cold magic, seraphina
Two books told in first person POV.
Cold Magic by Kate Elliot
The first part of this book didn't hold on to me. Granted, there's a lot of information to introduce when you have a new world to set up. But my attention was drifting.
Then suddenly Cat was forced into marriage with a cold mage, and the story began to move. From this scene on, through chases in and out of the spirit world and across the landscape of a strangely different England, the book would not let me go. I had trouble putting it down.
It helps that Cat is an enjoyable POV character. She deals with some crushing revelations and spends much of the book on the run, but aside from begin trained by a family of spies and having a bit of magic herself, she also has the perseverence to keep moving past betrayals and other difficulties.
What I felt was not precisely anger, nor was it blinding grief. It was something deeper, and more ancient, as determined as rock and as rooted as the great trees whose spirits animate the forest.
I would not die for their convenience.
Her new husband Andevai is also interesting. He seems supremely arrogant and dangerous, but he has layers that unfold over time. There were several interesting characters--Bee and the trolls and the eru and Rory.
His mother was a cat, and his father was, evidently, a cat.
Elliot calls this book an "Afro-Celtic post-Roman icepunk Regency novel with airships, Phoenician spies, and the intelligent descendents of troödons"...
Kindle note
I read Cold Magic on my new Kindle, and now I'm really glad I bought this. It's so easy to hold for a long period of time, and just turn pages by tapping my thumb. I was able to highlight passages I wanted to return to later. I can adjust it for different reading conditions, such as make the font bigger on a bad day, or the screen brighter.
Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
This setting feels more conventionally old European, though with you know, dragons and magic. The peace treaty between dragons and humans is forty years old, and there are those on both sides who want to sabotage the peace. But all of that is really background, and it wasn't the setting the interested me.
Seraphina is half dragon, an "abomination" who spends a lot of energy trying to hide the fact. As long as she wears several layers and long sleeves, she pretty much looks human. But I enjoyed that whatever self-loathing and resignation she feels, she doesn't allow it to pull her away from living. She wants to play music, and she pursues this relentlessly, becoming an assistant to the court composer.
How dare the world be so beautiful when I was so horrifying?
She does seem to have trouble with the tangled web of lies she builds between herself and others in the court. Especially Lucian, an investigator who's inconveniently perceptive. She feels torn between a growing attraction for him, and the fact that she can't let him know anything about her.
If one believes there is truth in art--and I do--then it's troubling how similar the skill of performing is to lying. Maybe lying is itself a kind of art. I think about that more than I should.
Aside from Lucian, there were several other characters I enjoyed meeting: Orma, Lars, the princess. And I like the garden Seraphina builds in her mind as a protection against visions.
(eta) I'm not sure, but I think I first heard of this book when I read a review of it by Michelle West. It's hard to remember where I discover books for my to-read list, or what makes me decide "this one and not that one".
Cold Magic by Kate Elliot
The first part of this book didn't hold on to me. Granted, there's a lot of information to introduce when you have a new world to set up. But my attention was drifting.
Then suddenly Cat was forced into marriage with a cold mage, and the story began to move. From this scene on, through chases in and out of the spirit world and across the landscape of a strangely different England, the book would not let me go. I had trouble putting it down.
It helps that Cat is an enjoyable POV character. She deals with some crushing revelations and spends much of the book on the run, but aside from begin trained by a family of spies and having a bit of magic herself, she also has the perseverence to keep moving past betrayals and other difficulties.
What I felt was not precisely anger, nor was it blinding grief. It was something deeper, and more ancient, as determined as rock and as rooted as the great trees whose spirits animate the forest.
I would not die for their convenience.
Her new husband Andevai is also interesting. He seems supremely arrogant and dangerous, but he has layers that unfold over time. There were several interesting characters--Bee and the trolls and the eru and Rory.
His mother was a cat, and his father was, evidently, a cat.
Elliot calls this book an "Afro-Celtic post-Roman icepunk Regency novel with airships, Phoenician spies, and the intelligent descendents of troödons"...
Kindle note
I read Cold Magic on my new Kindle, and now I'm really glad I bought this. It's so easy to hold for a long period of time, and just turn pages by tapping my thumb. I was able to highlight passages I wanted to return to later. I can adjust it for different reading conditions, such as make the font bigger on a bad day, or the screen brighter.
Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
This setting feels more conventionally old European, though with you know, dragons and magic. The peace treaty between dragons and humans is forty years old, and there are those on both sides who want to sabotage the peace. But all of that is really background, and it wasn't the setting the interested me.
Seraphina is half dragon, an "abomination" who spends a lot of energy trying to hide the fact. As long as she wears several layers and long sleeves, she pretty much looks human. But I enjoyed that whatever self-loathing and resignation she feels, she doesn't allow it to pull her away from living. She wants to play music, and she pursues this relentlessly, becoming an assistant to the court composer.
How dare the world be so beautiful when I was so horrifying?
She does seem to have trouble with the tangled web of lies she builds between herself and others in the court. Especially Lucian, an investigator who's inconveniently perceptive. She feels torn between a growing attraction for him, and the fact that she can't let him know anything about her.
If one believes there is truth in art--and I do--then it's troubling how similar the skill of performing is to lying. Maybe lying is itself a kind of art. I think about that more than I should.
Aside from Lucian, there were several other characters I enjoyed meeting: Orma, Lars, the princess. And I like the garden Seraphina builds in her mind as a protection against visions.
(eta) I'm not sure, but I think I first heard of this book when I read a review of it by Michelle West. It's hard to remember where I discover books for my to-read list, or what makes me decide "this one and not that one".