welcome to camp telophase

I have a character in search of a story, and while trying to shake that loose, I thought I'd list out the books and authors that made a huge impact on me over the years, and see what most jumped out.

( cut for musings on what I like in stories )

Also, unrelatedly except that I've been intending to post this for a very long time and keep forgetting: the Bacon Deviled Egg Salad from Nom Nom Paleo is the most fantastic egg salad that either I or myrialux have eaten. We've made it before--I must add neither of us cares for parsley so we leave it out, and we don't actually eat Paleo or keto, so we just use whatever mayo we have on hand (usually Kewpie). This time we added chopped-up leftover turkey to it, which works excellently, and there were no shallots at the grocery store so a Texas sweet onion was pressed into service. She also steams the eggs for 12 minutes and I usually steam them for 14-15 (I've been steaming instead of boiling for a few years now, because it's faster than waiting for water to come to a boil).

larryhammer is asking: "Can anyone recommend books like Tamora Pierce’s Alanna and Protector of the Small series for younger readers? Stories about training for knighthood or in vicinity of that."

I haven't read any offhand, but I did some trawling through Amazon for some suggestions, and noticed that Ursula Vernon has such a wide appeal that the also-boughts for her Hamster Princess books are hilarious. I don't think Rafe: A Buff Male Nanny is being read by the publisher's intended audience for HP.

I guess it's a sign of my wide and varied reading tastes that my public library's Overdrive account is recommending both Maeve Binchy and Chuck Palahniuk to me.

Just going to point out that I am somwhat surprised that Robin LaFevers' His Fair Assassin trilogy doesn't seem to have made it onto Yuletide this year.

Anyway: Trilogy set in an AU 15th century France, with plot motivated by things that happened in our history.* The main focus, however, is a CONVENT devoted to the GOD OF DEATH that trains YOUNG WOMEN said to be the DAUGHTERS OF DEATH to be ASSASSINS. If that sort of thing appeals to you, have at it. You're welcome.

Trigger warnings: the women who are taken in by the convent often have traumatic background, especially the one who is the focus of Book 2. If you get triggered by not-that-explicit abuse**, then you may want to read some reviews first or just skip to Book 3.



* It's a time and area I know almost nothing about, so can't tell you if the slight rearranging of times, events, and peoples that the author cops to in the afterwords would bother me or not.

** IIRC. It's been a few months since I read that one.

Does anyone here have any recommendations for good science fiction space-type books? Preferably available on the Kindle? The glut of self-published stuff on Amazon has made it almost impossible for me to look through recently-published (well, the last couple of years, mostly) science fiction and space opera to find stuff I might like to read. You can certainly rec self-published stuff if you think it's good; I just don't want to click through page after page of the crappy stuff to find the good ones (I've got Marko Kloos' Terms of Enlistment in the Possible Purchase folder, for example--if you've read it all and can review, thanks!).

As a vague idea of what I might like: hard SF and space opera that isn't primarily military in nature. No Honor Harrington, in other words. I downloaded the sample for James S. S. Corey's Leviathan Wakes, and liked the sample enough to put it into my "Possible Purchase" folder. I read both of Jack McDevitt's Priscilla Hutchins and Alex Benedict series, although I have to say the way everyone sounds, dresses, and acts exactly like 20th century Americans kinda drives me nuts (he just has a way of setting up mysteries that make me have to know more about them). Although I said no military, I did enjoy John Scalzi's Old Man's War series, so that's not an unbending rule. :D I also liked Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky, although I need to reread them before I can tackle The Children of the Sky.

And yes, in case you're new, I've read all of Lois McMaster Bujold and was a total fangirl back in the day, although I've cooled off since.