Imager's Challenge by L. E. Modesitt

Synopsis: Imager’s Challenge takes up immediately after the conclusion of Imager. Still recovering from injuries received in foiling the plots of the Ferran envoy, Rhenn is preparing to take up his new duties as imager liaison to the Civic Patrol of L’Excelsis. No sooner has he assumed his new position than he discovers two things. First, the Commander of the Civic Patrol doesn’t want a liaison from the infamous Collegium, and soon has Rhenn patrolling the streets of the worst district in the city. Second, Rhenn receives formal notice that one of the High Holders, the father of a man Rhenn partly blinded in self-defense, has declared his intention to destroy Rhenn and his family.


Rhenn’s only allies are the family of the girl he loves, successful merchants with underworld connections. In the end, Rhenn must literally stand off against gang lords, naval marines, Tiempran terrorist priests, the most powerful High Holder in all of Solidar, and his own Collegium—and find a way to prevail without making further enemies and endangering those he loves.

Warning: Spoilers

Imager’s Challenge is the second book in this series. It doesn’t move as quickly as many other fantasy novels, but I don’t mind. I have read almost all of Modesitt’s Recluce stories so much of the progression wasn’t a surprise. But for all that, I liked it very much.

I expected Rhenn to kill his enemies. Mind, I didn’t expect him to kill the High Holder by destroying the building he was standing on. I thought he wouldn’t be quite that drastic because that kind of thing could get other Holders and/or their children killed and that would have put in the middle of aa feud (maybe even multiple feuds!) yet again. It didn’t; the imagers somehow managed to work that to their advantage – after telling Rhenn repeatedly he must do nothing that led directly back to the imagers! But I wasn’t surprised when he did and I knew High Holder’s daughter would inherit the holding. I knew that was going to happen since they danced.

What I like best about this series is the magic system. It is unusual. Being able to imagine things into being, well, it just sounds so good. It works, too, because there are limits on what can be imagined and how. Nothing comes from nothing, after all, and everything has a cost, even if it is just in energy.

What I disliked about Imager’s Challenge is that Rhenn spends a lot of time complaining. Complaining that the imagers won’t help him and aren’t interested in what he knows if he has no proof, proof he has no way of getting. I get it and and I get that its not fair. But it got old half way through the book.

Book: B-

Divine Misdemeanors by Laurell K. Hamilton

Book Description: You may know me best as Meredith Nic Essus, princess of faerie. Or perhaps as Merry Gentry, Los Angeles private eye. In the fey and mortal realms alike, my life is the stuff of royal intrigue and celebrity drama. Among my own, I have confronted horrendous enemies, endured my noble kin’s treachery and malevolence, and honored my duty to conceive a royal heir—all for the right to claim the throne. But I turned my back on court and crown, choosing exile in the human world—and in the arms of my beloved Frost and Darkness.


While I may have rejected the monarchy, I cannot abandon my people. Someone is killing the fey, which has left the LAPD baffled and my guardsmen and me deeply disturbed. My kind are not easily captured or killed. At least not by mortals. I must get to the bottom of these horrendous murders, even if that means going up against Gilda, the Fairy Godmother, my rival for fey loyalties in Los Angeles.

But even stranger things are happening. Mortals I once healed with magic are suddenly performing miracles, a shocking phenomenon wreaking havoc on human/faerie relations. Though I am innocent, dark suspicions of banned magical activities swirl around me.


I thought I’d left the blood and politics behind in my own turbulent realm. I had dreamed of an idyllic life in sunny L.A. with my beloved ones beside me. But it becomes time to wake up and realize that evil knows no borders, and that nobody lives forever—even if they’re magical.

Warning: Spoilers

Divine Misdemeanors opens with a murder scene, but this book isn’t about the murders. Not really. I am not sure what it is about. There is plenty of stuff about her relationships, lots of sex, a few power plays and a few hints that not all is well in her aunt’s court.

That is not to say I didn’t like this book, I did, I liked the relationship aspect and there were a few things I wasn’t expecting. One of those things was that Barinthus is possibly gay or bi and in love Merry’s father. He didn’t deny it. I was stunned because I wasn’t expecting that. It explains why he won’t go to bed with her. The other reason would be he doesn’t want to sleep with his friend’s daughter. Both are good reasons. This particular facet of Barinthus wasn’t important to the story; what was important was his disapproval of her rejecting the faeiry crown to save Frost.

I am not really sure what part of Divine Misdemeanors I liked best. There are lots of really great scenes. I think it may be the sex scene with Rhys by the sea. But he is my favorite of the men and one who isn’t on stage enough. He gets a sithen of his very own in that. We didn’t see it and I wanted to.

This book has one glaring weakness and that’s the mystery. It is not much of one, and despite being a private detective, Merry doesn’t do any investigating. She goes to murder scenes, gives her opinion, gets trapped by reporters and that’s it. Okay, so with reporters following her around like rabid dogs she couldn’t do much anyway. But the murderer falls into her lap. She doesn’t have to do anything to find out who he is. Then there was the finale – capturing the killer. That part was good, but I am still stuck on how she didn’t have to do anything to find out who he was. It started with a murder scene and ended with the killer, but there was very little of the mystery in between. There were all her guards and her relationships with them, but after the first chapter I was expecting a bit more in the way of mystery. This would have been perfect with it. Longer, too, but I wouldn’t have minded that.

Grade: B-

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

Synopsis: St. Vladimir’s Academy isn’t just any boarding school—it’s a hidden place where vampires are educated in the ways of magic and half-human teens train to protect them. Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, a bodyguard for her best friend Lissa, a Moroi Vampire Princess. They’ve been on the run, but now they’re being dragged back to St. Vladimir’s—the very place where they’re most in danger. . .

Rose and Lissa become enmeshed in forbidden romance, the Academy’s ruthless social scene, and unspeakable nighttime rituals. But they must be careful lest the Strigoi—the world’s fiercest and most dangerous vampires—make Lissa one of them forever.

Vampire Academy was an excellent read. The main characters are in high school and there are a lot of the usual problems everyone has in high school: mean teachers, crushes, the popular crowd. This is a YA novel, and while I am not overly familiar with the genre, this was darker than I was expecting. More sexual, too. Rose nearly has sex (due to magic!) to her older mentor and has feelings for him besides. He is 7 years too old for her. Though if she were a year older, it would be legal and the age difference a mere 6 years.

The world is fascinating – vampires who specialize in a single element, dhampir who are the bastard children of vampires, their mistresses and their bodyguards. Dhampirs need at least one vampire parent, usually the father, and in order to preserve their race, they guard the vampires. It seems to me this cycle is not especially healthy, but it works and there is certainly plenty of room for drama.

My favorite scene in this series comes at the end. Their friend, the daughter of the one who was causing all the damage, betrays them and becomes a strigoi, the sort of vampire out of horror movies to please her father. Dhampirs are sworn to kill them. She took Rose by surprise, but she was a friend of sorts and Rose hesitated when it came to killing her.

By the end of the book Rose realized that if Lissa becomes a strigoi, she would be safe from her own magic. It makes me wonder.

Grade: B

Kindred in Death by J.D. Robb

Synopsis: When the newly promoted captain of the NYPSD and his wife return a day early from their vacation, they were looking forward to spending time with their bright and vivacious sixteen-year-old daughter who had stayed behind.

Not even their worst nightmares could have prepared them for the crime scene that awaited them instead. Brutally murdered in her bedroom, Deena's body showed signs of trauma that horrified even the toughest of cops; including our own Lieutenant Eve Dallas, who was specifically requested by the captain to investigate.


When the evidence starts to pile up, Dallas and her team think they are about to arrest their perpetrator; little do they know yet that someone has gone to great lengths to tease and taunt them by using a variety of identities. Overconfidence can lead to careless mistakes. But for Dallas, one mistake might be all she needs to bring justice.

Kindred in Death was good, just like all the other In Death books. It was a fast, easy read. She gets the case while she is not working and not on call. But she takes the case anyway, because it was a cop’s daughter that got killed and because all cops’ families run a certain amount of risk. More than families of people with less risky jobs.

Colombia’s President, Peach, was great. She’s like Eve in a lot of ways. She was more cooperative than I was expecting and I expected her and Eve to butt heads. They really didn’t.

One thing puzzled me and that’s the use of the word unsub. It was capitalized: UNSUB. The In Death books have never used it before. It means Unknown Subject. I haven’t read any other mysteries that use it, but I don’t read many mysteries so I can’t say if it’s becoming more common. The first time I heard this word was in Criminal Minds and reading it here was just odd.

Other than that, it was good. Eve had a few shaky moments when she first the girl and knew she had been raped. It brought back memories, but she put them aside and later realized the rape didn’t shake her as much it might have before. It was good. She’s getting over the childhood abuse and that’s good for her. But it means less emotional drama. Her relationship with Roark was smooth too, no drama there and I must to admit to hoping for some. It won’t last; they are bound to butt heads over something.

My favorite scene in this whole part was when she was examining Deena’s body and I am not entirely sure why. It was vivid and when I think of this book, that’s the first scene to come to mind.

Grade: B-

Writer’s Corner: John Gardner, The Art of Fiction, First Chapter

Chapter One: Aesthetic Law and Artistic Mystery

In this first chapter Gardner begins be declaring the beginning the writer wants rules on how to write, but there are none. There are principles that the beginning writer needs to know and a few warnings. But no hard and fast rules. He says once you begin to believe there are certain things you cannot and should not do in fiction, your intuition becomes paralyzed. He says art needs to be judged on its own merits, by its own laws, and if a work violates its own laws or if they are weak, the work will fail.

As an example, he says a general principle is that all the questions raised by a work must answered for it to be satisfactory and if it doesn’t, that’s a loose end. Like all principles, this is generally true, but may be broken on occasion. Such as when we never really know if Achilles really loves Briseus or just thinks of her as his rightful prize. Or how Hamlet becomes decisive with his enemies and less decisive with everything else.

After all that he says that the first and last writer is that there are no real rules for fiction. There might be formulas for easily published fiction. There are common mistakes (such as following formulas?) and things writers need to think about, but no rules.

He says the beginning writer needs mastery, not rules. In particular, mastery of breaking rules (that don’t exist!). He says that the value of any work has to do with the writer’s character and personality. I find that odd, because I am not reading the writer when I read something but the work itself. Personally, when I read something, I would rather know nothing about the writer until after I finish and sometimes even then I don’t care to know anything about the writer. Then he implies personality and character are the writer’s instincts, knowledge of art and the world. It isn’t. One is craft, the other is how the writer is and the two are only tenuously connected. A writer can be greedy, generous, kind, ruthless and it doesn’t affect the writer’s craft. The writer’s attitudes and experiences will undoubtedly slant the work toward one thing or another, but that’s not the same thing as craft either.

He also says one needs a certain mastery in order to read well, to know if something is boring, juvenile and simple minded. I find this mildly offensive. If something is boring, it is boring and no matter how much you read, a boring book is going to stay boring (unless your tastes change, but if they do, than other previously interesting books can become boring). It’s a matter of taste. As for the rest – there are stories that were positively fascinating when I was younger and that I can hardly read now. But that’s because it is easier to see the flaws now and also because I am not the same person I was when 14. I don’t call that mastery.

Heart Change by Robin D. Owens

Book Description: Signet D'Marigold's lonely life is shaken when a prophet reveals she is a catalyst for change. But to accept her new life-and the charge of the noble child Avellana-means embracing a danger that may be fatal for them both. Especially when Signet's attraction to her new bodyguard signals a secret enemy sworn to destroy them.


Warning: Spoilers

Heart Change begins with Signet depressed enough to consider suicide. She’s depressed because all her friends have left her, she has no purpose in life and she doesn’t know what her flair is. Flair, in these books, is her magical specialization. All that changes in the first few pages. Her flair is lets her adjust other peoples’ flair. It is an odd one and a type of flair no one has ever heard of before.


The hero and love interest in this story is, Cratag, the bodyguard. A bodyguard as the love interest isn’t odd. But Heart Change is the first book in this series to have a commoner main character. More, he has a strong body, strong weapons skills, but weak flair and in this world flair is the ultimate arbiter of strength. So he is not the hero I expected but excellent all the same. He is described quite often as a “rock.” If Signet is going to make a habit of getting caught up in other’s passages and flair, a rock to hold on to would be a good thing. As a side note, neither one of them made a heart gift for each other. The hero didn’t because he doesn’t have enough flair to go through even one passage; she didn’t because she barely sensed him in her own passages, probably because he has so little flair.

The most interesting scene had nothing to do with the main romance. Maybe that’s sad. Cratag’s student and a brother of sorts married and the wedding was just chock full of drama. Only her side of the family was there and she had terrible, ugly things to say to him afterward (things that rang in his head and made him decide he was wasn’t good for Signet). It was a really bad (or a really good one in that a good story is bound to come out of it) beginning for a marriage and I hope this will be the next story.

Grade: B-

Fool’s Errand by Robin Hobb

Book Description: For fifteen years FitzChivalry Farseer has lived in self-imposed exile, assumed to be dead by almost all who once cared about him. But that is about to change when destiny seeks him once again. Prince Dutiful, the young heir to the Farseer throne, has vanished and FitzChivalry, possessed of magical skills both royal and profane, is the only one who can retrieve him in time for his betrothal ceremony--thus sparing the Six Duchies profound political embarrassment...or worse. But even Fitz does not suspect the web of treachery that awaits him or how his loyalties to his Queen, his partner, and those who share his magic will be tested to the breaking point.

Warning: Spoilers

Fool’s Errand is the first of The Tawny Man Trilogy. It takes place after the Farseer trilogy and the Liveship books. The events of both are referred to in the book, but it should be possible to read it without having read those first.

Fool’s Errand begins with Fitz and Nighteyes settled in a cottage and raising his foster son. Starling visits often; they are lovers. The Fool and Chade both try to convince him to come back, but he refuses. When Fitz does go back, it is because Prince Dutiful has disappeared before his engagement and Chade needs him to go find the prince. He does, but not before the prince is thoroughly disillusioned about the nature of his new Witted companion and friends both.

The saddest part was when Nighteyes died. I never really thought he would. I kept thinking, somehow he will be saved. Someone will come along who can save him. No one did. I can’t really question the writer’s decision to kill Nighteyes because it makes sense in the story. But it was very hard to read and I needed a break after.

The best part was the reunion with the Fool. The Fool’s skin turned golden where it was white before and that’s damn odd. He changed, become someone else, changed his name, his clothes, everything. But he was still the Fool.

The ending was good, too. Despite being the first in a trilogy, it was a satisfying ending in and of itself. There was no cliffhanger. Not that it matters. All three books are out so even if there was a cliffhanger, it is easy enough to get a hold of the second and third book.

Grade: B