Bookses!

Have now read Magic Study (sequel to Poison Study). I find myself more reluctant to recommend them and I don't quite know why. I mean, they often throw out events that make me say "yeah right" and my suspension of disbelief wobbles, but so far, most of those have been explained later in ways that make sense, and the VPC didn't know those things when we first encountered the situation. I think some of it is the slightly-twee handling of psychological issues face-on by some characters but, again, not so sure that isn't reasonable. I think it's partially my knowledge that I tend to enjoy books easily and thus, kind of like cadhla and movies, I may not be the best barometer of whether something's really good. I'll go with "Scott is enjoying Poison Study so much that I had to coax him to let the light be turned out for sleep last night" as an alternate approach. I have re-read Magic Study in part or in whole more than once now. I like it. I'm just not sure if all my friends will.

The Anvil of Ice, Michael Scott Rohan, volume 1 of The Winter World. I can't really review this. I couldn't stand it so bad I only made it a couple chapters in. Just...not grabbing me at all.

A Shadow in Summer, Daniel Abraham, book one of The Long Price Quartet. I'm not sure which character I was supposed to sympathize with, or what I was supposed to take away. I had to know what happened, so I read it to the end. And I was rewarded with a nebulous ending that left me pretty much entirely dissatisfied and unrewarded. I don't think much of anyone or anything in this book, and I'm still guessing about some items. There's a sequel, set 15 years in the future. And I have no intention of reading it.

Book!

Okay, yes, I've been reading a lot but to be fair two of the books in the last post were read before this weekend. :)

To the list, add Patricia Bray's The First Betrayal. I was going to set this book aside at the end and not read the rest of the series. Really, truly, I was. Sorta like I was going to not read the book through. I read the book through. And there's a chapter at the end from the next book. And an excerpt on her web site. And now the only question is how much I want to read the next book because, to my everlasting annoyance, my library has this one but not the sequel. Arrrrgh! I think I may have to buy it. Which is really a disturbing statement for a series you thought you were going to set aside!