Weekend Reading, at long last

Something that fascinates me deeply is what do we expect when we read particular books? This is most obvious in genre fiction - romance readers, for instance, expect a HEA (and seem to define that as approximating marriage as closely as possible, if not actually being marriage). HFNs remain a bone of contention in the genre.

I think lit fiction readers have set expectations, too - one of them is that their expectation be met without being too obvious about it. But a lot of expectations are conveyed by, say, cover art. Author reputation, obviously. Who any given author appears on panels with at certain lit festivals, even.

Somewhere back in the archive of Kevin and Ursula Eat Cheap (I didn't note the episode, because I didn't expect it to stick with me.), around the time Ursula was working 'Swordheart' up into a novel and realising she didn't actually know how to write A Romance Novel (as opposed to a novel with romance as the b-plot), she and Kevin were talking at some point about what people EXPECT of any given genre. What they read them for

And, if Kevin and Ursula are correct... I do not read romance or mystery "right". I'm sort of in the correct ballpark for a fantasy reader - in fact, I might read romance and mystery like a fantasy reader, per their definitions (although, arguably, I read all three like a historical fiction reader.... which is odd, because I don't read much historical fiction that isn't histrom, mystery historical or historical fantasy).

As they outlined it:

Romance readers read for the empathetic experience of the romance arc, ending at HEA.

Mystery readers read to pit their wits against the narrative, try to guess the whodunnit before the big reveal.

Fantasy readers, or at least those Ursula caters to, read because you open my book and you know you're going to see some shit. It needs to surprise as well as entertain you.

As we know, I my relationship with the empathetic arc of romance is fraught, for reasons of gender, queerness and general objection to the marriage plot. I thought that was just a Me Thing. But I also do not, by any measure, read mystery novels trying to SOLVE them!

Romance and mystery fiction sit squarely in the same reading spot for me: I read them to be immersed in a specific niche topic. I read very little contemporary romance/erotica, and when I do I want it to be deeply immersed in either a. a queer subculture or b. one or both character's very specific lives and interests. I also don't read much mystery-thriller, the kind of mystery plots driven by 'wtf is going on in this scary contemporary world': I read things like the Phryne Fisher books, or mystery-erotica (KJ Charles' early works), or Sujata Massey, or Sulari Gentil, or... Usually historical (but a Sujata Massey I read in my teens, set in 90s Japan, in no small part concerned with flower arranging, sticks in my mind). I read not to learn about The Thing, per se, although I enjoy it when I do learn about a new thing: I mostly read to enjoy the interaction between Character and Thing, and the craft skill of the author balancing the mystery plot, the Thing, and the character arc.

The same is largely true of my favourite romances. I read the second of Jeannie Lin's Pikang Li series - published by Harlequin, but it's very hard to say, aside from that factor, whether the romance is the A or the B plot compared to the mystery. And the star of the show is really the historical work: Tang Dynasty China, imperial capital, pleasure quarter politics. I thought the second book did a much better job of balancing these three plots than the first did, and am holding off on buying the third for a special occasion - but also scrounging around for something similar. There's Jeannie Lin's Tang Dynasty romances, which I will read, but would be surprised if I enjoy them as much as I would a historical mystery. For a start, I suspect they won't involve anyone decapitating pigs for forensic purposes.

Anyway, per Kevin and Ursula's schema I could be reading both romances and mysteries to 'see some shit', except the shit would ideally be 'historical detail'. Or perhaps I'm reading both romances and mysteries like a historical fiction reader, and same goes for my fantasy reading - certainly, I apply the "sausage test" (how do sausages get made in this universe, and could this author set a key plot scene in a sausage-making or similarly mundane process) to both historial fiction and fantasy. Which, hah, no shit, would be why I enjoy Ursula's work but even the ones that are Peak Ursula are just a bit... not... quite.. satisfying, to me. Ursula writes like a gamer, ie, sausages not required. Although in the White Rat universe books there is suitable attention to details like 'bodies, who disposes of them?' and 'how do we treat a seriously wounded gnole, given different physiology' and even 'postpartum fistula, of course this character knows about that'. Enough to keep me happy, but not a core plot mechanic.

My penchant for (Genre)+(Thing) explains why I enjoyed Annie Bellet's first installment in 'The Twenty-Sided Sorceress' series, which was a kobo freebie and which the author cheerfully admitted (on Productivity Alchemy) isn't all that great, she churned out the first two books fast to net what money she could and only really got into her stride for book three. Sorta Tanya Huff/Charles de Lint type urban/rural fantasy, with shapeshifters, except those shapeshifters play DnD? Yeah, I'm in.

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Currently Reading:
Fiction: Aliette de Bodard, In the Vanisher's Palace. This is definitely in the 'you will see some shit' category of sci-fi fantasy. I'm enjoying it!
Non-fiction for personal interest: The thing in this category turned out to be work-relevant, so, nothing? All on hiatus, anyway.
Poetry: Nil zilch zip
Lit Mag: Also nil, although the tbr piles up
For work: Many. Trying to salvage my overdue library book situation, by annotating things which have lingered too long. Working through Jen Manion's Female Husbands: I don't think their choice to refer repeatedly to 'transing gender' was a good one, despite my fondness for verbs over nouns, but in most other respects I really like their approach.

Recently finished: So many, because I've been reading rather than keeping up with t'internets.

Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I liked this a lot. At first I thought it was a bit flimsy, in that there was this background plot that was never resolved (but then again, I liked that: the core plot, Two People Fall In Love, and the next layer around it, Seven Paladins Try To Get Their Shit Together Post-Trauma, were just... happening in one bubble of something much bigger, involving interstate diplomacy! Individuals actually might never find out why the duke of somewhere tried to kill the prince of whatever!). But as I've read more of the White Rat books that slipped to being a Definite Strength, rather than a weakness.

Other good things:
- oddly specific details (in this case, perfume making)
- handling of sexual preferences: there is a sex act which character B fantasises about, which, it turns out character A doesn't want to do (possibly because their ex was a bastard), and character B is just like... cool let's do something else! We did not get Magic Healing Not-actually-dick! Hooray!
- everyone wallows but like, in a good way.
- excellent supporting cast. Marguerite especially, I hope she reappears at some point.

Paladin's Strength by T. Kingfisher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This one is just... perfect. This whole series was predisposed to hit my buttons, because, hello, 'deity suddenly disappeared on me, how shall I conduct myself henceforth, etc': relevant to my id. This particular example, with Clara and Istvhan's WILDLY different experience of being in religious orders: YES GOOD. Also, large dangerous lady and large dangerous man, together? I know Lorge Men and fat women (some short and fat, some tall and fat, some Lorge) are What Ursula Does, but this is a fine example.

( spoiler the final scenes )

Swordheart by T. Kingfisher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Excellent. A straight-up romance, except involving a long-dead guy trapped in a sword. Love it.

I also really loved the inversion of the Man In Love With Heroine's Competence vibe that Ursula does tend to favour. The heroine here is a complete scatterbrain - oddly competent, from her own unique angle, but in a baffling rather than impressive way. And yet she's not *patronised* by the hero or the narrative.

Also, Zale, the lawyer of the White Rat? Love them. Love them lots.


Clockwork Boys by T. Kingfisher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was a book and I liked it. You could definitely tell where the duology arose from chopping one book in two, though; and in some ways I feel like it might have benefited from being beefed up into a trilogy.


The Wonder Engine by T. Kingfisher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Enjoyed this duology a lot! You can definitely tell, especially if, as I had, you've come off the back of two Paladin books plus Swordheart, that Ursula has a set type in romance plots and it involves Lorge Men having crises of faith and/or intense guilt. But that worked particularly well here.

I enjoyed the gnoles a LOT. More gnoles, please. Gnole romances?

Annoyed by some of the trailing threads - I know trailing threads is how Ursula works, but I REALLY felt like we should have found out something about the wonder engine in the end of book 1, by the time we got to the end of book 2.


Also: Tamsyn Muir; CM Waggnoner; more Ursula; Jeannie Lin.

Online fiction:

Abbey Fenbert (Catapault), Not kinky. This reads like a personal essay, but is apparently fiction. It has some pretty good Takes, and those of you who were unimpressed with Garth Greenwell and with the anthology 'Kink' would probably like it.

Nathalie Lima (Guernica), For a good time, call. Not easy reading, but good.

Megan Arkenberg (Beneath Ceaseless Skies), The oracle and the sea. I love the way Arkenberg writes character stories around the edges of some kind of bigger political or apocalyptic Event.

Recently added to the TBR

This is too new news to even be on the TBR yet, it came via book contract aquisition news: Oliver Darkshire, the guy who runs the Henry Sotherans twitter account, is writing a madcap book about antiquarian book dealing.

After finishing a Jeannie Lin book I scoured the internet for historical mystery and/or romance set in east asia *by writers of east asian ethnicities*. Very difficult to find, turns out the 'oriental mystery' is a subgenre in white people fiction. I have marked Laura Joh Rowland and Seishi Yokomizo.

Kevin Sonney was talking up Tailchaser's Song by Tad Williams in an episode of Productivity Alchemy. Apparently the anthropomorphic cats are still believably cat-like.

This has been: weekend reading with Amy. Now, I shall go and amuse a kitten.