so as per prev tags i read A Sensory Experience of Metal and Other Metal and having finished it i basically think what i said before but more so: i thought certain things abt it were vividly diverting and delightful and other things were really very sketchily penciled in!
in some ways i do think the biggest thing that's stood out to me abt the various m/m books by, uh, fandom-nurtured authors that i've read lately-ish (thinking vaguely of FM and, uh, other FM here, in addition to op. previously cit.) is how mediocre their female characters have imo been—in some ways that's to be expected bc supporting characters in romance are very often mere ciphers, and if both members of your central pairing are men, then, well... but i do feel like people could be briefly sketched and still feel realer and more like there's a logic of their own to them, beyond just Necessary NPC? like, i have some issues with both heyer and sayers (antisemitism foremost among these) but both of them managed to make it feel as though their romances were happening within the context of a believable society populated by believable bit characters (sayers' artist lesbians!).
(as per prev post also some thoughts abt what gets fleshed out vs what's just wooden set dressing in general, and some wondering abt the extent to which a fannish apprenticeship tends to encourage those flaws, but those i think i more or less covered in prev tags, if somewhat incoherently/inconclusively.)
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