LKH finished the plot-arc that has been consuming this series since the beginning. I note that she says in her blog that it means she can finally “play” in the world, which can only be a good thing. You can see a couple of the early books wanting to get out of the straightjacket that the “get Merry pregnant” storyline enforced on her, but soon it was all about the intrigues of the fey courts – and there are a lot of other things to write about in that world. She really has a gift for worldbuilding.

The really not-so-stellar book I was attempting to read before this is by a new Australian author, Kim Falconer. The book is The Spell of Rosette, and I strongly urge you not to get it. Astonishingly, I wasn’t able to get past about four chapters in the book. It’s just that bad. There’s a prologue. Then another prologue. Then another one. I was still waiting for the story to properly begin, when I got hit by her New Age beliefs (Astrology, etc.) which were so clunkily presented that I lost all sympathy with the characters. Some of the initial storyline just beggars belief: a family (one of whom is running for mayor) is murdered… and there’s no reaction from the other townsfolk at all. Who rules this land? Why are random murders fine? Why does the surviving daughter of the family then basically forget about the murders? For most stories, this would be the beginning of a quest, but it’s then back into peaceful living with her aunt… Urgh.

Perhaps I’ll eventually get back to it, but given it has a glowing recommendation by Traci Harding, another Australian writer I detest, I should have known better. “This intricate and intriguing tale perfectly blends the physical‚ quantum‚ cyber and spiritual realms into one of the best fantasy books I’ve read in ages!'” Uh-oh…

So, Swallowing Darkness was lovely to find in my local bookstore.

I’ve also just reread the Blood of Kerensky trilogy – three BattleTech books about the coming of the clans. They’re pretty much the only BT books I’ve read, and I finally own my own copies, having won an ebay auction for them. I’m delighted to have them, as Michael Stackpole was at the top of his BTech writing game when he wrote them. I hope to get a few other BTech books in the future, but I think that these ones will be making the rounds of my friends who are just becoming interested in BattleTech.

Adam’s lent me a bunch of Babylon 5 books recently. I’ve finished the first, The Shadow Within, and I’ll soon move on to the others – the Passing of the Technomages trilogy. Shadow was competently written, but it has a basic flaw: it’s just fleshing out things we already know about. The Technomage books have a lot of Galen in them, though, so that should be entertaining – though not as entertaining as actually having Peter Woodward playing the role. I really regret that Crusade never got a chance to shine (I also regret the terrible score by Evan Chen, which never worked for me).

I picked up the latest book by Trudi Canavan, one of the better Australian authors, last week. I’ll get to that after I finish the B5 books. 

Most anticipated release this year for me? Toll the Hounds in mass-market paperback. I don’t want to get it in trade paperback (the rest are in the smaller format), but Steven Erikson’s military fantasy series is the best current series in fantasy fiction. George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire has wandered into the “why bother?” basket; to keep interest in a big series going, you need to release books under some kind of schedule. Two years between books (per Jordan?): quite acceptable. Ten years? Forget it! Once he’s actually finished the series (hah!) I may get back to it.