Finished! Again! Plus: reader’s paralysis

I’m sure I’m not *completely* finished with THE WHITE ROAD OF THE MOON, but for a reasonable interpretation of the term, I am indeed finished! Took just about the entire month, which was longer than I’d hoped but not too far over what I actually expected.


I removed one very important secondary character, one fairly important secondary character, and all the pov scenes of another secondary character. Of course a good deal of shuffling had to happen to hand the important role(s) played by these characters to other people. And I did wind up killing one important character that I didn’t expect to die. Not sure that character will stay dead in the final draft, but after quite a bit of waffling on the question, yep, dead.


So! I hardly know what to do with myself. I mean, yes, I need to revise an Ezekiel short story — got some great feedback from Laura Florand on that story, just shuffled my notes about that to the top of the To Do pile. And Joy Ward asked me to write a story for her second Dogs and Dragons anthology, which I would kind of like to do and actually have a couple of ideas for.


And of course I someday need to actually start work on the third Black Dog novel. And the space opera thing.


But! First, a break. Thus raising the question: What shall I READ? So many CHOICES. I want to pick something REALLY GOOD that I absolutely could not read while working on my own stuff. Because so many potentially-great books have stacked up on my TBR pile, I am suffering indecision amounting to paralysis. Top ten choices as of this moment:


1. Hild by Nicola Griffith


2. Silver on the Road by Laura Anne Gilman


3. Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson


4. Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho


5. Updraft by Fran Wilde


6. Bone Gap by Laura Ruby


7. First Frost by Sarah Addison Allen


8. Warchild by Karen Lowachee


9. A Face Like Glass by Francis Hardinge


10. I’ll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios


ARGH. So many books! How can I possibly choose?


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Published on October 30, 2015 08:27
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message 1: by Siavahda (new)

Siavahda I guess it really depends what you're in the mood for, because all these books are so different! Hild is this beautiful, slow-build historical epic that reads like the best kind of fantasy, with lots of politics between kingdoms and religions. Silver on the Road is a kind of...dreamy Western is the best way I can think to describe it? Walk on Earth a Stranger also has a Western-ish setting but is a lot more problematic in how it deals with Native Americans. (There's a chapter-by-chapter summary of this here, but obviously it contains spoilers.)

Sorcerer to the Crown is a brilliant and hilarious story about magic and gender politics in a Victorian-esque England, with a fabulous diverse cast. Updraft has an amazingly interesting setting, but handwaves a lot of the story; it's a balancing act that I don't think worked very well but is still a fun read, and not overly complicated if that's what you're in the mood for. Bone Gap is somewhere between outright fantasy and magical realism, very lovely and thoughtful and focused on the relationships between friends and family.

First Frost I have not got around to reading yet. Warchild is excellent sci-fi but pretty brutal at times; I had to read it very slowly, with a lot of breaks in-between chapters. A Face Like Glass is fantastically clever and twisty and original, like all Hardinge's books! Lots of wonderfully weird ideas and intricate little mysteries. And I'll Meet You There I can't help you with, because I haven't read it!

Hope that helps, somehow! XD


message 2: by Estara (new)

Estara The e-Arc for Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, the newest in the Vorkosiverse by LMB is available at the Baen ebooks site.

Just saying ^^


message 3: by Rachel (new)

Rachel Neumeier Tempting, tempting... have you read it?


message 4: by Rachel (new)

Rachel Neumeier Siavahda wrote: "I guess it really depends what you're in the mood for, because all these books are so different! Hild is this beautiful, slow-build historical epic that reads like the best kind of fantasy, with lo..."

I wound up reading A Face Like Glass because so many of you voted for it, plus I already had it on my TBR pile. Loved it! And yes, I am now going to re-read your quick comments and think about what to read next...


message 5: by Estara (last edited Nov 02, 2015 02:56PM) (new)

Estara Rachel wrote: "Tempting, tempting... have you read it?"

Just finished it yesterday. A lovely bit of family interaction with a closer look at Sergyar. Doesn't have the big comedy pieces that A Civil Campaign had, but it's so fulfilling for Cordelia and people who are important to her. I do wish we had had more screen time with Jole in previous books.


message 6: by Rachel (new)

Rachel Neumeier Yes, I have almost no memory of ever encountering Jole before. I'm really pleased at the thought of getting a good look at Sergyar! Now I'm really looking forward to it!


message 7: by Chachic (new)

Chachic That's awesome that Laura Florand has given you feedback! :) From your list, I would recommend Bone Gap, A Face Like Glass and I'll Meet You there. I loved all of those. Not included in your list but I think you'll enjoy it: Archivist Wasp.


message 8: by Rachel (new)

Rachel Neumeier Yes, and as you'd expect, she narrowed right in on problems that I was too close to the story to see -- very helpful, and Any Day Now I will get that story out and revise it.

Makes a note: Archivist Wasp...


message 9: by Siavahda (new)

Siavahda Rachel wrote: "Yes, I have almost no memory of ever encountering Jole before. I'm really pleased at the thought of getting a good look at Sergyar! Now I'm really looking forward to it!"

Jole's mentioned for the first time in The Vor Game - he appears for about five seconds as Aral's secretary. I'm rereading the series now, and I only noticed him at all because of the title of the latest book... But I guess it makes sense he was in the background for most of the series, since the books focused on Miles, who wouldn't have had much to do with him?


message 10: by Rachel (new)

Rachel Neumeier I had some faint memory that he'd been mentioned briefly *somewhere,* but no memory of who he actually was. I do think it's a little peculiar to use him as the title character when he's only being developed now, but then, no one is going to buy this book because of the *title,* anyway.


message 11: by Siavahda (new)

Siavahda So true. Let's be fair, anyone lucky enough to have discovered the amazingness (totally a word) which is Bujold would buy her books if she titled them in gibberish.


message 12: by Rachel (new)

Rachel Neumeier Yes! She could title it WORKING TITLE or VORKOSIGAN BOOK # WHATEVER and the cover could be blank, and I bet it would still sell 99% as well.


message 13: by Estara (new)

Estara Rachel wrote: "I'm really pleased at the thought of getting a good look at Sergyar! Now I'm really looking forward to it!"

With regard to your knowledge about biology, I hope you'll enjoy the bits of Sergyar wild life that show up ^^ - unfortunately I have no idea if they are very plausible, heh. I thought they were well integrated and different.


message 14: by Rachel (new)

Rachel Neumeier I hope I enjoy the Sergyar wildlife, too! And I'll try not to be too picky about plausibility. I liked the vampire balloon things from our earlier look at Sergyar, even though I doubt they're all that plausible.


message 15: by Estara (new)

Estara Those show up in major roles ^^. I guess then you're all set.


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