Fantasy Fiction LGBT

If At First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again #1

If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again

Name: If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again
Rating: 4.33 (883 reviews)
Author: Zen Cho

Zen Cho November 29, 2018

4.33 883 Ratings

Ongoing Status

896 Views

Start Reading

Synopsis

A hapless imugi is determined to attain the form of a full-fledged dragon and gain entry to the gates of heaven. For a long time, things don’t go well. Then, it meets a girl. The B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog presents an original short story by Campbell Award-nominated author Zen Cho.

Books similar to If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again

A Psalm for the Wild-Built

★ 4.22

Becky Chambers

ASIN B08H831J18 moved to the more recent edition

Centuries before, robots of Panga gained self-awareness, laid down their tools, wandered, en masse into the wilderness, never to be seen again. They faded into myth and urban legend.

Now the life of the tea monk who tells this story is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of "what do people need?" is answered. But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how. They will need to ask it a lot. Chambers' series asks: in a world where people have what they want, does having more matter?

The Empress of Salt and Fortune

★ 3.91

Nghi Vo

A young royal from the far north is sent south for a political marriage in an empire reminiscent of imperial China. Her brothers are dead, her armies and their war mammoths long defeated and caged behind their borders. Alone and sometimes reviled, she must choose her allies carefully.

Rabbit, a handmaiden, sold by her parents to the palace for the lack of five baskets of dye, befriends the emperor's lonely new wife and gets more than she bargained for.

At once feminist high fantasy and an indictment of monarchy, this evocative debut follows the rise of the empress In-yo, who has few resources and fewer friends. She's a northern daughter in a mage-made summer exile, but she will bend history to her will and bring down her enemies, piece by piece.

Librarian Note: Older cover of B07VH6Y4JD.

Across the Green Grass Fields

★ 3.80

Seanan McGuire

A young girl discovers a portal to a land filled with centaurs and unicorns in Seanan McGuire's Across the Green Grass Fields, a standalone tale in the Hugo and Nebula Award-wining Wayward Children series.

“Welcome to the Hooflands. We’re happy to have you, even if you being here means something’s coming.”

Regan loves, and is loved, though her school-friend situation has become complicated, of late.

When she suddenly finds herself thrust through a doorway that asks her to "Be Sure" before swallowing her whole, Regan must learn to live in a world filled with centaurs, kelpies, and other magical equines―a world that expects its human visitors to step up and be heroes.

But after embracing her time with the herd, Regan discovers that not all forms of heroism are equal, and not all quests are as they seem…

A standalone Wayward Children story containing all-new characters, and a great jumping-on point for new listeners.

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor.com

Emergency Skin

★ 4.01

N.K. Jemisin

What will become of our self-destructed planet? The answer shatters all expectations in this subversive speculation from the Hugo Award–winning author of the Broken Earth trilogy.

An explorer returns to gather information from a climate-ravaged Earth that his ancestors, and others among the planet’s finest, fled centuries ago. The mission comes with a warning: a graveyard world awaits him. But so do those left behind—hopeless and unbeautiful wastes of humanity who should have died out eons ago. After all this time, there’s no telling how they’ve devolved. Steel yourself, soldier. Get in. Get out. And try not to stare.

N. K. Jemisin’s Emergency Skin is part of Forward, a collection of six stories of the near and far future from out-of-this-world authors. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single thought-provoking sitting.

The Black Tides of Heaven

★ 3.69

Neon Yang

The Black Tides of Heaven is one of a pair of standalone introductions to JY Yang's Tensorate Series. For more of the story you can read its twin novella The Red Threads of Fortune

Mokoya and Akeha, the twin children of the Protector, were sold to the Grand Monastery as children. While Mokoya developed her strange prophetic gift, Akeha was always the one who could see the strings that moved adults to action. While his sister received visions of what would be, Akeha realized what could be. What's more, he saw the sickness at the heart of his mother's Protectorate.

A rebellion is growing. The Machinists discover new levers to move the world every day, while the Tensors fight to put them down and preserve the power of the state. Unwilling to continue to play a pawn in his mother's twisted schemes, Akeha leaves the Tensorate behind and falls in with the rebels. But every step Akeha takes towards the Machinists is a step away from his sister Mokoya. Can Akeha find peace without shattering the bond he shares with his twin sister?

Upright Women Wanted

★ 3.59

Sarah Gailey

“That girl’s got more wrong notions than a barn owl’s got mean looks.”

Esther is a stowaway. She’s hidden herself away in the Librarian’s book wagon in an attempt to escape the marriage her father has arranged for her—a marriage to the man who was previously engaged to her best friend. Her best friend who she was in love with. Her best friend who was just executed for possession of resistance propaganda.

The future American Southwest is full of bandits, fascists, and queer librarian spies on horseback trying to do the right thing. They'll bring the fight to you.

In Upright Women Wanted, award-winning author Sarah Gailey reinvents the pulp Western with an explicitly antifascist, near-future story of queer identity.

Apex Magazine Issue 80

★ 4.26

Jason Sizemore

Apex Magazine is a monthly science fiction, fantasy, and horror magazine featuring original, mind-bending short fiction from many of the top pros of the field. New issues are released on the first Tuesday of every month.

Extra large Customer Appreciation issue!

TABLE OF CONTENTS
FICTION
The Tomato Thief—Ursula Vernon
The Open-Hearted—Lettie Prell
Soursop—Chikodili Emelumadu
Bones of the World—Jennifer Hykes
That Lucky Old Sun—Carrie Cuinn
Razorback—Ursula Vernon
Kutraya’s Skies—Dave Creek
Riding Atlas—Ferrett Steinmetz
Paper Tigers (Novel Excerpt)—Damien Angelica Walters

NONFICTION
Interview with Ursula Vernon—Andrea Johnson
Interview with Chikodili Emelumadu—Andrea Johnson
Interview with Lettie Prell—Andrea Johnson
Interview with Matt Davis, Cover Artist—Russell Dickerson
An Exploration of Racism in Heart of Darkness—Lucy A. Snyder

POETRY
RX-200 Series: It’s Everything You Need—Samson Stormcrow Hayes
Upside of the Cataclysmic Meteor—Zebulon Huset
The Doctor’s Assistant—Anton Rose
In the Far Future, Billy Experiences the Most Powerful Drug Known to Man—Greg Leunig
Automaton—Bianca Spriggs
Maxwell’s Demon—Annie Neugebauer
Various Kinds of Wolves—J.J. Hunter

Editorial
Words from the Editor-in-Chief — Jason Sizemore

Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories

★ 4.15

Amal El-Mohtar

Full of glimpses into gleaming worlds and fairy tales with teeth, Seasons of Glass and Stories is a collection of acclaimed and awarded work from Amal El-Mohtar.

With confidence and style, El-Mohtar guides us through exquisitely told and sharply observed tales about life as it is, was, and could be. Like miscellany from other worlds, these stories are told in letters, diary entries, reference materials, folktales, and lyrical prose.

Full of Nebula, Locus, World Fantasy, and Hugo Award-winning and nominated stories, Seasons of Glass and Stories includes "Seasons of Glass and Iron," "The Green Book," "Madeleine," "The Lonely Sea in the Sky," "And Their Lips Rang with the Sun," "The Truth About Owls," "A Hollow Play," "Anabasis," "To Follow the Waves," "John Hollowback and the Witch," "Florilegia, or, Some Lies About Flowers," "Pockets," and more.