As many of you (but maybe not all) probably know, ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rachelmanija recently started the idea of FF Friday, with the idea of reviewing/recommending any book/story/etc. featuring women loving women. It doesn't have to be a positive review, if you've had a negative reading experience you'd rather tell about, and the reviews can be as long as or as short as you like. There's a community for it, ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fffriday, and I'm going to try to do this as often as I manage, posting a longer review/rec here in my journal, and linking to it in the community. Do check out the community if you're interested in the topic; there are already plenty of interesting works you can find reviewed there.
I've wanted to do this since it started, but I seem to kind of fail at actually doing this on a Friday - often I'm too tired on Fridays after a week of work, but yesterday was Midsummer's Eve which is a big holiday in Finland and hence a day off and I didn't have any program planned, and I still didn't get around to writing it. But I figure early Saturday is okay, too. Hopefully I'll get around to doing this as often as possible now that I've started. I've no pretensions of being a professional reviewer, but I do my best to give an overview of the books and how I felt about them, and not ramble on endlessly as I tend to.
So, I wanted to start by writing brief reviews of Heather Rose Jones's Daughter of Mystery and The Mystic Marriage, the first two books of her Alpennia series. Because I've been meaning to write about these books ever since I read the first one last year, and they're awesome. The books are historical fantasy with a strong element of lesbian romance, but they're not romance genre; the adventure/historical fantasy portion is a stronger part of the plot, though the romance is significant. There is a third book out, Mother of Souls, and it recently won The Gaylactic Spectrum Award for Best Novel of 2017. I haven't read it yet (I'm saving it a bit!) so I won't review that yet.
I absolutely adore these books. They take place in an alternative 19th century Europe, in a fictional Central European country called Alpennia (I'm assuming from the context it's located somewhere between France, Switzerland, and Austria). The fantasy element draws heavily on actual historical mystical material from European history - the first book involves magic based on mysteries for invoking various saints and their protection, the second deals with alchemy. They centre on a group of intelligent, studious, strong-willed women who don't conform to the expectations of women or the typical roles of female characters in historical romance, and whose lives and roles draw from the rich history of what women have actually been able to do throughout different centuries, even if we're not usually told about it. Basically these women just want to study and learn with their other female friends and do magic / alchemy / be excellent swordswomen and lawyers / etc. Oh, and they fall in love with other women. And it's beautiful and grand.
( More detailed review, cut for your browsing comfort )
Finally, if you're interested in history of lesbians / women loving women, you should check out the author's website and blog for the Lesbian Historic Motif Project, where she has assembled an amazing wealth of historical research involving queer women in the past, with careful attention to sources and how to read them critically, understanding what we can deduce from the available material and what we can't. She also does The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast that's a part of this project over at The Lesbian Talkshow podcast. Every Saturday has a new podcast about historical lesbian/queer women, research into them and gender and sexuality, and historical fiction about queer women, including historical fantasy / alternative history (such as steampunk). Every now and then there's also a podcast where a new original piece historical f/f short story is narrated. It's a very good quality podcast, and even if you don't normally listen to a lot of podcasts, it's worth checking out if you're interested in the topic. It's one of the two podcasts that got me hooked into podcasts in general (the other one being the Doctor Who themed podcast Verity!). She also is on Dreamwidth ashrj.
The Lesbian Talkshow podcast is great in general, featuring several different podcasts in one, many of them discussing lesbian fiction in one way or another. Totally worth checking out! I don't like all of the different podcasts, but enough that it's worth subscribing to - I just delete the episodes that aren't to my taste.
rachelmanija recently started the idea of FF Friday, with the idea of reviewing/recommending any book/story/etc. featuring women loving women. It doesn't have to be a positive review, if you've had a negative reading experience you'd rather tell about, and the reviews can be as long as or as short as you like. There's a community for it, fffriday, and I'm going to try to do this as often as I manage, posting a longer review/rec here in my journal, and linking to it in the community. Do check out the community if you're interested in the topic; there are already plenty of interesting works you can find reviewed there.I've wanted to do this since it started, but I seem to kind of fail at actually doing this on a Friday - often I'm too tired on Fridays after a week of work, but yesterday was Midsummer's Eve which is a big holiday in Finland and hence a day off and I didn't have any program planned, and I still didn't get around to writing it. But I figure early Saturday is okay, too. Hopefully I'll get around to doing this as often as possible now that I've started. I've no pretensions of being a professional reviewer, but I do my best to give an overview of the books and how I felt about them, and not ramble on endlessly as I tend to.
So, I wanted to start by writing brief reviews of Heather Rose Jones's Daughter of Mystery and The Mystic Marriage, the first two books of her Alpennia series. Because I've been meaning to write about these books ever since I read the first one last year, and they're awesome. The books are historical fantasy with a strong element of lesbian romance, but they're not romance genre; the adventure/historical fantasy portion is a stronger part of the plot, though the romance is significant. There is a third book out, Mother of Souls, and it recently won The Gaylactic Spectrum Award for Best Novel of 2017. I haven't read it yet (I'm saving it a bit!) so I won't review that yet.
I absolutely adore these books. They take place in an alternative 19th century Europe, in a fictional Central European country called Alpennia (I'm assuming from the context it's located somewhere between France, Switzerland, and Austria). The fantasy element draws heavily on actual historical mystical material from European history - the first book involves magic based on mysteries for invoking various saints and their protection, the second deals with alchemy. They centre on a group of intelligent, studious, strong-willed women who don't conform to the expectations of women or the typical roles of female characters in historical romance, and whose lives and roles draw from the rich history of what women have actually been able to do throughout different centuries, even if we're not usually told about it. Basically these women just want to study and learn with their other female friends and do magic / alchemy / be excellent swordswomen and lawyers / etc. Oh, and they fall in love with other women. And it's beautiful and grand.
( More detailed review, cut for your browsing comfort )
Finally, if you're interested in history of lesbians / women loving women, you should check out the author's website and blog for the Lesbian Historic Motif Project, where she has assembled an amazing wealth of historical research involving queer women in the past, with careful attention to sources and how to read them critically, understanding what we can deduce from the available material and what we can't. She also does The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast that's a part of this project over at The Lesbian Talkshow podcast. Every Saturday has a new podcast about historical lesbian/queer women, research into them and gender and sexuality, and historical fiction about queer women, including historical fantasy / alternative history (such as steampunk). Every now and then there's also a podcast where a new original piece historical f/f short story is narrated. It's a very good quality podcast, and even if you don't normally listen to a lot of podcasts, it's worth checking out if you're interested in the topic. It's one of the two podcasts that got me hooked into podcasts in general (the other one being the Doctor Who themed podcast Verity!). She also is on Dreamwidth as
hrj.The Lesbian Talkshow podcast is great in general, featuring several different podcasts in one, many of them discussing lesbian fiction in one way or another. Totally worth checking out! I don't like all of the different podcasts, but enough that it's worth subscribing to - I just delete the episodes that aren't to my taste.
