Recent reading
May. 1st, 2021 07:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzulaA Fire of Driftwood by D K Broster (1932)
A collection of short stories. Asregshoe said in her review, it's actually two different collections, one of historical stories set in the 18th or early 19th centuries, often featuring the same themes and settings as her novels, and the others are supernatural/ghost stories. But I thought several of these felt closely related to the other stories, since they often feature historical or religious themes. Overall, I enjoyed these and am happy to see new aspects of her as a writer. There was no trace of slashiness, though, so I wonder if that aspect of her writing just sprang fully formed in The Wounded Name.
Society Favourite by L A Hall (2018, #7 in the Comfortable Courtesan series)
I had read this out of order by mistake last year, and now that I've read the intervening books, re-read it. Unsurprisingly, it was much better read in order!
Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell (2020)
For my fannish book club, my choice. I read the precursor The Course of Honour on AO3 three years ago, greatly enjoyed it, and was curious to see what had changed now that it had been published. I turned out not to be that interested in the new plot about galactic politics and alien remnants and wished it had leaned harder into the tropey arranged marriage in space, which is really the heart of the book. Also, I think it needed some explicit sex scenes! Fanfic-style stories do a lot of character and relationship development via sex scenes, and I would have appreciated seeing that for this couple. I'd like to reread The Course of Honour at some point, because I certainly enjoyed that more. Since three years have passed, I can't tell if that is because I read it while I had the flu, or because it was the one I read first, or if it really does work better for me.
(Also, the winter survival scenes, arrgh. If you have fallen into icy cold water in winter, you do not keep hiking for a while! You get your tent set up immediately! And when you have done that, you do not lie down on your sleeping bag in your wet clothes. You take them off beforehand, so that you don't get your sleeping bag wet, because that could be fatal. These are not even plot-necessary things--due South huddling-for-warmth fanfic does it better.)
A collection of short stories. As
regshoe said in her review, it's actually two different collections, one of historical stories set in the 18th or early 19th centuries, often featuring the same themes and settings as her novels, and the others are supernatural/ghost stories. But I thought several of these felt closely related to the other stories, since they often feature historical or religious themes. Overall, I enjoyed these and am happy to see new aspects of her as a writer. There was no trace of slashiness, though, so I wonder if that aspect of her writing just sprang fully formed in The Wounded Name. Society Favourite by L A Hall (2018, #7 in the Comfortable Courtesan series)
I had read this out of order by mistake last year, and now that I've read the intervening books, re-read it. Unsurprisingly, it was much better read in order!
Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell (2020)
For my fannish book club, my choice. I read the precursor The Course of Honour on AO3 three years ago, greatly enjoyed it, and was curious to see what had changed now that it had been published. I turned out not to be that interested in the new plot about galactic politics and alien remnants and wished it had leaned harder into the tropey arranged marriage in space, which is really the heart of the book. Also, I think it needed some explicit sex scenes! Fanfic-style stories do a lot of character and relationship development via sex scenes, and I would have appreciated seeing that for this couple. I'd like to reread The Course of Honour at some point, because I certainly enjoyed that more. Since three years have passed, I can't tell if that is because I read it while I had the flu, or because it was the one I read first, or if it really does work better for me.
(Also, the winter survival scenes, arrgh. If you have fallen into icy cold water in winter, you do not keep hiking for a while! You get your tent set up immediately! And when you have done that, you do not lie down on your sleeping bag in your wet clothes. You take them off beforehand, so that you don't get your sleeping bag wet, because that could be fatal. These are not even plot-necessary things--due South huddling-for-warmth fanfic does it better.)
(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-01 06:38 pm (UTC)(Also, I know nothing about Winter's Orbit but I sympathise with your irritation at huddling-for-warmth inaccuracies!)
(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-01 08:52 pm (UTC)I did not even mention that his clothes dried overnight in the tent--they did have some sort of high-tech stove, but still, it's not even mentioned that they hanged them up or anything. But that one is plot-relevant. : )
(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-01 06:56 pm (UTC)Due South huddling-for-warmth fanfic does it better. Indeed!!!!
(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-01 08:57 pm (UTC)I've read very little of pro fic/erotica, but that inclines me not to seek it out. So how do sex scenes mostly work in that genre? I mean, in erotica the purpose is obviously to turn you on, but what are the sex scenes hooked into in terms of making you care about this particular scene, so it's not just tab A, slot B?
(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-01 08:39 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-01 08:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-08 01:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-08 02:28 pm (UTC)You should check out this fic, which supplies a missing sex scene! There's also this very cute fic, now only available via Wayback Machine.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-21 01:10 am (UTC)