Comments | maldoror_gw: Of books, pitfalls, recommendations and an age-old addiction to SF&F

maldoror_gw

Of books, pitfalls, recommendations and an age-old addiction to SF&F

Aug 02, 2010 21:15

Have you ever eaten oysters? Ever had the experience where three bad ones in a row turned you off the species entirely and maybe even permanently?

( General ramble about the death of my book addiction (and not, as the prologue may have suggested, a ramble about oysters) )

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blehmeh05 August 3 2010, 03:51:38 UTC

The A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin. Most engaging fantasy I've ever read: rich, three-dimensional characters, lots of wonderful scheming and moral ambiguity, and a plot full of tidbits that reward the careful reader and keep you guessing. And while she's not quite the heroine of the story, there's a nine-year-old girl--Arya--who mostly fits the bill in terms of what you're looking for.

Also, since this is a bit of a delurking...hi! I'd been starting to lose faith in slash as a genre, but your writing is refreshingly original and intelligent. Thanks for making me want to rejoin the fold. :)

tmelange August 3 2010, 03:55:23 UTC

If you're looking for a great slash fantasy story, try "Captive Prince" by freece: http://freece.livejournal.com

blehmeh05 August 3 2010, 04:02:09 UTC

*waves hello* Thanks very much for the rec.

darksideofstorm August 3 2010, 19:51:47 UTC

I just lost MY WHOLE DAY reading this.

Thank you. <3

tmelange August 3 2010, 21:58:30 UTC

It really is quite good. I wish she'd go back to updating it on a regular basis.

blehmeh05 August 18 2010, 11:31:50 UTC

Hate you. Hate you so much, and yet in my sleep-deprived and wired brain, I want to give you a hug for passing this story along. Arg.

Nia

rachelmanija August 3 2010, 04:07:29 UTC

I was thinking of those too... but they do contain quite a bit of puppy-killing, both literal and metaphorical. Fantastic storytelling, though.

Octavia Butler's Wild Seed - a fantastic historical fantasy in an African setting, with a fascinating, complicated female lead entangled in a generations-long battle with a man of equal powers. Wild Seed

( ... )

maldoror_gw August 3 2010, 16:04:49 UTC

Octavia Butler is on my Must Read list, so I'll definitely be picking that one up, thanks!

The Temeraire series was one of the others I read and enjoyed during the drought, I'd managed to forget it, I don't know how. I certainly enjoyed those! Particularly the first one. Such a great, original take on dragon riding! After the first, it stayed intersting and original, but I thought Temeraire was getting a bit too Gary Stuish in his maturity, wisdom and ability to pound other dragons out of the sky. I didn't keep track of when the fourth book was going to come out.

jainas August 3 2010, 12:16:09 UTC

ASoIaF is incredibble, but sadly it seems well on it's way to become A Neverending Story That Never Ends, Even When You Beg It To, not because it's too long, but because the author write slower than a paraplegic slug.

I can't help thinking you would like anything written by Guy Gavriel Kay. It's historic-fantasy with wonderfully fleshed out characters, both males and females, beautiful world-building and a strong link to art. Also almost all his books are in some way or another LGTB friendly. My three favorite are the Lions of Al-Rassan, The Sarantinium Mosaic & Tigana. Pick one, you won't regret it.

maldoror_gw August 3 2010, 16:02:24 UTC

ASoIaF has, IMO (and as I mentioned before, opinions in this realm are completely personal) become a neverending story, if one of vastly superior quality. And for me, it's not a matter of the author's pace. I gobbled down the first volume, but after that, though the quality remains high...just too many characters to care about, too many strings to the plot. I would have liked it better if the author had made two or three shorter and unrelated trilogies from all this material he's got running around his skull, instead of mashing it all together to the point I have to back up two books to remember what happened to one of his characters last time we saw him/her. But as I said, that's just my opinion, and I think the author entirely deserves the huge following his books have, even if he is slower than glaciers in getting out his humongous masterpiece. IMO, he's responsible for a certain rejuvenation and rebirth in the fantasy genre that had otherwise become moronically derivative, self-absorbed or mutated into iffy romances ( ... )

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