really appreciated what you said about the story being about f&m's relationship - that is what grabbed me about the books, and what has me on edge for the rest to come out - and is often the sort of story i like best. but i wouldn't be reading them if they weren't fantasy. i don't know if i can put my finger on why a similar relationship in a contemporary, 'real' setting wouldn't grab me - but i have tried reading such books (usually when my mother gives them to me as gifts, testing to see if i have outgrown the fantasy 'phase' yet - nope, still strong after 20some years, thank you) - anyway, it's nice to see someone else who feels similarly, and with similar lack of reasons.
i do think that maybe part of why i'm so drawn to sf/f is that it allows writers to ask questions that would be harder to ask in 'normal' settings. i wonder if it also allows 'spectacular ordinary' characters and situations to be more plausible - ie if you had set your books in a modern setting, coming up with a way for f&m to be brothers, separated, go through such different circumstances, for felix to be brought into a place of power and been successful there, and then been brought down so spectacularly - might the reader have eventually said 'oh come ON already'? maybe in a realistic setting, our disbelief is already less suspended and we're more demanding in that regard, more apt to see contrived situations?
which is not to say that i felt your work is contrived. it works very well. i'm inclined to think that a similar setup in a modern setting might not manage that.
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i do think that maybe part of why i'm so drawn to sf/f is that it allows writers to ask questions that would be harder to ask in 'normal' settings. i wonder if it also allows 'spectacular ordinary' characters and situations to be more plausible - ie if you had set your books in a modern setting, coming up with a way for f&m to be brothers, separated, go through such different circumstances, for felix to be brought into a place of power and been successful there, and then been brought down so spectacularly - might the reader have eventually said 'oh come ON already'? maybe in a realistic setting, our disbelief is already less suspended and we're more demanding in that regard, more apt to see contrived situations?
which is not to say that i felt your work is contrived. it works very well. i'm inclined to think that a similar setup in a modern setting might not manage that.