BUY THESE BOOKS!
Sarah Monette has recently completed her four book series, Doctrine of the Labyrinth. The books are, in order:
Melusine
The Virtu
The Mirador
Corambis
They are amazingly good. Please go buy them! Now, I'll admit my reasons for telling you to buy the books is largely selfish. I want more books from this author, and I think I'm more likely to get more books if she is making more money. As opposed to say, her not making enough money and having to keep a day job rather than write.
But still, the books are VERY good and if you like dark fantasy, you'll love them. And I have no idea how to describe them. Even if laid out the whole plot for you, it wouldn't describe them, it won't convey the feel. I can't steal from the cover flaps as, quite frankly, they do a horrible job of summing up, while spoiling neat plot points. So how to describe the books without spoiling them? Okay, I'll give it my best shot:
Did that help? y/n/m/wtf
Okay, so with my BUY THESE BOOKS!! rec firmly in place, a caveat: These books are not for the faint of heart. They are DARK fantasy. Emphasis on Dark. To explain how dark without particularly giving anything away, I shall steal tzigane's all purpose warning:
Warnings: In this work of fiction, there may be any, none or all of the following:
Laughter, tears, smut, lime, lemon, kisses, fondling, ice cream, torture, rape, mush, cursing, cross-dressing, criminalists, calculators, thievery, mad heroics, Cold War stuffs, aliens, espionage, oyster stew, homosexual and/or heterosexual sex and/or relationships, big-nosed scientists, smart-assed scientists, masturbation, mutual masturbation, joy, nuzzling, happiness, orgasms, Alphabets, cuteness, adult abuse, abuse-abuse, and pretty much pain, suffering, thigh holsters, and torture of all varieties. Oh. And the occasional death. If none of this is your cup of tea, maybe you should avoid it.
Just so you're prepared ~_^
Replace "scientists" with "wizards" and you've pretty much got it covered.
And now for some minorly spoilery bits from each book which really do nothing to further your knowledge of the series:
BUY THESE BOOKS!! I've got them all in hardback; you can spring for the first three in paper. :)
Melusine
The Virtu
The Mirador
Corambis
They are amazingly good. Please go buy them! Now, I'll admit my reasons for telling you to buy the books is largely selfish. I want more books from this author, and I think I'm more likely to get more books if she is making more money. As opposed to say, her not making enough money and having to keep a day job rather than write.
But still, the books are VERY good and if you like dark fantasy, you'll love them. And I have no idea how to describe them. Even if laid out the whole plot for you, it wouldn't describe them, it won't convey the feel. I can't steal from the cover flaps as, quite frankly, they do a horrible job of summing up, while spoiling neat plot points. So how to describe the books without spoiling them? Okay, I'll give it my best shot:
- It's like Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Legacy saga as directed by Quentin Tarantino.
- The author has a PhD in English. You can tell.
- She plays with genre conventions like Yo-Yo Ma plays the cello.
- To paraphrase the author, the books are about people learning to have a relationship that is other than dysfunctional.
- Openly gay protagonist! How often do you see that? And well done, too!
- Boy does she do an amazing job of writing crazy
Did that help? y/n/m/wtf
Okay, so with my BUY THESE BOOKS!! rec firmly in place, a caveat: These books are not for the faint of heart. They are DARK fantasy. Emphasis on Dark. To explain how dark without particularly giving anything away, I shall steal tzigane's all purpose warning:
Warnings: In this work of fiction, there may be any, none or all of the following:
Laughter, tears, smut, lime, lemon, kisses, fondling, ice cream, torture, rape, mush, cursing, cross-dressing, criminalists, calculators, thievery, mad heroics, Cold War stuffs, aliens, espionage, oyster stew, homosexual and/or heterosexual sex and/or relationships, big-nosed scientists, smart-assed scientists, masturbation, mutual masturbation, joy, nuzzling, happiness, orgasms, Alphabets, cuteness, adult abuse, abuse-abuse, and pretty much pain, suffering, thigh holsters, and torture of all varieties. Oh. And the occasional death. If none of this is your cup of tea, maybe you should avoid it.
Just so you're prepared ~_^
Replace "scientists" with "wizards" and you've pretty much got it covered.
And now for some minorly spoilery bits from each book which really do nothing to further your knowledge of the series:
- Melusine: In which there are man-eating mermaids
- The Virtu: In which zombies roam the capital building
- The Mirador: In which they see dead people
- Corambis: In which a train is attacked by a giant robot
BUY THESE BOOKS!! I've got them all in hardback; you can spring for the first three in paper. :)