Recently Read - July, 2006
Jack Tingle
I usually avoid wolves, urban fantasy, and vampires. I must be out of
my mind this month. I blame the ridiculous amounts of rain we had in
May and June. That and hammock season.
Lindskold, Jane, "Child of a Rainless Year" ****
Mira (said rainless child) is now twice orphaned. When she was nine,
her cold, self-centered, wealthy mother, Colette, disappeared from Las
Vegas, NM. Mira was sent to live with kind, loving, middle-class
foster parents in Ohio. Now her elderly foster parents are dead in an
auto accident, and fifty-ish art-teacher Mira returns to her roots in
NM to straighten out some affairs there.
Lindskold's "The Buried Pyramid" surprised and delighted me. This one
only delighted me. Fool me once... :) Maybe I'll even look at one of
her wolf books.
Bear, Elizabeth, "Blood and Iron" ****
Bear's freshman sci-fi trilogy was a decent piece of work. Her
sophomore urban fantasy compares favorably to Emma Bull's "The War For
the Oaks", the prototypical urban fantasy.
If you're fond of happy endings, you probably shouldn't read books
titled like "Blood and Iron". This is the stuff of the Arthur cycle,
and 'Tam Lin'. The heroine pays too high a price for too small a
victory, favored characters that do manage to survive carry away heavy
burdens, and hope is a casualty of war. Strong stuff.
Vaughn, Carrie, "Kitty and the Midnight Hour" ***
Vaughn, Carrie, "Kitty Goes to Washington" ***
This "Werewolves and Vampires and Cops, Oh My!" first novel (Midnight
Hour) is fairly predictable, but well written. Kitty Norville is a
minor radio personality who gets bitten by a werewolf and survives,
thus turning into a werewolf herself. Through happenstance, she turns
this unwelcome intimate knowledge of the supernatural into a hit talk
radio show, a sort of 'advice for the ex-human' show called "The
Midnight Hour". This new popularity gets her in trouble with some of
her supernatural acquaintances, many of whom like being obscure. The
local vampires even hire a hit man. Added to this is the cop plot. A
rogue werewolf is killing prostitutes and other lower class women who
make the mistake of encountering him late at night. Kitty, now being a
werewolf expert, gets called in.
In the second installment, Kitty gets subpeonaed by a crusading,
bigoted, Christianist[1] Senator to appear in Congressional hearings
as a poster girl for 'evil spawns of Satan'. In the process, she meets
new and interesting people, including a really hot Brazilian
were-jaguar diplomat, who sweeps her off her feet. The local vampire
Mistress also takes a hand. Kitty winds up more than a little dizzy.
I'll definitely read the next book. This is the best pulp fantasy
since Jo Baldwin started her 'Weather Warden' series. Maybe even
better. How can you not like a story that makes the blood-sucking
vampire Mistress more sympathetic than the fundie Senator?
[1] by analogy from 'Islamist'.
Campbell, Jack, "Dauntless" ***
This competently written mil sci-fi is an interesting variation on the
usual 'heroic fleet commander' tale. It's also the first in a probably
long series. You take the good with the bad. The ancestors willing,
he'll keep it to a trilogy.
Captain Black Jack Geary is a figure out of legend, rescued from a
century of cold sleep in an escape pod. He's thrown by disaster into
command of a remnant fleet, an admiral's job, but they're out of
admirals. A large part of the fleet considers him a heroic demigod out
of glorious history. Another part hates his guts. From his viewpoint
he's a commander, posthumosly promoted and lionized, and thrown from
one battle right into another. A century of hibernation has left him
weak, sick, out-of-date, and the senior commander of a defeated fleet
running through an implacable enemy's rear area, desperate to return
home with vital information.
Lindskold, Jane, "Through Wolf's Eyes" ***
This 'feral child meets medieval world' fantasy is a worthwhile read.
It isn't as good as Lindskold's bolder and more creative writing. It
is probably more commercial. Next time I'm trapped in an airport, I
might pick up the sequel.
Young Tamara was the only survivor of a disastrous fire that ended the
lives of everyone else in the settlement beyond the mountain. Ten
years later, explorers seeking the lost settlement find the mute,
feral, Firekeeper, raised by wolves. Tamara's late playmate, Blysse,
is now the lost heir to the throne of Hawk Haven. Firekeeper / Tamara,
not knowing who she was, is proclaimed Lady Blysse, taught rudimentary
human behavior, and set in the middle of court intrigues. Being raised
by bloodthirsty wolves isn't such a bad thing, given the pace of
palace intrigues.
Bear, Elizabeth, "The Chains That You Refuse" ***
Bear is a competent author and a fair writer. Something about her
prose disturbs my equilibrium, however. I'm not sure if this is a bad
thing, or a good thing. In any case, this short story collection is
varied and interesting. The 3-star rating is shaky at best, since I'm
not sure collections can be intelligently rated.
______________________________
Non-sf
Williams, Kayla, "Love My Rife More Than You" ***
This autobiography focuses on being a woman US Army soldier in the
initial successful invasion of Iraq, and in the evolving fiasco of the
first year of occupation. Williams really tells two stories, 'being a
soldier in a war', and 'being a female soldier'.
I know something about the first part, fortunately at second-hand.
William's tale of wartime soldiering rings true and highlights three
things: war is still hell, US soldiers and their supporting forces are
almost inarguably the best in the world, and the US Army today takes
the best care practical of its soldiers in war zones. Any large
organization is imperfect and war is by definition chaotic. Bad,
random, and stupid things happen. Williams hold the Army to high
standards, but she also speaks of her service with pride and
affection.
The second part, about which I know almost nothing (hence reading the
book), also rings true. The Army's virtues and vices in the way it
treats its female personnel are seemingly a reflection of contemporary
American culture, magnified by the necessary conservatism and
less-justifiable machismo of the military.
As an aside, Williams maintains that almost no one in-country believed
that invading Iraq had any reasonable connection with the global war
on terror. She reemphasizes the age-old adage that soldiers, male or
female, don't fight because politicians are smarter than they are.
They fight because their comrades depend upon them.
Livio, Mario, "The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved" **
This is a valiant attempt to make group theory accessible and
interesting. It's partially successful. I liked it, but it's not going
to be a big seller. Even for me, it was 10% too long.
______________________________
My stars:
***** A classic, read it now
**** A very good book, you might even buy it in hardback, or the
library
*** A good book, but maybe not in hardback
** A readable book, wait for it used, or in cheap paperback, or the
library
* A book with at least one redeeming feature (even if it's nice cover
art)
none =agkh pppht= (I probably didn't finish it, and I want my time and
money back, and the only reason I'm reviewing it is to dis the author,
editor, publisher, printer, distributor, vendor, and the clerk behind
the counter who sold it to me.)
Usual Disclaimer: YMMV, check Amazon, etc's reviews before you buy.
Happy Reading,
Jack Tingle
r.r...@thevine.net
wrote:
>Recently Read - July, 2006
>
>I usually avoid wolves, urban fantasy, and vampires. I must be out of
>my mind this month. I blame the ridiculous amounts of rain we had in
>May and June. That and hammock season.
>
>Lindskold, Jane, "Child of a Rainless Year" ****
>Mira (said rainless child) is now twice orphaned. When she was nine,
>her cold, self-centered, wealthy mother, Colette, disappeared from Las
>Vegas, NM. Mira was sent to live with kind, loving, middle-class
>foster parents in Ohio. Now her elderly foster parents are dead in an
>auto accident, and fifty-ish art-teacher Mira returns to her roots in
>NM to straighten out some affairs there.
>
>Lindskold's "The Buried Pyramid" surprised and delighted me. This one
>only delighted me. Fool me once... :) Maybe I'll even look at one of
>her wolf books.
>
Is this SF? Cause I'm not seeing what takes it out of mainstream
fiction if it is.
Rebecca
Splicer
> I usually avoid wolves, urban fantasy, and vampires. I must be out of
> my mind this month. I blame the ridiculous amounts of rain we had in
> May and June. That and hammock season.
>
I still don't understand how a person can read this many books in such a
short time and I can't. Is it because I'm reading every single word?
Should I skim more?
Jack Tingle
It's urban fantasy, and damned close to slipstream.
Mild Spoilage:
Colette (and Mira, for complex reasons) are heirs to an ancient legacy
tied to the house Mira grew up in in NM. The house has unusual
properties. Part of the fun, however is watching Mira figure all this
out, mostly unaided except right at the end. This is why I didn't go
into detail. The official book blurbs give about as much information
as possible without giving too much away. It might even be too much.
__________________________
"When middle-aged spinster Mira Fenn returns to her birthplace, Las
Vegas, N.Mex., to try to find out what happened to her mother,
Colette, who disappeared from their mirror-filled house without a
trace years earlier, she finds a town full of ghosts and
contradictions. Domingo, the hereditary caretaker of Mira's ancestral
home, tells her that the house has been asking him to paint it in new
and brilliant colors. As Mira and Domingo explore the house's
awakening intelligence, their intricately entwined family histories
and their own growing relationship, they find out more about color
magic, Colette and Mira herself than they might have wanted to know."
- Publishers Weekly
"Obsessed with color and mostly ignored by her elegant mother, Mira
spent her childhood waited on by silent women in an ornate house full
of mirrors in Las Vegas, New Mexico. When mother disappears, Mira is
sent to a foster family in Idaho that, changing its name, soon moves
to Ohio, where the foster parents encourage Mira's budding artistic
talent as she grows up, trying to be as normal as possible. She
becomes an art teacher and, after her foster parents die in a car
wreck, starts investigating her mother's disappearance and the Las
Vegas house. She had known that she had a trust fund and that her
trustees had specified that her foster parents change their name--and
that they never take her to New Mexico--but not that she owns the
house. Returning to Las Vegas, she finds that her mother's
disappearance has never been explained. Strange things start
happening: the silent women of her childhood reappear, ghostlike; she
meets a woman hanged in the late 1800s; as she reads her foster
mother's journals, clues to the truth about her mother and the house
emerge. Lindskold conjures the atmosphere of nontourist New Mexico,
beautifully evoking Las Vegas' long, turbulent history while spinning
a fantastic yarn about Mira's odd inheritance." - Booklist
Regards,
Jack Tingle
Jack Tingle
Nine books in a month (one every 3 days) doesn't seem that extreme. It
is higher than average for me, but some months, I only read one book
(e.g., Dozois' annual "Best of..." anthology). Perhaps you need to
turn off the TV and buy a hammock. :)
Seriously, I am a fast reader, and I tend to bring my lunch to work
and read during my lunch hour. None of these books were a particular
challenge. The two Vaughn's were basically one lunch hour plus a few
hours on one night each, as was the Campbell. Livio's book on group
theory, was a bit long, as I noted. "Blood and Iron" and "Child of a
Rainless Year" demanded respectful reading.Those took a few days each.
Other than the nightly news, and the weekend pundit shows, I don't
watch much TV*. I did recently have a very bad "Veronica Mars" habit,
but he idiot network programmers fixed that by never having the show
on at the same time, causing me to lose track and interest.
Regards,
Jack Tingle
*OK, OK, I never miss Alton Brown. They put him on at the same time
every night, right after the news.
GSV Three Minds in a Can
person Splicer <nom...@nomail.com> said
You need to devote more time to reading and less to TV, Usenet, etc.
Business trips work well too - I used to manage 2-3 on a transatlantic
flight, and then at least one per night in a hotel. Of course that's
'golden age novel' size books, not _The Neutronium Alchemist_ size.
--
GSV Three Minds in a Can
Google may be your friend, but groups.google.com posters definitely aren't.
Andrew Wheeler
I wrote a long blog post about this very subject back in February, which
is available here: http://antickmusings.blogspot.com/2006/02/how-to-read-book-day.html.
The short version:
1) Make reading your primary leisure activity
2) Set aside dedicated time for reading every day
3) Make sure you're reading things that you really enjoy, and want to
get back to.
This all assumes, of course, that you *want* to read more than you want
to do other things -- if you're at a time in your life when you'd rather
play golf, or hang out with friends, or play with your kids, or play
with your Xbox, or watch TV, or whatever, then no rules will be all that helpful.
--
Andrew Wheeler: Professional Editor, Amateur Wise-Acre
--
If you enjoyed this post, try my blog at
http://antickmusings.blogspot.com
If you hated this post, you probably have bad taste anyway.
James Nicoll
Andrew Wheeler <acwh...@optonline.com> wrote:
>Splicer wrote:
>>
>> Jack Tingle <wjti...@hotmail.com> wrote on 16 Jul 2006:
>>
>> > I usually avoid wolves, urban fantasy, and vampires. I must be out of
>> > my mind this month. I blame the ridiculous amounts of rain we had in
>> > May and June. That and hammock season.
>> >
>>
>> I still don't understand how a person can read this many books in such a
>> short time and I can't. Is it because I'm reading every single word?
>> Should I skim more?
>
>I wrote a long blog post about this very subject back in February, which
>is available here:
>http://antickmusings.blogspot.com/2006/02/how-to-read-book-day.html.
>
>The short version:
>
>1) Make reading your primary leisure activity
>
>2) Set aside dedicated time for reading every day
>
>3) Make sure you're reading things that you really enjoy, and want to
>get back to.
>
the task into smaller tasks. With manuscripts, I read them 100 pages
at a time, which seems to make a difference.
According to the doctor who saw me for my latest set of
glasses, my ability to distinguish print is freakishly well
developed, given how wretched my eyesight is, and he speculated
that since I only use one eye (and learned to read very young),
that part of my brain that would have been used to deal with images
from my left eye has been used to deal with print. Fear me, I have
print-o-vision!
Given how eye exams work, it wasn't clear to me how he could
tell my print recognition was too good for the prescription I had.
By the way, should it transpire that some element of your
perceptive abilities are overdeveloped like that, I strongly advise
that when you tell someone else about it, you avoid using the phrase
"there's part of my brain that I don't use," lest your story be
drowned out by loud agreement.
It also helps if you see words as a whole, not as a clump
of letters, but I bet people who do spell more poorly than people
who don't.
--
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/
http://www.livejournal.com/users/james_nicoll
http://www.cafepress.com/jdnicoll (For all your "The problem with
defending the English language [...]" T-shirt, cup and tote-bag needs)
James Nicoll
>is available here:
>http://antickmusings.blogspot.com/2006/02/how-to-read-book-day.html.
(checks daily page count given in blog)
My personal best to date is 900 pages, read and reported on,
on one long Saturday, despite having been hit in the head _again_
by a cat armed with a staircase* and the minor handicap of three
infected cat bites in my right hand**. TWO HANDED ENGINE, very good.
* The same cat who experimented with various plaintive meows until I
came to investigate, then ambushed me as I was coming up the stairs.
** Courtesy of an elderly, although surprisingly fast, cranky cat at
my vet's.
tmon...@mindspring.com
Tom
sienamystic
Jack Tingle wrote:
> Vaughn, Carrie, "Kitty and the Midnight Hour" ***
> Vaughn, Carrie, "Kitty Goes to Washington" ***
> This "Werewolves and Vampires and Cops, Oh My!" first novel (Midnight
> Hour) is fairly predictable, but well written. Kitty Norville is a
> minor radio personality who gets bitten by a werewolf and survives,
> thus turning into a werewolf herself. Through happenstance, she turns
> this unwelcome intimate knowledge of the supernatural into a hit talk
> radio show, a sort of 'advice for the ex-human' show called "The
> Midnight Hour". This new popularity gets her in trouble with some of
> her supernatural acquaintances, many of whom like being obscure. The
> local vampires even hire a hit man. Added to this is the cop plot. A
> rogue werewolf is killing prostitutes and other lower class women who
> make the mistake of encountering him late at night. Kitty, now being a
> werewolf expert, gets called in.
(snipped)
> I'll definitely read the next book. This is the best pulp fantasy
> since Jo Baldwin started her 'Weather Warden' series. Maybe even
> better. How can you not like a story that makes the blood-sucking
> vampire Mistress more sympathetic than the fundie Senator?
I enjoy the setting of the Weather Warden books, but took a strong
dislike to the main character which has kept me from rereading the two
I have, or seeking out more of them (if there are more). She seemed to
teeter precariously on that Mary Sue edge, and her preoccupation with
clothing just didn't interest me at all. This is a bit of a tough
question to answer, I guess, but how does Kitty compare to her?
Genevieve
Jack Tingle
wrote:
Well, she doesn't dress as well, so that shouldn't be a problem. She's
more sincere than Jo, and not so overblown. She drives an economy car.
I don't suggest you reread any of these. So many books, so little
time. All of these go directly from the nightstand into the 'charity
book sale' box.
Regards,
Jack Tingle
Mike Schilling
"James Nicoll" <jdni...@panix.com> wrote in message
news:e9ekt0$ql7$1...@reader2.panix.com...
>
> It also helps if you see words as a whole, not as a clump
> of letters, but I bet people who do spell more poorly than people
> who don't.
I read that way and spell very well (though my poor typing can disguise that
fact.) Admittedly, sometimes I spell by trying different versions until the
clump appears correctly shaped.
Robert Hutchinson
> It also helps if you see words as a whole, not as a clump
> of letters, but I bet people who do spell more poorly than people
> who don't. ^! ^?
Should I be amused that that particular sentence led me down the garden
path?
--
I think I spell the average amount
Robert Hutchinson | "Audiences won't soon forget when the
| thing-we-didn't-know-what-it-was was put into
| the helicopter by the guy we didn't know."
| -- Servo, MST3K, 810, Giant Spider Invasion
Robert Hutchinson
In addition to what else has been mentioned (mainly, having reading as
one's primary hobby), it helps to be stuck somewhere for extended periods
of time each week, during which one must strive against the crush of
boredom. I have a job which, in terms of percentage of time occupied by
actual human action, compares to night watchman at a vacant lot. My hours
are irregular, but I can usually count on knocking out about 200 pages
during a shift.
Well, they're not really shifts, but I'm too immersed in my comparison to
turn back.
--
Mike Schilling
"Robert Hutchinson" <ser...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.1f24f7fd1...@netnews.mchsi.com...
> Splicer says...
>> Jack Tingle wrote on 16 Jul 2006:
>>
>> > I usually avoid wolves, urban fantasy, and vampires. I must be out of
>> > my mind this month. I blame the ridiculous amounts of rain we had in
>> > May and June. That and hammock season.
>>
>> I still don't understand how a person can read this many books in such a
>> short time and I can't. Is it because I'm reading every single word?
>> Should I skim more?
>
> In addition to what else has been mentioned (mainly, having reading as
> one's primary hobby), it helps to be stuck somewhere for extended periods
> of time each week, during which one must strive against the crush of
> boredom. I have a job which, in terms of percentage of time occupied by
> actual human action, compares to night watchman at a vacant lot. My hours
> are irregular, but I can usually count on knocking out about 200 pages
> during a shift.
>
> Well, they're not really shifts, but I'm too immersed in my comparison to
> turn back.
Likewise if your job involves a lot of travel. There are people who can get
work done on airline flights, and I admire them, but am not one of them.
Actually, the most reading I ever did occurred when I had a 90-minute
commute (in each direction) via public transit.
Joe Bernstein
sienamystic <siena...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Jack Tingle wrote:
> > I'll definitely read the next book. This is the best pulp fantasy
> > since Jo Baldwin started her 'Weather Warden' series. Maybe even
> > better. How can you not like a story that makes the blood-sucking
> > vampire Mistress more sympathetic than the fundie Senator?
> I enjoy the setting of the Weather Warden books, but took a strong
> dislike to the main character which has kept me from rereading the two
> I have, or seeking out more of them (if there are more). She seemed to
> teeter precariously on that Mary Sue edge, and her preoccupation with
> clothing just didn't interest me at all.
Assuming y'all both mean the "Rachel Caine" [1] books, I find myself
... perplexed by Jack Tingle's admiration. I actually skimmed at least
the third book, if not the fourth, trying to figure out whether the
plot, which mildly interested me, ever went anywhere; but it just
seemed to keep getting more and more tightly twisted in escalations
of "Everyone loves me and I'm extra-super-powerful but still everyone
wants to kill me". [2] Yuck.
At the time, it didn't occur to me that this is a short definition of
what many of us mean by "Mary Sue". And no, I'm not especially
interested in having iteration number ten of whether that's the correct
definition or not; I'm well aware that it at least isn't complete.
The annoying auctorial tendency exists and needs a name whether or
not those exact three syllables are acceptable. But I'm intrigued
by my evident recurring denseness when confronted with this pattern.
I guess because I've found value in some exemplars so am reluctant
to put it in the "drop on sight" category.
It's not clear to me whether this reaction of mine to "Rachel Caine"
means I should mistrust the OP's opinion of the (snipped) Vaughn books,
or not.
Joe Bernstein
[1] It's a pseudonym, according to the copyright page, but possibly
out of a desire not to blacklist her, I've forgotten the author's
presumptively real name.
[2] Huh. Put *that* way, I see that this is also a description of
my home country's self-perception. Which throws interesting light
on both... Has anyone ever written the story of the Character Too
Powerful To Be Allowed To Live - cf. e.g. <Stormqueen!> - *from
that character's POV* ? And have they done it well?
--
Joe Bernstein, writer j...@sfbooks.com
<http://www.panix.com/~josephb/> "She suited my mood, Sarah Mondleigh
did - it was like having a kitten in the room, like a vote for unreason."
<Glass Mountain>, Cynthia Voigt
Jack Tingle
<j...@sfbooks.com> wrote:
>In article <1153102454.6...@i42g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
>sienamystic <siena...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Jack Tingle wrote:
>
>> > I'll definitely read the next book. This is the best pulp fantasy
>> > since Jo Baldwin started her 'Weather Warden' series. Maybe even
>> > better. How can you not like a story that makes the blood-sucking
>> > vampire Mistress more sympathetic than the fundie Senator?
>
>> I enjoy the setting of the Weather Warden books, but took a strong
>> dislike to the main character which has kept me from rereading the two
>> I have, or seeking out more of them (if there are more). She seemed to
>> teeter precariously on that Mary Sue edge, and her preoccupation with
>> clothing just didn't interest me at all.
>
>Assuming y'all both mean the "Rachel Caine" [1] books, I find myself
>... perplexed by Jack Tingle's admiration.
Whoops, my bad. Jo Baldwin is the main character.
As to why anyone should read them... As I've written elsewhere, you
_certainly_ shouldn't reread them. They're sort of like a roller
coaster ride. Most people ride a particular coaster once to see what
it's like and move on to the next ride. I find them more clever than
annoying, although I can certainly see how 'annoying' would win out
for a lot of people. These are the junk food of literature. If you're
not in the mood for bubble gum-flavored saltwater-taffy coated popcorn
clusters, move along, there's nothing to see here. :)
Stickily,
Jack Tingle
Nancy Lebovitz
Joe Bernstein <j...@sfbooks.com> wrote:
>In article <1153102454.6...@i42g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
>sienamystic <siena...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Jack Tingle wrote:
>
>> > I'll definitely read the next book. This is the best pulp fantasy
>> > since Jo Baldwin started her 'Weather Warden' series. Maybe even
>> > better. How can you not like a story that makes the blood-sucking
>> > vampire Mistress more sympathetic than the fundie Senator?
>
>> I enjoy the setting of the Weather Warden books, but took a strong
>> dislike to the main character which has kept me from rereading the two
>> I have, or seeking out more of them (if there are more). She seemed to
>> teeter precariously on that Mary Sue edge, and her preoccupation with
>> clothing just didn't interest me at all.
>
>Assuming y'all both mean the "Rachel Caine" [1] books, I find myself
>... perplexed by Jack Tingle's admiration. I actually skimmed at least
>the third book, if not the fourth, trying to figure out whether the
>plot, which mildly interested me, ever went anywhere; but it just
>seemed to keep getting more and more tightly twisted in escalations
>of "Everyone loves me and I'm extra-super-powerful but still everyone
>wants to kill me". [2] Yuck.
>
pacing, with something new happening every three pages.
2 and 3 were good enough. I'm not enthusiastic about 4--I want to
see the main character out doing dramatic things, not tangled up
with difficult family members and drained energy.
--
Nancy Lebovitz http://www.nancybuttons.com
http://nancylebov.livejournal.com
My two favorite colors are "Oooooh" and "SHINY!".
Konrad Gaertner
>
> Assuming y'all both mean the "Rachel Caine" [1] books, I find myself
> ... perplexed by Jack Tingle's admiration. I actually skimmed at least
> the third book, if not the fourth, trying to figure out whether the
> plot, which mildly interested me, ever went anywhere; but it just
> seemed to keep getting more and more tightly twisted in escalations
> of "Everyone loves me and I'm extra-super-powerful but still everyone
> wants to kill me". [2] Yuck.
I read the first book, couldn't make any sense of the plot or setting,
and so I won't be reading any of the others.
> At the time, it didn't occur to me that this is a short definition of
> what many of us mean by "Mary Sue". And no, I'm not especially
> interested in having iteration number ten of whether that's the correct
> definition or not; I'm well aware that it at least isn't complete.
I'd call her a Mary Sue in _Ill Wind_. She's more powerful than
anyone except her mysterious boyfriend, all the male characters lust
after her (instead of enforcing the rules she's supposed to be bound
by), and the very end looked like an over-the-top spoof of Mary Sue.
> It's not clear to me whether this reaction of mine to "Rachel Caine"
> means I should mistrust the OP's opinion of the (snipped) Vaughn books,
> or not.
Well, *I* liked the first Kitty book (haven't gotten a hold of the
second yet), and they aren't very similar to Weather Wardens.
They're closer to Harris' Sookie Stackhouse books or Briggs'
_Moon Called_.
--
Konrad Gaertner - - - - - - - - - - - - - - email: gae...@aol.com
http://kgbooklog.livejournal.com/
"I don't mind hidden depths but I insist that there be a surface."
-- James Nicoll