Oh, and for everyone else...
Oct. 5th, 2003 02:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conuly
I'm going to bed. But before I do, I thought I'd ramble a little. After all, I'm nearly asleep, what better time to go on a babbling spree than when you know you're not making any sense?
I read the new Tamora Pierce book, Trickster's Choice. VERY good. For those who don't know, Tamora Pierce, one of my favorite authors, has two distinct series going on, the Circle books and the Tortall books, split up into quartets. Very much fantasy, both of them, but set in different worlds.
Anyway, Trickster's is a Tortall book, the first of the new quartet, possibly her best one ever. The first quartet focused on Alanna, typical "girl pretends to be boy to be knight" thing, except better than that synopsis makes it sound. The next one was after the first ended, with Daine, who's got what's called wild magic, and was therefore a bit of an outcast before the books started, she's no knight or knight wannabe, though, just a mage. Then there's Kel, in the third quartet, she's the first OPENLY female page, with the typical problems you'd expect from that, except written so well that it doesn't SEEM typical. But this one, Alanna's daughter Aly, she's DIFFERENT. For one thing, it starts later in her life, she's 16, not 13 or so when the series starts (though she may be older when it ends than the others were, I don't know). And unlike all these driven kids (wants to be a knight, no matter what; is pissed that her mom was murdered and pissed also at being rejected by her entire village for her oddness; ALSO wants to be a knight no matter what) she's just FUN, it's all about having fun with her, nothing serious. And she didn't plan this adventure, she got kidnapped and sold as a slave while trying to avoid her mom for a bit. I just *like* her more than I liked the others, and I thought I liked them! But she's not so... determined, y'know? Anyway, I'm not gonna tell the plot, so shoo all those who want spoilers!
Also, the new Diane Duane, A Wizard's Vacation, that's damn good. Best out of the new books. Her Wizardry series, the first three were written 10 years before the more recent ones, but, rather disconcertingly, there's only a summer between the last of the first ones and the first of the new ones... but the cultural references all update by 10 years. That means the music, the computers, everything. *shudders* And they got WEIRD. They're still good (except the last one before this, I take exception to the idea in A Wizard Alone that people can just "become" nonautistic. *rolls her eyes* And that this HAS to be a good idea, of course! Besides, it was missing something, I don't know what, but it was....) This one was good. It was funny in the appropriate spots, serious when it needed to be, and nothing about it seemed lacking or strained, unlike some of the other ones recently. And our characters are a little more three dimensional than they had been. You didn't even know you were missing it until you see it like this. Amazing.
So, go read those books. If you haven't read Tamora Pierce, you *can* start with Trickster's Choice, it's certainly a fun one to start with, and each quartet can be read alone, you won't miss much, but you're still probably better off starting with Alanna: The First Adventure. Stupid name, but there it is.
And for Diane Duane, you DO have to read the whole thing from the beginning, unlike Tamora dear, so go read So You Want to be a Wizard. It's by far the best of ALL of them. But you can pretty much skip all the new ones until Vacation for all the use they were to me. Oh, and there's two about the cats of grand central out, same universe, different characters. These aren't in the kid's section, people, you have to actually go out into the scifi/fantasy books.
Read a silly murder mystery as well, one of Mommy's abandoned series that she doesn't bother with anymore. I can see why, it was SO off. Especially compared to those marvels up there. *sighs* Oh well. Night all!
I read the new Tamora Pierce book, Trickster's Choice. VERY good. For those who don't know, Tamora Pierce, one of my favorite authors, has two distinct series going on, the Circle books and the Tortall books, split up into quartets. Very much fantasy, both of them, but set in different worlds.
Anyway, Trickster's is a Tortall book, the first of the new quartet, possibly her best one ever. The first quartet focused on Alanna, typical "girl pretends to be boy to be knight" thing, except better than that synopsis makes it sound. The next one was after the first ended, with Daine, who's got what's called wild magic, and was therefore a bit of an outcast before the books started, she's no knight or knight wannabe, though, just a mage. Then there's Kel, in the third quartet, she's the first OPENLY female page, with the typical problems you'd expect from that, except written so well that it doesn't SEEM typical. But this one, Alanna's daughter Aly, she's DIFFERENT. For one thing, it starts later in her life, she's 16, not 13 or so when the series starts (though she may be older when it ends than the others were, I don't know). And unlike all these driven kids (wants to be a knight, no matter what; is pissed that her mom was murdered and pissed also at being rejected by her entire village for her oddness; ALSO wants to be a knight no matter what) she's just FUN, it's all about having fun with her, nothing serious. And she didn't plan this adventure, she got kidnapped and sold as a slave while trying to avoid her mom for a bit. I just *like* her more than I liked the others, and I thought I liked them! But she's not so... determined, y'know? Anyway, I'm not gonna tell the plot, so shoo all those who want spoilers!
Also, the new Diane Duane, A Wizard's Vacation, that's damn good. Best out of the new books. Her Wizardry series, the first three were written 10 years before the more recent ones, but, rather disconcertingly, there's only a summer between the last of the first ones and the first of the new ones... but the cultural references all update by 10 years. That means the music, the computers, everything. *shudders* And they got WEIRD. They're still good (except the last one before this, I take exception to the idea in A Wizard Alone that people can just "become" nonautistic. *rolls her eyes* And that this HAS to be a good idea, of course! Besides, it was missing something, I don't know what, but it was....) This one was good. It was funny in the appropriate spots, serious when it needed to be, and nothing about it seemed lacking or strained, unlike some of the other ones recently. And our characters are a little more three dimensional than they had been. You didn't even know you were missing it until you see it like this. Amazing.
So, go read those books. If you haven't read Tamora Pierce, you *can* start with Trickster's Choice, it's certainly a fun one to start with, and each quartet can be read alone, you won't miss much, but you're still probably better off starting with Alanna: The First Adventure. Stupid name, but there it is.
And for Diane Duane, you DO have to read the whole thing from the beginning, unlike Tamora dear, so go read So You Want to be a Wizard. It's by far the best of ALL of them. But you can pretty much skip all the new ones until Vacation for all the use they were to me. Oh, and there's two about the cats of grand central out, same universe, different characters. These aren't in the kid's section, people, you have to actually go out into the scifi/fantasy books.
Read a silly murder mystery as well, one of Mommy's abandoned series that she doesn't bother with anymore. I can see why, it was SO off. Especially compared to those marvels up there. *sighs* Oh well. Night all!
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no subject
Date: 2003-10-04 11:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-05 12:21 am (UTC)See it's supposedly set 17 years in the future of the pokemon world, but since the games are still being released, I end up just sort of adding in the new pokemon as the story progresses, despite the fact that they should have been there already. Did that make sense?
no subject
Date: 2003-10-05 11:46 am (UTC)It's very annoying in the books, though, you especially notice it when, in the last of the old ones, they get their first computer, and it's a primitive laptop, OH SO COOL! YOU CAN CARRY IT AROUND! and then in the first of the new ones it's one of the very new tiny macs, and nobody is at all surprised by the carrying it around bit. And you're just like, um, what happened to the last 10 years of computing?
no subject
Date: 2003-10-05 12:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-05 12:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-05 01:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-05 02:20 pm (UTC)I've always liked Duane's cat books myself. I got a bit bored with some of the later wizard books, the first one was definitely the best. I'm wary of buying her books new because I don't always like them. I'll probably stalk the librarians until they order it for me.
Hey Uly, can I add you to my friendslist? You're under no obligation to add me back, I can be terribly unhappy in my journal, but I do enjoy reading yours.
no subject
Date: 2003-10-05 02:31 pm (UTC)As for books... I don't buy 'em either, I lose them too easily. Instead, I read them at the bookstore. Though I'm going to get another library card soon, possibly under an assumed name (I owe long overdue books on my last card...) so I'll be able to take books out again.
no subject
Date: 2003-10-05 02:43 pm (UTC)I'm also a compulsive book buyer, though. Whenever I have money I must buy books. One of my bedrooms has bookshelves on every wall, and they're all full. I'm just very careful about what I buy as they are very expensive. Half of my books are gifts from friends. I have a friend who is an editor (
no subject
Date: 2003-10-05 02:46 pm (UTC)What's sad is that I've actually read a lot of them, certainly most of the fiction....
no subject
Date: 2003-10-04 11:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-05 12:21 am (UTC)See it's supposedly set 17 years in the future of the pokemon world, but since the games are still being released, I end up just sort of adding in the new pokemon as the story progresses, despite the fact that they should have been there already. Did that make sense?
no subject
Date: 2003-10-05 11:46 am (UTC)It's very annoying in the books, though, you especially notice it when, in the last of the old ones, they get their first computer, and it's a primitive laptop, OH SO COOL! YOU CAN CARRY IT AROUND! and then in the first of the new ones it's one of the very new tiny macs, and nobody is at all surprised by the carrying it around bit. And you're just like, um, what happened to the last 10 years of computing?
no subject
Date: 2003-10-05 12:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-05 12:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-05 01:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-05 02:20 pm (UTC)I've always liked Duane's cat books myself. I got a bit bored with some of the later wizard books, the first one was definitely the best. I'm wary of buying her books new because I don't always like them. I'll probably stalk the librarians until they order it for me.
Hey Uly, can I add you to my friendslist? You're under no obligation to add me back, I can be terribly unhappy in my journal, but I do enjoy reading yours.
no subject
Date: 2003-10-05 02:31 pm (UTC)As for books... I don't buy 'em either, I lose them too easily. Instead, I read them at the bookstore. Though I'm going to get another library card soon, possibly under an assumed name (I owe long overdue books on my last card...) so I'll be able to take books out again.
no subject
Date: 2003-10-05 02:43 pm (UTC)I'm also a compulsive book buyer, though. Whenever I have money I must buy books. One of my bedrooms has bookshelves on every wall, and they're all full. I'm just very careful about what I buy as they are very expensive. Half of my books are gifts from friends. I have a friend who is an editor (
no subject
Date: 2003-10-05 02:46 pm (UTC)What's sad is that I've actually read a lot of them, certainly most of the fiction....