The Phoenix Unchained.

[kyrielle]

Or a book I thoroughly loved, by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory. This is the first book in The Enduring Flame, a sequel series to The Obsidian Trilogy. If you haven't read that, I don't recommend this. I recommend going back and reading the earlier series. (The Outstretched Shadow, To Light a Candle, When Darkness Falls.)

The Phoenix Unchained starts about a thousand years after the earlier series, when the events of that series have become legend among the cities of man. The book itself is good, interesting, and believable, but what gave me great joy (and a lot to laugh at) was the fact that the authors actually allowed and made believable changes to the world and the story of the previous books over that time. Oh, they have it soooo wrong. And yet, not so wrong, in some ways. But when I heard what the characters in this book call one of the characters in the earlier books, I almost fell over laughing. Literally. And I got to read it several times, and I giggled every time. And yet...it totally makes sense that the story would have gotten warped that way over time.

It was funny, it was a good story, it was gleeful and fun. Unfortunately, it's also fairly new. I want the next book now, for I am a greedy Laura. But because this one just came out in October, I don't think I get the next one for quite some while yet. Alas! I can't even find out what the title of the next one will be.

Comments

[kyrielle]

Hmmm. I don't know if I would be able to read them, then, though if my stack gets shorter I'll give it a go. I have trouble tracking things like that even on a single read-through...and not being able to remember how someone's related to the story because I haven't seen them in too long, well, I get frustrated.

I don't like spending lots of money on books, so I just ransack my local library systems, which have an amazingly nice collection. (I am placed so that I can use two county systems, which helps; and the three counties have an agreement that if you live or work in any of them you can have membership free. The third - Multnomah - is not real accessible to me, but the other two have branches near my house and work.)

[phoenixscribe.livejournal.com]

Rawn is a difficult read if you have even the slightest difficulty keeping track of people; it doesn't help that, the further you get into her books, there is a dramatically increased number of similar names (Taig and Taigan, Sioned and Sioneva... you get the idea).