The only Card that still works for me is Enders Game. I love it so much that I can read it without looking for the squicks. All of his other books not so much but that one has become so important to my brain that no amount of author assholery can overcome its power over me.

I hate that when I recommend it to people I am potentially putting money his way but I have seen it be as life changing for my young students as it was for me and I have to hope the good karma of that outweighs a dollar or two of homophobia money. I do mak sure to stress that all of his other books are not worth it.

It's not that I don't care about the 20th century characters and their stories, but I care more about Claire and Jamie swimming naked in a hot spring.

This sums up a lot of the series for me.

I'm laughing inwardly. I got bored with the Claire and Jamie sex. Well, really, anything I read has to have enough story to keep me interested when I skim the sex. This includes fanfic. PWP is not my thing, so a book that's basically sex scenes strung on a gossamer strand of story, I'll look for something else.

Yeah, I find myself skimming over sex scenes, too. On one recent book I tried, some popular "chick lit" thing, I kept flipping pages and thinking "they're still at it?--oh, wait, they're drinking coffee--oh, in bed--and there they go again."

There's plenty of plot in Outlander. Like, I considered making a chart to keep track of everything going on.

Outlander is still my favorite--it had the right amount of everything. In Dragonfly, it was like, "again?" while everything came to a screeching halt for them to have at it again, and then go on afterward. But I do love Outlander.

You can't skip and skim in an audiobook, and the sex scenes, are, um, very nice in that format.

I also tend to skip and skim sex scenes. Fay was surprised I love her 20th century Arthurian series, cause of all the gay porn. To be quite honest, I skipped those scenes and just read it for the characters and story and plot. It stands up fine without those scenes, though I'm glad they are there for those who like them or love them enthusiastically.

I adore a good seduction and emotional stuff and wooing and all that. That's where the characterization really plays well. Hydraulics and choreography, though, is not as enthralling. Sexy encounter as adjunct to important plot/character development is my Kryptonite. Come (heh) for the porn, stay for the garroting.

20th Century Arthurian series? what? details, please!

Also, Connie, I was reminded of you and DH - at the police and firefighter games the Norwegian team wore horned helmets (I think he'd have appreciated the spirit, if not the inaccuracy). And they wore them at least once going through a shopping mall.