SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

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 to see how common these tropes are!)

I want to hear all the things your book dudes smell of!

(I mostly see soap and pine, with subtle hints of sweat. That's because I read too much YA :P)

Ladies also have the double smell! It's usually something like "jasmine and rose petals."

I know that's how I walk around smelling constantly.

Oh true, but I haven't noticed all the ladies smelling the same! Maybe I just don't pay attention, because I totally smell of all the things they do?

Oh, a lot of ladies smell of vanilla, which is actually something I can't stand as a perfume :S

I recently read a book that would've made me spit out my tea if I'd been drinking it. It was along the lines of "He gripped the teacup he hadn't realized he'd been holding" XD It was SO HILARIOUS, I get so annoyed with the breath-holding, and this was so clearly making fun of that :P

Jasmine and rose are not compatible scents and WHY would I want a man to smell like pine?? I grew up around pine trees. There was one right outside the front door of the house I grew up in, and never once did I think "This. THIS is what I want my future husband to smell like."

If not pine, then it's another woodsy smell. Lumberjacks? I have literally no idea, but I've read at least twenty books with dudes smelling like different conifers.

I guess they take their sprucing up too literally? :D

*Glares at Becky over spectacles*
*Removes her from list of main heroines for teen dystopia novel*

lol

Sad to say I think I'm at 2 points right now for one of the books I'm reading. We've got the breath-holding and the purple prose, with such delightful over-statement as "her eyelashes shaded her face."

???

Yeah that happens to me all the time! That's why I'm so pale and have vitamin D deficiency, my eyelashes block out the sunlight!

edit 6 months later: typo!

(I just got a shipment of essential oils, my house is about to smell like pine and juniper XD And eucalyptus, also a tree. I should just move into a tree with squirrels.)

Or douse yourself in tobacco and then growl at a girl until she falls in love with you.

Allison wrote: "Ladies also have the double smell! It's usually something like "jasmine and rose petals."

I know that's how I walk around smelling constantly."

*Looks at Yennefer of Vengerberg*
Lilac and Gooseberries.

By the way, my sense of smell is still absent, unless I put something right under my nose. Bugger.

Yes exactly haha!

Ughhh, that's a shame. I hope it comes back over the next year!

Tomas wrote: "By the way, my sense of smell is still absent, unless I put something right under my nose. Bugger. "

Mine's been gone since December but I have occasional flashes of smell, so maybe it's coming back.

Handwavium is when the answer to something is really "just because."

Examples:

-FTL with no explanation of the physics behind it
-Gaining a new magic power without foreshadowing
-Showing up just in time for something even if the logistics wouldn't work

Haha exactly!

Laurie wrote: "What is this teacup book?"

I know for sure it's a Cat Sebastian book, but I have them all on audio, so I can't check which one. Either Hither, Page or It Takes Two to Tumble, I think?

Allison wrote: "*Glares at Becky over spectacles*
*Removes her from list of main heroines for teen dystopia novel*

lol"

oh no. please no. staaaahp. O_O

Becky wrote: "Allison wrote: "*Glares at Becky over spectacles*
*Removes her from list of main heroines for teen dystopia novel*

lol"

oh no. please no. staaaahp. O_O"

hahaha

Anna, those book titles!!!!! They're hysterical!!

lol, well you don't even have to read them to be amused! :)

This list is so awesome! Very funny, even though I actually like some of these tropes (yes, please save the cute animal) and I think I'm likely to encounter many of them in 2021.

I'm always amazed how fantasy land dudes and ladies can spend all day riding without deodorants having been invented, and afterwards smell like wood smoke and "something dark", or fresh-cut grass and "something spicy".

And the "Told: they're the best. Shown: they're idiots": this was so apparent in The Queen of the Tearling, which featured the worst "elite" bodyguards ever:(https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) I just wanted to scream at them.

But I must say I really like "just the one bed" if it leads to genuinely funny interactions due to the forced proximity. I'm shallow like that!

I agree Eva, not all of these are "bad" (and in the right context, all can be "good!")

Eva wrote: "yes, please save the cute animal"

Do you consider a dragon hatchling a cute animal?
----
EDIT: By the way, maybe we should start a 'sister topic' in the author section and see what people say about their experience from the other side?

Tomas wrote: "Eva wrote: "yes, please save the cute animal"

Do you consider a dragon hatchling a cute animal?"

Absolutely!

Tomas wrote: "Eva wrote: "yes, please save the cute animal"

Do you consider a dragon hatchling a cute animal?
----
EDIT: By the way, maybe we should start a 'sister topic' in the author section and see what peo..."

You can, if you want!

Ok, about the smells thing, I just finished TJ Klune's werewolf series which are admittedly romance novels but are also pretty good werewolf books. Fated mates (an eye-rolling cliche, but to be expected) are first identified by a magical scent and they are the most creative I've read.

Candy canes and pinecones and epic and awesome.
Lightning.
Dirt and leaves and rain.
Lake water and sunshine and grass.
Home.
Old-growth forest.
When it's cold outside and it stings your lungs but in a good way.

I have those on my TBR, maybe I should jump into them. I'm always happy when someone smells of something other than soap/sweat/pine. Which is why I asked people to report all the smells! :D

Omg this is hilarious! Last book definitely ticked off a lot of those!

Tomas wrote: "Allison wrote: "Ladies also have the double smell! It's usually something like "jasmine and rose petals."

I know that's how I walk around smelling constantly."

*Looks at Yennefer of Vengerberg*
Lilac and gooseberries.

Hahaha you beat me to it 😄

@Anna Sandalwood?? That's definitely something I've come across a guy smelling of.

But that's perfume, not natural. In books, people always smell like perfumey things naturally. 😄

Yeah, sandal, cedar, all the woods.

He smells of wood and sweat would at least be...a pre-shower understandable stench, though idk that most new crushes are that matter of fact about it.

Soap makers must have caught on to that idea because lately there are a lot men's soaps that smell like pine and cedar.

what about the Lavender Old Spice for men? In my days (yes, I'm old) lavender was reserved for old ladies (usually spinsters or grandmothers)

I should be sleeping but I can’t stay away. I’m most confused by the fact that soap and sweat or clean and sweat are so often mentioned together. When does a person smell of both? Also I’m aware of pheromones, but obviously there’s something wrong with me since I don’t start purring when I encounter sweaty men 🤨

Oh haha, often they smell like two things and underneath that, "something uniquely themself" XD

Ugh yes!

Note to self: Next mod poll should be hidden again and only describe the books with two smells

CBRetriever wrote: "what about the Lavender Old Spice for men? In my days (yes, I'm old) lavender was reserved for old ladies (usually spinsters or grandmothers)"

I live near a town that builds its summer tourism season around a huge (for the area) lavender festival. I think that nearly everything from there has lavender in it - including care products for men. It's particularly weird in the cookies.

Anna wrote: "If not pine, then it's another woodsy smell. Lumberjacks? I have literally no idea, but I've read at least twenty books with dudes smelling like different conifers.

I guess they take their sprucin..."

Wouldn't that be chainsaw bar oil and small engine exhaust? I don't remember seeing that in any of these books.

This books smells like... paper and book glue! The other one smells like... the same!

Oh wow, I've just realized that just Addie LaRue alone allowed me to fill in at least 12 of those squares! (No, I cannot recommend it. So sorry, I know it's mega popular, but I loathed it.)

What about horse and leather? I've read that more than once.

And speaking of smells! Why, oh why do two characters kiss not long after one of them vomited?! And there's nary a toothbrush or bottle of Listerine mentioned in the scene. That's just, just...ewww!!

Michelle wrote: "What about horse and leather? I've read that more than once."

that could be a normal smell for a horse...

I went through all the messages about boy smells I've sent to Allison over the years we've been modding together. (Yes, this is a thing. I'm sorry Allison!) Here is the one I wanted to post about yesterday, but couldn't remember:

"I started Stronger Than a Bronze Dragon. I'd never heard about it, but I saw it on Storytel, and it's Asian YA fantasy, standalone, narrated by EWZ, so I thought it's almost made for me. It started out great, a cool Chinese steampunk world, a girl who is both a trained warrior fighting against hell demons and a performing gymnast/acrobat. Mechanical dragons and all kinds of cool steampunky things. But then it floops out into your standard 'ooh a mysterious (but obvious, except to the clueless protag) mischievous nice-smelling boy, what ever could happen?!' I have to note that the boy does not smell like (sandal)wood, leather, sweat and soap, he smells like sandalwood and *peppercorns*, which at least is a cool twist :D"

Not surprisingly: my free space is for 'calloused hand'.

haha @Anna and Jemppu!

(view spoiler)[ Once We Were Kings (hide spoiler)] has a lot of the tropes; so much so that i was rolling my eyes throughout the whole book. It includes God, Satan, what seem to be some sort of Asian guy, an enemy who from one paragraph to another immediately becomes any ally, and incredible amounts of deux ex machina....

It's one of the few books I finished just to see how bad it became. Here's the beginning of the blurb

(For fans of Narnia, C.S. Lewis, Rick Riordan, Terry Brooks, Terry Goodkind, Brandon Sanderson, Harry Potter, Eragon, Christopher Paolini, Robert Jordan, Tolkien, Lord of the Rings)

Not sure if that's exactly a trope, but many authors (High fantasy the most, I believe) use extra stuff like ¨´ˇ and whatever else you can put above a letter to make names that I... don't know how to read, most of the time. I guess to make them sound more exotic, maybe?