A Fan's Playground

Here's the thing. I was introduced to the Chrestomanci books when I was a kid, and I adored them and reread them a lot. But this entry into the series was published years later, when enough nostalgia factor had set in that Conrad's Fate felt to me like an odd interloper into a world I loved, rather than being a fitting sequel.

It's a perfectly good book! But it feels like fanfiction in my head rather than the real thing. Like, relatively good fanfic? But the author is too interested in her OCs and there's not enough focus on the canon characters. :P

I mean, I know that's how these books work, every book in the Chrestomanci series focuses on a new main character, a new set of people, a new storyline. Christopher-as-Chrestomanci might be the running through-line but he's only the main character in one book, so he and the people he's close to just sort of weave in and out of other people's lives in the other books. And that's fine and good! And the bits of teenage Christopher and Millie one sees in this book are perfect. (I love how willing DWJ is to be like "here are all the reasons Christopher is kind of terrible despite being very likeable" because YEAH. I love him dearly but he has. Flaws.) But I still can't help feeling like this particular book isn't canon, because I didn't grow up with it in the same way. (The Pinhoe Egg isn't either, to me.)

Anyway this is definitely a me problem not a problem with the book. Sorry, Conrad, I just can't muster up the strength of feeling to care about you!

A continuation of the series begun in The Birchbark House and it continues to be incredible and I love it a lot and had a lot of feelings. The author is great at making me care super lots about everyone involved.

( cut for definite spoilers )

I haven't reread the Emelan books in forever and I was in the mood so I reread the five that I own! Which are the four Circle of Magic books plus The Will of the Empress, since I was never as into the Circle Opens books (possibly because they're all about serial killers). At any rate it works very well to read just these five books as a complete set.

( thematic spoilers only )

Oh look, once again (as always) I am behind in posting my book thoughts, so here's three at once!

( Hey World, Here I Am! by Jean Little )

( Does My Head Look Big In This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah )

( The Rithmatist, by Brandon Sanderson )

I AM BACKKKK! Well actually I returned late sunday night but then I was exhausted and also I have work and also catching up on the real life things I wasn't doing while on vacation, so. I am still exhausted but I am at least nominally kind of here! AND I COME WITH LOTS OF BOOKS.

Look, my vacation was CANOE TRIPPING, which when you do it right (which obvs I do) leaves you lots of time to hang out in the beautiful wilderness with a book. So. I read NINE BOOKS while on vacation! Plus I had a couple I didn't post about from before the trip. Plus I read a book yesterday. So. Let's go!

( Wired Love: a Romance of Dots and Dashes, by Ella Cheever Thayer )

( Mable Riley: A Reliable Record of Humdrum, Peril & Romance, by Marthe Jocelyn )

( Monks-Hood, by Ellis Peters )

( Complete Fairy Tales of George MacDonald )

( The Confession of Brother Haluin, by Ellis Peters )

( The Android's Dream, by John Scalzi )

( The Wisdom of Father Brown, by GK Chesterton )

( Psmith, Journalist, by PG Wodehouse )

( A Matter of Oaths, by Helen S Wright )

( Murder Must Advertise, by Dorothy L Sayers )

( Strong Poison, by Dorothy L Sayers )

( Princess Academy, by Shannon Hale )

( Gaudy Night, by Dorothy L Sayers )

( Poor Yorick, by Ryan North, William Shakespeare, and YOU )