Breaking News: Vorlons and Shadows Duke It Out on Pages of Twentieth-Century Fantasy Novel

[sunnyskywalker]

Having found myself in possession of more free time than I'm likely to have again for a good while, I am endeavoring to reduce my pile of books to read before it gets too overwhelming. It's such a luxury to have hours stretching on in which to do this, and to have the energy and focus to want to. That's one thing about school: as much as I enjoyed

Comments

[baleanoptera]

Who are you? What do you want?"

hee! Question is - does he listen to the music or just the song? Does he see beauty - in the dark? Ahhh..Vorlons - never change. Except...yes, please DO change - because you are creepy.

At any rate - how is "Swordspoint"? Other people on my flist are pretty divided about it. Some like it, and one compared it to boring fanfiction.

And how is "The Riddle master of Hed"? Because I've been pondering reading that.

[sunnyskywalker]

So, so creepy!

I think your flist must be in my head, because I'm pretty divided about it. I like the overall setup - old city, the once-fashionable part now taken over by the criminal underclass while the fashionable people move up the hill, official swordsmen who fight the nobles' duels and have reputations that swing from dashing hero to thug (reminds me of pirates, a bit). There's political scheming, a mysterious guy with a noble accent who says he used to be a scholar, won't say anything else, and is now living with the number one swordsman. There was a very cool scene where some characters went to a Shakespeare-style play. And there's some lovely imagery, like the shady neighborhood covered in snow and looking like a fairy-tale village while somewhere a drop of blood falls on snow

[baleanoptera]

Re: Swordspoint.

Interesting. The trouble wit caring about the characters is a point I've heard mentioned before. But I've also heard the novel praised - but then mostly because it has a male/male relationship.

I've noticed a trend recently that many female fantasy authors - like Ellen Kushner, Lynn Flewelling and Sarah Monette - write fantasy with slashy qualities. I wonder if they have been inspired?
(ahh yes, this is me forever pondering about how, if at all, fandom has affected the world of non-fandom.;D)

re: Riddle-master

oooh, this sounds like my type of book. I love old, scary magic - especially when its done well.

I also liked how the characters and the narrator never stopped to infodump about what "land-rulership" and "the Great Shout" are, but left enough clues to piece it together.This is definitely a positive sign. I hate info-dumps with the fire of...um..a thousand suns? A couple of suns? At any rate I'm not too fond of them. But reading your write-up has convinced me that I must try to find this book at the

[sunnyskywalker]

The m/m aspects were some of the more interesting parts - mostly (for me) in trying to figure out the fictional society's attitudes toward the idea. There's also mentions of a few aristocrats who have male lovers, usually but not always pretty young men. I think the aristocrats considered it a slightly shocking indulgence that rich people could get away with. I don't know a lot about the history of sexuality, but this might not be too far away from Elizabethan attitudes, and the city has a vaguely Elizabethan feel (and once again I have to say that the theater scene was pretty cool). The impoverished criminals and aristocrats alike don't seem to have anything to say about the main pairing, but that could just be because St. Vier will stab you if you bump into him at the market

[kameni]

I just finished reading the fourth Temeraire book. Start on them next so I can talk about them to somebody! :D

[sunnyskywalker]

Will do! History and dragons sounds appealing, and it's good to know one of my flist likes the series enough to buy more :D

[kameni]

I'll be interested to see how you like them. Your academic background is history, right? It will be interesting to see what you think of the alternate explanations for various events.

[sunnyskywalker]

Yes, though it is but a lowly undergrad degree (ie "and now we teach you just enough so you know how much you don't know"), and most of what I studied was at least a few centuries earlier. So much shiny history to study, so little time!

[plasticinecupid]

Oooh, I've been contemplating picking up the GGK book, if only because A Song for Arbonne was one of the first non-C.S. Lewis fantasy novels I ever read. 7th grade from the Bookmobile. I thought it was pretty deviant at the time. *sigh* Political intrigue minus much genuine character development doesn't sound very enticing, though. :\

[sunnyskywalker]

Well, I thought Sailing to Sarantium had decent character development, and it had mosaic stuff, a pagan god appearing in the forest, magic, and other neat things along with the political development. I'd still recommend that one. Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint disappointed me, not because the characters were badly drawn, but because I didn't give a damn about them. And sometimes they all seemed like variations on the same mold.