The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

I feel like The Girl Who Ate the Moon is what happens when someone tries to novelize a Ghibli movie. In fact, I can see the Miyazaki animations in my head for each of the characters. Might be a good adaptation one day.

Through most of the book, I wondered why Xan hadn’t ever decided to go talk to the people of The Protectorate and find out why they kept leaving babies every year. That question is sort of answered, but not satisfactorily enough for me liking, really. Just one of those things, I guess.

The story was a fairly slow build to a fairly meandering conclusion. Not bad, not the best. I was definitely pulled into the world and really it was just that one question niggling the back of my head.

I don’t really have much else to say about The Girl Who Ate the Moon. It wasn’t very thought-provoking. A more whimsical read than what I’ve been reading lately.

Imaginary Numbers by Seanan McGuire

I don’t know if this is just my mood right now, but I’m really not sure how to feel about Imaginary Numbers. Like, I appreciate the cuckoo/Johrlac lore dumps we got because, ya know, world-building is fun. I liked most of the Price family being around, even if they were “off screen” for most of the book. And I still really like Sarah and I’m glad she’s more-or-less back to herself. However, I was actually really surprised when I opened my book and saw “Epilogue” at the top of the page. That might partially be because of the novella that’s tacked onto the end, but the end also didn’t really feel like an end. It felt like Sarah was continuing to ramp up to get to her end goal. Much shrugging.

The Aeslin Mice are forever bringing tears to my eyes. Sarah’s getting her own branch of faith! It’s so sweet.

I would cheer for Sarah and Artie finally getting together, but I also don’t really care enough. Probably because it feels very Fitz-Simmons. The pair of nerds are getting together. Joy and happiness for everyone. Except I’m also not as into Sarah/Artie as I was into Fitz-Simmons so… much shrugging.

I loved getting more Annie and Sam. I love Annie so much. James is still mostly a non-entity, though I did like how he was used by Heloise, like tactically. Artie was, I dunno, pretty much how I pictured him being. Non-combatant but a smart non-combatant.

But yeah… still not sure exactly how I feel about this one. On to the novella, I guess.

Follow the Lady

I guess it was a nice little update on what happened between where That Ain’t Witchcraft left off and Annie back in roller derby in this one. Glad Alice got her info about Thomas and the Crossroads. And it would have been nice to get a Huldra entry in the field-guide because boy am I confused and intrigued. A good chunk of this novella was recapping Annie's adventures and Alice's history, all stuff I would hope we'd know by this point in the series.

Favorite Lines

"There's no such thing as doing absolutely no harm. Human, cuckoo, it doesn't matter. Everybody hurts and is hurt, in a grand cycle of being alive. But minimizing the damage... that matters." - Sarah Zellaby

"People in airports are allowed to be weird. They're liminal spaces. They don't count the way the real world does." - Sarah Zellaby

"Most of them are telekinetic and have gravity-defying boobs," said Antimony as she rattled around behind me. "My boobs aren't gravity-defying. My boobs are very, very aware of gravity, and they don't like it. They want to be protected from it whenever possible, especially if I'm about to go up against a cuckoo. Why was the door unlocked?" - Antimony Price

"We've never been chill," she continued, still filing. "Chill doesn't save anybody. We like saving people. The ones who can be saved, anyway. Some of them were always beyond salvation." She blew on her nails. "Those ones, we bury in the woods." - Elsinore Harrington

The Herald Spy Series Overview

The Herald Spy by Mercedes Lackey

 

This Post Will Contain Spoilers For The Herald Spy, Collegium Chronicles, and Any Valdemar Series Previous to These on the Timeline. You Have Been Warned.

Alrighty, The Herald Spy as a series. It's been a few days since I actually finished Closer to the Chest and I have to say, this series has not left a lasting impression on my brain. The Herald Spy picks up right where Collegium Chronicles left off, and I mean right where it left off. Mags has finished his year of Circuit, or however long his Circuit lasted anyway, and is on the road back to Haven. Lena and Bear have been rather unceremoniously dropped off at some Baron's household where Lena is the official Bard in Residence or whatever. We're left to follow Mags and Amily through the rest of the series.

The first really big thing that happens is Nikolas' death and Amily's ascendance to King's Own. This was only slightly shocking to me as I have spent a little amount of time perusing the Valdemar Wiki and found Amily's name on the list of Heralds beside Rolan's name and designation as King's Own. I was actually more shocked by how fast I perceived Rolan as giving up on Nikolas, especially as Emery (Nikolas' new Companion) was right there in the moment to save his life. Of course this sends my brain spiraling down the rabbit hole of potential futures where Valdemar ends up with equivalents to our life-saving technology and having Heralds end up dying for longer than Nikolas did only to end up surviving thanks to an equivalent of a defibrillator... but that's really neither here nor there, just where by mind went during this exchange of Companions.

So anyway, Amily's now King's Own and develops a semi-useful Mind-Gift of looking through the eyes of animals. Amily and Mags start building up their own network of spies throughout Haven, including such notables as Lady Dia, Lord Jorthun, Mindy, Mag's little band of kiddos, Flora, etc. Meantime, there's a Romeo and Juliet plot happening under their noses that's honestly mostly boring and exposes the societal flaw of Valdemar of High Born women mostly being marriage fodder despite there being other avenues for them to pursue if they so chose... I don't know, I was sick of it pretty quickly. Never been a fan of reading through that part of our history and having it shoved in my face all the while having Amily going "oh, it really sucks for them and I wish they had more opportunities outside of that" without actually doing much aside from handing Violetta some books... just much blah.

Honestly, a lot of The Herald Spy was just blah. There's a lot of Mags running around through Haven during which we get descriptors of Haven, over and over, really. I'm pretty cure I skimmed most of it, to be honest. Haven's just not that interesting of a city and there's not a lot that actually goes on there.

Closer to the Heart sees Mags and Amily finally married, eloped before the state wedding that takes the entire book to plan... which they have very little involvement in. Honestly, very relatable. My boyfriend and I often discuss how that's essentially how we'd like to be married if we choose to get married some day. Someone else can plan the party and we'll attend. Amily and Mags do this for slightly more practical reasons: they always seem to be getting into trouble that would keep pushing their wedding further and further down the line... which this plot does a little. Closer to the Heart actually sees Mags doing some spying that actually matters in terms of keeping Valdemar out of war.

Getting out of Haven was nice, however, we got another deep-dive into Mags' personal trauma: His time at the mine. The mines he visits are so vastly different from the mine he grew up in, it triggers his resentment toward Cole Pieters. Again, as it was revisited in every single Collegium Chronicles book, it really feels stale here. Not out of place, just stale. But the teensy bit of information Mags uncovers here kind of blows the lid off the whole plot, which ends up saving Valdemar from war.

Here's also where we get the understanding that no one outside Haven really understands how Valdemar and Companions and things actually work. General Thallan in Closer to the Heart just straight up doesn't think about the Mind-Magic among Heralds in his plan to take over Valdemar. The priests of the disgusting Church of Sethor think they can just murder Amily to replace her with Nikolas as King's Own... I mean, they probably would have been happy with another man being Chosen, but they also don't know how all that works, obviously. Every time this stuff was revealed, I just rolled my eyes. No one with eyes on the Valdemar throne really does their research into how Heralds and Companions actually work. General Thallan came really close, honestly, but, again, Mind-Magic is a thing he apparently knows about enough to drug Mags and Amily but not something he thinks about in terms of a coup. Also, just knowing there are more Valdemar books after this had the stakes fairly low in my head, so there's that.

Closer to the Heart is also where Mags picks up a artisan Tuck and -- essentially his translator -- Linden as part of his spy network. Tuck makes all the useful "gadgets" Mags and Amily eventually use to escape from General Thallan. Linden and Tuck were fun additions to the cast and I honestly wish there'd been more of them through the series. But no, we only get them in Closer to the Heart.

Aaaand finally we come to Closer to the Chest... it was boring. Skip it. Save yourself the annoyance and eye-rolling at all the woman-hating and apparent impotence of the Valdemaran government. It honestly annoys me at how long it took Mags to get properly into the Church of Sethor in order for the end to happen. The ending, by the way, I more or less saw coming from the moment the head priest snubbed Amily during his introduction. It was so bloody obvious who was ultimately involved... just... ugh. "There is no one true way" really needs that amendment "Except these particular things that are part of no-one's way." I ranted a bit about this in my review of Closer to the Chest, so you can go read that if you'd like to read more of my annoyance.

I honestly didn't have as much fun reading The Herald Spy as I did Collegium Chronicles. The Herald Spy just isn't as engaging of a trilogy and ended up leaving me with a sour taste in my mouth.

Closer to the Chest by Mercedes Lackey

Honestly, Closer to the Chest is boring. There’s lots of rehashing the plots of Collegium Chronicles and the last two Herald Spy books. Kind of to be expected in a series, but still boring. And the plot of the woman-hating bad guy who’s writing letters is boring. I am heartily against woman-hating nonsense, being a woman myself, but that doesn’t make this plot any less boring. It’s just a lot of “oh look, we’ve discovered this plot thing but can’t actually do anything whatsoever about it until a few chapters from the end of the book and then everyone throws themselves on the fire.” Much yawn. Almost ended up in my DNF pile.

I appreciate Valdemar’s “There is no one true way” mantra, but I think allowing a religion that denigrates a portion of the population — especially if it’s a large portion of the population — to flourish is a bad idea. I really think there needs to be an amendment like “but this is definitely NOT part of anyone’s way.” I’m only about halfway through the book at this point and I have zero doubt that whoever this is, is a member of the Order of Sethor. Bloody obvious.

I’m also not sure why no one thinks to go question them at all. Like, Jorthun or someone said most religions don’t like zealots and the Order might know who would be most likely to be the perpetrator. So why not question them? Oh, because the priest is just a condescending ass about women, that’s why. Unlikely to get an actual answer out of him, apparently. Gross. By the time Mags actually goes fully undercover with them, it’s entirely too late for any of that to be at all interesting.

It is no surprise to me that Lackey decides we must get Sethor’s friggin origin story on top of all the in-world grossness. It’s, no surprise at this point in the story, a thinly veiled Christian allegory. Very thin veil on this one. And of course there’s a female Satan-equivalent. Of course there is. Just… why? Why are we subjected to this nonsense? I get that it’s probably supposed to humanize the villains of the piece but they’re all religious zealots who really don’t deserve humanization in my opinion. Just… ugh.

On a completely separate note: It is still really odd that magic is so suppressed in Valdemar. I understand what Vanyel did with the web and the vrondi would suppress magic users, but why keep people from talking about it at all? That just seems stupid.

Closer the the Chest is honestly utterly skip-able. Like really, if you’ve decided to be me and read through the Valdemar novels in chronological order, or really, at all, just skip this one. It’s boring and ultimately does little, if anything, to advance any overall plot.

That Ain't Witchcraft by Seanan McGuire

That Ain’t Witchcraft is one of the more intense books I’ve read in a while. It’s not intense all the way through, mind you, mostly it’s just fun. The intensity really came in at the end, but I definitely won’t spoil that. I had tons of nerdy fun with this one.

I am absolutely in love with Antimony’s found family. Fern is still my favorite. I love her so much. She does spend an awful lot of time in this book hiding in her room, though. Which, like, fair. I feel like the way Sylphs seem to form really intense platonic relationships should make its way into the Incryptid Field Guide.

Considering how absolutely perfect the house they’re renting is, it must have taken a MASSIVE amount of luck to actually find it just given the amount of bad that’s followed. First Crossroads, then Covenant. Clearly Cylia doesn’t think it was that much, but I beg to differ.

I hate Leo so, so much. He deserves to be taken down all the pegs. Painfully. One by one. I’ve enjoyed every single moment of Annie threatening Leo within an inch of his life. It’s awesome. And Sam’s “introduction” ooooohhhh that was the best. Chef’s kiss. Anyway, Leo’s the worst and continues to be the worst and I hate him.

Oh look, the Crossroads did that impatient villain thing. How quaint. Seriously, although Annie isn’t exactly following the Crossroads instructions, she is actually doing what it wants and it’s getting picky. If it just wanted James dead, why tell Annie to get the information? And now it’s changing its mind about what it wants. Like dude, getting information takes time. Be patient. If you “don’t want you to know how to hurt us” then why tell Annie to get the information? Just… much ugh about that.

I am very interested in why the Crossroads hates sorcerers so much and what it was exactly that made the Crossroads “go bad. Why would the Crossroads take a deal that contravened an earlier deal? James was never going to be able to leave town apparently, so why take that deal with Sally? Also, doesn’t killing James before he has kids kind of… void the deal the Crossroads made with his ancestor? Also, what actually happens if the Crossroads voids its own deals? Like, the Crossroads doesn’t have some sort of cosmic oversight, so what would actually happen? Apparently nothing unless it’s contested, which seems like a big ol’ cheat. Some of this is answered but a lot of it isn’t and I want more.

I’m finding it very endearing that Sam’s reactions to things are often violent. Or at least violent thoughts.

Annie might not have the Aeslin with her, but she had them with her and you better believe that has me in tears. Truly, the whole ending was super intense. Intense enough that I had to take a break rather than continue to read the included novella. Good intense, but intense.
 

The Measure of a Monster

Megan from Tricks for Free makes an unexpected return in a position that’s actually kind of close to Alex so, like, the fangirling in Tricks for Free is interesting. All she had to do was go home and spend a day at work with Dee and tada! Meet Alex. Anyway, that’s not really the point of the novella. Alex and Shelby and Sarah (yay, she’s kinda mostly back to herself) take on some poachers. I really, really hate poachers in general and think even less of the ones who decide to go after sapient creatures. They deserved what they got. Aaand we got an answer to the Shelby or Verity question that got posed in the main novel (basically by Mary), so that’s nice.

Favorite Lines

"I solemnly swear that if I'm about to be murdered by bigoted zealots, I'll stop worrying about property damage and makr as much of a mess as possible, so you'll know what you're walking into. Okay?" - Sam Taylor

"We can get hurt anywhere. It's better to get hurt doing something you love, or helping someone you love, than to get hurt because the world isn't fair." - Fern Conway

"Some skills are essential, no matter what your future holds. Never assume that knowledge is useless." - Jane Harrington-Price

Tricks for Free by Seanan McGuire

Tricks for Free was pretty fun. Antimony was less annoying as she wasn't constantly referring to Verity and how much she hates Verity and actually settled into being her own person, even if that person was Melody West. I feel like Melody definitely has more Antimony inherent in her than Antimony really wants to think. That sounds a little confusing, but the differences in her aliases is something Antimony thinks about at some point so... yeah. Antimony also manages to gather her own little found family while facing down a villainous cabal of magic users. It was a lot of fun.

I pretty much pegged the cabal as bad from the beginning. Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series had several sorcerer run Cabals so this group of magic users pinged my "bad guy" radar pretty hard. That said, it was nice to learn all about the different types of magic users. Routewitches were mentioned and encountered in previous books, but I didn't really get a good grasp on what they could do until Tricks for Free. I liked the addition of ambulomancers and trainspotters as well as the more traditional sorcerers and witches. I do feel like having such specific forms of magic is limiting to the users, but since I guess they can't really help what they get, so much shrugging.

I also enjoyed hurting my brain trying to parse all the stuff about luck we got from Cylia the jink. Pretty cool, if sometimes brain-breaking. I was relatively happy with the implicit "read the terms and conditions" thing. It's a semi-fun conceit that I hope doesn't get overused. I was also intrigued by the crossroads stuff we got. Couldn't help but imagine the crossroads creature as having Mark Shepherd's voice, because, ya know, Supernatural and Crossroads Demons. Not quite the same thing here, but it's kind of fun to imagine some kind of crossover where Sam and Dean had Mary hanging off their shoulders brokering deals with Crowley. Antimony's magic issues were less interesting to me, really. I still have very little clue as to what a sorcerer can actually do, aside from deal in pyromancy and power-theft, so... yeah. Much blah.

I mentioned Antimony's found family in my opening paragraph and they were honestly the highlight of the book. I clocked Fern showing up at Lowryland as hinky to begin with. That was just too convenient to be random coincidence... and proved not to be. Thanks Cylia, who I love, but not as much as I love Fern. Fern had me tearing up in places just because she's so sincere about how much she loves Antimony as a friend. Also, Fern and Sam's rapport was hilarious. Megan was a nice addition to the crew and I'm a little sad she's not going on the epic road trip they're going to have, but we can't keep everyone around all the time. Besides, Antimony has enough snark to make up for the loss of Megan's particular brand. Sam has grown on me, though he still seems mostly flat as a character. There to fill Antimony's need for a partner.

Overall, I was very pleased with Tricks for Free. Despite Antimony needing to be undercover, she felt a lot more herself than in Magic for Nothing. I've definitely grown to like her more as a character.

THE RECITATION OF THE MOST HOLY AND HARROWING PILGRIMAGE OF MINDY AND ALSO MORK was included in my copy of Tricks for Free, so this'll be a short review of that as well. The Mindy and Mork parts were pretty cute. I'm glad we got something from an Aeslin POV. The Sam bits... well, they were alright. I didn't really have any questions about what he was doing or how he dealt with his grandmother while waiting for news from Mary about Antimony so Sam's bits just kinda felt tacked on, to be honest. It does vaguely figure that Emery would have at least attempted a crossroads deal at some point, but it also has no real bearing on the overall plot that I can tell so... yep. That was a thing. It was overall a pretty cute novella.

Favorite Lines

"There are people who say you never really escape from high school, you just keep finding it in different forms, over and over again, until it finally kills you. Those people are assholes, and should not be allowed in polite company." - Antimony Price

"There are days when I want to punch absolutely everyone around me, and keep punching until they're no longer capable of fighting back. I'm told those desires are antisocial. Sometimes, I really don't care." - Antimony Price

"Megan made a clucking noise with her tongue. 'Whoever he is, marry him and keep us in the style to which we'd like to become accustomed.'

     'He works in Public Relations.'

     'Whoever he is, murder him and make it look like an accident, but make sure you get away with his wallet.' Megan ammended.

     'Thanks for the vote of murder-confidence,' I said.

     She flashed me a bright, toothy smile. 'I always have faith in you when it comes to murder.'" - Antimony and Megan

"Your family, your real family, will always welcome you home with open arms. Anyone who says you can lose their love isn't really family, no matter what blood says." - Evelyn Baker.

"All the safeguards in the world won't stop something that really wants to break." - Antimony Price

"It's easier to fight a person than an accident." - Antimony Price

"Murder is always on the table for later." - Antimony Price

"Love is love. If anybody tries to tell you your love's not worth having, shoot them in the kneecaps a couple of times. It won't change their minds, but it'll make you feel better." - Frances Brown

"People are why we can't have nice things." - Sam Taylor

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