Catching Up
I have finished reading a couple more books in the recent weeks, but I've been too distracted with other things to comment. Time to resolve that.
I finally got around to reading Namaah's Blessing. After the second book in the trilogy, I just didn't feel a hardback was worthwhile, so I waited. As expressed before, I'm just not into Moirin and Bao as much as Phedre and Joscelin, but at least Bao didn't put me off quite as much as in the previous book. The return of a psuedo-villain from book one was handled well, and his "power" was actually pretty neat. The story works decently overall, tying up most loose ends for this pair and continuing to paint out more of the setting.
Carey does some things very well. That includes weaving some rich tapestries of her real-history-inspired cultures across the world. Of course, the cultures of the main character always seem a little more "real" and fleshed out, but that can be a matter of perspective. She's also quite good at working the emotional aspect of things. Passion, protectiveness, joy, and loss are all things she's good at conveying and using to draw in a reader. This time out, Moirin's attachment to the young princess is quite touching.
Bared Blade is the sequel to Broken Blade, which I read back at the beginning of the year. I didn't initially expect a sequel so soon, but they may have been written/conceived together and they are fairly short (300 pages or so). I think a third is due out in December.
This one, too, I enjoyed as sort of a lighter, bite-sized fantasy tale and a continuing story. Aral continues to "rebuild" himself to some degree, though doesn't go through quite as radical a change in personality as the steps in the first book. Drink is still a temptation and he isn't all he could be, though he handles himself well. Triss is still a great character - confidante and conscience, power and partner. He gets to interact more with others as most of the people Aral deals with this time around are familiar-bound in some way as well. The Dyad is interesting - a mage-familiar bonding between two humans that actually creates a third, purely mental, entity that shares and links the two's minds. Two bodies, three minds, unnatural coordination, some overlap/hiveminding and some arguing. Captain Fei, the "dirty cop" trying to maintain some semblence of order in her jurisdiction returns and proves of further interest as well. And we get more traces of the fallen Blade order. The actual story this time around gets a little convoluted, but works out well enough.
I can actually feel groundwork and relationships being laid here for a longer, continuing series in a way that reminds me a little of the Dresden Files, and I find myself hoping that it does go on for a while. I suppose it could wrap up in a trilogy, but it feels like there's easily more that could be told.
I finally got around to reading Namaah's Blessing. After the second book in the trilogy, I just didn't feel a hardback was worthwhile, so I waited. As expressed before, I'm just not into Moirin and Bao as much as Phedre and Joscelin, but at least Bao didn't put me off quite as much as in the previous book. The return of a psuedo-villain from book one was handled well, and his "power" was actually pretty neat. The story works decently overall, tying up most loose ends for this pair and continuing to paint out more of the setting.
Carey does some things very well. That includes weaving some rich tapestries of her real-history-inspired cultures across the world. Of course, the cultures of the main character always seem a little more "real" and fleshed out, but that can be a matter of perspective. She's also quite good at working the emotional aspect of things. Passion, protectiveness, joy, and loss are all things she's good at conveying and using to draw in a reader. This time out, Moirin's attachment to the young princess is quite touching.
Bared Blade is the sequel to Broken Blade, which I read back at the beginning of the year. I didn't initially expect a sequel so soon, but they may have been written/conceived together and they are fairly short (300 pages or so). I think a third is due out in December.
This one, too, I enjoyed as sort of a lighter, bite-sized fantasy tale and a continuing story. Aral continues to "rebuild" himself to some degree, though doesn't go through quite as radical a change in personality as the steps in the first book. Drink is still a temptation and he isn't all he could be, though he handles himself well. Triss is still a great character - confidante and conscience, power and partner. He gets to interact more with others as most of the people Aral deals with this time around are familiar-bound in some way as well. The Dyad is interesting - a mage-familiar bonding between two humans that actually creates a third, purely mental, entity that shares and links the two's minds. Two bodies, three minds, unnatural coordination, some overlap/hiveminding and some arguing. Captain Fei, the "dirty cop" trying to maintain some semblence of order in her jurisdiction returns and proves of further interest as well. And we get more traces of the fallen Blade order. The actual story this time around gets a little convoluted, but works out well enough.
I can actually feel groundwork and relationships being laid here for a longer, continuing series in a way that reminds me a little of the Dresden Files, and I find myself hoping that it does go on for a while. I suppose it could wrap up in a trilogy, but it feels like there's easily more that could be told.
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