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May. 24th, 2012 08:13 amYou know how sometimes you can remember one small detail of a book and nothing else about it? In this case, a few weeks ago I had a sudden powerful flashback to a book with a character named Columba who was at some point maybe got turned into a dove? THAT'S IT. That's all I knew.
It turns out the books were Katya Reimann's Tielmaran Chronicles, so the path before me had clearly been prepared for a reread. I was not actually expecting them to be good! But I've now reread the first two and I'm actually enjoying them enormously. I should have remembered the lesson I learned from Tanya Huff: CRACKED-OUT FANTASY NOVELS ARE THE BEST.
The first book is a fairly standard quest saga in which Gaultry, the Shy, Socially Awkward Magical Twin, has to go on a Quest to rescue her sister the Level-Headed, Socially Confident Magical Twin from evil magical forces! (Please note: for once, FOR ONCE, I get to read a book about twins that features NO TWINCEST.) It is mostly notable for the fact that the backstory turns out to be all about how fifty years ago, one unprepossessing but hardcore queen got together a bunch of awesome witches to make her daughter into one of fantasyland's greatest rulers. Which means that the important people in the book are all awesome old women and their descendants, who -- except for the love interest and the villain -- are pretty much also all women. WHICH IS GREAT.
Anyway, the first book happens, and Gaultry rescues her sister and saves the kingdom, and everything's pretty much okay, and then the second book happens, and that's when things get really amazingly weird.
( For mpreg and baby assassins and soulbonded lemurs, read on! )
It turns out the books were Katya Reimann's Tielmaran Chronicles, so the path before me had clearly been prepared for a reread. I was not actually expecting them to be good! But I've now reread the first two and I'm actually enjoying them enormously. I should have remembered the lesson I learned from Tanya Huff: CRACKED-OUT FANTASY NOVELS ARE THE BEST.
The first book is a fairly standard quest saga in which Gaultry, the Shy, Socially Awkward Magical Twin, has to go on a Quest to rescue her sister the Level-Headed, Socially Confident Magical Twin from evil magical forces! (Please note: for once, FOR ONCE, I get to read a book about twins that features NO TWINCEST.) It is mostly notable for the fact that the backstory turns out to be all about how fifty years ago, one unprepossessing but hardcore queen got together a bunch of awesome witches to make her daughter into one of fantasyland's greatest rulers. Which means that the important people in the book are all awesome old women and their descendants, who -- except for the love interest and the villain -- are pretty much also all women. WHICH IS GREAT.
Anyway, the first book happens, and Gaultry rescues her sister and saves the kingdom, and everything's pretty much okay, and then the second book happens, and that's when things get really amazingly weird.
( For mpreg and baby assassins and soulbonded lemurs, read on! )
