Fic rec: Mistaken for Strangers, by ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bellatemple . As an acafan I couldn't not love it. And if you think about the SPN-fan relationship as indicated by the show, the title gets even better.
Patricia Briggs, Hunting Ground: Still working out the tensions in their relationship, Anna and Charles go to a key meeting with the European werewolves in Seattle, moderated by a powerful fae who just happens to be one of Charles’ former lovers. There’s shopping, a wolf who thinks he’s the reincarnation of King Arthur, another Omega wolf, and a French madwolf who starts stalking Anna, et cetera. It’s a good adventure, and it’s really nice to see people who love each other but still have serious problems working through those problems, but the series fundamentally doesn’t move me.
Ilona Andrews, Silent Blade: Novella about an assassin whose latest (and final) assignment is to kill the man who ruined her life many years ago. Because of the length, a lot of the worldbuilding was reduced to telling, and it was all rather too romancey for me. But the new Andrews novel just arrived, so I’m looking forward to that one!
Storm Constantine, Sea Dragon Heir: When a seaside kingdom is conquered, its dragon gods are made to submit to the conquerers as well. Generations later, the heirs are still struggling with their subservience. There was a lot of high drama—not to mention brother/sister passion--that I might have been really into when I was reading Anne McCaffrey, and it was definitely nice that it was far from obvious that anyone was on the side of Right, but ultimately the characters didn’t move me.
Louis Sachar, Holes: Sent to juvenile work camp to dig holes for a crime he didn’t commit, Stanley Yelnats has to figure out how to survive the desert, the supervisors, and his campmates. The answers come both from reaching out and from his own family history. Wry and satisfying YA; I thought its Newbery medal was well-deserved.
C.J. Cherryh, Hammerfall: In a world ruled by the Ila, a rebel against her is cast out of his father’s tribe when his madness is revealed—madness that sends visions of the East. Given over to the Ila, he’s ordered to lead a mission to the East to discover the source of his (and many others’) madness. As with much Cherryh, this is intricate and cold. The people are mostly rigid with honor. I didn’t understand why the source of the madness did so much damage—given the explanation, the extent to which the madness incapacitated people seemed counterproductive and unjustified within the narrative world, useful more for producing angst and tension than for doing what the source intended. So that lingering question made the book even harder for me to enjoy.
bellatemple . As an acafan I couldn't not love it. And if you think about the SPN-fan relationship as indicated by the show, the title gets even better.Patricia Briggs, Hunting Ground: Still working out the tensions in their relationship, Anna and Charles go to a key meeting with the European werewolves in Seattle, moderated by a powerful fae who just happens to be one of Charles’ former lovers. There’s shopping, a wolf who thinks he’s the reincarnation of King Arthur, another Omega wolf, and a French madwolf who starts stalking Anna, et cetera. It’s a good adventure, and it’s really nice to see people who love each other but still have serious problems working through those problems, but the series fundamentally doesn’t move me.
Ilona Andrews, Silent Blade: Novella about an assassin whose latest (and final) assignment is to kill the man who ruined her life many years ago. Because of the length, a lot of the worldbuilding was reduced to telling, and it was all rather too romancey for me. But the new Andrews novel just arrived, so I’m looking forward to that one!
Storm Constantine, Sea Dragon Heir: When a seaside kingdom is conquered, its dragon gods are made to submit to the conquerers as well. Generations later, the heirs are still struggling with their subservience. There was a lot of high drama—not to mention brother/sister passion--that I might have been really into when I was reading Anne McCaffrey, and it was definitely nice that it was far from obvious that anyone was on the side of Right, but ultimately the characters didn’t move me.
Louis Sachar, Holes: Sent to juvenile work camp to dig holes for a crime he didn’t commit, Stanley Yelnats has to figure out how to survive the desert, the supervisors, and his campmates. The answers come both from reaching out and from his own family history. Wry and satisfying YA; I thought its Newbery medal was well-deserved.
C.J. Cherryh, Hammerfall: In a world ruled by the Ila, a rebel against her is cast out of his father’s tribe when his madness is revealed—madness that sends visions of the East. Given over to the Ila, he’s ordered to lead a mission to the East to discover the source of his (and many others’) madness. As with much Cherryh, this is intricate and cold. The people are mostly rigid with honor. I didn’t understand why the source of the madness did so much damage—given the explanation, the extent to which the madness incapacitated people seemed counterproductive and unjustified within the narrative world, useful more for producing angst and tension than for doing what the source intended. So that lingering question made the book even harder for me to enjoy.
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