SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Tomas wrote: "When you're at that, "This is like [popular thing]" is often discouraging for me. Even worse is when it's "like [popular thing 1] and [popular thing 2]". Feels like someone wanted to take a ride on..."

oh goodness yes... in a review, maybe it's ok, because the reader is just trying to explain things in terms others can understand. I mean, I make comparisons to other titles fairly often... but in a blurb, ack, that's just wrong....

I was coming home from a contract in the mid-west and a bunch of us were waiting to board. I got to talking with a woman about writing and she mentioned romances. Well, I'm no romance fan and I said so, but my wife was. She was carrying a bag full of mmp books. She dragged out 3 of her latest titles and autographed them to my wife. Even though we were heading for the same airport in Washington, she was going to stop off in Chicago to talk with her publisher. Since I was in coach and she was in first class, that's the last I saw of her.

My wife loved the stories and ended up buying everything that author wrote. Neither one of us had ever heard of Linda Lael Miller before.

Lesson: if you're an author, always be prepared to promote yourself. If you're a reader, be prepared to be pleasantly surprised in the most unlikely places.

Criteria: My wife tended to buy from authors she'd read a liked before. Her library was arranged in larges sections. Each section devoted to an author.

CBRetriever wrote: "and while not in the sci-fi/fantasy genre - if i see the word cozy on a mystery, it immediately generates a nope response from me

and too much exposition in the title does the same:

[book:The Sev..."

I get turned off by both cozy and noir. Those are extremes. Why can't a mystery have realism without being totally dark and horrific?

I actually love a “cosy” murder mystery every now and then. Great term for them because that’s what they are. I was trying to think of a word to describe the Hallmark TV shows that are made from some of the books and there it is....cosy.

I love watching (and I did recently find all the books of some of these as well to read on my iPad) Murder She Baked, Aurora Teagarden, Garage Sale Mysteries, Signed Sealed Delivered (OK not a murder mystery but a mystery none the less) and the other Hallmark Mysteries because they make you feel all warm and fuzzy even if someone has been murdered most horribly. I also love reading and watching/rewatching MC Beaton’s Agatha Raisin in between other more emotionally draining books and shows. Yes....cosy fluff....with murders.

I am looking for ùystery to unravell And I do like do recognize my self in the characters.I do not really like the high-born fantazy (kitchen help is really powerful magiancan-Gon etc)

I agree that the comparisons to other series usually turn me off, especially when they seem more competitive than comparative, like, "Move over Harry Potter!"

But even the "next [x] story" or "[x] meets [y]" can turn me off - but it also sort of depends.

***

I also enjoy a nice cozy mystery now and again, or even something noir. Just depends on my mood and what I'm looking for at the time.

Pascal wrote: "I am looking for ùystery to unravell And I do like do recognize my self in the characters.”

Which characters? Hopefully not the murderer.

“Oh, that’s not how I did it.”

Oh, one more source - library displays. I almost always leave with more books than were on my list. And sometimes they're wonderful discoveries. For example, even though I'm a mod. & active member in Children's Books, I had never heard of the South African picture-book creator Niki Daly until my library displayed Pretty Salma and I grabbed it. Now I'm a big fan! And any of you who are parents, uncles, etc. should check them out, too!