Books, Mags, Etc.

[blue]

What books, magazines, or other in-print things do you like, fiction, non-fiction, news, whatever? I'm thinking particularly gay-themed, but it could be anything that you like.

Gay science fiction?

Vonda McIntyre has had gay characters, treated as just normal.

C.J. Cherryh's Cyteen has two of its main chars. who are rather quietly gay. -- But I recommend any of her books, she's one of my favorite authors.

There are other authors out there with notable stuff, I just can't recall much right this sec.

[Guest rusticmonk86]

C.J. is awesome. I love her writing.

Books (I'm good here.):

Closer by Dennis Cooper

Publisher's Weekly:

In chapters titled with the names of the characters on whom they focus, this brief novel links together a small, bleakly debauched cast of gay men. Dedicated to sex and violence for the catharsis these acts would seem to promise, the men settle into a dull grind of physical encounters that, no matter how searing, fail to provide transcendence. The fault of their miserable existence seems to lie not in them, but in existence itself; life by its very nature can offer little but a thrillingly painful prelude to death. The novel's problem is not Cooper's point of view but the monotony of his spare, honest treatment: his deadpan look at chronic sexual anomie is so faithful to the phenomenon it describes that the work succumbs, laconically, to weariness. Scope is further limited by Cooper's decision to address the condition of despair more than its cause. Though convincing, sometimes darkly funny evidence of dissolution and decay abounds (`` . . . men had worn him away. They'd fastened him to a treadmill that spun until there was nothing around but a vague outline, smeared in blood''), memorable details tend to languish in dolorous prose. (Apr.)

Desert Sons by Mark Kenderick

From the Publisher:

Scott Faraday is 16, gregarious, talented, never been in a relationship, and is out to only a select few. Ryan St. Charles is 17, hot-tempered, has already has been in a long relationship, yet is barely out to himself. Behind Ryan's carefully fashioned fa?ade is emotional scarring from a past he's never been able to reconcile. When he comes to live with his uncle in Yucca Valley, CA, he meets Scott. An unlikely pair, the boys form a tentative friendship. When Scott starts to suspect that Ryan might be gay, he plans his coming out to him. The result is that he transforms their friendship into his first real relationship. Then, Ryan's hidden past comes into view. Scott is not at all prepared for what he discovers: suicide attempts, past abuse, and loads of denial.

Tightly focused on their new relationship, Desert Sons follows these two teenagers as they plunge headlong through a summer that will forever change them both.

A sequel has been written, it is called Into This World We're Thrown. It continues the storyline very well. The whole series is wonderful and each book stands alone. Though I wouldn't read them out of sequence.

Aqua Marine by Mel Keegan

An awesome sci-fi story. Placed in the future when the world is covered by water. I'm not good at writing a synopsis, but this is by far one of the best gay sci-fi novels I've read.

Butterfly Boy by Richard Cawley

From the Publisher:

The Butterfly Boy marks the debut as a novelist of Richard Cawley, television chef (That`s Entertaining, Ready Steady Cook and food writer The Artful Cook, The New English Cookery, Not Quite Vegetarian). Reflecting his own peripatetic life, this accomplished tale is rooted in Australia but includes excursions to London, Provence and the Italian riviera. Michael is about to celebrate his fortieth birthday but he is still recovering from the death of his lover of twelve years and his return to Sydney`s bars and clubs is at best wary. Whilst having drinks with friends, Michael sees for the first time a tall, skinny and black -clad youth whom he immediately nicknames `the butterfly boy`. It is a fateful moment - the beginning of an obsession at times idyllic, at times painful, sometimes destructive. And the Butterfly Boy - beautiful, capricious, sexy - propels him into the world of high fashion, art and music as he flits - butterfly like - from admirer to admirer. Vividly evoking the gay social whirl of Sydney, the tranquillity of a small Provencal town and the excesses of riviera life, Richard Cawley has created a lushly romantic novel peopled by a clutch of unforgettable characters who remain with the reader long after his tale has been told.

Those are all my books for now. I'll post more after I dig them up.

--Gabe

[aj]

Mercedes Lackey has written some very fine characters in her "Magics Promise" group of novels, all set in Valdemar.

Diane Duane in "The Door Into..." series paints a world that i want to live in.

The late, great Marion Zimmer Bradley explored the topic in her book "The Catchtrap." She was one of the truly great writers of the genre, and anything she wrote is worth a look or three.

Ricardo Pinto writes a tale about a deeply decadent and cruel world where two young men find one another in "The Chosen" and followed by "The Standing Dead."

I'll end my list with David Feintuch's "The Still," wherein a brat princeling learns to be a man and a king at the hands of his best friend. Definitely worth reading.

cheers!

aj

[Tanuki Racoon]

I just ordered this on Amazon based on your recommendation. It better be good, dammit ;)

[aj]

I'm pretty confident you'll like it. i've read it several times, and still enjoy it each time.

[The Pecman]

I believe Samuel Delaney is one of the more famous "out" SF authors. My personal favorite, though, is probably David Gerrold; his Man Who Folded Himself might be the greatest time-travel novel ever written, with fascinating (and sometimes hilarious) gay overtones.

David recently sold his book The Martian Child to New Line, who reportedly is going to turn it into a movie. The plot concerns a gay author who decides to become a single parent, but after adopting an 8 year-old son, begins to wonder if his child is human. Very funny book; deservedly won several prestigious awards.

And the last gay SF author I can think of is none other than Arthur C. Clarke, of 2001 fame. In interviews, Clarke has deflected questions as to his sexuality, but it's generally assumed he's not straight. Either way, he's a terrific writer, and has contributed some of the genuine classics to the field.

[aj]

CJ Cherryh is good friends with my on-again, off-again correspondent, Lynn Abbey. She has two series of high fantasy books that i would reccomend: The Tree of Jewels, and a following book, the name of which escapes me. The second book is about a young man and his comanion, a pookah, who have a very close--and to me, homoerotic--relationship. Beautifully written--it passed the "Read it till 5am" test with flying colors. The first book is equally amazing, but not discernably gay in content. The second series is "The fortress of..." series, which while not overtly gay, have as the main character one of the most beautifully rendered young men I've ever read.

Speaking of Lynn Abbey, try her book "Siege of Shadows". She's been published for over thirty years, and oh my! does that experience show. it's got a little homoeroticism in it as well, and a very fun and original system of magic. Sadly, the publishers don't seem interested in picking up the sequels to "Siege." I can't imagine why not, but she's ready to go with two more books in the series if she can ever stir enough interest in them.

cheers!

aj