Readings and Writings and What Not

[kriadydragon]

Heh, don't ask me why but I was thinking of all the classical authors who could be considered whumpers.

Charles Dickens whose Smike from Nicholas Nickleby was the inspiration not only for my character Amrin but also for what I put Amrin through (which I actually feel bad about, actually).

Alexander Dumas

Robert Louis Stevenson (I only read Kidnapped but it had some nice whump).

Tolkein, of course.

And that's all I could really think of though I know I'm probably forgetting a few. I would add Poe but I think he was more into angst than H/C ;P

I think I'm starting to lose interest in reading Young Adult novels. As much as I love the variety YA fantasy offers, the writing style often leaves me wanting. The problem is, YA novels I can trust not to break out with random sex scenes. It's not so much the sex itself that bothers me but you can never say if it'll be fade-to-black or so explicit the first sentence alone has be reaching for the brain bleach, and that makes me wary with adult novels.

And it's so hard to find adult novels that take fantasy beyond elves, dwarves and wizards. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Tolkein-esque type worlds and love urban fantasy, but these days I've been craving books that go crazy with the fantasy. Books like the Alchemaster's Apprentice - not blow-you-away-awesome but wonderfully quirky, or Domino Men, or Neverwhere, or Triumff: Her Majesty's Hero. Stories that don't just think out of the box but blow the box up and put it back together as something else entirely.

Which has a lot to do with my own writing preferences. I adore taking fantasy to new and strange places and really want to read stories that do the same, but finding it is tricky (because I'm also a very character-oriented reader who loves action/adventure, and more often than not seem to find only stories more interested in world-building and politics than character-development).

So after much struggling with my WC fic exchange fic that just kept going and going with no end in sight... I finally scrapped it for a much better idea, one that isn't trying to be a chapter story, and I'm really enjoying writing it. Why it took me so long to come up with this idea after wracking my brain for months, I have no idea

Comments

[tancaliel.livejournal.com]

Have you read any Robin Hobb? If not, I recommend her Farseer Trilogy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Hobb#The_Farseer_Trilogy). I guess it's not completely go-crazy-fantasy, but it has a pretty neat take on magic (multiple kinds of it), and there's dragons as an added bonus. ;) Also included: some pretty interesting and well-developed characters, plenty of main character!whump, and a lack of explicit sex scenes, as far as I can recall. These three books are probably some of my favourites of all time. :D

[swanpride.livejournal.com]

And a very depressing first ending and a very forced second ending for the sequel - plus, you don't really have the complete story unless you read the trader series, too, and this one is very explicit. It's certainly a good read, but especially the Farseer Trilogy squicks me at times, not with the sex, but with the abuse aspect.

[tancaliel.livejournal.com]

Uh, yeah, I suppose I probably should have mentioned the Farseer Trilogy also has fairly massive amounts of angst at times.

I assume by "sequel" you're referring to the Tawny Man trilogy, not the second book in the Farseer one? I didn't like that one as much as Farseer, though it was still an okay read, and I actually can't for the life of me remember the ending to that one. Whoops.

I haven't gotten around to the Liveship Traders trilogy yet... the fact that it's supposedly very nautical-themed is putting me off. Boats aren't really my thing. ;)

[swanpride.livejournal.com]

Yep, and the end isn't worth remembering.

Gory themes withstanding, I like the Liveship Traders the best. It has the most interesting evil character I ever read about. And yeah, considering that some of the main characters are talking ships, there is a heavy nautical element in it, but more than half of the books are set ashore.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

I tried a Robin Hobb book but couldn't finish it (can't remember which one it was). Not because it was bad or anything (the character development was wonderful) but it had a lot of hurt with no comfort and though I liked one of the main characters, the other MC really rubbed me the wrong way.

Though I might think about giving her another try since my tastes have changed, some.