That Old Black Magic

I was happy to see Seanan McGuire's That Ain't Witchcraft show up at the library this past week, finishing for the time being Antimony's part of the larger story. that there's a bonus Novella at the end bringing us back to her brother Alex was just an added bonus.

Anyway, We pick up with Antimony and her cohorts after fleeing Lowryland at the end of the last installment. Somehow, Cylia, the jink, has managed to get them a house to rent for a few month in Maine while the owner goes to Europe. This works out well, as Fern, the Sylph, has a bedroom she won't float out of and Antimony and Sam have a private bedroom.

Unfortunately, This doesn't work out as well as everyone would like, since James Smith, the cousin of the landlord, is A) a sorcerer with ice powers, and B) wanted dead by the Crossroads. Which, since Antimony made a deal with said magical entity towards the end of the last book, means she gets tasked with killing him. And Aunt Mary, the Crossroads ghost, gets banished by said entity and replaced by Bethany, who read a bit like a ghostly Harley Quinn. That we find out she's Aunt Rose's sister later on....

And then Leonard shows up. Leonard, who's in line to take over the Covenant of St. George.

By the end of the main story, we have quite a bit of teaming up as we find out the true nature of the Crossroads in the InCryptid setting.

The Novella, The Measure of a Monster, focuses again on Alex and his fiancee Shelby, and some missing Gorgon children. Which is also a lot of fun.

I'm glad this series is going strong, even if I do worry about the next volume, focusing on Sarah, the Cookoo/Jhorlac cousin. Given the species love of higher maths, I'm hoping calculus isn't a requirement for the plot.

Again, can't recommend this series highly enough. There have been a few missteps, but it's still fun reading that never fails to entertain.

Et Omnibus Requiem

So, even though David Eddings's The Elenium is technically 3 books (The Diamond Throne, The Ruby Knight, and The Sapphire Rose), I own th eomnibus copy with all three volumes contained within. While this will count against my year end reading numbers, it was easier than trying to delve through three separate volumes.

The plot centers mainly around Sparhawk, a Pandion Knight in service to the Throne of Cimmura, one of the 4 ill defined Elene Kingdoms and the city of Chyrellos. (No, it's nothing like Medieval Europe at all!) The Pandion order has the advantage of having Styric tutors to instruct them in magic, the Styric mostly being Pagans worshiping The Younger Gods from the north. There is a race of mixed Elene and Styric heritage, but they're all involved in worshiping the evil god Azash. there's also the Eshandist Heresy down in Rendor, but they're basically Lutherans portrayed as ignorant savages.....

Anyway, One of the local priests has designs on becoming Patriarch or whatever. that plot gets the ball rolling as Annias has poisoned the rightful queen. They Pandions put a spell on her to preserve her until a spell is found. That leads to the Four Orders of Elene knights to go seek out Bhellium, the legendary stone capable of remaking the world.

And eventually leads everyone to Azash.

Since it's high fantasy and Eddings to boot, the ending is fairly foregone. It's readable, but some of the opinions expressed under veil of fiction get really annoying. As much as people complain about Piers Anthony's sexism, Eddings is just as bad with it.