I can only see it because I am so with you. I would love to see a non-Harry prequel series. With a young Mr and Mrs Weasley.

That and Lily and James and young Snape...

Let's write it for her.

Than again, I also want to shag the living daylights out of Alan Rickman in his Snape robes

I'd prefer to do it with him *out* of the robes, but whatever floats your boat. I'll take Rickman any way I can get him.

I'd prefer to do it with him *out* of the robes, but whatever floats your boat. I'll take Rickman any way I can get him.

Well, I'm wearing my Hufflepuff robes, so it all works out. In my sick little mind, anyway.

wonders if she revealed juuuuust a bit too much about her little AR kink

Hey, robes are good.

::back away slowly...::

::blushes::

I would blush if I told you what I wanted to *do* with Snape...

Or Alan Rickman, for that matter.

And a young Minerva.

Aimee, There's a really good fanfic called "Oversexed, Overpaid, and Over Here," that's set during WWII (and, of course, the Grindelwald war in the wizarding world) and features a young and in-love Minerva working in the British war effort.

I also like Of a Sort, which looks at first-years being sorted in various significant years (including Dumbledore, Minerva, Tom Riddle, the Black Sisters/Lucius Malfoy, the Marauders, Tonks, and Neville's backstory (although the author has not gone back to this story in some time, so it is still incomplete)).

ETA: The WWII-era story makes me remember the fanfic I'd work up on an outline of which would probably end up pretentious and really bad if I ever wrote it, as well as extremely angsty--it's a wizarding Holocaust story, using the real-life person of Jan Karski as the connection between the oppressed wizards in Poland and Dumbledore and the Minister of Magic in London. I just don't think I have the nerve to write something so completely out of what I know, other than as history.

Jilli, I'm sure you have long since read "Sunshine" by Robin McKinnley(sp). Pretty standard "alt reality where the supernatural is real" concepts, but executed stunningly well. I also have been enjoying Stross's Merchant Prince series.

In terms of Fledgling, I share the disappointment. I loved almost everything else Octavia M. Butler wrote. Aside from the issues ita brings up it just was not up to her usual standards. Characters were unconvincing, the vampire society seemed implausible (even given the biological premises) . Butlers sudden death was unfair anyway. But it seems like death was in an extra mean mood to time it so that was her final work.

Than again, I also want to shag the living daylights out of Alan Rickman in his Snape robes

I'd prefer to do it with him *out* of the robes, but whatever floats your boat. I'll take Rickman any way I can get him.

Okay, I just got a hilarious flashback to Rickman peeling layers off a wriggling Mastrantonio in Prince of Thieves to consumate his marriage while the abbot intoned the vows overhead. "I can't DO this with allllthatRACKETTT!"

I had no problems reading Fledgling quickly, and in fact finished it in about a day and a half. I also taught classes during that period, and slept, so that's good time. I would argue that it definitely wasn't statutory rape. It seems to me that statutory rape is a crime because of the idea that we believe children cannot decide for themselves whether or not to have sex with older people (or something like that?). Clearly, though they may have called her a child, the main character had the intellectual and emotional capacity to make those decisions and her society had no issues with her sexual activity. So I was cool with it, once I stopped imagining the physicality of the situation.

Of course, I'm having issues recalling the main character's name, and it's the next day. That seems to imply that i also didn't care much for the characters, which is true. But I thought the biology/history was really interesting, and I was interested to see how it would all play out. I wouldn't have minded staying in the universe a little longer, actually.

It probably wasn't as good as any of the other OEB I've read (Parable of the Sower and Patternmaster sticking in my mind), but I still enjoyed the read.

I'm reading The Russian Debutante's Handbook right now, which is quite fun and amusing so far. I want to compare the style to other writers, but I'm drawing blanks, even though I know I've read books that felt similar.