On the subject of things I keep forgetting to ask about...

[thanate]

Contemplating books (or failing that, obtainable short stories) with a pregnant major character-- fantasy preferred, though SF, historical, and not too obnoxiously contemporary are all ok too. What I want is something that at least touches on the experience, preferably in a more individualistic manner than David Eddings-esque "oh, you're being 'seasick' in the mornings, too, huh?" (seriously, that's one of about six scenes I remember out of the Belgariad etc, and even at twelve-or-so I wasn't much impressed.) Bonus points for female POV and avoiding the "all historical women died in childbirth" sorts of tropes, but mainly I'm curious what's out there that doesn't skip over pregnancy as a sort of uninteresting limbo.

So far, my mental list consists entirely of Bujold (Cordelia/Alys, younger Ista, & Fawn), Pamela Dean's Tam Lin (which is more focused on situation than experience), and a half-remembered short story out of a Sword & Sorceress antho that was actually about some lady who'd just given birth & had to come to terms with wanting the infant. (the latter is on my shelf somewhere, but I have yet to fall into the black hole of flipping through 20-ish anthologies in search of it.)

Thoughts? (tangentially, early parenthood narratives are also worth mentioning if you think of any.)

ETA: ongoing list of suggestions from twitter, where the question was phrased as spec fic only:
*McCaffrey's Dragonsdawn
*L'Engle's A Swiftly Tilting Planet
*end of the Twilight saga... That's Breaking Dawn, yes? Not really on my tbr list, but it counts.
*Justine Larbalestier's Magic's Child
*Tanya Huff Sing the Four Quarters (I have No Quarter as a hand-me-down paperback, but never got to looking up the rest of the series. Hm...)
*Jay Lake's Endurance (Only made it 2/3 of the way through Green b/c things kept annoying me. Maybe worth trying again later... I think the third might involve infants, too?)
*Timothy Zahn's 1st post-movie Star Wars book/series, apparently? (has someone got titles on this?)
*Nalo Hopkinson's Midnight Robber which I totally should have remembered & Brown Girl in the Ring has an infant
*Mary Robinette Kowal's Glamor in Glass (thought the first was ok but hadn't gotten to the second yet)
*Gail Carriger's Heartless (book #4)
*Also, Rural_Fantasy points out that I missed Learned Hallana from Bujold's The Hallowed Hunt (who honestly I'd entirely forgotten existed--not main but major character) and while we're recapping, there's also the pregnancy/newborn bit in Falling Free.
*Guy Gavriel Kaye's Fionavar Tapestry trilogy.
*Doris Egan's Guilt-Edged Ivory (book 3 of a trilogy)
*Very end of the Wheel of Time series (last book or two? ...probably not worth starting if this is your only reason for reading it. And if it's not, you may already know this.)
*Somebody suggested possibly one of the Sorcery & Cecelia sequels? This would have to be The Mislaid Magician, which is *right over there* and I'll check it sometime after this cat gets off my lap...

Comments

[vera_l]

In the third book of Doris Egan's Ivory trilogy (Guilt-Edged Ivory), the protagonist spends the book pregnant. Both SF and fantasy elements, but more of a fantasy "feel", I'd say. The omnibus edition of the trilogy is probably easier to find, although by now it's out of print too.

[thanate]

Thanks-- I don't think I'd heard of this one before.

[ballistabob.livejournal.com]

Guy Gavriel Kay's "Fionavar Tapestry" trilogy.

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

Hmm...on the historical side, what about Gone with the Wind?

One of our fellow VPXV graduates (L Blankenship) has a series she's writing that has a character pregnant (and delivering) across two of the books, and then deals with taking care of the baby/nursing/etc after the delivery. The character has inherited responsibility and has to juggle those with raising her son. Only the first book is actually self-published, at this point, but I beta read for her and highly recommend those.

[dragonvyxn.livejournal.com]

marion zimmer bradley's darkover series has some of the best female character perspectives i've ever read, childbearing and pregnancy don't feature in all of them but there are some where it's a main part of the storyline and it never seemed too cliche to me. her books are awesome! i don't know if you've read them already or not, though. it's a little spec-fic-ish in the long haul planetary exploartion way.

have you read hugh howey's molly fyde quadrilogy? i read them while nursing early on and they're great. his other booklets, the wool omnibus and the 1st and 2nd shift stories are also fascinating.

[thanate.livejournal.com]

Cool-- I've read a couple of Kay's things, but hadn't heard of that one yet. Thanks!

[thanate.livejournal.com]

I never really got into most of MZB's stuff (aside from obsessing over her Sword & Sorceress anthologies as a teen, which is a bit different...) but I'm pretty sure my mother has a bunch of those. Do you have any particularly recommended titles?

Had not heard of Howey/Molly Fyde, but they sound like fun. Thanks!