telophase | (no subject)

Crossposts: http://telophase.livejournal.com/2678855.html

Entry tags:

(no subject)

I have finished my annual hate-read of Mercedes' Lackey's latest Herald book^[1], and as I'm feeling run down and sick, I want more of the same vague sort of thing. Does anyone have suggestions for unchallenging fluffy pop fantasy in much the same vein? That is available on the Kindle?

¹ She's not complaining. I actually paid for the damn thing.

My current complaint about the series...(spoilers within)

Right. So I know that it's currently the Herald Spy series, and as such, there should be lots of spying. Well, yes there is. Lots of secret factions within the Valdemaran government spying on its own citizens using hush-hush methods that the populace knows little to nothing about.

Unironically.

In a post-Snowden world, can we really hold this up as heroic behavior? I mean, the Big Bad of this book isn't even caught by this, but by good old-fashioned police work. (The way that no terrorists have been caught by all this spying, but by good old-fashioned police work.) I mean, this is either brilliantly subtle subversion or just ripping stuff from the headlines to serve as story-fodder without bothering to think through the implications.

I know which interpretation my money's on.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The other books that fill the same general niche for me aren't really much like Lackey's stuff. It's just that, for me, they're things I can read without anxiety or discomfort.

Nancy Atherton's Aunt Dimity books. They're technically mysteries, but there's not really any mystery, generally. Most of them are full of people who mean well and who will turn out to be nice after all. There's at least one, however, that has an actual bad guy. The title character is a ghost who communicates with Lori, the main character, through writing in a diary.

Donna Andrews' Meg Langslow mysteries. All the books have bird puns in the title. There's always a murder, but it's never gross or traumatic. There's a lot of humor, including an extended family full of personalities who recur. The murderers are always nasty people.

Jayne Castle/Jayne Ann Krentz/Amanda Quick - This author writes romances under three different names. She has a thing about psychic powers, and her Castle books are actually set on another planet (with conveniently present day technology). Her Krentz books are contemporaries, and her Quick books are historicals. I don't recommend any of her older works-- Anything short and/or published before the mid-90s is likely to be awful. I'd stick with her most recent books if you want to try her. I like that her main characters tend to be working together toward a common goal and against a common enemy and not to have big misunderstandings. These generally have mystery plots. If you read two or three of her books, you can pretty much predict how any other given book of hers will go.

Sometimes, Alexander McCall Smith's books work for me this way; sometimes, they don't. I mostly read the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books.

Some Nina Kiriki Hoffman books work this way for me (Catalyst enraged me, so I don't recommend it just now), and so do some Patricia Wrede books.

Thanks! Cozy mystery can wrk this way for me, too, although it's usually period pieces (Phryne Fisher, Her Ryal Spymess, etc.). But a week or so ago, I ended up rocketing my way through three books in a contemporary series with a living skeleton as the sleuth (and no other paranormal stuff in it) because the author knows academia and the life of the adjunct professor. XD

I think I may have read the firs,t couple of Aunt Dimity years back, when they were new. Mom read a lot of cozies then and I borrowed a bunch from her.

(Argh Sora is sitting on my lap, rendering it hard for me to type!)

Lackey is always 100% sincere about everything, as far as I can tell. I remember she wrote at least one urban fantasy novel indicating that she bought wholeheartedly into the Satanic Panic crap - like, it was just a retelling of the standard suspiciously-blood-libel-ish "repressed memory" narrative.

And there was another one about how "popping pills" would turn you into a literal vampire, and one about porn producers who were evil fairies.

So, y'know, don't watch porn! Bad fairies probably murdered a teenaged runaway to make it. (Though if the teenaged runaway used recreational drugs at any point then it's basically their own fault they're dead.)

Yeah, "Total unfamiliarity with nuance" describes Lackey pretty well.

I haven't read the new Zen Cho book, but it looks very promising for comforting sickbed reading.

I got it through the Penguin advanced reader program and managed to bounce off it, alas. :/ I've enjoyed other Zen Cho stuff, so I was looking forward to it. Can,t quite place what it was.

I found it a total slog until I got to the chapter with the girls' school. If you made it to Prunella and bounced, I can't help you, but if you haven't met her yet I'd say it's worth it to keep going.

I can't recommend unchallenging fluffy fantasy, but my comfort rereads are Michelle Sagara West's Chronicles of Elantra series (Cast in...) and Andrea Höst's Touchstone Trilogy (& Gratuitous Epilogue), all available as ebooks.

May your health improve soon!

Thanks! :)

I'm not sure this counts as "fluffy", given how rough the heroine has it at the start. (http://www.amazon.com/Sword-Arelion-Gods-Book-ebook/dp/B00X4XI142/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1444856177&sr=1-3&keywords=amanda+green) But once she's rescued from that it has a nice Chosen-Herald type arc. Author is local if that matters.

I haven't been keeping up on Lackey myself. We did give the Arrows trilogy to the oldest, she's about the target audience now.

Thanks! I have sent the sample to my kindle, as I'm out nothing by trying it. :)

There' something about her Valdemar books that speak to my id, I guess. I have serious problems with the writing and the characters and the pacing and the setup and and and. But I can't stop reading the damn things, even when I hate myself and the book for doing so. :)

This cries out for a filk of Joan Jett's "I Hate Myself For Loving You."

If you're a fan of Lackey you have already read this, but I quite liked the first two books in her Bedlam's Bard series: "Knights of Ghosts and Shadows" and "Summoned to Tourney". The series goes on after that, but I haven't read the rest because I heard it drops in quality.

I wouldn't call myself quite a fan, but more of an addict who hates every minute of it, but can't quit! :D. I have fond memories of discovering the Arrows trilogy early on, and reading her series up through college, then realizing the technical and narrative problems in her writing. And a few years back, rereading something of hers from the library (I forgot why), and realizing that while I shout at her very loudly in my head over the prose and the story....I can't frickin' stop turning the pages. There is something in that which makes me go "And then what happened next? And then what happened next?" Presumably there is one thing she's doing right. XD

I think I read the mes you mentioned way back in college or grad school, but I don,t remember anything about them.

They're the ones with a dude who's a street musician, a girl who's a rocker and a witch, and an elf warrior. The plot is about saving a Renaissance Faire from developers, and it ends with a threesome between the main characters. It sounds pretty silly, but I liked them a lot!

Good you figured out I typoed "mes" for "ones." I was on my iPad, which was balanced on a needy Sora, who was on my lap and not about to get up.

Yeah, I must have read those but apparently they didn't leave an impression in my memory. I'll add them to the list of possibles.

Robin Hobb's ongoing Assassins/ Fools/ Dragons/ Rain Wilds whatever trilogies. they're good, but they are pure candy. and there's, like, 12 of them.

Man, I think it's been decades since I read Robin Hobb. I think I only read the very first trilogy she put out. I'll look into them, thanks.

I have much the same problem. I loved loved LOVED Vanyel and still do, but dear god, the writing is terrible. And yet, so readable. She is a mad awful horrible genius. It took me aaaaaaaaaages to figure out that the Herald Spy series is supposed to be a spoof on Harry Potter.

For similar id candy.... Hmm. Did you ever read Robin McKinley's the Blue Sword? It hits me in similar id places.

I can't even decide if it's an HP spoof or if it's just a terribly literal grab at the HP formula! I shall tell myself it's a spoof and that way I can focus on the horrible writing bits where she writes about everyday life for 3/4 of the book, then realizes she forgot to put an antagonist in it and pulls a Big Bad out of her ass for the final 1/4.

...um, okay, I admit I'm a sucker for everyday life kinda stories, even though I see the lack of tension and suspense in her structure. I think I might fall all over an Angela Thirkell-type book (Mom and I call them "books in which nothing happens") set in a fantasy world.

Forgot to answer your question--I did read The Blue Sword a number of times as a teenager. :D

I could have sworn I had recommended Touchstone Trilogy by Andrea Höst and Cast in... series by Michelle Sagara (West) to you as comfort rereads, but I can't see the comment O.O

of course... because I posted it on Dreamwidth *facepalm*

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only