SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Be ready! Use spoiler tags! Squee as much as you want! Don't stab anyone with a gingerbread sword!

Go here for all your other T. Kingfisher / Ursula Vernon related babbles.


A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking

Pre-orders now available on the publisher's site.

It's categorized as a novella, but it's 318 pages?! I'm happy it has that many pages, but how is it still a novella?

1. Squeeee.
(Well, it had to be said. I only found T Kingfisher a couple of months back and have now read everything and re-read several books.)

2. Have gone to the link thanks, and pre-ordered the eBook. I'm in the UK and there were UK options, though still priced in dollars. Will see how that goes.

Yay, I haven't reread most of her books yet, but I'm looking forward to doing that in the future!

Squeeeee! Can I get some milk with that?

I see that it's the same cover design as Minor Mage. It suits her work.

I preordered as well. According to the publisher: "It will be available to order through other channels in the coming weeks."

Yes, I expect it'll show up in all the usual places soon! I love her covers! All except Nine Goblins, which is hideous :D

Pre-orders now available in all kinds of places, more info in this tweet.

Squee....? I preordered the book and plan on joining you. This will be my first book by this author.

Yay, I hope it's a good one! Well, I'm pretty sure it will be, but I usually rec RavenDeer as a first Kingfisher because it's stunning, or Bryony because it's fun and witty, or the Grandma Harken stories because they're stellar. I'm thinking this will be plenty fun, though ^_^

For those not in the know:
The Raven and the Reindeer
Bryony and Roses
Grandma Harken 1 (free online)
Grandma Harken 2 (free online)

Just read the shorter Grandma Harken story. Loved it. But I do have a question. (view spoiler)[How does it make any sort of sense that the skins are interchangeable? (hide spoiler)]

re: Jackalope Wives (Grandma Harken 1)

It's been a while since I last read the story, but (view spoiler)[ I don't remember it feeling odd at all. I interpreted it as Grandma Harken giving the other woman her magic, her power. In the real world, you cannot give away your power to help someone, but you can give them *of* your power, help them heal. Grandma Harken just does it in a more magical and concrete way, after not succeeding in the usual way. (hide spoiler)] I really want to reread it soon, I keep meaning to, but I always save it for when I really need it.

Ok, I can see that. I wouldn't have made that choice, but then I'm not a beloved author.

Only one week left to wait!

Just read this tweet from the publisher:

An update on the #BreadWizard book. We've sold more pre-orders directly through our site than on any other Argyll book so thank you all for supporting a small press!

We've already had to order more books to meet demand, and you've blown past that too!

🍞🧙‍♀️

Tomorrow.

Squee.
I've already paid, so presumably the link I've been sent will then go live and I can get it.

I would assume so!

just 3% in and already in love with the cute prose.

The book is available for download from the publisher's site. It gets off to a fast start.

From the publisher's Twitter feed:

"Anyway if pre-orders at least double pre-orders for SWORDHEART, Ursula will ride an ox. And when you order direct from @argyllbooks, your pre-order counts double for ox purposes!"

I hope both that they made it and that there is a video.

Iiieks! Not sure I'd like a bread made with a sourdough starter that eats rats ... ^^'.

I'm loving the writing too.

Hmm... I'm going to be dreaming about raspberry filling and embroidered winged croissants when I go to bed tonight. Especially the raspberry filling. We had fresh raspberries for dessert tonight. They were so good on freshly baked shortcake with vanilla bean ice cream.

Our sourdough starter, by the way, was called Wild Mike Robe. He never got past the occasional careless fruit fly.

I’m having A Day and have been unable to start reading this 😭 I never could’ve imagined a world where over nine hours have passed since gaining access to an Ursula book without even opening it! I’m still hoping to start it today, but right now I don’t know if it’s an option.

Oh no, Anna! I hope your day will allow some baking reading time.

Raucous wrote: "I'm loving the writing too.

Hmm... I'm going to be dreaming about raspberry filling and embroidered winged croissants when I go to bed tonight. Especially the raspberry filling. We had fresh rasp..."
:D

I've downloaded from the link the publisher sent, and got it on my Android and within maybe ten minutes it's lunchtime and I can start. So I did my very best to skip my eyes over the rat eating sour dough comments. (Please can I have some though - we've got rats..... I think our cats are reserving some for hunting later.)

OK I read chapter one and my day is infinitely better already 😊

Gabi, I agree about eating the bread! 😅

I have fresh rhubarb from mom’s garden, ready to be baked into a pie. And I’ll probably have to make no knead bread or flatbreads tomorrow, the craving for fresh bread is already pretty intense, despite the rats!

Anna wrote: "OK I read chapter one and my day is infinitely better already 😊"

SO glad to hear it. The book is just LOVELY!

When you make your pie try to influence it ... perhaps there is some hidden talent to be found :D.

Haha, I hope so! I’ve always had that ”magic touch” with food, meaning I don’t care about recipes, I just cook with instinct, but baking is another thing entirely! It’s not that I can’t bake, just that I can’t improvise, I have to have a recipe, and the results still sometimes vary. Maybe it’s because I don’t talk to my dough? I’ll have to try it! 😄

Winged croissant - so which way up are they? Smiley with wings on the tips, or scowl with wings on tips? Couldn't be flat or you couldn't tell they were croissant. Vertical would be unbalanced.

And other than that, slurped the whole book yesterday. It is very good - and I'll probably re-read it in a few days.

I dearly need the you-will-not -burn magick for baking and cooking. This would he so handy.

And can I just fan-girl over the gingerbread man? I'm going all AAAW each time he's mentioned.

I love him too - and how convincing he is without any speech. That's impressive. I like Bob too - he's hilarious in a scary way.

I think I'll finally get to this tonight! I was sick in bed for two days, I didn't feel well enough to read a T. Kingfisher, I didn't want to ruin it by reading a page and then taking a nap. But I feel loads better today, so I'm hoping I'll be able to make myself a human, feed myself properly, and then jump into clean sheets and read this ^_^

Some group and adulting things to do first though, but fingers crossed!

Not well enough to read a T. Kingfisher? That was sick. Welcome back.

I'm taking some time to savor the writing. I'm about a third of the way through it now. This one feels like she's doing with/to baking what she's done with gardening in some of her other books. I'm more into eating than baking but I'm still very much enjoying it.

Raucous wrote: "This one feels like she's doing with/to baking what she's done with gardening in some of her other books."

Yes! She also has that one short story in Toad Words and Other Stories about the girl who loves to bake but can't really :D

Quote:

"She brutalized flour and butter, she visited wartime atrocities to milk and yeast. She committed acts of crumpet."

Carro wrote: "Winged croissant - so which way up are they? Smiley with wings on the tips, or scowl with wings on tips? Couldn't be flat or you couldn't tell they were croissant. Vertical would be unbalanced."

Croissants approximate an airfoil shape so I was assuming that they would be flying bottom down to take advantage of that profile. The wings would likely need to be on the top out towards the tip to provide additional lift (especially for filled croissants) and for propulsion. This is a book with magic so hopefully that can be used to deal with any unfortunate engineering issues related to the configuration. The view could be from above and to the side - like in the old flying toaster screensavers.

Don't ask me to draw any of this.

I'm sorry to hear that you were sick, Anna, but glad to hear that it is getting better. Nothing but a card playing gingerbread man to get better.

Haha yes! I really want to jump into it immediately, but I'm sure I'll enjoy it more if I get all the things I *have to* do today out of the way first. (I might have read a little bit in the morning before getting out of bed.)

I remember when I saw the cover I was wondering why there was an angry gingerbread man, but it makes all the sense now! :D

I've decided to give this one a try. Almost half way through. I tend to use the words 'easy read' and 'flow' too often but they certainly apply so far. Old and jaded I never thought I'd find what I'd essentially consider a children's book so entertaining. Very interested to see how it ends

Well, I finished it last night, and here's some of what I highlighted while reading. I'm not going to bore you with all of my notes, there are so many!

Chapter 2: (view spoiler)[ "A little too much spice in those, I think. We had to add a lot of vanilla to settle them down."

Oh Ursula :D (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 18: (view spoiler)[ Mona using magic to make the bread good, that's so sweet ^_^ And of course earlier in the book she made the nasty guard's bread stale :D (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 19: (view spoiler)[ "The gingerbread man stood on a spike, grabbed my sleeve, and pulled. It didn’t help at all, but I appreciated the thought."

I love gingerbread man! <3 (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 22: (view spoiler)[ Messages appearing on scones, lol! XD (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 23: (view spoiler)[ "Minds are not our friends."

Too true, Mona! Also, gingerbread elephants! :D (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 25: (view spoiler)[ "The author devoted a whole chapter to eggplants. I skimmed that one."

Agreed, eggplants are vile! (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 25: (view spoiler)[ Now we also have spy scones! (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 30: (view spoiler)[ And attack scones! Scones really are versatile, I should make some.

"It is nearly impossible to be sad when eating a blueberry muffin. I’m pretty sure that’s a scientific fact."

Truth.

"I gave them little fangs. They wouldn’t be able to bite with them, but they seemed appropriate."

Why are there no illustrations in this book, Ursula?! (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 33: (view spoiler)[ Battle can-can! XD (hide spoiler)]

I'm at chapter 23 at the moment, so I only opened the first few tags. The quoted scene from chapter 19 was sooooo wonderful. (view spoiler)[Such a brave little cookie. I also totally loved the mentioning of him sitting on her wrist when she tries to cheat at patience :D (hide spoiler)]

Yes, that was funny, the (view spoiler)[ card playing scene, and pretty much everything with gingerbread man <3 (hide spoiler)]

Oh my, "She committed acts of crumpet"?! I've gotta read this book!

I caved and bought it. I'll try to read it with you guys even though this would be the PERFECT Christmas book in my humble (non-Christian Christmas-lover's) opinion. This is not a summer book! We should do a big group re-read around Christmas time.

That said, thank you SO MUCH everyone for bringing this to my attention, even though it's bound to make me buy gingerbread and gain weight.

The crumpet quote is from Toad Words!

Lol, oh no! Now I have to buy Toad Words, as well?

Anna wrote: "Well, I finished it last night, and here's some of what I highlighted while reading. I'm not going to bore you with all of my notes, there are so many!"

I'll look forward to coming back to this list when I finish. One that struck me while reading:

Chapter 10: (view spoiler)["Problem was that, like yeast, the thoughts were growing. Pretty soon they’d overflow the edges of my skull, and I wouldn’t be able to ignore them any longer." (hide spoiler)]

Ooh, that's another good one!

Chapter 7: (view spoiler)[ “If you don’t mind me saying so, love, you look like the ass end of a seagull.” Which was pretty insulting, if you think about it, but perversely, it made me feel better. When you feel absolutely wretched, it’s consoling to know that you look just as awful as you feel." (hide spoiler)]

Very cute book so far. But am I the only one who is slightly horrified about alive, sentient gingerbread men who have to obey orders to dance, and also orders to become dead and insentient again when the show is over? What must it feel like, that short, short life? So tragic when you think about it! Almost no free will, you can be ordered to die at any moment... I'm overthinking this. I will think of non-sentient pastry instead. :-D

Eva, I've not started, but what you describe does sound horrible, indeed tragic! I don't want to read a book with that going on in it!

Don't worry, they're cute and seem not to mind becoming insentient again after a short little dance. One shouldn't overthink dancing pastry the way I do. :-D

Edit: on second thought, after having read more: this is a pretty dark story with a serial killer and genocide - it feels a lot like a holocaust story. On the other hand, it still remains pretty light-hearted (but also sad) YA. It's a mix of funny and sad that somehow works.

I've finished it now and really loved it - Kingfisher in high form. I would have given it 4.5 stars and rounded up to 5 because it kept me glued to the pages so well.

Good that the lack of crumpets didn't lessen your enjoyment!