Why I read it: Because I'd read the previous one ("Melusine") and wanted to find out what happened next.
Bookmark: Library receipt.
Tastes like chicken: "Melusine", obviously.
What I liked: Started right where teh other one left off. Didn't make me wade through pages and pages of recap, but explained the necessary bits, in character, very quickly. I suppose it didn't hurt that Felix had little memory of what had gone before, which meant that he couldn't explain it, and that Mildmay is quite a reticent dude, so will only tell what you really need to know.
The voices still really worked. I liked the new characters, and the ones that improbably popped up again. I liked the timbre of the world. The storyline had a sort of inevitable progression, which made none of it seem contrived.
Not so much: Tough one. I didn't have that much time for reading in the last month, so this took a while to get through. But I read the last 150 pages in a binge last night.
Lessons learned: On her blog, SM has mentioned that the book is no longer in print, which seems freakish to me, since the library copy I had out had a sticker on it that said "new until Sept 2007". It just doesn't seem old enough to be out of print. But then, I suppose publishing is a dark art, like hardware engineering. (And perhaps I am attracted to dark arts?)
Bookmark: Library receipt.
Tastes like chicken: "Melusine", obviously.
What I liked: Started right where teh other one left off. Didn't make me wade through pages and pages of recap, but explained the necessary bits, in character, very quickly. I suppose it didn't hurt that Felix had little memory of what had gone before, which meant that he couldn't explain it, and that Mildmay is quite a reticent dude, so will only tell what you really need to know.
The voices still really worked. I liked the new characters, and the ones that improbably popped up again. I liked the timbre of the world. The storyline had a sort of inevitable progression, which made none of it seem contrived.
Not so much: Tough one. I didn't have that much time for reading in the last month, so this took a while to get through. But I read the last 150 pages in a binge last night.
Lessons learned: On her blog, SM has mentioned that the book is no longer in print, which seems freakish to me, since the library copy I had out had a sticker on it that said "new until Sept 2007". It just doesn't seem old enough to be out of print. But then, I suppose publishing is a dark art, like hardware engineering. (And perhaps I am attracted to dark arts?)