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Post by beccaelizabeth on Jun 28, 2004 21:42:14 GMT -5
Paladin of Souls Lois McMaster Bujold interesting magic and religion and politics and twisty detective stuff all winding together interesting main characters and bonus points for use of the word effulgent
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Post by Sara on Jul 30, 2004 15:31:17 GMT -5
...and copying this post here as well. Apropos of nothing, I just wanted to share that I finished a very interesting and absorbing read today: The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-Time by Mark Haddon. The narrator is Christopher Boone, an autistic (I suspect, although it's never stated) boy who knows all the prime numbers up to 7057 (and uses them to number his chapters), hates the colors yellow and brown, and has little to no understanding of human emotions. When he decides to investigate the death of his neighbor's dog Wellington, it's not out of any empathy for his neighbor but because that's the way things are supposed to work when someone is killed: you find out who did it so they can be punished. As you can imagine, Christopher is an unusual and fascinating narrator, and his quest for the truth is quite the journey. And as I can't think of any better way to describe the book without giving too much away or sounding like the blurb on the back of a book jacket, I'll leave it at that.
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Post by MaryMuse on Oct 7, 2004 21:19:49 GMT -5
I thought I would list some of my favorite authors --
Jaqueline Carey. Her work is a rich evocative blend of sex (BDSM leanings), love, fantasy, politics, with a generous helping of plot and lush prose. Three books in the series -- all are excellent. (and incidentially what my WIP is aspiring to, though very well falling short as this is such wonderful stuff. TOR wants more of it. I'm hoping to oblige).
Anne Bishop. Her Blood series is rich in characterization and depth. her use of the occult and magical principles is astounding. Awesome work and her books of the Fae are gorgeous and heady with witchcraft done right.
Emma Holly Her erotica is very, very good. She's written two historical novels Beyond Innocence and Beyond Seduction which are very good and set in England, which is always a fave of mine. Her Black Lace title Menage is exellent and scorches the page. A nice m/f/m relationship.
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Post by MaryMuse on Oct 12, 2004 12:26:07 GMT -5
The next installment in the continuing story of Anita Blake, vampire hunter, Incubus Dreams, finds Anita dealing with the effects of having the ardor. In addition, there are more dead bodies, obviously vampire kills, and plenty of suspects to go around.
Incubus Dreams reads like a split personality. On one hand, Anita is trying to find out the murder, all the while becoming embroiled in vampire politics. However, her attempt at being a sleuth again seems halfhearted ,and in my opinion, the case is never truly resolved. And although I found the emotional situations far more interesting, I thought Ms. Hamilton added this as a nod to those who said her books lacked plot.
The crux of the book, in my feeling, is the emotional situations in which Anita finds herself. She’s trying to come to grips with her own sexuality and her own lifestyle choices, all the while, being confronted that she seems to be perfectly happy in what she never wanted. Richard even returns, though I find his continued nonacceptance of his lycanthropy to be grating on the nerves. Anita clearly has outgrown him emotionally. To me, this is what Incubus Dreams is about -- Anita’s dealing with her personal situation and handling it well. To say she has a nontraditional relationship is like saying Shaq or Kobe is “a little” tall. Still we see Anita dealing with it in the only way she can.
For fans of LKH’s work, I heartily recommend this as the continued story of Anita. For those new to Anita Blake, I’d recommend starting at the beginning, as this book starts right in the middle of a very tangled situation. For those who disliked LKH’s recent work for being too heavy on the sensual content will not enjoy this book; just a warning. But I enjoyed it and am looking forward to January when the next Merry Gentry book hits the shelves.
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Post by beccaelizabeth on Oct 15, 2004 15:04:05 GMT -5
The next installment in the continuing story of Anita Blake, vampire hunter, Incubus Dreams, finds Anita dealing with the effects of having the ardor. In addition, there are more dead bodies, obviously vampire kills, and plenty of suspects to go around. Incubus Dreams reads like a split personality. On one hand, Anita is trying to find out the murder, all the while becoming embroiled in vampire politics. However, her attempt at being a sleuth again seems halfhearted ,and in my opinion, the case is never truly resolved. And although I found the emotional situations far more interesting, I thought Ms. Hamilton added this as a nod to those who said her books lacked plot. The crux of the book, in my feeling, is the emotional situations in which Anita finds herself. She’s trying to come to grips with her own sexuality and her own lifestyle choices, all the while, being confronted that she seems to be perfectly happy in what she never wanted. Richard even returns, though I find his continued nonacceptance of his lycanthropy to be grating on the nerves. Anita clearly has outgrown him emotionally. To me, this is what Incubus Dreams is about -- Anita’s dealing with her personal situation and handling it well. To say she has a nontraditional relationship is like saying Shaq or Kobe is “a little” tall. Still we see Anita dealing with it in the only way she can. For fans of LKH’s work, I heartily recommend this as the continued story of Anita. For those new to Anita Blake, I’d recommend starting at the beginning, as this book starts right in the middle of a very tangled situation. For those who disliked LKH’s recent work for being too heavy on the sensual content will not enjoy this book; just a warning. But I enjoyed it and am looking forward to January when the next Merry Gentry book hits the shelves. The nature of the Anita Blake series has drifted since the start, and this is the book that loses me. They used to be some detective work, some politics, a little relationship stuff mixed in. Now Anita is dating at least half a dozen people, and shagging more, the relationship stuff takes up so much of the book the plot gets thrown in later. The detective part was never resolved, unless you count the bad guys sending you an explanatory letter and running away as a resolution. Anita did not actually figure it out for herself. The politics part was a too flimsy excuse for the sex, rather than being tense and interesting of itself. I mean Anita has so many lovers now they get to the end of a 658 page book and she hasnt had time to shag them all. Asher turns up only as a name mentioned on her long list of current conquests. I'm not against poly relationships. Some of the stuff about how the people she works with in various capacities all react to finding out about her relationships, the way she deals with the BDSM side, it is interesting in a social way. But the author's two main characters- Merry Gentry and Anita Blake, who both have their own series- are drifting into being more and more like each other, obviously because the author has some strong beliefs herself and wants to preach them via character. The series has always been about accepting and negotiating with power and the darker side of human nature, as expressed through all the shapeshifter and vampire stuff. Metaphor, or allegory, or whatever. Now the shapeshifter stuff is this really thin veil on the 'it's okay to play as long as its safe sane and consensual' message. I mean yeah, okay, fine, but what happened to the PLOT? Plus her idea of character development has me convinved she's a D&D player. Level based RPG system for sure. Every book, up a level. New powers, new being scared and nearly causing damage with powers. So far, mostly not exploring what the powers can do, spending all the time describing new ones. And it is a very long so far. Incubus Dreams is book 12. Also for all the BDSM themes she seems to have no respect for subs. She had an interesting submissive who Anita was topping but not having sex with, and being all conflicted about. This book, no more conflict. And why? Because he gets dominant enough to push her into having sex. WTF? There's some thoroughly confused message in there. Spend a lot of the time with characters talking about what a perfect wife he is, then change him. That makes sense. And then there are the typos, and her persistent inability to know when a . is needed and not a , (and yes I know how good I'm not at that, but I am not a published author who I'm sure used to be better at it). Also she keeps reusing phrases, which gets really annoying when it includes 'I didn't know I had' about the exact same reaction three or four times in a row. Hello, amnesia much? Basically I think her beta readers have failed her, she needed to edit the hell out of this book, Anita could be better off with maybe half a dozen less boyfriends, and if you are writing detective stories you really do need to not only have the detective solve the crime but apprehend the criminals. Of course it has been a couple of books since that was what she was writing. If you want to read some occasionally repetitive porn full of vampires, shapeshifters and strippers, the books just keep getting better.
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Post by Becky H on Nov 4, 2004 18:46:03 GMT -5
...and copying this post here as well. Apropos of nothing, I just wanted to share that I finished a very interesting and absorbing read today: The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-Time by Mark Haddon. The narrator is Christopher Boone, an autistic (I suspect, although it's never stated) boy who knows all the prime numbers up to 7057 (and uses them to number his chapters), hates the colors yellow and brown, and has little to no understanding of human emotions. When he decides to investigate the death of his neighbor's dog Wellington, it's not out of any empathy for his neighbor but because that's the way things are supposed to work when someone is killed: you find out who did it so they can be punished. As you can imagine, Christopher is an unusual and fascinating narrator, and his quest for the truth is quite the journey. And as I can't think of any better way to describe the book without giving too much away or sounding like the blurb on the back of a book jacket, I'll leave it at that. I have a student with Asperger's Syndrome (which I think is the type of autism Christopher has) who just loved this book, which speaks well to its emotional truth. If you liked this, I'd suggest you try Carolyn Parkhurst's The Dogs of Babel which is similar in tone. It's ostensibly about a death, too, but in this case the question is was it accident or suicide? The only witness is the family Rhodesian Ridgeback, Lorelei, and the widower, a linguistics professor, is determined to teach her to speak so he can discover the truth. Strange premise but very good book.
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Post by Rachael on Dec 15, 2004 10:40:53 GMT -5
Okay, so I'm gonna officially recommend Christopher Moore's The Stupidest Angel. Not as great literature, but as a nice, light, easy-to-read, fun piece without any heavy Christmas sap. (So far; I have 35 more pages for it to get sappy in.) He turns phrases like...well, almost like he's a S'cubie, actually. I read it in three days plus a bit of the fourth largely because the writing style was so familiar in some ways, and also because the story is, well, engaging. I don't wanna spoil anyone (Karen in particular), so no more excerpts. But, as I said, he's good with titles, and this chapter title bears repeating: Chapter 18: Your Puny Worm God Weapons Are Useless Against My Superior Christmas Kung Fu. I am entertained.
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Post by Rachael on Mar 4, 2005 11:09:17 GMT -5
Okay, pretty much anything by Christopher Moore. I've read: The Stupidest Angel, The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, and Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story (yes, vampires in San Francisco!), and all are funny and entertaining....
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Post by KMInfinity on Mar 5, 2005 14:03:30 GMT -5
I just finished Guy Gavirel Kay's book Last Light of the SunI've enjoyed every one of his novels, which blend history and fantasy, almost as if he's exploring an alternate universe of the first millenium whith a stronger supernatural flavor. His most recent novel explores an alternate history of the tribal kingdoms of Great Britain during the time period before it becomes Christian. Lots of politics, multiple storylines with great characters, a light touch with the fantasy. I really enjoyed the thread that followed the reluctant warrior teen Bern Thorkellson, who steals a horse and escapes his humdrum future by becoming a mercenary. He also wrote an excellent historical fantasy called Sailing to Sarantium (Byzantium), heavy on the character and history, light on the fantasy. Author link to Amazon www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/103-4495873-8222265
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Post by Rachael on Mar 7, 2005 0:03:38 GMT -5
Must reaffirm my recommendation of The Company series by Kage Baker. Picked up the first one to reread because, well, I just ran out of new books in the house. Bad, bad. I have an order in to Amazon, but...it's not here yet. And my head hurt too much to go to the library today.
Anyway, the first five pages of In the Garden of Iden served to remind me just how good Kage Baker is at setting up a story, at providing just enough background, but in an engaging way, and also, something I hadn't been quite aware of, how the threads of the entire story, all the way to the most recent novel, are already present in the first chapter of the first novel.
Good writing.
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Post by Sara on Mar 17, 2005 16:29:24 GMT -5
Thomas Perry--I'm a big fan of his series centering around Jane Whitefield, a half Native American woman who helps people in need disappear. We're not talking criminals trying to evade the police, but battered women looking to escape their wealthy, connected husbands or ordinary folks who've gotten on the wrong side of the wrong people. She tries to help those who the legal system can't do a lot for. In Vanishing Act, the first book in the series, a man named John Felker shows up looking for her assistance, telling Jane he's a retired cop who got into accounting--he'd always liked math--but finds he's been framed for embezzlement. And when they're chased by armed men as Jane drives the two of them out of town... well, she takes him a little more seriously after that. Jane is an intriguing character, and sharing her thought processes as she helps people elude capture is really fascinating. Plus I now know exactly how I'll bury a body I don't want found, should the need arise. Dennis Lehane--Anyone who saw Mystic River knows the guy is an incredible storyteller, but even if you've watched the movie you really should treat yourself to the guy's prose. Plus the direction things go with Jimmy's wife at the end makes a lot more sense. For folks who enjoy the noir genre, I'd suggest taking a look at his series featuring Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennero, starting with A Drink Before the War.Laurie King--It's not enough for the woman to have one ongoing series that mystery fans rave about from coast to coast; no, she's currently authoring TWO such sagas. Moreover, they're virtually polar opposites of each other but equally accomplished. One series features homicide detective Kate Martinelli and is set in modern-day San Francisco; by most definitions these books are police procedurals, but written with a literacy and understanding of human nature that set the stories miles above most of their sort. One book centers on a man who has dedicated his life to playing The Fool in the classic/Shakespearean definition of the term, another is about some victimized women who may or may not be a little too enamored of the goddess Kali. The series starts with A Grave Talent, Kate's first case as a newly-promoted detective as she tries to figure out who may have murdered a resident of a tight-knit, secluded community just outside San Francisco. As for her other series... well, King tells us in her introductory notes to the first tale, The Beekeeper's Apprentice, that she is not the author of these tales--merely the editor of a series of manuscripts she mysteriously received a few years back. The stories are all narrated by one Mary Russell who, at the age of fifteen, is tramping through the fields of England as she reads a book when she almost trips over a man sitting on a hillside. Angry, she asks what he's doing and is told he's watching bees. Mary takes a moment to observe the bees herself, notes some of them have spots of paint on their backs, and then tells the gentlemen if he's looking to rebuild his hive he'd want to go with the blues--the reds most likely belong to a local farmer. Astounded, he asks how she knew what he was doing, and she explains the process behind her deduction; it's over the course of the ensuing conversation that Mary realizes she's talking to Sherlock Holmes, recently retired but still helping out Scotland Yard when the need arises. Impressed with her intelligence, he offers to tutor her in the art of deduction, beginning a partnership that's now into its sixth book. Usually I don't go for "further adventures of Sherlock Holmes" books at all, but these are absolutely a wonderful read. Carol O'Connell--Razor-sharp prose and an equally keen intelligence combine to produce characters and stories that are almost as impossible to forget as they are to put down. Her ongoing series centers on Kathy Mallory, a NYC detective who is considered by almost all who know and care about her to be a borderline sociopath. And that's part of what makes her such a fascinating character--you truly never know what she'll do or how she'll react to anything. Plus I think that, as readers, we all tend to make certain initial assumptions about what a female protagonist will be like and have a tendency to begin by empathizing with them--Mallory defies both the categorization and the empathy. The first book in the series is Mallory's Oracle (although the first book I read was number two: The Man Who Cast Two Shadows). You might also want to try her one stand-alone novel, Judas Child. When the novel starts it's three days before Christmas and two little girls have gone missing; the last time such a thing happened in this particular town, fifteen years earlier, only one girl was taken--and was found dead on Christmas Day. Only thing is, the man who was tried and convicted for that crime is still in jail. Better still, the twin brother of that girl is now a police officer who, as you'd expect, gets drawn into the current investigation. It's a terrific, intense and affecting book, and has hands-down one of the most powerful endings I've ever read.
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Post by Karen on Mar 30, 2005 11:50:49 GMT -5
Finding Serenity - Amazon.comFinding Serenity by Glenn Yeffeth (Editor), Jane Espenson (Editor) Usually ships in 24 hours Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. See details. About the Author Jane Espenson is a veteran Mutant Enemy script writer who was responsible for the Firefly episode "Shindig." She has also written for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Deep Space Nine, Ellen, Gilmore Girls, and Star Trek. She lives in Los Angeles. Glenn Yeffeth is the editor of Seven Seasons of Buffy and Taking the Red Pill. He lives in Dallas, Texas. Product Description: In this eclectic anthology of essays, former cast member Jewel Staite, "Kaylee," philosopher Lyle Zynda, sex therapist Joy Davidson, and noted science fiction and fantasy authors Mercedes Lackey, David Gerrold, and Lawrence Watt-Evans contribute to a clever and insightful analysis of the short-lived cult hit Firefly. From What went wrong with the pilot? to What's right about Reavers? and how the correspondence between the show's creator Joss Whedon and the network executives might have actually played out, the writers interrogate the show's complexity and speculate about what might have been if the show Firefly had not been cancelled. I haven't read this yet, but it sounds pretty good. (Not sure if this is the right thread for this.)
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Post by Rachael on Jun 7, 2005 20:58:59 GMT -5
Oh, hey - before I forget (again), I want to recommend Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, by Christopher Moore.
Since Christmas this past year, I've become a big Chris Moore fan - and most of his stuff is very satirical, and also good fun fantasy reading (and H.P. Lovecraft is alive and well and running a diner in Pine Cove, California, thank you very much). But this one is different.
Much less with the satire, for one thing. It's the story of Jesus' life that's missing from the Biblical Gospels - meaning, everything between infanthood and 30. He clearly made it up, but he also clearly loved the subject and did a lot of research about it.
Anyway...there's some satire, of stuff that deserves it, and there's way more humor than you'd expect. Most of it is the story of Jesus trying to figure out HOW to be the Messiah, and heading out to find the Wise Men and learn it from them.
I finished it today; you always know how the story is gonna end, but - Chris Moore found a way to actually inject suspense into the crucifixion...I don't wanna say how, to spoil it for anyone. But you actually don't know what's gonna happen, which is impressive, I thought.
Oh, and - Mary Magdalene is NOT a whore in this novel (as Moore points out in his afterword, the Bible never actually said she was one), and the identities of the three wise men makes me smile.
Finally, from the afterword: "This story was never meant to challenge anyone's faith; however, if one's faith can be shaken by stories in a humorous novel, one may have a bit more praying to do."
It's good.
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Post by John G on Jun 15, 2005 9:29:20 GMT -5
It's been a longgggggggg time since I've been to the board. Of course, recent events brought me back to the board, but life limits my time to post. Anyway, saw this thread and thought I'd recommend a new favorite (which I'm sure some of you have already read): Guns, Germs & Steel by Jarred Diamond. I know, sounds like a dry history book, but it's not. Amazing amount of facts interesting theories about the development of humanity. Don't have the time to write a full review, but the book was amazing, and everyone I've recommended it to also loved it, so it's not just me. Enjoy to those who pick it up!
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Alexandra
S'cubie
Founder
"You never had it so good as me. Never."
Posts: 108
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Post by Alexandra on Jun 24, 2005 13:22:18 GMT -5
One of the best historical romances I've read in a great while is "Mr. Impossible" by Loretta Chase. Publisher: Berkley, February 2005 in paperback.
Daphne Pembroke has arrived in Cairo, Egypt, to solve the mystery of the hieroglyphics. As a female, her expertise is disregarded, so her brother, Miles, pretends to be the scholar of the family. Suddenly, Miles is abducted for his “knowledge of hieroglyphics” by villains looking for treasure. If they find out he is no expert, his life will be in danger. Meanwhile, Rupert Carsington, the fourth son of the Earl of Hargate, no sooner arrives in Cairo than he is thrown in prison for annoying the local pasha. Daphne rescues Rupert from prison in exchange for his help in finding her brother. The two track Miles’ kidnappers up the Nile while fighting off snakes and other perils. They start out irritating and verbally sparring with each other, but ultimately discover they are a match. These characters rise right off the page with their witty dialogue and sparkling personalities. If you haven’t read Loretta Chase before, start with this book and become addicted to her spectacular stories. She is a superstar writer of historical romance novels. Setting: Egypt 1821.
Alexandra
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