boooooooooks.

[schmerica]

You guys, I'm looking for book recommendations. What can you point me towards in the way of:

a) your favorite Arthurian-inspired novels
b) your favorite Trojan War-inspired novels
c) good mystery series (= likable hero/heroine with relationships that change and grow from book to book, along with the installments being good books on their own)

Comments

[frog4.livejournal.com]

Um, have you ever read any Robertson Davies? His Deptford Trilogy is technically a mystery. Plus, he's Canadian!

[callmesandy.livejournal.com]

a. firelord by parke godwin

c. I love the Elizabeth George Lynley series, but do yourself a favor and stop before the last two. I'm utterly addicted to Anne Perry's Pitt and Monk novels, but at the same time, well, they're melodramatic and more than a little overwrought. Still, she can PLOT. I generally can't put them down by the last 100 pages.

[annakovsky.livejournal.com]

As someone who read, uh, a lot of Arthurian novels in my teenagerhood, the Gillian (http://www.amazon.com/Hawk-May-Gillian-Bradshaw/dp/0553299220/ref=pd_bbs_sr_11/104-9128807-9263123?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1178675098&sr=8-11) Bradshaw (http://www.amazon.com/Kingdom-Summer-Gillian-Bradshaw/dp/0553299646/ref=pd_bbs_sr_12/104-9128807-9263123?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1178675098&sr=8-12) trilogy (http://www.amazon.com/Winters-Shadow-Gillian-Bradshaw/dp/0553298992/ref=pd_sim_b_2/104-9128807-9263123?ie=UTF8&qid=1178675098&sr=8-12) were my favorites.

And I'm not a big mystery person, but I love Dorothy Sayer's Lord Peter Wimsey novels, if you haven't read those!

[brooklinegirl.livejournal.com]

have you read the mysteries by Nancy Pickard? I remember them as being pretty good. Also: Harlan Coben's Myron Bolitar series. Don't go by the description - just pick it up and read. I HONEST TO GOD SWEAR that it doesn't matter that he's a sports agent. ♥

[malnpudl.livejournal.com]

Mystery series... my all-time favorite is the Lord Peter Wimsey series by Dorothy L. Sayers. They're dated, of course, having been written decades ago, and it doesn't matter in the least. Smart and literate and entirely wonderful. Great big shiny hearts.

Another favorite and very different series (or rather, a pair of them) isn't quite so well written, but I love the books a lot -- the two Alaskan mystery series by Dana Stabenow.

She has one series of more than a dozen books about Kate Shugak, a half-white/half-native woman who used to be a cop and is now a sort of private detective, but she still works with the police on occasion. More recently she's started a second series featuring Liam Campbell, a cop in a small Alaskan town. Both are tremendously entertaining and fun to read, well-populated with interesting characters, and overflowing with fascinating glimpses into all aspects of Alaskan culture, history, mythology, politics, ecology, economics, and so on.

You know how every now and then you get the sense from reading a book that you would really like this author? That if you could just hang out, you're sure you'd become friends? That's how I always feel reading Stabenow's books.

Each series should be read in order for it to really make sense.

Here's the start of the Kate Shugak series: Books 1 (http://www.amazon.com/Cold-Murder-Kate-Shugak-Mystery/dp/042513301X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3/103-0977964-7589423?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176308088&sr=1-3), 2 (http://www.amazon.com/Fatal-Thaw-Kate-Shugak-Mystery/dp/0425135772/ref=sr_1_10/103-0977964-7589423?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176308088&sr=1-10), and 3 (http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Water-Kate-Shugak-Mystery/dp/042513749X/ref=sr_1_9/103-0977964-7589423?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176308088&sr=1-9).

And the Liam Campbell series: Books 1 (http://www.amazon.com/Fire-Ice-Campbell-Mysteries-Paperback/dp/0451197704/ref=sr_1_18/103-0977964-7589423?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176308088&sr=1-18), 2 (http://www.amazon.com/Sure-Death-Campbell-Mysteries-Paperback/dp/0451199448/ref=sr_1_14/103-0977964-7589423?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176308088&sr=1-14), and 3 (http://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Gold-Campbell-Mysteries-Paperback/dp/0451202309/ref=sr_1_13/103-0977964-7589423?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176308088&sr=1-13).

[malnpudl.livejournal.com]

I second the rec for Parke Godwin's Arthurian series. Awesome.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

OOOOH. I also happen to have a kink for stories set in the high latitudes, so that should hit me on two different fronts. Thanks!

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

I love Lord Peter Wimsey! Even though I actually quite frequently feel as if I'm not actually smart enough for them. *cough*

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

*snickers and trusts you enough to add to my list*

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

I haven't! But I know *of* him from when he is name-dropped in "My Baby Likes a Bunch of Authors" by Moxy Fruvous. Does that count?

[annakovsky.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha, oh man, I know. Long passages in French and Latin? Goddammit, American educational system!

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Awesome -- thank you!

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

I don't think I would mind the long untranslated passages half as much if sometimes the CLUE TO THE ENTIRE MYSTERY was encased within them, and only make sense to someone fluent in French. Hmmph.

(Also, you know, the entire novel of Gaudy Night. Hee.)

[brooklinegirl.livejournal.com]

Nancy loves Coben, too, and we are starting a GRASSROOTS SLASH CAMPAIGN for two of the characters!

[dine.livejournal.com]

oooh! Georgette Heyer's mysteries are wonderful - written/set mostly in the 30s, they're very traditional on the surface, but her characters are amazingly modern in some respects, and most are complex and sometimes unique.

Envious Casca, Behold, Here's Poison and Death in the Stocks have long been my personal faves of her mysteries, though most of them are lots of fun reading. not all are currently in print, but they should be available from the library, or used from half.com

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

a) Elizabeth Wein's *The Winter Prince*, Naomi Mitchison's *To the Chapel Perilous*, or Gillian Bradshaw's Arthurian trilogy

b) hmm. Clearly an open market.

c) Sarah Smith, *The Vanished Child* and sequels. Barbara Hambly's Benjamin January series. Lindsey Davis' Falco series. Sarah Caudwell and Kate Ross (only four each, alas). ... Mostly historical series, I notice now.

[callmesandy.livejournal.com]

Pitt and Monk are actually two different series, btw. And there's more than ten of each. :)

If it helps, have you ever seen Heavenly Creatures? The movie? You know how it's based on a true story. Anne Perry was played by Kate Winslet. So it's not just murder mysteries, it's murder mysteries written by someone who took part in one in her teens.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I just finished the Vanished Child a few months back -- I should definitely seek out the sequels. And the Hilary Tamar novels are on the list of my favorite books ever. I will definitely take the rest of your suggestions. Thanks!

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

You know, I think I'm only familiar with her Regencies -- exciting!

[platoeatssouls.livejournal.com]

a) The Prose Merlin is rather good if you feel up to wading through a bunch of Middle English.

c) Laurie R. King's Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series is good ("The Beekeeper's Apprentice" is the first one). She writes another series about a San Francisco cop named Kate Martinelli (the first one is "A Grave Talent") but I haven't read many of those, or read them in quite a long time. They deal with lots of gay rights and feminist type issues though, and I recall them as being good.

Right now I'm reading Raymond Chandler, who is phenominal. Philip Marlowe doesn't really change, exactly, but Chandler's use of language and his plotting structure are too good to skip, you should definately read at least one of his novels if you haven't already. (I'm not sure that reading three in a row as I have done is exactly the thing to do - it sort of gets into your brain). But definitely pick up one of them - "The Lady in the Lake" or "The Long Goodbye" are both quite excellent.

*waves* I friended you a bit ago and was too shy to admit it or anything, but since I'm currently mystery novel woman, I couldn't let a cry for help pass unanswered (or something).

[inmyriadbits.livejournal.com]

a) I don't know if you're a fan of YA lit, but if you are, Gerald Morris has a series starting with The Squire's Tale (http://www.amazon.com/Squires-Tale-Gerald-Morris/dp/0440228239/ref=sr_1_2/104-7261027-8529554?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1178680744&sr=1-2) that I remember being fun. It focuses on Gawain (who, really, is my favorite Arthurian character) and his squire (an OC), puts a nice, gently comic spin on the legends, and makes the female characters pretty cool.

c) Okay, so I'm stretching your definition of "mystery" here a bit...but someone already took my Sayers rec. :) If you haven't read Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan series, you are missing out. It's billed as scifi, but I honestly see a lot of influence by Sayers in her novels. They're very character-based and deal with socio-political stuff just as much if not more than traditional space opera-type scifi. Miles is one of my all-time favorite fictional people ever (right up there with Fraser, so I'm talking high praise here), and the rest of Bujold's characters just sparkle. If you want a nice, long series of books that work together for relationship and character development but also stand on their own, you can't go wrong with this series. And there are elements of mystery novels to quite a few; some I would even classify as straight-up mysteries with a scifi twist. To sum up: they're totally awesome, you should read them, the end.

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

(I'm firmly in the Sayers camp with everybody else, for number 3)

As for Arthuriana, here are just a couple:

T.H. White: The Once and Future King. Written in the thirties, this novel (the inspiration for Camelot) is still my emotional favorite, because it was the first Arthurian work I'd ever come across. The first section - "the Sword in the Stone" - was the basis for a number of movies (children's and otherwise)

Mark Twain: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. More a satire of the 19th century than anything else, it's still a clever look at the Arthurian legend (particularly Malory's Morte d'Arthur)

Guy Gavriel Kay: The Fionavar Tapestry. A bit of a cheat rec, because this fantasy trilogy only devotes part of its three books to the story of Arthur, but it's so cool that I'm reccing it anyway. :)

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Ooh, classics! The Once and Future King was one of my favorites, too -- I think it was fifth or sixth grade? Just, *yeah*, magnificent.

I remember trying the Fionavar Tapestry and not being able to get into it at all, but that was years ago; maybe I need to give it a second chance.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

I am definitely a fan of YA lit! *adds eagerly*

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Ooh, you know, I think Chandler is one of those authors I've never quite gotten around to, and always meant to. Thanks!

[dine.livejournal.com]

if you like her Regencies, you'll probably enjoy Heyer's mysteries. they're not as elegant as Sayers', but can be lots of witty and lots of fun.

[dine.livejournal.com]

sorry - I meant (but forgot) to say that the Heyer's mysteries aren't a series, though they are excellent individual reads.

[brownbetty]

a) Jo Walton's The King's uh… I forget the noun. Sword? Peace? Oath? It's a duology, so two out of three. I adore it.

[copracat]

I love the romance in Heyer's mysteries: English and charming.

[vee-fic.livejournal.com]

I'll second the rec for Chandler, although he's not necessarily the sort one reads for comfort or a good relationship with the characters. Marlowe is very much the sardonic observer of other people's folly, so if you're not up for that, save him for another time.

Also, read The Long Goodbye last, and when you're in a really good mood. It's an elegiac, sorrowful novel. (And probably Chandler's best, but, sorrowful.)

[cislocative.livejournal.com]

They're not Trojan War, exactly, but I figure if you're asking for Classical times- have you read Mary Renault's historical fiction? She's got an EXCELLENT triology about Alexander the Great (Fire from Heaven, the Persian Boy, Funeral Games) and another excellent trio about Theseus and the Minotaur, as well as a couple of singles set in Ancient Greece (The Last of the wine, Apollo's mask) around the time of Socrates.

They're all full of The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name, (of course, since the Greeks practically invented it!) and she's an excellent, excellent writer.

[starfishchick]

I second the Laurie R. King recommendation heartily!!

THIS IS COMPLETELY OFF-TOPIC BUT

[kerrypolka.livejournal.com]

what are your thoughts and feelings about betaing a DS fic (or possibly two ohgod) in the next ten days or so? I trust you mostest out of all the people who got me into this fandom in the first place (AND BY TRUST I MEAN BLAME).

Re: THIS IS COMPLETELY OFF-TOPIC BUT

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

My answer here is: PROBABLY. I really want to, and depending on the date and time you need me, I SHOULD be able to? But I'm going to be going home for a bit, so there is a chance I will be weird and off-the-computer for a while.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, you know, I read the first book in that, and then ... forgot to find the second. So your rec serves as an excellent reminder!

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Man, I haven't read anything by Mary Renault at all -- which is kind of weird, when I think about it, because I've heard good things about her stuff for years.

[ahab99.livejournal.com]

Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising is one of my favorite series, and it's steeped in Arthurian legend. Plus, best to read them now before the movie being made ruins them as a part of popular culture! ;)

[kumquatweekend.livejournal.com]

b.) The Firebrand, by Marion Zimmer Bradley.

[the_antichris.livejournal.com]

I'm totally late, but I have to rec Jo Walton's The King's Peace and The King's Name, which are sort of an AU of the Arthurian cycle set in a world nearly but not quite sixth-century Europe. FABULOUS. Also, Rosemary Sutcliff had a good stab at the Realistic Dark Ages kind of Arthur with Sword at Sunset.