Desparately seeking story
It's been ages since I read much fiction. I think it's partly due to no longer having travel time to and from work, but it's also because of a growing despair that good stories are getting harder to find.
I love Of Science and Swords, but their latest catalogue doesn't give me much hope for the state of my bookshelves. Either the store is cultivating a niche as premier supplier of legitimised Mary Sue fanfiction, or the whole fantasy/SciFi/horror market has already gone to hell. I really hope it's just the former.
aeliel and I have been playing the Mary Sue game - read a blurb out loud with the protagonist's name swapped out. It makes most new releases sound like part of a vast, vomit-inducing series, sprawling across space and time. Visit a world of wonder and imagination, where only our spunky brain-surgeon-vampire-hunter-private-detective-werewolf-starship-pilot-dragonriding-tomb-raider-archmage-princess can save the day against impossible odds! Surely there are still good books out there, floating atop the cesspit. Right?
...however, one major problem remains: Mary Sue, the only android survivor of blahblahblah's cybernetic empire. Outwardly indistinguishable from a human woman, Mary Sue has superhuman strength and speed, and perhaps even deadlier capabilities left unknown...
...Exorcism isn't a job, it's a calling - and a curse. Just ask Mary Sue, a woman who has a stronger aura than any Demon - or so she thought...
...Vampire Mary Sue has become a Watcher - one of the supernatural world's enforcers - even as she fights to control her vampiric rage. But if there is one thing Mary Sue has always been able to find, it's trouble...
...While vacationing in Tokyo, archaeologist Mary Sue is approached by a man who desperately needs her help. blahblahblah, the last descendant of an ancient warrior family, is trying to locate a stolen artifact...
...on the brink of civil war and mass starvation, the city turns to an inexperienced new Mistress, an orphan who has risen from the slums to claim the power of blahblahblah. Can Mary Sue harness her survival skills and save blahblahblah from ultimate destruction?...
And of course, a classic -
...follow Mary Sue from her beginnings as a travelling mage, to the tragic collapse of an elven empire, and on to a personal turning point that could have sent her down a path to corruption and darkness...
Yeuchh. When people start naming characters 'Dante Valentine' and 'Halcyon Blythe', I think I've accidentally wandered into a Mills & Boon catalogue.
Please, LJ - tell me what books and authors I should be looking for. Genre doesn't matter as much as decent writing - I'm happy to read outside my usual habits if it will lead me to a good story. Still, I'd like to believe that a publishing house somewhere is still producing some good speculative fiction though...
I love Of Science and Swords, but their latest catalogue doesn't give me much hope for the state of my bookshelves. Either the store is cultivating a niche as premier supplier of legitimised Mary Sue fanfiction, or the whole fantasy/SciFi/horror market has already gone to hell. I really hope it's just the former.
aeliel and I have been playing the Mary Sue game - read a blurb out loud with the protagonist's name swapped out. It makes most new releases sound like part of a vast, vomit-inducing series, sprawling across space and time. Visit a world of wonder and imagination, where only our spunky brain-surgeon-vampire-hunter-private-detective-werewolf-starship-pilot-dragonriding-tomb-raider-archmage-princess can save the day against impossible odds! Surely there are still good books out there, floating atop the cesspit. Right?
...however, one major problem remains: Mary Sue, the only android survivor of blahblahblah's cybernetic empire. Outwardly indistinguishable from a human woman, Mary Sue has superhuman strength and speed, and perhaps even deadlier capabilities left unknown...
...Exorcism isn't a job, it's a calling - and a curse. Just ask Mary Sue, a woman who has a stronger aura than any Demon - or so she thought...
...Vampire Mary Sue has become a Watcher - one of the supernatural world's enforcers - even as she fights to control her vampiric rage. But if there is one thing Mary Sue has always been able to find, it's trouble...
...While vacationing in Tokyo, archaeologist Mary Sue is approached by a man who desperately needs her help. blahblahblah, the last descendant of an ancient warrior family, is trying to locate a stolen artifact...
...on the brink of civil war and mass starvation, the city turns to an inexperienced new Mistress, an orphan who has risen from the slums to claim the power of blahblahblah. Can Mary Sue harness her survival skills and save blahblahblah from ultimate destruction?...
And of course, a classic -
...follow Mary Sue from her beginnings as a travelling mage, to the tragic collapse of an elven empire, and on to a personal turning point that could have sent her down a path to corruption and darkness...
Yeuchh. When people start naming characters 'Dante Valentine' and 'Halcyon Blythe', I think I've accidentally wandered into a Mills & Boon catalogue.
Please, LJ - tell me what books and authors I should be looking for. Genre doesn't matter as much as decent writing - I'm happy to read outside my usual habits if it will lead me to a good story. Still, I'd like to believe that a publishing house somewhere is still producing some good speculative fiction though...