breathing in a mix of strange and comfortable
I usually don't spend much time with stories that happen in the world I live in. I get bored far too easily. I don't want to go here, I'm already here. Like taking a plane from my house to my house, it's an idea that doesn't seem worth it to me. I'm already in this world, I spent my day working here, I want to go somewhere else now.
And my preference for speculative fiction started very young, probably when my older sister first handed me a copy of The Hobbit and said "Read this." It was totally different from the world I lived in, which was the most awesome and necessary thing ever.
I'm not into just any world that's different; like anyone else I have things I like and story kinks that make it a lot more fun. And stories and settings I don't like to go to. Either way, if it's too close to this world I'm sitting typing in right now, I might get bored quickly. And right now I'm feeling that restlessness more deeply than I have in a while.
This is probably one reason why I've returned to devouring fantasy novels again after so long.
I'm pretty picky about characters, though. They can be (should be) flawed, but I need to be able to relate to them somehow, to feel like there are at least some characters who form a family of sorts -- preferably a found family. I want to feel their loyalty to one another, even if that loyalty is tested. The alternative -- a story in which they're all out for themselves and backstabbity and disconnected -- tastes sour.
Passing the Bechdel Test is also nice... though the book I'm reading now hasn't so far. Possibly because the only two female characters I've noticed (who weren't background) are Vin and Tindwyl, and they just met. In Elend's room.
I was looking through lists of authors and books, sometimes thinking "Oh I did read that one" while at other times remembering I never got very far. I'm making a list. I'm getting through this book pretty fast, and I haven't decided what to read next. It might be The Hidden City (Michelle West) or one of the Patricia McKillip books I haven't read. Or The Wizard Hunters, which was in the box I found. All I know for sure is that it will be a world I don't live in.
And my preference for speculative fiction started very young, probably when my older sister first handed me a copy of The Hobbit and said "Read this." It was totally different from the world I lived in, which was the most awesome and necessary thing ever.
I'm not into just any world that's different; like anyone else I have things I like and story kinks that make it a lot more fun. And stories and settings I don't like to go to. Either way, if it's too close to this world I'm sitting typing in right now, I might get bored quickly. And right now I'm feeling that restlessness more deeply than I have in a while.
This is probably one reason why I've returned to devouring fantasy novels again after so long.
I'm pretty picky about characters, though. They can be (should be) flawed, but I need to be able to relate to them somehow, to feel like there are at least some characters who form a family of sorts -- preferably a found family. I want to feel their loyalty to one another, even if that loyalty is tested. The alternative -- a story in which they're all out for themselves and backstabbity and disconnected -- tastes sour.
Passing the Bechdel Test is also nice... though the book I'm reading now hasn't so far. Possibly because the only two female characters I've noticed (who weren't background) are Vin and Tindwyl, and they just met. In Elend's room.
I was looking through lists of authors and books, sometimes thinking "Oh I did read that one" while at other times remembering I never got very far. I'm making a list. I'm getting through this book pretty fast, and I haven't decided what to read next. It might be The Hidden City (Michelle West) or one of the Patricia McKillip books I haven't read. Or The Wizard Hunters, which was in the box I found. All I know for sure is that it will be a world I don't live in.