#vs whose stories we think we can leave in-progress and still feel as though we've tied up enough loose ends to have a satisfying book) | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

aeide-thea · 2 years ago

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also: i just finished n*torious sorcerer, and enjoyed certain aspects of it but was left unimpressed/unconvinced by others (longer letter later on this, maybe? no promises tho), which i guess makes it yet another addition to the growing list of m/m tradpub fantasy novels i wanted to love but ultimately didn't, quite? part of me is honestly starting to wonder if the capacity for love is burnt out of me, although that sounds awfully dramatic and i quite frankly think it's equally possible that we're just getting more and more writers coming up by way of fandom and that it's eaten particular, recognizable sorts of holes (ha) in their skillsets...

#i mean—i don't know‚ that may be confirmation bias #it's not as if writers who didn't cut their teeth on fandom are universally good at‚ say‚ establishing worldbuilding #and not just sketching it out suggestively and relying on readers to supply what's not stated #(also like. at some level good worldbuilding can be sketched out as long as the sketch is *sufficiently* suggestive. sargent style.)#(and certainly overexplaining can easily sour into exposition dump. but like. you know what i mean maybe.)#or at writing women #(and actually on that point i thought this book was notably more successful than‚ say‚ meadows' or rowland's most recent efforts)#(still a bit unbalanced in that there were arguably four major characters—the central m/m couple and then a pair of sisters—#and the men had their arcs‚ i thought‚ much more resolved than the women did)#(in fairness i think the 'gotta leave something for the sequels!' factor may be relevant there)#(but—idk. something to be said abt priorities and whose stories we feel it's necessary to resolve at least the opening act of #vs whose stories we think we can leave in-progress and still feel as though we've tied up enough loose ends to have a satisfying book)#anyway—i hope obviously!—i'm not saying writing romance between two men is somehow an intrinsically misogynist move #but like. esp if you're writing something that's got a plot bigger than just the romance‚ i do feel like you ought to have women characters #and they ought to be given enough weight to feel like full people‚ even if they're full people we aren't focusing on #or otherwise spending a ton of time with #i don't know. i don't want to carp about any of this. i want to be magically presented with stories i love #where i don't feel the need to start squinting suspiciously at aspects of them because they've successfully convinced me #i wish i could tell whether the problems are with what i'm reading or with me :/#(very possibly both. road to el dorado gif only it's the dark version so no one has a goatee.)#bookblogging #you may have gotten the impression that i love to be a hater but i'm actually very tired of it #would love to be transported actually! cue patrick wolf the days

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