Maxwell, Ann - Fire Dancer

rachelmanija warned me that even though she loved this series, it was rather pulpy. Having read Maxwell's romances (under Elizabeth Lowell), I had a fairly good idea of what I was getting into, along with Maxwell/Lowell's gender issues. Short form: all her Lowell romances have a sweet, innocent plucky heroine with a masculine, overprotective alpha male hero. Usually the heroine knows nothing about her own sexuality, and the hero goes through much UST, often leading to a not-quite-rape scene.

Surprisingly, this works much better in the SF genre, particulary when the gender politics are based on species.

Fire Dancer stars Rheba, a fire dancer, and Kirtn, her cat-man-esque protector and tutor. As the cover copy says, "Were they the last survivors of their planet's blazing DOOM?" (the entire thing is capitalized, so I am taking advantage of that for "DOOM"!). Rheba's a Senyasi and Kirtn's a Bre'n; their two species evolved together so that the Bre'n's and the Senyasi are paired to control the Senyasi's powers (gene dancing, rain dancing, fire dancing, etc.) and the Bre'n's propensity toward rez, an uncontrollable killing rage.

So first, the crack! I laughed every time I encountered "Kirtn," which I unfortunately pronounce as "curtain." I also giggled over his furry virile manliness and his sexual frustration. Also! There are talking rocks! And there is a species that is so foreign that they forgo apostrophes for slashes! I kid you not, they are called the J/taal. Rheba knows nothing about sex, given that her planet exploded before she could learn. I feel this is a much better reason than the usual "They are too innocent to know!" in Maxwell's romances.

But I still enjoyed this a lot. First, there is a talking snake, which is the best character ever! Second, as I said before, the gender politics projected onto species works a lot more for me, particularly because we see examples of female Bre'n and male Senyasi pairs (no idea if there are same-sex pairs). And ... the crack works better for me in an SF/F setting because everything's so much more heightened and so much more is at stake. Plus, talking snake! Planet dying of blazing DOOM!

On a final note, Rachel mentioned the cover is yet another example of white-washed people. Rheba's explicitly described in the book as having brown skin (and blonde hair). On the possibly plus side, she's not white on the cover. Instead, she's a zombie grey!

Blood Ties 1x01 Blood Price

This weekend, delux_vivens evilly addicted me to Blood Ties, which has a 450-year-old hot vampire, a glasses-wearing female PI, a snarky goth girl, and a hot cop ex-partner of the PI in a trench coat.

The pilot may not hook that many people, since it's fairly standard set-up, including the introduction of Vicky Nelson, aforementioned glasses-wearing female PI, to Henry Fitzroy, aforementioned hot vampire and graphic novelist, and to the realm of the supernatural. It gives exposition on the rules of vampirism, explains Vicky's past history with the police and that she's slowly losing her vision (differently-abled heroine for the win!), and sets up the love triangle between Vicky, Henry, and Mike (aforementioned hot cop ex-partner).

I also watched the two-parter in which Henry is half-naked and bloody, and the one with a succubus.

So far, it feels a little like Angel, only with somewhat less sparkly dialogue. This isn't a critique, to be honest; Joss' dialogue is difficult to live up to. Plus, while there are some clunky bits, my main reaction was, "Hey! Dialogue that doesn't suck! Oh Heroes..." The snarky goth girl is fun, and while Vicky could have been the dreaded spunky and helpless heroine, I don't think she is. She's proactive, treats people with respect, and I very much like her relationship with her ex-partner. You can tell that they both still care about each other even when they argue, and you can tell they respect each other a lot as well. Yeah, there are several moments where she rushes off in the dark (she has poor night vision) without backup, but I am going to just handwave it as something all PIs and cops and whatnot on TV do.

Also, did I mention Henry is hot? And while he has had some quality angst so far, he doesn't seem to be a "sit there and brood about redemption" type vampire, a la Angel and Louis. Nor does he seem to be a "let all hell break loose and have fun" type vampire, a la Spike and Lestat. And he and Vicky have a really interesting relationship -- a lot of UST in the first episode, but she's clearly keeping him at arm's length for many good reasons. It's also not being played for angst or forbidden romance, like Buffy/Angel.

Finally, there is an East Asian female cop who doesn't show up much but is snarky, a South Asian female coroner who is geeky and cute (I think she is Mohinder's secret twin sister. They bond over supernatural forensics and share amazing doctor skills), and aforementioned snarky goth girl. There have been several unfortunate ethnic-based monsters of the week, but I've sort of given up on that now (hi SPN! hi Buffy! hi XF!). And did I mention that there are many women? And a female lead? Who is adult and has a job? And sexy glasses?

And I miss having a fantasy show to watch. I think I'm going to check out the Tanya Huff books these are based on, along with trying to catch up online.

Avatar 3x01-3x07

( Spoilers for all seven eps! )