krait | Entries tagged with fandom: sf/f

This past week I've been rereading Rachel Neumeier's Griffin Mage trilogy; I finished the first book Friday, and have started the second.

Highly recommend them, if you like fantasy novels. Each one is a fairly contained story, though characters recur and you'll gain a bit more depth by knowing what's going on with them outside their limited appearance in someone else's tale.

The first book is Lord of the Changing Winds. Griffins - creatures of Fire - invade the land of Feierabiand, and a young woman named Kes becomes caught up in their strife when the last mage of the griffins transforms her from an Earth mage to a Fire mage. The griffins have been driven out of their desert home by the neighbouring kingdom of Casmantium, whose cold Earth mages have long opposed the griffins... but Casmantium intends to conquer more than just the griffins, and Kes finds herself torn between the needs of her home and her new nature. Bertaud, a lord of Feierabiand, and Jos, a Casmantian soldier, likewise find themselves tangled in the griffins' fate and torn between conflicting loyalties.

I was lured into reading this series because I love stories about characters who become something other than human, and nonhuman creatures who don't have human reactions or interests. The way Kes struggles with, and ultimately embraces, her changed self is exactly wat I was looking for!

As much as I love them, I feel like I never hear anyone mention or discuss this series, and AO3 only has one one fic! Have you read them, flist?

I keep meaning to post about rereading the Foreigner series, and instead I keep rereading. I'm moving so fast through things that I hardly remember what happened in each book! Oops. Here's some notes on what I remember of my reactions to the first two.

( Thoughts on Foreigner )

( Thoughts on Invader )

So one of the two books I brought to read while travelling was Foreigner - I figured I was at least a book behind, and a reread of the first book would be a good idea before launching into the newest, which I planned to pick up.

Well, it turns out I am at least two books behind, but also my Foreigner reread may have turned into a whole-series reread? At any rate I finished Foreigner and couldn't wait to get home and start on Invader, and I'm now two-thirds of the way through Inheritor with no sign of slowing. :D

I'll save my thoughts and reactions to specific books for another post, to keep things more organised, but for now: I'm remembering why I love these books so much, and it's delightful. ♥

WorldCon completed! Hugo Awards watched! Home again with cats!

The awards were enjoyable for the most part ("five million years," hahaha!) but at times made me feel very far behind: I don't think I've read a single one of the winning works/authors, except technically a couple. (A book I bounced off of hard enough not to have bought anything else by the person since, or similar; not the works on the ballot.) Part of this was certainly my fault! I'm going to guess that I told myself, Ah, yes, next week when I have a bit more time I'll download my Hugos packet! when I registered and then promptly forgot it existed till I was sitting in the auditorium going, 'Wait, wasn't I supposed to have all these?' Oops. Although come to think of it, there might have been a format issue behind my downloading delay.

I also had a few moments of annoyance when it seemed like the same 3-5 people were finalists for a dozen different things, and they were all authors who are pretty well-known already; I enjoy seeing new names on the ballot even if it turns out I have read none of them. :D

Other con-related reading notes:
* finished my reread of Foreigner
* got about halfway through The Lost Tales and Other Writings
* bought 2 more Foreigner novels (speaking of being behind!)
* impulse-bought a book about a magical PI
* picked up flyers for two different upcoming cons, one featuring Ursula Vernon as a guest and the other Steven Brust

All in all, a grand time and far too short! Now, back to the laundry...

The Wheel of Time turns, and ages come and pass, but Book 4 is eternal.

Which is to say, I've technically made progress in my Wheel of Time rereading, because the last post I made about it mentioned my being in Book 2, but Book 4 certainly feels like I've been reading it forever.

On the bright side, Rand has made it Rhuidean and got his final markings - two at once, this time, also thankfully, so that tiny subplot is wound up - and Egwene now has a teacher for Dreaming, and Mat has some murky prophecies about himself. Progress! Now to find out what Couladin and the Shaido are going to do, because I've forgotten how that turns out but I vaguely feel that it was important.

On the less bright side, there is way too much Mat in this book, and also way too much of... whatever the Weird Thing going on about Aviendha and Elayne's respective feelings toward Rand and each other is (my answer: tiresome) that results in a whole lot of Very Jordan Gender Takes. Sigh. I don't know how many more bookfuls of this I can take.

I also don't remember what the deal is with the peddler who turns up, but I'm assuming at least one of the women with him is one of the Forsaken, if not all three of them.

Behold, an icon!

I have been rereading Brust's Paarfi Romances; currently I'm about halfway through The Paths of the Dead and am having a great time noticing how Paarfi sets up the big romantic shock twist to come.

( Read more... )

I've been rereading the Firekeeper novels by Jane Lindskold, and I can't stop thinking about how much I want Edlin/Grateful Peace fic!

There is none. And I mean none: there are five fics for this entire fandom on AO3, so there's definitely not slashfic for these two. There's no character tag for either of them, never mind a pairing tag.

But they were imprisoned together! Edlin tried to protect Peace from their captors! The last book reveals that they kept in touch and Edlin is visiting New Kelvin!!

I really love the idea that part of Edlin's 'brainless twit' persona is his struggle with being the (mostly-) gay son of an Earl expected to inherit his father's title and carry on the line, especially in the ancestor-venerating culture of Hawk Haven, then finding unexpected acceptance and romance under horrible conditions with the hot older foreigner he initially distrusted and deciding to make it work against all the odds. ♥

My prompt from

gloss was: Preferred book genre, optionally with faves

This is an easy one, as my reading (outside of fanfiction) is probably 95% SF/F by volume. :D

I switch back and forth between the "SF" and the "F" sides of the genre - I'm generally in the mood for one or the other specifically, so I go through phases where most of my reading is science fiction, followed by phases where it's mostly fantasy.

Here are three recs from each, which I tried to keep to single works and short series!

Fantasy:
Eyes of the Basilisk by Patricia McKillip, for incredibly beautiful and lyrical prose
Dragon Bones & Dragon Blood by Patricia Briggs, for a really fun main character and love interest
Flesh and Spirit & Breath and Bone by Carl Berg, for interesting magic

Sci-Fi:
Chanur series (5 novels) by C.J. Cherryh, for great alien cultures and tense plotting
Dreamsnake by Vonda McIntire, for postapocalyptic medicine
Eifelheim by Michael Flynn, for aliens in medieval Germany and speculative physics

November is over! I signed up at

readingtogether for a November reading challenge to reduce my to-be-read pile. Here's the final count, with notes.

Talk books with me!

( Finished books below the cut )

( Partially read books below the cut! )

( Rereading tally below the cut! )

If you've read any of the above, hit me with your thoughts! Or tell me what you've been reading lately.

I'm still on an elf kick, and I bring recs! Lord of the Rings flavour, this time.

There are... a lot more... where these came from, so I'm going to try to do them in small batches, with a pairing or other element in common.

( Five Recs, all Gimli&Legolas or Gimli/Legolas, below the cut. )

I'm stuck on elves again. (This is a thing that happens to me periodically, I've learned. Although no, I haven't learned why it happens.) In the last month, I have:

* gone on a Forgotten Realms fanfic binge
* reread Salvatore's dark elf prequel trilogy (Homeland, Exile, & Soujourn)
* recced a bunch of Forgotten Realms fanfic
* started rereading Brust's Hawk
* purchased Vallista to follow it up with
* reread three Sidhe novels by Josepha Sherman
* read a bunch of LOTR fanfic
* watched 8 hours of LOTR films
* thought about going to the library for the LOTR books
* gone looking for my bootlegged Record of Lodoss War episodes

Oh, yeah, and

* acquired an elf-themed icon

So... send help?

And by help I definitely mean recs for elf-centric canons and fic. :D There must be things out there I haven't read yet! Save me from having to resort to Mercedes Lackey rereads, friends. :D

(As a side note, who has Sapkowski's Blood of Elves waiting in the to-be-read pile? Yeah, it's me! I've been meaning to pick up the Witcher novels for about a year now, before Netflix decided to make it a show; having elves in the title should bump it up the stack!)

Well, I fell down the rabbit hole into another old fandom, so between yesterday and today I have read more than 100K of Forgotten Realms fanfiction.

Oops?

Have some recs.

( Below the cut! )

Most of these are Jarlaxle/Artemis Entreri - which feels weird, because I didn't have the slightest interest in Entreri back in the day! But Drizzt is so unrelentingly het in the series that it's hard to find fics about him that I enjoy, Zak's dead, I've forgotten most of the cast of War of the Spider Queen, and it turns out (I discovered gradually through my reading) that there's basically a whole series about Jarlaxle and Entreri now? And they tried very hard to make everything as un-gay as they could, but since I have not read the books I'm just going to substitute logic instead. Nothing will ever convince me that male drow aren't all bisexual; Menzoberranzan is absolutely a Situational Sexuality setup if ever there was one.

gramarye1971 suggested the "Badass Normal" trope, where an unenhanced character holds their own against superpowered or supernatural competition.

This is another trope that I really don't think about as a thing in itself, but I definitely have a number of canons where it features!

( Discussion and canon recs below the cut )

Since I'm not accustomed to thinking about this trope as a distinct thing, I'm very interested in hearing your thoughts and recs. What characters do you consider prime examples? Where do you draw the line for "normal," especially for characters who have long-running arcs that lead to significant increases in power/skill?

Working my way slowly down the to-be-read pile! (Ha ha ha. At the rate I'm going it'll take me 97 years; I need to put some effort in.)

( I finished _To the Haunted Mountains_ last month. Discussion with some spoilers below the cut. )

I just found The Tea Dragon Society comic, and it's utterly charming!

It's a fantasy graphic novel for kids featuring a young blacksmith apprentice. The art is so light and lovely, and the tea dragons are adorable.

Check it out if you've got an hour or so to spare!

One down, a million to go. :D

I finished A Brother's Price, by Wen Spencer, last week.

( More below the cut. )

This is the third thing I've read by Spencer, and I have come to some conclusions.

( Under the cut. )

Okay, so

sholio has been having such fun rereading the Dragaera series novels! In a post of hers I mentioned some great art by a friend of the author's and that I'd try to dig it up, because her Orca is my headcanon and I find the version in the books disappointing.

The Lyorn Records contain only broken links, but confirmed the artist I was looking for is Katherine Grantham, and I was able to track it down in my own hard drive. :D

( Below the cut: Issola, Tiassa, Jhereg and Orca! )

By the by, Katherine Grantham, nee Marschall, is who the character of Kathana e'Marish'Chala was based on. :D

In an effort to keep myself on track with various things, including posting, here's a round-up of where my current fannish efforts are focused.

Rewatching Nirvana in Fire
I've just started this, so if anyone wants to join in - either rewatching, or as a first-time viewing - I'd love to have company. :D At the moment I'm just four episodes in. If other people are interested in watching along, we can come up with a specific schedule and I'll make regular posts designated for discussion! If it ends up being just me, I'll probably be quieter about it; I feel like I've flooded everyone with NiF reactions lately, and you've all been very patient about it and deserve a break in return. :D

Reading Yami no Matsuei
I started this a while ago but got sidetracked, so I plan to start over at the beginning. I'll try to post after each volume completed, to avoid being sidetracked again. No specific schedule in mind, but I should manage at absolute minimum a volume a week.

Watching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Believe it or not, I've never watched FMA:B before! I didn't want to watch it before finishing the manga, and when I'd finished the manga it wasn't readily available, so it's taken me all this time to get round to it. :D The first anime will probably always be my true love, but for completion's sake I do want to get through Brotherhood as well. There may not be much to post about, though, given that this is the third incarnation of FMA for me.

Reading new SF/F from my To-Be-Read Pile
Most of my reading thus far this year has been rereading, but this pile needs to shrink, and this year is as good as any. :D No idea what will call to me first when I start going through it, but as long as I pick something, it's progress! (Reminder to self: take a picture of the pile and post it!)

Rec Some Fics
The lack of fic recs in this journal is just sad. Gotta get back in that rec habit, even if it means stumbling through different ideas on how to approach it till I hit on one that works. (By fandom, by trope, by length?) DW friends, if you have suggestions for recs you'd like to see, now is the time to toss them out here! I had fun posting about Identity Porn, and I've made at least one other post about a beloved trope before, so maybe that's a good approach. Or maybe it should be under a separate heading like "Write Some Meta" that would include stuff like characterisation notes and thoughts on archive warnings.

My prompt from

hamsterwoman was "Dragaera," and I was supposed to post about it on the 17th. Sorry I'm late. (If there was a 34th of January, I would have pushed it back till then, but alas.)

Have you ever encountered a canon that really drew you in and held your interest over several years? One that stacked up the tropes/character types/plot twists you like into a big pile of enjoyable action?

One that you couldn't for the life of you figure out why there just isn't a fandom?

That's Dragaera.

( A currently-unfinished series of fantasy novels, with side series, there's really not any other series I can compare it to. Some introductory stuff for those unfamiliar with it, below the cut: )

With that out of the way, on to the specifics! I mentioned that this series if a perpetual case of "why isn't there any active fandom!?" for me, and at risk of repeating myself, I really don't understand why there isn't a fandom for this!

It seems to be absolutely stuffed with tropes that fandom loves: the wisecracking Vlad and his talking animal sidekick, the anti-hero with a heart/slow reformation of Vlad's character from amoral assassin to something more principled (though I don't think Vlad's morality will never be "normal," and that's a point of appeal as well!), the Dragaeran culture that makes Vlad an outsider and an underdog, the amazing descriptions of food that will leave you hungry after reading... :D There are 17 Houses for all your Sorting needs, and a gender-neutral society that means female characters can do anything the male ones can. There's plenty of opportunities for angst around Dragaeran prejudices (the Houseless, inter-House romances or the offspring thereof, Dragaeran/Easterner conflict, bias against the Jhereg and Teckla Houses...) and a wide-open playground of unexplored regions where Dragaeran prejudices don't apply (the East, the Isles).

There are plenty of options when it comes to relationships, too, whether you're into Vlad and his wife Cawti struggling through the breakup of their marriage, or Vlad's intense foe-yay with his Dragaeran friend-and-sometimes-boss, or the deep loyalty between Vlad and his secretary Kragar, or Cawti building a new life with her (female, Dragaeran) former assassination partner Norathar. The Khaavren romances feature two forbidden inter-House loves in addition to a successful romantic pairing.

If you've read them, talk at me about them! If you have questions, hit me with them - I am always willing to pimp this series to people to see if I can't build a little fandom for it. :D

I think this subject line is the best reason for choosing my username. :D

October seems as good a time as any to climb back on the posting bandwagon! So here I am.

The weather here remains mild, but I shiver in anticipation of colder temps.

The cats are well, although one tried to puke on me this morning. I keep meaning to make a post about them - I even started one, flocked it so I could come back to it with photos, and then never did get back to it - so that can go back on my To Do list.

Fannishly, I'm a bit... stalled? I've been rereading fics from old fandoms, mostly FMA, along with YOI fic, but no new canon has appeared to seize my attention. I really need to make some rec lists for YOI, so that can go on the To Do list, too and give me actual fannish content to post!

Been rereading Foreigner a bit today, and wishing for fic. I really want either Ian/Julio or Ian/Manadgi fic that explores the first contact and the nascent office of Paidhi in more depth (which is to say, any).

Still on Dragon Cave, kind of low-key annoyed by the frequency of releases this year but excited to see what the cute new Pygmy breed will look like, grown up!

Thanks to someone else's post, I now want to make okonomiyaki on Saturday. Will have to go shopping first, though, as I don't think there's a vegetable in the house that isn't a frozen green bean or pea. Nor are there any eggs, and I was thinking about making bread... Really need to finish the ice cream I made the base for last week, too.

Weight loss has been going okay, but with the change in work schedule and the change in weather I'm not able to keep up with my walking. Last week my weight didn't change from the week before, so I've been mulling over ways to maintain my physical activity through the fall and winter. I'm too cheap to pay for gym membership (and I hate exercising indoors; I just won't do it) but I may just have to pay for a gym membership. Alternately, is there any way I can cram a treadmill into some corner of my house? *tilts head curiously* I really don't see where, short of something radical like removing the Useless Giant Bathtub. But it would be nice to be able to do my activity here, with cats and without strangers, and not have to drive somewhere else.

How are all of you, my beautiful reading list?

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Scales and Tales

Entries tagged with fandom: sf/f

Currently Reading

Rereading Foreigner & Invader

Foreigner rereading

WorldCon

The Wheel of Time Turns

(no subject)

When your ship is a kayak

Journaling January: preferred book genres

November Reading Challenge Wrap-Up

LOTR Recs

Elves on the brain.

Fell down the old!fandom rabbit hole

Tropes again: "Badass Normal"

Reading

A recommendation

Working on the To-Be-Read Pile

Art for Dragaera

The Fan With the Plan

Dragaera (Journaling January)

State of the Krait