For what may be obvious reasons, I recently read every story in the original Sherlock Holmes canon — all four novels and 56 short stories.

(This is not bragging. 56 is not that many. Harlan Ellison, one of my favourite writers, is said to have written over 1 000 short stories in his lifetime. You’re welcome to try and verify that claim, but you’ll probably get distracted by the “Controversies and disputes” section of his Wikipedia page.)

The Holmes stories were written before we as a culture fell from god’s grace and invented sequel hooks. As a result, I was struck by the fact that some of the canon’s most famous characters appear quite suddenly and don’t stick around for very long.

An example: if you asked the average person to name three Sherlock Holmes characters, they’d probably say “Holmes, Watson, and Moriarty.” But Professor Moriarty only factors into two stories, and personally appears in just one: "The Final Problem," in which he pops up out of nowhere to kill Holmes. The second story, The Valley of Fear, takes place before "The Final Problem" but was published 21 years later, establishing Moriarty as a recurring threat well after the fact.

Another example: if you asked the average person to name three Sherlock Holmes characters, but stipulated at least one of them had to be a woman, they might say "Holmes, Watson, and Irene Adler." Because Adler is the Woman — the woman who bested Sherlock Holmes.

spoilers for basically any Sherlock Holmes adaptation that has Irene Adler in it )
I've been using Storygraph for the last couple of years. It's a Goodreads alternative that isn't owned by Amazon--which, as far as I'm concerned, is a major selling point all on its own--and offers some pretty robust search and recommendation features.

It also lets me tag books to make lists, and one of my lists is "queer protagonists old enough to pay taxes." In order to make the list a book has to a) be something I've read, b) feature at least one queer lead character, who is c) not a teenager.

You'd be amazed how few books make the cut.

Anyway, here are some of my favorites from the list.

The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht
A dark love story between an immortal undead serial killer and a young noble who wants to end the world. Beautifully nightmarish with a bittersweet ending that's more "bitter" than "sweet." If you're a big fan of "wholesome" romance, maybe skip this one. Or don't, I'm not your dad.

Kill Game by Cordelia Kingsbridge

The first in the 5-book Seven of Spades detective series, which features two gay leads and the ongoing drama of both their relationship and the serial killer obsessed with them. You may have noticed a theme regarding the stuff I read. Really good balance of romance drama and crime drama, with characters who are flawed while still remaining reasonable adults who behave like adults.

A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson
A queer polyamorous take on Dracula, from the perspective of his first bride. An insightful look at abuse, codependency, and why having a threesome (or foursome) will not fix your marital problems. Again, if you like wholesome fluff, this is definitely not that.

Magic's Promise by Mercedes Lackey
All right, I'm cheating a little bit with this one. This is the second book of Lackey's The Last Herald-Mage trilogy, the first being disqualified because the main character, Vanyel, is 16 in it. In this book, Vanyel is in his late 20s and experiencing the consequences of being a kingdom-saving hero for over a decade. Which is to say, he's having a bad time. Good old-fashioned sword & sorcery with a lot of time spent on the characters' interior lives, plus magic psychic horses. If you plan to get into the Valdemar books, though, I recommend starting with the Arrows of the Queen trilogy first.

Widdershins by Jordan L. Hawk
The first in the 11-book Whyborne & Griffin series, a queer take on Lovecraftian horror. A philologist falls in love with a private detective, becomes a sorcerer, and realizes the world he knows is under constant threat by monsters from beyond the veil. He will proceed to do something incredibly dramatic and life-threatening at the slightest provocation at least once every book from that point forward.

You can find the rest of the list on Storygraph here.
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And finally, this work is also dedicated in furious disgust to ridding our world of the influence of everyone complicit in using the pandemic as a tool for their own power, profits, and political maneuvering. You pushed hateful agendas while the bodies were stacked up. We all lost people dear to our hearts because of you parasitic, heartless creatures. If you had souls, you'd be damned.

-from the dedication of Beyond, by Mercedes Lackey.

I think it's safe to say Mercedes Lackey is sick of this shit.

This summer, I started rereading the Valdemar books. This wasn't prompted by the recent announcement that a television series is being made; I was just one of many hit with Apollo's big rubber dodgeball of prophecy this year. I can't really say what brought on my impulse to revisit the series. Maybe the fact that I had just moved to a new country to start a new job inspired a need to latch onto something familiar.

I first started reading the Valdemar books as a young teenager. I came across a copy of The White Gryphon on a thrift store bookshelf and was immediately attracted by three things on the cover:

  1. A lavishly-detailed painting of a gryphon,
  2. A title in purple stamped foil,
  3. A $2 price tag.

Needless to say, I was hooked.

spoilers for the entire Valdemar series, including Beyond )

So it turns out one of the producers from the upcoming Wheel of Time television series (are we still calling these things "television" when they aren't airing on actual broadcast television?) is also working on an adaptation of The Last Herald-Mage.

First off, while I was previously not at all interested in the Wheel of Time adaptation, I am now very invested in whether it turns out to be any good.

Second, I know Vanyel is Mercedes Lackey's special boy, but I'm not actually sure The Last Herald-Mage is a good place to start with a Valdemar adaptation.

spoilers for the Arrows and Last Herald-Mage trilogies )
In the process of moving some books over to the new bookshelf, I came across this:


... which I do not remember buying. So I flip to the back:


... and start to remember that a friend bought it for me because he knows I love trash, and ... wait, what's that at the bottom?


What do they mean by ...?


fuck
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I don't directly recommend stuff to people very often; I figure talking about why I love a thing is much more effective than telling somebody else why they should love it. That said, if you either love fairy tales or hate fairy tales, you should pick up a copy of Fantasy and Science Fiction's September/October 2019 issue and read "Madness Afoot," by Amanda Hollander.

I realize getting one's hands on any copy of Fantasy and Science Fiction is a bitch and a half these days, especially since the website appears to have time-traveled from 1998, but I promise it's worth it. You can get a digital copy here.
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