Have I told you guys lately how much I adore Hilari Bell?

[conuly]

This is one seriously underrated author. Blows JKR completely out of the water (like that's hard) with the depth of her world-planning - and with the way she writes it. She (mostly) doesn't fall into the trap of explaining things the characters find everyday and commonplace... "And so LongName went to the privy. While they had only heard stories about the mysterious "flush toilets" outsiders used, it was still a sophisticated tool, she thought. The waste went into a river via...."

*sighs happily*

There are some things which I find hard to swallow. Not one, but two characters in a book, adult characters, learning entirely new languages in under a year? Only a few months, even? I'm not sure I buy that - though they did have pressing reasons to learn a new language, both of them, so maybe I'm judging too harshly.

You know who else is underrated? H. M. Hoover. Anybody getting me one of her out-of-print books will be greatly lauded.