Author: Ada Hoffmann

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Autistic Book Party, Episode 76: Dragon Pearl

Cover of the book "Rick Riordan presents: Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee." A young girl in a space uniform stands dramatically in front of a red background, with a ghostly fox figure in the sky behind her.

(ETA: Yoon Ha Lee appears to have been misdiagnosed with autism, and has asked to be removed from Autistic Book Party.)

 

Today’s Book: “Dragon Pearl” by Yoon Ha Lee

The Plot: Min, a thirteen-year-old fox shifter in a space opera universe based on Korean mythology, leaves home to try to track down her brother, who has disappeared in search of an artifact called the Dragon Pearl that can remake whole worlds.

Autistic Character(s): The author!

I’m a huge fan of Lee’s work, but I waited longer to pick up his middle grade series because middle grade hasn’t historically been my thing. This year, for various reasons, it’s a genre I’ve been getting more genuinely into, and “Dragon Pearl” is a great example of why, because it’s a delight from start to end.

Min is adorable – a character who cares a lot and works hard, but who also has the impulsive sense of mischief common to all foxes, and a range of abilities at shapeshifting and mind control that get her into very creative predicaments as well as back out of them again. I easily rooted for her throughout the story and was intrigued by the colorful secondary characters she befriends and the mystery that she begins to unravel.

There really isn’t a lot to say about autism here (although, as often happens in Lee’s work, there is some interesting subtext about gender, with Min spending a good portion of the book disguised as a male cadet). But I’m very glad I read it, and I’ll be heading as soon as I can to the sequel, “Tiger Honor.”

The Verdict: Recommended-2

For a list of past/future/possible Autistic Book Party books, click here.

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Lazy Deaths

(Content Note: This is a Disability Day of Mourning post, so there will be some mentions of filicide.)

As the Disability Day of Mourning nears, I’m thinking about who lives and who dies in the stories we tell.

I’m thinking about a movie I watched with my family as a tween. My brain is telling me it was South Pacific, but I just looked up the plot and confused myself, so I’m not going to say it was definitely that movie. It was an old movie in a jaunty wartime setting, without showing much actual war, and near the end, a character who had gotten into a fairly complicated personal situation ended up dying unexpectedly for war reasons before he could sort any of it out. (The character was an able-bodied, straight, white man. I’m not talking about disability yet.) I was weirded out; it seemed like an unsatisfying ending. I asked my mom why he’d died.

“Well,” she said, “at that point, he wasn’t going to have a happy ending anyway.”

(Read the full post on Substack)

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Morsels

As promised, here is a second piece of autofanfiction as a thank-you to my readers! This story may or may not be canon, but either way, it has a Sispirinithas.

NOTE: This story contains ENDING SPOILERS for THE INFINITE. If you’d rather not read the spoilers but would like some exciting book-launch-related news, you can jump to the end of the post. There’ll be a big graphic; you can’t miss it.

(Read the full post on Substack)

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THE INFINITE is out today!!!

Cover of the book "The Infinite" by Ada Hoffmann. The cover art shows a small human figure reaching out to make contact with a very large, tentacled, flying creature with glowing eyes.

Time is running out for the planet Jai. The artificially intelligent Gods who rule the galaxy have withdrawn their protection from the chaos-ravaged world, just as their most ancient enemy closes in. For Yasira Shien, who has devoted herself to the fragile planet’s nascent rebellion, it’s time to do or die – and the odds are overwhelming…

The thrilling conclusion to the neurodivergent, queer, cosmic-horror-flavored space opera of the Outside trilogy is finally here!

You can get it direct from the publisher or see other purchase options (including audio format).

Here’s what one reviewer has to say about THE INFINITE:

Hoffman doesn’t deliver on all her promises – she goes light-years BEYOND them, gives us so much more than I ever expected, more than my wildest dreams for this series; tying together every heart-pounding theme that’s been woven through these books with even more fantastic gloriousness…

The kind of epic you feel reverberating through your bones; that makes you want to sing and scream because you just can’t CONTAIN it all!

I CAN’T OKAY? I CANNOT CONTAIN IT ALL.

SO YOU SHOULD READ IT TOO. SO YOU CAN HELP. WITH THE CONTAINING. YES?

There’s been a delay with both the official launch events (virtual and in-person) but details will be announced soon! Until then, the book itself is finally here for you to enjoy.

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THE INFINITE Advent Calendar, Week 7: Playlist

I love making playlists and I make a point of creating one for every book I write. My book playlists aren’t music I listen to while actually writing – I prefer silence for that – but they’re songs I listen to at quiet moments in the day, like on the bus or while doing housework. They make me think of my book and smile, and maybe even get inspired a little about what should happen.

I’ve been working on keeping my playlists cohesive in terms of genre and feel. It’s not always an easy task, since I listen to everything from bouncy pop music to metal to classical and my books tend to involve a lot of different feelings. But I’m getting better at it, and THE INFINITE’s playlist turned out very consistent with itself. Get ready to raise your horns and bang your head as we finish off this trilogy with a FITE.

Listen on Spotify

Listen on YouTube

Below, I’m going to share a little bit about why I picked each song and what part of the book it represents to me – keeping things as spoiler-light as I can!

(Read the full post on Substack)

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Tickboxes

Every once in a while I see someone complaining that the representation in a certain book, or a certain film or other media, feels shallow and cynical – that the author is merely “ticking boxes” of what kind of people to include, rather than engaging more deeply with marginalized readers’ concerns.

This kind of complaint isn’t always on the mark – sometimes it assumes things about the author’s motivations that aren’t correct. But it is possible to just tick boxes – even from a position of good intent – when you could be doing something more.

In fact – dramatic confession time – I used to approach representation this way myself.

(Read the full post on Substack)

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THE INFINITE Advent Calendar, Week 6: Pinterest

Only two more weeks until THE INFINITE drops into bookstores!

Today’s Advent Calendar goodie is a Pinterest board – or really, it’s that I updated the Pinterest board I use for the whole series. All the original pins for THE OUTSIDE and THE FALLEN are still there, plus I’ve added three new sections just for THE INFINITE:

  • Cover references. (I adore the cover art by Fred Gambino for this book – it depicts a very special scene from near the end of the book and I won’t spoil the context or what it means! But I can share these reference pictures I assembled while we were puzzling out what to put on the cover – they’re early examples of just what kind of cosmic horror entity we’re encountering here.)
  • NEMESIS-1. There are flashbacks in this book to the origin of the Gods, and this section assembles some aesthetics and vibes for those sections – both the supercomputer labs where the actual God-assembly is happening, and the dire climactic conditions outside.
  • Battle of Jai. We all know a big battle is coming in this book! Here’s some of the coolest suitable battle art that I could find – including big orbital warships, things crashing and blowing up, and even Outside-style monsters flying through the skies.

Many of the earlier sections of the Pinterest board (such as “Characters” and “Ruins of the Chaos Zone”) are all still quite relevant to THE INFINITE.

Enjoy!

Meanwhile: