I've figured out my problem

I'm just too far up Maslow's hierarchy for my own good.

That's all.

and now for something much lighter

Prompted by a couple of discussions, one on the RomSF mailing list, and the other on someone's blog (sorry, can't remember who).

Fair warning: I am going to make a comparison that may make some of you shudder.

I've been looking for a new series to read for quite some time now. My favorite series, which will come as no surprise to anyone who knows me, is the Vorkosigan saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. But I'm not looking for the standard SF "if you like this, you'll like that," because what I like about the Bujold books doesn't really have anything to do with their genre.

So. Here goes.

The closest I've come in what I'm looking for when I say readalikes for the Vorkosigan books are -- prepare to have your mind boggled -- the Amelia Peabody books by Elizabeth Peters, which are historical mysteries set in Edwardian-era Egypt. Let me list the similarities:

Larger than life characters in an exotic setting, an unreliable narrator, romance, a hero (Miles, of course, and in the Peabody books, Amelia's son Ramses later in the series) to ooh over, mystery, characters who grow up and older and change over the course of the series, adventure that emerges from the characters' personalities and flaws, and more romance .

What I'm really looking for is more books that have these things in common. It really doesn't matter where I find them. Or in what genre.

I'm not saying I don't like the SFnal aspects of Bujold -- I do, very much. But I look on uterine replicators and wormhole travel and butterbugs and all that sort of thing the same way I view the archaelogical background of the Peabody books. They're part of what makes each series unique and interesting, but they're not what I read the books for.

Anybody have any suggestions?

ETA: Prompted by a couple of comments, something else that probably needs to be taken into consideration. Both the Peabody books and the Vorkosigan books have very strong familial connections and threads. They're actually both much more alike in that aspect than in any other way -- the Great Man, his strong-willed, intelligent wife, and their son who is trying so hard to Be Someone on his own rather than just his parents' child. I know that's way too specific when I'm looking for readalikes. But I do think a strong familial aspect is probably important.

And I may have been giving less credit to the exotic setting than I should be. Not any particular exotic setting, mind you, but one that's interesting and well-rounded and makes the reader wonder what else is going on there besides what we get to see in the books.

Yeah, I'm not asking for much. But I can't help believing that there's got to be more out there like this than just these two series.

one last post for the night

Since I'm feeling garrulous for the first time in far too long.

Prompted by that same anonymous blog in my last post, which posed the question, what in fiction are you a sucker for, I would like to post this question here, and ask what kind of character/plot/setting/other thing in fiction will suck you right in?

Mine is signified by the icon. Swift, smart repartee, a la Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing. Where the two people have a History, and down deep care about and respect each other, but damned if they’re going to admit that to anyone, least of all each other.

Even better if they’ve got to work together to make the plot come out right in the end.

So, what's your soft spot? Inquiring minds want to know.