Nobody is more surprised than me that I actually enjoyed those

[failte_aoife]

Well, not all of those but this entry featured a couple of books I started with not very high hopes and then ended up enjoying...well and a couple I hated so it's not quite a sign of the end-times.

Fantasy

Aliette de Bodard: Of Dragons, Feasts and Murder

The major nobody-is-more-surprised book. It's set in the Dominion of the Fallen universe where

Comments

[rinkafushi]

I remember reading Tannöd back in the day after tons of press about how daring it was ,and being super disappointed with how a) short and b) boring it was

[failte_aoife]

Yes...I mean I didn't expect her to come up with An Exciting New Theory but it really felt like...she came up with almost nothing? (Except the nazis). So really what was the point?

[hamsterwoman]

in which he isn't a tsar but the heir to a Germany-based Russian supermarket chain,

XD WHY.

At this point, I skipped forward to read the Peter S. Beagle story that was also in the anthology and it was genuinely nice and nobody inserted any parts of the unicorn into anything

This is an impressively low bar XD

Tannöd is set in the 1950s because that way we can add some nazis, since All Serious Literature Needs Nazis. How else do you know it's serious? Anyway, this book is very serious. And dull.

But of course! XD

Your book write-ups are, as always, a blast XD

[failte_aoife]

I admit while silly I found the supermarket-chain-tsar thing also quite amusing and in a story that was more based-on than same-story-but modern

This is an impressively low bar XD
I can't really deny that my expectations lowered considerably with every page I read

<3

[ikel89]

Together they fight crime and are sarcastic. Also, the author uses a reasonable amount of words to describe things.
It is your glowing recommendation alone that makes it possible that I’m considering lifting the de Bodard embargo. Please acknowledge that power and use it wisely.

lesbians and magic in a Ruritania-type country
Still marvelling at how powerful the curse of paella lesbianism I mean boring ffs are that one can have this premise and not be fab. Anyway, can this Floodtide be read as a standalone? If I grow desperate.

a Victorianesque world where demons are real, look mostly human, are hot and are more or less second class citizens and we follow some dude with a sad childhood and his demon boyfriend trying to solve the mystery of some disappeared demonsIt’s been three days since my text to you about this. I’ve reread my demonic floating boyfriends review, for science, so it is now with scientific evidence that I’m saying this: this summary could work equally well for the demonic floating boyfriends. I want this on the

[failte_aoife]

Anyway, can this Floodtide be read as a standalone? If I grow desperate.

I think you would get...most of it. The MCs in the first three books were posh ladies and the MC from Floodtide is a servant girl so she doesn't interact with them as much but there's probably some stuff that is going to make only sense if you've read the previous books. (Also...it's not a straight romance...or y'know a non-straight romance XD She's clearly developing feelings for someone but in that book it doesn't yet lead anywhere)

Transformation into a sad, hairy monster with temper issue to commence soon.
In the future I will be more careful with what I share but it's probably already to late now and I'm imprisoned in your castle with your huge library.

. I do not know what it takes to write about portal-opening demonic dildos from unicorns in lesbian femdom, but I now know it can be done.I wish I had never known it but something something wise Gandalf quote about how we can't choose our burdens

[ikel89]

That solves it, I don't think I wanna bother with marginally-less-boring lesbians XD

but it's probably already to late now and I'm imprisoned in your castle with your huge library.
Only for 14 days of self-imposed quarantine, we're not beasts here in UK.

[asthenie_vd]

I had to google Ruritania and now I feel like a pleb. :((

However, "Of Dragons, Feasts and Murder" sounds like pure joy and I may have to check that out! :D So thank you for mentioning it. ^^

[failte_aoife]

Well I've only known about Ruritania for a year-ish because KJ Charles did a queer update of Prisoner of Zenda and before she announced it I had no idea what it was either. I don't think it got ever quite as popular in Germany? (I did look around a bit and while the major wave of Ruritanian-inspired novels came shortly after the original it never completely went away from British fiction...and today there's a couple of Ruritania fanfic AUs I know of)

Yay!