Friday, September 6, 2013

Non-Human Lesbians in Fantasy Fiction (Mermaids, Elves and Immortals)

Considering the rich scope offered by fantasy, there are surprisingly few inhuman lesbians. This is a list of fantasy (paranormal, high and science fiction-ish) books featuring main, or major, lesbian elves, angels, ghosts and goddesses, as well as other miscellaneous beings.

Some of the names/species are best guess approximations, as some characters are never labelled in their books, or are given a different, unique name.

Vampires, Zombies, Werewolves and other Shapeshifters are not included, because they have their own subgenres of (mostly) paranormal romance, and there are too many to bother re-listing here, so check out the individual lists of each.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Book Review: Aftermath by Ann McMan

Aftermath by Ann McMan is the follow up story to Jericho. You may remember Jericho as the romance novel I raved about back in January 2012. Jericho is a fantastic book, though it won't appeal to everyone, and Aftermath is more of the same: wine, background histories all over the place for everything from bleachers to cars to people, lots of words, easy companionship and a great deal of banter.  Jericho was the great literary classic for the ages, this is the lighter, shorter, tale of gossip, rural legends and wine, in which we get to stay in touch with the people and township of the original story.

While Jericho was a romance, this is more of a ramble through local gossip, family, and the events in the area. It's a safe, entertaining read, where you get to just relax with old friends. I don't actually know what genre I'd call it; I guess I'm just going to describe it as "general fiction". It follows up with the main people we met in Jericho, showing us their lives a couple of years later, and giving us a chance to enjoy the status quo that they spent all of Jericho getting to. Basically, it's not nearly as good as Jericho, but if you enjoyed that book, then you'll find Aftermath a very worthwhile followup.

The main stories are the gradual rebuilding after the hurricane, the progression of Syd's divorce and the inevitable return of Henry's father. Henry is the little boy that Syd and Maddie, our lesbian main character couple from Jericho, sort of adopted, while his father was in Afghanistan.