Yet Dresden is still Dresden. I got 10 books deep and he is still a creep. Some MCs just ruin the stories they are in.

I would recommend trying a book of short stories. That way you will get a nice range and be able to decide. It will let you sample Ms. Marple and her other detective since you have already met Priot.

As someone that reads in English I keep an eye on different imprints.

For example, if I ever get another urge to read naval history I will go find books put out by the service academy press. They often publish niche first hand accounts. For other subjects I watch different colleges and universities. They often announce when their faculty are publishing or when the school is. I found some very interesting Holocaust accounts that way compiled by a local professor from child survivors in the region.

As for fiction it’s a game of finding an imprint that speaks to you or finding a reviewer that has very broad taste. For example, Jo Walton promotes a wide range of things in her monthly column at tor.com.

No. I have mass market paperbacks from the 80s that have been thrown in backpacks, and suitcases for decades that are in good condition. I have never had a hardback that survived that kind of treatment.

Paperbacks might look faded but the binding holds. Hardbacks just fall apart at the spine.

It was twins so multiple births off one act. In that version the kids dislodge a poisoned fragment so she wakes up.

This is story that goes back to at least the 1300s in written form in France and Germany. There was a lot of variation. It is tale 410 in the folklore index and has at least 8 major variation points.

I wish I had found Elizabeth Moon in high school. Her books are the kind of thing I was searching for at the time.

Not really. The old versions of the tale have Beauty being woken up by her children nursing. The rape has always been there.,

I just I accept I don’t have a mental movie and I haven’t for decades. What I have is a better appreciation for the flow of the words and some vague images.

All of Bujold is amazing. Her World of Five Gods has got to be one of the best examples of religion in fantasy ever.

Dresden would be more forgivable if fans did not constantly say there are no issues. Most series have issues. The fact that fans claim all issues are fixed after book 4 is wrong. The most honest answer is Dresden is Dresden if he bugs you bail. If the writing bugs you it does get a bit better.

Romance is a thriving genre with massive sales and a truly insane number of sub genres. This romantasty crap is just romance done outside the strict Romance lines.

It’s not me being offended so much as annoyed that these readers don’t feel like actually going to their preferred area. It’s the same BS as trying to have spice in YA instead of just telling idiots to start reading adult.

If romantasy is fantasy romance then how does Hidden Legacies by Ilona Andrews, Merry Gentry by Laurel K Hamilton, and then Patricia Briggs two series shake out? What is urban fantasy, paranormal romance, fantasy romance, or this new romantasy BS?

Yet, it is supposedly distinct enough not to be paranormal romance, genre romance in a fantasy world, not long running series with a strong romance b plot.

I personally think it is pure garbage to kick female MC’s out of adult fantasy because all those books get a forced romance arc.