I was going to post something about Kate Elliot's Cold Fire, which I finished recently, but I'm having trouble putting it into words. I think this is because I have trouble talking about a romance, whether in a book or a TV show. I may enjoy it quite a bit (and I did in this book), but then... words ( Read more... )

(book two of a seriesAbout ten years have passed, I think, since the first book. In the shadow of the city of Sky is another city, which people call Shadow. Here live thousands of merchants and artists and struggling poor and minor gods of this and that. And Oree, who's come from far away to live here. She's blind, though she can see magic, and she ( Read more... )

(Fall of Ile-Rien, book two)

It's a good thing one of us has impersonated a doctor.
A lot of fun, better than the first book in the series. I love Tremaine. There are several sides to her personality, not because she wants to keep people confused or on their toes (though she finds it useful sometimes), but because she's just that way. Somehow she ( Read more... )

A darkly beautiful story, first in a trilogy by an author I hadn't yet read ( Read more... )

Two books told in first person POV.

Cold Magic by Kate ElliotThe 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 ( Read more... )

When you have a tendency to read for a long period of time, and carry books around with you wherever you go because of things going on, they can get pretty heavy. The book I'm reading now (Seraphina) is hardback, as is Michelle West's Battle -- which weighs a lot. (eta I have trouble holding heavy books; it's complicated ( Read more... )

I think there were things I meant to say, or felt and didn't know how to say (that's pretty much most of the time), when I was thinking about the Michelle West books I recently read. What really lingers now is how many interesting female characters there are, how rich and complex their lives are, how they interact and change and become something ( Read more... )

I might take a break and read another author now. I still have two more books in the House War series (the third one isn't out), and a collection of short stories, but I'll read them later. And I've never read any of the books she published as Michelle Sagara, though I'm interested in reading Silence at some point.

( Anyway, spoilers... )

I really love this paragraph (from The Shining Court):

The smell of cinnamon and sweat came back to her; she stood a moment, eyes closed, thinking about old stories. During the day, she played them out: She, the wily hero, the brave mage, the healer, the bardic wonder, and the shadows of her enemies, her forest of wonders, her ancient, twisting ( Read more... )

I'm almost finished with The Shining Court. I have no idea how long ago I read this book, but the experience of rereading is a strange blend of remembering some things, and having completely forgotten others to the point that it's like reading a new book. For example I remembered Jewel and Diora and Teresa and Valedan and Isladar and Kallandras, ( Read more... )