The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf

Divided Allegiance and Oath of Gold (The Deed of Paksennarion 2 and 3) Elizabeth Moon, 1988, 1989 Premise: Sequels to Sheepfarmer's Daughter . The continuing adventures of mercenary Paks as she decides what kind of warrior she wants to be. Content warnings for torture and more, explained below. I had such mixed feelings about these books. I liked them, sort of? Despite the clunky way the story seemed to wander and skip important bits. Except then you have the climax and point of the third book, which.... nope.  I liked book two, on the whole. The mercenary company Paks is part of begins to be involved with some less-than-savory work, so she breaks off on her own. She has two separate adventures, which both point gently toward her being a destined hero, but from her perspective she's just trying to do right by her family and the communities she passes through. Finally, she ends up enrolling in paladin training and the second half of the book turns into "adventures at pal...

Sisters of the Vast Black Lina Rather, 2019 Premise: A novella about nuns in space. It's really good. I can't remember how this got onto my to-read list, but I'm glad it did. Somewhat in the tradition of many of the early Hugo winners, this novella explores the role of religion in an imagined space-faring future. And, of course, it also mirrors the problems of today. The women who live on the spaceship Our Lady of Impossible Constellations are Roman Catholic nuns, not members of some imaginary future religion. And like nuns throughout history, they don't always agree with the Catholic Church's stance, and don't always obey orders.  Just a few examples with a few minute's Google: The Nuns Who Defied Vatican’s Order to Be Silent: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-aug-05-mn-30832-story.html Vatican crackdown on U.S. nuns a long time brewing: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-vatican-nuns/vatican-crackdown-on-u-s-nuns-a-long-time-brewing-idUSBRE8...

Sisters of the Raven Barbara Hambly, 2002 Premise: The rains have never been this late before. Men's magic is inexplicably fading, but will the women discovering their own powers be allowed to take their place? (FYI: This is part of my current project to read all the books I bought cheap years ago and judge them mercilessly so as to free up bookshelf space.) This book is sort of weird to read now. It's not a bad fantasy yarn with a somewhat Arabian-Nights flavor - djinns and deserts and harems and a very sexist society. The women don't even have real names; it's a whole thing. Take from that what you will. The plot follows a group of women who are some of the first to discover that they have magic, just as the men who have always had magic are losing theirs. It's got a tense and scary plot, often brutally violent, with some surreal and weird turns.  Hambly's penchant for moderate, realistic characters means that this doesn't turn into a rousing girl-power f...

Thirst: 2600 Miles to Home Heather "Anish" Anderson, 2019 Premise: A memoir about losing and finding yourself on the trail. I think parts of this book will be with me for a while. A popular suggestion on lists of "books like Wild" or "memoirs about hiking" or "memoirs from outdoorswomen" (all lists that pique my interest), Thirst follows Heather Anderson (trail name Anish) on her attempt to set a record for hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in the fastest known time.  The story of that hike is beautifully interwoven with scenes from her life that lead up to it and reflections on her experience. At times Anish seems impossibly strong, at others foolish. Average people don't feel driven to run ultramarathons and walk for days on end. Her account feels honest, searching, vital.  She mentions a few times that she was chronicling her journey online in real time at the time, and sometimes I wished for a few more of those in-the-moment snippets. The n...

A Restless Truth (The Last Binding, Book 2) Freya Marske, 2022 Premise: Sequel to A Marvellous Light. Maud is sailing back home to Britain, escorting an elderly relation and her parrot across the ocean. Only she's not really a relation, and she's hoping Mrs. Navenby will help her brother and the small group allied with him to foil those who would find the pieces of the Last Contract and use them to steal power from all of Britain's magicians. Unfortunately, murderers and thieves are also on board the ship, and Maud's only hope of help might be a beautiful stranger. First off, I adored the first book in this series. This one I liked quite a bit, but didn't quite love. Were there more sex scenes in this one? It felt like it. They weren't bad scenes, but I like my adventure romances to be generally weighted slightly more toward the adventure. That's not to say I didn't enjoy Maud and Violet's whirlwind relationship. They are both complex characters with...

City of Bones Martha Wells, 1995 Premise: Khat is just trying to make a living in a city where he is unwelcome when powerful people decide they need his skills judging and discovering ancient relics. Unlike the pricey fragments Khat and his partner usually deal in, could these relics actually hold real power? This is the first book this year in a project called: "Read the unread books that are actually on my physical bookshelf because they were cheap at some point." I haven't bought physical books regularly in years, but I bought a bunch when we first moved to this coast. I recently decided I want to invest in hard copies of things I really love... and I also want to clean any random detritus off the shelves to make room. So, I need to read the books I've never read. I actually started this last year, but I got almost 1/3 of the way through The Prince of Nothing and decided I hated it, so that book went straight in the donate/recycle box. This book will likely end up...

Tooth and Claw Jo Walton, 2003 Premise: A dramedy of manners. But make it dragons. For both good and ill, this book is precisely what it says on the tin. It's an old-fashioned story of inheritance, marriage arrangements, minor gentry and the fates of their children, and a society where things are changing. Only all the people are dragons.  The fact that they are dragons both does and doesn't affect the plot. There might be other reasons that a person wouldn't feel that they could challenge their rich brother-in-law, it doesn't have to be that he might be big enough to eat you if provoked. But in this world it is.  The dark sides of the characters' draconic nature are there to highlight the classism and sexism of old stories in this style. Aristocratic landowners literally have the right to eat sick children, and eating other dragons literally increases their strength and power. How the rich get richer, so to speak.  Meanwhile, female dragons can be forced into a sta...