Yesterday I accidentally stayed up reading until 4:30am

[schneefink]

I'm having a few bad days in a row now and it sucks. It's a self-perpetuating cycle: I feel lethargic and out of energy, I don't eat or drink enough and my sleep rhythm gets screwed up, I become too tired to do the things that might otherwise cheer me up/give me energy, things I'm supposed to do start to pile up which makes me feel discouraged and so on and so on. At least now that I'm done with my degree I'm feeling less guilty. I'm even too lazy to make a rec list of the fic I found so at least other people could benefit... I cooked today, hopefully that means it'll get better soon.


For the March posting meme: talk about a few SF/F books you love (or that you reread).

This was surprisingly difficult. There are many SF/F books that I love, but to my own surprise not that many that I currently semi-regularly reread.

Quick note about my current reading habits: For several months I read very little original fiction. A few months ago I started reading more books again – almost exclusively SF/F, because that's what I'm in currently in the mood for – and I enjoyed it. Almost exclusively books in English, btw: I tried finding new German SF/F books, but it was surprisingly difficult and most of the ones I did find sounded very unoriginal and uninteresting.
For some reason it's easier for me to resist starting a new book when I know I don't have the time than it is to resist starting a fic of the same length. I'm not completely sure why, just that reading books and fic feels a bit different. I think it's partially because with books I expect to need to think more, while many fics are more relaxing to read because I know more about what to expect. I don't need to get to know new characters and figure out how I feel about them, etc.

I made a list of books that stayed with me two years ago, it hasn't changed that much. 10/10 are SF/F, pretty clear it's always been my favorite genre.

This time… when I saw the prompt my first instinctive reaction was "yay, another reason to talk about the Steerswoman books", so maybe I should go with that ^^ I've only reread parts of the series, mostly books 1 and 4 and mostly for fic research, but the main reason for that is that I'm impatient and when I feel like I have the time to read books I want to read new ones. I just need a time machine.

There are many reasons why I like the series, including the smart & resourceful main characters and the interesting worldbuilding, but the main reasons why I got more into it than other book series were probably a) especially book 4 pushing my loyalty kink buttons, and b) the timing: I read them right before Yuletide nominations, then both wrote and received Yuletide fic, so I kept thinking about that world instead of moving on.

A few Steerswoman plotbunnies, some of which I've even started writing:
- the one for Lupercalia, where Rowan is bonded to a wolf
- the one where Willam is captured by Abremio and cursed with the speech-garbling spell
- the AU where they're all captured by pirates
- the one where Willam has a huge crush on Rowan
And several more that are still very vague, like one-sided Reeder/Naio and post-LoP Willam&Corvus and one about Fletcher's loyalties and one about Bel's responsibilities to her people and one about Zenna and Rowan etc. etc. Experience says I will finish maybe one or two of them with a little bit of luck, but so far I'm enjoying the process.

Comments

[scintilla10]

I'm sorry you were having a bad few days this week. <3333

Thanks for taking the time to talk about SFF books, even though the topic ended up being more difficult than expected! I completely understand what you mean about going through reading cycles (sometimes only reading fic, sometimes only reading novels, sometimes reading a combination). For example, when I'm avoiding my school readings, I tend to indulge in fic. ;)

If you do come across any German SFF that you would recommend, I'd love to hear about it! I couldn't read German, but it would be very interesting to find out what kinds of SFF is being written.

Also, the Steerswoman books have been on my to-read list for a long time! They sound fabulous.

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Thanks, I'm doing a bit better <3

When you do read the Steerswoman books, I got a fantastic book 4 coda last Yuletide that you should check out.

There is German SFF that I'd recommend, I've just already read a lot of it ^^ The Zamonia books by Walter Moers are very entertaining and original fantasy, several of them were also translated to English. Andreas Eschbach wrote some SF that I liked a lot (though that was years ago and I'm not sure how well they'd hold up.) I liked the Inkheart books by Cornelia Funke. Wolfgang Hohlbein wrote a ton of YA fantasy, and while a lot of it is very formulaic, some of it is genuinely good, especially those he co-wrote with his wife Heike (Märchenmond is my favorite. I just found out he wrote two more books in the series I don't know yet!) Kai Meyer writes good YA fantasy, many of them trilogies in original worlds; one of my favorites was the one playing in a mix of fantasy Venice and fantasy Egypt.

The books I saw in the bookstores were mostly "kingdom is in danger and one (undercover prince/poor peasant/noble knight) suddenly finds himself on a quest to (uncover a plot/destroy evil/save the world)", or "there's a (war/tense political situation/difficult survival situation) and (former soldier/police officer) has to figure it out somehow." Most of them male protagonists and male authors, unsurprisingly. I hope I'll discover more eventually.

[scintilla10]

Oooh, thank you for the recommendations! I will definitely check those out -- I've read (and really loved) Cornelia Funke, but the others are new to me. :)

<333

[schneefink]

You're welcome!