July 4: Bad Heir Day by Rosemary Edghill. Funny Arthurian story in which Guenhwyfar is the name of the sword, and “merlin” is a job title. The Town Cats and Other Tales by Lloyd Alexander. Fun moralising stories, all cousins of Puss in Boots. Victory by Susan Cooper. Very touching, with some good family and
Read on »Posts Tagged: mercedes lackey
Reading notes, week 26
June 27: Summer in Orcus by T. Kingfisher, as antidote to a couple more Hugo finalist DNFs (military SF, “Game of Thrones on the Moon”). “Of course it bites. It’s a weasel. They don’t kill their prey with pretty words and poisoned sweetmeats.” At times it’s clear that it started as a serial but it
Read on »Reading notes, week 24
June 12: Gebonden Kapitaal by Almar Otten. Local author, set in Deventer. Very nice to see familiar places and (possibly) disguised local figures (disclaimer: I don’t know many). I read it for the plot, though, not the writing– sometimes very stilted and splainy, and people don’t seem to be speaking actual spoken language (doesn’t the
Read on »Reading notes, week 22
May 30: A Stitch in Time by Penelope Lively. Wonderful! On a par with The Ghost of Thomas Kempe, which I’ve loved since my teens. I read the protagonist as not completely neurotypical but perhaps she’s only shy and imaginative and being brought up by very straitlaced parents. Satanic, Versus by Mercedes Lackey. My first
Read on »Reading notes, week 21
May 22: Harvest Moon, three separate fantasy novellas all having to do with the (full) moon. The first is by Mercedes Lackey, a story about (among others) Leopold and his bride from The Sleeping Beauty having a run-in with the Greek Olympic gods. Second, by Michelle Sagara, in a world I didn’t know yet. Hard
Read on »Reading notes, week 20
May 16: The Case of the Spellbound Child by Mercedes Lackey. It took me a while to realise it’s Hansel and Gretel, probably because there are two other subplots first, eventually irrelevant for the main plot. But it was satisfying, with only the villain turning out to be unlikeable (though some other people were a
Read on »Reading notes, week 18
May 2: So You Want to Be a Wizard, because I already had it open and noticed it while I was looking for some fanfic to read while cooling down from One Good Knight. Young Wizards is always a nice comfort read, and it might give me enough circumstance to finish the space meerkat story.
Read on »Reading notes, week 17
April 23: Novel-length Harry Potter/Lord Peter Wimsey crossover fanfic. Jerry, Winifred and Hilary go to Hogwarts, Professor (Harriet) Vane is the Potions master, I don’t know what Lord Peter is doing here (except woo Harriet), but he must be something high-up in the Ministry of Magic because he’s “Mr Wimsey” not “Professor Wimsey”. Violet Cattermole
Read on »Reading notes, week 16
April 16: Wat doe je? O niks (Portrait of a mother) by Harriët Freezer. 1965, and it shows. I recognise some things from when I had offspring at home but mostly it’s very, very dated. Well written though, and at times really funny. Read this mostly while waiting for Skype to do our bidding (which
Read on »Reading notes, week 15
April 11: Sun in Glory, another Valdemar anthology. The story by Michelle West was very disturbing and ended somewhat inconclusively (but happily, I think). Another story made me think COMPANIONS DON’T DO THAT! (deceive their prospective Chosen to set them an arbitrary and somewhat dangerous test), I skimmed two more, and now I’m on one
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