[LMB] ACC as Romance, was Elli

[Jennifer Sessions]

Paula Lieberman wrote:
> I think there are some other issues, which is "what sort of plots and
> conflicts do you prefer?"
>
> For those focusing more on romance than SF, Ekaterin is a more appealing
> female lead than Elli, because there are more conflicts involving the
> personal, rather than non-personal-driven elements.
>
> I'm putting that badly, I think. In romances there is a strong focus
> on -relationship- issues as drivers.  ...
>
> I didn't finish ACC,  I got to that dinner party scene and stopped dead... plus, where the embarrassment factor hit... that
> sort of scene is EXACTLY the sort of thing that drives me straight out of a
> book.  There are sorts of suspense that I just cannot handle, and seeing
> that train wreck on the way... I just could NOT deal with it. Miles making
> an ass out of himself in that particular way, wasn't amusing to me, it was
> pain and "I do't want to see him being STUPID!"  
Oh yes. the dinner party is still hard for me to voluntarily read 
precisely for the cringe inducing impending doom nature of the fiasco. 
(this is why I find The Office depressing instead of hilarious, like 
everybody else seems to). But to stop completely there is bad, cause 
after some judicious moping, Miles remembers he works best with no 
brakes and stops applying them. And the Politics plots begin to really 
shape into awesome.  Some of the pairings do end up a little Austenianly 
pat, but not in a sickeningly saccharine way (if anything they seem a 
contagion of the moment, as if Gregor and Laisa are infectious with 
their gooey eyed looks).  If you like politics at all, the rest of the 
book is well worth it, also to see everybody fix stuff after, which is 
much less mortifying. It is the absolute low point of the book, and the 
worthier part is what happens after. They are thrown together for more 
than the Relationships sake.
> hyperactive creative git of Warrior's Apprentice who defeated every attempt
> of the instructors at  the military academy to simulatedly kill him (his
> maneuvering around in the simulated poison leak and aplomb and competence in
> TWA compared to his turkey incompetence behavior in ACC -- or rather, my
> recollecton of my perception. )
>   
That hyperactive git makes quite an appearance, trust me, just not a 
military one.

Please try again. There are some toe curlingly wonderful triumphs in ACC 
that aren't merely romantic.

(I'm not a romance person. I"ve been trying *really hard* with the 
sharing knife books, because they are Bujold, and sometimes they do grab 
me and make me turn the page, but reading them has been a little bit of 
a slog for me.)


Jenny Sessions