Of Swords and Parasols

Shadowmarch by Tad Williams.

Northern lands! Mysterious wall keeping evil hordes at bay! Noble family defending realm!

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nutmeg3.livejournal.com

Ooooh, cool. Must check it out.

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"Otherworld invades SFF con" sounds potentially hilarious. Urban fantasy full of bisexual chicks sounds... promising... and yet... so potentially full of fail...

Is "That trope twisting fantasy with dual narratives that everyone drools over" Melusine? XD

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Urban fantasy full of bisexual chicks(well, 2 main ones...others are HINTED) is the second Promethean Age book by Wlizabeth Bear, and the first made me all flaily.

Melusince is, indeed, the other.

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Oooh, Elizabeth Bear. I've only read a couple of short stories by her, but she gets a lot of good press.

Melusine is an incredibly fun book. I liked it a lot. Be prepared for SUPER ANGST though. XD; I still have yet to read the third in the series, I need to get around to that...

Those two authors recently wrote something fantastically gay together that I have seen described something to the effect of "You have to show up to the party prepared for the Viking gang bang." I, I feel I should find this book, ahaha. ^^;

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Yeah, I've heard of that book. It kinda terrifies me.

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Hee! I'm the opposite. I hear things like that and I go, "WHAT - that is - I mean - where can I find this delicious atrocity."

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Is this the gay-Viking-boys-bonded-with-telepathic-dire-wolves book? Or something totally different?

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As far as I know, there's just the one. Perhaps once I have been properly desensitized by the backlogs of Clamp, Kaori Yuki and You Higuri, not to mention Bear and Monette themselves, I will be brave enough to try it. Maybe.

I DID pimp the werewolf plotline in the Bear book I read to you, didn't I?

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A different EBear werewolf plotline? Ummmm...maybe? I can't remember. But I've been mainlining Inubaka and Gravitation and Kappa no Kaikata this weekend and together I think they're rotting out what's left of my brain.

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there's a werewolf clan that contributes to an interesting take on the Arthurian Legend part of the first Promethean Age book. Not sure how much it'll play into the other books, though. (Reaction to the series seems to be either "oh, not ANOTHER take on Arthurian myth..." or "a take on Arthurian myth that's actually DIFFERENT and INTERESTING!")

How's Inubaka? I've been kind of curious about that one. (I have no idea what Kappa no Kaikata is, and the bit of Gravitation I read a few years ago made me want to kill fictional characters, though I understand that those who like the book also have similar issues with the characters.)

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Inubaka is...odd. I'd been sort of picking it up and putting it back down in the shops for ages, and finally decided to give it a shot when a bunch of volumes showed up on BookMooch around the same time a friend with generally sympatico tastes was squeeing about the cuteness of the dogs and general brain-candy-appeal of it all. It's nominally seinen, all the main characters are in their late teens/early twenties, but many of them are so dim, sheltered, and/or oblivious that it would almost feel like it was aimed quite a bit younger...except for all the random fanservice; six volumes in and the only hint of sexual/romantic content have been a couple of characters with inarticulate mostly-unspoken crushes, and a brief mention of another character's one-time live-in girlfriend. There have occasionally been minor characters who seem vaguely sleazy or sexually threatening, but the plot intervenes handily before anything truly scary happens, and a couple of the young female characters wind up working part time in hostess bars...where, despite the general skeevy aura of the bosses, the general goings-on are quite genteel. If not for all the pre-chapter pinups of the main character in various skimpy outfits, and the equally fanservicey gear other characters sometimes talk her into wearing, it'd really be quite innocent; as it is, it almost reads more like it was originally thought of for a younger audience, and just had a bunch of random upskirt shots scattered in so it wouldn't seem too babyish for an older target market. (At least there's a bit of the fanservice going both ways -- there's a couple of very bishie male characters running about, one of them has an adorably hopeless crush on the sweet-but-dim heroine, and another has a very exasperated big-brotherly protectiveness towards her; the third, and bishie-est of the lot, has just shown up, so who knows what'll happen there.)

The art is nice, it's not quite the full-on realism of some of the more action-heavy seinen artists but still not terribly cartoony, and the dogs in particular tend to be very realistically drawn. The plots tend to be pretty paper-thin and fluffy, though -- if you're not dog-crazy enough that just watching the cute puppies is enough to keep you reading, it's probably best to pass this one by, or at least hold out for freebie library/BookMooch copies.

KnK is a ridiculously cute little comedy series (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kappa_no_Kaikata) about people raising pet water imps -- I haven't seen the original manga or game, but fansubs of the whole anime are up on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/Kitty4777) -- each episode is only about three minutes long, so it's easy enough to get sucked in.

Gravi is very ridiculous crack, and from halfway through the series I definitely find the minor characters vastly more appealing than the central couple -- Shuichi's an annoyingly hyperactive keet and Yuki has all the charm of Sanzo on a rainy day with neither coffee, cigarettes, or newspaper. The plot's just so stupid and insane, though (giant robot panda attack! World-famous musicians wandering around amusement parks in plush mascot costomes) that there's a sort of trainwreck quality to it all, though, I'm not really emotionally invested in it but I'm amused enough to go along with the ride just to see what nonsense will turn up next...

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southerndave.livejournal.com

Did I hear the words "werewolf plotline"?

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Yes, yes you did. It's mixed in with the fae/wizard war and the interesting take on Arthurian mythos.

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magicnoire.livejournal.com

Actually, have you read any of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern books? Because that's what A Companion to Wolves is commenting on. I mean, come on. This is Bear and Mole we're talking about -- every book they write is commentary on some sad and tired skiffy trope.

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I only read the first Pern book. XD Is it really? Well, I guess after a moments thought that makes entirely too much sense...

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artillie.livejournal.com

Which one is the 'It's like James Bond with magic. Except for the "unlikable bastard" part. And with a girlfriend who will kill him if he thinks about it' one?

I think you should just post a list of what the books are, to spare us the suspense. I want to read most of these books, now. As if I didn't already have enough to read.

I didn't even know about The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories. I must hunt it down.

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Daemons are Forever by Simon R. Green. It's the second book in the series. The first was The Man With the Golden Torc.

(I'll post a list later if I remember...)

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Oh, so it's *deliberately* riffing on Bond, not just a bit of snark for your descriptions? Innnnnteresting...

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Oh, very deliberately. It's no accident that Green gave him a girlfriend who will cheerfully murder him in very creative ways if he ever strays. (She's a former chaos witch who's only quasi-reformed...)

Actually, that's kinda Green's normal thing...setting up a clear-cut pairing from the start and sticking with it, and the woman is usually the more dominant personality. He's more "cool couple who break things and save the world and say amazingly witty things, secure in their badass-ness" than "romance and angst" though.

But there are Bond references throughout, and he chose Shaman Bond as his codename, and his family are basically the spies and controllers of England's supernatural world.

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Witty cosmic badass destructive romps sound promising. I may have to wishlist these to check them out. Eventually. When the TBR pile is, perhaps, no longer considerably taller than me...

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If you want to check him out without a series investment, Shadows Fall and Drinking Midnight Wine are both standalone modern fantasy. Neither really has the "badass" element, but they're fun.

The Hawk & Fisher books are probably the most popular among his hardcore fans. They're 6 short medieval-lite books (available in 2 omnibuses, I think) about a husband and wife team who are the only good cops in a city known for its bad elements, including a street where the gods hang out to cause trouble. There are 2 end caps-one a high fantasy with dragons and unicorns that lovingly rips into all the high fantasy tropes(the unicorn has a fowl mouth, the dragon has a butterfly collection, the prince is a virgin, the princess isn't, and can kick his butt...) and the other ties that and the Hawk & Fisher books together. There are also 2 standalone fantasies in that world that take place between the endcaps.

Deathstalker is his huge, scifi opus, and he doesn't care that anyone looking at it can tell that it's fantasy in space. I think it's also the only series of his where there's any romantic wangsting. There are also 3 short books set before the series that should be in an omnibus called Twilight of the Empire. Not needed, but good.

Nightside is almost straight noir with insane supernatural stuff in it, and it seems to be pretty well liked by some I know who don't normally like Green and/or urban fantasy. Though his "We're badass and witty! Oh, how we're badass and witty!" tends to stand out more there.

And most recently, there's his James Bond rip. The first book had a serious "WTF?" twist near the end, and I'm very fond of the part where Shaman and Mollyu are running through the mansion, and holding their enemies at bay by taking the family china hostage.

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artillie.livejournal.com

Awesome. I have Green's Deathstalker books on my to-read list--have you read them? If so, what do you think of them?

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I'm very fond of the Deathstalker books, though they really are just epic fantasy in space, and not remotely ashamed to admit it. It's probably what he's best known for, but I think his fantasy books are better.

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melengro.livejournal.com

OMG GRACE ADIEU.

What is 'that trope twisting fantasy with dual narratives that everyone drools over'?

I picked the last one just for the Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot-ness.

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What's Grace Adieu?

The dual narratives one is Melusine by Sarah Monette.

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melengro.livejournal.com

I assumed that the sequel to the Austen with magic was The Ladies of Grace Adieu, a book of short stories set in the world of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.

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Nope. That's "The Grand Tour" by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer. I have but have not yet read "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell."

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sora-blue.livejournal.com

Elizabethan fantasy with dueling mortal and fae courts.
Narcissistic sorcerer and cursed girl.

These two, because I think I know what they are.

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The one you aren't drooling over is Melussine by Sarah Monette. The other 2 are Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones and Midnight Never Come by Marie BRennan.

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sora-blue.livejournal.com

Thanks, I was trying to delete that comment as I saw you'd answered someone right above me.

Two for two. Howl's Moving Castle is really wonderful. Midnight Never Come is waiting to be read after I finish a draft.

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