To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

I always liked Connie Willis, but I had not read this one. This is not like anything of hers that I have read before - it is hysterically funny. After The Domesday Book and Bellwether and Lincoln's Dreams, I didn't expect it - but it was lots of fun.

This is a romp across time and a quest for the Bishop's Bird Stump. Do you know what a bird stump is? Thank goodness for Google! A bird stump is a tree stump with a bird on it - made of porcelain and intended for use as a vase. As for why the Bishop's bird stump is so important - read it yourself. I could never explain it without giving it away.

Although, I must say that I thought the cat was far more important than the dog.

Deryni Rising by Katherine Kurtz

I wouldn't want this to get to be a theme here, but, like the last one, I haven't read this one in years. A copy of it turned up on the freebie table in the lobby and I snagged it for a student/friend that I thought would enjoy it - and made the mistake of opening the cover.

I remember that I bailed on the series somewhere in the first or second trilogy of prequels because they just got so gruesome, but the beginning trilogy is excellent heroic fantasy.

King Brion is murdered by magic and his fourteen-year-old son, Kelson, must take the throne. The king's most trusted advisor is Alistair Morgan, one of the hated Deryni - a group with magical powers who at one period in the history of the kingdom ruled brutally. They were overthrown and almost all were killed.

Paranoia regarding the Deryni runs high - but Morgan knows that young Kelson cannot hope to survive, let alone reign, without the assistance of magical powers.

One of the things I noticed on this rereading is how tightly the story is written. Most fantasy trilogies run to years of "story time." This one has a brief prelude giving us the day of the hunt in the course of which Brion, Kelson's father, is murdered, then picks up in the final hours before Kelson's coronation and covers approximately twenty-four hours.

Venetia by Georgette Heyer

I haven't read this in years, but when I was reading and rereading Georgette Heyer, this was one of my favorites.

Every quiet rural corner of England must have its villain - and the Lanyon's neighborhood is no exception. When the Wicked Baron, Lord Damerel, abandons the city to take up residence in his ancestral home the fireworks begin. To the horror of the ladies of the neighborhood, both Venetia and her brother become acquainted with him. Equally horrified are Venetia's two suitors - one extremely dull and punctilious, the other very young and aspiring to the Byronic model.

The complication phase arises when Venetia and her younger brother are ousted from their home by the advent of their older brother's bride and her extremely vulgar mother.

Heyer is fundamentally pretty predictable, but her characters and situations are always fun.

With the Lightnings by David Drake

Basically space opera - but good fun. A young lieutenant saves the world with very little but his charm and good luck - and the able assistance of a highly skilled librarian.

In all fairness, I suppose Adele is a bit more than just a librarian. Her passion is information and the gathering thereof - we might call her a hacker. Not to mention the fact that she is a dead shot with a pistol and not seriously squeamish about using one.

Adele and Daniel's first meeting is not auspicious. After all, Daniel's father is the biggest dog on their home planet of Cinnabar and the head of the tribunal that sentenced Adele's entire family to death - not excepting her ten-year-old sister, Agatha. Adele survived by being off-planet at the time. However, events conspire to make them partners in thwarting a coup which is intended to be a first step to bringing down the Republic.

It may be noted that Daniel is only available to save the Republic because of his complete insignificance in the scheme of things in the RCN - Republic of Cinnabar Navy.

Beyond the Shadows by Brent Weeks

Okay - I won't catalog which characters aren't all that dead after all. But one of them is Kylar - who does not die. He comes back to life after being killed. There is a rather severe penalty, but he doesn't figure that out right away - in fact, he has to be told - and at that point his decisions become far more difficult.

As in the nature of the epic fantasy there are many other characters who are interesting in many ways, but that would take far too long.

It wraps up pretty much in classic style, too. The kingdom restored and the monsters destroyed.

They were right - it was definitely worth the time.

Shadow's Edge by Brent Weeks

It has been long enough that I don't exactly remember the breaks between the three books in the trilogy. But along the way, the story also becomes the story of Logan Gyre, the best friend of Kylar Stern - the reinvented Azoth, not quite master wetboy.

It seems that Kylar lacks the magical gift that allows wetboys to refer to their targets as "deaders" because they never fail, a gift which allows them to seem to become nearly invisible. Still, as the protege of the best of the best, Kylar is pretty good at the job.

He has moved up in the world, but his past never completely leaves him. His connections with the gangs of street rats still serve him - and he can never forget the child, Doll Girl, who was tortured to punish him.

In the meantime, there has been a coup, and in the moment of being married unwillingly to the corrupt king's daughter, Kylar's friend, Logan, is captured, his bride murdered, and he is thrown into the pit - from which there is no return.

Also, somewhere along the way, Kylar is forced to kill his master, Durzo Blint and thus inherits the secret of his power.

The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks

I actually read this during Spring Break about a (at the point of actually posting this - more like three months ago!) month ago (and the other two volumes of the trilogy - and a prequel novella which does not seem to have made my list of books that I have read and not gotten posted). Both my sister and my former student have been recommending them highly, so I bought the series for my Kindle.

To my astonishment, I had read this one - or at least the beginnings of it. I remembered the opening chapters in considerable detail - and nothing at all about the last three fourths of it. Apparently I started it at some point and either set it aside or got distracted and never got back to it.

And now the semester is over and it has been a couple of months since I started the notes on this book. Maybe I remember enough to make some coherent comments.

Our hero, Azoth, is a street rat in a fairly typical distopic fantasy universe who conceives a severe case of hero worship for the legendary Durzo Blint (I would love to know how Weeks came up with that one). Blint is the most successful among the city's "wetboys," super-assassins. The name Azoth is the name of one of the ultimate elements in alchemy - a universal panacea. Azoth sets out to become Blint's apprentice. In the manner of epic fantasy, he both loses and gains much in the process.