Little Valkyrie

The Red Knight was such a riff on Arthuriana (among other things) and accordingly heritage played a role for a number of characters--although not all the major players. The themes in Cold Iron are very deliberately timely, and one of the big ones is precisely that talent and will come from unexpected sources, hence the naive protagonist, who is a thoughtful creature to begin with but comes to know both himself and the world better as the book goes on. I found some of the tricks of limited POV well-done in the book, definitely more deft than your average YA.

This is largely how I felt--I was hoping for more twists than we got given some of the really weird places Braided Path ended up going (although it's been a long time since I read it, I remember some legitimately surprising deaths and other choices in there). My largest problem with the book, exacerbated by reading it right after Miles Cameron's Cold Iron, is just how much straightforward narrative "And this is what Cade thinks about his oppressors and their culture" the narrative indulged in, direct infodump about how WE do X but THEY do Y and THEY think we're primitive but WE are actually good. I don't think the cultural conflict narrative was worked with much delicacy, although okay, maybe it doesn't need to be. But there are some solid hooks in the metaplot that mean I'll probably pick up the next one to see what the driving force behind everything really is. I'm a sucker for that stuff.

Finished Miles Cameron's Cold Iron, started Wooding's Ember Blade. The latter I'm just 5% into, but it's very basic so far, heavy-handed on the portrayal of resentful young men versus culturally distinct and snobby oppressors. I remember Braided Path taking some very weird jogs and zigs, so I'm hoping for some of that, but right now it's a bit of a lecture. I feel like I need to do a re-read to really comment on it, but Cold Iron in contrast is a lot more subtle but also surprising me, struck me as absolutely and deeply topical/political for 2018, without drawing any crude or direct analogies like fantasy is often wont to do.

The prose was an acquired taste, it was more a case of feeling like none of the narrative threads had much impetus or direction to them. Things happened, other things happened, it was often rather oblique why people were doing things--it felt like wheelspinning until maybe the last 20% or so of the book.

That first book of hers was one weird read, so I'm interested in whether this one gets more coherent or keeps that driftiness.

It's not exactly a standard summary, but I found this take on Bitch Planet v. 1 to be the best thing I've read about it: http://whitelippedviper.tumblr.com/post/132545988392/bitch-planet-more-ras-kass-than-chuck-d

IIRC, the motivation is that Lazarus would be DOA if it were going by the sales of the singles, but it has a steady amount of trade sales that play out over a longer period of time (as opposed to how singles are ordered by shops and sold and not kept on the shelf for an extended period). So reorienting the work flow toward the trade waiters makes sense for both the creative and the money side of things. I would worry about the pacing (I haven't read any of this book, but I've read enough of Rucka to know that he likes to take his time/holy decompression, Batman) in this extended format--some people really make it worth the while, some people need the tighter structure of the monthly to not indulge themselves.

Fandom norms have changed a lot since those LJ days, but Valente was one of the first fandom people I can think of who actively monetized access to her non-professionally published fiction (through Omikuji Project) as well as generally selling access to her online self as the authentic author at work, engaged with her public, "anchorite of the internet". Patreon didn't exist at the time, and asking for money within fandom was a lot more fraught than it's come to be now, for a variety of reasons. And Omikuji was messy as all get out--things didn't come out on time, people never got things, and much of the time the unique fiction readers were signed up for was stuff she'd already sold professionally and would be coming out that way. So you generate a cult of personality fandom, you get judged in part by how you act, and if you mobilize your fandom to abuse a travel agency because you didn't get the right visa? It's the kind of thing people remember. If this is OT/against forum rules, I'll delete.

>explanations go on for paragraph-length sentences. So it's typical Cat Valente and your experience of it will be deeply dependent on whether you like her ultraviolet style of writing? Thanks for the review--I love the concept, but every time I try one of her books that I'd love the concept on, it's the same experience.

I found Red Knight choppy and very slow going at first and then something kind of clicked and it flowed along. But I can't think of anything I've read recently that packs in as much meaningful detail about the world and the rhythms of life--Cameron's re-enactor background really shows there. You know he's actually worked out all of those distances and logistics.

As best I can tell, some of the Wildstorm characters also exist in the DCU with somewhat different histories etc. (N52 Stormwatch was a book that somehow no one could make work, and is best left in the past), but The Wild Storm is off in its own Earth. In fact, in the Michael Cray book, there are Wildstorm versions of DCU mainline characters, which isn't a conceit I'm crazy about and the execution has been meh, but it's a thing. As someone who's always been meh on The Authority in part for how it came to take over WS, it's nice that Ellis has been spreading the love around--not a hint of Apollo or Midnighter yet, but lots of the C.A.T.S. and others.

DC owns everything Wildstorm lock stock and barrel. The Ellis reboot is pretty good stuff, Jon Davis-Hunt really gives it a modern and coherent feel. And it's more of a bonus feel if you happen to have read a shitload of 90s stuff than any kind of prereq.

I'm on and off peeking in on Saga and I understand on a certain level why it's the juggernaut that it is but I don't think it's actually very good, no. Sarah Horrocks, who has a very distinctive POV on comics I don't always agree with but always appreciate, did a good rundown on it from an art-centric perspective here: http://whitelippedviper.tumblr.com/post/165251937847/pop-comics-4-saga-46-come-mush-with-me

I don't read BKV books until they're done because IME he has a sterling track record of 1) middle-run slumps 2) Gainax-class fuck you endings. But that Cliff Chiang art...

It's pretty much what I expected from an artist-driven book when the artist is Tony Daniel. We'll see if any of the others are more compelling and less ~*~SPLASH PAGES!!!~*~