Am Reading: February 2014

[scribblemyname]

This entry is part 5 of 6 in the series Am Reading

Started off February with a bang primarily because bad news meant I read more as a coping mechanism. After War of Honor, I slowed down because I got sick, because I distrusted the next book in the series, and because my attempts at reading my collaborator's fiction screwed with my writing, and I gave up. Then I did a little rereading to lift my rotten mood, but rereads don't count, remember?

1. Doppelganger duology by Marie Brennan - compelling, couldn't put it down
2. Flag in Exile by David Weber - layered and amazingly good
3. Honor Among Enemies by David Weber - very good, enjoyed thoroughly
4. In Enemy Hands by David Weber - reduced me to a quivery, cringing mess—in a good way. I was in no way up to reading the next book immediately and took a reprieve
5. Mindtouch by M.C.A. Hogarth - even more amazing than expected and ended on a cliffhanger! love, love, love—except the cliffhanger
6. Mindline by M.C.A. Hogarth - heartpounding, awww-inducing awesome. Love
7. Echoes of Honor by David Weber - wow, loved
8. Ashes of Victory by David Weber - oh, my heart
9. War of Honor by David Weber - There are too many characters I want to strangle right now, not least of all High Ridge and Giancola. I hate how it ended and had to go read the summary of the next book to be sure it would fix it. It will. I must sit through watching my favorite characters fight each other. Gut-wrenching.

Breaking this down by genre:

• 2 books heroic action-adventure fantasy
• 6 books military science fiction
• 2 books general science fiction*

*meaning I haven't the foggiest which subgenres the Mindhealers duology belongs to, but it was awesome and clearly SF.

By series:

• 2 entire series
• 1 continuing through a series
• 0 stand-alone novels

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Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

Keep reading, Weber makes it all worthwhile... and unlike me, you don't have to wait a year and a half to see if he redeems his good name or if you really are going to start frothing at the mouth, burning things. -_-

[scribblemyname]

LOL Thanks for the vote of confidence. I'll keep at it then.

By the way, if it takes me forever to review properly on Amazon, I want you to know that the Mindhealers duology has reached my top 10 favorite novels ever. Amazing and I walked in with my expectations through the roof.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

*bright blush*

I am glad the books didn't disappoint. I really loved writing them, myself. :)

It's funny, I just read... oh, I don't know. Fourteen? Twenty? Romance novels? Trying to get my arms around the genre, and I honestly think that the Mindhealers was a romance. Just not a sexual one. It's got the same structure though, with the awkward meet-cute, the getting-to-know-you, the misunderstandings, the epiphany and the happily-ever-after.

I wonder if romance readers would like it?

[scribblemyname]

Adoration. It's a love story that follows the entire romantic storyline, as you said. It just wasn't romantic love. That's the kind of "bromance" that would go quite far in romantic circles and can even be tagged asexual romance.

I can think of so many ways to market it to that genre. But yes, a total love story and I LOVED it because it was about platonic love and I've been missing that in my fiction.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

*earperks* Do you have advice?

[scribblemyname]

Right now, it's all rambly in my head instead of coherent. Let me get back to you in a day or so with something concrete rather than fuzzy happy popcorn kittens.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

*laugh* Okay. :)

[scribblemyname]

I'm still going to come back to give more, but just bumped into this and thought you'd like how well it applies: http://dearauthor.com/features/letters-of-opinion/is-happy-for-now-happy-enough-for-you/

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

Ooh, yes, that is illuminating! And a touch comforting, in the sense that it makes the genre's audience seem less monolithic in its tastes. (For instance, ACX put Even the Wingless briefly in the romance category. Before I had them take it out, it got one stranger reviewing it who seemed to get it. Narrator and I were guessing that person bought it out of the romance 'bin', which made me wonder if I should tell ACX to put it back in the romance section? But I really, really don't think of Wingless as a romance...!)

[scribblemyname]

I think so many genres get painted as monoliths. In fact, so many things get painted as monoliths; every category gets its stereotypes and they are all right and all wrong. :le sigh: I've been bumping into some of that around the reading/writing web. It makes me want to bury my head in fiction but I promised to write about tapping into fandom and to cohere my ideas on how appealing my new favorite duology is and to whom...

So I'll get off the monolith soapbox before I get too far out there and write something productive. :grins:

[scribblemyname]

The hardest bit is figuring out how not deposition it for where it's already at, but keywords that come to mind:

1. bromance
2. platonic love story
3. asexual romance (that would be Vasit'h [sp?])

One of the things I recently encountered was that there is a whole dating site devoted to asexuals looking for platonic romance. Don't ask me how that works because from personal experience, I don't know, but this is a book I would market to that group.

I see your Left Hand of Darkness tendencies again in the relationship because it's almost ambiguous in terms of being more than friendship and different than romantic love, but it's intense and it's there.

I look at the scene where their friend tells them I want that, just with sex was a pretty powerful indicator that this was a love story.

I'd add tags for platonic love story. I'd reach out to the romance community that's looking for something different and for less sex. There's a thread on Dear Author about Made to Order and what people are looking for in fiction. It surprised me somewhat what people are and aren't looking for.

I haven't wandered through romance in a while, so I'm trying to think of the reviewers who would jump all over this, but I can see their websites in my head and am not remembering the names just now. I'll keep thinking.

Still chewing, but this is totally a love story.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I don't think I have bromance or platonic in there. I know I have asexual because someone found it on Smashwords by searching on that term (and left me a nice review).

What is Dear Author?

And if you remember those reviewers...

[scribblemyname]

But don't underestimate the term love story either! Just qualify it. :grins:

Dear Author:
The site where the link I sent you was. It's a romance review and literature discussion site.

Working... My brain's in a little better shape so I'm going to browse about and see if I find what I'm looking for.

Dear Author - A good fit for SF friendship love story

[scribblemyname]

http://dearauthor.com/for-authors/

Q: What types of books do you review?

We review contemporary romance books, paranormal romance books, historical romance books, urban fantasy, science fiction, and fantasy. From time to time, we will review mystery books but rarely. The site is primarily devoted to the romance genre. If you are looking for a review of a non fiction or a memoir, our site is not right for you. If you have a genre fiction book, we will be interested.