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

[sholio]

You should read Whitefire Crossing, if you can get hold of it! :) It's a really fun, action fantasy that's refreshingly different from the typical elves-dwarves-wizards stuff. There's some heavy-duty whump (which isn't really my thing, but I know it's yours) and there's not much romance in it; there is a love interest for the main character and a fade-to-black sex scene, but nothing graphic. (Incidentally, this is something you ought to be aware of in the books I've been recommending everywhere, the Ben Aaronovitch ones -- those do have some graphic sex scenes, especially the most recent one. Nothing more graphic than Dresden Files, but, well, Dresden Files can get pretty graphic.)

[ninja007.livejournal.com]

In scifi, Harry Harrison really puts his characters through the ringer. His Stainless Steel Rat Series as well as his Deathworld trilogy. They are AWESOME!!

[swanpride.livejournal.com]

I know the feeling - I used to read a lot of books intended for youth, but it has been a long time since I found something convinving.

My Stevenson Book was always treasure island. I must have read this one hundrets of times. Dumas - never ever read Dumas in the "not cut down for teenager" version, unless you can appreciate long windeness and a very sexist description of woman.

Have you ever read the Neverending Story? I know that people know the movie, but that's only a shadow of the original book. For that matter, all books by Michael Ende are epic! They might be technical for young adults, but there is a reason they are considered good material for university.

Artemis Fowl was also a pleasant surprise, at least the first three books - I'm not too crazy about the ones after.

CJ Cherryh is an all time favourite of mine, although, yes, there tend to be sex in the books, but it's never random, and her world building and character development is outstanding. I recommend the foreigner series (nothing graphic in there, and the best world she ever build). It's science fiction, though - the only sience fiction I read because the aliens she desripes are actual aliens and not basicall humans who look strange.

[elrhiarhodan]

If you are looking for creature-less fantasy, I highly recommend anything and everything by Patricia McKillip. If you are looking for some classic H/C trope, then you should read the Riddlemaster trilogy. It's probably my favorite three books, ever.

[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

[aim2misbhave.livejournal.com]

If you've read Neverwhere, you're probably aware of American Gods, which I think is hands-down the best, most outside-the-box adult fantasy book ever. There is a very explicit sex scene early on (the only one I can remember), but if you can get past that somehow, it's very much worth it - there's lots of amazing writing, you can never tell what's going to happen next, and at one point there's some very heavy-duty character whumpage going on. It's all about developing the main character as you realize who the other are, and because it's set in the USA, politics and world-building are unnecessary.

Kraken by China Mieville is another book that reminds me a lot of Neverwhere meets Cory Doctorow, and I don't remember it having any sex at all. The writing isn't stellar, but the setting and the absolutely fantastic references to geek/nerd culture everywhere make up for that IMO.

I also highly recommend Sunshine by Robin McKinley. It's a really unique take on the whole vampire concept, and the author realistically confronts some of the issues that other vampire novels tend to gloss over and/or assume are tropes that their readers have come to accept. There is some oblique discussion of sex, and one almost-sex scene that's less than a paragraph.

If you're looking for a more urban fantasy type thing, I'd suggest checking out the graphic novel Fray. It's a short, easy, and has no sex that I can remember. I don't remember who wrote it (maybe Joss Whedon?) but I know it's published by Dark Horse Comics.

[ladyniko.livejournal.com]

Oh, check out Michelle Sagara's "Cast in..." series from Luna books.

No sex, no real romance - the female lead isn't ready for that, she's too busy trying to figure out what she's supposed to be doing to prevent the next catastrophe.

Very cool fantasy series that I can't wait for the next book to come out.

[flingslass.livejournal.com]

I'm rereading Christopher Stasheff's A Wizard in Rhyme series (I got me a Kobo :)) I seem to be quite bored with a lot of current novels.