A review I hadn't seen...

[desperance]

...of Outremer, no less! In which I am castigated, but fairly mildly; the reviewer liked the books, on the whole. A lot, it says. Despite all the flaws, it says.

*is flawed*

Comments

[esmeraldus-neo.livejournal.com]

You may know that Japanese artists sometimes included a single deliberate flaw in what was otherwise a masterful work of art, because the "flaw" enabled the viewer to meditate on the true beauty of the object.

[annathepiper]

There are copies of the Outremer books in the nearby new/used bookstore, I note; I'm eying them for after I finish Bridge of Dreams.

Which, by the way, I am enjoying immensely. :)

[athenais.livejournal.com]

I wonder if that reviewer knows the moron who complained Jo Walton's Small Change series has "too many" gay people in it?

[julesjones]

The reviewer does seem to like it quite a lot.

I am mildly amused by the way it is necessary to warn about Teh Ghey, even when the reviewer's personal opinion seems to be "ooh, gay, yummy!" Probably says something about what sort of people I expect to be reading my ramblings about books that *my* mention of Teh Ghey was more along the lines of "ooh, look, get yer gay romance here!"

[desperance.livejournal.com]

What I thought was really interesting, when the books first came out, was that - I think without exception - the UK reviews didn't find Teh Ghey worth a mention. Again I think without exception, the US reviews all did; even the positive ones gave an Awful Warning. Presumably to filter out people like the guy who ranted on Amazon: "I thought I was reading fantasy fiction, and I suddenly discovered it was homoerotic pornography!" Um, right. When the strongest meat in it is pillow-talk. I keep hoping that he'll read Monette & Bear's "A Companion to Wolves", because nobody will have warned him...

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Yup, good review. (Which Google didn't bother to Alert me about, although I have recently been Alerted twice that you are mentioned on your own site, in neither case on a page which has been changed in the last year. Sigh.)

Interesting a) that the pace picks up in the middle volumes and b) that your prose is "raw" (but tasty, nonetheless).

[pennski.livejournal.com]

Hey - Let's focus on the positive. Like this sentence.

"It resolves a particular character conflict that was simmering since the first book, and in a way that made perfect sense. If you've read Kay's The Lions of Al-Rassan, it's like that. Except much better."

Plus - at least one person is going out to buy it as a result of that review!

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I confess, I did like that line. Although obviously it's nonsense; I may have an ego the size of a small stadium, but even I am prepared to admit that GGK is better than me. Damn his eyes.

Good luck with the running today!