Recommended Reading

[munin]

I'm writing this as a public service annoucement. If you haven't read Anne Bishop's Black Jewels trilogy stop what you're doing right now and go read them. Then once you realize you can't stop thinking about them and wondering how the story keeps unfolding, you can pick up the other books written in that universe and revist the old friends you've made in the first three books. And make some new ones along the way.

When people ask me my favorite book my answer is, almost without fail, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I reread that book about once a year. But if anyone would ever ask about my favorite series it would hands down be The Black Jewels trilogy. From the time two of my dear friends handed the first book to me until just moments ago when I finished the latest book from that universe I have been in love with the characters, the settings, the story arcs, the humor, everything.

Every book in the series has made me laugh, cry, get angry, weepy, and always always made me happy. I can't wait for the next one and the next and I devour them in mere days whenever a new one appears (which isn't nearly fast enough!) I just finished the latest, Shalador's Lady, in two days.

It's high fantasy, which I know isn't to every body's tastes, but I love the world this author has build. The characters are like us but yet different from us in small but meaningful ways. The world has multiple races, each with a different life span and with different strengths and weaknesses but a unifying system as well. Each race has witches and Queens, warlords, and Priests/Priestesses. And within each of those castes the person's power is signified by the color of the jewel the person wears. While the explanation sounds complicated the books make it very easy to understand. The world is rich and complex with wonderful nuances.

I can't find the words to express just exactly why I love these stories so much. Which is why I'm going to settle for telling each and every one of you to read the books (the first is Daughter of the Blood) and learn for yourself why I can't explain it clearly.

Comments

[cleverthylacine]

No, don't. I know you. You might even hate them more than me. And that'd be difficult, except they deserve it.

The only way to read these books is to take a drink every time someone gets raped, only you'll kill yourself with alcohol poisoning by the end of the first one. And you'll be glad you don't have to go on living remembering the fun stuff in them like the cannibal pedophiles.

[brigid]

Hahaha! Thanks.

[(Anonymous)]

This is me but I haven't learnt to do one of the characters inmy password on my phone yet lol. I truly do not know how I managed to finish 4 books of this crap, but my guess is that the opening scenes numbed me out and then the trainwreck effect took over. The ppst which follows this one is more accurate, though that reviewer is most bothered by different things than me (soukmates that recognise each other at inappropriate ages hits a kink with me, but there is NO excuse for cutting off a child's leg and eating it).

[cleverthylacine]

Holy crap I am a lousy typist when I'm on my phone (even though it has a keyboard) and don't have glasses on.