(no subject)

I've been nomming all the Vorkosiverse fanfic I can find (nomnomnom) and a gorram plot bunny has BIT MY ARSE (halp) I think I shall spare everyone my appalling writing though.

Anyway, it occurred to me that whilst I'm (probably obviously) v happy that LMB has written some strong women having exciting adventures (all of which are, probably, spoilers) I'm perhaps (to me anyway) surprisingly happy about Alys Vorpatril. Who, if you haven't read the books, has, in a very gender-segregated world, a very feminine job; but it's a job she clearly takes pride in, and a job that she is very clearly recognised (by the characters and the authorial voice) as being good at, and a job that is very very clearly Important. It makes me happy that a woman doing a "woman's" job can be shown as being Important and Useful and Competent (and not dismissed as pointless).

Because whilst its also nice to know that commanding spaceships is TOTALLY something a woman could do (because it is) that all those things that women do when they aren't allowed near spaceships are also important and useful and stuff.

Of course it would be nice if more men could be shown doing such things too...

More books

Two with the same cover art (Whut is up with that?!)

Elantris (Sanderson)

I like this, it's his first novel and I think not as good as Way of Kings although certainly very good. I do like the way he picks a small number of view points to work from, I especially like that one of them is a woman. I shall certainly be reading Mistborn just as soon as I wear away some of this to-read pile I'm wading through :-)

Lifelode (Walton)

This one is slightly strange. And all in the present tense, which makes it slightly strange to read; and in a messy order rather than linear, which is a part of the story. I liked it lots and lots.

And one other

Among Others (Walton)

Ah, a book with lots and lots of SF references; most of which I don't get. Apparently I'm too young. One review seemed to think the main character is impossible objective about her life or some such tosh; but I think it makes a lot of sense and feels very real. Apart from the bits that don't, of course :-p