Cast in Courtlight

Another week of night shifts, another book down? I've started in on a series I started earlier, and... it's a sequel. More of what I like and more of what I didn't. ;) The major focus this time around is on the Barrani, who match many Tolkienesque stereotypes for elves. There's more use of word/name-based magic and the (true) names of the "immortal" races. It gets into more detail with personal character history and some of the setting history. The Barrani aren't the most interesting race to me of those present, but it was still an anjoyable ride overall.

I did miss Tiamaris, though, and Kaylin is being pulled into things perhaps quicker than I would like. The latter sort of equates to the power creep you get in series and that's... often bad in my view (Anita Blake), but occasionally seems to work out surprisingly well (Dresden Files), so I'm not quite prepared to render a verdict on that aspect after two books.

Amusingly enough, I opened up the third book to find the author honoring her World of Warcraft guildmates. Not quite that obviously, but I recognized the server name as one we used to play on and was able to look up the guild name. Currently, there are only eleven characters in the guild and it doesn't look even remotely active. I wonder if it was always small or has dwindled. It's just a little odd to think that I'm now reading the work of someone who was, at the time the book was published in 2008, actually playing alongside me on the same server somewhere.

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