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

[brigid]

Wow. That is quite the recommendation. I'll check these out at the library when I've cleared up fines-related issues. Thanks!

[briarwood]

You can probably tell from my username that I'd second the rec :) If you can get past the names of the major male characters - it took me a while - you've got a fascinating study of a caste-based society. The characters are three-dimensional and few are purely good or purely evil. And the world has a rich history woven in with the present-day story. It's worth grabbing the short-story collection which fleshes out the background a lot.

It's a complex world, though, and not without its faults. Readers sensitive to racial or feminist issues will find the rigid gender roles fairly hard to take; personally I deal with it by thinking of all the races as non-human - like Star Trek.

Mostly, though, any rec for Black Jewels needs to come with a trigger warning, because these books deal with some very dark themes which I love but are major triggers for a lot of readers. Slavery, torture, rape, child abuse, mutilation...it's a long list.

[birgitriddle]

Been recced it before, just never have gotten around to reading them as I have a whole bunch of other books I own that I haven't read yet and mean to. Plus I'm re-reading Diane Duane's Young Wizards series at the moment as well as having two reading heavy college classes.

Some day I'll get around to it though.

[erebus_x]

Pride and Prejudice is an amazing book. I'm not really one for the romance genre, but I decided to give ol' Austen a try and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It took me a while to get used to the "Mr. Bennet" instead of "Father," but I soon adjusted.

[pixie_enchanted]

I will check them out, thanks :)

[jaythenerdkid]

You know, I think I may have read the first one of those a long time ago. I'll have to see if I can track the series down, because if these are the books I'm thinking of, I actually quite enjoyed what I read of them.

[valley]

Never heard of them, but they sound like just my cup of tea. I'll definitely check it out when I have the chance. Thanks!

[(Anonymous)]

Oh god no.

This is my reasoning (http://community.livejournal.com/fantasywithbite/198386.html) as to why.

[pyrofennec]

Don't bother, unless you really, really adore reading about a lot (and I do mean a lot) of rape and a main romance between a centuries-old man who falls in love at first sight with a seven-year-old girl and has trouble controlling his erection. I lost count of the rapes (there's also pretend-rape: one of the main characters pretends to rape, in rapid succession, his half-brother, his half-brother's wife and son, and then his father--rape is how you say hello in this setting). There's also a particularly delightful scene where someone bites off a woman's clitoris.

[birgitriddle]

Thanks for the warning. Be assured I have a freaking box load of books on my to-read list that does not include it.

[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.

[cleverthylacine]

I'm sure you're a really nice person but are you high, has someone hacked your account, and is it Anne Bishop?

[brigid]

Hahaha! Thanks.

[holyschist]

They really don't sound like the kind of books I would like, but I'm glad you enjoy them. However, it sounds like they have a lot of content (rape, violence, sexual abuse, child abuse) which could be very triggering for some readers. It might be a courtesy to note that at the end of your review so those readers know what they're getting into.

[(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.

[cleverthylacine]

*hands you politic understatement of the century award*