Category Archives: Reading

The Oathbound

The Oathbound (Valdemar: Vows and Honor, #1) The Oathbound by Mercedes Lackey

My rating: 4 of 5 stars Finished this last night. I grabbed the Sword and Sorceress III volume from the library in order to read the beginning of the story, and that was very compelling. This volume developed the characters and story arc. I found it less a single novel than a sequence of encounters, but there is an undergirding narrative that connects the separate chapters flowing and coherent. Although I liked this book a lot, I didn’t see the kind of growth and change in the characters that I have seen in other Lackey novels. I will continue reading the the series, though, and see where Tarma and Kethry take me. View all my reviews >>

Seventh Son – Orson Scott Card

Seventh Son (Alvin Maker) Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’ve been listening to this on during my commutes, and I find it reviting. After the first couple chapters, I couldn’t help thinking that this would be great material to adapt for a Dogs in the Vineyard game.

Settlers on a frontier, with folk-magic and religous fundamentalism, richly-textured characters and a compelling story; good stuff!

I borrowed this audiobook from Listen Up! Vermont, and this production features several different voice actors narrating chapters with focus on different characters to great effect. I haven’t finished it, but I’m glad to see that there are more books in the series. I’ll have to seek out some reviews.

View all my reviews.

Golden Compass fun

We watched the trailer for the Golden Compass movie yesterday, and we’re talking about seeing it in the theater (which is unusual for us). And just for fun, we each took the Daemon Test. Here’s my result.

Beloved Wife also was paired with a Tiger Daemon, while NatureBoy was matched with a Crow Daemon named Artemis.

Looks like I’ll need to pick the book up and finish it. I like to read the book before I see the movie.

Vacation – Harry Potter and Birthdays

Cover of Deathly Hallows

My father, my father-in-law and I all have birthdays within a week of each other. This weekend, we had a July Birthday Boys barbeque to celebrate. It was nice to have a big family gathering.

NatureBoy spent much of the time with his nose buried in my birthday present, the last Harry Potter book. My SiL pre-ordered it so it arrived on Saturday, and I settled in to read after dinner. I had only read one chapter before NB was reading over my shoulder and whimpering. DW pointed out that he had spent the last month rereading the previous books. So we made an agreement; I would let him read it first, but he couldn’t say anything about the story and plot.

He agreed, of course, and spent most of the evening Saturday, most of Sunday (except for a kayaking outing to the Sandbar) devouring the book. Have I mentioned that he reads faster than I do? In a couple hours this morning, he finished the book, and a couple hours later, muttered comments about the story have started to bubble out of him like Ron’s slugs. I promised to get reading ASAP. 🙂