Tag: #fantasy
Near the Bone — Christina Henry
The Book of Merlyn — T. H. White
Mother of the Year — Rachel Aaron
As usual i check the loc points when i open a book on my Kindle. This one said 800, so was obviously a short, but i was rather disappointed when it suddenly ended after 242 loc points and i find the rest is just a marketing exercise for a future book in the series. It’s a very short, short masquerading as a normal short.
But, ho hum, it was free for signing up to the mailing list so maybe i shouldn’t moan too much. But just as you’re getting into Bethesda’s character and you’re really looking forward to the other 3/4’s of the 800 loc points being filled with even more revealing stuff, you realise you’re not getting what you hoped so much for.
So what’s the 242 loc points about? Bethesda gets interviewed on another dragon’s chat show.
Sadly, only a little bit of background into Bethesda’s character, and her attitude towards her children, before moving onto the rest of the series: i so wished there was more.
Rachel’s Page
#fantasy #rachelaaron
Nice Dragons Finish Last — Rachel Aaron
All mostly very enjoyable. My only moan is that some passages are a bit tedious: it’s like you just really want the pace to keep going but instead it slows right down to tell you what someone is thinking, or some long winded conversation, right in the middle of a load of fast moving chaos that you want to be enjoying in a fast pace way. I admit that i only felt like that a few times, so it’s not like the book is like that all the way through, and that’s probably why those few passages stand out so much as the rest of it is really on a good pace throughout.
So, yeah, that’s my only moan. Other than that, i really enjoyed it and i’m looking forward to more, and there’s certainly plenty more books in this series. Rachel really has done something wonderful with dragons in this dragon centric story, placing them in a dystopian capitalist environment as totally psychopathic creatures, essentially, the ultimate capitalists. And the dragon clans’ internal and external politics that get explored are really good.
Basically, everything you wanted to know about dragons but were too afraid to ask. Now doesn’t that sound like fun?
Rachel’s Page
#fantasy #rachelaaron
The Once and Future King — T. H. White
Renegade’s Magic — Robin Hobb
Shaman’s Crossing — Robin Hobb
How To Rule An Empire and Get Away With It — K. J. Parker
The follow-up to Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City: which is a really good book. If you haven’t read that already then you really should before embarking upon this quest as this follows immediately on from that story.
And, seriously, once you’ve read and totally enjoyed Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City you’ll be very pleased to know that this is just as good as that was. K.J. is as brilliantly absurd in his story telling in this as the previous book.
Yes, the siege is still going on and nothing much has changed but, instead of our story being told by a disgruntled military engineer, we’re now treated to a story told by a disgruntled playwright who does some acting on the side — who is obviously much better at telling stories and also pretending to be people who he isn’t: now what could be better than that, eh?
So if you haven’t tried K.J.’s writing yet, these two books are a great place to begin. You’d have to be a proper grump not to enjoy them.
K. J. Parker’s Page Tom Holt’s Page
#fantasy #kjparker
Night Shift Dragons — Rachel Aaron
What a thoroughly good ending to a thoroughly good trilogy. It’s been well paced enjoyment all the way through, written/edited really well, great characters and a really great location.
Rachel does hint at the end of the book that she’ll be bringing us more stories from the DFZ at sometime, and i for one can’t wait. This trilogy certainly leaves a need for us to head back there at some point just to find out how Opal and Nik got on in their happily ever after.
And while i’m waiting for more DFZ books, i’ve got lots of other books by Rachel that i haven’t read yet, so i’m looking forward to clearing them out of my to-read-pile fairly soon.
Keep well, folks.