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What are you Reading Now?

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
Just finished The Arm of the Sphinx by Josiah Bancroft. Second volume in a series. First is Senlin Ascends.

This is one of the best and more original fantasy novels I've read in a very long time.
 
I am reading The Infernal Devices again. Why oh why can't I stay away from these books?! I will admit, they are a guilty pleasure, and I mock them frequently [maybe because I was raised on Dickens and Shakespeare and the like?]
 

Mythopoet

Auror
I finished reading Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in historical fiction dealing with the time around the French Revolution. Sabatini has a reputation for writing his historical fiction as accurate to the history as possible and I really learned a lot from it. I feel like I understand the factors leading up to the Revolution much better than I ever did while learning about it at school. The story also has a long section dealing with the Commedia dell'Arte, the Italian-born improvisational theater with the masked character types like Harlequin and Pantaloon. Those characters I had heard of before, but this book taught me about the character type "Scaramouche" and much else that was very interesting.
 

Yzjdriel

Acolyte
I just reread Games Wizards Play for the twelfth time and I'm not even mad at myself. This series has just always been able to make me laugh.

Diane Duane's Young Wizards series begins with So You Want to Be a Wizard.
 

Aurora

Sage
Welp, totally didn't realize that Sacrificed is Y.A. Got six chapters in and chucked it. Do not like YA at all. Back to Faerie it is.
 

Noxius

Dreamer
"A Dawn of Dragonfire" by Daniel Arenson. I wanted to read more books with dragons in them because I want to use them myself and wanted to get accustomed with differents way of seeing and using them.
I've only read the first 100 pages, but til now, I would say it's not good, but not too bad either, just not what I want to read. I will read through it anyway.
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
Yes. There's no connection for me. I just prefer books with deeper...everything. I'm also not a teen so there's that!

There are some YA books that explore plenty of deeper themes. They're not necessarily the most popular YA books, but they're quite good. But really this brings up a more interesting question from a writing perspective (and maybe one we need a new thread for)...you say you're not a teen. I'm not one either. Nor am I black, nor a woman, nor gay, nor a trans person...but I've recently read books with people fitting these various categories and I didn't find it to be a problem. So how close does a character have to be to a reader to elicit the reader's empathy and create a connection? It's a question I think about from time to time because all but one of my current works feature characters outside of the majority of the fantasy book demographic. Maybe it's worth a thread for comments.
 

Aurora

Sage
There are some YA books that explore plenty of deeper themes. They're not necessarily the most popular YA books, but they're quite good. But really this brings up a more interesting question from a writing perspective (and maybe one we need a new thread for)...you say you're not a teen. I'm not one either. Nor am I black, nor a woman, nor gay, nor a trans person...but I've recently read books with people fitting these various categories and I didn't find it to be a problem. So how close does a character have to be to a reader to elicit the reader's empathy and create a connection? It's a question I think about from time to time because all but one of my current works feature characters outside of the majority of the fantasy book demographic. Maybe it's worth a thread for comments.
It's not about empathy and everything to do with love triangles (don't like those either), immature protagonists, and just not fulfilling stories for me. Nothing deep really.
 

La Volpe

Sage
I've found that YA tends to use particular themes and tropes. E.g. love triangles, coming-of-age, school-themed stuff, etc. There are a lot out there that don't (or at least not enough to bother me), but the majority of them do.

But, for example, the Reckoners series by Sanderson is apparently classified as YA and I enjoyed it. And also Dan Wells's John Cleaver books.
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
I've found that YA tends to use particular themes and tropes. E.g. love triangles, coming-of-age, school-themed stuff, etc. There are a lot out there that don't (or at least not enough to bother me), but the majority of them do.

The very popular ones tend to--of course, the most popular books tend to tap into popular themes. There is plenty of YA that doesn't do this sort of thing. People tend to view YA as a "genre," which implies that it has fairly consistent tropes, etc. But it's an age range (or a marketing demographic, if you want to look at it that way). The books within the category can be as diverse as anything for adults.
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
It's not about empathy and everything to do with love triangles (don't like those either), immature protagonists, and just not fulfilling stories for me. Nothing deep really.

That's an overly narrow view of the category, imo. It describes the most popular YA somewhat accurately, at least from what I've seen, but leaves out a large number of works.
 

Aurora

Sage
That's an overly narrow view of the category, imo. It describes the most popular YA somewhat accurately, at least from what I've seen, but leaves out a large number of works.
I have read different YA books over the years, ones recommended to me and others that sounded interesting. It's just not something I like. Sorry, I wasn't trying to offend anyone!
 
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