Weird Book World Information of the Day

[rsadelle]

(I promise I'm working on my Escapade con report(s). I just have to get this out first.)

I'd been trying to remember the name of a book. I knew it had a yellow-ish cover, and there was something about an underground (as in, literally under the ground) sexual ritual that Martha and her husband have to (or do) perform.

While Molly was here, we went to the used bookstore downtown, and I randomly found this book. It's The Labyrinth Gate by Alis A. Rasmussen, and the character is actually named Maretha. I quite enjoyed it, which makes me wonder why the hell I got rid of it when I owned it.

Anyway, that's not the point. The point is that I googled the author today. It turns out that Alis A. Rasmussen now publishes under a pseudonym: Kate Elliott. This is completely baffling to me. The Labyrinth Gate is very good. I could only make it through the third book of Kate Elliott's Crown of Stars series. The thing I remember that made me have to stop reading was this: The main character can magically set things on fire. The evil guy has her pinned back against a wall on the top of the tower. And then, instead of setting the bad guy on fire, she sets the whole damn tower on fire.

Despite that stupidity, I did like The Labyrinth Gate so much that I might have to try both Kate Elliott's other series and Alis A. Rasmussen's out-of-print sci fi series.

Comments

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

I don't remember that particular scene, but I actually really love the "Crown of Stars" series because it's one of the best depictions of medieval society I've ever scene (despite the elves and otherworldly creatures) in the way it depicts social stasis and how hard it is to live in a society where there really isn't any significant possibility of social mobility. I also really like her take on religion, but you may need to be a religion nerd like me to really love how she has made Gnosticism the official religion and standard Christianity the heresy.

I really liked Jaran, though, which is the beginning of her other series, though I haven't read the other books in it. I didn't know she also wrote under another name--I'll have to check that book out.

[rsadelle]

You would be a religion geek! I don't really remember the religion thing in the Crown of Stars series. I do have something of a collection of religious fiction; we'll have to trade recs. I remember really liking the theology in Lois McMaster Bujold's Paladin of Souls, but I don't remember anything about it anymore. (It's on my list of things to reread, especially now that there are two more books that come after it.) Have you ever read Lyda Morehouse's AngeLINK series?

Hmm... The library has Jaran, so maybe I'll pick it up when I go to the library on Saturday to return the book I have and swing by the book sale.

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

You know, I have lived here six years and I have yet to get to the public library? It's weird, because in Bloomington I practically lived there. I think it's because when I have time to read non-work stuff these days it's almost always fanfic.

Let me know what you think of Jaran--I loved it, but I read it almost twelve years ago, so I can't even remember what the plot was about! I always meant to reread it and read the later books in the series, but have never gotten around to it. And I haven't read Lyda Morehouse at all, so I'm interested in it.

[rsadelle]

I love the library. I don't know if it's still true, but it used to be that it was better for fiction than the Chico State one. They have a great book sale every Saturday morning (except holidays) (9:30-11:30) where the most I've ever paid for a book is $3.

I think you'll like the AngeLINK series. There's a lot of genderbending mixed in with the religion, including on the part of the angels. Lyda Morehouse actually reads slash, and has (or had; it's been a long time since I read through her site) an outtake sex scene (het, and you shouldn't read it until you've read the books) posted to her website that she says was influenced by all the slash she'd been reading. I think the local library has the first book.