Bothari43 has been very kind to me this Book Exchange season. She sent me three ebooks – Anna Zabo’s Syncopation (sorry about your search algorithm), Tasha Suri’s Empire of Sand, and Lois McMaster Bujold’s Beguilement (The Sharing Knife). In addition to that largess, I now have a lovely cephalopod print and a 5 year daily journal of questions and answers. I am so excited!
Grab a Cup of Tea and Settle Down With Our Favorite Demon-Sorcerer Duo
The Orphans of Raspay by Lois McMaster Bujold
Lois McMaster Bujold has released another novella set in her World of the Five Gods. And once again, she does it in such a sneaky fashion that I completely missed it! While the Five Gods series has three novels under its belt so far, Lois has been adding a number of stories to the series focused on a young man named Penric, who has become a host to a demon, who he dubbs Desdemona. Penric is a first for Desdemona – despite having close […]
My home is not a place, it is people.
Barryar by Lois McMaster Bujold
This is the follow up to Shards of Honor, and like a few others, including that one, I think the series is best told in a variety of orders. I wouldn’t start with these two at all and would jump straight into the Miles books and go from there forward. I would read the prequels and side-novels like Ethan of Athos and Falling Free and even Cetaganda whenever you feel like it, but not feel compelled to read them at any specific point. Although I would caution against reading […]
Revisiting old faves/comfort food
The Spirit Ring by Lois McMaster Bujold
I like to re-read and review at least one Lois book per year, even though it’s always hard for me to think of much to say besides “I love this!” It’s been a while since I revisited Fiametta, so I chose one of Lois’s rare (only?) standalone books, the fantasy Spirit Ring. Also rarely, this book takes place in the real(ish) world, in Renaissance-y Italy. Except that there’s magic. Fiametta Beneforte is a bright, headstrong daughter of a wealthy sorcerer and metalworker. Her father creates […]
Utterly bleak and black is not the sum of realism. All the other colors are real, too.
The Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold
This is the third published, but earliest chronological novel in the World of the Five Gods/Chalion series by Lois McMaster Bujold. In it, a crowned prince has just been found dead, bludgeoned by his own war hammer, and the Lady Ijada is the only likely culprit. She claims self-defense, but her seemingly willingness to go to the prince is being used against her. We meet her now en route, with the prince’s body, with noble/captain Ingrey who has been charged with bringing both for an […]