Thanks to everyone who commented on my series post yesterday - as you can see, I settled on the Valdemar series for a couple of reasons. I have a horse and fantasy loving daughter who is 22, and this series seemed like it might appeal to her, and the plot summary really reminded me of the Alanna series by Tamora Pierce, which is a favorite of mine.

Once I selected the series, I had to decide on the order. I didn't spend much time on this, although there are two possibilities: publication order and chronological order. I settled on publication order because the Heralds of Valdemar series is so beloved and seems like a good entry into the world.

Arrows of the Queen is a very fast read. There were some things that I really liked about it - Lackey doesn't waste any time getting right into the main plot, which occurs when Companion Rolan Chooses Talia (all caps are on purpose) and sweeps her away from her abusive, polygamous, male-dominated and primitive community to become the Queen's Own Herald. This did remind me quite strongly of the first book of the Alanna quartet.

I also liked Lackey's breezy, authentic writing style. Talia's self-esteem and trust issues are well-founded and make sense. Lackey refers openly to menstruation, contraception and same-sex relationships (this again reminds me of Pierce's Tortall books) which is refreshing, especially in a book of this age. The Companions are really sort of weird, but telepathic, uncorruptible blue-eyed magical horses is so obviously intended to appeal to teen girls that I'm willing to overlook the weirdness. 

There is a lot of sweetness and domesticity here, mixed in with the palace intrigue. There are flaws, too, of course - Talia is a bit too good to be true, and her ability to "cure" the princess heir of her tendency towards brattiness occurs with an ease that defies reality. That entire plot element, from the perspective of a parent, is wholly unrealistic. I don't know if Lackey had children, but a parent who is insightful enough to recognize that their child is an insufferable brat (as the Queen is, here) typically doesn't have a child who is an insufferable brat. I'm also not a fan of hitting children, not inconsequentially because it is generally not a particularly effective form of discipline, so the entire interaction in which Talia cures Elspeth of being horrible in a few weeks by swatting her bottom when she hits her servants (among other things) feels really inauthentic to me - like the sort of plotting that a teen writer would come up with to deal with an issue about which they know very little.

But, this is a book for teens, especially teen girls, and viewing it through that prism, the flaws are easily overlooked, the Collegium sounds lovely, and being Chosen as special by a magical horse would be pretty much the greatest thing ever, and it's no worse a system of government than many seen in fantasy, and better than some.  (Here I am reminded of Monty Python.  "Listen -- strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.")

I would have read the hell out of this book as an eleven year old, and I thoroughly enjoyed it at 52.

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Night Owl Reviews     The Romance Reviews

No serial killer or hot FBI agent is going to come between Tori Whitlock and her tornado chase season but Detective Jack Mathis plays tough and it’s his mission to end this case while he has the advantage in this thrilling romantic suspense.

Spine chilling suspense grabs hold of the reader almost from very first page as Detective Jack Mathis receives a phone call about his case and the excitement and intrigue continuously builds throughout the story as unexpected twists and a madman forces Tori and Jack to play his game and let’s not forget that Tori has an adrenaline junkie’s dream job, chasing dangerous storms. The scenes are well written and full of vivid details that capture the imagination and makes it easy for readers to become caught up in the story while the intriguing events ensure that there’s never a dull moment.

Tori and Jack are strong, compelling characters that are easily related to and draw the readers in, both have some emotional issues that affect their everyday life but most especially their personal lives and getting past Tori’s walls proves to be quite the challenge for Jack which adds spice and a bit of drama to the story and keeps this relationship on a very rocky road with heated clashes along the way. There’s also a couple of strong, supporting characters and a bit of  a personal situation that intrudes on Tori and Jack’s relationship which adds more depth to the story in this steady to fast paced and smooth flowing plot full of suspense, excitement and romance.

I like romantic suspense stories but this story especially caught my interest because of the tornado chasing…it’s the first book I’ve read that features a “Twister” career and I’m really glad that I decided on it because I found  that Jack and Tori’s characters caught my interest as much as the suspense and excitement.  Oh and FYI, this can be read as a standalone story, and now I am off to find the previous books in this series.

4 ½ STARS

Sometimes being tired sends my brain off in very weird detours. At least this one is book related for once!

So the other day, Bookstooge was talking about the very (very!) longrunning Mack Bolan series but I didn't have a decent internet connection on the train to reply there, and I forgot. Also I couldn't find number one of that series, so the book above is #213--I wasn't kidding about long running. Anyway, that post reminded me of a friend of mine who was a long haul trucker who used to swear by two other really long series, so I thought I'd tip them (or, if I remembered, which I didn't until just now, see if Bookstooge has already read any of them)

Interestingly, one reason these two series are very popular in trucker land is that they are available as audiobooks but produced as full audio plays (like the BBC does) with large casts, and full on sound effects and music, the works. They also cost a BUNCH, so my friend and his pals used to trade them around like the trucker version of Pokémon cards, but apparently, if you like the stories, the productions are amazing. (Oddly, the same company does some random selections of other books the same way, like, Elizabeth Moon's Vatta's War series.)

Death Lands

Death Lands is a post-nuclear-holocaust pulpy thing, with a crew of folks criss-crossing the now blown up US via leftover teleporter technology, trying to avoid the local warlords that have sprung up. It also has a spinoff called Outlanders that goes way into very weird sci-fi verging on paranormal territory. I think there's a couple hundred books between them. I've read a few, here and there, and I they just didn't really do it for me. I think one problem is there's actually an ongoing story here, so reading them way out of order is spoiler central, but they're pretty difficult to come by *in* order. Still if you can find the first couple, for pulp, they're far from the worst.

No, I don't know where the US army got it's teleporter technology that our future heroes are using either, but I sure wish they'd share it, it'd save so much commuting time!

Casca

Now this is where it gets weird.

Casca is, as you may have guessed from the title, Casca Longinus, the roman soldier who ended the crucifiction of Christ with his spear. And was (in this series) cursed to not only live until the second coming (literally) but to always be a soldier.

So it's a really different take from most of the pulps, because it's very unconstrained as to setting. Casca has been around for 2000 years, and many of the books is him basically filing in an in-the-know historian on some of his adventures. Also, he is a soldier, on the ground, in the mud, not a commander, and tbh that's not a perspective you read about all that much. That and, while Casca himself is fairly upright, morally, he's not always fighting on what we'd call the right side, in hindsight.

This series, I liked the first couple well enough (they're hardly great literature, but they fit their purpose!) But unlike Death Lands, which was always a "house author" job, with multiple people writing, Casca was initially a single author series. Unfortunately he died, and the books since then don't have much of a rep as being even readable.

Now the weird part. I looked up the name of the author and it was Barry Sadler, and darned if that hasn't been bugging me for three days now, why it was familiar, and I finally figured it out. Because someone was humming "The Halls of Montezuma" which is the US Marine Corp hymn (of ALL things to hear on a Swedish train!).

Which somehow jogged loose the memory of hanging out with my grandpa, in the garden with the speakers to the stereo up on the windowsill of the living room so we could listen to his copious collection of 50's through 70's LP's. Mostly old ballad singers and country - I can still sing along to most Jim Reeves songs, even now.

But one of those songs was "The Ballad of the Green Beret" by none other than SSG Barry Sadler.  Go figure. 

Granddad was a sapper (Army Engineer Corps) in the NZ army, stationed in Guadalcanal, and seconded to the US forces on the ground there, and although he never talked much about his war experiences, he did have stories to tell about the marine raiders he met there. Also that's where he learned to play poker, and in turn, taught me. I got suspended once in fifth form of high school (don't know what grade that is, I was about 14) for running a gambling table during study period :) Nana gave Grandad absolute hell about that, at the time. Anyway, Grandad really liked that song.

Turns out Sadler had a pretty tragic life, post one hit wonder, and pre Casca, and an even more tragic death. This post is already long enough, but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Sadler is quite a read.

And anyway, back to the point of this post. I forgot what the point was. So here's a video.

Stil makes me think of my Grandad (and also John Wayne)

One lucky woman is in for the ride of her life with three sexy cowboys...

During summer break, wannabe wild woman Channing Kinkaid is offered the chance to shed her inhibitions and horse around on the road with a real chaps-and-spurs wearing rodeo cowboy.

From the moment Colby McKay-bull rider, saddle bronc buster and calf roper-sets his lust-filled eyes on the sweet and fiery Channing, he knows she's up to the challenge of being his personal buckle bunny. But he also demands that his rodeo traveling partners, Trevor and Edgard are allowed to join in their no-holds-barred sexcapades.

Although Channing secretly longed to be the sole focus of more than one man's passions, all is not as it seems with the sexy trio. Colby's demand for her complete submission behind closed doors tests her willful nature, and his sweet-talking ways burrow into her heart.

Will Colby have to break out the bullropes and piggin' string to convince this headstrong filly that the road to true love doesn't have to be as elusive as that championship belt buckle?

Warning: this story has tons of explicit sex, graphic language that'd make your mama blush, light bondage, ménage a trois, and-yee-haw!-hot nekkid cowboy man-love