mass market
Oct. 15th, 2007 05:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snugglekittyHerein, you will find reviews of two mass market paperbacks obtained through paperbackswap.com.
Wish You Were Here is the first in the Mrs. Murphy series of mysteries, written by Rita Mae Brown's cat (or so it claims). This series features the postmistress of a small town in Virginia, and the pets who try to help her solve crimes (possibly only murderous crimes). It was a bit too cute for me. I didn't realize that the animals were going to talk. I didn't really like them talking and it actually made it hard for me to finish the book. But it was well-written, and funny in places. Two and a half stars.
I read the trilogy The Sword, the Ring, and the Chalice a few years back. It was a case of mistaken author identity - I confused Deborah Chester, who actually wrote the books, with Deborah Christian, who wrote Mainline and Kar Kalim. You can see how this could happen, especially since Kar Kalim was fantasy and TSTRTC is YA fantasy. I thought it made perfect sense for an author to branch out that way, and it does, but it isn't what happened. (Now that I have googled, it looks like she wrote one more book, the first in a series, and that was it.) Anyway, I liked the trilogy, but I didn't think it was terribly special. However, my favorite character, Pheresa, was given her own book! I only just found out about this, because of reading the Life After Potter lists, but I knew right away that I had to read it.
Queen's Gambit by Deborah Chester was longer than any of the books in the preceding trilogy - more than 400 pages. It is also much better than any of the trilogy books. Deeper, with more subtlety and more interesting themes. Pheresa continues to be a very sympathetic character, and continues to grow throughout the course of the book until its triumphant conclusion. The book doesn't have a lot of action in it, but it makes you feel as though it did, if you know what I mean. I also enjoyed very much the new character of Talmor. I was very happy with this book. It is quite unusual to see a series in any genre improve as it goes along, and I'll be following the next books with interest. Four stars.
Wish You Were Here is the first in the Mrs. Murphy series of mysteries, written by Rita Mae Brown's cat (or so it claims). This series features the postmistress of a small town in Virginia, and the pets who try to help her solve crimes (possibly only murderous crimes). It was a bit too cute for me. I didn't realize that the animals were going to talk. I didn't really like them talking and it actually made it hard for me to finish the book. But it was well-written, and funny in places. Two and a half stars.
I read the trilogy The Sword, the Ring, and the Chalice a few years back. It was a case of mistaken author identity - I confused Deborah Chester, who actually wrote the books, with Deborah Christian, who wrote Mainline and Kar Kalim. You can see how this could happen, especially since Kar Kalim was fantasy and TSTRTC is YA fantasy. I thought it made perfect sense for an author to branch out that way, and it does, but it isn't what happened. (Now that I have googled, it looks like she wrote one more book, the first in a series, and that was it.) Anyway, I liked the trilogy, but I didn't think it was terribly special. However, my favorite character, Pheresa, was given her own book! I only just found out about this, because of reading the Life After Potter lists, but I knew right away that I had to read it.
Queen's Gambit by Deborah Chester was longer than any of the books in the preceding trilogy - more than 400 pages. It is also much better than any of the trilogy books. Deeper, with more subtlety and more interesting themes. Pheresa continues to be a very sympathetic character, and continues to grow throughout the course of the book until its triumphant conclusion. The book doesn't have a lot of action in it, but it makes you feel as though it did, if you know what I mean. I also enjoyed very much the new character of Talmor. I was very happy with this book. It is quite unusual to see a series in any genre improve as it goes along, and I'll be following the next books with interest. Four stars.