I totally agree, especially about the virginity thing. I started watching Girls because I heard that it was the empowering TV show for women that Sex and the City should have been. However, at least in season 1, I saw a lot of the same tropes that continue to put women into boxes. Of course you have to be an…

Gargoyles was awesome! My relatives were always bemused when I asked for the action figures for my birthday rather than Barbies.

Thank you for sharing your story. This is the kind of thing that actually needs awareness. A high-profile entity like the NFL would be a great vehicle for awareness, to say "Hey, this is real, this is serious, and we shouldn't be afraid of talking about it." I understand that the NFL might be trying to make itself…

What makes it non-consensual for me is that the riders have no choice in who they're having sex with. During a mating flight, it's the strongest or fastest male dragon who catches the female that gets to mate with her. It has nothing to do with who the riders actually want to be with. That's why F'nor wanted Canth to…

I'm finally getting into The Widow's House by Daniel Abraham, the fourth book in his Dagger and Coin series, after it came out last month. He just keeps on serving up excellence, book after book. More people really need to read Abraham's fantasy. His world-building is rich without getting bogged down in unnecessary…

It really depends on the kind you try. I really like Bunratty Mead, brewed in Bunratty, Ireland. It has a tasty, sweet honey flavor that's very mellow and smooth. Other meads I have tried are just basically crappy white wine with hardly any honey flavor. If you don't like sweet drinks it probably isn't for you, but…

Haha, unfortunately not. Now I wish he had! I did manage to make him laugh when I asked him what the words for House Seaworth were, and he realized he hadn't written any. Definitely a very good-natured guy.

I met him twice at a convention, and he was very nice and personable. He was actually more friendly than I expected him to be, considering the hundreds of people he met just that day, not to mention at all his other appearances.

I tried reading it a couple of months ago and the allusions were the reason I just couldn't get through it. That, and the fact that each character had about three different names (which might be a Russian thing, I'm not sure). I'd definitely give it another go if I had an edition with annotations though.

Yeah, I agree with you. I admittedly didn't notice how messed up the sexual politics were when I read them in high school, but looking back, it's pretty bad. Even if the rape or near-rape during mating is explained by the intense telepathic connection between the riders and their dragons, that doesn't excuse it. It…