Before gardening.
After gardening.
I am one big red freckle.
Those who dared:
Kayla on tasting ‘a note in the… Marcus Roche on maybe it’s me, but… ouaqquwcgk on my confession dkmhwgijnw on random awesomeness Kris on maybe it’s me, but… 
here /m/f/m, there m/m/f…
… everyfrigginwhere ménage-ry…
or should this be menagerie??
I know I’ve done a ‘maybe it’s me’ on this topic before, but I feel it warrants a follow up. In other words I need to rant about this because the saturation of this genre on the epublishing market is now beyond a fucking joke.
The 2007 and 2008 bestsellers list (appropriated from TPig) from Samhain Publishing make it extremely obvious these type of books are popular with readers, which is why publishers and authors – everyfrigginwhere – are churning these out like nobody’s business.
Well that’s what it looks like to me anyway. Like there is a mini-factory somewhere out there in publishingland manufacturing ménages to the detriment of m/f and m/m romances.
What about the readers who don’t fantasise about being in the middle of a meat sandwich? Or whose voyeuristic tendencies lean towards reading m/m as opposed to lying on a bed yelling ‘woot, go for it boys!’? What about me?
I admit I started reading m/f/m, quickly progressed to m/m/f and then ‘ended up kicking the chick to the curb most of the time like everyone else’ (quote from Emmy in the comments here, which sums up my own experience exactly).
There is also no doubt there are authors like Samantha Kane and Jet Mykles, who achieve great things with this genre. They have been writing m/m/f and m/f/m for some time and very successfully to the enjoyment of many readers. Although I often wonder how they feel about ‘their’ genre becoming not really a band wagon, but more a huge bloody road train with a gazillion trailers and carriages.
The (over)abundance of m/m/f in particular has made me completely intolerant of any stories along these lines and has led me to have the view some stories are perpetuating the myth m + f + m = m/m ok.
It worries me these books (and I know I’m speaking in lumps) send a message that if you add a chick into the mix it’s alright to engage in homosexual or bisexual activities. I’ve said it before: I don’t buy it and I think it’s wrong.
A blunt message to the epublishers of ménages:
For Christ sake, would you give it a rest already! How about meeting the market demands of ALL your readers?? Or at the very least have the integrity to publish decent ménage reads.
An even blunter message to the readers enjoying ménages:
Good for you, but how about you stop jonesying on the sex – because if you take a step back you’ll realise some of these are only about gratuitous sex – and start demanding books that deal with issues such as the relationship/s of the partners outside of the sex, familial expectations and reactions to the ménage, the attitude/s of society, the impact on any children there might be, etc, etc…
… you know the stuff which actually makes up a real story as opposed to chick porn??
Here endeth the rant.
thoughts on ‘the steel remains’
The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan
The Blurb (from Orion Books):
Ringil, the hero of the bloody slaughter at Gallows Gap is a legend to all who don’t know him and a twisted degenerate to those that do. A veteran of the wars against the lizards he makes a living from telling credulous travellers of his exploits. Until one day he is pulled away from his life and into the depths of the Empire’s slave trade. Where he will discover a secret infinitely more frightening than the trade in lives.
Archeth – pragmatist, cynic and engineer, the last of her race – is called from her work at the whim of the most powerful man in the Empire and sent to its farthest reaches to investigate a demonic incursion against the Empire’s borders.
Egar Dragonbane, steppe-nomad, one-time fighter for the Empire finds himself entangled in a small-town battle between common sense and religious fervour. But out in the wider world there is something on the move far more alien than any of his tribe’s petty gods.
Anti-social, anti-heroic, and decidedly irritated, all three of them are about to be sent unwillingly forth into a vicious, vigorous and thoroughly unsuspecting fantasy world. Called upon by an Empire that owes them everything and gave them nothing.
My thoughts:
I am not even going to attempt to review this fantasy novel. For those who are interested see what Graeme at Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review thought of it here.
I will say this… WOW!
The Steel Remains is one of the best anti-hero (and I do mean ‘anti’ at its finest!) stories I’ve picked up in a long, long time.
It grabs you by the throat and pulls you along in its wake right from its terrific opening:
When a man you know to be of sound mind tells you his recently deceased mother has just tried to climb in his bedroom window and eat him, you only have two basic options. You can smell his breath, take his pulse and check his pupils to see if he’s ingested anything nasty, or you can believe him. Ringil had already tried the first course of action with Bashka the Schoolmaster and to no avail, so he put down his pint with an elaborate sigh and went to get his broadsword.
‘Not this again,’ he was heard to mutter…
And would you believe one of the main characters is gay? I know; it came as a total surprise to me considering I’ve only just finished A Companion to Wolves. This author takes a different approach to homosexuality though, which is not romantic or character and relationship driven, but bold and hard. It’s not particularly nice, however in this context it worked for me.
The only issue I had with The Steel Remains was that it told the different stories of all three of the main characters. I’m not really a fan of this type of format – I always feel a bit schizophrenic – and it takes me a while to get into. Other than that…
My recommendation:
If you like fantasy and anti-heroes, The Steel Remains is full of sublime goodness.
I can’t wait for the next book in this series.
Posted in fantasy, Graeme's fantasy book review, m/f, m/m, richard morgan, thoughts
3 Comments
a tasting of ‘a strong and sudden thaw’
A Strong and Sudden Thaw by R W Day
The Blurb:
The Ice fell upon the world nearly a hundred years ago, and if civilization didn’t rightly collapse, it surely staggered and fell ill a while. In the small town of Moline, Virginia, folks struggle to survive, relying on hybrid seed sent by the faraway Department of Reintroduction and Agriculture and their own faith in God and hard work. But when a mated pair of dragons starts hunting the countryside, stealing sheep, and attacking children, the townsfolk quickly learn that they don’t have the weapons or the skills to fight off such predators.
David Anderson is a farmer’s son who has explored the world through books. When he meets the new healer in town, Callan Landers, he doesn’t quite know what to make of the strange warmth stealing over him. It’s not until he surprises Callan with another man – and both men are promptly arrested for sodomy – that David finally realizes the truth about his own feelings.
When David and Callan stumble over a secret in a nearby abandoned town, their personal problems fade before government politics and corruption that threaten lives. It seems the dragons aren’t the worst dangers facing Moline.
Dislikes/likes (gotta finish on a high note):
Dislike~ The plot was a little contrived with bad things getting relatively easy fixes.
Like~ I am a huge fan of post-apocalyptic speculative fiction. Even better, this story has a frontier theme to it and… da, da, da, dum… government conspiracies and corruption… mwahahaha!… what more can a lover of this genre ask for? Nothing I tells ya!
Dislike~ The main characters were, especially the hero, babies. This did worry me a little, but I quickly got into the frontier groove where folk did marry young, etc.
Like~ Great coming of age story with one of the best ‘coming out’ to parent/s chats I’ve ever read.
So, what I think:
If you like post-apocalyptic speculative fiction with m/m romance thrown in, then you should enjoy this.
I will definitely read more work by this author and hope there is a sequel in the pipeline for A Strong and Sudden Thaw.
=========================================
‘Tasting’ is my version of a mini-review where I talk a (very) little about what I liked and disliked about a book as well as who I think the story will appeal to.
Posted in m/m, R W Day, spec fiction, tasting, ya
5 Comments
thoughts on ‘a companion to wolves’
A Companion to Wolves by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear
The Blurb:
What lengths will you go to – for your honor and for the love of your wolf?
In a harsh northern land, the towns of men huddle close around the walled keeps of their lords. Those keeps, in turn, look to the wolfcarls – men bonded to huge fighting wolves – for their safety, when the trolls and their wyverns come down from the icy mountains to prey on manflesh.
Isolfr is a young nobleman who is called to the wolf pack. His father is hostile to the wolfcarls and refuses to send his sons, but Isolfr is deeply drawn to the wolves. When the konigenwolf, Vigdis, comes to visit with her human brother Hrolleif, the young man chooses to disobey his father and answer her summons.
My thoughts:
This fantasy is well written, the plot beautifully paced, the characters appealing and with depth, and the world building evocative.
It is more than a story about honour (I think to define it simply as such is doing this work a great disservice); it is about acceptance, courage, honesty, self-awareness, connections and love.
The setting of this world is harsh; however, for me, it was the authors’ gritty and frank exploration of the bonds between the male warriors and their wolves as well as their relationships with others in the ‘pack’, which was the most thought provoking and the most challenging.
Challenging because, unlike other fantasies, this is not a story where the humans dominate their animal companions, but rather where the wolves have the more influential role in the partnership and the men take their position in the wolfcarl community/pack from their wolves.
My conflict (with some spoilers):
My feelings about this book are mixed, which is one of the reasons I’m writing this post.
I’ll be very honest and say my main problem with it was how it dealt with homosexuality.
Before purchasing the book I read some of the reviews on Amazon and several of these, although they said they wouldn’t, focused on the ‘whole “gay” thing’ (in their words). This, unfortunately, gave me a false expectation of what this work was about.
Yes, the book has a thread of homosexuality running through it and, yes, to a certain extent the story does deal with the acceptance – or not – of this behaviour…
… did you notice I used the word behaviour? I did this deliberately because, to me, this was about the act itself. It was not about m/m relationships and it was not an exploration of sexuality or ‘being gay’, but rather it was an act some of the men did because of the position their wolves held in the pack.
The question I kept asking myself was “would these men have chosen to be involved in a relationship with another man otherwise?” Some of them may have, but others/the majority I think not and hence my conflict.
I have a huge problem with stories which add an extra ingredient (like a chick or a mate/pack bond) to make a same sex relationship more palatable. I don’t buy this type of message and I don’t like it.
It was also a challenge to read some of the tougher scenes that took place while the alpha females were in heat.
Yes, the boys/men accepted the bond with wolves and decided to become wolfcarl and all this entailed (and I mean ALL), but it reinforced my feelings about the issue of sexuality. Is it really an honour to be forced into having pack sex with other men?? I don’t think so.
My recommendation:
If you don’t like fantasy, don’t like scenes with questionable consensual sex, or you prefer m/m romance, this is definitely not the book for you.
If you want to read a story about the flip side of a human/animal bond, than give A Companion to Wolves a try – it is a good read regardless of the problems I personally had with it.
Posted in elizabeth bear, fantasy, m/m, sarah monette, thoughts
8 Comments
for ana & thea: the loot
Unlike other enablers, who may be unconscious or at the very least less overt about facilitating certain behaviour in other people, Ana and Thea – The Book Smugglers – are unremorseful in their glee over discovering the outcomes of their blatant book pimpage.
Their excitement over the packages I received during the ‘Bloody 16’ week was as nearly as much as mine. I could practically see them sitting on the edge of their office chairs, waiting on tenterhooks to find out what books I had got in the mail.
In order to put them out of their misery – and to stop the begging and whining – it is my pleasure to reveal… *whips off red velvet cover*…
Kris’ Loot!
If you’re interested in finding out more about these, see info in Smugglivus 2008 ‘best ofs’ here, here and here.
Of these, I’ve read Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear’s A Companion to Wolves (which I’ll talk about in another post – I may even *gasp* do a review) and am now part way through Linnea Sinclair’s Gabriel’s Ghost.
I know; kind of a letdown after all the bitching I did about desperately needing to open the packages to get to my eagerly awaiteds.
I blame the ‘mood reader’ thing. I needed to first satisfy my m/m romance craving and then I got distracted by more boy-germ, action/adventure books by Matthew Reilly.
Utterly hopeless. *sigh*
Posted in book pimpage, reading, tbr books, The Book Smugglers
4 Comments
from little things
I’m not going to go too deep and meaningful on you all, but events happening in the world – from Obama’s inauguration, effective political and social responses to the economic crisis, through to what we as individuals may be experiencing in our own life circumstances and the baby steps some of us take in our daily lives in order to get by – had me recalling something that I’d like to share with you.
It is a song by Australian singer/song writers Kev Carmody and the amazing Paul Kelly.
The song is inspired by the 1966 strike by the Gurindji people at the Wave Hill station in Australia’s Northern Territory. This 8 year long strike by the traditional owners of that land is said to have inspired our Indigenous peoples’ land rights movement.
It has such a strong message of hope and empowerment in the face of what may seem like overwhelming adversity.
I hope you enjoy the sentiment as much as I.
It is a song by Australian singer/song writers Kev Carmody and the amazing Paul Kelly.
The song is inspired by the 1966 strike by the Gurindji people at the Wave Hill station in Australia’s Northern Territory. This 8 year long strike by the traditional owners of that land is said to have inspired our Indigenous peoples’ land rights movement.
It has such a strong message of hope and empowerment in the face of what may seem like overwhelming adversity.
I hope you enjoy the sentiment as much as I.
From Little Things Big Things Grow
Performed by Paul Kelly, Kev Carmody and Jon Butler at Make Poverty History.
Posted in music, serious randomness
2 Comments
maybe it’s me again…
… but I gotta ask what people think of the new Loose Id website?
I personally am finding it a little difficult to read with the black background (says the girl with something similar for her blog) and small white writing (see previous comment, although I do increase the font size for the reading pleasure of my partially invisible friends). I find myself having to use the magnifier thingy through my browser to read the blurbs etc.
Having said that, I do like the ‘miss a week’ function, and did they have that section on cover artists before? If they did, I obviously missed it so the new design has given it more prominence, which is t’rific. The cover artists for ebooks are full of goodness and deserve the publicity.
One other thing I’ve been wondering about for awhile though is why do you think Loose Id doesn’t include the names of the authors as well as the titles on the ‘coming soon’ page?
Have you ever noticed when a cover hasn’t been completed yet you can’t tell who wrote the book? Just seems a little odd.
Also, I would LOVE to know the release dates for Loose Id books.
This is mainly because I have absolutely no patience and need my new releases NOW, but I still try and wait a few weeks in order to buy a bundle at at time (economic crisis, exchange rate, blah, blah). It would be great to know in advance what’s coming out so as to plan ahead for splurges.
What do you think? Should I mount a one-woman-reader campaign to change some of the nitty gritties on the website? I’m always happy to pretend to speak on behalf of people. *g*
Posted in Loose Id, maybe it's me but
6 Comments
maybe it’s me, but…
Since I’ve been obsessively cruising the ebook stores for m/m romance I’ve noticed a certain character popping up more and more.
Maybe it’s me, but don’t you think there are a heck of a lot of bookstore owners who are gay??
Image from Junjou Romantica anime.
I’m not dissing the authors of these books, because, hey, this kind of story has a couple of my favourite things (ie gay guys, romance and bookstores).
It just seems a little weird that there are a few of them about at the moment.
Just saying.
Posted in m/m, maybe it's me but, tropes, weird
2 Comments
Kris + Books = Good. *Sometimes*. 
