Gossamer Axe, Enigma Score, Souls and When it Changed

[samvara]

• Gossamer Axe by Gael Baudino. Re-reading. Musical feminist fantasy, sweet.
• After Long silence or The Enigma Score by Sheri Tepper. Re-reading. Alien first contact… it takes a while because the humans get shunned for years on account of not being truthful. I am very fond of this bit: “…sang of greed and pride, things that the viggies understood to some extent. She sang of lying, which they did not understand but were willing to take on faith. Then together they sang of what they had learned,…”
• Souls by Joanna Russ. Novelette (20k words) in which a Nun runs rings around a Viking horde and then it turns out to be science fiction.
• When it Changed by Joanna Russ. (4.4k words) in which Man makes contact with Whileaway, which is sadly unimpressed.

Comments

[arcadiagt5.livejournal.com]

Gossamer Axe is fun, it's been a while since I last read it.

The Dragonsword trilogy is a much more confronting read, possibly too much so for some readers.

I also enjoyed her Strands of Starlight series (although I'll admit the fabulous Thomas Canty covers certainly didn't hurt...)

[black-samvara.livejournal.com]

I liked the Strands series more than Dragonsword. I thought the latter was heavyhanded,

[arcadiagt5.livejournal.com]

Agreed. In retrospect Dragonsword would have worked better as a standalone, the politics of the sequels were somewhat strident.

[black-samvara.livejournal.com]

*g* I like a good insert real world person into fantasy world setting story, but it's hard to do it well.

[arcadiagt5.livejournal.com]

Oh absolutely.

Barbara Hambly had some good ones (The Time of the Dark trilogy IIRC), particularly with the training sequences for medieval combat (owwwwwwww...).

Two good anime examples are The Twelve Kingdoms and The Vision of Escaflowne.

[black-samvara.livejournal.com]

I adore Barbara Hambly, I loved the dragon books the mostest :)