Hopefully my new laptop arrives tomorrow! By which I mean it had damn better.
And then I read Havemercy, because when I still do not have a laptop I take all the advantage of Amazon free two-day shipping I can get. I do not think I like it better than Shadow Magic--they're very similar structure-wise, but Shadow Magic has the benefit of actually showing the Evil Empire that Our Heroes were fighting in the first book, which is particularly good in that, y'know, showing what the Evil Empire is actually like kind of makes it seem a lot less evil. And it's not like the ruler of Our Heroes' country was all that great shakes either, so maybe the real lesson is that anyone who sits on a throne is inherently a jackass? Also Shadow Magic occasionally has female characters who are neither evil nor annoying, which, uh, Havemercy was not very good at. Except for Havemercy herself, I suppose, but I don't know if mechanical dragons technically count as one gender or another even if their pilots insist on referring to them as 'the girls'. Anyway.
Again there are two pairs of male characters, the first and best of which is basically like this:
GUY 1: As a scholarly mage who made the perhaps ill-advised decision to sleep with the crown prince of a neighboring kingdom and was thus exiled to live with my brother's family in the country, both of which I hate, I am pretty sure the rest of my life is going to be endless misery, but at least I can take comfort in knowing that I won't have the opportunity to make more bad decisions--
GUY 2: Hi! I'm the children's young live-in tutor, starved for knowledge and affection! Have I mentioned that I am adorable? :D
GUY 1: OH GODDAMMIT FUCK.
It is kind of awesome to have canon gay, I must admit. Especially canon gay where much of the relationship-buildup comes from hanging out and reading to each other. Basically I just picture them snuggling in a pile of books. Because they are adorable. Actually the whole first half of their arc is suspiciously Jane Austen-esque--seriously, it is a couple of people in a country estate who bond via books and taking walks and never get further than kissing, all they need is vague class complications OH WAIT THEY HAVE THOSE TOO. Gay magical Jane Austen, you guys; how is it possible to get better than that, I mean really.
And then there are the other two guys, who are basically like this:
GUY 3: I am a completely irredeemable and ridiculously mean terrible person! There is literally nothing about me that is likable! Okay maybe the mechanical dragon, she's pretty cool, but seriously I am such a jackass you don't even know.
GUY 4: why am I even heeeeeere I just wanted to write papers about class differences and now I am stuck with people who hate me and are constantly horrible to me D: D: D:
So yeah, maybe you can guess which set of guys I liked better. Admittedly a good bit of my resentment towards those two guys' arc was that I really did not want to be expected to ship them, seriously what no, but then a thing happened that either made things a lot better or even worse, I am not sure. In any case, apparently the third book goes back to being about these sets of guys, and I am mostly okay with that, although that is pretty much just because I want to see the first pair of guys again, maybe they'll make out in a library or something. I'd be down with that.
Again there are two pairs of male characters, the first and best of which is basically like this:
GUY 1: As a scholarly mage who made the perhaps ill-advised decision to sleep with the crown prince of a neighboring kingdom and was thus exiled to live with my brother's family in the country, both of which I hate, I am pretty sure the rest of my life is going to be endless misery, but at least I can take comfort in knowing that I won't have the opportunity to make more bad decisions--
GUY 2: Hi! I'm the children's young live-in tutor, starved for knowledge and affection! Have I mentioned that I am adorable? :D
GUY 1: OH GODDAMMIT FUCK.
It is kind of awesome to have canon gay, I must admit. Especially canon gay where much of the relationship-buildup comes from hanging out and reading to each other. Basically I just picture them snuggling in a pile of books. Because they are adorable. Actually the whole first half of their arc is suspiciously Jane Austen-esque--seriously, it is a couple of people in a country estate who bond via books and taking walks and never get further than kissing, all they need is vague class complications OH WAIT THEY HAVE THOSE TOO. Gay magical Jane Austen, you guys; how is it possible to get better than that, I mean really.
And then there are the other two guys, who are basically like this:
GUY 3: I am a completely irredeemable and ridiculously mean terrible person! There is literally nothing about me that is likable! Okay maybe the mechanical dragon, she's pretty cool, but seriously I am such a jackass you don't even know.
GUY 4: why am I even heeeeeere I just wanted to write papers about class differences and now I am stuck with people who hate me and are constantly horrible to me D: D: D:
So yeah, maybe you can guess which set of guys I liked better. Admittedly a good bit of my resentment towards those two guys' arc was that I really did not want to be expected to ship them, seriously what no, but then a thing happened that either made things a lot better or even worse, I am not sure. In any case, apparently the third book goes back to being about these sets of guys, and I am mostly okay with that, although that is pretty much just because I want to see the first pair of guys again, maybe they'll make out in a library or something. I'd be down with that.