SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

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Angie Thomas on breath-holding.

ha!

sob

Lol. But I knew I’ve been holding it so for me it was “releasing a breath she had been holding for over 4 years” lol

The Real: "Elke let out the breath she’d not been aware she was holding."

Miss Lionheart and the Laboratory of Death: "Lilly let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding"

No one breathes in books like they used to 🥴

"I exhale a breath I didn't know I was holding." -- Midnight Taxi Tango

I have become extremely sensitive to this trope.

Me too and it makes me laugh every time now. How many characters are running around holding their breath! I just read it or rather heard on the audiobook for Peace Talks : “I let go of a breath I didn’t know I was holding”

And yet, no bingo so far. Can we change World’s hottest dude to World’s horniest dude? That would get me closer to bingo 😂😂😂

Nooooo - De Bodard I thought you were better .....

A character didn’t realize she was holding her breath

From a story on writer's block in Community of Magic Pens: "They put the cup back, or folded their hands on their lap, or leaned back into their chair — Or were they letting out a breath they hadn’t known they were holding?"

There's a scene elsewhere in this short involving collapsing stacks of books with narrative arcs, plot points, dramatic reveals, and tropes flying everywhere. Sounds dangerous...

From The Duke and I:

Simon felt a rush of something utterly foreign fill his lungs. It was air, he realized dumbly. He'd been holding his breath. He hadn't even realized he'd been holding his breath.

Extra points for taking three or four sentences* to say "he let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding"? :D

*(not 100% sure of the punctuation, since this is a transcription from an audiobook. there could be a semicolon in there)

I'm getting close to filling in row 3 with

The Last Wish: Yennefer of the lilac and gooseberries

The Duke and I: the held breath from the previous post

Buried Heart: love triangle.

All that's missing is saving a cute animal! Well, it isn't like I'm trying to target these. They're fun to come across now that I know this bingo exists.

I came across that darned "woman smells like roses" in a military fantasy I recently read. I hope one day someone will change it to "woman smells like blueberries" or something different!

In a military fantasy I wrote, I described the female MC as "reeking like horse piss" after the battle.

That's more like it, Robert! That would make sense! But this silly rose scent seems to be the default scent for women.

I won’t delete this time because there’s a reply but all author comments must stay in the Authors’ folder!

Necrotech

World's hottest dude and world's hottest woman - which applied to almost every character as they were all lusted after. Yea for bisexual rep but that's also an unpleasant stereotype.
Cyberpunk handwavium.
Trauma as character growth.
"Strong" female character who talked and acted like the worst kind of character in dick-lit novels.

Bonus tropes:
Alpha male who is a complete a-hole.
A couple of "oops, I'm naked" in front of an object of lust.
LOTS of "how are you still alive with those wounds let alone running and fighting". There were healing nanobots, but it kept saying they were overwhelmed and burning out while new massive bodily trauma kept accumulating.
Semi-diversity but always fetishized. I almost want to go back and count how many times "dusky" and "swarthy" were used.
It came close to "peril interrupted by lust" only because the main character was constantly lusting after somebody, even when she was in mortal danger.


Four Moons: The Complete Collection

Only the one bed.
World's hottest dude.
Smelled like cinnamon and something I can't remember.
Attractive but doesn't know it.
Told: they're the best. Shown: they're idiots.
Handwavium. SO much handwavium. Painful handwavium.
Trauma as character growth.
Is the sword a metaphor.
Villain monologues.
Saved by deus ex machina.

Bonus tropes:
Chosen one.
Magic swords that can only be used by the chosen one.


Almost but not quite:
He didn't save a cute animal but did try to save and look out for a sweet, helpless, elderly woman who fills that same kind of role.
The main character is an adult so it wasn't that adults are useless, but all authority figures and all world leaders were useless.

All that and no bingo.

So close!!!

The book I'd mentioned a while back that's so trope rich is Green Rider.

From column 4 we have:
Attractive but doesn't know it (main character)
Told: They're the best. Shown: They're idiots (king's calvary)
World's hottest dude (multiple candidates with the king pulling ahead by a crown)
"Strong" female hero (the attractive main character - of course)

Missing from column 4: Release a breath they didn't know they were holding. Not in this book but I think that I've seen that one somewhere else.

Bonus tropes, from column 2:
Saved by deus ex machina (more than one)
Love triangle (just one of these)
Trauma as character growth (I really hate this trope)
Cartoonish witty banter

Missing from column 2: Adults are useless

Other tropes:
Speaks old-timey... poorly
Villain monologues.

So close on this one too...

you can do it!! you can eye roll to a complete bingo!

Allison wrote: "Inspired by Dawn's recent reading, here's a game you can play! Let's see who gets to Bingo first! Bonus if you Bingo from 1 book! (Note: please don't seek these out unless you want to, this is just..."

This is amazing - thank you for putting it together lol

This is an excellent and entertaining thread, but I need someone to explain the "Colonizer is really the victim" trope. Is that where the aliens end up eating the colonists or am I overthinking this?

As for the "Trauma as character development" trope, I understand the difference between experiencing trauma versus developing/growing/learning from those experiences, but from a Hollywood movie perspective this is done all the time and people don't complain about it (though it might be more appropriate as "Trauma as character revenge motivation." Still, I love my Marvel superhero movies yet every superhero "origin story" starts as trauma/tragedy.

Colonizer is the victim is something you see a lot in YA books, like Ember in Ashes, where the guy who is in the pinnacle of society is actually one of the victims of that society because it's abusive to him too. Or to use a classic example, "Heart of Darkness."

I think lots of people complain about characters who are "strong" because of the bad things done to them, but you're right, this one is more my own pet peeve than something like "holding a breath they didn't know about" or something, which I got to indulge in as I was the person who made the Bingo sheet XD

Actually, several of the things on the Bingo sheet I associate more as cliches than tropes. (i.e. overdone writing style vs. overdone character/plot device). But both result in the reader doing an eye-roll, so from that perspective I guess they all count. ;)

G.R. wrote: "Actually, several of the things on the Bingo sheet I associate more as cliches than tropes. (i.e. overdone writing style vs. overdone character/plot device). But both result in the reader doing an ..."

I cringe a little when a guy starts off with "actually", even though I catch myself doing it too once in a while. lol

The things on the bingo sheet all count because they're all tropes, cliched or not. Any commonly used literary device is a trope, even in good writing. A particular writing style might rely on them more heavily, or use them less effectively, but they exist in all writing styles.

A severely overused trope becomes a cliche. Or a cliched trope. The difference in perspective lies in what an individual thinks of as overused.

Trauma as a revenge motivator strikes me as slightly different than trauma as character growth, though both are widely used, and can be used together. It just depends on how well they are done. Both of these are slightly different from using trauma as device for building the protagonist's character in the mind of the reader, which can also be done poorly or well.

Caillen wrote: "I cringe a little when a guy starts off with "actually", even though I catch myself doing it too once in a while..."

Thanks for pointing that out to me! As I read it back, it does come off a little "mansplainy", doesn't it? Sorry about that. ;)

I like the term mansplainy! I haven't heard that before!

Where does a mansplainer get his water?
From a “well, actually “

😆
Not aimed at anyone I just saw an opportunity for jokes

Rachel wrote: "Not aimed at anyone I just saw an opportunity for jokes"
Which you should always take - I laughed out loud.

Rachel, that was...well, classic actually. Loved it.

Oh no!!!! From my current read, The Fortress of Radiance

He looked over at Amarra and let go a breath he had been holding.

Is there no escape from this breath-holding?!

And I need Youkneek's expertise again, since I forget how to unfold things!

Unbold, not unfold. Maybe I also need her expertise in learning how to type, too.

As long as they know they were holding it, I don't mind.

Unbold is < / b >

:-)

I've just read A Dead Djinn in Cairo which featured not-so-alien-aliens, shown: they're idiots, peril interrupted by lust, smelled not only of death, but of the dead (apparently there is a difference!), released a long-held breath (after she was just described as gasping), handwavium, villain monologues, cartoonish witty banter ("Don't like to fly, pretty little boy?" must surely be a sentence nobody in real life, especially not in Victorian-era Cairo, would ever use!), and the "strong" female hero who thinks and acts exactly like a man the whole time. It filled almost the whole board, but was still pretty fun so I liked it okay.

Michelle wrote: "Unbold, not unfold. Maybe I also need her expertise in learning how to type, too."

In most cases, if you can remember the tag for starting, you already know the tag for ending, you just have to remember the /. :)

<b>bold text</b>
<i>italicized text</i>
<spoiler>hidden spoilers</spoiler>

(There’s also a full list in the “some html is ok” link just above the comment box and it shows both the starting and ending tags in case you forget.)

Although difficult to do with html, unfolding is easy too. Put folded objects on a chair or table. Obtain cat. Watch cat knock objects off onto floor. Objects are now at least partially unfolded, repeat if greater unfolding is required. ;)

LOL!!! everyone is a comedian these days. Thank you so much for clearing up this unfolding business! I was well & truly stumped. And thanks to you both; it's the slash that I keep forgetting! I'm in the useless app, so I couldn't link.

Michelle wrote: "I forget how to unfold things!"

This made me literally lol XD

(No, I don't always literally lol when I type lol.)

I'm so glad that my incompetence with unbolding, unfolding and typing brought you a laugh, Anna!! Youkneek's step by step guide to unfolding had me laughing so hard it brought tears to my eyes!

The unfolding-via-cat method was so awesome! 😂

If you think html tags are bad, just think of what predicament you could have found yourself in before...

My dear sir,
I'm afraid I have misplaced my cat and therefore been unable to unfold, read, or reply to any of your correspondence.
Believe me, &c
Lady Butterfingers

Madam,
Perfectly understandable. A common predicament. Please accept the use of my spare tom for all future missives.
I have the honor to be, &c
Sir Nimbleton

I'm not sure I'd want to make use of Sir Nimbleton's spare tom. I would definitely read this book though! And YouKneeK's upcoming book on how to do all things with the help of a cat.

hopefully it has an extensive section on the use of cats as alarm clocks...

LOL Melissa!

Anna, the title is actually How to Undo All Things With the Help of a Cat...

CBRetriever, I'm not sure all cats are suitable for that purpose, but my cat is an awesome alarm clock. He has absolutely no patience with anybody sleeping past 6am, because this is not The Order of Things. If I don't get up on time (and sometimes even if I do), he'll go around methodically opening all the drawers and cabinets in the bedroom furniture.

Poor Little Ernest is just misunderstood!!

well,that's better than finger chomping (Pyewacket) and toe tackling (Katje)

CBRetriever wrote: "well,that's better than finger chomping (Pyewacket) and toe tackling (Katje)"

One of my cats- Willow- is a knuckle nibbler. If I don't get up when the alarm goes off, my knuckles are chewed upon, so I can relate!

Melissa wrote: "If you think html tags are bad, just think of what predicament you could have found yourself in before...

My dear sir,
I'm afraid I have misplaced my cat and therefore been unable to unfold, read,..."

Awesome, Melissa!

I'm still working on a single book bingo. Today's candidate, Soulless, also comes up just short in column four. I found:

Attractive but doesn't know it
Releases a breath they didn't know they were holding
World's hottest dude (who, by the way, smells of open fields and dark cold nights)
"Strong" female hero (and she smells of vanilla and cinnamon)

I'm missing "Told: they're the best. Shown: they're idiots." in this column.

Another clichéd trope that stood out for me in this book was the repeated use of "Peril interrupted by lust." This was absolutely and I assume intentionally ridiculous. There was also a love triangle going on in parallel and in the same room. Wow.

Wait - I can’t think of a love triangle in Souless please refresh my money! (Also yes I agree I think the ridiculousness is purposeful) (and I love it)