All posts tagged grimdark man grimdark

LIVING NEXT DOOR TO THE GOD OF LOVE and how my skin crawled off my bones thanks to Justina Robson

Where do you run when a world is out to get you? AIs, Forged beings, superheroes, angels, and worlds that change in the blink of an eyehere is a richly imagined tale of ordinary redemption in an extraordinary world from one of the most provocative writers working today…. Francine is a young runaway looking to find a definition of love she can trust. In Sankhara, she finds a palace where rooms are made of bone, flowers, and the hearts of heroes. She finds a scientist mapping the territory of the human mind. She finds a boyfriend. And she finds Eros itself incarnated in the androgynously irresistible form of Jalaeka. But not everyone is in love with the god of love. Unity, for one, wants to assimilate Jalaeka along with every other soul in the universe. And contrary to what everyone always believes, love alone can’t save the day. It will take something both more and less powerful than the human heart to save the worlds upon worlds at risk when gods collide. 

This book was bad for me.

On one hand, the premise–as outlined above–absolutely sucked me in. Rooms made of bone, flowers, and the hearts of heroes! Androgynes! Multiverses! Wait, what the fuck is Unity?

And what the fuck is this really lengthy rape scene doing here?

Wait a minute. Why are there two lengthy rape scenes?

(more…)

11 Comments
by acrackedmoon on February 1, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Books, Fantasy, Genderfail
Tagged , , ,

Posted by acrackedmoon on February 1, 2012

http://requireshate.wordpress.com/2012/02/01/living-next-door-to-the-god-of-love-and-how-my-skin-crawled-off-my-bones-thanks-to-justina-robson/

grimdark is BEST SERVED COLD

Springtime in Styria. And that means war.There have been nineteen years of blood. The ruthless Grand Duke Orso is locked in a vicious struggle with the squabbling League of Eight, and between them they have bled the land white. While armies march, heads roll, and cities burn, behind the scenes bankers, priests and older, darker powers play a deadly game to choose who will be king.

War may be hell, but for Monza Murcatto, the Snake of Talins, the most feared and famous mercenary in Duke Orso’s employ, it’s a damn good way of making money too. Her victories have made her popular – a shade too popular for her employers taste. Betrayed, thrown down a mountain and left for dead, Murcatto’s reward is a broken body and a burning hunger for vengeance. Whatever the cost, seven men must die.

A riveting tale of GRIMDARK, MAN, GRIMDAAAARK.

I dearly hope this book’s supposed to be a comedy, because there’s no way it can be seriously taken even remotely slightly. I have the suspicion, however, that I’m laughing at, not with, Abercrombie.

(Huge rape trigger in footnote.)
(more…)

2 Comments
by acrackedmoon on May 27, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Books, Fantasy
Tagged , ,

Posted by acrackedmoon on May 27, 2011

http://requireshate.wordpress.com/2011/05/27/grimdark-is-best-served-cold/

THE STEEL REMAINS and the FFFFUUUUU

It seems that after the advent of A Song of Ice and Fire, anything that has enough “gritty realism” and enough iterations of “fuck” in it will be proclaimed the next second coming. Just, you know, as long as the characters swear often enough. Say, how about twenty times a page? No? Well, let’s make that fifty and we’ve a deal!

And there you have Richard Morgan’s The Steel Remains in a nutshell.1

I think it says something–says a lot of things, really–when one of the positive Amazon reviews of this book begins with:

I’ve been a fan of Morgan’s since his first book, Altered Carbon. His novels generally have the same pattern: The main character is an alienated, burnt-out warrior with dangerous combat skills. He has a tortured past, and is largely amoral and cynical, but nevertheless fights for justice against incredible odds. In the end, he saves the day and maybe better understands his place in the world. Perhaps rightly, his work gets branded as juvenile, violent, and misogynistic (the female characters are somewhat poorly drawn). It’s also great fun to read.

Pretty much. Except the great fun part. This reviewer also compares being gay to eating bugs, which is charming to no end. Some others, fans of Morgan from the sf series, whined that The Steel Remainsis too… “politically correct and multicultural.” Is that, like, shorthand for “I’m a xenophobic homophobe, GET THE GAY AWAY FROM ME EWWWW COOTIES WHAT IF I READ THIS AND WANT TO SUCK COCKS TOO”?
(more…)

18 Comments
by acrackedmoon on April 30, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Books, Fantasy
Tagged , , , ,

Posted by acrackedmoon on April 30, 2011

http://requireshate.wordpress.com/2011/04/30/the-steel-remains-and-the-ffffuuuuu/