What we're reading, the SFF edition

SEEKING RECS! (Someone point me to the right thread if I'm in the wrong place please guys, I dug for a rec thread and failed.)

Can anyone rec any commercially successful fantasy titles with a gay (m/m) relationship as a central romance b-plot? Looking for trade published over indie because these are for comp titles, and looking for books that were marketed primarily as fantasy, not romance, and not as YA.

Basically, I'm looking for comp titles for my hella-gay-fantasy-book. It's set in Pugatory, there's an angel/demon romance, and I'm struggling to market it without leaning too hard into the overcrowded urban fantasy genre.

Right now I have:
* Captive Prince (marketed as romance, but hey, the sales were huge so it gets an exception)
* The Alchemist of Souls by Anne Lyle
* A ton of awesome YA titles that sadly I can't use because this book isn't YA
* Guild Hunter series by Nalini Singh (not LGBT afaik, probably too far into romance, haven't read it yet)
* Fallen Angels by J.R. Ward (not LGBT afaik, probably too far from fantasy into romance, haven't read it yet)

The Spider and the Fly by C. E. Stalbaum. It's good so far and it's book one of a series.

Last night I finished Etiquette & Espionage, the first book in Gail Carriger's "Finishing School" series. Quite fun and breezy, much like her "Parasol Protectorate" series. I have the second one on my iPhone, so I think I'll read it next, and get to the other two in that series later.

ReignaFTW said:

Started Beyond the Empire by K.B. Wagers, which is the final book in The Indranan War Trilogy. So far, it's living up to the expectations set by the first two books. I'm a sucker for palace intrigue and the abundant use of honorifics.

Click to expand...

Try The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison.

Dune Messiah. After the unbelievable brilliance of Dune, I have to say this followup is a bit disappointing. It's well written and all, but over halfway through the book I feel like I'm still waiting for something to happen.

I'm just past the halfway point of "Star Wars: Phasma" which, after a rocky start, is shaping up to be one of the better new canon books I've read. One of the darker Star Wars books to date. It's quite violent in parts and doesn't shy away from gore or death. I really like it so far.

Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson

Wow. That's all I've got. I love this series.

EMaree said:

SEEKING RECS! (Someone point me to the right thread if I'm in the wrong place please guys, I dug for a rec thread and failed.)

Can anyone rec any commercially successful fantasy titles with a gay (m/m) relationship as a central romance b-plot? Looking for trade published over indie because these are for comp titles, and looking for books that were marketed primarily as fantasy, not romance, and not as YA.

Basically, I'm looking for comp titles for my hella-gay-fantasy-book. It's set in Pugatory, there's an angel/demon romance, and I'm struggling to market it without leaning too hard into the overcrowded urban fantasy genre.

Right now I have:
* Captive Prince (marketed as romance, but hey, the sales were huge so it gets an exception)
* The Alchemist of Souls by Anne Lyle
* A ton of awesome YA titles that sadly I can't use because this book isn't YA
* Guild Hunter series by Nalini Singh (not LGBT afaik, probably too far into romance, haven't read it yet)
* Fallen Angels by J.R. Ward (not LGBT afaik, probably too far from fantasy into romance, haven't read it yet)

Click to expand...

Lynn Flewelling's Nightrunner series has a gay relationship, but it's probably not recent enough to be a comp title. Django Wexler's Shadow Campaigns series has a few lesbians and lesbian relationships in it, but they're secondary to the war plot.

Earlier today I finished Curtsies & Conspiracies, the second book in Gail Carriger's Finishing School series. It was a rollicking good time. A good bit of action in the story. A character from the Parasol Protectorate series popped up, which was fun.

I'll get back to the series a bit later. For now, my plan is to read a longer novel next...

About to start "Shadows of Self" by Brandon Sanderson. I'm really excited, I do love his writing style..

Just finished Fortune's Folly by Sara King. Good story, interesting characters, although the Male characters weren't done well.

Been a while since I procrastination-updated...

Last Read SF/F:
All Systems Red (Book 1 of the Murderbot Diaries, Martha Wells, SF, on Kindle): A half-organic humanoid machine, "Murderbot" was supposed to be just another part of the cheap rental package assigned to a team of planetary surveyors exploring a new world... but this one has hacked its behavioral governor, giving it free will. Mostly, that means it can ignore compulsory updates, technically disobey humans, and spend its time streaming the entertainment feeds for its favorite serials while doing a half-baked job (but, hey, the humans opted for the cheap package anyway, and it's not like its kind is seen as anything but disposable equipment anyway.) But this routine security assignment turns deadly when something takes out a competing survey team - something that forces Murderbot to reveal its free will and decide what to actually do with it.

The voice and action make this a compulsively readable tale, though underneath that lie some weaknesses I couldn't quite ignore, some sketchiness in the worldbuilding and characters beyond the MC. Still a fun story, a little different than the usual "robot with free will" idea.

Paper Girls Volume 4 (Brian K. Vaughan, MG? graphic novel/SF, on Nook via Overdrive): The time-traveling paper girl foursome from the 1980's has returned from the ancient, temporally-corrupted past... only to become stuck in a temporally-corrupted 2000 where the worst predictions of Y2K seem to have come true. Only the girl Tiffany, separated from the others during the transfer, can see the real cause of the outages and chaos: giant robot fighters from the far future, piloted by competing groups of time travelers.

This continues to be an interesting, fast-paced tale with nice character building and touches of 1980's nostalgia. I would suggest rereading the first three volumes before jumping in, though; it took me a bit to get back up to speed with the different characters and factions. At least one more volume will be needed to wrap things up after yet another cliffhanger ending. I look forward to its appearance on Overdrive.

Currently Reading SF/F:
The Adamantine Palace (Book 1 of the Memory of Flames series, Stephen Deas, fantasy): In a world where powerful kings and queens ride tamed dragons, the ownership of a beast is a costly but important mark of power. But nobody anticipated what might happen if a dragon slipped its alchemical bonds and went feral, until political squabbling and power grabs set a disaster in motion...

I'm only about 30 pages in, so my description relies heavily on the back cover blurb. So far, it's a lot of generally unlikable characters squabbling amongst themselves, with the dragons still little more than set pieces - intriguing set pieces, but set pieces nonetheless. There's a sort of throwback feel to how it's written, with somewhat shallow characters (so far) and a retro sort of palatial intrigue plot. I picked it up because I'd been toying with a feral dragon idea myself and wanted to see what Deas did with it, and I'm still waiting... but 'tis early yet, and so far I do like what he's done with his dragons (what I can see of them, at least): they may seem tame once trained and harnessed, but there's a savagery hinted at just under the surface, and inherent dangers to working with them, that will make his rogue feral (if/when it appears) quite interestingly dangerous indeed.

I really enjoyed Dune. Took me two attempts to read it but I was delighted I went back to it once I finished. I do plan on checking out Dune Messiah. Great characters and world building. You found it boring though?

Finally got around to reading American Gods, about halfway through it. Wasn't totally into Graveyard Book (though there were some parts I couldn't put down) or Coraline, but really liking this by one. I heard the Ocean at the End of the Lane is good so we'll probably try that eventually.

playground said:

Finally got around to reading American Gods, about halfway through it. . .

Click to expand...

That's as far as I got with it. Twice.

All of the above Neil Gaiman books are great except that the endings are usually some variant of "and it could all have been a dream..." but that's just how he does things I suppose

I'm super proud right now because I got my mom to start reading Brandon Sanderson's "The Way of Kings" and not only is she enjoying it way more than she thought she would, it's the longest novel she's ever read, and she's very proud of it. My mom is a wonderful lady.

Just finished "The Event" (Survivors Book One) - it was a good story, but the writing made me grit my teeth a few times... that was just due to a personal quirk of mine, phrases like "all of a sudden" make me grind my teeth.

Grey Sister by Mark Lawrence

This series is worth your time. Everyone I've recommended it to so far has loved it. I just gave Red Sister to a critical friend, so we'll see if it can withstand him.

indianroads said:

Just finished "The Event" (Survivors Book One) - it was a good story, but the writing made me grit my teeth a few times... that was just due to a personal quirk of mine, phrases like "all of a sudden" make me grind my teeth.

Click to expand...

Got a good dentist, do ya?

MonsterTamer said:

Grey Sister by Mark Lawrence

This series is worth your time. Everyone I've recommended it to so far has loved it. I just gave Red Sister to a critical friend, so we'll see if it can withstand him.

Click to expand...

Are the characters in this book a little less insane that Jorg Ancrath in the Prince of Thorns trilogy? (I may have the name of the trilogy wrong, but the first of that little series was Prince of Thorns.) I like his writing, but some of his MCs can't be loved. Anytime you start to feel a bit of warmth slip in, the author dashes it.

Just finished the Indranan Empire trilogy by KB Wagers. Someone here mentioned it upthread, and when I found the first book, Behind the Throne, available on Kindle for 99 cents, I grabbed it and then later ordered the next two.

Fairly snappily paced, quick reads about a matriarchal empire in space, and the princess who ran away from home for the carefree life of a gunrunner and has to be dragged back because she's now the heir. And someone wants to kill her and never tires of trying. Plenty of action punctuated by lots of meetings and appointments that would be more interesting if the dialogue wasn't so often dull. Still, the first one had me turning pages. But the second and third became progressively harder for me to remain engaged in. It wasn't the story; that's actually the reason I finished the books rather than giving up. But there were a number of, IMO, serious writing issues, including the bad habit of endlessly recycling worn-out phrasing and meaningless beats (the bits of body language, etc., that fill the spaces around the dialogue) to the point where...well, suffice it to say that one reader reviewer said that if you played a drinking game for every time someone raises an eyebrow (and it's always just one), you'd be on the floor after three chapters. It's very noticeable and very aggravating. It's also an easily fixed problem. I'm beyond surprised that her beta readers, not to mention her editor, have not staged an intervention. But if she were ever to run a search for how many times a character raises, arches, quirks, lifts, etc., an eyebrow, I think she'd be shocked.

Phrases like that are something most writers use from time to time, but there's use and there's overuse, and then there's outright dependency. (After reading the books I went on a search-and-destroy mission in my own work, and I'm sure I'll be extra vigilant going forward. )

The story continues into a new arc (probably another trilogy) but she has lost me as a reader, I'm afraid. Which is a shame, because there were some fun and exciting moments in these books.

WriteMinded said:

Got a good dentist, do ya?

Are the characters in this book a little less insane that Jorg Ancrath in the Prince of Thorns trilogy? (I may have the name of the trilogy wrong, but the first of that little series was Prince of Thorns.) I like his writing, but some of his MCs can't be loved. Anytime you start to feel a bit of warmth slip in, the author dashes it.

Click to expand...

I haven't read that trilogy. The main character in the Red Sister trilogy, Nona, is very likable.

Someday I'll be Redeemed by Kelly Blanchard.

Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson, Stormlight #3

Here's my burning question: What is going on with the "safe hand?" My friend says it's just a cultural element. But in this novel, it comes up twice in weird places. I'll be vague to prevent spoilers: first, when Shallan places her safe hand on the unmade, and second, it's noted that Azure covers her left hand and arm while fighting.

Advise me to desist if I'm so deep in the weeds I can't see my way out anymore. Maybe it is nothing.

Yesterday evening I finished The Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb, the first book in her "Farseer Trilogy." It was quite an interesting and engaging novel. The world was unique, as was the magic, and the story was fairly compelling. I hoping I can get to the rest of the trilogy sometime. For now, though, I have one more book that I bought over the holidays to read.

Arrival by Ryk Brown.
Characters are 2 dimensional stereotypes, plot has lots of holes, and the writing could be a lot better.

I've had terrible luck finding good SciFi lately - any suggestions?