tanithryudo: (Read)
It's been a while since I've done any of these, huh. I figure I'd just word vomit some of my recent(-ish) reads that I rather liked. Caveat: all ratings are my personal taste, so YMMV.

BL:

魔尊也想知道 by: 青色羽翼 - 10/10
Everything about it is great. The characters are all great: those you root hard for, the ones you end up pitying, the ones you end up despising. The romance, IMO, was pretty well done, which is honestly a hard thing for any romance story these days -- the top (MC) is wonderfully understanding and non-toxic, while still having flaws; the bottom is adorable and scary same time; their relationship looks unbalanced on paper, but the characterization and progression makes it work out. The story's pacing is great, exceedingly short for a xianxia genre story, and the plot moves swiftly without being rushed. And the humor, OMG, there were chapters where there were honestly like 50 pages of comments mostly consisting of readers going "Ahahahaha" and the effect. And it's well written humor, IMO, not having to lean on slapstick or memes like many other stories that try too hard to be funny. I gotta say, the author did a great job of balancing suspense, humor, and romance in this story. Highly recommend.

嫁给铁哥们 by: 衣落成火 - 7/10
Length wise, this is the opposite of the above, being on the long side of stories. (Though, if we go by this same author, she's written many longer stories, so I guess it's actually on the short/medium side for her.) This story was also written as a side thing while the author was working through writer's block on her main fic, and the results of that show up in that there's not as much action/suspense in it as her other works of the same genre. It's actually more closer to slice of life kinda story. Personally, I really loved the earlier chapters where the main couple hadn't "fallen in love" yet and are just being unconsciously fluffy together, while supporting each other in their "downtrodden/weak" days. After the point where the ML fully recovered and they left their home region, the story starts getting more formulaic (especially to someone who's read the author's other xianxia novels). But it's still something nice to relax to when I just want something to turn off my brain.

BG:

这不是钓鱼游戏吗[全息网游] by: 萨巫 - 8/10
I've read a bunch of (VR)MMO genre stories lately, and a lot of the ones I ended up dropping were because they broke my SOD too much, in that the game feels like it's completely centered around the main character, to the point where it stopped feeling like a multi-player game and more like just pure transmigration. This story stands out in that it consistently feels like a multiplayer game, and it's...fun. While the MC and her team are standouts, there are still enough focus on the background characters and the various guilds etc also doing stuff and accomplishing things that matter, that it still feels like a game. People's *attitude* feel like this is a game. And when I read it, I often feel like I want to go play a MMO... (then I remember my MMO accounts are for GW and STO, and drop the notion. :p) The romance only starts near the end of the story (the MC's ML shows up earlier, but they are only acquaintances and didn't meet in person til like the last third of the story-ish), so any romance in the story is an afterthought. Read it for the urge to game, not for the romance.

路人,但能看见主角光环 by: 羽轩W - 6/10
I really like the premise of this story, and it did start out quite strong. Some of the focus parts are also very "cool" to read. However, I have to admit as the author added more and more side characters, it started to get bloated, and also started to break my SOD. The main couple starts off already in a relationship, so there isn't as much out-right romance as there's a steady stream of (slice-of-life-ish) fluff sprinkled throughout the story.

No CP:

在各个灾变世界装神仙 by: 糖中猫 - 7/10
Overpowered but (not-so) slightly cray-cray female protagonist physically world-hopping to save the multiverse, with the backing of her home government (near future semi-post-apocalyptic setting). A lot of feels everywhere. But also a lot of stretching of the SOD. It's also a fairly short and fast paced read.

大乘期才有逆袭系统 by: 最白的乌鸦 - 7/10 (also got a wip manhua adaptation)
Overpowered and slightly wacky (but still responsible adult!) male protagonist going around slice-of-lifing undercover (since the story starts off with him already cultivated to OP levels) while slowly unraveling the mystery of the cosmos. Also featuring some physical world hopping. It's long compared to the above jj stories, but pretty short for a qidian xianxia story, honestly. I really liked plotting, how a lot of things revealed in later parts are well foreshadowed (or Chekov gunned) in earlier parts. And some of the humor is also nicely done, funny without having to resort to slapstick. The downside of the story is that it's written by a male author and it definitely shows in a lot of places. While I wouldn't say it's outright misogynistic, there are parts that were uncomfortable for me as a female reader, and I have a pretty high tolerance given the amount of period novels I've read. So take that as a warning.
tanithryudo: (Default)
https://www.qidian.com/book/1037168684/

Ch 1-3 - 《从战略上分析蜀汉统一的可能》
Ch 7 - 《先天畸形注定没有未来的曹魏》
Ch 18 - 《汉中全明星点燃的季汉之火》
Ch 30 - system level up 1 (add user)
Ch 37 - 《白衣渡江前奏:八百虎贲断吴梦》襄樊之战,李世民 joins the channel
Ch 55 - 《一郡之力斗天下,威震华夏在今朝》
Ch 70 - 《成都的蜀汉记忆》
Ch 90 - 《夷陵之火,熄灭的季汉之魂》,房谋杜断 & 长孙无忌 join the channel

季汉篇
VIP 1-9 - 诸葛亮专场《蜀中崩溃?看我丞相妙手回春!》
VIP 14-24 - 《兵出祁山》
VIP 28 - disaster preface, 《星落五丈原》+ 归义军张义潮
VIP 43 - system level up 2
VIP 49-64 - 三国的二代君主们,司马篡魏, 贞观众臣 join the channel
VIP 72-95 -《从豪强到世家再到门阀,百姓便让你们体面》
VIP 104-123 -《安禄山:大唐梦的最好代言人》, 赵大 joins the channel
VIP 141-153 -《从大唐军神到托塔李天王,李卫公是如何封神的?》
VIP 163-187 -《当三国,擒三王,转战万里,方称巨唐名将》,赵二 joins the channel
VIP 200-221 - 大唐海战到航海时代
VIP 269-297 《汉唐气候之变》,赵三 joins the channel
VIP 316-346 - 《黄粱一梦的红妆时代:女帝的困境》, 鲁肃 joins, system level up 4
VIP 347 - replay function
VIP 368-388 - 过年
VIP 398-415 烛影斧声
VIP 426-459 《两宋风流:江山作纸,铁脊为笔,蘸年华作墨,书平生义愤》
VIP 478-549 《两宋风流》下, 马皇后 joins the channel
VIP 581-638 两宋3 + 元, 曹操 & co join the channel

大明篇 (VIP 663)
CH1 - 45 洪武朝 (sick leave --> discontinued)
tanithryudo: (Gods at Play)
[19.2.71] (唐果) 快穿女配冷静点 By: 杜了了
MC starts out a blackened and vengeful from one too many incarnations as canon fodder who was betrayed again and again. Punishes everyone who wronged her, including the ML, until he learned to never cross any of her triggers/traps. Later on MC mellows out, her system becomes smarter, and spends her incarnations spreading dog food and occasionally punishing a mysterious enemy from her original life.
Links: qidian NovelUpdates free comic

chapters )



[15.1.75] (千雁) 全位面都跪求反派女主做个人 By: 杜了了
MC is a war deity reincarnated as the ruler of a realm now stuck in a time loop, and also targeted by many transmigrators. She hires those who are obedient and tears apart the systems of those who aren’t, keeping one to use for herself, fulfilling the wishes and regaining spiritual strength. The ML is her vizier, also the brother of the ML from the previous story. Each time MC transmigrates, he follows her as an admirer and helper, without his original memories, slowly gaining her personal trust and favor.
Links: qidian free

chapters )
tanithryudo: (Gods at Play)
[10.1.44] (安宁/萧元) 快穿之专业打脸指南 By: 凤栖桐
MC had just broken away from evil main system who forced her to quick transmigrate and act out tragic roles each life. Now free, she and her true love suitor seek worlds in distress or to help them recover/advance in order to seek revenge. Arcs are very slice of life oriented.
Links: qidian free

chapters )




[5.0.35] (徐茵) 快穿之炮灰她选择种田

By: 席祯 Full title: 快穿之炮灰她选择种田
MC has a farming based system and transmigrating into various book-worlds as the characters she had previously posted complaints about in her original world. Before the story starts, she already experienced 2 worlds, one where she died horribly due to the original plot, the second where she escaped the plot and led a successful solo life but didn’t earn any progress to go home. Later on she gains an ML which shows up in future worlds (though he doesn’t retain memories). Most arcs are slice of life oriented.
Links: qidian stocx

chapters )
tanithryudo: (Read)
[4.3.19] 快穿开启锦鲤运 by 夜月独一人
Host comes from a loveless family and gets foisted into quick transmigration by system 009, fulfilling wishes of host, eventually becoming an over-goddess after passing all trials.
Links: qidian stocx


穿开启锦鲤运 )
tanithryudo: (Zen)
Years ago, I went through a phase where I was into Alt history stories as written by western authors. There was Eric Flint's 1932 series and the whole genre of ISOT that followed it. There was a forum I frequently which often drew up long alt-history timelines based on various changes to real life history.

Of course, most of the stories/threads I enjoyed were centered around US/Europe/Russia/etc. Anything related to China (and there really weren't much) I ignored because it was obvious they are writing China-in-name-only due to cultural limitations. And then I lost interest due to too much 'Murica F*ck Yeah.

Recently, there has been a surge of alt-history stories on Chinese sites. Specifically, the [历史直播] genre has been sweeping jjwxc by storm. They're everywhere. The basic idea of it is essentially, historical education videos (similar to what you would find on bilibili) are getting broadcasted to various imperial china settings as a heavenly viewscreen, and the story basically consists of the info in those broadcasts, and reaction shots of various historical figures, and the impacts on various points of history.

At first, there was a couple I enjoyed just for the content of the historical broadcasts. Some of it is informative, China having such a long and colorful history, and lots of parts are literally were life was stranger/grander than art could be.

Then slowly, after reading so...very...many...of these stories, the problem of quality again becomes apparent. A lot of these are so very cookie-cutter, and often filled with inaccurate history directly copied off some wiki. So very few authors bother to research into the actual history, and instead use pop history (or the stuff from TV dramas *rolleyes*).

Even moreso getting on my nerves now, are the depictions of historical figures, which you could swap them for some modern rando and it wouldn't be a jarring change. Almost nobody bothers to respect the fact these guys are charismatic leaders, genius strategists, or career politicians.

I will throw out some names here.

秦始皇 is like the new pop star of history or something. So many authors dream of "saving" Qin by making 刘邦 and his famed historical supporters into Qin employees. Of 墨家 magically being able to take 《天工开物》 or even more modern texts from the Qing/Republic eras, and then directly move into 科举制 and industrialization within a single generation. Oh, and the ever present meme of giving 秦始皇 a world map resulting in Qin conquering the world (or at least Europe) in order to "save" modern students from having to learn English. Just... eh. Great fantasy, I guess?

Poor 汉武帝 often gets relegated into comedic relief. These stories/sections are often focused on 卫青 & 霍去病 and their military exploits. The political and economic achievements of 汉武帝 are often glossed over in favor of focusing on his 后宫, the sad fate of his crown prince, and the (historically nonexistent) "罪己诏" that "proves" he regretted his policies earlier in his reign. He's not my favorite emperor, but he sure gets my sympathies after reading too many of these stories.

And then there's 唐太宗, who I will admit beforehand is my favorite ancient chinese historical figure, and whom I'd written a term paper on back at Cal. Also one of the most admired emperors even historically speaking, by the Song literati, the Ming founders, and even more recent figures (aka. "自古能君无出李世民之右者,其次则朱元璋耳"). But unfortunately, he's now a victim of pop culture, often cast as minor character or even antagonist of modern Tang related dramas, resulting in a lot of smearing via fake history and rabid drama fans.

Like, 隋炀帝 is now getting whitewashed as a 明君 who's "工在千秋"? WTF? Depopulating 3/4 of the population is "工在千秋" for works that he neither succeeded in nor invented?

Like, 李建成 is now getting whitewashed as an excellent "守城之君" who would've done perfectly well on the throne? WTF? We're just ignoring the awful decisions he is on record for supporting during 李渊's reign? And making up "feats" to support his excellency in governance? Feats such as 李世民 having to make up for logistics on his own while on campaign rather than getting support from home? [/sarcasm]

Like, even when forced to having to admit 李世民 is an excellent emperor in the history of chinese leaders (because reality, people), don't think I don't notice various authors still keep trying to downplay his achievements by pretty much glossing over pretty much all the nitty details of his policies as ruler, and (again) focusing on the drama of his succession issues and his 后宫. Oh, and the overly used cliche of him worrying about how the future historians/public will view his 玄武门之变.

And also I have noticed that these "broadcasts", often times with various emperors, the story will stop at the end of that emperor's life & reign. With 李世民 they will often go the extra step of continuing to talk about Tang up through 安史之乱 or even late Tang. Like, I have to ask, what does that have to do with 李世民? It's impossible for him to fix stuff that happens a century down the line. So it's just an excuse for him to spit blood/get mad at his descendants? (Not that IMO he'd be that affected by something so detached as an nth gen descendant, honestly.) Oh, and the not-so-subtle implication that the problems of Tang as a 300 year dynasty are his karmic desserts for implementing 玄武门之变.

Just.....ugh. Writing up a defense on behalf of 唐太宗 is gonna be whole 'nother essay by itself.

I'll end this one with a couple of rec links for the rare diamond among the rough. recs )
tanithryudo: (Default)
Previous review. This stuff really eats up your time once you start reading them. I'm only covering completed stories and not the dozens or so stories that are still languishing in WIP.

The List )
tanithryudo: (Read)
配角光环(穿书)BY 橘子舟

Kinky BL quick transmigration
http://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=3428709
http://www.ldzw.org/41_41607/ (slower update)

Menu )


BY 墨泠 / 快穿:男神,有点燃! (AKA 这个大佬画风不对)

Inhumanly motivated MC with a 'throw money at everything' system trying to get good person cards out of blackening damsel in distress ML.
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/male-god-shine-bright/
http://yunqi.qq.com/bk/khkj/22727621.html
https://www.69shu.com/29594/

Menu )


More stories:
【穿书】每天都是傻白甜(np) (free popo novel on hiatus)
暖暖的奇迹穿越 / alt 306 Explicit BGH (need to login to master site first)
快穿:邪性BOSS,坏透了! (90% romance; soul rock; censored)
快穿:反派男神,别黑化 (BL uncensored 90% romance)
tanithryudo: (Default)
快穿攻略:撩男神100式

putting god back together
https://www.kenshu.cc/xiaoshuo/109089/0/
https://www.69shu.com/29323/

Menu )


快穿攻略:捕捉男神的99种方法

9 lives love trial with overgod heir; missions to fix worlds with bad protags; replace kind hosts
http://www.xbiquge.cc/book/40561/
https://www.kenshu.cc/xiaoshuo/86114/0/

Menu )


快穿独宠:男主,下个世界约么 (6/10...not sure if want to keep)

Unexplained quicktrans, fulling wish. MC has tiresomely low EQ, nearly emotionally stunted; seems to be always freaking surprised and unresponsive when the ML hits on her. A little too...傻白甜. Also an unequal love, since it seems like MC is slow to fall for ML each world even having memories, while ML always immediately falls for her at first sight even without memories.

https://www.ranwena.com/files/article/88/88425/ (COMPLETE! On extras)

Menu )





More stories:
BY 帝九夷 / 快穿系统:扑倒男神手册 (completed) (revive herself & yandere lover ML)
BY 帝九夷 / 反派BOSS是女帝! (completed) (demon goddess conquering former foe wargod ML)
BY 帝九夷 / 快穿:极品女神皆美腻! (NEW...too much water)
BY 素手折枝 / 快穿:女主驾到,女配速退散! (completed) (evolving companion to creator god)
BY 素手折枝 / 快穿小妖精:腹黑男主,别过来! (completed) (item spirit, phoenix)
BY 素手折枝 / 快穿:男主,开挂吗 (completed) (MC *is* ML's golden finger)
BY 墨泠 / 快穿女配:反派BOSS有毒 (completed) (OP future MC, damsel in distress ML)
BY 墨泠 / 快穿系统:反派BOSS来袭! (completed) (gluttonous goddess MC, narcissist tasker ML)
BY 墨泠 / 快穿:男神,有点燃! (WIP) (OP!MC with 'throw money at everything' system)
tanithryudo: (Read)
So these things had swallowed up my life these last few months, an I figure I'd share the insomnia. Also, I'm just putting down completed stories here (at least for the CN edition); no WIPs.

The List )
tanithryudo: (Read)
Notes: Non-romance/Anti-romance, Quick-Transmigration genre with a meta-plot that's taking over the narrative, WIP

RAWs: main alt - read up to 3462 (3630 task)
Links: Novelupdates thread Translation TOC up to mid Arc 7 Manhua (ch30)

Arc Summaries )

General Review )
tanithryudo: (Default)
The novel Blindsight by Peter Watts. The author is a marine biologist and the book has a lot of bio jargon and stuff in it (that went straight over my head), even though it's technically a sci fi. Not a happy ending book, but interesting to read.

Web serial novel Worm was pretty heavily recommended on a forum that I frequented. It's a LONG, character driven, gritty version of the urban superhero genre. Also a somewhat downer ending in some ways as well, though not the same way as Blindsight. I haven't actually had a chance to read through it myself, so all I know of the plot/characters comes from the mess of fanfics it's inspired.

With This Ring - Self insert fanfic crossing over with the Young Justice cartoon. I thought it's pretty good, actually. It's a WIP, but the author has been pretty good about updating daily so far. (The forum can often get horribly laggy during afternoon/evening hours though.)

(more as they come to me...)
tanithryudo: (Read)
Warning: This contains spoilers. You have been warned.

Read more... )
tanithryudo: (Read)
I decided it was way too hot for me to go to the bookstore today, so I decided to browse the Baen Free Library instead. Found two pretty good reads that I thought I'd recommend...

Digital Knight, by Ryk Spoor )

Planets of Adventure, by Murray Leinster )
tanithryudo: (Default)
Right, so yesterday I was playing catchup with the YvtW Afterlife arc. I had saved the storyline up to where we'd just entered Hades, which means that I lost all of what happened in Hades, and most of what happened in Helheim, the OMGU, and Egypt. Le sigh.

I'd finished writing up the scene with the shades in Hades and our encounter with Tiresias, and just had us arrive in Helheim, when I decided to do a little (re)research on the descriptions of the place and the inhabitants.

Somehow, a search for the hellhound Garm and the ferry...er...hag Moghud (or however you spell it), led me to a page in the middle of a Baen Free Library novel. I skimmed through it, in case there was something useful, and noticed that the chapter seemed to be about some mortal guy trying to work his way physically into Helheim. The book is Sleipnir, by Linda Evans.

Well, I thought: "Hey, cool, the main character's sorta doing what we're doing. Maybe I'll read this novel and see if I can pick up some ideas!"

So I did. (Note: Spoilers) )

One of the ideas I liked from the book was that Balder could be a helpful presence to our heros in Helheim. Of course, I have no idea if the MU version of the Norse pantheon has Balder in Hel... [insanejournal.com profile] ossian? Do you know?
tanithryudo: (Release)
Right, so I was out for the most of yesterday. Woke up late, had lunch, then went to the movies to see Shrek. Then I holed myself up in Barnes & Nobles until their closing time before dragging myself back home again. A good day, all in all. ^_-

Shrek 2 )

Hyperion/Fall of Hyperion )
tanithryudo: (Unsung Heroes)
Well, this morning just dragged on and on. I got up early so I can finally get [insanejournal.com profile] ossian's bday present mailed. Managed to get out of the house at like... 8:30 or so.

Spent ~2 hours just figuring out *how* I was gonna do this. What with packaging and boxing and whatever. I think I spent maybe 1 hour of it in the car just wrapping/packaging. Maybe 15-30 minutes of that time was spent on the road... specifially, spent on getting lost on the road. Driving by memory for me isn't really a good idea, even in my home city, which is a really really sad testament to the state of my memory. ^_^;;

Then spent half an hour or so in line at the post office and then sending the sucker off. I used express mail, since I spent so much time on the thing already that I might as well make it worth my time. This means that it'll get to the destination really fast (hopefully). It *should* get to Edmonton on Monday, or at least that's what the ads claim. But at the very latest it ought to get there by early next week. I think you may have to sign for it though, [insanejournal.com profile] ossian, so let's hope it gets there when you're home, else you might need to drop by the post office for it. :p But hey, at least it'll get there on time.

After that I decided that since it's close to noon, I might as well grab some fast food and go see a movie. Since I figured there'll be eateries next to the theater, I went there first...after some more confused directions and driving (*sweatdrop*). Got a ticket for the 12 o'clock Harry Potter 3 showing, which left me with like 30 minutes to run down a block or so to Burger King and grab something to go. I finished a small chocolate milkshake on my way back (it's really hot out today) and managed to sneak in a to-go bag with a 8-pc box of chicken tenders to the theater. I'm so bad. :p

spoilers ahoy for the movie )

Well, that's enough yakking for now. I'm pretty much out of stuff to say. Hope that review was informative. Maybe I'll go see Shrek 2 some other time.
tanithryudo: (Twins)
Went by the bookstore today and read a book that I'd planned on reading for a long time now. Pegasus in Space is one of the more recent novels by Anne McCaffrey. It bridges the gap in her Parapsychic Series between the Pegasus arc taking place in the late 20th/early 21st century and the Rowan arc, which takes place a century or two later.

The book mainly focuses on the beginning of space travel on that Earth, as made possible by budding psionics and technological discoveries. It also details the founding of FT&T - Federated Telepath and Teleport... which was the model that I'd based my own RP company of PADT on. ^_^

You know, I would love to see a Rumbles fight featuring the psionics of that series, especially by the end of the series. These people can teleport space fleets over interstellar distances... and I note in the epilogue of Pegasus in Space, also through *time*. That just boggles the mind. I'm not sure if that bit was something of a plot hole that the author hadn't realized was there... or a stroke of genius to help explain a lot of things in the later books.

Anyways, powers aside, the characters and especially the plot were very well done. The romantic pairing that the main character ended up with rather took me by surprise. Though I've noticed that McCaffrey rarely dwells much on romance as the focus of her storytelling. She does like to pair her characters off, marriage and children and all... but she rarely dwells on the whole love and angst and stuff. Or at least covers it pretty well under the plot.

Anyway, Pegasus in Space is a good book, though I'd recommend reading the two books before it in the series to get a lot of the references in it. That would be To Ride Pegasus and Pegasus in Flight, in that order.
tanithryudo: (Stone Knives)
Well, [insanejournal.com profile] cashew did a much better job than I of summarizing our day spent bookstore raiding today. So go see her lovely entry here for her recap.

Borders was fun. I broke down and finally bought Diane Duane's Spock's World, which has long been held to be official fanon for STTOS, as oxymoronic as "official fanon" can be considered. Also look forward if we ever get our hands on a copy of "The Ring". That was one freaky manga, IMO, even in the text. I just know I'm gonna spend most of the movie hiding behind my hands, wimp that I am. :p

B&N in Emeryville is huuuuuuuuuuge. It's paradise, basically. ^_^ Read the Trek book Badlands I, which is a book which has two separate stories taking place in the badlands (an area of space first introduced in the Maquis arc in late TNG). The first took place in TOS era, and the second took place in the TNG era.

The slashy bit? Well, the Enterprise (original one) had just captured a Romulan smuggler, a very charismatic female captain, who's doing her best to try and convince Kirk that she wasn't smuggling what Starfleet had sent the Enterprise to investigate, and they should let her ship go. Kirk gets disturbed by the fact that he's starting to believe her and trust her words. All of a sudden, he realizes that he's trusting her because she's a lot like Spock, who he trusts implicitly (this is actually in the narration, which includes a string of adjectives which Kirk uses in his mental monologue to describe his Vulcan XO. ^_- ) Moreover, he notes that the Romulan captain has some of the same *subtle gestures and facial expressions and other small details of her persona* as Spock... gee, Cap'n... You sure have noticed a lotta very small details about that first officer of yours. *nudge nudge wink wink* :p

Hehe... so very hot.

ADDENDUM: Also read the manga Psychic Academy 1. The plot and characters were interesting. But the clothing fashions in that book? So, very, very, very scary... in the ugly, cringe-worthy kinda way. I mean, metal panty-shaped underwear on outside of a *guy*'s clothing? Armor-like uniforms for female students which have a metal cap over their groin (actually, it's over their lower abdomen, not groin area)? So... ick. Also, the art style for girls in that manga is totally fanservice. All the girls have huge melons on their chests. It looks very, very painful. *cringe*

Yep. This was a very, very productive day. A very Good day. :D

PS: Oh yeah... and we came across one of my former roomies at B&N, who finally gave me my part of the deposit check on our previous apartment. Ah well, better late than never. :p
tanithryudo: (Read)
Baen Free Library. Free novels by well known authors. No strings attached. Wonderful, wonderful, place. ^_^

Oh and also, on the Baen site, I found some funny short stories by Mercedes Lackey. I think they're samples from one of her short story collections. If anyone wants to read some light and short satire...

Aliens Ate My Pickup - An exercise in stereotype-breaking in more than one area. Sci-fi? Or just a hoax?

Small Print - TV evangelists making deals with the Devil. Makes so much sense. ^_- Less fantasy than maybe horror or supernatural.

Last Rights - Animal rights activists who don't do their homework on the critters they're planning to "liberate".

One last link: How I Spent My Summer Vacation. Not a story, but basically Mercedes Lackey writing about her life as a writer, with some advice on writing in general. Excerpt:

Actually, I have been considering borrowing the disclaimer from the game Stalking the Night Fantastic by Richard Tucholka—"If anything in this book offends you, please feel free to buy and burn as many copies as you like. Volume discounts are available."

Edit: I think they made a slight error transcribing those stories and got the author's notes switched around. The notes for How I Spent... goes with Aliens Ate My Pickup, the notes for Aliens Ate My Pickup definitely goes with Small Print, the notes for Small Print definitely goes with Last Rights, and I think the notes for Last Rights goes with the next story in the book which isn't transcribed. Oh well.
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