Twisted Sanctuary

When I work out, at least while I'm on the treadmill, I'm one of those weirdos who reads. I like to think that I set up a fairly tough workout, or at least my body seems to vote for that. It complains. Loudly. So generally it helps to have something more than just my iPhone playing a workout playlist to suitably distract me and keep me on their for the length of time I set for myself. 

Long story long, yesterday I dug up Lyon's Pride on of Anne McCaffrey's Talent Series novels to read. Later on I got to thinking. I know that they're classified as Science Fiction. She was a Grand Master of Science Fiction. I'm just curious if she started writing today if her novels would still get put in the Scifi nitch. I...really don't think she would. Well, at least not the Talent series. And maybe not Pern. 

There is hard science to some degree in both series, more in the latter books in the first, when she had a tendency to go back and delve into how things started and explain them all after the mythology had already been firmly established. I think, the Pern series, at least, might get slotted more towards fantasy than science fiction. The dragons are a little hard to ignore. 

The thing is, Anne McCaffrey's novels always had a lot of romance in them. A lot of character. And there are dragons and magic teleportation/telepathy What I'm kind of getting at is wondering if Ms. McCaffrey wouldn't have gotten lumped in with the new paranormal/urban/romance genre that's sprung up around Laurell K. Hamilton, Charlaine Harris and Kim Harrison just to name a few. 

Now I admit there are differences. In all those three, and most of the typical urban/paranormal thing, the world has a very distinctive feel. It's gritty, rough and tumble, dark; noir almost. That so does not apply to Anne McCaffrey's world. But the magic, the supernatural and the romance are all there. 

I dunno. It's just interesting to contemplate the changing face of science fiction , it's neglected step-sibling, fantasy  - and the authors who don't want to be included in either for whatever reason. 

 joran wrote a novel! It got published! And it is awesome! I've read it and so should you! 

You can get it for only $10 from amazon.com in real live paperback form, or if you prefer an ebook, it's available in a variety of formats from Smashwords. 







By turns, nerve-wracking, funny, sweet and with protagonist who's just a little insecure, I recommend this to anyone who likes good books, or especially anyone like me who's on a perpetual search for a novel with lesbian characters who don't make me want to bang my head against a wall.

The best thing I can say about a book is that it was good enough that I want to keep it around to re-read it again and again, and that very definitely applies to this book. So, go! Check it out! Because it's awesome!

 Okay, specific free books, but still! I read one of Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan novels - and fell in love with the series. The only trouble? A lot of the books were older, probably originally published in paperback form as they were sci-fi with fantasy elements and are now out of print and impossible to find.

So what's a smart publisher (Baen) to do? Why make a good swath of her past novels available to the public for free download. What's the catch? I haven't found it yet and I'm downloading the entire novels. Why are they doing this?  Because she's releasing a new Miles novel here shortly and they figure that if you've read her past stuff and gotten hooked, you'll be more likely to read her new stuff. Yes, they really said that. 

So you know heads up, here it is if you're interested. There's also a bunch of essay, forewords and other Miles adjacent writings by Ms. Bujold available there for download. 

Edit - And snag her essay on fan fic while you're at it - it covers a lot more than just fan fic and her thoughts on slash cracked me up - in a good way, people!

I'm reading Black Magic Sanction at the moment. I'm still in the early parts. I'm trying not to spoil myself before I finish.  Mixed reactions so far. I'll post more when I'm done with it.

Feel free to spoil me if Rachel and Ivy make out at any point, and if so, please provide page numbers with your spoilers.

That is all.

I've seen this from various folks on my list (although I ended up snagging it from ariestess) and I thought it would be interesting to see what I'd read on this. I think I'd actually read more than I thought I had when I first glanced at the list. 

According to The Big Read, the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books on their list.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicise those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them ;-)
*5) star (*) them if you hate them.

* - addition by fallon_ash

I now have a copy of Invincible in my hands.  My brother and his gf were kind enough to pick it up from the library for me when they went out today.  Now I'm debating whether I want to read it now or not.  The ambivalence that I have about this book is weird.  I want to like it and I might end up loving it, but I'm kinda dreading it too.  Like if I don't read it yet it won't suck.

*sigh* 

Why can't I write this stupid fic that I keep procrastinating about?