My opinion?
Eh.
Reeks of NFTTB to me (Not Faithful to the Book). Tell me all you want about books not translating well to the screen and the need for changes blah blah blah, I don't really care. I don't support this whole "Americans won't see this movie... what it really needs is a completely superfluous yawner of a fight scene! That's IT!" strategy of moviemaking. Strangely, I found I enjoyed the first Narnia movie less than the old junky BBC version from the 80's.
Robert Jordan, mega-bestselling author of the Wheel of Time series, has passed away at age 58.
Wow. I feel guilty about all those jokes I made about how the Wheel of Time never ends. Jordan began the series in 1990, and was working on what was supposed to be the twelfth and final volume when he died yesterday. I was aware that he'd been diagnosed with a blood disease, but I always liked to think he'd manage to finish it.
I know that, according to his blog (the server is, understandably, experiencing difficulties due to traffic, so it might take a couple of tries), he had made audio tapes and outlines. Last weekend he told his family members the ending. So it seems as if the book will be written after all... by someone. But he will never get the chance to finish his life's work.
I am actually quite upset about this. Sure, I'd criticized the books in recent years, but so have lots of people. But that doesn't change the fact that his books were my introduction to fantasy. I can't really think of my high school reading years without remembering the Wheel of Time. My dad and I would compete to be the first one to buy the new book when it came out. I think we've been reading since about 1994. That's thirteen years.
I can't help thinking that the worst part about it is him not getting to finish what had become the definitive work of his career (and arguably the definitive high fantasy work of the 1990's). Frankly, it terrifies me on a personal level, more than I expected. I'm always putting off writing, pushing it back. This isn't the time to go for the novel, I'm too busy working to write, I've still got plenty of time. Time, time, time.
But it's all bullshit, isn't it? I know many of Robert Jordan's millions of readers will spend this evening flipping through one of his books, in memoriam. It's a worthy thing to do. But not for me.
I will be writing.
Memento mori...
Quoth the internet rumor mill:
"Say good-bye to the Six in Baltar's head," a source told SyFy Portal's Michael Hinman. "As much as we like Baltar having this controlling figure literally in his head, we couldn't keep it up forever."
...Who are these personas? The source won't say, but there has been a lot of speculation that they are all tied into the Leoben (Callum Keith Rennie) that Kara Thrace (Katee Sackhoff) saw in her "death" episode, "Maelstrom."
Of course, none of this has been confirmed by SciFi Channel or anyone else -- and is subject to change before the actual episodes air, so treat it as you would any rumor.
It's all right. You can admit it. I go through spurts of internet T-shirt collection. This appears to be one of them. There are SO MANY geeky yet cute T-shirts.
I love the internet. Sometimes I wish I could actually, like, crawl into the tubes and LIVE IN the internet instead of in real life. (But not really. The view's not great and you'd never get fresh air. And you'd get fat from having no exercise. But the shopping would be great.)
This shirt is especially fun because you don't even have to know what it's about-- it just looks like one of those retro tees. FYI, though, in the movie Serenity, the big bad government plays this wacky Japanese-inspired commercial for Fruity Oaty Bars, which has a subliminal message hidden inside that causes one character to go berserk and knock out an entire bar full of people. So, ya know, if looking at my boobs causes a sudden desire to kill people, now you know why.
I am trying to make a vocab practice sheet, but I can't get past my inner giggling at the fact that one of the words this week is "eddies." Every time I see it, like during class when I am supposed to be doing something entirely different, the beginning chapter of Life, the Universe and Everything runs over and over in my head. You know,
"Eddies," said Ford, "in the space-time continuum."
"Ah," nodded Arthur, "is he. Is he." He pushed his hands into the pockets of his dressing gown and looked knowledgeably into the distance.
"What?" said Ford.
"Er, who," said Arthur, "is Eddy, then, exactly, then?"
"There seem... to be some pools... of instability... in the fabric of space-time."
"Ah, that."
"Yes, that."
"And it's done what?"
"It," said Ford, "has developed pools of instability."
"Has it."
"It has."
Eddies... in the space-time continuum. Is he, now. And I can't explain it because the kids won't get the joke. So I am going to quietly snort over it here.
http://www.infinitematrix.net/faq/essays/noles.html
But I remember Dad saying, how come you never see anybody like that in the stories you like? And I remember answering, maybe they didn't have black people back then. He said there's always been black people. I said but black people can't be wizards and space people and they can't fight evil, so they can't be in the story. When he didn't say anything back I turned around. He was in full recline mode in his chair and he was very still, looking at me. He didn't say anything else.A thought-provoking and, at times, sad read. Someone posted the link at Iris Network, and I was very struck by it.
I generally try to arrive at movies slightly late (not difficult for me, as I tend to arrive everywhere slightly late), so as to miss the previews. But we had to get to the 7:00 showing of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix quite early, to wrestle the parents and kiddies for our seats. (I will say I was quite impressed with the group of kids sitting behind us. Thought it was going to be a nightmare, but I hardly heard a peep out of them once the movie started. Flashbacks to my camp counselor days when I was forced to chaperone my kids into some of the. worst. movies. ever.) So I had to watch the previews, and there turned out to be some interesting stuff there.
The Golden Compass was looking good (see trailer), with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. Everyone British (or British sounding)-- check. Special effects not showing signs of crappiness-- check. I am worried, though, that they'll tone down the parts about "the Church." For me, the fact that the Church ends up having it all wrong is the most interesting part of the books. It's not so much an issue in the first book, but if they make movies of the second and third books (in particular the third), I can see it as being something they will water down to appease the Christian right. And I wouldn't be happy with that. Then again, Philip Pullman has apparently said he's happy with the movie. I want to see it, but I am feeling wary about its potential sequels.
I don't know why Christians get so uptight about stuff like this. It's a parallel fantasy universe, it's not even your Church. It's about people-- in particular, children-- thinking for themselves. It's just this "omigod something called a church is portrayed as bad quick ban the books!!!" attitude that scares me about our country. But there it is.
Also saw the trailer for Becoming Jane, which, as an English major, I will probably have to see too. But that does not mean I have to approve of it. Jane Austen would never sneak off and do improper things in the woods. She just wouldn't.
Or a post about Mara Jade! By yours truly! Imagine that!
You expect Mara to have a romance with Karrde, her boss, but she doesn't. You expect her to have a romance with Luke, and she doesn't. She's not there for anyone else, but is instead portrayed as a character in her own right, with an emotional arc that has nothing to do with a man. It certainly defied my expectations when I was twelve.Read the rest here...
We thought this was one of the best Harry Potter movies yet. Even I was able to separate myself from the usual voice in my head that says, "They strayed from the book! They strayed from the book!" throughout the whole movie. I liked the dark coloring, the pacing, the adult feel of the movie. Yes, there were things that could have done with more exposition, and there were parts from the book I would have liked to see in the movie... but, as Kingsley Shacklebolt said, you can't deny it had style.
After the scene at the Ministry, I felt rather threatened. I think that scene (gasp! I can hardly type it!) came off better than in the book. When the Order burst onto the scene, it really hit home for me that Harry and his friends had done well in the fight, but these were the big boys. It was impressive, and I think it was necessary. There really hasn't been a scene yet in the franchise showing what full-blown wizards can do. It was a great scene.
In the latest of our household Trek vs. Galactica debates, I questioned why there are no hot guys on Star Trek. Each Trek has at least one hot female character, but the male characters? Not so much. The B-Star G has Apollo, Helo, and Anders. The three of them are solidly in the realm of superhotness. And then? The "lesser" characters like Baltar, the Chief, and Gaeta aren't terribly hard on the eyes either. Clearly humanity is going to make it, having managed to save all the hot people when the Cylons nuked civilization. (Which raises one of my major beefs with the Cylons, actually: How come all the female Cylon models are smoking, while the males are all "ehhh"? Six: hot. Boomer: hot. Three: hot. Cavil: old. Doral: balding. Simon: could be hot if we saw him longer than 3 seconds. Leoben: the Leobens are the best-looking male Cylon model, but they've got that hot-in-a-creepy-way thing going on.)
Perhaps if Star Trek introduced Hot Off-Duty Tank Tops like BSG, we'd know whether anyone had a good body under their yicky 80's spandex. Alas, spandex seems to be the clothing for all occasions. The Trek may be uber-popular scifi, but it doesn't have a history of doing much for its female viewers.
I rank the various Star Treks in terms of guy hotness:
*** no ranking *** Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Now, this is the Trek it's been the longest since I've seen. Therefore I'm not going to pass judgment at this time. I will say, though, that I've gone through the main characters to refresh my memory, and no one jumps out at me as hot. Bashir is cute, but not my type. Eventually I will Netflix these and determine at that time if anyone surprises, and jumps out at me as hot.
4. Star Trek: The Next Generation. I think the following conversation sums this one up:
Mike: But didn't you think Picard was totally attractive?
Me: Eeeeeew!
Mike: I mean, because of the power, and the voice. You didn't find him attractive?
Me: Eeeeew he's old! But I think I did have a mini-crush on Riker when I was a kid, and a girl-crush on Counselor Troi.
Mike: Ew, Riker?
So, yeah, not a lot of hotties on TNG. Everyone's stubbornly average. And Riker doesn't do it for me anymore. Sorry, TNG. I like you, but you're Not Hot.
3. Star Trek: Enterprise. We've watched through Season 2 of Enterprise on Netflix, and this was what prompted the whole discussion. They don't wear spandex on Enterprise, which can only be counted as a good thing. The guys have T'Pol, who is always having to be wiped down in the weird decontamination gel room. Plus Hoshi is also cute. But for the girls? Archer: average. Malcolm: average. Travis: I thought he was cute when he got his own episode, but he always has that "gee whiz!" expression on his face, which is Not Hot. Trip: He seems to get laid the most, and from his decon gel scenes has a pretty good body (which is under a jumpsuit all the time!), but I'd rank him "cute but not hot." Plus his southern hick accent is off-putting to me.
2. Star Trek: The Original Series. This series features Captain Kirk as the ultimate space pimp. The Shatner at that age is pretty good-looking. But no one else is cute. So I guess this Trek is getting its rating purely for the Space Pimp Factor.
1. Star Trek: Voyager. Clearly the winner. I watch Voyager on SpikeTV every afternoon, and therefore consider myself qualified to declare it the Hottest Trek. Tom Paris is a total cutie. Chakotay? Hot. In an older man with bad-ass facial tattoo kind of way. I don't know, am I alone out there with this one? Whatever. Chakotay is hot. Ensign Kim is not entirely uncute, either. Congratulations, Star Trek: Voyager, and thank you!
Although I suck at winning stuff in the real world, I'm quite good at it in the blog world! I'm getting a free copy of Tobias Buckell's Ragamuffin, through his blog.
I love that he's writing SF with a much-needed dose of diversity. Ragamuffin actually has a female protagonist of color. I'm not sure I've even seen one of those in space opera. And personally, any books that have things like zeppelins, parrots, and a guy with a hook on the front covers are all right with me (Crystal Rain, the first book in the series, on right). Not that authors usually have much say in their cover art, but I really like those parrots.
Well, not really, because there aren't a lot of haters in this discussion, just a couple of people who are offended by the thought that they might be (however unconsciously) perpetuating gender stereotypes. I have made posts further down in the threads, which people might have missed, in clarification of the views expressed in my original post. A roundup here:
Re: me being a fangirl whining about how people don't like my favorite character,
I'll admit that Brienne is not the most charismatic character. I totally respect people's rights not to like her. But it is just frustrating that on the whole, when you look at which characters seem to draw the most vitriolic responses from the fan community, those characters are female. Dany, Catelyn, and Sansa also get their fair share of the hate. (And for that matter, Cersei, who gets the most hate, with perhaps the greatest reason, but also with the most pathos… if she'd been born a man, what a different situation her life would be.) What is up, for instance, with people who can't seem to get their heads around Danaerys simply being queen of Westeros, without having to "share" with Jon (the most popular theory) or Tyrion or another male character? Now, I'm not necessarily saying she'll be queen in Westeros, as I think the situation is more complicated than that, and GRRM is not as black and white as that, and Dany's own motives for going there are questionable and it's clear she hasn't put a lot of thought into them. It's just an example.
I believe GRRM has a good variety of interesting female characters, yet they seem to polarize the fan community the most. Why can't we read more into this? What's wrong with having a discussion about how maybe– just maybe– it's because it's not customary for female characters in fantasy to play so many different roles? Look at The Wheel of Time, where the female characters are largely the same personality with different names and hair. The women in ASOIAF are differentiable, and for whatever reason that polarizes people in a way that just does not seem to happen to the same level with the male characters.
Your comments about Brienne? I could definitely have a conversation about them, because they have to do with the text. And you have a good argument. What I resist is the idea that, in order to talk about the character in many threads, you usually have to sift through umpteen snarky comments about how she's big and ugly. I think there is something about her ugliness combined with her heroism (or would-be heroism, whichever you prefer) that makes many readers distinctly uncomfortable.
I'm much more interested in that than in "fangirling" her.
And, to everyone more generally, my Brienne post was planned to be the first in a series. Because, as I mentioned above, I don't think it's just Brienne. I think it's Catelyn, Sansa, Dany, etc. Oh, I'm not done! There's a trend of female characters being either put on a pedestal or demonized. I think this is a larger issue in society in general than a few idiots at one board, and I think it's indicative of gender stereotypes that are deeply ingrained in us. Woman characters across many different types of media are typically responded to by being placed on a romantic pedestal or seen as evil. In hindsight, I think this article might have been poorly written, because I've really brought up two issues at once. People are focusing on the part about the forum, which I think is somewhat distracting from the other point I made about Brienne. Admittedly, this is my fault for putting the two issues into one post. When I wrote it, I wasn't sure how much intro the topic of Brienne needed.
When I talk about gender stereotypes being deeply ingrained, I'm going to give a personal example. When my posts come under scrutiny, there is a part of me that squirms uncomfortably and wants to placate people. Why is that? I certainly stand by my opinion. I believe it's because as women we're raised with more of an emphasis on pleasing people, on compromise, on being communicators and peacemakers. We're trained that we're supposed to interact more passively with the world around us. Why is it that, even though I think I'm right, a small part of me feels badly about being offended by stuff I saw in a forum? Like, "Oh, sorry guys, I'm going to shuffle off now, it must be my fault that I'm offended, never mind…"
I am a feminist, with majors in Philosophy and English and a minor in Gender Studies. And I'm putting out there that I fight against feeling this way even though I realize I, as a woman, am conditioned by society to feel this way. If I struggle against feeling like the mean girl who ruined people's fun, imagine all the women who aren't aware of what's going on and how it feels to them. "Oh, I guess every other woman ignores rape jokes by idiot 13-year-olds because it comes with liking fantasy novels. There must be something wrong with me because I'm offended. It's my fault for reading 'boy' books."
OK, so some of us might not want heavier forum moderation. But me? I don't want any woman reader to feel the way I just described. As I said, larger issues at play here than one forum.
My THL post from a couple weeks ago about the Brienne haters was My Elves Are Different-ized. This comes from being linked over at Patrick's Fantasy Hotlist... I'm pleased to see this hasn't kicked off a bunch of flaming. Though I honestly don't think he gets a lot of rampant fanboy-types over at his blog, which is nice. [Edited to add: It appears I spoke too soon. If Blogger had an eye-roll smiley, you can feel free to picture it here.] Seriously, I hope people realize my intention was not to dis everyone who hangs out on that particular board, but rather to use it as an example of a bias against female characters that I wanted to talk about more.
I'm not sure I want to put my thoughts about forum moderation/free speech into words right now. It's something that's evolving for me. I do know that it is very easy for people to say "ignore the idiots." But sometimes it's like... imagine if you were being battered by little bits of paper that someone was throwing at you. They don't actually hurt, and they are certainly ignorable, but you can't help thinking that if you went and sat over there, you wouldn't have to deal with it at all. Because the guy next to you never gets bits of paper tossed at him. And that's not really fair, is it?
Anyway. It's sort of a crappy metaphor.
Hello, SF/F Blogosphere!
Bet you thought it was going to be more radical feminist rhetoric over here and less... cats. :-P
And we come to the end of our DVD set of The X-Files: Season 3. I was quite surprised to have reached the end. I guess we've been working through them over the last couple months. In this episode, we learn that the Cigarette Smoking Man has a connection to Mulder's mother. We also meet another alien shapeshifter who apparently opposes the alien shapeshifter we saw in Season 2. There's a rather threatening appearance by Mr X, and we learn the cryptic piece of information that "the date is set." Obviously longtime X-Files fans will recognize this as meaning the date of the colonization of Earth by aliens, with whom the Cigarette Smoking Man and his Syndicate are collaborating, but it was a surprise to me that this is revealed as early as Season 3. I didn't remember that.
We do remember lots of things, though. The X-Files, which began airing when I was 12 although I didn't start watching until halfway through Season 1, was the first TV show I really, really loved. I must have seen these episodes enough on repeats (though some of them I distinctly remember watching in high school, and they must have left a strong impression) to know what's going to happen. Which leads to couch conversations like:
Mike: It's Mr X hiding in the bushes, isn't it?
Me: It's in the lamp! He's after the thingy that's hidden in the lamp.
But I had forgotten the cliffhanger. To leave us with the alien shapeshifting assassin striding toward them was sort of cheap. And though I can remember seemingly random plot points from ten years ago ("This is the part where Scully goes to the ice chest and hallucinates seeing Mulder in the car with the Smoking Man"), I can't for the life of me remember how it ends in Season 4. I guess that'll have to be our next DVD set we purchase, unless it gets beat out by Battlestar Galactica Season 1.
The title, Talitha Cumi, is Aramaic for "Maiden, I say unto you, arise." It's what Jesus said when he resurrected the daughter of the head of the synagogue. So, obviously a reference to the shapeshifter healing the people in the shooting. But there were no maidens there. A reference to the future healing of Mulder's mother, who has a stroke in the episode? It may just be meant as a general reference to resurrection, though.
Another clever bit was in the beginning when Mulder says, "He vanished," and Scully replies, "Without a trace." Then the scene changes and we segue to Mulder's mother and the Cigarette Smoking man at the family cabin in Rhode Island. This is a reference that probably only dedicated fans will pick up on, but clever writing nonetheless. It's a reference to Anasazi, the final episode of Season 2, when the soldiers report back to the Cigarette Smoking Man in his helicopter that they've searched the train car and Mulder has vanished without a trace. Cigarette Smoking Man gets angry and yells, "Nothing vanishes without a trace. Burn it!" Absolutely intentional that they quoted CSM's line, and imagine that, here he is. I'd never picked up on that before.
My top three episodes in Season 3? (And none of them are conspiracy episodes!)
1. Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose
2. War of the Coprophages
3. Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'
My parents inform me that I am not allowed to blog about video games anymore this week, because this space is supposed to be for important things, such as what's going on in my real life, my boyfriend, and my cats.
Well. I personally thought no one wanted to hear about my cats either (when the most popular label on your blog is your cat's name, it's safe to bet that you blog about your cats too much-- no, seriously, look over on the right. "Jolee" is the #1 tag). But all right, then!
Honestly, there's not much going on with me right now, besides flipping out over money. Which I don't really feel the need to burden other people with. We've gone out for dinner a couple of times (Basil Leaf Thai, Superior Grill). I did go on a huge gaming binge last week. I might be over it. But I hadn't played any Oblivion for several weeks, so it was long overdue. We've watched a couple discs of Star Trek: Enterprise Season 2 from Netflix. Enterprise is the outcast Trek stepchild that's sort of hated on by Trekkies, but I have to say I enjoy it. I even love the non-Trek-ish credits that everyone hates. I think the song goes well with the show and its themes. Captain Archer and his crew are like the dorky freshmen of space travel, but there's something refreshing about how earnest they are... it's a different vibe than we get from the other Treks. They're so excited about meeting people, and they're like, "Open a channel! Hi! We're from Earth!"
And the aliens go, "Earth. Never heard of it." And then charge their weapons.
Come to think of it, I get an inordinate amount of pleasure from watching this scene unfold repeatedly. I am a bad person. :-P
I posted on Hathor Legacy today about the rampant Brienne hatred among George R.R. Martin's fans.
There is a disconnect between the way male characters described by Martin as ugly (and there are lots) are regarded by fans, and how Brienne is regarded. To illustrate how ridiculous the bias is, consider the example of the POV character Tyrion.
Tyrion is a vastly popular character. He is also a dwarf, with a giant mass of scar tissue where his nose used to be. In a recent book, he was placed in an arranged marriage to a 13-year-old girl who wouldn't consummate the marriage because she was terrified of how ugly he was. I have actually seen many posters say, "OMG I hate Sansa! What a ___. How could she do that to Tyrion he's all kinds of awesome, I hope she gets raped by a ____." And then they'll be like, "I think Martin should hook Tyrion up with (insert beautiful female character) or (insert beautiful female character)." Yet if someone mentions Brienne hooking up with someone, anyone, there's an outcry of fan eeeeew that derails entire threads.
Yeah. Because every beautiful woman wants to have sex with a noseless dwarf just because it's your favorite character. But an unattractive woman doesn't deserve love.
... of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. Unfortunately it's turning out rather ass-backwards, since I started with A Feast For Crows and then jumped into the middle of A Clash of Kings to look something up and got sidetracked with that. At this rate, who knows when I'll get to Book 1?
I spent some time browsing various forums to see what thoughts people were having (and to see if there's any new word of when A Dance With Dragons will be out-- there's not-- rats!) I find it interesting that the POVs I like best don't seem to be the popular ones.
For instance the most popular POVs are Jon and Tyrion. While Jon has grown on me, I didn't like how dark Tyrion became in the last book. But I have to say Jaime has become my favorite POV, which came as a surprise in the third book (he took the "Kingslayer," this evil character, and made me like him) and is an example of how good writing trumps all. I could have done without getting inside Cersei's crazy head, though. I loved Dany in the first book, but she has gotten rather arrogant of late. I really enjoyed the Brienne chapters in the latest book. I am a fan of both Arya and Sansa (so naive, but I can't help thinking she's going to go somewhere, and I hope it's somewhere great), whereas most readers appear to only like one of the Stark girls. And lest you say, "Oh you just like the female POVs," I wasn't fond of Catelyn's chapters. People like Davos, but he bores me. Mainly because Stannis bores me, and I don't really care what happens in his storyline.
Apparently Theon's coming back from the dead for the next book. I was a fan of Theon. He was such a little shit, but redeemable. He just made bad choices. I like his sister Asha as well. The rest of the Greyjoys I could care less about. I wish GRRM had just picked one of them to use as a POV, because I thought getting Aeron, Victarion, and Asha in AFFC just needlessly complicated things. It worries me when he gets into these one-off POVs. I'd much rather stick with the same character repeatedly, with the exception of the prologue (the prologues in A Song of Ice and Fire are always told from the perspective of a "red shirt" type character... you know, the nameless guy who's the first one to bite it in a Star Trek episode). I feel the same way about Dorne-- we didn't need Hotah, Arianne, and Arys. This was a departure from previous books, and AFFC did feel a lot more diluted because of it.
Anyway. These are my thoughts. I heart Jaime. Who is not in the next book.
I hate George R.R. Martin.
I love John Scalzi's uber-popular blog Whatever for many reasons-- it's a frequently updated chronicle of the life of a full-time writer, he has interesting posts on writing and SF, and he's politically liberal. But I gotta admit, I really love it when we get funny cat pictures... and there have been several this week. I suspect I wouldn't love it nearly as much if his cat Ghlaghghee (it's an alternate spelling of "Fluffy") didn't look exactly like Jolee.
"Kara Thrace and her Special Destiny. Sounds like a bad cover band." Clearly the best Starbuck line of Season 3. I said, "I totally want to make a band called Kara Thrace and her Special Destiny. In fact, I bet someone did." And then I realized that I'd actually seen the T-shirt floating around on the internet. At the time I didn't get what the joke referred to. So. Kara Thrace and her Special Destiny T-shirts. Get yours today.
Miss Snark, purveyor of fine publishing industry advice, announced her retirement this weekend. Miss Snark was one of the first blogs I really got into. She's going to keep the archives up so all that great snark will be available to future literary nitwits.
TFN posted spoilers for Karen Traviss' upcoming Star Wars novel Sacrifice. (Warning: this link contains details about plot points and character deaths.) I haven't kept up with the Star Wars novelizations since about halfway through the New Jedi Order series. I do occasionally pick up the odd Timothy Zahn book-- he's sort of the godfather of the Star Wars Expanded Universe-- but I haven't been reading this new series. However. For reasons that will become obvious if you follow the link (and know enough about the EU to identify the chick in my banner), I am pretty put out over this particular development. Screw you, Star Wars EU. We are not speaking.
I posted today on The Privilege of the Sword at The Hathor Legacy Book Blog. It was probably in my Top 3 books for last year, if not #1. (What were my Top 10 books of last year? That would be a great post...)
Ellen Kushner's The Privilege of the Sword is unique for its explorations of gender and sexuality in a fantasy setting. Its nominations (Nebula Award nominee, Locus Award Finalist, Tiptree Honor Book) certainly go a long way to recommend it. If you're not into fantasy, this book might still be a good read. It's definitely a genre-crosser, set in a pseudo-historical fantasy setting where there is no magic at all. It's part Jane Austen comedy of manners and part swashbuckler. It's very smart, and the prose is lovely. And it's got one of the best female protagonists to grace the pages of a fantasy novel this decade.
I've been cruising the SFBC and Amazon to see if there are any books I want to order. I don't know, I get itchy when I haven't bought a book in a long time. And it has been months since I bought a book. I came to the sad but undeniable conclusion that, whatever I order, it will not be:
a) Red Seas Under Red Skies, by Scott Lynch (July 31)
b) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling (July 21)
c) A Dance With Dragons, by George R.R. Martin (whenever GRRM finishes it).
And therefore, it will not be enough. Although, Tad Williams' Shadowplay and John Scalzi's The Ghost Brigades are options I will have to consider. But only upon re-read of the first volumes.
