[LMB] An article referencing Herself at sequentialtart

[Sylvus Tarn]

On Fri, 2006-08-18 at 17:05 +0100, queenortart wrote:
> Nice article, and says so much about the badness of Anita Blake that I
> agree
> with.. 

I have a friend who adored those books, and I slogged through 4-1/2 of
them or so, and finally said, enough.  If she weren't my best friend I
would've never lasted that long, though to be sure, I find the earlier
stuff more readable.  Her main comment, as I recall, was `but you've
given up just before the sex scene!'

Given what I've heard about the current content, it's hard to imagine
now.

As for sf romance---Um, what about Joan Vinge's _Snow Queen, Summer
Queen_ and most especially _Sorrow's End_---BZ Gundhalinu, oh,
luscious...all three plots are driven by the protagonist's desire to
save their love and lovers.

McIntyre's _Dreamsnake_ and the very first hugo winner, Bester's
_Demolished Man_, both have strong romantic subplots.  Sheesh, even that
wretched Zahn homage to the Orient Express has a love interest in it.
Unlike the other poster, I liked StarTide Rising, and there was indeed
plenty of romance in it & sequels.  Vernor Vinge also has had all kinds
of nicely done romance, even (gasp/shock/horror) lesbian romance in
_Marooned in Realtime_.  And yes, though Asaro's depictions of
relationships always seems to me weirdly skewed, there's no question
romance is a very strong theme in her work as well.  My spouse liked the
romance in, um, Neuromancer (IIRC the title.)  So even punk has romance.

I mean, even EE Doc Smith had romance in his stories.  It's not always
major (I liked the low-key stuff in early asimov the best---thinking
about currents of space, esp), it's often not believable (Heinlein
springs to mind).  But it's always been part of the genre.