Sometimes I read things
Romance
Nancy Campbell Allen - The Lady in the Coppergate TowerA steampunk het romance about Hazel - a doctor's assistant who is in love with said doctor - and said doctor who is in love with Hazel. However, both are convinced that they have no chance with the other and so...have moved on? Ish. Like, with that set-up I expect pining and can also ( Read more... )
Nancy Campbell Allen - The Lady in the Coppergate TowerA steampunk het romance about Hazel - a doctor's assistant who is in love with said doctor - and said doctor who is in love with Hazel. However, both are convinced that they have no chance with the other and so...have moved on? Ish. Like, with that set-up I expect pining and can also ( Read more... )
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In Proper English you needed about two sentences by the future victim to figure out that he was going to be the future victim and yet it took almost half the book until the murder happened which I just found exhausting (and then the murderer was quite easy to guess via process of elimination) and I'm used to better stuff by KJ.I've been thinking on this, actually, and have a theory to share. I think sometimes KJC does romances with a bit of murder to speed things along and introduce some drama, but they are romances first and foremost (think of england, proper english). And sometimes she writes action or murder mysteries that HAPPEN to have queer people fall in love and have sex on the pages of it (lilywhite boys, zenda), and because there is no significant difference in how the two categories are marketed, you ( ... )
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Courtney Milan's In Pursuit Of is another novella (and I have no idea if it's available on its own, I got it in Hamilton's Batallion which also features an OK het romance and a lesbian romance I do not want to talk about) about a deserter British soldier and a Black soldier in the war of independence who go on an involuntary road trip together
Otherwise I can only think of some het: Rose Lerner's Lively St. Lemeston books, especially the first (Sweet Disorder) is a delightful Regency Romance (but do stay away from her older non-Lemeston books which all have a herd of Drama Lamas galloping through) . And Katherine Locke's District Ballet company books are one of the few contemporary romances I enjoyed but they are quite angsty and not very fluffy.
I think sometimes KJC does romances with a bit of murder to speed things along and introduce some drama, but they are romances first and ( ... )
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XD
(Although I'm not convinced either the story or the language very necessary, tbh XP)
I read some P. Djèlí Clark for Hugos homework this year, the his worldbuilding is consistently very cool! But I don't feel like there's a lot to his stories BEYOND the worldbuilding. I hope he figures out how to build on that awesome foundation, because I do enjoy getting to kno his worlds.
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You're not wrong there. I mean AU!Egypt in Dead Djinn was very cool and the plot was...well a murder mystery and to everyone's surprise, I have a weakness for those but even with that and accepting that you can't plot a complex mystery in such a fairly short story...it wasn't a great mystery.
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