It’s About Making Babies!

Booking Through Thursday asks:

Have you ever fallen out of love with a favorite author? Was the last book you read by the author so bad, you broke up with them and haven’t read their work since? Could they ever lure you back?

Piers Anthony comes to mind. Macrospcope was an eye-opener for me. I really enjoyed it. Then I read a couple Brass and Amber books - and found nothing left for me.

The big name is Robert Heinlein. I loved his early work, and I still re-read Moon is a Harsh Mistress. The imagery, story, and values in Door Into Summer still matter a lot in my live. But Stranger in a Strange Land marked a change in direction, an interest in stuff that went way far from anything I am interested in.

Lois McMaster Bujold flipped from science fiction and my beloved Miles Vorkosigan stories, to Avalon and historical fiction and horror. Oops. She can go that path without me.

On the other hand, Kelley Armstrong was bored with her Ladies of the Underworld series, a loosely connected series of werewolf, witch, and vampire adventure novels (Hastings bookstore mis-shelved a couple of titles in the SF sections - what a wonderful discovery!). Only her last book is a .. mundane? .. detective story. Not enough insight, character, to hold my interest, and certainly not a storyline that interests me. I will look forward to her return to the paranormal adventure, but she can go her own with anything like ‘Exit Strategy’. Yuck.

Speaking of Kelley Armstrong and her paranormal adventures, I tried one of Laurell K Hamilton’s of a similar genre. Yuck. That one seems a shallow cover for soft porn with a morbid focus. Two other authors working in that genre, though, really come through. Anne Bishop with her Dark Jewels trilogy, The InVisible Ring, and her other works are great - the world building is delightfully solid with enough intersection with our world to surprise and relate to. Bishop’s work is intense, and may be written for an experienced reader, certainly not a ‘hook the child’ reading level. Then there is the fun Patricia Briggs. Her Mercedes Thompsen books - Moon Called, Blood Bound, Iron Kissed - are great reads. I have re-read even the newest at least three times (anything worth reading is worth re-reading, right?).

Back to the Topic. Sherri S. Tepper. I loved her novels of the True Game - Mavin Manyshaped, Kings’ Blood Four, etc. Then came Grass. I got lost and bored. The book may have been a ‘deep’, introspective work, but it wasn’t fun for me. I did wade through ‘The Door To Women’s Country’. Yuck. Again, Tepper has a right to go her own way. May she go in peace, and with thanks for the early works.

Carol Berg. Her ambitious Bridge series started quite well. The second book got tedious, and I never finished the third of the four. I doubt I will be picking up anything more under her name.

Jane Auel. The honeymoon is over - she hasn’t written anything better, in my mind, than Valley of Horses. That one is a favored re-read. Valley of Horses is so good, that because of it I still re-read the prequel, Clan of the Cave Bear, and the follow-ons, Mammoth Hunters, Plains of Passage, Shelters of Stone. I expect there may be another coming, I will probably pick it up, but the real fun - Valley of Horses.

Mercedes Lackey writes wonderfully of her Valdemar universe. Except she veered off with the White Gryphon nonsense. That story line for some reason went from unappealing to off-putting. So I watch each book that comes out, and stick to the story lines she has done well, for me. She does a wonderful ‘Fairy Godmother’ version.

Well, I started Agent of Change again, Steve Miller and Sharon Lee. This has been a long honeymoon, and hasn’t come to the end, yet. The only bobble was Local Custom. For some reason that one was a sour note for me. The plot, characters, premise were all consistent with the others of their works that I love, I just found it disturbing. On the other hand there is Conflict of Honors. The joy of the crew of Priscilla and Dutiful Passage is a precious gift to delight time after time.

Anne McCaffrey. Her novels of Pern through the White Dragon kept me company for years. Her collection of short stories Get Off The Unicorn includes the incredible ‘A Proper Santa’. I even followed her to the romance ‘A Stitch In Snow’, and her early ‘Mark of Merlin’ - with delight. Then came the tedious Dinosaur Planet. Oops. I first found Anne McCaffrey with The Ship Who Sang. And it was delightful how that story line branched out to other authors. Acorna was a bit less successful. The first book was OK, but the next .. I think I finished it, but I haven’t picked up any more of that story line. Dinosaur Planet, though - really, really disappointed me. I recall how disappointed I was with each revelation of a couple more titles that she had returned to that initial, disappointing theme in Dinosaur Planet. And her Pern stories have branched. But frankly, I haven’t been interested in the books since White Dragon. Another case of checking the story line, since she has branched off into a couple of dead ends for me.

Anyway, I am headed back to Agent of Change. Enjoy!

Hot Alpha Female explains about “Understand The Language That Women Speak“. Hot Alpha Female believes dating should proceed from a first date to a lasting relationship. (Rather than picking a reliable mate-prospect with solid character and known family and friend bonds and good reputation, and then courting that prospect.) She makes the observation:

I hear so many guys complain that all girls want from a guy is stability, a credit card and a nice car.

I have to think that this would be more true for girls that haven’t carefully considered what it means to pick a mate and form a family.

Children are raised to look to their parents for money, for gifts, for approval. When most of us begin practicing dating behavior we are still in school, comparing the ‘flash’ of a date’s position in class standing, in athletics, in class-evaluated ‘prettiest’. How could we not? Most parents go overboard with how pretty, how precious, how wonderful their kids are. So most of us expect that we deserve the acclaim, and the ‘best’ date.

What many parents fail to tell us, or that many kids fail to hear, is that we need to grow up. We need to form a family, a serious affair to produce and raise children, to keep as many alive as possible, and to provide for injury, disaster, and charity.

So when a girl looks to a guy to provide for her, she doesn’t see money as an asset of the family, she sees an emotional affirmation of her self worth. And failing to provide the money, the attention, the credit card, the nice car - is seen as a rejection. Or worse, that the ‘date’ or partner isn’t good enough for her. For most girls, the equation is about childhood values, not family assets.

For women that have oriented themselves to making a family, the emotional rewards of shared respect and joy help to blend the discoveries, stresses, and disappointments into a mature perspective.

And this isn’t just a female thing. Guys are just as guilty of wishing to continue their self-reinforcing rebellious behavior throughout their relationships, instead of learning to be a mate and parent. Life generally intrudes, often brutally, to make many couples come together - or to shake them apart.

One description of the girl that wants the credit cards, the nice car, as ‘high maintenance’. That is, a girl focused on the goodies that Daddy used to provide. And I think Hot Alpha Female is wrong to dismiss this precocious leap from childhood to ‘dating’ as insignificant.