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

Re: Book recs

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Have read Wide Sargasso Sea, which I disliked. (Although possibly that's because, way back in the day when I was reading rec.arts.books, somebody posted insisting that Jean Rhys's version was "correct" and Charlotte Bronte had gotten her own book wrong. I went moderately nuclear.)

Also have read The Last Hot Time, which I both love and completely understand your reservations about. It works for me, but it's so terribly oblique and restrained and mannered that I think it only works for me because I am exceptionally willing to let it.

WANT to read the Sharon Baker, but have not yet managed to get my paws on a copy.

I've read other Geoff Ryman and been left cold. Is this one likely to change my opinion, or not so much?

Other recommendations gratefully received and noted. Thank you!

Re: Book recs

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

My problem with The Last Hot Time is that everyone in it seemed to be making assumptions about Danny's political fitness whose source remains entirely unclear to me. The connections between the interpersonal and the sexual were clear enough; the connections between them and the political were not.

All of the characters seemed to be feeling the effect of a charisma that I myself could not see. This was true of Danny's effect on them, and the effect of--eck. I forget the name. The political head honcho.

The effect made sense for someone repressing himself so much he could hardly articulate his own desires, but it didn't do much for me as a reader. And resulted in the odd lacunae I mentioned.

Hmm. It is really hard to talk about this, trying to remain oblique enough not to spoil passers by, and also going on only one reading, and that at least a year ago.

My review of Lust is here (http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=melymbrosia&itemid=141690) (and has proven to me that Obsessive Indexing Is the Way to Go), and contains a link to a review of same by Papersky. If you didn't like the other Ryman you tried, I can't imagine you'd like this.

Baker I can lend you, if you will be very very careful with the spines of my paperbacks. Well, and if I can find them in storage. I have been wanting to reread them, though.

Re: Book recs

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Thank you tremendously much for the offer.

It is sadly true, however, that my household tends to be very hard on books, so I would rather not borrow those that are precious to you. I've never had anything dreadful happen to a borrowed book (yet), but the responsibility would make me twitchy.

Don't worry about it. I'll find 'em sooner or later.