Used Book Store visit

[meganbmoore]

 

Went to my preferred used bookstore before work. Naturally, I found nothing I was specifically looking for(mainly Terry Pratchett, Martha Wells, Dorothy Dunnett, Jane Lindskold and Diane Duane) except for one thing that wasn’t even for me, but did find some odds and ends, mostly fantasy. Tried looking at the scifi and was again reminded that even though I like scifi, I can’t touch most of it because it seems to think taking the average fantasy, exploration or historical plot and adding space ships and aliens and A.I.s and such suddenly makes it more intelligent and serious and "better’ fiction. Scifi and I will not be nearly as good of friends as I’d like us to be until it gets over itself. I added a few fantasy titles on principle, though I did grab one title that sounds like it could be interesting scifi noir.

I also spend a lot of time staring at the Cassie Edwards books. There were about two shelves of her books. My eyes almost went blind from all the "Savages." I was looking for Something for Somebody(which I did find, and which was cheap enough to be a non-issue and Edwards didn’t get a penny of it anyway.) It apparently involves girls raised as boys, accusations of witchcraft, and falling in love with your kidnapper. Oh, and according to the back(this part I remember a bit more clearly) the hero is on a vengeance quest against her family for introducing his brave and noble warriors to alcohol and ruining them.

I may dazzle you with the glory of the back description and interior excerpt when I get home. It currently sits in the car, hidden under good books.

But, seriously, I know a good chunk is the publisher wanting to keep her books recognizable…BUT ENOUGH WITH THE "SAVAGES" ALREADY!!!!

Honestly. It was painful seeing how hard they were trying with the names. It made J.R. Ward’s "h" obsession look brilliant and original.

I also looked at many of the other authors I read in high school and the beginning of college. I shook my head at myself. Not, mind you, that I feel any shame in reading romance novels. I have developed taste, though. I now only read bad romance to revel in the bad, cheese, and crack, as opposed to, ah, thinking the bad ones are good. Though I do also read actual good ones.

But, seriously, I think there were around 40 different "Savage" titles…I had to go over them 3 times to find the one I was looking for.

Comments

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

Was there a 'Primal Savage' title? Because I am sure they'd never leave that one untouched. I am sure Native Americans appreciate that all of their suffering has managed to create Cassie Edwards fantasies about being ravaged into submission.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

It wouldn't surprise me in the least, as many as there were. I felt brain cells dying as I looked.

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

I draw the line at Savage Thunder, which sounds more like a gastrointestinal problem than a romance novel.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

You only say that because you know she gave one that title. This one is titled Savage Honor, which is ever so apropops.

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

Honestly I thought she had a "Savage" everything by this point. "Savage Touch" (which sounds like a femine product), "Savage Wind" (another gastrointestinal problem), "Savage Wrongs" (ahahahahaaaaaa), and "Savage Torment" (which sounds like how some emo kid would describe their pain)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I think I did, indeed, see all but "Savage Wrongs."

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

I initially read "Savage Wrongs" as "Savage Wongs", which while more appropriate was NOT the title.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

If I read these things, you can except many Mighty Wang comments...because that's what the books are about.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Oh, hey, in the course of browsing through far too many of those listings on Amazon to check out Bad Heroine Names, I found at least ONE example where she wrote an Indian romance that WASN'T about hapless white women being won over by the Savage Mighty Wang! This one actually had an Indian heroine hooking up with Indian guy -- but she was an orphan raised by a white family, presumably to keep her from being too "exotic" for white readers to identify with. I wouldn't be surprised if the Mighty Wang comes into play in helping undo the effects of her assimilated upbringing, or getting her in touch with her birth culture, or something like that; fortunately, the text excerpts they had online didn't go nearly far enough into the book for me to find out. ;)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I remember that one from high school. The heroine's adoptive father gushed endlessly about how she would be far more beautiful than any white woman could be in the traditional white wedding dress because of her *insert 10 adjectives* skin and hair.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

...riiiiiiiiiight, because all of that 19th-century idealization of fair skin, the lighter the better, somehow skipped past his family. And to think that Chanel bitch got the credit for making tanning fashionable in the thirties, when this fictional trendsetter beat her to the punch by so many, many years!

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Ha, yes, when I saw the listing for "Savage Wind", my immediate reaction was "what, the hero ate too much bean bread?"

[kitsune714.livejournal.com]

I may dazzle you with the glory of the back description and interior excerpt when I get home. It currently sits in the car, hidden under good books.

Would it be weird for me to say that I totally can't wait until you share this badness with the rest of us?

*snortle*

SAVAGES.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I shared a LOT of the badness last night...err...early this morning...

[fairest1.livejournal.com]

Maybe they could just have a sticker done up -- "WARNING: THIS IS A CASSIE EDWARDS NOVEL". That'd be simpler than putting 'Savage' in every title. And thus help to keep native americans from wanting to scalp her.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

naaah...they still have plenty of other reasons...

[fairest1.livejournal.com]

Still, it's taking a bucket to drain the lake. Helps a little.

re: scifi not for you

[estara.livejournal.com]

But you're excepting Lois McMaster Bujold and C.J. Cherryh here, I take it? I hope? If not, you should ^^

Re: scifi not for you

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Nope, I haven't read them. I am excluding Simon R. Green's Deathstalker books because he's very blatant that he's writing epic fantasy in space, and mots near-future post-apocalyptic work for me(and then Stargate and Firefly for TV...what I've seen of Farscape is good, but I'm reserving judgemant)

Re: scifi not for you

[estara.livejournal.com]

Awww, well if you do try Cherryh's Foreigner Series - with alien society that feels real and the translator cum writer of alien/human dictionary who gets dragged into local alien affairs and has to cope with concepts that just have no equivalent in humans and vice versa.

However if you EVER open any of the Miles Vorkosigan books by Bujold you WILL - according to the things I've seen you review and like here - massively enjoy him in all his incarnations (as well as his mum and dad, cousin, many lovers and finally wife... oh and his emperor and spy master, too).

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

But, seriously, I think there were around 40 different "Savage" titles…

Wow, if you weren't actively counting, your guesstimate was remarkably good -- the Wiki article on her lists 44 "savage" titles (in apparently three different series, oy!). And their list may not even be complete -- my inner twelve-year-old-boy couldn't help but notice that it was missing Savage Wind, so...eeyargh. That's very near to half of her bibliography at that point. (And she's got another bunch of books with "Wild" in the title instead of "Savage", and well over a dozen OTHER Indian romances that, with the "modifier plus sexy animal" title convention, are presumably all named for the Mighty Wang Hero of each book, so that's easily more than half of her total literay output when they're all taken into account.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I was guesstimating...about 30-35 books per shelf, two sehelves(I deleted the shelf at the bottom of duplicates for what was in that case, whicvh were mostly her books), a few were by another author, and I recalled some "wild" and "generic sexy indian name" titles, but not a lot.