The approximately Mid-Week Reading Meme

[baratron]

What am I reading now?
Dragon Blood by Patricia Briggs. Actually, I'm sorta cheating with this - I have read everything but the last two chapters in order, and flicked ahead to the end to find out what happens, but I don't want it to end!

I adore Patricia Briggs' modern urban fantasy - you know, the kind of story set in a world that's almost exactly like ours, except it has werewolves or vampires or whatever. But I really, really love her traditional fantasy, set in a medieval-type world with dragons and dwarves and so on. The characters are just awesome.

What have I read recently?
Dragon Bones by Patricia Briggs. And then I went out and bought it.

The Alpha and Omega series: Cry Wolf, Hunting Ground, Fair Game by Patricia Briggs. Modern urban fantasy set in the same universe as the Mercedes Thompson novels. I really like the way she writes werewolves, and that she doesn't gloss over the bits that don't make sense about lycanthropy. The werewolves themselves comment on how they break physics by suddenly gaining a load of extra mass when they transform!

Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett. I've only had it out since *cough* February. The whole reason I hadn't got round to reading it before was because it's a hardback, and I can only read those sitting at a desk or in bed. I enjoyed it even though it's about football, fashion, and celebrities - three things I have no interest in ;) All of the recent Discworld books have been excellent - basically, since it turned from "fantasy" into a parody of our world, though I do wonder how much of it makes sense to readers outside the UK.

What am I going to read next?
Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs. Also a couple of books of short stories, after which I will have read everything by this author in the whole of the London library system. I'm going to have to search second-hand booksellers for her other stuff.

The Awakening and The Hunted by L.A. Banks, the two immediate sequels to Minion. I seriously do not know how I'm going to feel about them. Flicking through them suggests that BABIES!!!!11! are going to feature heavily in the plot, which might drastically reduce their appeal for me, depending on how it's done.

WANTED:
Recommendations for fantasy novels featuring queer characters - especially "traditional" dragons/dwarves/elves-type fantasy. Ideally not books that are the size of telephone directories either. Preferably books that are available in print in the UK, because I still hate eBooks. Though characters are everything, and I will read an enormous weighty tome if the characters keep me interested enough.

This is basically "research" for the book that I ultimately want to write, when I have time and health. I've figured out how to take my characters from the video game universe where they originated into a universe of my own creation (known for now as Generic Fantasy Universe 43). But I want to know what has already been done. I have a horrible feeling that the only gay fantasy books out there are self-published because of it being seen as a niche market, but... prove me wrong?

Comments

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Do you just want positive depictions? The Barbara Hambly I just read had a gay Prince, but he was not portrayed as a very likeable character and the word "pervert" was thrown around quite a bit.

[baratron.livejournal.com]

Was he not very likeable because of his queerness, or were the two things completely unrelated? I mean, gay people can be arseholes too :)

I guess I'll start with positive stories and then move onto the negative depictions later.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

He was paranoid and cruel, but it turned out had valid reasons for the paranoia and he started working on being less of an asshole at the end of the book. So I would say unrelated.

[clawfoot.livejournal.com]

Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series doesn't feature queer characters, but there are several queer characters in the books (and queer characters of very different types), and they're all portrayed in a positive light.

It's a Victorian-era steampunk-ish paranormal action/adventure/romance series with vampires, werewolves, and all sorts of things. It's hilariously written and extremely enjoyable. I very highly recommend it.

The first book in the series is called Soulless.

[redbird]

Elizabeth Lynn's Chronicles of Tornor trilogy are secondary-world fantasy, with bits of actual magic: Watchtower, The Dancers of Arun, and The Northern Girl. (I don't know whether they're in print in the UK, but they were published by Ace, not self-published.) Not the dragons/dwarves/quest thing, more coming-of-age, and travel is significant in all three.

More, possibly, when I get back from the dentist.

[mongoose-bite.livejournal.com]

Well, Iron Council had a gay protagonist, but that book wasn't a)high fantasy b) one of Mieville's best. He got a bit too distracted by politics.

I have found a list however: Here maybe there's something you'll like in there.

Also, I actually like Pratchett's later Discworld books less than the old ones. I find the parallels with our world getting tired and a bit overstretched.

[hiddenpaw.livejournal.com]

Fantasy books I would recommend that I've read over the last year or so:

Red Country by Joe Abercrombie. It's a strange one this, It's not actually got any magic in it a world that's kind of a world that compresses everything from the Norman periods to the early days of the wild west. Yet it works and the characters are really interesting.

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson, Swords, Politics, evil religious fanatics and magic. Charaters are very important in this story it's all about the people and their interaction.

Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner: You wanted one with Gay charters and this is a really nice one in my opinion. I'd call it a swashbuckling costume drama.

[adjectivegail]

Off the top of my head, I can only think of two and neither involve dragons/dwarves/elves:

Mercedes Lackey's "Magic's Pawn", "Magic's Promise" and "Magic's Price" features a gay lead character. Somewhat tortured. Has a magic talking horse.

Tamora Pierce writes YA fiction and the most recent book in her "Circle of Magic" universe ("The Will Of The Empress") one of the main characters realises she's a lesbian. Smith mage who also works with 'living metal'.

But probably these will be of more interest to you:
http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3948.Best_Fantasy_Books_with_Gay_Main_Characters
http://rachelmanija.dreamwidth.org/1021169.html

[damerell.livejournal.com]

The one that springs to mind on my shelves is self-published. (I'm not naming it, because I can't remember off the top of my head, but you don't want it anyway; it's _awful_.) Dear self-publishers, you must have a friend who can proofread.

[firecat]

I will be following with interest to see what you think of the sequels to Minion. I liked Minion but I wasn't sure I liked it enough to want to read 12 more...