Into the West by Mercedes Lackey

A Mostly Spoiler Free Review

First and foremost, if anyone can tell me if and when a third The Founding of Valdemar book is coming out, I would be most appreciative. Into the West fully establishes the final settling place of the Valdemarans and the Tayledras, hertasi, etc. Now all that's missing is the Companions and how they came into the mix. I feel like, if/when there's a third Founding of Valdemar book, it would probably focus on that.

Largely, Into the West is a travel book. The characters travel through the wilderness between Crescent Lake and the newly formed Valdemar capital... I assume it's the capital, after all, the Tayledras set the Heartstone to build a palace so... yeah. But anyway, Delia gets a much bigger role in this one. She really grows into her own person, as opposed to the semi-stereotypical noble girl she was during Beyond. Kordas continues on his merry way leading his people.

I probably would have liked some more personal bits with other characters. I think I'd most like to get to know Briada. She seems like the most interesting of the new characters introduced here. I also would have loved to see how Jonaton and Hakkon were together, just, ya know, to feed my inner rabid fangirl. I also really enjoyed a character added toward the end of the book, who I will not name but I thought was really cute. Pretty much the only other new named characters (other than Briadas cousins) were used as object lessons for Kordas' new rules and such.

I really enjoyed the nods to critters past in the wyrsa and makaar. I will say, though, in The Mage Wars, Skandranon pretty much said the makaar had died out so it was a surprise to see them in The Founding of Valdemar. Not that Skan is a particularly reliable narrator or that the makaar were at all described in The Mage Wars but... yeah. I had no idea what they were when they showed up and was surprised when Silvermoon confirmed what they were.

I largely liked how the Tayledras were introduced to the Valdemarans. I think it felt better than it did before... from what I can remember of my reading of the Valdemar series prior to this. I don't know why, exactly, but the Tayledras always felt a little off to me in terms of representation of a more indigenous people than the more European feeling Valdemarans. I don't know. It's late and I might just be rambling about that and misremembering. Anyway. Silvermoon was interesting as a sort of equal to Kordas. These Tayledras also definitely have more hertasi around than the ones Vanyel encounters in "later" books. Delia's friend Jelavan delighted me.

So yeah, Into the West was pretty good. It was well paced and I never felt like there was a slog anywhere. I'm not going to lie, the ending had me semi-skimming because of the sudden action happening, but it also didn't end abruptly, which I appreciate. I really can't wait for another installment in this series... if/when there is one. It's really odd that it keeps being referred to as a "series" but there doesn't seem to be any actual official confirmation of a third book anywhere... like, one site that has this year (2023) as a release date, but nothing else. I assume a trilogy, at least, cuz most of the Valdemar series is made of up trilogies... and I'm rambling so... yeah. Bye!

Favorite Lines

"You're an idiot. And you used to be my apprentice. I reserve the right to continue smacking you when you say something stupid," Sai replied.

"We had a skygazing poet-scout, Wildwolf, who went through an awkward, dramatic stage of life as Moonmoon.” - Silvermoon - Reminded me of the common amusement over the name "Remus Lupin" in the Harry Potter series.

"Apparently, hells are not consistent. That could be why they are hells." - Silvermoon 

"Sometimes, explosives are the best way to show you care." - Jelevan 

Beyond by Mercedes Lackey

A Fairly Spoiler Free Review

I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting from Beyond, but I was not disappointed. I’m also not really sure what to say about it. There was a constant tension throughout rather than, like, a villain to fight against. The characters were all engaging and pretty realistic for the world they live in. Beyond was definitely a step up from any of The Mage Wars. Unsurprising, really, with the large gap between the writing and publishing of them with the rest of the Valdemar books in between.

So, given the nature of the Beyond story, there are bound to be spoilers in this review. It’s essentially a kind of spy thriller, but not super focused in that regard. Kordas and the other Valdemarans are definitely constantly worried about being spied on and maintaining the illusion that nothing is happening, but not so much so where anything seems really forced. It’s all actually quite leisurely paced until the end of the book. Speaking of, the end did seem kind of rushed compared with the rest of the story, but I don’t think that’s a detriment to any of it. It was very clear that The Plan was going to finish up in Beyond and not carry on into the rest of the trilogy.

I think the choice of Kordas and Delia as the main characters was a good one. Kordas due to his placement in power and Delia simply because she’s a bridge between the nobles and to commoners. I might have liked a bit of commoner Valdemaran perspective, but I’m not really sure how well that would have worked. I think we get that through the likes of Squire Lesley’s willingness to talk honestly with Delia.

I was not expecting the inclusion of cat memes, which was amusing. However, the words “doggo” and “pupper” being used by an old mage is unsettling and took me out of the story for a moment. Also, the original introduction of the Dolls… they seemed to Sci-fi for Valdemar and I wasn’t really sure we needed the inclusion of the whole vrondi thing. However, I was wrong. The Dolls/vrondi were actually quite integral to the plot.

I’m not really sure what else I can say that isn’t giving away anything. I really feel like Beyond needs to be experienced more than me telling you all the things. I also feel like, if you’ve decided to read the Valdemar series in chronological order, like I have, you can probably skip The Mage Wars and start with Beyond.

Favorite Quotes

"It’s magic. It has built-in fuckery." - Jonaton

"Good bed, deep sleep, big breakfast, and one could outpace anything except a Night Person. Their ways were mysterious and full of cats." - Kordas

"When a ruler gives up on empathy and sentiment, it is a sign of desperation. It means they’re paring away emotion in favor of efficiency and numbers and a twisted fantasy of a better life without the joys and burdens of caring about something outside of themselves. Contempt for kindness and generosity is the surest sign there is that someone has nothing else left to them but a horrible emptiness much worse than weakness." - Kordas

“Do what you can, do everything that you can, do it to the best of your ability, and leave the rest to fate. Or the gods. Or random luck. Your choice,” - Koto

Remembering Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

This Remembrance Contains Spoilers. You Have Been Warned.

I really have no idea when I first read Where the Red Fern Grows. I know it was when I was too young to really understand what the hell was going on or process it properly. I have, however, read it a few times since that first time, but not since I was in Junior High, at least, I think. My memories on this one are at the same time bright and fuzzy.

I remember that the dogs are Big Dan and Little Ann. I know that they're red coon-hounds. I've always envisioned them as, like, Irish Setter-y colored Labs. I really had no clue what the distinction of "hound" meant until I was older, so the Lab imagery was what stuck in my head.

My sharpest memory from Where the Red Fern Grows is that there's some kind of inter-farm competition between the main character and his neighbor as to whose dogs are best. The neighbor's dog's name is Blue and, during this competition, the owner ends up falling on his axe and dying instantly. So, ya know, good memories of this book.

I kind of remember there's this big racoon hunting competition in which Big Dan and Little Ann end up winning some sort of prize. I'm pretty sure it was some money and a little trophy cup with their names on it.

And lastly I remember the deaths of Big Dan and Little Ann. Because yes, this is one of those where the dogs die at the end. I vaguely remember Dan died first and Ann just kind of wasted away afterward. I remember no specifics of Dan's death. It was probably heart-wrenching and I probably cried.

I feel like I was definitely too young to have read Where the Red Fern Grows when I did. I had little comprehension of what was going on, as I mention in my intro. I know that the death of Blue's owner shocked me, but I was more intrigued by the description of the dead body than anything else surrounding it. Also, as I'm sure you noticed, I do not remember any of the names of any of the humans in this book. They were clearly not the focus and not anything my brain latched onto.

The plot of Where the Red Fern Grows is also completely gone from my mind. I'm pretty sure it was just: Boy saves up money to get dogs. Boy gets dogs. Boy has to raise dogs. Dogs turn out to be awesome. Dogs hunt raccoons. Dogs end up dying because that's what dogs do. Boy has to deal with dogs dying.

After I Read the Blurb

Okay so, apparently the kid's name is Billy. Such a generic name, no wonder I forgot it. Oh, and it's Old Dan, not Big Dan. Honestly, the blurb was super generic and did not knock anything loose from my brain-pan

Where the Red Fern Grows was among my favorite books for a short time when I was younger. I fairly quickly transitioned away from reading Historical Fiction and into the Fantasy genre once I knew it existed. I do remember picking up Where the Red Fern Grows a few times, but I'm pretty sure it didn't last long on my shelf past High School.

I'm also not surprised Where the Red Fern Grows has a couple teaching guides out. It's a mostly inoffensive Coming of Age tale.

Lover's Knot by Karen Chance

A Spoiler Free Review

See, it’s really the Dorina side of things that has me so frustrated with the Cassie books. Lover’s Knot is an excellent example of Karen Chance’s skill with both narrative and action. Dorina’s vamp skills used to do Mircea flashbacks that also inform the current Dory narrative was very well done, in my opinion. Plus, both stories were engaging in their own rights. The fight scenes were easy to follow as well, which is a bit hit or miss with Karen Chance’s work.

I really enjoy Dory and Kit working together. Their personality clashes are just awesome to behold. Radu is almost always a treat and he was excellent here. The addition of Elise to the their team was just icing on the cake. She might not have done much overall, but I like her and hope to see her again in later books.

The pair of interwoven narratives were nice and tight, I thought. There wasn’t any wasted space and zero sidelining. I actually enjoyed Mircea’s past for once. Jerome… eh… I could have done without him, but the narrative needed him to, ya know, get started. Also seeing “baby” Dorina was nice. I’d somehow gotten it into my head that Dorina had been much younger than she was when Mircea set her minds apart, but, nope. Apparently 10-ish.

I’m not sure there’s much more I can say without spoiling things. I liked this one.

Remembering The Sickness by K.A. Applegate

This post is going to be starting off a new review series, separate from my main series of reviews. These will be just as lazy -- probably lazier, even -- as my usual reviews. According to the data I've put into GoodReads, I've currently got a "Read" count of 945 books. I've only officially reviewed a very small sampling of those and really don't intend on going back and rereading all of them in order to properly review them. So, while I was spraying down meat saws at work, I had this idea to do a series of reviews based solely on what I remember of a random assortment of books and possibly the blurbs. I thought I might also do this style of post for what I'm about to read, just to see how much I remember vs what my rereads turn up. But yeah, mostly these "Remembering" posts will be for books I have little to no intention of rereading. They'll also have no particular order, just what I happen to have my mind on at any given moment. The format will also be open to change at any given moment. I haven't settled on what exactly I want to do with these yet so... yeah. There will be spoilers.

Enjoy.

The Sickness by K.A. Applegate

I was a huge fan of Animorphs when I was in Junior High. Like, HUGE. I am embarrassed  to say that I created a weird form of "Tag" based around the series. That's how big I was into it. I read all 54 books and the surrounding "Mega Morphs" and "Chronicles" extras. I even watched a few episodes of the Nickelodeon TV show when I had access. It seemed fitting to start off this new series of reviews with an Animorphs book, specifically my favorite one: The Sickness. Book number 29.

Every Animorphs book follows a different member of the protagonist group, in this case, Cassie.

I have no idea how The Sickness starts out, only that the Animorphs are on one of their self-assigned missions and Jake, I believe, starts getting sick. Like, throwing up and not being able to stay in his animal forms. I distinctly remember the throwing up bit, because there's a whole part where Cassie and Marco are walking Jake home and Marco starts riffing on all the different names for puking. My adolescent brain loved that bit. Anyway, one by one, each of the Animorphs except Cassie falls prey to whatever this sickness is. There's something about it being passed through the morphing ability, but it's all kind of vague and I'm pretty sure we never find out why Cassie doesn't end up sick.

However, we do find out that Ax, the sole alien of the group, has some brain-swelling or something as a side effect of the sickness and Cassie, as the proto-vet or whatever, has to do some surgery in order to relieve the swelling. This needs to involve a Yeerk for some reason, but to get ahold of one of those, you gotta get to the Yeerk-pool... and that's as much as I remember about that particular plot point until:

Over the course of the book, Cassie also has to befriend a Yeerk (the brain-invading slug-like parasites the Animorphs are fighting the entire series). Or, befriend isn't exactly the word as Cassie makes a deal with this "girl" to basically get herself stuck in an utterly useless morph in return for the Yeerk's help. Cassie does this, I remember, but it's ultimately okay because of a weird quirk in the morphing tech that allows metamorphosed morphs to restart the morphing clock. So apparently a caterpillar turning itself to goo and then becoming a butterfly restarts Cassie's morphing clock and she's back to being a human in the end. Which... ya know, I'm glad I didn't know more about the butterfly life-cycle at the time, because I call shenanigans about that 2-hour-and-you're-stuck clock in that case... but I also don't know how long that whole process actually takes and now I have questions.

But whatever, Cassie does Ax's surgery with the help of the Yeerk "girl," the rest of the Animorphs basically get over the sickness, and everyone comes out all hunky-dory at the end of the book. I think the Yeerk "girl" also lets her host go and gains morphing abilities of her own... and purposefully gets herself stuck as something else, but I could be completely misremembering that. 54+ books of memories, I'm bound to get things mixed up.

I probably reread The Sickness at least five times as a kid. It's probably why I remember so much about it. The Animorphs books were below my reading level even when I was reading them the first time and they're kind of short. I tore through them pretty quickly multiple times. A good chunk of that series is a big blur in my head. That's also fairly understandable as Animorphs is one of those formulaic series mostly written by ghost writers. That said, I highly recommend Animorphs as a series for kids interested in sci-fi but not super sure if they're going to like it or not and animal lovers. Animorphs is more heavy on the animal facts than it is the actual science fiction aspects, from what I remember anyway.

Reap the Wind by Karen Chance

A Semi-Spoilery Review

I honestly found myself very frustrated with Reap the Wind. This largely has to do with how the entire book is structured, but also for a lot of the same reasons Cassie herself is frustrated. I rolled my eyes and actually shouted at the book at certain times. My semi-spoilery, detailed thoughts are below.

So… what exactly happens if you encounter past Pritkin and tell him what needs to happen in order to save his life? Are we even going to try that route or just keep with the jumping around and ambushing him? And, given how Reap the Wind basically ends on this front, why the fuck won’t the other Pythia’s listen to Cassie trying to tell them what the fuck is going on? I understand she’s kind of fucking with the timeline, but still, she’s ALSO a Pythia so why not give her a minute to explain herself? No one seems to want to TALK to each other in this universe. It’s frustrating as all get out.

I LIKE that Cassie is FINALLY learning about her powers from someone who knows shit about her powers. I LIKE the Cassie vs The Circle thing they have going on because Cassie’s got Rhea telling her shit. I LIKE that Cassie is sort of getting the house in order. Would like it more if she actually mananged to do so, but, ya know, chaos reigns in the Cassandra Palmer-verse.

I DISLIKE having the main storyline COMPLETELY SIDELINED to deal with Mircea’s crap. Doesn’t help that I’m not into reading sexy-times anymore and at least the first part of this chunk of story is Mircea/Cassie sexy-times. Kit was amusing, as he usually is, in my eyes. But still, put off that whole “GOTTA GET TO PRITKIN AND SAVE HIS LIFE” storyline and jump to “MIRCEA’S DOING MIND-SEX AND APPARENTLY WAR” thing. Though I am glad Cassie FINALLY realizes her relationship with Mircea is fucked up in ways she hadn’t thought of.

A big problem I’m having at this point in the Cassandra Palmer series is that Cassie has zero consistent confidants. Pritkin’s ostensibly been killed. Mircea doesn’t respect her and her bodyguards are ostensibly loyal to him, not her, unless they’re temporarily not because reasons. Jonas, it turns out, is selfish about her power and won’t help her unless she does what he sees as important. Not to mention his apparently Agnes grief he’s still working through, I guess. Rhea and the rest of Cassie’s “court” are too not-powerful/literal children. Tami is basically a glorified babysitter for Cassie’s “court.” The witches apparently fucked off after helping rescue the “court.” Even anyone in the “Ally” camp is dubious, at best. Cassie’s basically on her own, STILL, and that’s super frustrating to me.

So, while we’re jerked back into the “Saving Pritkin” part of the storyline, we get crazy faerie battles. Battles I didn’t really follow, by the way. Too much happening and once and not a good sense of where anything was. And then we have Pritkin dumping a bunch of lore on Cassie, who does very little dumping back. Would have been a perfect time to, I dunno, explain a shortened, non-spoiler version of why she was there in the first place, but no… just a big old Pritkin/Faerie lore dump interrupted by more incomprehensible faerie battle.

The ending of Reap the Wind is yet another of Cassie’s “I’m finally gonna battle a villain I have very little investment in aside from they’re the villain” battles. I mean, it was at least a bit more comprehensible then the faerie battles, but still… the final acolyte doesn’t even have a name as far as the narrative is concerned. It’s… uh… not a great look, really. I was unimpressed.

And finally, Dory and Cassie come face to face… which, ya know, I knew was coming because of Fury’s Kiss. Just really makes me want to shake Cassie, though. She knows absolutely nothing about Mircea in comparison to how much she should if they’re going to make an actual relationship work.

So yeah, I largely found Reap the Wind intensely frustrating. I had the thought at several points that I might drop the Cassandra Palmer series altogether at this point. However, I do have a copy of Ride the Storm waiting in the wings, so I’ll give it one more book, at least. Well, two, if you count Lover’s Knot, but the Dory books haven’t frustrated me as much as the Cassie ones do so… yeah.

Short Reviews Batch 3

Lirael by Garth Nix
Too Short For Spoiler Review

Originally Posted to GoodReads: 2-1-2018

Okay so... as much as I love this series and love Lirael and the Disreputable Dog, a good half of this book should have been titled "And Sam generally fails at life because therapy isn't a thing apparently." 

The Count Of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Spoiler Free Review

Originally Posted to GoodReads: 2-6-2019

Well then, that was definitely a book of many, many, many turns down very dark alleys that really just needed to be trimmed into alcoves, if that. Just so, so much stuff was packed into this book that was really more boring than anything else. I could barely keep track of characters or their story lines and I just... ugh. Took me a good year and seven months to finish, and I thought about giving up several times... the ending was not worth the wait, if I’m completely honest. Just... ugh.

Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard
Spoiler Free Review

Originally Posted to GoodReads: 2-6-2021

Well that was soul crushing... and not just for me, but any explanation of that's a spoiler so, yeah.

And now for guerilla warfare, sort of. Lots of recruitment and discovery of different powers of the Reds. Lots of soul-searching for Mare. Hard being the figurehead while at the same time being taunted by your ex. Also, there's some world-building mixed in, mostly pertaining to the Red Guard and their secrets, but also some wider-world stuff that I'm very interested in.

The Witch of Tin Mountain by Paulette Kennedy

A Spoiler Free Review

So, I was pleasantly surprised by The Witch of Tin Mountain. I was definitely expecting a more grounded story, zero actual magic, but that’s not what I got. I was also expecting a less queer story. Which is to say, I wasn’t expecting queer characters at all, and both main characters are queer, so yay. The Witch of Tin Mountain was actually really good. Not perfect, but a lot better than I was expecting.

The Witch of Tin Mountain takes place over a split narrative across 50 years. I thought it was fairly well done. I never had issue remembering whose POV I was reading from. The intertwining of the narratives was also done well, both progressing essentially toward each other with the main climax on Gracie’s end.

I ended up liking the realistic parts of the narrative and how the magic was woven in. Having family grimoires is something I think our current generations are lacking. I mean, I have a few recipes that have been passed down through the family, but nothing like the grimoire the Werners have. I’d be interested in that kind of family history/journal/recipe book.

The generational curse thing was interesting. My first thought when Bellflower showed up was that he might be a vampire of some kind, but nope, different monster. I liked how that whole thing played out. Overall, Bellflower wasn’t super interesting as an antagonist — I think the townsfolk did a better job in that regard — but he was serviceable and we did get a good look at what powers he actually had.

The only real issue I had with The Witch of Tin Mountain was how neatly the ending was wrapped up. Now, I enjoy a neat ending, but this was a little sickly sweet at the end. Everyone got their beaus and apparently managed to intertwine the families as well… because fate or something. I dunno. It was nice but at the same time seemed to go on longer than it needed to in order to tie everything with that bow.

The Witch of Tin Mountain was a pretty good read overall. I was definitely sucked into the story whenever I had a chance to read it.