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

Re: Seconded

[kennahijja.livejournal.com]

I raise dragons on the net, I'm not so fond of them in novels :).

What did I like - as books go, they're very much opposites really.

Riddlemaster has a wonderful fantasy world that resonated with me to an insane degree, and it's perhaps the most 'coming-of-age' of all fantasy books I've ever read. It's beautifully written, has characters that make you truly care about them, flaws and all... I think if I had only one series to take onto the infamous deserted island, this would be it. It's also very gentle as far as war and violence go, and still in its own way terribly cruel and tragic at times.

Kushiel... rocks for its historical fantasy setting based on the 'second' messiah and his descendants, basing his teachings on all facets of love. Plotting is *amazing* and writing very good, and while it took me a while to come to care about the main characters (and get rid of my own preconceptions), I ended up doing so very much. It's also *very* dark (especially the third book) with a very strong BDSM component and quite a focus on sex (but it's, sort of, the point of the fantasy world itself). One of the most unusual things I've read, well, until it became a template of sorts for other writers...

Re: Seconded

[lilian-cho.livejournal.com]

if I had only one series to take onto the infamous deserted island, this would be it

That's high praise indeed. I'll have to check it out, thanks! =D