some stuff I have read

Lafcadio Hearn, Kwaidan. One of those books that I kept wanting to read until I was actually reluctant to do so, a strange phenomenon. Enjoyable Japanese traditional ghost stories for most of the way through, followed by a few scholarly reflections on themes in Japanese literature, and by themes I mean insects.

Martha Wells, The Serpent Sea. Fine adventurous fantasy in a fun world with fairly believable alien societies. I think the gender roles could be a bit more interesting, but they aren't bog-standard at least.

Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett, Havemercy. I remain somewhat boggled by a book with two female authors having four main characters who are all men. Two of them have a cute gay romance, but it's still a massive Bechdel fail. The feminine person with the largest number of lines and references is undoubtedly the titular Havemercy, who is a sorcerous clockwork dragon. Others include a vicious shrew (we have stopped being literal here), a whore whose breasts have been insulted, and a foreigner who has consensual sex and is publicly called a whore. If you can get past all that and don't demand a lot of worldbuilding, there's a decent magical mystery and some fun characters in here.

Carrie Vaughn, After the Golden Age. The daughter of two superheroes is a normal human who goes into forensic accounting. Of course, this doesn't mean that she's not involved in major events, and being raised by people with a higher calling is difficult. Clear, engaging writing that goes somewhere rather different than I thought it would (though I called the romance early on).

some more stuff I have read

Dori Jones Yang, Daughter of Xanadu. I am great with the "girl descendant of Genghis Khan wants to be a badass soldier although her society is kind of against that now" premise. I actually would have really liked her later reflections on war and peace, if they had not come in the form of "ooh, Marco Polo, he's so dreamy -- we couldn't possibly destroy his hometown!" Fucking Marco Polo. Seriously. (The author's note reveals that her intent was in fact to write a book about Marco Polo from the beginning. THEN DO NOT BAIT AND SWITCH, LADY. also could white women married to Chinese men please stop writing interracial romances that are skeevy, Kylie Chan being the other major culprit)

Gaie Sebold, Babylon Steel. This book did not look good; I just don't like photoshopped models on my fantasy covers, and the main character's brothel as described on the back sounds stupidly comedic. A Mike Carey blurb won me over, and I liked it a lot. Babylon's mysterious past actually is mysterious and interesting, there are a lot of good characters, and the ending is satisfying. It does partake of a few paranormal romance tropes, but they're treated lightly and with tongue in cheek. Good stuff.