Orilium Magical Readathon: Spring Equinox 2022 – Wrap-Up

Dina

May 21

I'm a bit late to the wrap-up party (okay, very late!) but better now then never, right? Here's how the Orilium Magical Readathon in April went for me and my character.

Like every one of G's readathons, this was a brilliant, fun event that had so much more to offer than just a list of reading prompts. The entire community is lovely, there were side quests and Twitter adventures, Instagram challenges, and the feeling of building a character and giving them a story to live - all by doing what we love to do anyway: reading books.

The Spring Equinox Syllabus + Guild Points

Our first semester at Orilium Academy felt both familiar and fresh at the same time. I really enjoyed following the syllabus for my chosen calling of Scribe, but when I saw I was doing quite well and could fit in a couple more books, I got swept up by the side quests. I wasn't a fan of the ones you had to claim quickly because, inevitably, other people are always faster on Twitter than I am, and time zone differences can make it hard to even be online when quests are published, but G offered up a few quests that were open to everyone throughout the month and that is where I pounced. Gotta get me some Guild points, after all.

Classes for my Calling

The first five are classes were the ones I needed to take for my chosen calling of Scribe, the rest is extra credit work. It's just so have I have some options should I change my mind next semester about what my calling should be. I'm mostly set on becoming a Scribe but that Rogue Illusionist does tickle my fancy...

BOOK TITLE	CLASS	READING PROMPT
V.E. Schwab - Gallant	Inscription	an intimidating read
Theodora Goss - Snow White Learns Witchcraft	Spells & Incantations	a collection
Roshani Chokshi - The Star-Touched Queen	Lore	mythology-based
Jessica Townsend - Hollowpox: The Hunt for Morrigan Crow	Restoration	includes healers
Fran Wilde - Unseelie Brothers, Ltd.	Elemental Studies	under 100 pages
Charlie Jane Anders - Victories Greater Than Death	Psionics & Divination	set in the future
Oghenehevwe Donald Ekpeki - O2 Arena	Art of Illusion	a trope you like
Tamsyn Muir - Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower		claws on cover
Suzanne Palmer - Bots of the Lost Ark	Animal Studies	a quick read

Side Quests for Guild Points

QUEST TITLE	READING PROMPT	BOOK TITLE
Scroll of Standstill	read a 5 star prediction	Xiran Jay Zhao - Iron Widow
Fire Weasel in Danger	read a book by a new-to-you author	Adrian Tchaikovsky - Elder Race
Rare Ingredient	read a book with the letter D in the title	Seanan McGuire - Across the Green Grass Fields
Ammelorite Sample	purple cover	Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff - Memento

The side quests were fun and I only read one truly short work for these prompts. The rest were a novel and two novellas (and for novellas, they were on the bigger side).

I did quite well when it comes to the amount of books (I was generous and counted novelettes as books) but most of them were rather short because I'm still a little preoccupied with, you know, carrying a baby inside of me, and reading time isn't as easy to come by as it used to. But I am proud of what I did achieve.

Books read: 13

Pages read: 2990

Tallying those Guild Points:

Finishing the Novice Path: 50 pts
Finishing the Spring Equinox: 50 pts
Fire Weasel Quest: 10 pts
Rare Ingredient Quest: 10 pts
Scroll of Standstill Quest: 10 pts
Ammelorite Sample Quest: 10 pts
TOTAL: 140 pts

My Character

Sistani has passed all obstacles so far and is well on her way to pursue her calling of Scribe. She finished all the necessary classes and, in true Archivist Guild fashion, added some more coursework because studying is fun. But she also likes to spend time with friends, meet new people, and explore places, so she didn't manage to do the entire syllabus (secretly, she really wanted to, though).

Name: Sistani
Background: Urban
Heritage: Half-Iltirian, Half-Elf
Province: Kerador
Guild: The Archivists
- Guild Legacy: Ausra, Goddess of Dawn and New Beginnings
- Conduit: Staff
- Tier: Assistant
Calling: Scribe

Within her Guild - The Archivists - she has become a little better known, although she is by no means a household name. She did a fair job going questing, mostly because the quests were fun little adventures that could be taken on with other students. For the next semester, she has gained some small perks that will make life at Orilium Academy just a little bit easier.

Sistani also participated in the Twitter quiz and she even got many questions right, but - alas - was usually too slow for them to count. Our Guild tied in third place during that Twitter battle and while that's a bit sad, it was also super fun and exciting! Better train those typing fingers until next semester.

The Books (the long part)

For Elemental Studies, I technically read several stories. The prompt was to read a book under 100 pages and since I was unsure of what counted as a book in this case, I read some short stories before I officially picked a novelette. Unseelie Brothers, Ltd. by Fran Wilde is a "book" on Goodreads so it should have me covered for this prompt. I enjoyed this novelette about a young fashion designer getting the chance to make dresses for the magically appearing designers Unseelie Brothers, Ltd. She uncovers some secrets from the past and forges her own future. It wasn't wildly original but fun to read, nonetheless. (40 pages)

For my Inscription course, I picked up Gallant by V.E.Schwab and was disappointed pretty much all the way. This book had no substance and would have been served better as a short story. It was blown out of proportion by the (beautiful!) artwork, endless repetitions of the same few lines - journal entries that sometimes took up entire pages - and didn't take any time setting up a proper premise, conflict, its characters and their relationships to each other, or indeed a satisfying ending. Everything about this was botched (except the art) and it felt like Schwab just desperately wanted to publish something, no matter what, and threw this together without love or care.
(310 pages)

Jessica Townsend's third Nevermoor adventure Hollowpox: The Hunt for Morrigan Crow was my read for the class of Restoration for which the book needed to include healers. A story about a mysterious disease turned out to be the right choice. I also listened to the audiobook version of a Nevermoor book for the first time and was quite taken with the voices and accents narrator Gemma Whelan does. I still love this series even if I felt this volume took a while to get going and was a bit unfocused at times. It's great fun and I will continue reading this middle grade series. (I had a typo here, calling it "middle great" and that actually sums the book up pretty well.)
(560 pages)

The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi was a huge disappointment. Very much a beginner's effort with almost no plot, terribly shallow characters, little to no world-building, but all the more cheesy purple prose. The insta-lovers tell each other so many sappy things and declare their undying love in such roundabout, wannabe-poetic ways, I mostly just found it ridiculous. The story makes no sense, female characters shame and hurt each other, and it's all about the hot magical guy wanting the girl for no discernible reason. I did like the horse character, though.
(352 pages)

Next up was Snow White Learns Witchcraft by Theodora Goss. I had read collections from this author before (In the Forest of Forgetting is a big recommendation!) and since she won the Mythopoeic Award for this one, I was very excited to fill my Spells & Incantations prompt with this book. An author I like doing twisted fairy tales?I mean, this basically screamed 5-star-prediction at me! It turned out pretty damn great as well. I didn't like all the poetry (poetry is so hard to get right) but I loved the stories all the more. Feminist, thoughtful, and modern in ways you don't see coming.
(276 pages)

For some extra credit work, I combined my Hugo/Lodestar reading with the Spring Equinox. Psionics and Divination was fulfilled by reading Victories Greater Than Death by Charlie Jane Anders. This fast-paced YA debut was definitely worth the audiobook because the narration is great. The story itself felt surprisingly black and white for someone of Anders' skill and I got the feeling she didn't quite feel at home writing for this new audience. It was exciting and had some neat ideas, but overall I'd call it only good but not great.
(300 pages)

I hadn't intended to take the Animal Studies class but Hugo Award reading made it so easy. Bots of the Lost Ark by Suzanne Palmer is another novelette and this one was about the AI and robots currently steering a space ship whose human crew is in cryo sleep after an attack. I loved the portrayal of the bots as well as the central conflict, but the writing was a bit hard to get into. This was a lot of fun and currently resides near the top of my Hugo ballot. It also makes me want to read Palmer's longer work!
(35 pages)

I threw in another last minute novelette, O2 Arena by Oghenechevwe Donald Ekpeki in order to take my Art of Illusion class. I liked the writing in this climate fiction novelette but I honestly didn't find any of the ideas or the plot to be original or fresh. Oxygen is a commodity and people have to sacrifice all else just for the right to keep breathing, and there are arenas where you can actually fight someone to the death for a chance to win a lifetime supply of O2 - which is also used as a currency for everyday transactions. I did like the world building and writing style but otherwise, this was only an okay read.
(18 pages)

For the Shapeshifting class, I picked another fairy tale with a twist, Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower by Tamsyn Muir. This was very different from Gideon and Harrow the Ninth but I loved the way our princess protagonist is forced to change from wilting flower waiting for a prince to save her into a woman who takes matters into her own hands. Her hate/love relationship with the fairy Cobweb was also delightful. As fairy tale twists go, it wasn't my top favorite but I had a lot of fun exploring forty flights of monsters alongside Floralinada and I'd definitely recommend it.
(209 pages)

QUESTS

Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky was my first foray into this author's fiction and my book pick for the Guild Quest Fire Weasel in Danger. It had a few really cool ideas but, given the hype surrounding this author, I had expected a lot more when it comes to the characters. They mostly remained flat and one-dimensional, except for the male protagonist, who I felt for deeply. But storywise, this wasn't super impressive and will end up on the lower half of my Hugo Awards ballot.
(204 pages)

For my second Guild Quest Rare Ingredient, I went with another Hugo finalists, Seanan McGuire's Across the Green Grass Fields. And this one surprised me in all the best ways. It's probably my favorite novella in this series so far! Protagonist Regan was easy to love, the way McGuire describes the cruelty of young girls was utterly heartbreaking, and the home Regan finds in her portal world, the Hooflands, was warm and lovely. If only it weren't for those treacherous doors...
(208 pages)

For the Scroll of Standstill Quest, I had to pick a five star prediction and I couldn't have gone more wrong than choosing Iron Widow by YouTuber Xiran Jay Zhao. I honestly thought this Pacific Rim story about a girl smashing the patriarchy would be great but it had no plot to speak of, very little character development, the twists were obvious, and the polyamorous romance wasn't really one. Plus, the feminist message is loud but only in the telling. We are shown women who tear each other down, insult and hate each other, and only one of them gets to shine - our special snowflake protagonist who is better than everyone else (literally). Fun to read because of cool battles and romantic kisses and such but ultimately not a good book.
(394 pages)

The Ammelorite Sample Quest was a pure gift. I had to read a book with a purple cover, so I finally went with Memento by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, a prequel to the Illuminae Files Trilogy. It was short, it was snappy, it was great! AIDAN is always a win, there were even a few shocking moments here, and I just loved the way this story was told through scripts and chat protocols just like the big novels in the series. It made me want to re-read the entire triogy all over again.
(84 pages)

So this was it, my Spring Equinox 2022. Would I have liked to read more and/or bigger books? Sure. Am I proud that I accomplished as much as I did? Hell, yeah!

I can't wait for August 2022 at the Orilium Academy! Ambitions are high, the TBR is gigantic, let's see if I can get my grades to soar equally. I will also be fully at home by them (in Austria, you are not allowed to work starting two months prior to the expected date of your child's birth) so time shouldn't be a problem and I also won't have a newborn to take care of just yet. The question is how I'll be feeling physically and if I'll be up for a big readathon. For now, I'm excited and optimistic that I'll smash all my goals.

I look forward to seeing you all at Orilium Academy during the Fall Equinox.