Wednesday Ways of the World

[evelyn_b]

What I've Just Finished Reading

Sense and Sensibility! It's great, what can I say? I think I have more mixed feelings about Col. Brandon than about any of Austen's other primary suitors. The problem is, [Spoilers for Sense and Sensibility, which you really should read]I feel obligated to have misgivings about pairings where one partner is a teenager and the other is almost twenty years older, especially

Comments

[egelantier]

...can i possibly interest you in a truly epic fantasy tetralogy with no sexual violence whatsoever, fascinating worldbuilding, an ensemble of wonderful characters and a truly epic sweeping narrative arc? because i could :D

[evelyn_b]

PLEASE DO.

[egelantier]

inda by sherwood smith! it's possibly you've read it, since i'm always the last to the reading train, but if you didn't, i'm ready to do the song and dance.

[evelyn_b]

I have not read it! You can tell me more if you like, or I can just pick it up and discover it for myself -- your call!

[egelantier]

INDA. i've discovered it more or less on accident couple of years ago, and it's firmly in my, like, top five of high fantasy series of all times, so. some points in no order:

- a really interesting, complicated, thought-out fantasy world. there are several fundamental magic "tweaks" to everyday stuff that a whole lot of grandiose changes cascade from - it's interesting to discover them as you, so i'm not going to spoil, but it's fascinating. and a lot of it is about culture shock and culture interchange - here's the formalized, warrior culture of marlovens that we start out with, and there's a gigantic world outside the border, different countries and different cultures, and they view marloven with interest and a kind of baffled confusion, and vice versa; this kind of a thing is my jam, and it's just packed so tightly into this book. inda, the titular hero, goes into exile pretty fast, and he's a stranger in the strange land for a big part of the narrative, and we get his-reactions-to-things, others'-reactions-to-him, his homeland

[evelyn_b]

That all sounds pretty delicious! I will definitely check it out soon. And we'll see what happens with the beginning -- but one of my favorite books of all time is War and Peace, so meeting a lot of characters with 4-6 nicknames each should make me feel right at home, if anything.

[gillo]

Inda and sequels are not quite in the Tolstoy league, but they are very enjoyable. Most of Sherwood Smith's books are loosely in the same universe too. Have you read the Témeraire books? They, and Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell have something to offer an Austen fan bereft because she only wrote six complete novels.

[evelyn_b]

That is a strong recommendation! I haven't read any of those books, but they are on my radar.