Comments | tempestsarekind: and now for something completely different.

tempestsarekind

and now for something completely different.

Oct 13, 2009 14:56

Because I was doing that "have to teach, can't sleep" thing in the early hours of this morning, I found myself thinking about books involving Elizabethans (or Tudors) and magic or fairies. In theory, this should be a cross-section that is uniformly pleasing to me, but in practice there aren't that many books in this category that I like.

( various lists )

tamsin, fairy stories, bookery, tam lin, elizabethan stuff, fantasy, time travel, historical fiction

Comments 4

lareinenoire October 13 2009, 19:54:29 UTC

The Sarah Hoyt book was totally mediocre. I read it and the sequel and was unimpressed by either, so you did well to skip it.

And I clearly need to read Tamsin -- it sounds right up my alley!

I have to imagine you've read this already, but I'm very fond of Ruled Britannia by Harry Turtledove. Alternate history and playwrights! Yay!

tempestsarekind October 13 2009, 20:06:05 UTC

Well, that makes me feel better. :)

And my love for Tamsin knows no bounds. I must have bought at least six or seven copies of it to give to friends, and a few of my friends read it on their own because I kept talking about it all the time. The friendship between Jenny and Tamsin is perfect, but what I also love about the book is that the everyday world is just as important to the story as the magical one.

Ooh, I haven't read Ruled Britannia, actually! I'll have to check it out.

skirmish_of_wit October 14 2009, 02:53:37 UTC

I liked Midnight Never Come but found it lacking in a certain... I don't know. Spark? Humor? I bought the sequel because it's set during the 1630s-1660s, but I've not been able to get into it at all.

I cannot recommend Elizabeth Bear's Stratford Man books, in which Shakespeare and Marlowe have sexytimes because Marlowe did not die in Deptford but rather was transported to Faerie and healed. I think there might be more to the plot than Marlowe/Shakespeare sexytimes but really I cannot remember at all. On the plus side, though, some of the other Elizabethan playwrights show up. Chapman is amusing, as I recall, and of course Rare Ben Jonson is ALWAYS amusing just because it's Ben Jonson.

I feel like there are more that I'm just forgetting at the moment. Last summer (2008) I read a ton of faerie fantasy. I just don't remember them because I didn't write them down.

Also Tamsin = LOVE. Also King of Shadows and Tam Lin.

tempestsarekind October 14 2009, 16:39:06 UTC

Yeah, I had to start keeping a list of everything I read, because I was constantly forgetting books I'd read and when I'd read them.

That about matches up with my feelings on Midnight Never Come. It seems like a perfectly decent book--the part I read didn't trip any of my eyeroll issues or anything--but it just didn't spark with me.

Re: the Stratford Man books--huh. That's disappointing. I mean, I have nothing against Marlowe/Shakespeare sexytimes, but there should be something else memorable happening as well!

Also Tamsin = LOVE.

Yay! I feel like the only people I know who have read this book are people whom I've practically forced to read it, in some way or another. Which I'm perfectly willing to do, but you know, I only know so many people. :)

With King of Shadows and Tam Lin, it's almost like, how could I *not* love these books? Though Tam Lin *did* take a little time to grow on me.