May. 22nd, 2011

bedlamsbard: miscellaneous: read (bookshelf with text "read") (read (girlyb_icons))
I just went through about twenty-four hours of Valdemar nostalgia brought on by picking up Foundation and Intrigues from the library. Which ended in me going sporadically through the series, picking through the books I have to try and figure out what I was going for. Heralds, it turned out the answer was.

(Terrifyingly, I own almost the entirety of the Valdemar series, minus the latest two, the anthologies, and oddly enough, the second Vanyel book. But all the other ones I have, including The Valdemar Companion.)

So: besides Foundation and Intrigues, I skimmed Magic's Pawn and read the entirety of Magic's Price (I love older Vanyel, he's so badass, but dear sweet gods, the angst), then this morning read Brightly Burning (his lifemate! his Companion! I know BB gets a bad rap, but it's actually one of my favorites in the series) and Exile's Honor (apparently, I am no longer as fond of Alberich as I used to be. Get over yourself. Also, heh, self-insert), then reread Arrows of the Queen (thank the gods Lackey eventually managed to figure out how to tell a story, is all I'm saying) and skimmed the bits of By the Sword with Heralds in (dear sweet gods, I am really not at all interested in fantasy stories with actualfax magic right now).

Let me just say, rereading Talia after all the other later ones makes it clear that Talia is not as special as she's made out to be in Arrows of the Queen. Especially when everyone goes, "Oh! Your bond is so tight! No one else can do that!" No...apparently everyone else can do that, normal Heralds included, if the later books are any indication. Lackey tends to rehash the same plots and emotional narratives, but her worldbuilding has definitely gotten better. Characterization, too. (I loved King Kiril in Intrigues, for all that he only showed up three or four times. I think he may actually be my favorite minor character yet.)

I don't know if I can bear anymore Lackey right now, though. Or, well, at least anymore Valdemar. I've got a couple other Lackey books lined up to reread, though these ones are cowrites. The Obsidian Mountain trilogy is one of my favorite fantasy epics, and there's that AU Renaissance magic series (Heirs of Alexandria, I think the actual name is?) -- I didn't realize there was a new one out! I love Shadow of the Lion; one of these days I'll actually get a personal copy of This Rough Magic. (I don't feel like throwing myself at my namesake series right now, though, especially since I only actually own a few of them and I'd have to get the others from the library.)

I've also been rereading The Lies of Locke Lamora interspersed with all the Lackey, which is...quite a refreshing difference from Valdemar. Lynch and Lackey could not be on further ends of the fantasy spectrum if they tried. Tamora Pierce is in the middle, George R.R. Martin is definitely closer to the Lynch end.

I'm sure at some point in the next week or so I'll throw myself at Darkover, too, at least for a few books. Meanwhile I've also got the first Master and Commander book out from the library, a Dorothy Sayers book (Nine Tailors, I think), the new Bernard Cornwell book, and two books on the Mongols. Plus the dozen boxes of books I've hauled home from New Orleans, and I want to reread Stirling and Burroughs this summer.

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