Things I Bounce Off Of: Hyper-aggressive Posturing
I rarely read urban fantasy, even though I keep thinking I should. Most urban fantasies use detective tropes, which I love, and many of them feature interesting female leads (or at least women not stuck only in the roles of tavern wench, princess and prostitute). So what keeps me away?
I just bounced off another today. I'd picked it up because I was impressed by what I'd seen of the author online, and because bunches of people who like some of my favourite books seemed to really like it. I'd waded through chapter one a while ago, before returning to some 1970's espionage books, then gave it another shot and bounced again halfway through chapter two.
And I should like this book. Original and complex worldbuilding and a juicy main female character and a big sprawling city setting and...all the speaking parts so far except the main character have been male. And all of them have been aggressive males who might kill you at any minute if you look at them wrong. And one of the team we're going to spend the most time with has lots of history with the main character that is surely full of trust broken and hatred born of wounds, and she wants to kill him, and he mocks her a lot. While another of the team is so immensely powerful that there's a lot of time given to "I could hardly be bothered to kill you but don't push me".
And, yeah, I know my books are overfull of stoics, and this is also a character type that exists. But I just can't read this book. I can't bring myself to spend time with these people. I far prefer the courteous, the quiet, the contained, the ineffably polite, the impish, the dreamfilled, the tongue-tied, even trickster types.
So...does anyone have recommendations for urban fantasy that doesn't revolve around, essentially, two rams butting their heads together? I really liked how Neumeier's Black Dog took us through how difficult it would be the live in such a culture, and how it's something to work away from, but I wouldn't be sad to see a complete absence of "say one wrong word and I'll take your head off" characters.
I just bounced off another today. I'd picked it up because I was impressed by what I'd seen of the author online, and because bunches of people who like some of my favourite books seemed to really like it. I'd waded through chapter one a while ago, before returning to some 1970's espionage books, then gave it another shot and bounced again halfway through chapter two.
And I should like this book. Original and complex worldbuilding and a juicy main female character and a big sprawling city setting and...all the speaking parts so far except the main character have been male. And all of them have been aggressive males who might kill you at any minute if you look at them wrong. And one of the team we're going to spend the most time with has lots of history with the main character that is surely full of trust broken and hatred born of wounds, and she wants to kill him, and he mocks her a lot. While another of the team is so immensely powerful that there's a lot of time given to "I could hardly be bothered to kill you but don't push me".
And, yeah, I know my books are overfull of stoics, and this is also a character type that exists. But I just can't read this book. I can't bring myself to spend time with these people. I far prefer the courteous, the quiet, the contained, the ineffably polite, the impish, the dreamfilled, the tongue-tied, even trickster types.
So...does anyone have recommendations for urban fantasy that doesn't revolve around, essentially, two rams butting their heads together? I really liked how Neumeier's Black Dog took us through how difficult it would be the live in such a culture, and how it's something to work away from, but I wouldn't be sad to see a complete absence of "say one wrong word and I'll take your head off" characters.
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Becky
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Mar 21, 2014 10:20AM
Tell me you've read City of Ghosts (I think that's the first one) by Stacia Kane. Great hero.
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*flailing* EILEEN WILKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!WORLD OF THE LUPI!!!!!
ETA: not so much with the impish and tongue-tied - but the courteous definitely (there's a whole background about why women have be listened to) and there's a HUGE emphasis on family and clan. For both heroine and hero. They still are majorly competent and attractive, both, but while Lily has to impress some of the hero's tribe to be accepted, the hero and his father (who run the clan) accept her own skill-set (Rule does have to work on his overprotective instincts and this is thematically addressed and she saves him... I even think more often than he saves her when they get into trouble).
We see a lot of Lily's Chinese American family eventually, they play pivotal roles in various of the novels - her grandmother is awesome, especially - and we even see her find a new/only female bff, who is massively competent herself.
There's also a great twist on the destined mate trope which makes the developing romance actually believable!
Chachic did a whole series of posts about the books on her blog
LOL @ Estara, but yes, I'd second that rec!(I am dying of curiosity as to the series you bounced off - do tell?)
I've scanned my list of favourite UFs and here are my other suggestions - have you read Wen Spencer before? Not strictly UF, but I like her Tinker books:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
Kalayna Price's Grave Witch series toys with that love triangle thing, but I really like it regardless:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...
I'm not entirely sure that this isn't the series that didn't work for you (ack, triple negative!) but it is my favourite UF, so I'll have to mention Seanan McGuire's October Daye books?
Awww, Li, how can I not flail at such an open invite, having been so happily successful with Chachic's infection - and considering the first World of the Lupi book predates Kate Daniels, Mercy Thompson and October Daye I believe Wilks really should have the wide acclaim the series deserves. I haven't read anything in UF land yet which has that amount of interest in clan and family life and continual negotiation of a relationship all while living through an action-packed plot arc and police procedural stuff (especially in the first few books).
Also, I have a theory/wish that the authors of books which I have enjoyed would also enjoy other books I have enjoyed, heh.
@Li - ooh, both of those look like possibilities (adds samples to the great sample pile). I haven't tried Seanan McGuire yet, although her OD books are in my sample pile.The books I bounced off of haven't been mentioned. I generally don't record on Goodreads books where I've bounced in the first couple of chapters. I put them in a 'bounced off' category on my kindle and read a few spoilery reviews of them instead. When I get further in, I put them in the "flipped to the end" category and review them, since I feel I've read enough to have formed a view on their content.
These ones had elements I really wanted to work for me (female professional cop type and investigating murders) but not only were there all these men being hyper-aggressive, but the protagonist was being portrayed as a bit of a fuck-up who doesn't know as much about what's going on as the other people in her team, and always a bit off-balance and struggling not to lose face. Can't stand that. I like my women competent and _sure_ in their competency, or at least trying to sensibly apply their skill set to whatever mad situation they've been flung into. The "everyone knows what's really going on except her" thing is a huge factor to me, too.
Seanan McGuire's InCryptid series - the mice bits are hilarious.And seconding Wen Spencer's Tinker/ElfHome series. There's so much to love in it: geeking out on science, a female inventor/mechanic/scientific genius, Japanese inspired elf culture, linguistic pondering, spaceships, airships, swords & dragons.
Andrea wrote: " I like my women competent and _sure_ in their competency, or at least trying to sensibly apply their skill set to whatever mad situation they've been flung into."You'll definitely enjoy Lily Yu then, she's the cop in the relationship (she gets to be an agent later on). Oh and the President of the US is female ^^
Li wrote: I've scanned my list of favourite UFs and here are my other suggestions - have you read Wen Spencer before? Not strictly UF, but I like her Tinker books:https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...."
Wen Spencer's Ukiah Oregon's series was the first one that came to mind. I don't like many UFs, for similar reasons to yours, but that one I really enjoyed.
Oh, I should have mentioned the Ukiah Oregon series - for some reason, I had it in my mind that Andrea asked for female protagonist recs. It's been a while since I've read them, but I remember just racing through those books.
Estara wrote: "*flailing* EILEEN WILKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!WORLD OF THE LUPI!!!!!
^^^ Thank you for this!!!!! I checked her out and flew through the series and now have another author that is added to my "must-read" list.
Denise wrote: "^^^ Thank you for this!!!!! I checked her out and flew through the series and now have another author that is added to my..."Oh, I LOVE hearing that ^^. Thanks for telling me.
