Gracielis

University intrigue, city politics, treason and old magic. Of the three Riverside books this would probably be my least favourite. A reason for that may be that I didn’t find a character to care about the way I cared about St Vier in Swordspoint and Katherine in The Privilege of the Sword.

Oh, this was so good. There are many authors whose work I love, but Kay is special to me, and has been since I first read Fionavar in the early 90s. His stories always fascinate and always make me cry. This was no exception. I loved this story, and the atmosphere and the characters, especially Danica, Leonora and Marin.

I liked this. I mean, it’s a bit strange but also quite interesting. The narrator tells her left’s story. She grew up in an underground bunker, one of 40 women who were caged and guarded by men who never speak to them. They are allowed no privacy or occupation, and are not even allowed to touch each other. The other women are older and remember life before the bunker.

One day everything changes.

The narrator isn’t really a likable character, and the story is quite slow, but it is interesting. I’m going to have to look into what else this author has written.

I liked these stories, but compared to the fantastic novels in this series I didn’t like this as much as them. Le Guin is an excellent short story writer, but the novels are much more engaging than this collection, to me anyway.

A pretty cute fairy tale retelling.