Random gushing

I know a book is an A read when I actually am not only tempted to go back to my live journal before I’m finished reading it and write down my thoughts, such as they are.

Right now I am reading The Elvenbane by Mercedes Lackey and Andre Norton. The last Norton book I read was probably a B read. I don’t remember it being impressive, although I liked the protagonist well enough, and was only mildly irritated by the writing style. And Lackey, of course, was a favorite author of my teens. I know that when she is good, she is amazing, and when she’s bad, at least for me, she’s still quite readable. ( The Black Gryphon and Arrows of the queen survived well on rereads, and I still remember passages from When the Bough Breaks .

Anyway, The Elvenbane. It has great characters, wonderful world building, and a plot that has kept me engaged. There are definitely some elements I’ve read before, especially from Lackey, but they’re treated differently here. Some of the pretty simplistic morals in Valdemar are absent. There are good elves, complacent half-elves, and evil humans. And then there are the dragons, who are every bit as complex and individual as everyone else.

From the synopses of the rest of the series, I kind of suspect that the rest of the series won’t be entirely to my taste, although I will of course read them.