snugglekitty

Behind the cut, find reviews of The Dragon Quintet anthology, Specials by Scott Westerfeld, The Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner, and The Happy Hook-Up by by Alexa Joy Sherman and Nicole Tocantins.

The Dragon Quintet has been out for quite a while. It doesn't surprise me that I didn't run into it previously because I don't like dragons. I don't know why. I've just never been all that into them. It's an anthology of five novellas - my favorite was Tanith Lee's, "Love in the Time of Dragons." The other stories were good too, though. I doubt I'd ever pick it up again, though, so I give it three stars.

Specials was the final book in the acclaimed new Uglies trilogy by Scott Westerfeld. I enjoyed each book. I think I enjoyed this one a little bit less, because there wasn't really anything unexpected in it, the way there had been with the previous books, and because I knew that the series was ending which made me sad. Four stars, although it was slightly less un-put-down-able than the other two.

The Privilege of the Sword returns us once again to the world of Swordspoint and The Fall of Kings. I loved this book. I definitely liked it better than FoK, and thought it was about on par with Swordspoint. The latter gets points for having fairy tale stuff woven into it, but this one had a female main character, which was cool. Plus, she had to wear boy's clothes and take lessons in swordsplay. There were courtesans, too. I'm just saying, it worked for me. Yum. Four stars.

The Happy Hook-Up has the subtitle "The Single Girl's Guide to Casual Sex." Unfortunately, besides some pithy sayings, there wasn't a lot in it that I hadn't already learned in my wealth of experience with casual sex. Also, it is written from a very straight perspective. One small section in one chapter entitled "Lesbo Lust" talked about the taboo pleasures of doing it with another girl, which was still written for straight girls and made me want to retch. Also, despite the fact that it talked a lot about the dangers of STDs and serial killers, it was surprisingly lacking in practical information. Ie, there was no mention of gloves or self-defense classes as a way to protect yourself from these things. And then there was a whole chapter of "Don't do him if he..." including many things that I personally find incredibly attractive and endearing. Such as, Birkenstocks, being a great dancer, piercings, an expressed interest in BDSM, or even riding a bicycle. It felt a little bit judgemental. I would have found a section on "how to keep it 'friends' even though you're rolling around" or "how to not feel guilty about casual sex" way more useful for beginners.
They recommend, also, that you never sleep with any guy you want for casual sex more than three times and you never give him your number. Oh, yes, and don't cuddle after sex. I don't know. It was just a slightly weird approach, I feel. I'd give it three stars, because the world needs more books like book 107. I just wish they were being written for people like ME.

Now that I'm done with it, would anyone like to borrow The Happy Hook-up? It was good, and would be great for someone who doesn't have a lot of experience with casual sex. Plus, it has so many great expressions - my favorite was the comeback to, "Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?" which was "The milker does all the work. The cow just stands there and gets off. And anyway, why pay for a whole pig when all you want is a little sausage?"

Also, I think I'm going to have to return Can You Forgive Her? and get it out again. I've been reading it intermittently and now I'm about halfway through, which in this case means I've read four hundred pages, and the library won't let me renew it anymore...