I always recommend Jack McDevitt's A Talent for War, which was reissued this year. His other books are good, solid science fiction, but with A Talent for War, he hit it out of the park. It's part science fiction, part history and part mystery, and I don't think it's a spoiler to say that it has a moment that redefines HSQ.

A quick rec:

Banewreaker (The Sundering, Book 1) -- by Jacqueline Carey

Back when Kushiel trilolgy came out I offended some people by having very mixed reactions to the series, while thinking that Carey had tremendous talent.

Well this new book has my unmixed endorsement. Good storytelling, no Mary Sues (well maybe the elves a little - but with good story telling and plot reasons for them to be.)

Also if you don't mind my using a dirty word, a really marvelous deconstruction of the Lord of the Rings. Umm, while I like the parallels I'm betting some will find them a mite anvilicious.

[On edit - not related to any particular request - just a general rec.]

Hi, TB. I'm second on the hold list for Banewreaker in the Seattle library system, but they're still listing it as "on order." Hopefully it'll be here when I'm back from Thanskgiving.

And I think in the intervening time since we had the argument over the Kushiel series, I've gotten confident enough in the excellence of my taste that I don't take it quite as personally when someone criticizes something I'm wholeheartedly enthusiastic about.

(OK, maybe not. But at least I usually manage to keep my mutterings of, "What's he talking about? I love it! And there's nothing wrong with either my taste or my intellect!" private, and keep my actual public comments to, "Well, I thought it was brilliant.)

ETA--I read the first few pages of Banewreaker last time I was at a bookstore and found myself wondering if I was going to enjoy Carey's writing so much without the intimacy and intensity of a strong first person narrator, so we could well end up with opposing opinions on which is her better work.

Gar, I wasn't sold on Kushiel either. In fact, I couldn't finish the first one (I stopped at the point where she gets raped in her first client meeting or whatever), and it's been sitting on my desk for about five months so I can ship it to Micole, who wants it.

It all felt wayyy too ornate, and that kind of sexual kink really doesn't do it for me. Prostitution still feels like prostitution. ::shrugs::

Suela, you got further into it than I did. I should give my copy to someone who would appreciate it. People I generally trust loved it, but it was just not my cup of tea at all.

I made it all the way through, based on the strength of Carey's world-building and wondering how she was going to resolve the pleasure/pain thing, but while I'm glad I read it, Phaedre has become my textbook example of a Mary Sue - no matter who else is involved in the conflict, or what their intelligences or expertises are, it's Phaedre who always comes up with the right answer. And everyone falls in love with her! And in lust!

But I thought it was brave of the author to center a series around a character with unusual sexual wiring, and the friend I gave my copy of it to LOVED it, so I'm looking forward to Banewrecker.

I loved the Kushiel books, but, at the time, I also thought of Phedre as a Mary Sue. (The multi-named main character in the Bitterbynd Books by Cecilia Dart-Thorton forced me to reconsider the term.) I thought the world-building was vivid and I really liked the other characters.

I am about 100 pages into Banewrecker, and, while I think it's an interesting story, I am really finding the narrative incredibly repetitive. I can't see that there is any reason for the constant repetition of certain details, and I am finding it annoying.

Still, I am enjoying it enough to keep reading to find out what happens and to see if repetition leads to a greater purpose.

After much consideration, all I can conclude is that my Mary Sue alarms are calibrated differently than many readers'--I mean, not only do I love Phedre, I also love Harriet Vane. But the Emily books are my least favorite of LM Montgomery's, because I'm all, "Smoke-purple eyes, pointy ears, and she has the Sight? Gimme a break! And Emily Byrd Starr is a cheesy name if there ever was one. Now where did my Pat and Anne books go again?" Whereas IME other LMM fans list the Emily books as their favorites more often than not.

Which is all to say, WRT the Kushiel series, I thought it was brilliant.

(And there would be a smiley there if Buffistas did smileys.)

Susan, I think my Mary Sue alerts are on different levels than many people's as well. I adore Mary Russell in the Anderson books despite her Mary-Sueness, for example. I don't know--maybe it's a genre thing. I tend to be a lot more forgiving of a Mary Sue in a mystery or fantasy than I am in a general lit book.

In some genres, like sf/fantasy, I think you need to have characters with remarkable characteristics, especially if the character's the lead. Something extraordinary happens to them, and they have to rise to the challenge, discovering/using traits they may not have really used before (though extraordinary singing voices have fewer applications than one might think). Luke Skywalker looks like an ordinary farm boy at the beginning, but we know where he ends up.