A Fan's Playground

I first heard of this book via a rec from sineala, and I'm so glad, because ahhh I loved this book so much! It just really hit the spot perfectly, of feeling like a classic secondary-world fantasy of my childhood while also being well written and interesting and queer. So much of the sff I read these days is either historical fantasy or futuristic sci-fi, and though both are delicious, I'd forgotten how good it can be to sink your teeth into a nice well-built secondary world fantasy and immerse yourself in that created world.

And it's a book published in the 90's that's textually queer! This aspect isn't forefronted, but it's subtly-yet-clearly woven into the worldbuilding throughout the whole book, in a way that's probably possible for an oblivious het to not even notice, but is blatant to anyone else.

The worldbuilding in general though is all really good. It's doing things that are interesting and specific and well integrated, and clear about what it's doing without ever feeling infodumpy. And I love how the city where most of the story takes place feels lived in and full of real people living their various intersecting lives, and with enough references to other cultures (and the tensions of living in a multicultural city with Histories between the various cultures) that the city feels like part of a larger world too. And there are enough references to things that have changed or happened in the past, including the recent past, that it doesn't feel stagnant; it's a living city, a living world.

Anyway the actual plot/characters. Rathe is a pointsman (....sort of a policeman, but with enough specificity about their place in the culture that it doesn't feel to me at least like it carries with it all the burden of associations a modern reader brings to police) and Eslingen is a mercenary soldier temporarily between jobs; together, they fight crime! That is, the city has recently had a more than usual rash of children disappearing, ones who seem very unlikely to have simply run away from home, and no bodies have been found, so what could have happened to them?

The mystery doesn't have Shocking! Twists! but unfolds well and interestingly, and

spoilers

I was pleased that in the end all of the children were recovered safely.

Anyway it looks like there are 4 more books in the series, and I want to read all of them! Though my library only has 1 other, so we'll see how far I get.

Series consists of: Pagan's Crusade, Pagan's Exile, Pagan's Vows, Pagan's Scribe, and Babylonne aka Pagan's Daughter

This is a series of children's books about a Templar knight (Roland) and his Palestinian-born squire (Pagan) and, eventually, Pagan's scribe and Pagan's daughter. The books are written in an extremely distinctive style - it's like, the most immediate possible version of first-person, the first three books especially - and it's very effective at making things feel in the moment, but I do not actually like it. BUT I care about the characters enough that I don't care. And the period feel and the earthy historic details are wonderfully well done too. The author is apparently a medieval scholar and it shows in the best possible ways.

The degree to which Roland and Pagan care deeply about each other, and work to take care of each other, despite the two of them being very different people who often do not understand each other, is wonderful. And it's a main focus of the series, their relationship with each other.

( spoilers for the fourth and fifth books )

Despite having really loved Jean Little's books for as far back as I can remember, I somehow managed to miss reading this one? I think I was put off by the religious title (a reference to the hymn "His Banner Over Me Is Love"). But now I've actually read it! And it's really good and really interesting.

It's a fictionalized, mostly-true story about Jean Little's mother's life. ( Read more... )

And... idk, I feel like I had other thoughts? But then I proceeded to read From Anna afterwards and all thoughts about this book flew from my head, and then I followed that up with beginning a reread of the Queen's Thief series, which didn't help either. I need to get better at writing my book thoughts directly after finishing reading a book!