SirOccam wrote...
The following is a dramatization of me reading Maria's post:
(reading)
(still reading)
(heh, good point)
(reading some more)
(and more)
("what are these books everyone's talking ab--")

Abercromie's books are dark fantasy. They're rather perverse and the characters have a host of mental issues. They're not meant to be 'realistic' but an extreme noir like Sin City.
Joe Ambercrombie inspired romance:
FenrisLady Hawke has met the handsome and charming, but withdrawn, Fenris, an elven warrior and ex-Tevinter slave. As they fight, they develop a deep bond, but due to the experiments performed on him, Fenris has periods where he blacks out. They love one another but cannot touch *at all* because the lyrium in Fenris' skin drains the life of anyone he comes in contact with.
One night, he rushes to Lady Hawke's house, his hands covered with blood, but he can't remember what happened. They soon learn that an elven family was brutally murdered the previous night. Their investigation shows that there has been a string of murders in the alienage for years now, which the Templars had decided must be the work of blood mages.
Fenris is desperate to know the truth, so Lady Hawke performs a ritual to force him to remember the periods where he's blacked out. He is the killer, and the sudden knowledge causes him to snap. His mind is taken over by the malevolent, murderous side he's always hidden from himself.
Fenris flees into the alienage and begins burning down houses. Lady Hawke and companions finally corner him in a half-buried Tevinter ruin where Fenris has constructed a giant flesh golem out of the parts of the elves he's killed. He believes when it's 'perfect,' he'll be able to wear the flesh golem as a suit and he'll have a new, immortal body.
He dons the suit and through some horrid alchemy, it comes to life around him.
Upon seeing the piles of bones and the mutilated remains of innocent people Fenris slowly tortured to death, Lady Hawke understands that the man she loved is dead – if he ever really existed. She cuts the golem down and then kills Fenris. In his last moments, he thanks her and they touch for the first and last time.
Modifié par Maria Caliban, 02 janvier 2011 - 06:01 .