Thraxas-werewolves and Poets

One of my favourite books recently is called "The Lonely Werewolf Girl",by Martin Miller. It is the tale of an outcast teen werewolf, her complicated family, and unlikely friendships. It is dark and blackly comic. I loved it immediately and wanted more. I of course bought the sequel "The Curse of the Werewolf Girl", as soon as I was aware of it's existence.
 Reading this was a little disappointing, however still an enjoyable read.
Since then I have wanted to read more Miller, and just haven't gotten around to it.Or so I thought....
It turns out that this king of dark poetry a light comic side to his  menu. I discovered today, his alter ego is Thraxas writer: Martin Scott!

Thraxas, by Martin Scott

As a libriarian I try to avoid buying books; however as a charity shop and Forbidden Planet addict I sometimes can't resist...






Yesterday I bought "Thraxas", and am almost halfway through it. It a comic fantasy about a jolly, though not so successful private eye, who stumbles about solving mysteries with the help of his part orc, part elf and part human friend Makri.

It's in no way a piece of literary art, but so far very enjoyable. The story includes secretive princesses, ex-gladiator warriors(Makri), elves , assasins and dragons. I will certainly be continuing to follow Thraxas' further adventures as a previous charity shop binge resulted in the purchase of  two other books in the series: "Thraxas Under Sea" and "Thraxas at War".

Firebrands-The Heroines of Science Fiction & Fantasy

Just stumbled on this book in the library by, Ron Miller, and Pamela Sargent. I was quite excited till I opened the book. It is a confusing book to view, as it appears like a male fantasy art book. It is filled with great portraits of fabulous female characters, with interesting information about the stories they are from,. however many of then are half naked or fully naked, with no explanation as to why. And again there are the warriors with armour on one arm or sexy breast plates that would not save them from a fatal wounding. Grr.
I am going to keep reading though because I would like to track down and read some of the stories mentioned.
The first really interesting one I've come across is:
The epic poem "Orlando Furioso" by Luvico Ariosto, written in the 1500s!
One of the characters Bradamant, the daughter of a duke, is also a knight who fights alongside her brothers and cousins.

I've also just discovered a rewritten version of the story of Bradamant here:

Silver Glass-the fun starts here

If you are looking for a novel with female characters as I have described previously,I reccomend delving into the pages of J.F. Rivkins Silverglass series.

It is a "real" fantasy with tavern brawls, sword fights and magic.Oh and sex. The difference is the main two characters are female. A sorceress (Nyctasia) and a mercenary ex soldier (Corsen)who she hires as a bodyguard. The Tavern brawls are ineviatably started by a rather drunken Corsen, who is a fun, tough and loyal if a bit lost sort of person.Prefers action to words.

Nycstasia, is just as tough, though more with words, and her magic than physically.They make a great pair and the story which continues with 3 more books.

It is only one of the few Fantasy series I have found with such great feamale characters, and a good yarn of a story.

(of course the cover is very much aiming for the male audience, but if you look beyond this it's a very enjoyable light and entertaining story)
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my favourite kind of book-and female characters

I like all areas of the scifi fantasy genre, but currently my thing is urban fantasy. Authors such as:
Jim Butcher(the Dresden Files-read them all including the graphic novel)
Kim Harrison(the Rachel Morgan witch series-all read)
Tanya Huff ( the Enchantment Emporium among others)
T.A.Pratt (Marla Mason series)
come to mind....

then there other books which are borderline genres.
Are the Sookie Stackhouse books(by Charlaine Harris) or Kelly Armstrong's stories, urban fantasy, horror, just fantasy or even supernatural romance-check out your local library, or bookstore..you will find them shelved in each of these sections...along with other vampire/werewolf stories .

I don't really care what they are identified as, they are to me a jolly good read, not too dark, a bit of magic and more than a few kick ass female characters.

Ah ha, now here I have hit on a regular theme in my fave books-the kick ass female character.She doesnt have to be the main character thought his is preferable, and she doesn't even need to be particulalry strong or always beating people up, just so long as she is not the regular damsel in distress.

I have been reading scifi and fantasy since I was a child, and only in the last few years have realised I prefer scifi , and urban fantasy. the reason is the treatment of female characters.

Logically to me, scifi and fantasy is just that, fantasy, fiction, MADE UP. So therefore characters do not need to be representative or be anything like REAL LIFE. So working on that theory, fantasy fiction, could have female heroines.

However, disappointingly this hardly ever happens. one of my favourite authors(you will have to guess), kinds disappointed me , when he basically said , when talking about female characters in fantasy novels, that the stories would be historically inaccurate if female characters were the heroes, or leadertypes etc....because most fantasy stories take place in a kind of middle ages era, when women traditionalyl submissive or protected from the world.

But it's a FANTASY WORLD, not real England in the middle ages... we didn't have dragons and trolls and magic rings etc in the middle ages either,!

Just my opinion-I think it the right one though.....

Thus I prefer not read stories where if the main characters is female she is bought or sold, uses her body to get some where, is raped then is having willing sex five minutes later...(this happened in an otherwise interesting and original book i can't remember the name of or author just now)....

next-a look at one of my favourite fantasy books...

welcome to my world

Welcome.
This blog is a light-hearted blog about scifi, and fantasy books I'm reading and want to read in the future.
I am no expert on either the topic of Scifi, SF, speculative Fiction, or what ever you like to call it, or on the skill of writing, I just know what I like and what I don't.
This blog is also and experiment to gain experience in blogging.

so heh ho and off we go!
Nanoo, Nanoo....


I might ocasionally talk tv or film too...