she is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet

[communi_kate]

...time for linkspam...

The blog of the amazing Matt Rhodes, Mass Effect concept artist extraordinary and frequent contributer to the tumbler Women Fighters in Reasonable Armour.  

A wonderful tumblr of Islamic art and architecture. My imaginary fantasy world looks like this.

Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant. The perfect webcomic for anyone's who's missing AC:Revelations.

Comments

[everbright]

Delilah! I love that comic, Sensible Dude/Awesome Adventure Woman isn't a buddy comedy you see all the time. The Islamic art blog, is... eye opening! Thanks for passing that along. Matt Rhodes - Damn. DA-YUM.

And I totally thought I wasn't going to be tempted to open these link because I have a zillion tabs open already!

[communi_kate]

I love Delilah Dirk-and am trying to write an Islamic-inspired Sensible Dude/Awesome Adventure Woman novel of my own. In my head it looks like a cross between that, Matt Rhodes' awesome Mass Effect artwork without the space, and the Islamic arabesques.

[everbright]

Ooo, that is a nice potpourri of influences. Is it an AU in a Islam-ish space like Saladin Ahmed is doing, or is it set roughly in reality? Either way, you have a lot of different geographies to choose from. It could be in the Meghreb, or the hard pan desert on the eastern side of the Med, or even up in the Iranian high desert. *geo-nerd activate!* I can't wait to hear more about it as the world solidifies for you!

[communi_kate]

I have Saladin Ahmed's new book on pre-order! It sounds awesome-did an interview on John Scalzi's blog whatever which was really interesting. Have you listened to 'Hooves and the Hovel of Abdul Jameela' over on podcastle?
And yes, Iranian with some Moroccan and Turkish influences, simply because those are the Islamic countries in which I've spent most time.

[everbright]

NO, I hadn't seen the audio book! Thanks for telling me about it, I'm downloading it right now. I poked around on his web site and read a short story that's supposed to be a prequel thing for the book. YAY for lady sword masters!

YAY!!!!! I'm having a love affair with the Achaemenid Empire right now, so that makes me VERY HAPPY! Trade routes! Subductive Orogeny! Wind-powered refrigerators!

[communi_kate]

I'm good with the trade routes and the wind-powered refrigerators, but what the hell is 'subductive orogeny?'
Inquiring minds want to know.
Re Saladin Ahmed, there's another free podstory on the awesome site Beneath Ceaseless Skies' online magazine, called Mister Hadj's Sunset Ride. Weird western genre,very good.

[everbright]

Subduction it when one tectonic plate goes under another, and that generally makes volcanoes right close to the fault and a whole ruched up mountain system a little behind it. Probably the Zagros mountains were formed when the old Tethys Sea subducted under the Arabian plate. The Zagros are still undergoing orogeny (building up) since now the Euraisian plates and Arabian plates are squishing together like two towels laid flat on the floor and slid together (which is just a straight up plate collision.)

I just like orogeny and orogenic events, it's so cool to think about mountains forming and pushing up sedimentary rocks into crazy folds and thrusts. Fossil hunting time!