Reading Wedn- Thursday

[brigdh]

What did you just finish?
Nothing! D: All my free time this week was consumed by a writing project.

What are you currently reading?
Dangerous Women edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois. I'm so close to being done with this book! This week's new batch of infuriating stories included Diana Gabaldon's, in which the 'dangerous woman' was leading a group of bandits in medieval Europe while pretending to be a respectable lady. Very promising! If only she had appeared for more than a few pages, and those pages hadn't included the hero lecturing her about morality, despite being in a mercenary band himself. Also, two rape scenes (neither of the heroine), because Man Pain.

Sherrilyn Kenyon's story featured a Native American curse on the land, in which our heroine teaches the ghost how to let go of her anger by quoting random other Native Americans.

No, seriously:

"Did I ever tell you that my great-grandmother was Cherokee?”
“No, you didn’t.”
He nodded. “She died when I was six, but I still remember her, and something she’d always say keeps echoing in my head.”
“What?”
“‘Listen, or your tongue will keep you deaf.’”
***
Cait flinched as she saw an image of Elizabeth as an old woman in a stark hand-built cabin. Her gray hair was pulled back into a bun as she lit a candle and placed it in the window while she whispered a Creek prayer.
***
"It’s time to let go, Louina. Release the hatred.” And then she heard Elizabeth in her ear, telling her what to say. “Remember the words of Crazy Horse. Upon suffering beyond suffering, the Red Nation shall rise again and it shall be a blessing for a sick world. A world filled with broken promises, selfishness, and separations. A world longing for light again. I see a time of Seven Generations when all the colors of mankind will gather under the Sacred Tree of Life and the whole Earth will become one circle again. In that day, there will be those among the Lakota who will carry knowledge and understanding of unity among all living things and the young white ones will come to those of my people and ask for this wisdom. I salute the light within your eyes where the whole Universe dwells. For when you are at that center within you and I am that place within me, we shall be one.”

By an author who clearly has no idea how the Trail of Tears worked (hint: not within living memory, and it did not involve bringing wagons of gold along) or really, history in general. The epilogue (though why a story that's not even 20 pages long needs an epilogue, God alone knows) features this deep and moving dialogue:
“I think we all came away from the weekend with a different lesson.”

AND THEN THE CHARACTERS LITERALLY DISCUSS THE LESSONS THEY HAVE LEARNED. Top-notch writing there, good job.

Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy by Sugata Bose and Ayesha Jalal. It's not incredibly terrible! I ask so little from my books.

Comments

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Has Gabaldon ever written a story that didn't have a rape scene?

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Ha, is she known for that? I've never read anything by her before.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it seems to be a very common thing in her work. I don't exactly recommend it. Imagine a Dr Who fanfic smushed into a romance novel setting with some bonus rape scenes.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Heh. I did recognize her name as the lady who writes that time-traveling Scottish romance series (this story was part of the series, in fact) but I've avoiding her before now.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Doesn't the hero get raped in that?

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

With extra bonus stabbing, if I remember right.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Whipped, tortured, hand broken, etc. IIRC.

[silverflight8.livejournal.com]

She only has two series, though? Lord John Grey and Outlander (unless I'm missing something, it has been years since I actually followed her.) And the two are intertwined.


ETA I take that back, I've never read her short stories. Maybe it is a thing, idk.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

I was about to comment about that! I only really remember two things about her: anti-fanfic, and notorious for gratuitous rape scenes.

[silverflight8.livejournal.com]

I didn't like Sherrilyn Kenyon very much either. Someone had told me about a romance between Hades and Persephone (with Hades being all D: about his wife having to go away for half the year) but it failed to materialize and I didn't like the writing much. But that's just terrible.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I see her books all the time in stores, so I'd assumed she was at least basically competent, but wow was this story outrageously bad.

[hamsterwoman]

AND THEN THE CHARACTERS LITERALLY DISCUSS THE LESSONS THEY HAVE LEARNED. Top-notch writing there, good job.

Oh dear XD

I've enjoyed the previous GRRM/Dozois anthologies to various degrees, but this one is sounding like I should give it a pass...

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I haven't read any other anthologies by them! There's been one story I really loved (by Brandon Sanderson), several that were good-to-unremarkable, and a whole slew of deeply irritating ones. So, yeah, I would not recommend the book.

[dhampyresa.livejournal.com]

I am cringing so hard from that last bit of dialogue you quoted, wow. I admit that I only have the vaguest idea what the Trail of Tears is (/european), but I'm pretty sure the Creek and the Cherokee are different people (and different still from the Lakota).

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

It's not that I expect everyone to know all about the Trail of Tears. I just think people who decide to write a story about it should probably at least read the Wikipedia page!

[dhampyresa.livejournal.com]

Reading the Wikipedia page is the basic minimum, honestly. It's fine if you're looking up, say, if mangoes grow in Malaysia, but if you're writing on something that is so clearly emotionally charged, digging deeper can't hurt.

[ranalore.livejournal.com]

That is so infuriating about Dangerous Women. On the other hand, I hear good things about The Other Half of the Sky (http://www.amazon.com/The-Other-Half-Athena-Andreadis/dp/1936460440). And of course the Steam-Powered anthologies are serious awesomeness, though I figured you'd already read those.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the Sky rec! I actually haven't read the Steam-Powered anthologies, despite really enjoying Steampunk. I tend not to read a lot of anthologies unless I'm going for a specific story. I should read more, though! I (usually) end up enjoying them.