The first part of my recovery reading

True Blood:  I much prefer the tv series to the first book.  The longer format of a series let them play with the atmosphere and the character development in depth in a way that Harris’s writing style does not.  That said, it’s a fantastic bunch of characters, living out a great story… I may read the rest just because I like the world and the concept.

Cry Wolf:  I think I’m in love with Patricia Briggs.  This parallel story to the Mercy Thompson series, set in the Marrok’s tribe, had all the energy and tight pacing that I came to love in the Mercy series with a lot more depth to the werewolf worldbuilding, which I enjoyed a lot.  I just wished we had learned more about Anna, and what an Omega can do and be, and how she survived her first pack — that felt glossed-over, but I’m hoping that subsequent titles will fill in.

Princep’s Fury:  I KNOW I’m in love with Jim Butcher.  I really adore this series, watching Tavi grow and change, watching his family grow and change along with him.  Butcher has a knack for building secondary characters that are just as interesting as the first, but he also has the more important knack for not letting them dominate his stories (somethng Robert Jordan and George R. R. Martin failed at in their epics).  Tavi is always at the heart of the story, and Isana, Amara, Bernard, Gaius, Max, Kitai, and the rest are all acting in his service — mainly because he’s acting in service of Alera, and they all serve their homeland.  But even though he’s the core of the story, it was Isana’s story that really gripped me by the heart in this book — her own realizations of what she’s capable of, her decision to face down her own rank and role head-on, the sacrifices she was willing to make so Tavi could have a chance to succeed, and, most of all, her realization that snow is water… Fantastic, fucking brilliant, and totally worth reading.  (I also have a love for this series right now because it’s set in a fantasy version of Rome, and I’m wrapped up in an RPG which is playing heavily with a fantasy version of Rome… I should read this before every game.)

Artemis Fowl:  I read this in print when it came out, but just listened to it on audio.  Again, clever, humorous, fast-paced, and creative… even if, as my husband said he “fell asleep during a fart joke and woke up during the same fart joke, an hour later”.  It’s a juvenile fantasy book.  It’s got some juvenalia in it.  But it’s still clever and humorous and fast paced and creative… and that’s good enough for me.