(no subject)

[pennie_dreadful]

Name: Kat
Age: 26
Main Fandoms: Right now I am mostly into the tv show Sanctuary and Figure Skating RPF, although I am pretty quiet by nature, so if you're in either of those fandoms, you may not have seen much of me. /shy
Fannish Interests: The usual; reading and writing fic.

Favourite Movies: Stage Beauty, Pan's Labyrinth; I am really not much a film/television person. Print media is my poison of choice.
TV Shows: Sanctuary, Doctor Who, Firefly
Books: Animorphs by K. A. Applegate, The Doctrine of Labyrinths by Sarah Monette, Nightrunners/Tamir Triad by Lynn Flewelling, Temeraire by Naomi Novik, Maledicte by Lane Robbins, Flesh and Spirit by Carol Berg, The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, The The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, Redwall by Brian Jacques, Heralds of Valdemar by Mercedes Lackey, I could really go on and on...
Music: Whatever's on the radio. I am the oddest fanthing in the world; I am not very into music either (no really, I don't even have an ipod), although I am told naming my fics might be easier if I were.
Comics/Anime/Misc: Comics? Just the Firefly spinoffs.
Other Info: Favorite skaters (currently competing): Daisuke Takahashi, Yuzuru Hanyu, Adam Rippon, Javier Fernandez, Mao Asada, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, Alissa Czisny, Miki Ando, Davis/White, Volosozhar/Trankov

Favorite Skaters (retired): IRINA SLUTSKAYA ♥ ♥ ♥ my favorite ladies skater forever, Shizuka Arakawa, Michelle Kwan, Kristi Yamaguchi, Stephane Lambiel, Johnny Weir

Full disclosure: I am still sliiiiiightly obsessed with The Last Herald Mage trilogy (shut up I know) which I read eleven years ago as a maladjusted, socially awkward and sexually confused teenager. last_herald_mage <<< Plz join if you care; I created the comm mostly because all the other LHM/HoV communities are boring and don't allow adult content. \o/

Comments

[literacy]

I love Mercedes Lackey ever since a friend lent me her Last Herald Mage series to read. ♥ It's awesome that you made a comm for it.

[pennie_dreadful]

Have you read any of her non Valdemar books?

[literacy]

I think I have mostly read her Valdemar ones. Mostly though I've raided the library for her books but it has been a good while since I read any at the moment besides what I own myself. (Brightly Burning, Last Herald Mage and Arrow trilogy, that is.)

[pennie_dreadful]

BRIGHTLY BURNING ;___;

My favorite Valdemar book besides LHM is By the Sword, though. Kerowyn is a total badass. If you ever get a chance to pick up any of Misty's other books, I really recommend the Elvenbane chronicles (co written with Andre Norton) and The Shadow of the Lion, co written with Eric Flint and Dave Freer. The Joust series was good, too, at least until the very last book. :/

[literacy]

I am limited by what I find in the library, or manage to come across cheap in second hand bookstores mostly, but I'll keep an eye out!

[pennie_dreadful]

Yeah, me too. I'm just lucky that I live close to the library (and that the interlibrary loan system exists!)

[literacy]

Lol yeah, the one in town is pretty central so I often pop in, atm I am trying to keep an eye out for the latest Dexter book but I should take note of the ones you mentioned and see if they are available too at some point!

[celestinenox]

Shhhh, it's okay to like Lackey! I still love her books! I blame her for still being a sucker for good, angsty storytelling, and I AM NOT ASHAMED. :D

[pennie_dreadful]

It's still relevant in some ways, I think, as part of queer literature, and I will love it forever, and it has its good qualities, but a lot of it is just really terrible, you can't deny. It's been stuck in my head for over a decade, I can't help it, I've kind of thought about it a lot.

[celestinenox]

Weeeeell... I've never really thought of it as terrible. I don't think I ever could. But I can admit there are parts that are just a little... um... over the top? Shall we say. XD A little much.

I mean, there's a point where it's almost torture porn, now that I think about it. o.o

[celestinenox]

OKAY SO I FIGURED THIS OUT.

I think the reason I continue to love LHM and other Valdemar books so whole-heartedly is that the vast majority of them (and at least one non-Valdemar Lackey book I know of) are, in the end, about being the black sheep of the family. About being the one who is different in a family who doesn't understand and, usually, doesn't want to understand. And it's not only about sexual orientation, it's about being different in any number of ways that aren't understood by family. Talia wants more than to just get married and settle down. In the Collegium Chronicles, Bear has a rough time being the only non-Gifted Healer in a family of Healers, at a time when non-Gifted Healers are practically nonexistent.

It's something I can relate to.

[pennie_dreadful]

LATE REPLY IS LATE BUT OH WELL.

I am with you wholeheartedly, I mean, there are some significant parallels between me and Vanyel, namely being gay and being part of an insanely huge family of crazy rednecks--so I read it around age 15 or 16, and CLUNG TO IT FOR DEAR LIFE. And then I read Kerowyn's book and was like OMG YES, ME TOO, what I want out of life doesn't fit with my society's expectations of me. And she was just a total badass, and even though she got a romantic interest, it didn't define her, and she always seemed to me like she was kind of annoyed that she fell in love! The reason I don't really write or read fic of her is because, like I said when I commented on your DW fic, canon completely satisfies me. I can't think of any ways to make her story better, or fix it the way I feel compelled to 'fix' LHM.

[celestinenox]

So I'm not sure if this is the most appropriate venue, but this conversation is giving me a total epiphany about why I not only still love Lackey's Valdemar books wholeheartedly despite realizing their faults, but why it get a little irritated sometimes during conversations like this.

So I just realized that it's the whole "I loved them when I was a teenager, and now I realize how awful/crappy/terrible/whatever they are." Which is obviously not what you are saying, but the love/hate relationship thing did ring of it just a little.

Because I'm 31, and these books still resonate with me. Because, at 31, I am still the black sheep of the family, I still don't fit in, and I have a mother who wants nothing more than for me to embrace her philosophy of "family is always there for you," which I think is complete and utter BS. (This might be a little driven by her attempts at emotional blackmail over the holidays merry freaking christmas to me.)

So, what I don't like is this intimation I've seen in a lot of places that it is not okay to still love the Valdemar books once you get out of your teens, because one should have grown out of feeling like the outcast by then, and thus shouldn't relate so much to the outcasty angst that is so prevalent in the Valdemar books, especially the LHM. And that's crap.

Again, I realize that's not at all what you're saying. But it has been on my mind because of our conversations, and I need to put it down in writing somewhere, and, well, lucky you! You just happen to be here. Sorry. ^_^*

[pennie_dreadful]

I 100% get what you're saying and agree with you! I make light of the love/hate thing but omg LOVES 4EVER. The whole ''hate'' thing is entirely in jest; I might sideeye canon on occasion but I could never really hate it. And I will defend it to actual h8ers for the rest of my life; it's still something I identify with because hi, me too.

In fact, almost all of the reasons I think they're terrible could have been fixed with an editor who was semi-competent. Plot holes, continuity errors, not enough details in some parts while other parts get detailed to death, stuff like that. And yeah, angst is good, but there are some things (like the pointless rape subplot; I tend to completely ignore that part of canon, even though rape isn't something that triggers me) that are just like oh god why, can't you give the guy a break. And the fake happy ending (which I also tend to ignore). So I retconn and 'fix' canon a lot when I write fic; it's an urge I can't ignore.

[celestinenox]

*nodnodnod*

I agree with you. I've been rereading a lot of them Valdemar books (totally your fault) and the biggest thing that's driving me absolutely up the wall is that the timing isn't right.

What I mean is, I want to know exactly how many years passed between the end of the Tedrel Wars, Selenay's marriage and Elspeth's birth, and the arrival of Talia as Queen's Own. Because she never really tells us for sure, but none of the hints make any sense! From all descriptions in Exile's Honor and Exile's Valor, Selenay is still quite young, just into her Whites really, when Sendar dies and she become Queen, and it's not long after that, maybe two years or so, that she marries Karath, and it's implied that she really wastes no time becoming pregnant.

So her marriage and Elspeth's birth take place no more than three, maybe four years after the end of the Tedrel Wars, and probably not even that long. And we're never told how old Elspeth is in Arrows of the Queen, but it's probably around 8 or so, though she acts much younger (I can't help but think of her as a six year old). So that puts these events, at maximum, 12 or 13 years after the Tedrel Wars.

In Take a Thief, Bazie tells Skif, way before Skif is ever Chosen and Talia is on the scene, that the Tedrel Wars were 20 or more years ago.

(Also, in Exile Valor, I want to know exactly why they can't arrest Norris for conspiracy to murder the Queen, and thus treason, when Alberich clearly heard him reference the future not being there of the Queen. I mean, I get that this would mean compromising at least one of Alberich's personas. Which is a valid reason, I guess, but not the one that's given in the book, the one that's given in the book is that they have nothing on him... EXCEPT THAT HE OBVIOUSLY KNEW THERE WAS A MURDER PLOT AFOOT. And really, when it comes down to the life of your Queen, isn't it worth losing a persona?? It's not like he didn't have others, and most people would probably assume that was the persona he had and wouldn't bother to look for another one.)

So, yes, I definitely understand what you're saying there. XD

[pennie_dreadful]

Fffffff yeah, that's the problem with loving something obsessively, after you read it for the twentieth time you start to notice these things and go, heeeeeeeeeeey.

There are two timelines I've come up with for Magic's Promise/Price. One puts Vanyel at 33 when he meets Stefen (which according Price, Stef was 17 when they met, and it had been 17 years since uh, you-know-who's death). But in Promise, Van is 28 and Jisa is 6, and in Price she's 15, so 9 years have passed, which would make Vanyel 37 when he meets Stef, and Stef, presumably, 21, with 21 years since the tragic events of Pawn!

(I tend to follow the second timeline in my head, because mature for his age or not, DNW to read/write porn of a 33 year old and a 17 year old. :|)