[Dragaera] books to read while waiting for _Vallista_

[Philip Hart via Dragaera]

On Wed, 24 Aug 2016, Scott Schultz via Dragaera wrote:

> I'm afraid you're late to the party and most everyone has gone home. The 
> mailing list isn't precisely dead but it's pretty much on life support 
> these days.
> ...
>
>
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And here I was planning to write another two of my occasional loosely 
SKZB-related book reviews.  Well, anyway:

I recently read two books I came across via kindle's recommendations in 
part because of SKZB-related blurbs.  Of _Hellspark_'s author, Amazing 
Stories says, "[Janet] Kagan does have a dry and effective sense of 
humor, of the sort that I enjoy in Steven Brust's books."  Well, I don't 
see that - the writer who comes to mind very strongly reading Kagan is 
Connie Willis - but _Hellspark_ does have important themes in common with 
Dragaera.  The main character is pretty much an Issola trying to solve a 
murder, and assorted spoilers.  The novel is worth reading for its 
fanciful and poetic worldbuilding and even just the pronunciation of 
its title.  I've read the rest of Kagan's works, which are pleasant 
with occasional gleams of something more; _Hellspark_ is brightly lit 
by flashes of intelligence and creativity.

Hmm, I can't now find a Brust-related blurb for Robin McKinley's 
_Sunshine_ (though Gaiman says of it, "Pretty much perfect"), but I 
thought a lot about his works while reading it.  Not _Agyar_, with which 
it shares some thematic elements, but the parts of the Vladiad about food, 
or the food and music parts of _Cowboy Feng_.  Bad things happen, but 
people still have to eat, and cooking is really important no matter what. 
Or perhaps the narrative voice reminded me of Vlad's musings.  Also the 
world building is done in large part assuming the reader is smart, and it 
wears its several genre associations lightly.  The novel is very much not 
like SKZB in words per event, but I thought its combination of dreaminess, 
mundane concerns, and intense emotion made for a sinewy strength.