Niche
wanted
to read:
With International Women's Day coming up, I'd like to read a recent (hoping to support a newish female author) fantasy novel Core Traits: - Written by a woman - With a female protagonist - Written from a single POV - Involving an adventuring party traveliWith International Women's Day coming up, I'd like to read a recent (hoping to support a newish female author) fantasy novel Core Traits: - Written by a woman - With a female protagonist - Written from a single POV - Involving an adventuring party traveling around (a small space ship crew can do in a pinch, I want a squad that has each other's backs)
Extras: - It'd be great if women featured prominently in the story beyond the protagonist. - I'd like the setting to be fairly developed and don't mind the author making up words. - I think I'm in the mood for it to be first-person perspective, but third-person isn't a deal breaker.
Disqualifying aspects are: - Any Romance (any kissing, swooning, pining, sex, rape/molestation, romantic/sexual tension, hookups including between the party members and side characters) - Game-lit/lit-rpg scenarios where the characters have stats and levels like a game - Angsty, angry, or brooding protagonists - School/Academia settings - Military/Enlisted fiction
Examples/References (sort of): I liked the writing style and world-building of The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman, but that had too much romance for me. I'd like to avoid it being sad and dark, the example at least managed to have a fun/upbeat vibe despite the bleak setting.
A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher was fun, but didn't have much travel (even within the city) and felt geographically small, as well as not having much of a group dynamic.
I don't mind it being smaller stakes or cozy/no stakes at all, in fact, I'd prefer it not to be the fate of the world at stake....more
About:
I like books with humor, wit, whimsy, or friendship. I prefer friendship over romance. Seriously, Platonic romantic friendship is my jam, add romance I like books with humor, wit, whimsy, or friendship. I prefer friendship over romance. Seriously, Platonic romantic friendship is my jam, add romance to my characters and I'm betrayed. Romance is the equivalent of the dog dying to me. Why kill the dog, author?
I avoid: Addiction, Angst, Drama(Interpersonal), Death-games/matches, Conspiracies, Corruption, Crime(Organized), Romance(Kissing,Cheating,Triangles,Friends/Enemies-to-Lovers,Thirsting,Pining)
For graphic novels, I mostly read manga, but will read western stuff as long as it doesn't involve DC/Marvel Big Events, multiverses, time travel, Batman as a monomaniacal madman, Harley and the Joker breaking up, Alfred's RIP, Krakoa, or Spider-Man's Faustian marital bargains.
Oxy (Oxytoxin) Ratings are made based on the severity of romance taking into account prevalence, prominence, and explicitness. 0: None. No romance. (Mostly children's books and slice-of-life/moe manga) 1: There is barely there romance. "Off-screen" with side characters. (Lord of the Rings) 2: The protagonist might experience attraction or romantic tension. (The Goblin Emperor, Gideon the Ninth) 3: Romance is tangential or incidental occurrence. There might be a lovelorn monolog, but there's not really any big hooking up. 4: Romance is a driver of the plot or characters, but it's not a central focus of the text. Characters may be courting, but not a lot of ink about it or any hookups. (Jane Eyre) 5+: Not the max, but the highest I bother to go. Oxy junky territory. The story heavily features romance in length or detail (Pride and Prejudice).
^I'm now trying to flesh it out by qualifying Gaze (level of titillation/appeal directed at the viewer: from LEOtards and battlekinis to gravure erotica), Physicality (level of physical contact: hugging, kissing, groping, sex), Romance (pining to swooning), Sexual Tension (leering, leching, thirsting, to in heat frustration)...more
