Flirt by Laurell K. Hamilton

2026 Reread Review

I really, really enjoyed Flirt. The fast pacing and short length made a lovely change from Skin Trade, which just seemed to go on and on. I think the laser focus on Anita and one thing going on, rather than having to deal with 12 characters at once plus politics really helped here. Anita got to be very much herself and focused on just getting herself out of the situation.

I was really happy to have Nicky introduced. He's such a staple of the later half of the series it actually felt kind of weird for him not to be around. He also seemed really young here. Nathaniel actually making the puppy/kitten reference about Nicky did not help with that impression. It feels weird but also right, if that makes sense. My reread brain is mixing "current" and future Nicky, I guess.

I actually quite like Jacob. I did not remember him at all, but I think he's solid. I am ambivalent about Ellen. Rather ambivalent about their employer... not overly surprised at which of the two choices it turned out to be, honestly. I feel like the second choice would have been too on-the-nose given their too-obvious-ness.

So yeah, Flirt was really good and reinvigorated my drive to get through this Anita Blake reread. Yay! 

Favorite Line

"They're people, not extra tires in case of emergency." - Anita Blake 

Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey

As I'm sure is just going to be a thing with this trilogy, due to when I purchased them, I will start my review by commenting on the cover. I have the latest batch with covers by Stephan Martinière. Dragonsinger features an iguana with wings. Pretty sure it's supposed to be a fire lizard, but it's honestly way too big and ugly. Thanks. I hate it.

So, largely, Dragonsinger is your bog-standard new-special-student-of-exclusive-school story. Menolly arrives at Harper Hall basically with nothing but loads of talent and her fire lizards and gets thrown into the thick of things immediately. She even encounters the annoyances of a bully and an apparently jealous adult. Piemur and Camo are her new bestest friends, which is good. I like both of them. Though I will note that Camo is definitely autistic and/or has Downs Syndrome, it is not clear. McCaffrey refers to him as a "lackwit" mostly. So, ya know, just be warned about that. Dragonsinger was written in the 1970s.

I found Menolly's first couple of days at Harper Hall to be interesting. It makes sense that she needed to be assessed, so being shuffled around to the different Masters made sense. What made somewhat less sense was that none of the adults in charge of Menolly decided to tell her where she needed to be after all that. Technically, Dunca was supposed to have relayed a message, but Silvina or Domick really should have, I dunno, hunted Menolly down to make sure she was where she was supposed to be. Made me think a little less of them, to be honest.

Speaking of Dunca... I hate her. I knew I was going to hate her from the moment Silvina opened those shutters. Dunca is clearly intimidated by Menolly and afraid of the fire lizards... among a myriad of other things, I'm sure. It's probably not a good idea to have her in charge of the fostered girls when she fosters such petty environment for them. I wish we could have "seen" Silvina's dressing down of her. I would have loved it.

I honestly felt as though I were being dragged through the story at such a quick pace. It does take place over a week and it was a whirlwind of Menolly, so I suppose that's fair. Menolly doesn't really have much time to rest, so the reader doesn't really get that either. That said, the characters are vibrant and the story is well-crafted within that whirlwind. The really important thing is Menolly finally receiving the explicit support she needs to thrive.

Dragon's Fire by Anne & Todd McCaffrey

Dragon's Fire is honestly the worst Pern book I've read so far. The antagonists are one-note, most of the characters aren't even likeable, and the story is honestly just boring. The main point, it seems, is to explain the differences in Firestone and how the safe stuff came to be mined as opposed to the more unstable version... and how they figured out the Shunned problem.

I kind of liked getting some "behind the scenes" stuff at Camp Natalon that synchs up with the events of Dragon's Kin. Knowing that Zist had some more going on than just Nuella's lessons. Honestly, Pellar's story toward the beginning of "Book One" was the most engaging part of the book.

I found the rest of the book very disjointed. Too many POVs and too many absolutely horrible characters. Horrible in their personalities, although they also didn't feel very rounded, either. I'm really not sure how D'gan ever became a dragonrider. I would have thought the dragons would be better judges of character, but I guess not. Tenim is one note as all get-out. He's just greedy and that's it. And Tarik... still a horrible human-being. Makes sense that he was Shunned. Oh, and Moran... he's really just super flawed and not fleshed out nearly at all. Like, kind of good for him, taking in strays, but he largely throws their care onto Hala so... eh. Just too much absolute nonsense, in my opinion.

I honestly feel like I could have skipped Dragon's Fire in my chronological reread and not missed anything.

Tortall: A Spy's Guide by Tamora Pierce

This book is gorgeous. The cover has raised portions and metallic portions and it just really pretty. The inside is quite well designed, as well. I like it when stuff like this has internal design instead of just boring white-on-black pages. There are illustrations every so often, they're also quite well done. I really appreciated being able to see what one of Blayce's "Killing Machines" (from Lady Knight ) looked like, because I wasn't able to properly visualize that before.

A Spy's Guide was mostly interesting. I'm not entirely sure the cook's diary was needed, but otherwise it was a fun look behind the scenes of the Tortall books. I especially liked Daine's notes on the Immortals and Thom's timeline. Speaking of timeline, A Spy's Guide covers bits and pieces between Song of the Lioness and Tricksters and even a tiny bit beyond that. The timeline at the very end of the book is really quite exhaustive.

Really a nice addition to the Tortall series. I liked it a lot.

Favorite Excerpt

The shukusen speaks plainly:

You amuse me, sir.

Please stay. Please go.

Bleed.    ~ Nealan of Queenscove

The Hills Have Spies by Mercedes Lackey

The Hills Have Spies was definitely a better start to a series than Closer to Home. I feel like I’ll enjoy Family Spies much more than Herald Spy just based on The Hills Have Spies alone. I feel like Perry is a much more interesting protagonist than Mags, though we do get more of him here. I was also pleasantly surprised that the antagonist wasn’t a last minute thing. He actually had menace.

Master Leandro is the dude Tuck was apparently retconned to be, at least as far as the artificing of Mags and Amily’s wedding clothes… and mixed with whatever Weaponsmaster worked with Mags. I find this change very odd, given the books were published in the order I’m reading them. Someone really should have caught this and fixed it.

I find it interesting that Mags had an issue with Larral “choosing” Perry. Kyree might not be Companions, but Dallen’s right: they’re pretty darn close as far as lasting friendship. Considering what ends up happening, I’m a little more understanding, because there’s no way a Companion would have either dragged or allowed his Chosen to drag them into the situation Perry and Larral get themselves into. I also feel liked Perry choosing to go off on his own is a consequence of how he was raised. Mags and Amily essentially raised their kids to be little spies and therefore more apt to be sure of their decisions to run off on their own to do spy things. I’m happy that’s acknowledged, too. Perry and Larral still should consulted with Mags about the whole thing… but they didn’t, so joy.

The inclusion of dyheli is nice. Previously, they’ve been mentioned but not actually appeared in any of the books. I do kind of question why they were created at all, being one of the species Urtho did create. They’re basically telepathic deer… and still pretty much act like deer so… yeah. I feel like even the “trampling our enemies” thing wouldn’t even be all that effective, except against something like the slytha. Overall, the dyheli aren’t incredibly interesting as a sentient species. I like Roya, though, he’s an amusing character. I almost always like the snarky ones and he’s definitely snarky.

I am both surprised and not that Mags is still having flashbacks to his time in the mine. He’s nothing if not predictable that way.

I’m not sure how I feel about this “Master” person. His description kind of left me with an image of a taller version of the “Dobby Doctor” from the end of Season 3 of Doctor Who. He’s also a cannibal, so that’s… gross. And he’s cruel, to boot. He was somewhat menacing, though mostly just because his powers were so strong and he was really paranoid.

Oh, now we’re at liberty to just discuss vrondi. Could barely discuss magic in the last eight books and now we’re making plans involving vrondi. Because apparently Vanyel made it next to impossible to discuss magic inside Valdemar… which I still think is colossally stupid. Most, if not all, of Valdemar’s neighbors use magic and mage potential is still around in Valdemar. I’m still super frustrated by this. Especially since apparently Mags has special Valdemar-Heartstone privileges… like what? Why? That makes zero sense.

So I think the ending was alright. Guardian honestly reminds me of the earth spirits from the Foundation series. The amount of raw magical ability on display was amazing. I feel like Perry’s pretty well set up for the rest of the series and I’m looking forward to it. Just hope we don’t go back to focusing on Haven-centric stuff. That was boring.