Reading!

[justacat]

Suddenly I find myself, for the first time in a long time, just full of things to post about. I have no idea where to start! Should I try to put everything into one post? Hmm... Well, maybe not. It's getting to be time to start thinking, and posting, about Close Quarters - very exciting, and all you Pros fans should sign up and come and spread the

Comments

[executrix]

I, too, think the Administration series is amazing. I've met the author in propria persona--she had a leather-clad Avon teddy bear made by entropy_house. I think of The Administration as a spin-off of Blakes7, which certainly doesn't predispose me to like it any *less.*

[justacat]

I know she was a Blakes7 writer, and I know the Administration universe was kind of inspired by Blakes7, but I don't really quite think of it as a B7 spinoff - still, no matter, it's absolutely incredible. Have you maintained contact with her? I wish she would write more - if not this series then something. She does have an LJ (and there's an Administration fan LJ, too), but I've been reluctant, for some reason, to ask that question...

I kind of feel like I want an Administration icon, actually!!

[executrix]

I've kind of lost touch with her (part of withdrawing from B7 in general), so I don't know her plans. Certainly writing 600,000 words in a 'verse would be an accomplishment even if they *weren't* so excellent.

BTW, spacefall has done at least one Toreth/Warrick illustration, because I have a copy of it tacked to my bulletin board!

[justacat]

I think my favorite Admin art that I've seen so far are the top three here, by lillithium - that's so exactly how I envisioned Toreth in particular, though now that I've looked over the mannazone site more carefully my image of him is overlaid with her own Johnny Depp image - still, this is really more how he lives in my head.

Unfortunately, I don't think I can appropriate her art as my icon! :-(

[towerbridge2006]

I really want a Kindle, too! I keep hoping the price will go down. :(
I recently started reading lots of non-fic. This wuld be the ideal format. You are recommending some interesting ebooks. I think I'll check out the current Kindle prices...
Thanks for posting. :)

[justacat]

I know you can get the first-gen Kindles for cheaper on ebay now... They are expensive; one of the things that eventually pushed me over the edge was the amount I was spending on printer toner, because I really hate reading fanfic online - I prefer to print it out! Now that I have it, I never go anywhere without it - it's funny how I read so much more now that I have it than I did before. And it's just so convenient - when I travel, I just take this one small thing with me and I have tons of books and stories, instead of lugging around fanfiction printouts and books, etc. etc. etc... I really never anticipated how much I'd love it.

In the interim, you don't actually need a Kindle to read the stories I've mentioned here. The Administration series are all in html format, and I believe Josh Lanyon's and Jordan Castillo Price's ebooks can all be purchased in a number of different formats, including pdf and html (and of course they're available in "real" book format, too!).

[cathexys]

I'm so excited to see you excited about Administration. I'm on my third or fourth reread and always fall into crazy Administration craziness for a bit... I realized how my kinks all lined up by reading that series, bc it seemed to extract EXACTLY the power dynamic i love...

the only fanfic i've ever written was for that series :) but it's an eternal WiP and you may remember how i feel about WiPs!!! :)

[justacat]

Oh, I am so totally excited about it, and I'm excited to find at least a few fellow Administration lovers - on the one hand I'm amazed that so few people know about it, but since I didn't learn of it until recently, I'm thinking it's not nearly as widely known as it should be. I've been trying to make myself read it slowly - I started it maybe a month ago - but now I'm halfway through Family Values and dreading reaching the end, though I know I can - and will - read it again and again. It actually isn't necessarily a power dynamic I love, and they're not my particular kinks, and yet I just can't get it out of my head - it's like a drug. So amazing

[cathexys]

Well, I actually know quite a few Admin lovers :)

There are two LJ communities (one that has her in it and another that came out after the books, and she nicely stays out of it :)

There are a couple of decent longer fanfic pieces but on the whole, yes, very little!

I haven't gotten the books yet (I only give them as gifts apparently :), so I can't tell you about where the novellas fall. I doubt she'll ever get back to it. When I met her 6 years ago, she was already long done with it...And trust me. I tried!!! :)

[justacat]

I doubt she'll ever get back to it. When I met her 6 years ago, she was already long done with it...And trust me. I tried!!! :)

Though again - there's a book due to come out May 1 with a previously unavailable novella, and she says on the mannazone_news lj that there "is indeed an entirely new story in this volume which isn't up on the website. Again, it will be going up on the site at some point in the future, but for now it's exclusive to the print edition. You can thank Kimberley at Casperian for poking me to write the story, providing me with some of the inspiration for it, and then being extraordinarily patient while I spent months not writing it

[treewishes]

I've read bits and pieces of the Administration series over the years (I think we read something for book club years ago), but never ALL of it.

And I have a Kindle, but I haven't figured out much in the way of using it. I bought it with the idea that I could give it to my Grama so she could read in large print, and get her newspapers... but it's really not there, yet. You'll have to give me a how-to-do-eet sometime...

[justacat]

Wow, that's not an easy one for book club. Maybe the very first novel - Mind Fuck. Hmm, perhaps I ought to suggest it... I am so totally and completely hooked. The way it evolves and unfolds through the entire (happily long) series is a big part of the addictive aspect of it, though.

I'll be happy to give you Kindle coaching if you want - this month's book club is at my place, actually. I don't do newspapers - I have fanfiction and lots and lots of ebooks - but I think I know how to use it pretty well.

[blkandwhtcat]

I like the way she takes images and phrases and uses them again and again, sometimes in a different context. (Shhh, just shhh. Just you, that's all, Shall I ask again? or the image of Toreth as a beautiful, but emotionally damaged, caged panther). I like the way you have to piece things together, like when Warrick admits he loves Toreth to Dillion, at the end of Shopping and Fucking - it's crystal clear if you're paying attention, and yet so many people totally miss it.

I love talking about TAS!

[justacat]

Yes! Again, having just barely made it through the series once - I still have the last two very short ones yet to go (finished Family Values late late last night... :sigh:) - I haven't caught all of these yet. "Shall I ask again" rings no bells for me, but Shh, just shh, and Just you, that's all... Oh, lovely. Lovely lovely

[blkandwhtcat]

Congrats on finding TAS. I discovered it about 3 years ago, and have turned many people on to it, including at least one Pros reader

[justacat]

You're the only Pros person who's commented here, and the only one I know of who's read it, though I have no doubt there must be others. I'm just amazed I've managed to be in fandom for so long (not just Pros - I have a pretty broad exposure) and never have heard of it - and just so glad I stumbled upon it. Finding it does feel like something that deserves congratulations. :-)

I'm hoping I can turn people on to it, too (and glad I fixed those links so quickly!!!)

Oh, question for you re: the books, since it you have them - I asked this on shades0fgrey, but no one's answered yet. Can you tell me about the new material that is thus far only in the books and not online - I believe a novella in Quid Pro Quo (called Quid Pro Quo?) and a short story in Games and Players? Where do they fit in the timeline - after Family Values and the last two short stories online, or somewhere within the series? And what do you think of them? I vaguely recall reading a review somewhere that said the Quid Pro Quo novella is extremely Toreth-centric and has very

[blkandwhtcat]

As noted above, I'd ordered the first two books, and lent them out before reading them, and never got them back. So, I recently reordered the first two, and the third one. I'm reading them in order, and I just finished Mind Fuck. I'll let you know about the new story

[justacat]

Amazon lists three books: Mind Fuck, Quid Pro Quo, and Games and Players. The Mannazone site says Quid Pro Quo includes a "new" (not online) novella, and Games and Players includes a new short story; the new book, set to come out in May, called Control, is supposed to include a new novella as well.

Or is the "new" novella in Quid Pro Quo now online as Game, Set? That very well could be, since the book isn't new anymore, and the site says all the stories will eventually be online - in that case, I have read it, haven't I...

Wait wait wait, Game, Set, is the story that introduces Carnac. What? And my files from my friend have a story called Strategy, which isn't online anymore... Okay, looks like Game, Set used to be called Strategy. Well, that's interesting. But it's clearly not a "new" novella.

Can you tell from the table of contents of the books what the "new" stories are called?

On the one hand, I want to read anything Administration. On the other hand...well, I want someone else to read them first to confirm that I should! *g*