recent books read

[kaylarudbek]

Remember to look for the sequels for these ones (if there are any):

Racing the Dark, Alaya Dawn Johnson. Good cracking fantasy set in world reminiscent of the Pacific Islands.

The Hob's Bargain, Patricia Briggs. Another good fantasy, with a heroine who's Not Irritating.

Night's Rose & sequel, Annaliese Evans. This one's got the feel of trilogy all over it.

Note to self: I do much better w/ Justine Larbalestier's and Smart Bitches, Trashy Books recommendations than with John Scalzi's. Probably because I'm looking for less technobabble and more of the exploring-new-worlds and how-realistic-people-react.

Comments

[khavrinen]

No sequel for "The Hob's Bargain", alas, but the long awaited sequel to her first novel, "Masques" (1993) is due out in November. According to what she said at the reading for her last release, the demand for her urban fantasy series( "Mercy Thompson" and "Alpha & Omega" ) is so great that she's finding it very difficult to squeeze in time for any other projects.

[kaylarudbek]

Oh, rats. I suppose I'll just have to start reading her urban fantasy series then...

[khavrinen]

If you haven't already, you might also want to consider her Raven duology, "Raven's Shadow" and "Raven's Strike." She starts with the a very similar backstory to Bujold's "Sharing Knife" series -- marriage between a member of a farmer society and someone from a nomadic, magic-using culture with a long tradition of trying to make up for/clean up after a catastrophe that destroyed their ancient city -- but takes it in a totally different direction. For one thing, which gender is from which culture is reversed, but mainly most of the action takes place after their three children are teenagers, and they are also significant characters. Adventure stories where the main character is also "the Mom" are relatively rare...

[kaylarudbek]

oooh, this sounds promising. Thanks!

good news/bad news

[khavrinen]

Last night I went to another Patricia Briggs reading, and during the Q&A someone asked whether she would be doing any more in her "regular" fantasy worlds, as opposed to the urban fantasy of her last several.

The good news is that she said yes, "given worlds enough and time", she'd love to do more in all of them, and she particularly mentioned "The Hob's Bargain" as one she wanted to write more about.

The bad news is she is under contract with Ace for at least two more "Mercy Thompson" novels, which she's been alternating with the "Alpha & Omega", so best case scenario it will most likely be at least two years before she gets around to actually doing it -- and that's assuming nothing else comes up in the meantime. But at least there's some hope for the sequel you wanted.


Oh yeah, and her website, in case you want to keep track of upcoming stuff, is: http://www.hurog.com/

Re: good news/bad news

[kaylarudbek]

Oh, great news. Thank you very much for letting me know!