Books books books.
I've been doing a lot of reading, today. Er, yesterday. Actually, I did my brother's math homework for him for three hours, which was again Not Fun, and then, in some kind of delayed reaction against the having to give up my time thing, played a video game (Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, if you must know) for four hours straight, effectively ensuring that I won't want to play video games for at least a week. Not this game, anyway. Blargh. Video-gamed out.
But after that, I read books. Finished the last of the Sime~Gen books I'd bought. I have now read, in that universe, House of Zeor, Unto Zeor Forever, Mahogany Trinrose, and Channel's Destiny. Their official website, SimeGen.com, though hard to navigate, has incredible amounts of information, introductions, news, writing tips, fan fiction, and you can read the first book for free on the web. Their fanfic is all authorized and often co-written by the authors of the novels -- "Only Good Sime" was a pretty good read.
I want to slash these books out of *spite*. Because they are slashy, and the authors just keep stomping on all the slash possibilities. It seems they only want their fandom to do certain things, though they do want a fandom. Just not slashers, I gather. Hrmph.
They keep talking about the intense bonds developing between Sime and Gen (who need each other for energy transfer), and most of what I've read is about m/m pairs, and they make it very clear that the m/f pairs are romantically involved, but then they stress that all the m/m and f/f pairs are Not Sleeping With Each Other, are in fact physically repelled from each other after transfer, while the m/f pairs are having sex. It doesn't make any *sense,* universe-wise. All the pairs are shown to be equally bonded in every other sense, so why do the authors keep jumping up and down yelling They're Not Gay! There Are No Gay Channels Ever! Ever Ever Ever!
They could have maybe not brought the whole issue up, but they have to keep mentioning it over and over again. It irks me. I kind of like the fandom nonetheless. All those energy transfer scenes are basically sex scenes anyway.
So now I'm reading The Iron Dragon's Daughter, by Michael Swanwick, which I have to recommend for having the weirdest fantasy setting I have ever seen in my life. I suppose you could call it gritty urban high fantasy. There are robots. Giant robots. Big flying robot dragons with napalm weapons. There are elves and dwarves and goblins and changelings and witches. There is high school. There's chemistry and physics and magic and astronomy. There is swearing and gratuitous explicit sex. There are big dingy modern cities and factories. At this point in the book, the main character is an alchemy major at a university, and she has to get better grades lest she be deemed expendable and sacrificed to keep the university and the city running. It is completely utterly weird, and it's very fun to read, so far.
But after that, I read books. Finished the last of the Sime~Gen books I'd bought. I have now read, in that universe, House of Zeor, Unto Zeor Forever, Mahogany Trinrose, and Channel's Destiny. Their official website, SimeGen.com, though hard to navigate, has incredible amounts of information, introductions, news, writing tips, fan fiction, and you can read the first book for free on the web. Their fanfic is all authorized and often co-written by the authors of the novels -- "Only Good Sime" was a pretty good read.
I want to slash these books out of *spite*. Because they are slashy, and the authors just keep stomping on all the slash possibilities. It seems they only want their fandom to do certain things, though they do want a fandom. Just not slashers, I gather. Hrmph.
They keep talking about the intense bonds developing between Sime and Gen (who need each other for energy transfer), and most of what I've read is about m/m pairs, and they make it very clear that the m/f pairs are romantically involved, but then they stress that all the m/m and f/f pairs are Not Sleeping With Each Other, are in fact physically repelled from each other after transfer, while the m/f pairs are having sex. It doesn't make any *sense,* universe-wise. All the pairs are shown to be equally bonded in every other sense, so why do the authors keep jumping up and down yelling They're Not Gay! There Are No Gay Channels Ever! Ever Ever Ever!
They could have maybe not brought the whole issue up, but they have to keep mentioning it over and over again. It irks me. I kind of like the fandom nonetheless. All those energy transfer scenes are basically sex scenes anyway.
So now I'm reading The Iron Dragon's Daughter, by Michael Swanwick, which I have to recommend for having the weirdest fantasy setting I have ever seen in my life. I suppose you could call it gritty urban high fantasy. There are robots. Giant robots. Big flying robot dragons with napalm weapons. There are elves and dwarves and goblins and changelings and witches. There is high school. There's chemistry and physics and magic and astronomy. There is swearing and gratuitous explicit sex. There are big dingy modern cities and factories. At this point in the book, the main character is an alchemy major at a university, and she has to get better grades lest she be deemed expendable and sacrificed to keep the university and the city running. It is completely utterly weird, and it's very fun to read, so far.
