Re: Will I be able to stick this all in one comment..... o_OhamsterwomanDecember 13 2013, 23:24:18 UTC
I read You Suck of the vampire ones (I think that's #2?) and it was fun, but not anything spectacular, I though -- I found Lamb much more impressive. But maybe I should try Bite Me, since it sounds like that might be the best of the vampire ones?
(And I'm with you on giving more of a pass to books that make me laugh.)
I liked Norse Code, but a little less than I'd been expecting to given how much I like the Norse gods (I liked them better in American Gods, e.g.), and the Gods Behaving Badly book better than I'd expected (but my expectations were pretty low, for whatever reason).
Right, I was trying to think of books with non-European gods and not coming up with much. Divine Misfortune sounds pretty cute, though!
Poison Study is what was originally rec'd to me for Snyder, I think, but I can't remember if I looked through it and it didn't grab me or if the books of hers I kept coming across where something else, and it was those that didn't grab me.
"Phillipa Bornikova"
I'm randomly amused that people are assuming Slavic-sounding lastnames as pseudonyms now :D
I've vaguely wanted to try the Rachel Caine books, too, because weatherworking is another favorite magic type of mine.
Jacqueline Carey... I've only read her Kushiel stuff (though I've heard decent-to-good things about her urban fantasy, too), and I enjoyed it, but the writing in the first trilogy really grated on me, too. Not enough to make me quit, but enough to make me kinda hate the pain character. And by "kinda" I mean "a lot". :P
I, too, expect I'll like the premise of Thursday Next, but we'll see -- hopefully we prove right on that :)
Re: Will I be able to stick this all in one comment..... o_Oms_geeketteDecember 14 2013, 01:00:27 UTC
Bite Me had a different narrator so you might like it more, I dunno. It was from the POV of Abby "Normal," the goth chick hanger-on to the main couple. I liked the voice Moore used for her, but I could see that it might not be everyone's cup of tea.
Snyder spun off her Study series or whatever it was called into the Glass series, I believe, which is related, but I'm not sure if it would be a situation like I found with Gilman of being sorta dropped into something, even though it's a separate series. I think the reason why I haven't picked it up yet is that it comes across as being potentially high fantasy to me with a bunch of made up names and maps and that sort of thing plus royal intrigue (which I don't really like in historical fiction, even), and I've found my interest in those type of stories to wane a lot over the years. Really, the only "new-to-me" one I've picked up in recent years is ASOIAF, but if GRRM were really out there with the names of the characters (Meereen is where he is starting to lose me with character names), I might not have kept going, not sure.
I think for Carey, I was going to try some of her UF (I think she has some), but yeah, I'm not sure if Kushiel will interest me or not. I kinda got the impression that it delved into paranormal/fantasy romance more, which...meh...although I've heard people speak highly of her handling of it, know someone (very vaguely) who has a Kushiel-related tattoo, that sort of thing.
I do hope you like The Eyre Affair (the first Thursday Next book). I just think the world Jasper has come up with for that series is a lot of fun, especially for book lovers who aren't allergic to whimsical things.
Re: Will I be able to stick this all in one comment..... o_OhamsterwomanDecember 15 2013, 23:30:48 UTC
The Kushiel books definitely have a romance component, but the political intrigue and mystical whatsits are more prominent, I would say. And even what romance there is doesn't feel like paranormal romance, because for most of the books the magic is actually very low touch, sort of numinous, there are (remote) gods and visions and things, but nothing like vampire or werewolf boyfriends. There's a lot of fantasy BDSM though; I found that aspect of it not very interesting (even though I like BDSM in fic just fine); I know people who love the series for that, but to me that wasn't a selling point.
But, yeah, she does have some UF, and although I haven't read it myself, I've heard good things about it. The Kushiel prose tends towards purple and stylized, so I wonder how her UF writing is -- rather different, I assume.
(And I'm with you on giving more of a pass to books that make me laugh.)
I liked Norse Code, but a little less than I'd been expecting to given how much I like the Norse gods (I liked them better in American Gods, e.g.), and the Gods Behaving Badly book better than I'd expected (but my expectations were pretty low, for whatever reason).
Right, I was trying to think of books with non-European gods and not coming up with much. Divine Misfortune sounds pretty cute, though!
Poison Study is what was originally rec'd to me for Snyder, I think, but I can't remember if I looked through it and it didn't grab me or if the books of hers I kept coming across where something else, and it was those that didn't grab me.
"Phillipa Bornikova"
I'm randomly amused that people are assuming Slavic-sounding lastnames as pseudonyms now :D
I've vaguely wanted to try the Rachel Caine books, too, because weatherworking is another favorite magic type of mine.
Jacqueline Carey... I've only read her Kushiel stuff (though I've heard decent-to-good things about her urban fantasy, too), and I enjoyed it, but the writing in the first trilogy really grated on me, too. Not enough to make me quit, but enough to make me kinda hate the pain character. And by "kinda" I mean "a lot". :P
I, too, expect I'll like the premise of Thursday Next, but we'll see -- hopefully we prove right on that :)
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Snyder spun off her Study series or whatever it was called into the Glass series, I believe, which is related, but I'm not sure if it would be a situation like I found with Gilman of being sorta dropped into something, even though it's a separate series. I think the reason why I haven't picked it up yet is that it comes across as being potentially high fantasy to me with a bunch of made up names and maps and that sort of thing plus royal intrigue (which I don't really like in historical fiction, even), and I've found my interest in those type of stories to wane a lot over the years. Really, the only "new-to-me" one I've picked up in recent years is ASOIAF, but if GRRM were really out there with the names of the characters (Meereen is where he is starting to lose me with character names), I might not have kept going, not sure.
I think for Carey, I was going to try some of her UF (I think she has some), but yeah, I'm not sure if Kushiel will interest me or not. I kinda got the impression that it delved into paranormal/fantasy romance more, which...meh...although I've heard people speak highly of her handling of it, know someone (very vaguely) who has a Kushiel-related tattoo, that sort of thing.
I do hope you like The Eyre Affair (the first Thursday Next book). I just think the world Jasper has come up with for that series is a lot of fun, especially for book lovers who aren't allergic to whimsical things.
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But, yeah, she does have some UF, and although I haven't read it myself, I've heard good things about it. The Kushiel prose tends towards purple and stylized, so I wonder how her UF writing is -- rather different, I assume.
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