50 in '14: #18-19
Oct. 15th, 2014 03:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sakon76Title: Werehunter
Author: Mercedes Lackey
Length: 274 pages
I may have read this at some point before, because I will swear that I'd read three of the stories ("Satanic, Versus," "Stolen Silver," and "Roadkill") but OTOH the other eleven stories rang no bells. Bizarre. In any case, I grabbed this from the thrift store a few weeks ago and enjoyed the hodgepodge of stories within. I liked the Skitty ones, which are essentially Dick Whittington's Cat In Space. "Wet Wings" left me a little iffish because it's essentially a persecuted writer story, which I'm so beyond at this point. But then I hit the last two stories and stopped within one sentence of starting, went to my bookcase, and pulled out The Wizard of London. And, yep, "Grey" and "Grey's Ghost" are stuck pretty much verbatim into that novel. Which I wonder if that's why the psychic characters/powers in the Elemental Masters books never quite seem to fit straight to me... they're from another set of stories that were just kind of shoehorned in because Lackey wanted to play more with the characters?
Verdict: Read if you like Lackey's work.
Title: River of Stars
Author: Guy Gavriel Kay
Length: 632 pages
Birthday present from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
toothycat! This is set in the same world as Under Heaven (and, presumably, a lot of Kay's other books, but they're fictional-historical-Europe based, and this is fictional-historic-China based so not a lot of crossover) but four hundred years later. That said, I recommend reading Under Heaven pretty soon before this, because it's been a few years since I read that book, and I could feel the shape of the references I knew were there but that I knew I was missing.
This is a good, solid book which I would be able to identify as Kay's work even without knowing who wrote it. His style is distinctive, and (for better or worse) I knew how the book would end for its two main characters since meeting them. But as with many things, it's the pleasure of the journey that counts. And I now know more about the Song dynasty than I did before! At 632 pages, it's not a light or fast read, but it's a good one, and I'm going to take it as an example of how to write a war for Field of Stars. (Which, the titles are very similar, aren't they? Grr. Whatever, it's a working title.) And I'm tempted to take this book in to my writing class and the next time the teacher comments on anything about my word count or plot scope or number of characters, I'll drop it on my desk and say this is the genre I'm writing. :)
Verdict: Recommended! But probably read Under Heaven first.
Author: Mercedes Lackey
Length: 274 pages
I may have read this at some point before, because I will swear that I'd read three of the stories ("Satanic, Versus," "Stolen Silver," and "Roadkill") but OTOH the other eleven stories rang no bells. Bizarre. In any case, I grabbed this from the thrift store a few weeks ago and enjoyed the hodgepodge of stories within. I liked the Skitty ones, which are essentially Dick Whittington's Cat In Space. "Wet Wings" left me a little iffish because it's essentially a persecuted writer story, which I'm so beyond at this point. But then I hit the last two stories and stopped within one sentence of starting, went to my bookcase, and pulled out The Wizard of London. And, yep, "Grey" and "Grey's Ghost" are stuck pretty much verbatim into that novel. Which I wonder if that's why the psychic characters/powers in the Elemental Masters books never quite seem to fit straight to me... they're from another set of stories that were just kind of shoehorned in because Lackey wanted to play more with the characters?
Verdict: Read if you like Lackey's work.
Title: River of Stars
Author: Guy Gavriel Kay
Length: 632 pages
Birthday present from
toothycat! This is set in the same world as Under Heaven (and, presumably, a lot of Kay's other books, but they're fictional-historical-Europe based, and this is fictional-historic-China based so not a lot of crossover) but four hundred years later. That said, I recommend reading Under Heaven pretty soon before this, because it's been a few years since I read that book, and I could feel the shape of the references I knew were there but that I knew I was missing.This is a good, solid book which I would be able to identify as Kay's work even without knowing who wrote it. His style is distinctive, and (for better or worse) I knew how the book would end for its two main characters since meeting them. But as with many things, it's the pleasure of the journey that counts. And I now know more about the Song dynasty than I did before! At 632 pages, it's not a light or fast read, but it's a good one, and I'm going to take it as an example of how to write a war for Field of Stars. (Which, the titles are very similar, aren't they? Grr. Whatever, it's a working title.) And I'm tempted to take this book in to my writing class and the next time the teacher comments on anything about my word count or plot scope or number of characters, I'll drop it on my desk and say this is the genre I'm writing. :)
Verdict: Recommended! But probably read Under Heaven first.
