Remembering Lady Knight by Tamora Pierce

 Possible spoilers for Lady Knight by Tamora Pierce. Sorry, not sorry.

I feel a little compelled to write this before I start rereading Lady Knight partially because I've read my current review (which will be posted with the new one later) and because I think I'm actually remembering a bit. My current review of Lady Knight is short and basically says that I remember nothing about it. This was in 2020.

So, basically what I'm remembering is about Maggur's metal devices. In Squire, Kel manages to bash one "to death." I'm fairly certain they're somehow powered by the souls of children. I'm also fairly certain this is made clear during Kel's Ordeal by The Chamber's vision.

I also think I remember something about a battle along a shoreline involving Peachblossom and/or Hoshi. I confess I could be mixing that up with something Alanna did in Song of the Lioness, but I really don't know. Well... I do, because what I'm remembering didn't happen in Song of the Lioness so... yeah. Still feels a bit like a misremembered something or other.

Ah, yes, Cleon and Kel break up. Pretty sure that's something that happens. I do not remember whether or not they end up sleeping together before that, but they definitely break up. Cleon's got that whole arranged marriage thing and Kel's nowhere near the mindset to get married and have kids and all that.

I know this isn't much and I'm definitely not remembering as much as I did in my other Remembrances, but I had to get it out of my system before I started rereading Lady Knight again.

In Other News

In finished another OviPets project! Cyberdramon, based on the Digimon of the same name. Cyberdramon took me approximately 8 months to complete.

Remembering Magic's Promise by Mercedes Lackey

Okay, so I actually started writing this post on my phone a few days ago, right before I started reading Magic's Promise. I have basically come to the conclusion that I remember next to nothing about this book... and I've read it twice. That said, I do want to share what I do remember, so here we go.

Magic's Promise was my introduction to The Heralds of Valdemar. So weird, I know. It's the second book in The Last Herald Mage trilogy and the (at the time) fifth book in the chronological run... but yeah, it was weird. I remember the cover super vividly from when I pulled it off my dad's shelf, a magical shelf of nonsense, that shelf.

See, my dad is a sci-fi fantasy nerd and I largely get my love of the fantasy genre from him. However, my dad's bookshelf left much to be desired if you were looking for a series to start. I don't remember many full series runs or even starts to series on that shelf. I know he had Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the first Anita Blake omnibus, but most of that bookshelf was random pick-and-mix. Magic's Promise was part of that and I think I largely picked it up because of the horse *cough*Companion*cough* on the front cover.

Looking back on Magic's Promise now, what I remember about the plot is... nonexistent. I remember little bits. Like Jervis wanting to learn Van's fighting style through sparing bouts and that there's a mystery involving Van interviewing some old woman with a brooch... I think. Also, I think Stefan is introduced somewhere in this book, but I can't be sure. I swear, I've read Magic's Promise twice! Once in my pre-teens/teens and once in college. None of it stuck, though!

Anyway, I guess I just wanted to reminisce about my dad's old bookshelf for a hot second. He sadly lost a good chunk of those books to mold... which is another story altogether.

On a slightly separate note: I'm a little over halfway through Magic's Promise at this point and Van remembered that you have to keep the evidence from being disturbed while investigating and so set up this mage-shield thing to keep his evidence from being disturbed. However, he's now spending DAYS away from his crime-scene. Like, Van, sir, I understand you needed to leave quickly and your magic reserves are dead and you were passed out for three days, but your evidence is now literally rotting while you deal with your personal shit! No one ever said Van was good at investigating, but this is breaking my SOD a little.

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.

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.