LGBT fantasy/sci-fi novels?
You know, looking at the bookshelf in the local bookshop makes me want to seriously try my hand at making the m/m high fantasy short story I'm writing into an actual, legit novel.
On account of the lack of fantasy books with lgbt protagonists or characters, you know?
I know that Crossed Genres did a great issue of fantasy with LGBTQ themes but it ( Read more... )
On account of the lack of fantasy books with lgbt protagonists or characters, you know?
I know that Crossed Genres did a great issue of fantasy with LGBTQ themes but it ( Read more... )
Ooo, mein Gott, foxfire comes through fabulously. I'll have to be noting all this down. I wasn't expected such a great infodump. \o/
Thank you!
Well, that works, too; I wasn't neccessarily looking for books with a specific focus on LGBT/gay themes and characters, just ones where they are present. (Since the last high fantasy I read with same was Magic's Pawn, quite a few years ago. Oh, Magic's Pawn. Kind of semi-terrible, as you may know, but it activited the tearducts like nothing else. I think it filled my quota for tragedydrama for many years.) Since, like in lots of other genres, it's a bit hard to find. Of course I hardly know where to start from, either.
It looks like I'll definitely have to check out Tanya Huff's works, so - it seems like a good mix of both, over the different series. The Fire's Stone seems like it would be most manageable at the moment. (Monetary and time constraints, eugh.)
Omnom, urban fantasy. I've seen Demon's Lexicon around, so I'll check that out, too.
The Mirador series? I can't seem to find it. I either get all about Majorca or the third book in a series. So, one for times when indulging in an endurance test of very good quality is possible... Considering I'm not so good with that, I'll keep it in mind, but probably relegate it to a low point on my priority list.
Clamp was/is fine since you can just make crack of it every which way to let off steam, aha. But I'm kind of too emotionally squishy (...sensitive?) for too much.
(Goodness knows how reading Crime and Punishment is going to go.)
Thank you very much, once again! I wasn't sure if I'd get any response, since I've lj hibernated so long, never mind one so good as this!
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Oh right, Doctrine of Labyrinths, that's what the series is called. Third one is Mirador. First one's Melusine. That explains it. Sorry, been a while. In any case, it is by no means complete angst - there's funny and sweet and heartwarming in there too, and at one incredibly dramatic moment I had to take my head out of the book in order to utterly crack up over it.
If you want easily cracktastic scenarios, I'd go with Huff's urban fantasy lines. Keeper series might be a tad too cracktastic at times, but it's usually pretty okay! There are talking cats, which excuses a great deal in my book.
I generally hit up libraries or used book stores. Demon's Lexicon series and Enchantment Emporium (that's not the exact title but I'm too proud to look it up >>) are relatively new, but I've seen most of the others around the places in my area.
....Damn, I didn't rec you any sci-fi. I know Huff has a few of those which presumably follow the pattern, but what I'd have to rec is Bujold's Vorkosigan series. There's only one with a gay viewpoint character (Ethan of Athos), as the other viewpoint folks are either the title character or his mother, but there's a couple GBLTQ side characters in both heroic and villainous roles, plus the Betan hermaphrodites who are an entirely different kettle of fish.
Pfff, fantasy/sci-fi and homosexuality are two of my favorite things. I am in not shutting up ever mode at full power. Would you like to brainstorm at me?
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/shakes head
Ahh, okay. Well, that sounds like I could properly manage it; it's just series where there's absolutely nothing but anger and tragedy and despair that make me want to write to the author and ask "Were you trying to prove some kind of point or just having some really bad days?" I mean, the ones where it never lets up. Soul destroying, they are. It's a real limiter on my ability to sail through dystopian novels, too. (Broke down crying at Huxley's Brave New World at some point for some reason.)
Speaking of incredibly dramatic moments, I can never take deaths in Shakespeare seriously. Especially since they announce them, and the worst has to be Hamlet's death. "The rest is silence", indeed. <.< I always have to suppress my laughter and try to keep a serious face.
Well, cracktastic scenarios, you can easily have fun with them, you know? I like a bit of bathos on the side of my pathos. Talking cats. Well, my opinion on talking cats is neutral, but the last one I can remember is the werecat from the Eragon books, oh dear. Eragon... So terrible, but I was well obsessed with them when I was ten. :/a
The libraries in my area don't have such a fantastic stock, especially in the line of fantasy. I mean, it's not bad and they do get in some good books, but they tend to lean very strongly towards real-life and literary style novels. I would need to order them in. There's a sci-fi and fantasy book shop in the city that stocks from the US, it's very probable I'd find a lot of the books mentioned there. (I know I've walked past the Tanya Huff ones.)
Ah, that does sound interesting. Well, my primary interest is more fantasy, after all, so don't worry about only one sci-fi rec! It is a nice change, though, especially when all the high fantasy tropes feel played out.
/dances
Really? Well, you've probably read the crossed-genres issue I linked to, then. What did you think?
And can I through character ideas at you to see what you think? Like, actually brainstorming? Because I find it hard to know where I'm at, character wise, when I've only done a few short stories.
Relationships are a sticking point, too, because I'm so inexperienced myself. Be my fantasy story with a gay-romance subplot checking buudy?
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I won't lie, Doctrine is absolutely terrible and awful and mean to the main characters and most of the secondary ones, but then you hit points where it's just utterly d'awwww and boy do they ever deserve it. Main character Felix is pretty much Bitchy Promiscuous Vanyel in terms of angstfesting, but at least he's snarky about it when he's not doing this thing that I can only describe as magical acid trip. The other one, however, is just... there are no words. He doesn't exactly angst, he's more into just sucking it up and fixing it. Or sucking it up and fixing something else, because he's got so many problems there's generally quite a few he's capable of doing something about. He is a grouchy crook with a heart of gold who tells stories to children and everyone who's read the books seems to love him.
Hahaha oh god Solembum. Worst/best name. These are much less... Eragony talking cats. Most of their dialogue boils down to "Feed me. Now. No, not that dietary crap, I want what you're eating. Feeeeeed me," which I imagine is an accurate enough translation of your average cat. There are also mall elves. They serve King Arthur, who is described as looking like an anime hero. I like the Blood/Shadow lines for understated absurdity, though. Wizards who do fortunetelling with Spider Solitaire, werewolves who are mistaken for eccentric nudists by the neighbors, vampires who utilize their centuries of historical experience and understanding of human sexuality by writing terrible yet strangely popular romance novels (for the record, these predate Twilight by a considerable amount), ect.
Pretty interesting! Just read the article pieces, haven't got 'round to the review bits, none of which I've heard of before. By all means! Got AIM or some other sort of messaging client?
...Hahahaha relationships. Wait no, I do have experience. Still not exactly my strong suit, but I daresay I can analyze 'em decently enough!
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Okay, so with that description, I think you have it sold to me. (Tell me, do the characters get an Earn Your Happy Ending type thing, or...? Can't feckin' take downer endings.) If I were to go back and read Magic's Pawn again, I would probably want to slap some sense into Vanyel, but bitchy promiscuous snarky Vanyel sounds a bit more baerable. (Actually that reminds me a bit of an OC I have, from a truly mediocre little story which one of my friends is obsessed with.)
Got and read the Demon's Lexicon last Saturday. One of the things I will say is a) wtf Mae why do you like that guy can't you tell he thinks like a wolf for which pack consists only of himself and one other person and b) I am disappoint that I saw the surprising end plot twist coming. Am I too up on my demonic lore, or is everyone else just not observant enough? Poor Jamie is kind of a sweetheart and I don't want him to get mixed up in stupid messy magiciany stuff, but I am 68% sure that the sequel will have that happen. :|
Oh god Solebum. I suppose he is supposed to be a "werecat" - humans that a werethings get more animal-ey, blah blah blah, so the opposite on animals, more blah blah blah. (I'm a bit tired, sorry.)
That reminds me of the blurb for the Unadulterated Cat, which I have seen at the back of some Discworld books but never actually seen on the shelf.
I'll have to be ordering them into the Waterstones in my nearest city, since the fantasy bookshop failed in regards to having any. Taking up too much shelfspace with terrible dark romance or gothic pleasures or whatever the hell, I suppose.
Mm, I think crossed genres have a pretty good idea going on!
Ah, I use(d) msn messenger. If you'd like, we can arrange a time because I usually don't actually sign into it.
Relationships. I am the most chaste bisexual, pffah. Too busy reading and wasting time on other things and writing fantasy stories of varying quality.
Well, you're well read and have good taste and can almost definitely call bullshit when you see it, I'd say. ;) That's enough of a qualification in my books.
However, I got derailed from my actual proper writing by demands to continue this clunky thing with dragon hunters which I dazedly slammed onto three A4 pages in the dead of night once. Also I must mess about with my yaoi fangirl friend's decision that one is the seme and one the uke. (So. Damn. Tired. Of that moronic BL trope.)
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Hahaha I did not see that particular plot twist coming at all. Probably should have but there you go. I suspect you will like Mae in the sequel! She is pretty awesome and sensibly self-aware of what squishy teen hormones are telling her.
I'm not even sure what MSN is! Maybe LJ PMing's the way to go. That or email.
Time well spent if you ask me! Hahaha the seme/uke thing. I'm okay with it in small doses but I read slash to get away from the ridiculous preconceived relationship roles (among many other reasons), not to read something just as bad.
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I've been looking for the novels you rec'd, but even the comic book/fantasy shop that imports everything from the US only has a severly limited stock. I'm going to have to order them in, which I intend to do after my important exam thing in June is over.
Well, I kind of am randomly soaked in various amounts of folklore/lore about the supernatural, so that's probably it. I'll keep at it so - I think I'll probably also keep mentally snarking away, but what can one is.
Oh. MSN messenger is an instant messaging service which is connected with hotmail accounts. But I think email it shall have to be.
I kind of abandoned my crazy novel idea for now, I'm more working on honing my journeyman-level skills on shorter bits and bites of stories. Would you mind terribly taking a look at these two and giving me your initial impressions and feedback? (Also if there's anything I might want to work on in general.)
I think I might have had a run in with some egregious examples of the seme/uke thing the last time I ventured into the wilds of random yaoi manga choices. And stupid threadbare plots. <.
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