The things one finds...

[sholio]

oh my god, this commercial is so, so, SO wrong on pretty much every level that I cannot stop laughing at it (at least partly in horrified amazement that it's an actual commercial and not an SNL parody commercial). The shaved cat! THE TULIPS.

You know what I need, I think? A new series of books to be hooked on. It was so lovely to sink into the new Dresden Files book, but it was all over so quickly and now I have to wait for the next one. *chews nails* My reading has been falling off lately -- I'll start books and then abandon them -- and I think a lot of it is because what I really want right now is to fall in love with some characters and spend a lot of quality time with them. Most of what I've been reading lately have been stand-alone genre and literary-type books, but I'm finding them harder to get into. Since I'm not really following any TV shows avidly at the moment, I think that I need to find me some good, escapist brain candy to satisfy my mental sweet tooth.

Recommendations? I'd prefer books with SF or fantasy elements, but I'm open to anything else, too, if you know of something that's good. If you've been reading my journal for any length of time, you probably know what I go for: ensemble casts with relationships more complicated than just "boy meets girl, love at first sight", strong friendships, quality world-building. I like to be surprised and to have a story take me places I'm not expecting. I like genre-mixing (steampunk SF, mystery fantasy). I'm very character-focused; I like to follow the same characters over years and watch them grow and change. I am an absolute sucker for ambiguous and flawed heroes, ambiguous and likable villains, and enemies forced to work together for the common good. I like explosions, and as much as I adore solid world-building, I get bored with infodumps and florid writing very quickly.

A few of the series that are the sort of thing I'm looking for right now:

- Death Gate (Weiss & Hickman)
- Dark Tower (King)
- Discworld
- Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin books
- Coldfire (C.S. Friedman)
- Tobias Buckell's Xenowealth books

I've tried both Lynn Flewelling and Janny Wurts and just couldn't get into either one (sorry, xparrot!). I also haven't tried George RR Martin because I'm scared XD, though I have the first Song of Ice and Fire book sitting in my to-read pile in case I manage to get over the fact that everyone keeps telling me these books will rip my heart into a million shreds and dance on the pieces.

Comments

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

The commercial -- I KNOW! I think it's British (even though they have American accents). I don't know if *I'm* old enough to watch that! *g* SO MUCH INNUENDO OMG. The first time around, I totally missed the fluffy cat ... in her lap ... that she's petting ... NO, THAT IS NOT SUBTLE AT ALL. XD

While I only remember Wurts' book kind of vaguely now, I think the problem is that I went into it expecting, from the setup, an "embattled brothers develop an alliance" sort of plot, and instead I just wanted to KILL brother #2. Horribly. In a fire. And it was pretty much nonstop pain with the other one -- I like h/c but I have my limits, especially if there's no real "c" to go with the "h". It is possible that they would engage me more if I'd give them another book or two (Death Gate didn't really get awesome until book 3) but I didn't feel like wading through another book I wasn't particularly enjoying to see if they'd hit my sweet spots later. (Also, there was the problem that the book reminded me vaguely of one of my original fic WIPs -- the setup is very similar -- and I kept getting this disturbing sort of cognitive dissonance, reading it.)

You know, someone else recommended Artemis Fowl to me awhile back -- but someone whose tastes are fairly dissimilar from mine, so I wasn't sure if I'd like them! But I've put them on my list to check out.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

And then she's holding the shaved pussy cat at the end and O M G. Just. I don't know.

Ahhhh, if that's the case with Wurts - yeah, it takes an unexpected twist early with the brothers. (If it's any consolation, you're supposed to want to see Lysaer die in fire...) But there actually is marvelous c, it just starts a couple books in. My absolute favorite relationship (Arithon & *spoiler*) doesn't really develop until, umm, book 3, I think...I'd have to check. It's reluctant allies forced together by circumstance, such that they end up becoming closer-than-brothers and supportive when no one else can be and...oh man. Yeah. I've got issues with certain aspects of the series, and Wurts's overblown prose drives me nuts, but here's a few scenes that are way high on my list of "pages I go and reread when I need a serious h/c fix" (only I don't have the books with me now, dangit!)

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Sorry to intrude and if this is a bit off topic, but what's the order of the Wurts' books? My mom and I got into them, but the books we found didn't seem to be numbered, so we didn't know which was book two, book three, etc. You can answer by PM if you don't want to answer here. One of these days, we'd really like to finish that series and find out what happens.

[spark-force.livejournal.com]

Seconding the Artemis Fowl rec! They remind me a bit of the Dresden Files, actually, if younger and a bit less snarky.