Books That Burn

Greetings and welcome to a Reviews That Burn blog post by Robin, part of Books That Burn. I'd like to thank longtime Patron Case Aiken, who receives a monthly shoutout.

I've joined the Creator Accountability Network (CAN) as a provisionally credentialed creator! The provisional period is three months long, and at the end of that time I'll be fully credentialed if nothing disqualifying comes to light. 

Full Text Here

I'll be excerpting details from their website as the best way to explain what this is and what it means for me as a content creator and for you as readers and audience members. The short version is that I've undergone ethics training as part of the credentialing process, and that if you feel my actions have harmed you (now or in the future), you can report harassment, abuse, or other harm to CAN. Quotes in the rest of this post are from CAN's website as of August 16th, 2025.

Greetings and welcome to Reviews That Burn: Series Reviews, part of Books That Burn. Series Reviews discuss at least three books in a series and cover the overarching themes and development of the story across several books. I'd like to thank longtime Patron Case Aiken, who receives a monthly shoutout.

This episode discusses The Kingston Cycle by C. L. Polk. 

Full Text Here 

 In an original world reminiscent of Edwardian England in the shadow of a World War, cabals of noble families use their unique magical gifts to control the fates of nations, while one young man seeks only to live a life of his own.

Magic marked Miles Singer for suffering the day he was born, doomed either to be enslaved to his family's interest or to be committed to a witches' asylum. He went to war to escape his destiny and came home a different man, but he couldn’t leave his past behind. The war between Aeland and Laneer leaves men changed, strangers to their friends and family, but even after faking his own death and reinventing himself as a doctor at a cash-strapped veterans' hospital, Miles can’t hide what he truly is.

When a fatally poisoned patient exposes Miles’ healing gift and his witchmark, he must put his anonymity and freedom at risk to investigate his patient’s murder. To find the truth he’ll need to rely on the family he despises, and on the kindness of the most gorgeous man he’s ever seen.

PUBLISHER: Tor Books
LENGTH: ~975 pages (~32 hours) across three books
AGE: Adult
GENRE: Fantasy
RECOMMENDED: Highly

TITLES DISCUSSED

Greetings and welcome to Reviews That Burn: Series Reviews, part of Books That Burn. Series Reviews discuss at least three books in a series and cover the overarching themes and development of the story across several books. I'd like to thank longtime Patron Case Aiken, who receives a monthly shoutout, as well as returning patron Chris Alvarado.

Full Text Here

Teeth: The Complete Meal by Chele Cooke

TEETH: The First Bite

Being dead just got complicated.

 Spencer’s life began after his death. Being a vampire is better than any teen flick made it out to be. After all, what’s not to like? He’s stronger, faster, and deadlier than any predator. He has a job, a home, and he’ll be young and pretty forever.

When Thomas wakes up in the throes of transitioning, Spencer is assigned to train the newly sired vampire. He thinks it’ll be fun, but it could turn the afterlife upside down for everyone, even the people Spencer didn’t know existed.

Spencer is about to learn that the rules he has been abiding by since his death are all lies. And he must help Thomas adjust to his new life before they are turned from predator to prey.

PUBLISHER: Independently Published
LENGTH: ~800 pages across a trilogy and a short story collection
AGE: Adult
GENRE: Fantasy
RECOMMENDED: Highly

Queer Rep Summary: Gay/Achillean Main Character(s), Bi/Pan Main Character(s).

TITLES DISCUSSED

Series Reviews discuss at least three books in a series and cover the overarching themes and development of the story across several books. Thank you to Patron Case Aiken who receives a monthly shoutout.

Full Text Here

Eugenides, the queen’s thief, can steal anything—or so he says. When his boasting lands him in prison and the king’s magus invites him on a quest to steal a legendary object, he’s in no position to refuse. The magus thinks he has the right tool for the job, but Gen has plans of his own.

PUBLISHER: Greenwillow Books
LENGTH: 300 to 450 pages per book, there are six books as of spring 2025
AGE: Young Adult
GENRE: Fantasy, Romance
RECOMMENDED: Highly

Queer Rep Summary: Gay/Achillean Secondary Character(s).

TITLES IN SERIES

• The Thief (1996)

• The Queen of Attolia (2000)

• The King of Attolia (2006)

• A Conspiracy of Kings (2010)

• Thick as Thieves (2017)

• Return of the Thief (2020)

• Moira's Pen (2022)

I love The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. I have read the unabridged version more than once, and my most recent reread was in 2023. At that time, I wrote a couple of brief essays which I posted on Tumblr, one of which was about a canonically queer character and the other discussed a character who is often left out of the various adaptations. I present for you these essays with expansion and alteration, because I keep returning to them as pieces of writing and because I don't want them to be limited to those original posts.

I'd like to thank longtime Patron Case Aiken, who receives a monthly shoutout, as well as new patrons DivineJasper and Sasha Khan.

(Quotes are from Robin Buss’ English translation of Alexandre Dumas’ work.)

-----

Full Essay Text

Canonical Queerness in The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Edmond No Longer -- The Importance of Haydée in The Count of Monte Cristo

Hello Patrons and general audience members! Welcome to another Books That Burn essay by Robin. Thank you to Case Aiken, who receives a monthly Patron shoutout.

[Full Transcript Available Here]

This is the fifth and final entry in a five-part essay series discussing two long-running book series by queer authors: October Daye by Seanan McGuire, and Inheritance by A.K. Faulkner. I chose these series because I love them both, they were intended from the start to be long series, neither of them are finished yet, and the authors have different structural approaches to developing each series across so many volumes. Purely coincidentally, they are both long-running contemporary fantasy series mainly set in California in or near the 2010's, with major characters named Quentin, and whose fast-healing protagonists have a tendency to quasi-adopt a gaggle of magical teenagers. After a brief moment in the 1990's, October Daye begins in earnest in 2009 and has reached 2015 as of the eighteenth book, while Inheritance is ambiguously set in the mid-to-late 2010's. Each of my essays focuses on a particular topic of importance to long series such as these two. They're designed to be intelligible on their own, and can theoretically be read in any order, but most readers will have the best experience if they start with the first essay and proceed linearly.

Long Series and How to Read Them - Somewhere Is Better Than Nowhere

• Introduction (1:38)
• Episodic Series (4:02)
• Linear Storytelling (5:59)
• Periodic Onboarding (6:39)
• What's a Reader To Do? (7:50)
  • Five or Fewer (9:11)
  • Six or More (12:01)
• Conclusion (14:24)

Hello Patrons and general audience members! Welcome to a two-part reading of some Books That Burn essays by Robin. Thank you to Case Aiken, who receives a monthly Patron shoutout. These two essays are both about my thoughts on generative AI, but neither was long enough to be an episode on its own.

As a reviewer of books, I'm very concerned with the news and societal reception of the resource-guzzling plagiarism machine, especially when Indie authors are among those most immediately harmed by having their work stolen and struggling to stand out in a sea of AI-generated slush flooding the ebook market. While I understand that there are useful versions of AI which aren't used to push out garbage no one actually wants to read, the existence of that particular firehose does need to be addressed.

With that out of the way, please enjoy my reading of two essays about generative AI.

-----

The Problem Is Not That You Want What Generative AI Promised, The Problem Is That They Lied About Whether It Could Deliver (01:14) [Link to Full Text]

A Reflection on Path-Dependent Processes (07:26) [Link to Full Text]

Hello Patrons and general audience members! Welcome to another Books That Burn essay by Robin. Thank you to Case Aiken, who receives a monthly Patron shoutout.

[Full Text Available Here]

This is the fourth in a five-part essay series discussing two long-running book series by queer authors: October Daye by Seanan McGuire, and Inheritance by A.K. Faulkner. I chose these series because I love them both, they were intended from the start to be long series, neither of them are finished yet, and the authors have different structural approaches to developing each series across so many volumes. Purely coincidentally, they are both long-running contemporary fantasy series mainly set in California in or near the 2010's, with major characters named Quentin, and whose fast-healing protagonists have a tendency to quasi-adopt a gaggle of magical teenagers. After a brief moment in the 1990's, October Daye begins in earnest in 2009 and has reached 2015 as of the eighteenth book, while Inheritance is ambiguously set in the mid-to-late 2010's. Each of my essays focuses on a particular topic of importance to long series such as these two. They're designed to be intelligible on their own, and can theoretically be read in any order, but most readers will have the best experience if they start with the first essay and proceed linearly.

When a Villain Lives - Recurring Antagonists and Redemption Arcs

This essay spoils major elements of the first ten books of the Inheritance series by A.K. Faulkner, and of the first sixteen books in the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire. It discusses themes of murder and death, as well as fictional depictions of kidnapping, rape, torture, and abuse/murder of children. 

• Introduction (01:58)
• Still Terrible: Countess Evening Winterrose (04:41)
• Logistically Important: Hieronymus D'Arcy, Duke of Oxford (07:48)
• Staying in the Middle: Frederick D'Arcy (12:38)
• Stuck in the Middle: Simon Torquill (16:41)
• Redemption Arc: Simon Lorden (19:49)
• What's Next? (23:43)
• Coda: Freddy and Simon (24:37)

Hello Patrons and general audience members! Welcome to another Books That Burn essay by Robin. Thank you to Case Aiken, who receives a monthly Patron shoutout.

[Full Text Available Here]

This is the third in a five-part essay series discussing two long-running book series by queer authors: October Daye by Seanan McGuire, and Inheritance by A.K. Faulkner. I chose these series because I love them both, they were intended from the start to be long series, neither of them are finished yet, and the authors have different structural approaches to developing each series across so many volumes. Purely coincidentally, they are both long-running contemporary fantasy series mainly set in California in or near the 2010's, with major characters named Quentin, and whose fast-healing protagonists have a tendency to quasi-adopt a gaggle of magical teenagers. After a brief moment in the 1990's, October Daye begins in earnest in 2009 and has reached 2015 as of the eighteenth book, while Inheritance is ambiguously set in the mid-to-late 2010's. Each of my essays focuses on a particular topic of importance to long series such as these two. They're designed to be intelligible on their own, and can theoretically be read in any order, but most readers will have the best experience if they start with the first essay and proceed linearly.

Unreliable Narrators - Lies and Delusions

This essay spoils major elements of the first six books of the Inheritance series by A.K. Faulkner, as well as scattered revelations and major spoilers from the first twelve books in the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire. This is a discussion of lies, delusions, and the mistakes they create, and some take longer to dispel than others. It touches briefly on themes of murder and death, as well as alluding to fictional depictions of kidnapping, torture, and abuse of children. 

• Introduction (1:54)
• Who Tells The Story (3:36)
• Perspectives in October Daye (5:08)
• Perspectives in Inheritance (7:07)
• Lies in October Daye (8:36)
• Lies in Inheritance (11:50)
• Delusions in October Daye (13:38)
• Delusions in Inheritance (15:45)
• Conclusion (18:21)

Hello Patrons and general audience members! Welcome to another Books That Burn essay by Robin. Thank you to Case Aiken, who receives a monthly Patron shoutout.

[Full Text Available Here]

This is the second in a five-part essay series discussing two long-running book series by queer authors: October Daye by Seanan McGuire, and Inheritance by A.K. Faulkner. I chose these series because I love them both, they were intended from the start to be long series, neither of them are finished yet, and the authors have different structural approaches to developing each series across so many volumes. Purely coincidentally, they are both long-running contemporary fantasy series mainly set in California in or near the 2010's, with major characters named Quentin, and whose fast-healing protagonists have a tendency to quasi-adopt a gaggle of magical teenagers. After a brief moment in the 1990's, October Daye begins in earnest in 2009 and has reached 2015 as of the eighteenth book, while Inheritance is ambiguously set in the mid-to-late 2010's. Each of my essays focuses on a particular topic of importance to long series such as these two. They're designed to be intelligible on their own, and can theoretically be read in any order, but most readers will have the best experience if they start with the first essay and proceed linearly.

Series Structure - Series Arcs and Monsters of the Week

This essay spoils major elements of the first ten books of the Inheritance series by A.K. Faulkner, as well as the first six books in the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire, while lightly discussing some spoilers from later books in that series. It touches briefly on themes of murder and death, as well as alluding to fictional depictions of kidnapping, torture, and harm to children. 

• What Is a Monster of the Week? (02:48)
• Monsters in Inheritance (05:52)
• Monsters in October Daye (14:30)
• Series Arcs (18:05)
• Arc Structure and October Daye (19:28)
• Seasons in Inheritance (29:51)
• A Balancing Act (34:31)