What do I need to read?

[kennahijja]

My f-list is wise and perceptive and well-read, so here's the problem:

I'm badly out of good books. That, and my birthday isn't all that far off, so I would have an excuse for hitting Amazon. But as it is, I'm even out of books I know I desire madly. Hence, I'll ask you. What would you rec? What excited you recently?

What *do* I like? Fantasy, horror, SF if it's character-driven and not technology-heavy. Slashy, dark, unusual, stylistically beautiful, erotic. Other genres if the themes fit.

Examples that rocked my world... Carey's 'Kushiel' series, Friedman's 'Coldfire', McMaster Bujold's 'Miles Vorkosigan' series, McKillip's 'Riddlemaster' trilogy. General fondness for MZB, Guy Gavriel Kay, C J Cherryh, Octavia Butler... Storm Constantine, apart from the undisciplined plots. Liked Lynn Flewelling's 'Nightrunner' series for the slash, but otherwise it's too cliched for me... Not much into the Tolkien clone type stuff...

Suggestions will be lovingly huggled! :)

And if anyone ever stumbled across a list of homoerotic fantasy novels, I'd so love to see that :).

Comments

[kennahijja.livejournal.com]

I was about to say I'd never heard of the Administration series, but then looked and realised that someone on my flist had directed me there before, and I'd lost the link before having the chance to get into it :). Thanks!

No problem with YA, if it's, um, dark enough ;).

I'll definitely have to have a closer look at 'Wicked Gentlemen' - that sounds like fun!

[hpstrangelove.livejournal.com]

I think you'd like the Administration Series. We have somewhat similar tastes. The final little push that got me to read was some art that I saw here:

http://lillithium.livejournal.com/89621.html#cutid1

and here (guh - love this one!!!):

http://elspethelf.livejournal.com/140948.html

The Attolia series might not be dark enough, but there was just something about it that came across as erotic, and I don't care much for het so that tells you how unique I found it.

Now if you like dark YA stuff, the first book in the Power of Five series by Anthony Horowitz (Alex Rider author) qualifies. The sequels aren't quite as dark, but I thought the first one was great.

[kennahijja.livejournal.com]

The Horowitz I'll probably be able to get from the library - looked at that long and hard before. Strangely enough, I've read some of his film noir spoofs ages ago in translation, and took a while to mentally connect it :).