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Qualified recs: Jessica Freely writes original m/m erotica, some of which is available free -- precisely because it’s not fanfic, I have a bit of trouble jumping right into the setups (hustler meets a guy with some sort of magical sex powers whose loss of virginity leads to Trouble; women pay two hot guys to have sex while they watch; etc.) but the setups themselves will seem familiar to many of you and the skill level seems decent, though not outstanding.
K.J. Parker, The Engineer Trilogy: Devices and Desires, Evil for Evil, and The Escapement: When I finished Devices and Desires, I immediately ordered every book Parker has published. (Parker is a pseudonym of some other British writer; not sure who.) It’s an alternate reality focusing on a technologically advanced city-state which extracts wealth from the less advanced mountain kingdoms across the plain from it. The Mezentines, whose ancestors came from across the sea and still get mercenaries from there when they need them, are dark-skinned; the barbarians, who at the outset of the book have just experienced a devastating loss in an attempted assault on Mezentia, are pale. The two mountain kingdoms are historically enemies, currently in a fragile truce period complicated by the fact that the duke of one is in love with the wife of the duke of the other. Meanwhile, an engineer in Mezentia has committed heresy/treason by deviating from the specifications for a mechanical doll for his daughter. His escape from Mezentia sets off a devastating chain of events. The personal, the political and the technological intertwine engrossingly.
That said, by the time I finished the trilogy, my enthusiasm for Parker had cooled substantially. The worldbuilding was intricate and engaging, but I felt she hit too hard on the governing theme: how humans react mechanically, doing what they must do because of who they are, as much as machines do, even though the motive force in their case is love. In particular, character after character has the following series of thoughts: I am about to do/have done/will continue to do this horrible thing. But it’s not my fault. It’s love that makes me do this. I have no choice, therefore I am not responsible.
Now, I’m not at all convinced that Parker holds this view (which I find immoral in the extreme). But no character offers a counter-perspective, and I found that particularly distressing given that the characters come from very different cultures with otherwise quite disparate beliefs and values. It was as if the requirements of theme overrode the peculiarities of character, and ultimately hurt the worldbuilding, because I needed to know why all these different people could believe in such a mechanistic and responsibility-free universe. The author created a fine mechanism and I watched it play out, but I was ultimately repulsed. Maybe that was the intent; I’m not sure. Anyway, I have the other books and I’ll read them. The writing is excellent and each individual character works quite well, so this is still a recommendation, albeit a qualified one.
David Mack, Star Trek Vanguard: Harbinger: I guess this was the ‘pilot’ for a new Star Trek novel series featuring a distant outpost near the intersection of the Klingon and Tholian Empires. Kirk and the Enterprise feature, though they aren’t the main characters. Mack has a great feel for the Star Trek universe and can spin a good action yarn; I especially loved the Vulcan intelligence operative and the Klingon spy. I am not necessarily going to follow the Vanguard series, but I will check out Mack’s other Star Trek books.
K.J. Parker, The Engineer Trilogy: Devices and Desires, Evil for Evil, and The Escapement: When I finished Devices and Desires, I immediately ordered every book Parker has published. (Parker is a pseudonym of some other British writer; not sure who.) It’s an alternate reality focusing on a technologically advanced city-state which extracts wealth from the less advanced mountain kingdoms across the plain from it. The Mezentines, whose ancestors came from across the sea and still get mercenaries from there when they need them, are dark-skinned; the barbarians, who at the outset of the book have just experienced a devastating loss in an attempted assault on Mezentia, are pale. The two mountain kingdoms are historically enemies, currently in a fragile truce period complicated by the fact that the duke of one is in love with the wife of the duke of the other. Meanwhile, an engineer in Mezentia has committed heresy/treason by deviating from the specifications for a mechanical doll for his daughter. His escape from Mezentia sets off a devastating chain of events. The personal, the political and the technological intertwine engrossingly.
That said, by the time I finished the trilogy, my enthusiasm for Parker had cooled substantially. The worldbuilding was intricate and engaging, but I felt she hit too hard on the governing theme: how humans react mechanically, doing what they must do because of who they are, as much as machines do, even though the motive force in their case is love. In particular, character after character has the following series of thoughts: I am about to do/have done/will continue to do this horrible thing. But it’s not my fault. It’s love that makes me do this. I have no choice, therefore I am not responsible.
Now, I’m not at all convinced that Parker holds this view (which I find immoral in the extreme). But no character offers a counter-perspective, and I found that particularly distressing given that the characters come from very different cultures with otherwise quite disparate beliefs and values. It was as if the requirements of theme overrode the peculiarities of character, and ultimately hurt the worldbuilding, because I needed to know why all these different people could believe in such a mechanistic and responsibility-free universe. The author created a fine mechanism and I watched it play out, but I was ultimately repulsed. Maybe that was the intent; I’m not sure. Anyway, I have the other books and I’ll read them. The writing is excellent and each individual character works quite well, so this is still a recommendation, albeit a qualified one.
David Mack, Star Trek Vanguard: Harbinger: I guess this was the ‘pilot’ for a new Star Trek novel series featuring a distant outpost near the intersection of the Klingon and Tholian Empires. Kirk and the Enterprise feature, though they aren’t the main characters. Mack has a great feel for the Star Trek universe and can spin a good action yarn; I especially loved the Vulcan intelligence operative and the Klingon spy. I am not necessarily going to follow the Vanguard series, but I will check out Mack’s other Star Trek books.
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Just curious.
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My favorite Diane Duane is Spock's World. Must have read it a dozen times in junior high. I still find ideas from it showing up in my own writing from time to time.
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zomg, I haven't read that book in years but I remember it so vividly. I never thought of the glass spider character -- one of my favorite characters in all fiction -- that way, but yes, I see it now.
And I should edit, in case the icon gives the wrong idea, that The Wounded Sky definitely falls in to *good* book territory for me. : )
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