Blood Noir by Laurell K. Hamilton

I honestly found Blood Noir to be forgettable. There were a couple of over-arching plot-relevances, but otherwise... forgettable. As this is a reread, as well, I will double down on that. I did not remember a single damn thing from this book going into it again.

Regardless of the cause of his rage, Richard will not be forgiven for how he acted or has been acting because of it. I've been done with Richard for a while (which you will know if you've read my previous Anita Blake reviews) and this... other than Anita figuring out she could eat anger and Richard's version of the ardeur surfacing, he had zero reason to be there. Pretty much just an on-screen conflict generator that I would very much just like to punch in the face. Richard's ardeur scene was just icing on the "Richard's not a great person actually" cake. No, not icing, decorative, inedible detailing on the cake. He just made me so, so mad.

I did enjoy the "little" lore drop we got about the clan tigers and in-universe Chinese history regarding lycanthropes. Those little in-universe history touches really flesh out Anita's world in the best ways.

The bit where Anita ate Richard's rage/took back her rage reminded me very much of the scene in Disney's She-Hulk where Jennifer tells Bruce about her experience with rage. Women are just so full of rage and so good at keeping a lid on it and men just cannot handle the barest hint. We are scary and that makes us powerful.

But yeah... other than that, I will probably completely forget this book existed again. I am otherwise happy to be jumping back into the Anita Blake universe. 

Favorite Lines

"Obsession isn't love, Jason. It's possession." - Anita Blake

"Sometimes, if people forget you're there, you learn more. Silence can be a greater asset than any question." - Anita Blake 

In Other News

I have finished my Chuumon project for my Child Digimon Project Line over on OviPets. Chuumon took me 7 months to complete.

Dragonquest by Anne McCaffrey

2025 Reread Review

Dragonquest is one of those sequels that expertly expands the world in which it takes place. It's also one where a lot happens. I'd forgotten just how much, really. I think it's all done quite well, with nothing feeling out of place or there just for the sake of being there. The groundwork is well laid for each event well before it happens.

There is a time-jump between Dragonflight and Dragonquest, which I think is handled quite nicely. Mostly done through characters expositing at each other, but not in a jarring, info-dump-y way.

In addition to story beats, I feel the character work here is really well done. We get to know several characters very well and add to our knowledge of others. Of note, there's Kylara, Lord Meron, and Brekke. Kylara is truly the worst. She was set up in Dragonflight as a promising Queen rider, which she is, though it is very clear Prideth is the only creature she truly cares about outside of herself. Even then, it does feel like a bit of a stretch and therefore not really surprising when she neglects her poor dragon. Lord Meron, connected to Kylara, is definitely the worst among the Lord Holders. He's greedy and gross. Brekke, we get to know the best, I think. She's attached to F'nor and quite sweet and capable as a Weyrwoman. I would expound upon her story here, but I do think that would venture into the spoiler territory I'm trying to stay out of. Suffice to say, the poor woman suffers the worst trauma any dragonrider could and seems to come out alright on the other side... eventually.

I also absolutely loved getting more with Masterharper Robinton and Mastersmith Fandarel. Robinton is a delight, as always. Fandarel is actually my favorite new character. I just love him to bits. He's definitely of a single mind and funny to boot, even though I'm sure he doesn't always mean to be. He's just a big teddy bear at heart.

F'lar and F'nor get a lot of character work here as well. F'lar's care for the entire planet of Pern is shown in great detail. F'nor is shown to be incredibly caring in his relationship with Brekke.

There's also a good deal with Lord Jaxom, the kiddo Lessa "allowed" to take over Ruatha when she left for Bendon Weyr. He's a sweet kid. His Impression of Ruth had me in tears this time around. Not the only moment to make me cry, but definitely a notable one.

I honestly love Dragonquest. It moves Pern's story forward in understandable leaps, just given the stuff left behind by the "ancients" and rediscovered over the course of the book. I think it's all integrated well with Pern's current tech level. I also think saying much more is going to catapult my review into spoiler territory, so I'm gonna stop here.

Favorite Lines

"It's easier to flatter a man than fight him." - F'lar

"Is age a prerequisite for a loving heart? Does maturity always bring compassion?" - Brekke

Musical Recommendation

I meant to add this at the end of my Dragonflight review, but forgot.😅

I'm not sure how common this knowledge is, but some of the music of Pern has actually been recorded. The music is collected in two albums: The Masterharper of Pern and Sunset's Gold. This reread I decided to go ahead and purchase both albums and am very happy with that purchase. They remind me a lot of the music one might hear at a Renaissance Festival, which makes sense given the general time period-ish of Pern... at least musically speaking. They were produced by Tania Opland and Mike Freeman in collaboration with Anne McCaffrey.

The Masterharper of Pern is mostly comprised of songs from the actual series. The little song/poetry snippets at the beginning of chapters in Dragonflight. I actually found it really neat to be able to listen to how McCaffrey intended the songs to sound. Apparently supposed to be the work of Robinton.

Sunset's Gold seems to be more general Pernese music, but is still really nice to listen to. According to the Dragonriders of Pern Wikipedia page, these songs were "pertaining mainly to the work another Pernese harper, Menolly."

I highly recommend giving both albums a listen. If you don't want to (or can't) buy them, some fans have the music uploaded to YouTube. I think they really help bring Pern more to life than simply reading the books.

Dragon's Kin by Anne and Todd McCaffrey

The story of Kindan and Nuella. I liked it well enough and it was a quick read. I learned an awful lot about coal mining that I didn't know before. I also don't really have a lot of feelings about Dragon's Kin. It was an okay story with an obvious antagonist who didn't really end up doing that much or really participating in the story.

Dragon's Kin was very slice-of-life. Kindan's story took up the majority of the book, while sprinkling in bits of Nuella throughout. Also, due to the order in which I'm reading the Pern books, I was kind of like "well, this thing with the watch-wher doesn't last all that long and I vaguely remember Nuella having more to do with watch-whers so... let's just see where this goes." I did not remember anything from my first read, though.

It was a little surprising and heart-breaking to know that any knowledge the Pernese might have had about watch-whers was completely lost between when Wind Blossom created them and the "present" of Dragon's Kin. I know they lost a great deal of information when the computers ultimately went down, but I also feel like watch-whers and their care should have been more important than I guess they are. It also kind of hurts to know their original purpose and "see" them chained up as they often are. Just thoroughly disheartened by the loss of important information... though not completely surprised... Roman concrete and all.

Dragon's Kin is definitely a more intimate story than the last few Pern books. I don't really think that's a bad thing, just different. 

In Other News

I have hit my recent goal and updated to 125.

Squire by Tamora Pierce

I quite enjoyed Squire. It was well paced and well written. I enjoyed getting to know Lord Raoul and the King’s Own. I feel like Kel grew into more of her own person with them. Not that she wasn’t before, but Raoul gave her permission to grow into her sense of humor along with her serious streak.

Oh yeah, and this book has a lot of Kel crushing on Dom and having a relationship with Cleon later… the joys of reading adolescent romance… however, I do like that Kel’s affections don’t center on any one person for long. I think it’s definitely more realistic to the average girl’s experience. That is, any non-ace girl, which is the only experience I can actually speak to. Although honestly… my first few kisses with my boyfriend almost exactly mirror Kel and Cleon’s, so that’s fun. I love Kel’s mother. Ilane of Mindelan is a gift to her children. I truly believe all parents should be as frank about sex as Ilane is. It’s awesome.

I find it interesting that there’s this thing here about bought magic not being as good as magic you’ve done yourself. But like… not everyone can be a mage and a majority of the people talking about this aren’t mages so… it’s just a little weird. Kind of reminds me of the arguments about crafty things or kids even… not as good if you didn’t make them, apparently. It’s not ultimately that big of a thing throughout the book, just an interesting note.

I feel the conclusion to the Lalasa kidnapping was interesting, to say the least. It puts actual ruling in perspective for Kel and the reader. We’re reminded that the rulers or rule at the behest of their people, be they monarchs like Jonathan and Thayet or not. At least, that was my takeaway.

On a related note, I’m not going to discuss what happened to Joren and Vinson during their Ordeals in this review. However, I will say: I wish we had something like The Chamber of Ordeal for our lawmakers and presidential candidates.

At this point, I don’t really know what else to say about Squire. Kel’s journey from Page to Knight feels both conventional and unconventional at the same time. Raoul was right when he said times were changing and knights needed to be more flexible. I feel like Kel’s squire-dom reflects that.

Favorite Line

"Haven't you ever noticed that people who win say it's because the gods know they are in the right, but if they lose, it wasn't the gods who declared them wrong?" - Lord Raoul of Goldenlake

Closer to the Heart by Mercedes Lackey

A Mostly Spoiler Free Review

Closer to the Heart was honestly a lot of fun. Most of the book was dedicated to Mags and Amily building up their spy network, which was pretty gratifying at times. The plot involving Menmellithians was semi-interesting and probably would have been more-so if the solution hadn't just been dropped into Mags and Amily's laps. More on that later. But yeah, overall, Closer to the Heart was fun.

I like the addition of Tuck and Linden to Mags' Haven group. Tuck was a nice way to get "traditional" spy gear into Mags and Amily's hands. It does sort of bring up my question about who's going to inherit this expanded Valdemaran CIA once Tuck, Mags, and Amily step down or die or whatever. I'm sure that'll be addressed in later books, but it is kind of lurking in the back of my mind. I'm sure this sort of thing is passed from King's Own to King's Own, but that's definitely complicated by the way things are usually passed down, what with the Herald in question having to die and all... and vague remembrances of Talia not having a network in The Heralds of Valdemar but, yeah... Anyway. We got a more expanded spy network through Lord Jorthun and Lady Dia as well, now taking on female spy recruits. I found this portion of the book quite fun.

The Attlebury section of the story seemed mostly to serve as a juxtaposition of Mags' time at Cole Pieter's mine vs a properly run mine. There was also that little bit of information they gleaned about "General Thallan," buried in there. That sort of thing also showed how much seemingly unrelated work spies have to do to actually get at the information they might need... and the Kirball match was fun. They usually are and this one served to get a bit of action into an otherwise mostly plodding plot.

That brings me to the final bit of the Closer to the Heart story in which Mercedes Lackey had Mags and Amily kidnapped again... and lamp-shades it. This seems to be a habit with the Mags books: story mostly goes along with no issues and then BAM wrap it up suddenly. This isn't exactly a bad thing, but it's getting really repetitive. Mags and Amily have things pretty easy this time around, especially due to their "traditional spy tools" all hidden in their clothing and the timely momentary return of Healer Coburn. This part also had me rolling my eyes at "General Thallan" through his whole monologue to Mags. I mean, really, the man went classic with the villain monologue and had clearly never actually given a thought to how mind-magic might fit into his plans involving the Heralds and Companions. Just... ugh.

But yeah, overall, I had fun with Closer to the Heart. Very glad that Mags and Amily are finally hitched, it was bleedingly obvious that was going to happen pretty early on in their relationship. Aaand yeah, next up's the conclusion to The Herald Spy series and I'm really hoping it's a good one.

Favorite Line

"...when you treat your workers well, they not only work well for you, but their children and children’s children will want to work for you." - Tiercel Rolmer