Maledicte.

While I'm talking about dark fantasy mad why I like it, let me get around to reviewing one of the books I read last week – Maledicte by Lane Robins. The story is reminiscent of The Count of Monte Cristo, set in a world and a prose style aesthetically similar to Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel novels; the result is a very messy dark fantasy revenge-romance, delightful and unexpected in any number of ways, and deeply satisfying in ways that the last dark fantasy revenge story I read, Joe Abercrombie's Best Served Cold, doesn't quite match up to.

Very Light Spoilers follow -- nothing is openly stated that the book doesn't disclose in its first few chapters.

Maledicte is the nom de guerre adopted by Miranda, a girl whose best friend was kidnapped by a nobleman – his father. In order to win her friend back and avenge herself on the nobleman, she disguises herself as a boy, half-accidentally, and is 'adopted' by a lecherous and decadent nobleman who promises to teach her patience, courtly manners, and swordmanship, albeit at a steep cost. When Maledicte is finally introduced to the king's court, he is found uncouth but intriguing, and impatiently builds his way towards a position in which his revenge is possible, through a landscape of blackmail, poisoning, and treachery in several forms. But as in every worthy revenge story, the costs and complications of revenge are far greater than they seem. The story has not one but two climaxes, and brilliant and unexpected twists and reversals of fortune that pile one upon the other (much like the growing body count as Maledicte eliminates obstacles), from the continued interference of the dead goddess of vengeance (but what does death mean to a god?), to the complex loyalty of her only confidante, to the amorous attentions of the king himself, which cannot be consummated without exposing Miranda's secret. Every one of these twists is handled so deftly that I cannot wait for the sequel – whose apparent protagonist is the one person in Maledicte I most loathed, and whose death I rooted for in vain – though perhaps, in the end, the best revenge is adding a verse to a jump-rope rhyme, and leaving it to simmer.

What else I'm reading: a Primer.

No, sadly, this isn't the other book reviews I owe.  Some days, you just have to post a link salad full of crunchy blue hypertext, because typing out all your own thoughts would keep you here all day.

Joe Abercombie has some things to say in response to Leo Grin.  I think his post indicates very well why I like him as an author.  John C. Wright has his own response, which I can only stare at in bafflement, but he seems a good-humored gentleman, the sort I'm happy to disagree with and don't feel a perverse urge to actively argue with.  Adam Whitehead says a lot of things I agree with, but his commenters make some pretty interesting and articulate counterpoints.  Kate Elliott, who I did not even know had a livejournal (exciting!), talks about grittiness and about perceived differences in male- and female- written epic fantasy.  N.K. Jemisin and Foz Meadows also have very interesting things to say about women and epic fantasy.

Incidentally, I was clued into this whole discussion by Sherwood Smith, who has posts with extensive and excellent comment-thread discussions about this here, here, and here.  superversive made two posts on the subject as well, and while I read the comments with interest, I elected not to join in that branch of the discussion myself, for various and sundry reasons.

Finally, in the process of looking through the Internet for conversation starters on dark fantasy, I found that there's an upcoming sequel to American McGee's Alice, one of my favorite games of all time.

Now, I'm off to write some more dark fantasy myself.  I can only aspire to the lofty heights of nihilism others have achieved, but hopefully my general decadence and moral bankruptcy will make up for it.  I mean, The Hellion Prince is about politics, so you know it's nasty.

THIS IS FOR RESEARCH I SWEAR.

So.

What are the hottest make-out scenes in all of fantasy and science fiction?

GO.