Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen - Lois McMaster Bujold: 3/5 stars (enjoyable but slight ( Read more... )

I suppose Daughter of Mystery, by Heather Rose Jones, could have been more precisely targeted to my reading tastes. All Jones would have had to change is... um... well...

See, Daughter of Mystery is (1) a Ruritanian romance (2) about two women, one of whom is (3) a swordswoman with mysterious antecedents who generally wears men's clothing and the ( Read more... )

I have been trying to write a review of Katherine Addison (Sarah Monette)'s new novel, The Goblin Emperor, and it's coming out in clichés: A beautiful book, a moving book, a book about loyalty and building cross-cultural bridges and making a place for oneself in a terrifying world, a book I did not want to end.

( More detailed comments behind the cut. Some general, unspecific spoilers for Goblin Emperor; some references to plot and character developments in Doctrine of Labyrinths. )