shamelessly pleading for fiction recs

[truepenny]

Because I have so few books to read. *g*

Actually, because I'm setting myself up to do some difficult things in The Project, and I'd like to see how others have done them. I believe firmly in learning from examples, which is why I've been gnawing on A Civil Campaign like a dog with a bone for the past, oh, month. So I'm looking for stories--any length, but, please, original fiction because of my ethical Issues--y'all would particularly recommend (either as good models or Horrible Examples) which have either or both of the following:

1. a blind protagonist/narrator

2. explicit m/m or f/f sex (R to NC-17) written by actual practitioners of same, because I don't want to fall into the het woman trap of writing the sex scenes like it all assimilates to my experience. Vanilla, BDSM, various flavors of kink, it's all good. N.b., I am NOT looking for erotica; I'm looking specifically for stories in which the sex, while steamy, is part of the plot, rather than the raison d'etre. Actually, come to think of it, if you know any het fictions which use their steamy sex scenes for more than just steamy sex, stick them in, too.

And because--despite my brain the size of a planet--I am sadly lacking in intellectual staying power, the more sfnal the story the better.

*looks at post*
This will be interesting.

Comments

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

Oh! Duh! Plot. Strike Crusie, maybe. Or not.

Laura Kinsale uses the sex scenes to further the plot/show character in rather striking ways in The Shadow and the Star and My Dear Folly (genre romance).

And there's always Cyteen. Hmm. Explicit sex which furthers the plot and isn't rape?

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Well, y'know, book recommendations are book recommendations. Books to enjoy are just as important as books to learn from.

And, um, yeah. For my particular purposes at the moment, rape is not so much what I'm looking for.

(There's a whole 'nother post about recuperation (rape/other trauma/being evil for a century/whatever) and how and why it habitually gets booted in fiction (say it with me, people, Redemption is boring!), but I'll hold off on that a bit.)

You'll tell me how the Peter Dickinson works out, right?

You're right about Nicola Griffith (god I wish I liked her better than I do), and also about Delany, whose sex scenes are about as erotic as chopped liver.

Am reading Affinity right now (borrowed from heres_luck, who came downstairs and said, You must read this). Liking it muchly, so will probably go on to others.

Okay, my parentheses are totally out of control. Shutting up now.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I have infected you with raging parentheses. I am so sorry.

I have difficulty defining "explicit" and "further the plot," which is interfering with my pushing books on you. Also the question of the author's sexuality.

I love Sarah Waters. I bought Affinity on a whim when I was ordering books from Amazon.co.uk, and it was one of my best whims ever.

I thought I was the only person who didn't like NG's writing? Everyone else raves about it, and she's writing about things I usually like, so I keep trying and bouncing. Also, I keep needing to have lesbian sf to recommend, and it's immensely frustrating that her books are in stores and lesbian sf I like better is not. Damn it.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

I am totally spamming your in-box. I feel vaguely guilty, but not the least little bit sorry. And the parentheses are so not your fault. They're a vicious habit I had in high school, broke myself of (very slowly) in college and grad school, and am now finding creeping back--although, so far, they are confining themselves to informal communication, which is okay with me.

If instead of saying "further the plot," I say, "develop character and/or relationship," does that help? I don't mean that the sex has to be part of some Tantric Grail Quest (god, now I think I need to scrub my mind out--sorry!); I mean that the sex has to serve some purpose in the story beyond merely two characters getting it on. Although tastefully non-explicit, Swordspoint (as per usual) is a good example of the kind of thing I'm talking about. The sex scenes tell us way more about Alec, in particular, than anything else in the book. And I'm perfectly willing to loosen up on the sexual orientation of author criterion; I just want to find scenes that aren't replicating heterosexist assumptions about partners' roles in bed.

I admire Nicola Griffiths's writing intensely; I just don't like it very much. Like you said about Barbara Vine over in that other conversation, she's just too cold for me.