MWT recommendation

[lizzyazula.livejournal.com]

http://www.vox.com/2016/5/22/11693132/game-thrones-recs-george-martin-robin-mckinley-megan-whalen-turner-ellen-kushner

This was just posted on Greenwillow's FB page. Someone wrote a post on books to read while they wait for this weird book in some series I've never heard of--Game of Thrones? It must be, like, super obscure.

Anyway, the post recommended MWT and Robin McKinley! They did fail to mention, however, that MWT is 2000% better than George R.R. Martin can ever hope to be (not that I have any strong, biased opinons. I'm just stating facts....................)

Has anyone here read Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner (the other book recommended in this post)? I'm simultaneously wary and intrigued. (wary that George R.R. Martin likes it, and intrigued that it's being mentioned with MWT and Robin McKinley).

Comments

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Yay for the MWT rec! But to me the obvious answer for GoT fans besides MWT is not McKinley (much as I love McKinley at her best) but Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles.

[ricardienne.livejournal.com]

I quite enjoyed Kushner -- she's much closer to MWT than to GRRM, I think. But the fantasy novel most suited to fans of Attolia, I should say, is THE GOBLIN EMPEROR by Katherine Addison (Aka Sarah Monette).

ETA: also the Aksuma novels of Elizabeth Wein, which are historical fiction (set in late-antique Ethiopia).

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

Seconding the Elizabeth Wein recommendation.

[(Anonymous)]

Isn't this a little funny, though? GRRM fans may have to wait a long time between books, but after reading MWT's books, they'd have to wait just as long, if not longer. (Seriously, MWT must be knitting something really big???)

[lizzyazula.livejournal.com]

I was thinking along the same lines when I read the article. It's more like you watch (or read) GoT to help ease the wait until the next MWT book, rather than the other way around.

What I find really funny is that ACoK was published six years ago in 2010, and season one of GoT premiered in 2011...it's just hard to wrap my mind around that all this brouhaha GoT has caused has all happened after ACoK...and look how far the show is now. It feels like the world's been talking about GoT for a lot longer than that. And still we wait...

[lebateleur.livejournal.com]

MWT is 2000% better than George R.R. Martin can ever hope to be.
Precisely this.

I have been meaning to check out Kushner for some time. As Swordspoint is recommended alongside MWT and Robin, I'll be bumping it to the top of the pile.

[1221bookworm.livejournal.com]

Yes. I second this. MWT deserves a class of her own - and not just a substitute to GoT!

[an-english-girl.livejournal.com]

Agreed!!!
GRRM almost deprived me of QT: I was so put off by the completely unnecessary gloom and sordidity of GoT, I fought shy of any fantasy-genre novels for /years/...
Better late than never :)
And you lucky souls who can go to Florida and meet her! Have a nice meet-up :)

[rabid-bookwyrm.livejournal.com]

Third try, no link, you can find the chronology on Kushner's website.

I like Swordspoint. It's gay and sharp. The subtitle is "a Melodrama of Manners" and that is quite accurate.

I think my favorite entry in the series is actually a short story in a separate anthology, which is what I read first. Looks like it is “The Duke of Riverside” in Naked City: Tales of New Urban Fantasy, ed. Ellen Datlow. I think reading this first was a good move - the characters in Swordspoint go through a lot of transformation and start the story off not always in a good place, but "Duke" is a little later in their lives and you get to see them a little more settled and less harsh.

I also liked Privilege of the Sword (3rd novel published, but second in chronology), but The Fall of the Kings (second pub, 3rd in chron) didn't catch me, I read about half and then skimmed to the end. I have not read any of the other shorts.


So, yes - overall a recommendation, for sure. Like GRRM/ASoIaF in that there is no black and white morality, and like GRRM in that it is a pre-industrial fantasy setting, but otherwise unlike.