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Stephen King, The Gingerbread Girl (audiobook): King regularly writes what appears to be third-person limited from the POV of a woman, as in this book; that the narrator is male changes how the story feels to me. It’s relatively short—134 minutes, which I guess makes it a novella—and relatively simple: a woman recovering from the death of her infant daughter goes down to Florida on her own, staying in her father’s vacation home, and encounters someone Not Very Nice, with no supernatural elements. Bog-standard King, which is just fine with me, though I think his infatuation with Florida is ultimately less interesting than his long-term commitment to Maine.
C.S. Friedman, Feast of Souls: Book One of the Magister Trilogy: A nice thick book from Friedman, this fantasy posits a world in which magic requires users to consume parts of souls. Witches use their own souls and die young; Magisters, who are supposed to always be men, use others’ souls (they call them consorts), though this is not generally known—a Magister will latch on to a random person, always unknown, and use that person up until s/he dies, then move to the next one. While an old threat that almost wiped out humanity in ages past rises again, the first (?) female Magister begins her career. But her consort, as it turns out, is a prince, whose sudden illness threatens the stability of a powerful empire. It’s Coldfire-style Friedman, though all fantasy as far as I can tell, and she doesn’t pull her punches—the first volume ends with some big changes, leaving me wondering what could happen next.
Patricia Briggs, Iron Kissed: Another adventure of Mercy the were-coyote. Murder among the fae draws Mercy into a dangerous position mediating between human and fae justice, and there’s an interesting use of her particular skills. If you liked the first two, you’ll like this one, and Mercy is not particularly falling into the vicious cycle of getting increasing powers such that the villains have to be increasingly baroque. She is making romantic changes, but that felt natural.
Robin Hobb, Forest Mage: This is the second in her Solider Son trilogy. Nevare Burvell, a second son of a noble father, wants nothing more than to follow the Gernian social order, become a good soldier, and serve his king by continuing to civilize the wilderness (and its inhabitants, including the not-quite-human Specks). But he’s been caught by Speck magic and now has two selves, one loyal to the Specks and one loyal to Gernia. Also, a side effect of Speck plague has made him grossly fat, which Gernian society sees as a moral failing. Hobb is as usual doing very interesting things – Nevare retains his prejudices rather than becoming enlightened in the ordinary manner of modern fantasy heroes, and consistently sees any woman he comes to know as an individual as an exception to the rules about women’s natures (whether respectable or whores). Likewise, he continues to believe that other cultures should be assimilated into his own, though that belief is more comprehensively challenged (and at the same time, he sees very little conflict within other cultures, so we don’t either). This means that I don’t like Nevare very much, though I’ll likely read the third volume. Sadly, the cover reflects our own culture’s attitudes towards weight: It shows a standard non-hefty hero, rather than Nevare’s actual described appearance.
C.S. Friedman, Feast of Souls: Book One of the Magister Trilogy: A nice thick book from Friedman, this fantasy posits a world in which magic requires users to consume parts of souls. Witches use their own souls and die young; Magisters, who are supposed to always be men, use others’ souls (they call them consorts), though this is not generally known—a Magister will latch on to a random person, always unknown, and use that person up until s/he dies, then move to the next one. While an old threat that almost wiped out humanity in ages past rises again, the first (?) female Magister begins her career. But her consort, as it turns out, is a prince, whose sudden illness threatens the stability of a powerful empire. It’s Coldfire-style Friedman, though all fantasy as far as I can tell, and she doesn’t pull her punches—the first volume ends with some big changes, leaving me wondering what could happen next.
Patricia Briggs, Iron Kissed: Another adventure of Mercy the were-coyote. Murder among the fae draws Mercy into a dangerous position mediating between human and fae justice, and there’s an interesting use of her particular skills. If you liked the first two, you’ll like this one, and Mercy is not particularly falling into the vicious cycle of getting increasing powers such that the villains have to be increasingly baroque. She is making romantic changes, but that felt natural.
Robin Hobb, Forest Mage: This is the second in her Solider Son trilogy. Nevare Burvell, a second son of a noble father, wants nothing more than to follow the Gernian social order, become a good soldier, and serve his king by continuing to civilize the wilderness (and its inhabitants, including the not-quite-human Specks). But he’s been caught by Speck magic and now has two selves, one loyal to the Specks and one loyal to Gernia. Also, a side effect of Speck plague has made him grossly fat, which Gernian society sees as a moral failing. Hobb is as usual doing very interesting things – Nevare retains his prejudices rather than becoming enlightened in the ordinary manner of modern fantasy heroes, and consistently sees any woman he comes to know as an individual as an exception to the rules about women’s natures (whether respectable or whores). Likewise, he continues to believe that other cultures should be assimilated into his own, though that belief is more comprehensively challenged (and at the same time, he sees very little conflict within other cultures, so we don’t either). This means that I don’t like Nevare very much, though I’ll likely read the third volume. Sadly, the cover reflects our own culture’s attitudes towards weight: It shows a standard non-hefty hero, rather than Nevare’s actual described appearance.
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