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Book binge
Sep. 25th, 2006 10:59 pmEvery now and then I take time off from being a general purpose book pimp to go on a little book bender. Since last Wednesday, I have been on a Big Fat Fantasy Book Bender. In 5 days or so, I read: Kushiel's Dart, Kushiel's Chosen, Kushiel's Avatar - all by Jacqueline Carey; The Virtu (sequel to Melusine) by Sarah Monette, and a re-read of Practical Demonkeeping by Christopher Moore just to lighten the mood.
So I have wallowed in about 2600 pages of moody, epic fantasy of the written-by-women variety, and I have some thoughts.
1) B, you were entirely right that I would like the Kushiel books. Especially the Cassiline, who is like a much kinkier version of what I liked in Aragorn as a wee thing. Phedre doesn't really quite do it for me, mostly because she doesn't ever actually seem to like what she does/is - it seemed to me it was treated more like a weird drug addiction and a curse than an intrinsic part of her, which seemed a fair way to do it for me, but not how I would have chosen. But I suppose that's fair, so *shrug* - for me, they were the kind of book you read propulsively, can't put them down till their done, I want to run out and read Kushiel's Scion, but at the same time I can't imagine wanting to sit down and re-read them in parts. It would have to be the whole book or none.
2) The Virtu is a lot more fun than Melusine, because it is no fun to do 1st person crazy guy for 300 odd pages, which was my big complaint with Melusine. The kinky, strained, angst filled tension in the Virtu was worthy of slash crossed with part of nifty.org, but in a nice, well-written way. I thought the plot was tighter too.
3) That's a lot of angst. And even though Phedre was cool, and so was Mildmay, I like it when the *girls* get to have the big swords and do the brooding and moping and thinking and watching. None of these books quite scratched that itch.
I think I need to write any number of sexually voracious assasin lady characters now with swords and knives and many skills and stony hearts and love for innocent big eyed boys who will need to be wooed delicately against the stony urges of the women's battle-scarred ways.
So I have wallowed in about 2600 pages of moody, epic fantasy of the written-by-women variety, and I have some thoughts.
1) B, you were entirely right that I would like the Kushiel books. Especially the Cassiline, who is like a much kinkier version of what I liked in Aragorn as a wee thing. Phedre doesn't really quite do it for me, mostly because she doesn't ever actually seem to like what she does/is - it seemed to me it was treated more like a weird drug addiction and a curse than an intrinsic part of her, which seemed a fair way to do it for me, but not how I would have chosen. But I suppose that's fair, so *shrug* - for me, they were the kind of book you read propulsively, can't put them down till their done, I want to run out and read Kushiel's Scion, but at the same time I can't imagine wanting to sit down and re-read them in parts. It would have to be the whole book or none.
2) The Virtu is a lot more fun than Melusine, because it is no fun to do 1st person crazy guy for 300 odd pages, which was my big complaint with Melusine. The kinky, strained, angst filled tension in the Virtu was worthy of slash crossed with part of nifty.org, but in a nice, well-written way. I thought the plot was tighter too.
3) That's a lot of angst. And even though Phedre was cool, and so was Mildmay, I like it when the *girls* get to have the big swords and do the brooding and moping and thinking and watching. None of these books quite scratched that itch.
I think I need to write any number of sexually voracious assasin lady characters now with swords and knives and many skills and stony hearts and love for innocent big eyed boys who will need to be wooed delicately against the stony urges of the women's battle-scarred ways.
