for the writers on the f-list

Due to this post at fanficrants (regarding CPR and kissing using it on a conscious person but we know the fic in question was probably using CPR as an excuse for kissing*) there's a new community for getting medical details for your writing: medical_betas .  Go join and contribute!

*Read the comments for why that's notreally a good-or plausible-idea.

Cybele's Secret by Juliet Marillier

Set six years after Wildwood Dancing, Cybele’s Secret focuses on Jena’s scholarly younger sister, Paula, as she journeys to Istanbul with their merchant father as he hopes to find and purchase Cybele’s Secret, an artifact connected to an ancient cult. There, they hire Paula a bodyguard, Stoyan, who worked for a friend who was searching for the artifact before he died. Paula also befriends a woman named Irene of Volos who runs a library for women of all backgrounds, and Duarte de Aguiar, a merchant and supposed pirate. As she searches for Cybele’s Secret, Paula also starts to have encounters with a woman who seems to be her sister, Tati, who followed her true love, Sorrow, into the Other Kingdom six years before.

I liked the treasure hunting aspects, and the setting (though I wish it’d been utilized more) and while I liked Paula, I have to wonder why Marillier’s heroines always have to be so good. I also wanted more of Tati’s story, though I guess that’s being saved for the next book.

Regarding the romance between Paula and Stoyan, I liked it, but it was too…easy. I’m not one for angst wallowing, but when the pairing demands “We can’t be together! Our love is forbidden! Woes!” I kind of expect it to be there. Instead, for their different societies and social statuses, I thought it was too easy for them. There was angst at the end, but I found it disconcerting how Stoyan was pretty much treated as an equal and able to set down rules and what Paula was allowed to do. He read more like a protective old family friend secretly in love with Paula than a newly acquired bodyguard from a different culture. I mean, no, no one likes a racist character or one who looks down on other cultures or “lower classes,” but you can portray the social mores without portraying the character negatively. Also, that’s what character development and growth are for. A heroine who learns to grow past attitudes and biases is more impressive to me than one who doesn’t have them in the first place.

( spoilers )

Still, enjoyable book. Fewer supernatural elements early on than other books by Marillier, and an interesting setting.

(no subject)

Not that I need more books, but can anyone offer up opinion on Sara Douglass's Wayfarer books, Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel books, Brian Sanderson's Mistborn books, or Elizabeth Hayden's Symphony of Ages books?  (Yes, I know those aren't the official titles for some...)

X/1999 Vol 13-15

Wow. Now I get the common belief that at least part of why Clamp abandoned the series was all the endless destruction of Tokyo. When most series destroy Tokyo (or whatever city) they just blow it up and move on, or it’s already been destroyed. When X/1999 does it, we get multiple, long sequences of districts being destroyed while the guys who did it share ice cream and spare a moment to mourn the fact that they just blew up the ice cream shop, so now they have to go to the other one.

("Tokyo go boom" is kind of one of the basic concepts of the series, so that's not particularly spoilery...)

( spoilers )

(no subject)

So, Kaori Yuki fans, what are the chances that there's Crehador/Sheila fic out there, or even Crehador fic at all that isn't explicit slash?

(I don't know why I want to read Crehador fic...he isn't even a favorite...though I'm not sure I have favorites outside of Cain, Riff,  and Merry Weather.  Though I do like Crehador, Oscar and Emeline.  i'm not sure if I like Mikaela and Cassian, or if I just like that they exist with their origins and storylines.)