mrissa | Present Writers: Patricia C. Wrede (Reply)

This is the latest in a recurring series! For more about the series, please read the original post on Marta Randall, or subsequent posts on Dorothy Heydt, Barbara Hambly, Jane Yolen, Suzy McKee Charnas, Sherwood Smith, Nisi Shawl, Pamela Dean, Gwyneth Jones , and Caroline Stevermer.

I swear I'm not going to shift to making this series all about people I'm personally friends with...but neither am I going to neglect people whose work fits the series concept just because they happen to be good company for lunch.

The size and variety of Pat's oeuvre gives lots of room for variety, and obviously some works will stand out as more favorite than others. My obscure faves are the stories in the shared Liavek worlds, handled deftly and now available in Points of Departure along with Pamela Dean's stories in the same world. The handling of wry humor, family dynamics, and worldbuilding in these stories charmed me from the first one I encountered, but they're even better as a set.

I recently reread a better-known favorite, Dealing With Dragons, which reminded me of some of the things I love about Pat's work--the wry tone, as above, perhaps obviously. But also the way that women have a wide variety of relationships with each other. The first page made me think, oh, I don't remember this very well, is it going to be one of those books where golden-haired girls who like embroidery are Bad and you have to be Not Like Them to protag? And I should have remembered that it was Pat, she was not going to do that, and sure enough there's room for a wide range of skills and interests--and for a wide range of reactions to and interactions with each other. This was ground-breaking for so many "why don't you ever see a heroine who" conversations, and it holds up so very well.

Just rereading one made me want to go back and reread the entire series. And also Sorcery and Cecelia. And also Snow White and Rose Red. It's like quicksand. But in a good way. It's like very complimentary quicksand that knows how to play the beats on a widely varied set of tropes...so percussionist quicksand...look, this is a good thing, I promise, let's get back to the dragons.