(no subject)
Nov. 27th, 2013 10:49 amBack in June I reread A Bad Spell in Yurt, the most heartwarming cheesy nineties fantasy novel of my youth, and since then I've been rereading all the books in the series that I had in my possession . . . except then the series did that thing where it turns out that there was A SURPRISE NEW BOOK, which I did not own because it had not been published when I was reading them back in the day, and which I could not seem to acquire ANYWHERE until the lovely ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cahn kindly came to my rescue.
The complete set of Yurt books, as I am now aware, consist of:
A Bad Spell in Yurt, the first and most adorable, which I've already talked about and which is about your first job out of college
The Wood Nymph and the Cranky Saint, which is about when you've been at your job for a few years and your mentor is starting to get old and also some bright-eyed college graduate is hanging around and you feel like you need to impress them. Also including, in addition to the titular wood nymph and cranky toe-less saint, a bevy of hermits, some zombie rabbits, and a prince-in-disguise rom-com
Mage Quest, which is about when you've been working in the same place for a while and you're full of job ennui so you decide to shake things up, in this case by going on a potentially ill-advised road trip with all your coworkers through a very nineties fantasy novel version of the Exotic Far East, I know, but it could be worse
The Witch and the Cathedral, which is about figuring out how to get on with your job when your best work friend has left the office and your embarrassing coworker crush doesn't work out
Daughter of Magic, which is about balancing family and career, and juggling parental responsibilities with job responsibilities, especially when your daughter keeps bargaining with demons and turning people into frogs. Possibly the most serious book, including themes of jealousy and religious fanaticism and even more deals with the devil.
Is This Apocalypse Necessary, which ties all the underlying long-running plot threads in the book pretty much up, but is also about when people suddenly think you're an expert in your field and you should be put in charge of things and you're like "NO WAIT WHAT WHY ME I WAS A FRESH-EYED AND INCOMPETENT COLLEGE GRAD JUST FIVE BOOKS AGO"
I am always going to love the first book best, and some of my favorite characters from Bad Spell, especially Lady Maria and the Duchess, fade disappointingly into the background as the series progresses. (Also, I am not sure how I feel about the explicitly Christian cosmology, especially since the fifth book features a five-second cameo by an Jewish student wizard named Levi so that he can translate some Hebrew letters and then disappear from the story again. I mean, I laughed. LEVI. But how do you reconcile that in a book that also features Christian saints taking an active role and a trip to an exceedingly Dantean afterlife? Handwave, handwave.)
Still, all the books are really enjoyable, and it just continues to be so refreshing to read a fantasy series in which nothing is grimdark and everyone pretty much means things for the best! Daimbert is the MOST MAGICAL GIRL of wizards; in the last book, various people come out and explain in detail that his only power is the POWER OF FRIENDSHIP. There's a great scene in the last book when he meets a creepy dark wizard with a man-eating pet and he's like "wait, Daimbert, let's not judge, MAYBE HE JUST WANTS TO BE FRIENDS." And indeed, creepy dark wizard and his man-eating pet named Bone DO IN FACT just want to be friends with Daimbert and they have a very nice conversation. Even the series villain, megalomaniac wizard Elerius, really just wants to be friends (or possibly more, I don't know):
ELERIUS: So Daimbert, this is like the fifth time you've thwarted my plans.
DAIMBERT: Um...
ELERIUS: And I think that's just so charming. I would love it if you would rule the world with me. How about you come to dinner with me tonight? There's this great little place in this city I'm planning to take over, they do a fantastic lobster.
DAIMBERT: Greetings and defiance -- wait, what?
ELERIUS: We can talk about our kids! Your daughter is adorable. Maybe she can marry my son when they're both a little older! Seriously, I would love to be her other dad.
DAIMBERT: ...
Also, I would probably read the Daimbert/Joachim/Theodora AU where Joachim the priest does take Daimbert up on his offer to run away from all their responsibilities and live in a cart.
cahn kindly came to my rescue. The complete set of Yurt books, as I am now aware, consist of:
A Bad Spell in Yurt, the first and most adorable, which I've already talked about and which is about your first job out of college
The Wood Nymph and the Cranky Saint, which is about when you've been at your job for a few years and your mentor is starting to get old and also some bright-eyed college graduate is hanging around and you feel like you need to impress them. Also including, in addition to the titular wood nymph and cranky toe-less saint, a bevy of hermits, some zombie rabbits, and a prince-in-disguise rom-com
Mage Quest, which is about when you've been working in the same place for a while and you're full of job ennui so you decide to shake things up, in this case by going on a potentially ill-advised road trip with all your coworkers through a very nineties fantasy novel version of the Exotic Far East, I know, but it could be worse
The Witch and the Cathedral, which is about figuring out how to get on with your job when your best work friend has left the office and your embarrassing coworker crush doesn't work out
Daughter of Magic, which is about balancing family and career, and juggling parental responsibilities with job responsibilities, especially when your daughter keeps bargaining with demons and turning people into frogs. Possibly the most serious book, including themes of jealousy and religious fanaticism and even more deals with the devil.
Is This Apocalypse Necessary, which ties all the underlying long-running plot threads in the book pretty much up, but is also about when people suddenly think you're an expert in your field and you should be put in charge of things and you're like "NO WAIT WHAT WHY ME I WAS A FRESH-EYED AND INCOMPETENT COLLEGE GRAD JUST FIVE BOOKS AGO"
I am always going to love the first book best, and some of my favorite characters from Bad Spell, especially Lady Maria and the Duchess, fade disappointingly into the background as the series progresses. (Also, I am not sure how I feel about the explicitly Christian cosmology, especially since the fifth book features a five-second cameo by an Jewish student wizard named Levi so that he can translate some Hebrew letters and then disappear from the story again. I mean, I laughed. LEVI. But how do you reconcile that in a book that also features Christian saints taking an active role and a trip to an exceedingly Dantean afterlife? Handwave, handwave.)
Still, all the books are really enjoyable, and it just continues to be so refreshing to read a fantasy series in which nothing is grimdark and everyone pretty much means things for the best! Daimbert is the MOST MAGICAL GIRL of wizards; in the last book, various people come out and explain in detail that his only power is the POWER OF FRIENDSHIP. There's a great scene in the last book when he meets a creepy dark wizard with a man-eating pet and he's like "wait, Daimbert, let's not judge, MAYBE HE JUST WANTS TO BE FRIENDS." And indeed, creepy dark wizard and his man-eating pet named Bone DO IN FACT just want to be friends with Daimbert and they have a very nice conversation. Even the series villain, megalomaniac wizard Elerius, really just wants to be friends (or possibly more, I don't know):
ELERIUS: So Daimbert, this is like the fifth time you've thwarted my plans.
DAIMBERT: Um...
ELERIUS: And I think that's just so charming. I would love it if you would rule the world with me. How about you come to dinner with me tonight? There's this great little place in this city I'm planning to take over, they do a fantastic lobster.
DAIMBERT: Greetings and defiance -- wait, what?
ELERIUS: We can talk about our kids! Your daughter is adorable. Maybe she can marry my son when they're both a little older! Seriously, I would love to be her other dad.
DAIMBERT: ...
Also, I would probably read the Daimbert/Joachim/Theodora AU where Joachim the priest does take Daimbert up on his offer to run away from all their responsibilities and live in a cart.
