cozy. I never got invested or really felt any of the emotional beats of the story. Probably the tell-over-show storytelling and the shortness of the story truncated the pacing... (hide spoiler)]

I read this one last month and I agree with what you said Nirkatze. I also read The river has roots novella quite close and I liked that one better

River Has Roots we have coming up, looking forward to it.

And I'm glad I wasn't imagining things...

I'll lurk the thread then

Aiya, I've been trying to start this one for a while now, but even though it's so short, I haven't been able to focus. Definitely work stress getting in the way so I'll try again in a few days.

Sorry it sounds like this one didn't work out great it sounds like. Sad because I have been wanting to read more sapphic fiction. Well, we'll see.

We've got some other sapphic novels coming up...

Me and Nirkatze are reading The Last Hour Between Worlds later this week and the new release followup next month... Book Sales Book Club thread...

And we're planning to read The Keeper of Magical Things in November...

And then there's the other stuff you suggested in the BR invite thread, the next few months, I think?... 1 dud isn't too bad... altho I haven't read this yet, to give my 2 cents...

I am planning to read this one. I’m next up on the waiting list.

I read this this morning... it's in that vein of Asian fantasy I wish I enjoyed more, I feel like, I swear...

I read it this morning, and it was very surface level, like Nirkatze said...

I also feel like the plot wasn't very surprising... I expected it to be (view spoiler)[dragon slayer falls for dragon (hide spoiler)], pretty much from the get go... very (view spoiler)[Teen Wolf (CW version) (hide spoiler)]

Ooh, I hadn't heard of The Last Hour Between Worlds, but it sounds intriguing! Not too long a line for library holds on that one, so I'll roll the dice.

I know we have The River has Roots coming up, and we had Murder by Memory recently... I can't remember what other sapphic stories might be in the queue.

Timelord Iain wrote: "I read this this morning... it's in that vein of Asian fantasy I wish I enjoyed more, I feel like, I swear..."
Oh dear, I'm trying really hard to not bias myself, but I also have had such a hard time with Asian-inspired fantasy that I tend to avoid it. I was hoping that The Power of Gay would compensate. I will still try.

Felina, I'm glad you'll be reading this one too! :)

One of those random books I found from Audible Daily Deals, I think... $4 one day deal, 6 months after release, or thereabouts...

So I just finished this one and came in here feeling a bit sad because I was underwhelmed. Happy to see I’m in good company. This should have been better for all the reasons everybody listed. (view spoiler)[ I saw the king lady being a dragon from page one. Not surprising at all. (hide spoiler)] so the twist wasn’t a twist, the characters were bland and and it just wasn’t fleshed out. I ultimately ended up being glad it was so short because if I had stopped, I’m not sure I would have picked it back up.

The second book in the past weekish where the cover is the best part of the book. *shrug*

Yeah, seems like we're all in good company... There are things I liked about it--or that I'd like to see more fantasies with a lot of the ingredients in this one... but they didn't save this from being a disappointment.