Reading roundup

[hamsterwoman]

I've had quite a bit of time for reading in the two months of vacation, and have been keeping my usual reading log, more or less. So here's the backlog:

31. David Eddings, Castle of Wizardry (Book 4 - I think - of the Belgariad) -- I've read some number of things by Eddings(es), and had always thought him/them to be a bit of a hack. Then, last

Comments

[aome]

Re: Swordspoint - It's been a couple of years since I read that, so I've forgotten a lot of the details, but I remember being struck by a couple of things

[hamsterwoman]

OK... for some reason LJ apparently posted my reply as a separate comment on the post and now won't let me copy it... or link to it... *sigh* Um, it's thataway

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[hamsterwoman]

Yes, the open sexuality thing was pretty striking -- I think what drove it home even more than Michael's obvious bisexuality (which is where we see it first, I think) and Richard's 'Oh, I'm with a guy now' response to Katherine (the riversider turned servant) was something that came a good deal later in the novel where Lord Ferris is musing to himself along the lines of, 'I really don't feel the need to sleep with men. People tell me it's great because the sense of dominance and power is greater than with a woman, but I prefer to just maneuver and destroy them politically.' What I wonder, though, is how such an environment came about... it's a fairly unusual state of affairs, so... (One book/universe that I thought had a similarly striking openness of sexuality was Tanya Huff's (I think) "Quarter" series -- I believe you've read some of them? I think it was even more institutionalized there, although less fluid, I guess. And less central, of course, too, at least in the ones I read

[aome]

I read "Fifth Quarter" and, I think, "No Quarter" (if that's the one with the assassin twins, one of whom ends up carrying her brother around in her head). I liked Fifth Quarter better; "No Quarter" kind of freaked me out with all the undead running around. :P I don't actually recall the roll sexuality played in that universe too much - Fifth Quarter mostly focusses on the pregnant heroine, and we have twincest in No Quarter.

[aome]

Okay, it dawned on me in my insomnia that I read "Sing the Four Quarters" and "Fifth Quarter", I believe, NOT "No Quarter".

[hamsterwoman]

I read "Sing the Four Quarters" and "The Quartered Sea" (which I think is set after the other two books that I didn't read -- i.e. "Fifth Quarter" and "No Quarter".

The sexuality thing was fairly peripheral, but kind of endemic -- like, there are offhand mentions of same sex couples in "Four Quarters" -- I think one of the families what's-her-name, the princess bard, visits is a f/f couple, and then there's the prince (her uncle, I think) who has some kind of marriage-like bond with a foreign prince, which is implied to carry the same sort of weight as a royal wedding -- that sort of thing.

I think there are references to the twincest in "The Quartered Sea", but I wasn't sure/didn't really get it since I hadn't read the book that deals with that.

[adelynne]

Oh, also:

Do read FotK, but keep in mind that it's NOT the same work as the other two, and if you thought Alec/Richard was perhaps not the most functional of relationships Ellen & Delia have set out to show you just how bad it can get. Plus it's a great look at academe bitterness and has my favorite of Alec's offspring in a cameo appearance (Jessica, Rose's daughter). And it tells you what became of Katherine & Marcus.

And GGK's saga is one of the things on my list under the heading of "Can't buy more books until I've read these."

[hamsterwoman]

One thing I was surprised by, between Swordspoint and Privilege of the Sword is how much of a gap there is between the two, not just time-wise but plot-wise. I expected to learn more about what was up with Richard's blindness and how he and Alec came to separate, Alec's history with Rose, the drastically changed nature of Alec's relationship with Ginny and other Riversiders, and so on. (It's possible there were more clues in Privilege that I missed because I didn't have the Swordspoint background at the time...) I mean, these things are referred to or implied in Privilege -- I just would have liked to see them unfold, and was disappointed that there wasn't a book that described that

[adelynne]

It's interesting. There is a great gap, but I don't think there's enough there for another novel. Short stories, perhaps, and I don't think Ellen's ruled that out. But these things seem like "moments" rather than a full-on narrative.

When I read Privilege before it came out, and I had the opportunity to e-mail her with my response and questions. One of the things she said is that Richard was with Alec when Diane died, and did stick around for a while after. It took the illness to make Richard leave, which makes sense - he saw himself as Alec's sword, and to no longer be able to protect him would make it difficult for him to stay in that situation. I do think Alec's entire relationship with Rose is played out in the book. He steals her from Ferris and she leaves him when he becomes inconvenient.

I'm told Ysabel is also very different.

[hamsterwoman]

Probably not enough for a full novel, no, unless the gap-filling was kind of peripheral to the main action of the play. (I'd love to see the rest of Michael's arc, too.) It's neat to have the "what happened after" bits from Kushner, and Richard's departure does make sense, especially as, with his fame, he'd be a liability to Alec as Duke, rather than just not being able to protect him anymore. It seemed to me like there was some prior history with Rose in Privilege -- but that might have been just Rose's own history, not necessarily her history with *Alec*.

I saw Ysabel in the library some weeks ago, and it didn't really grab me, based on the cover blurb -- possibly the genre thing again. But I think our library is stocking up on GGK -- in my absence, they've acquired not only the Fionavar books, but also A Song for Arbonne -- is that the one people tend to be iffy about, or is it worth reading?

[ebonymoonblade]

Wow! Someone who has the same fixation on Steven Brust's Morrolan that I do! YEAH!!!

[hamsterwoman]

Most definitely! I love Morrolan -- I just wish there were more of him in the recent books... (And also that there were more of a Dragaeran fandom on LJ so at least I could get my fix through fic. But, alas, the most activity I've been able to find is on skzbrust's LJ. I dunno, maybe the author's LJ-presence makes people feel awkward and stifles fic? Or I just don't know the right places to look...)