Hi All, ready for some lighter summer reading? This month, we’ll be reading Gormglaith by Heidi Wyss. It’s an e-book and you can read it online or download a pdf. Heidi was born (1975) in Geneva, Switzerland and educated there and in the UK. She has worked as an histologist and technical writer. Heidi says she likes raves, gardening and bats.
I haven’t read this yet myself, I’ll just be starting it this weekend but it looks like a lot of fun for anyone who is a fantasy and sci-fi fan (why do those two always seem to go together?).
Just to entice you, here are a couple of reviews from the author’s website:
This online novel has become a cult hit… much better than the Buffy lesbian stories…
– All Night Surfing
Wow! Nifty! Worth the time to figure it out… if you haven’t read yet, please do.
– Liz Henry, Feminist SF – The Blog!
As feminist literature it’s unceasingly assertive, positive and controversial. As hard science fiction it offers a deeply structured, often entertaining story, at turns inspiring and disturbing, in a unique contribution to the genre.
– Karen Campbell, Quiet Mountain Essays
…a very good sci-fi online novel. Well worth the read!
– Imagination, stumbleupon.com
I thought this SciFi story of one possible future was very well done and thought provoking!
– Lili Pintea-Reed, feministjournal.com
This may be genius, it may be madness… There are Druids and Wiccans who’ll devour it whole… LOTR fans who’ll sleep out for tickets to the movie and Witchy young women… and I’ll be telling all of the ones I know to read this book… you’ll dig the illustrations. Whoever designed them is a daft Witch- which is high praise coming from me.
– Morgaine Swann, womenwriters.net
I highly, highly recommend it to anyone… Very feminist, very lesbian, very goth, and very very cool.
– dragonflymary, livejournal.com
It has pictures, too! Here are a few of the characters:
Bairrfhionn
http://www.literateweb.com/wyss/bairrt.jpg
Gwenhwyfer
http://www.literateweb.com/wyss/gwent.jpg
Tegan
http://www.literateweb.com/wyss/tegant.png
I give up, the image tags keep disappearing whenever I save this. So I’ve put in links. You’ll have to look at the pictures yourself. Sorry!
there seems to be an odd repeat in your post–you might want to edit it.
I want to read this, but I just LOATHE reading long things online.
I may just be too old to let go of my attachment to paper.
Thanks, I'll fix this.
Not to be curmudgeonly, but this is nauseating to read…
“… much better than the Buffy lesbian stories …”
All I can think of is the phrase “damning with faint praise”.
Psamathos, do you mean it's badly written or the content disgusts you?
The quality of the writing is fine, but the slang keeps getting in the way. I appreciate storytellers who can make do without excess description, and Wyss seems to be one.
But unfortunately, the characters’ vernacular is just too inaccessible for me. It makes it hard to distinguish them as individuals. I can get the general gist of what’s being talked about, but I have to do a lot of backtracking even for that. Key details and events only become clear paragraphs after they’re first established; I prefer a much more even flow when reading fiction.
Still, I’ll give it another go. Stephen R. Donaldson was completely unreadable to me on the first try; years later I could hardly get enough of him. Maybe Wyss won’t take as long to grow on me.