Nicki's Lair

Has anybody ready The King of Attolia and/or A Conspiracy of Kings?

How are they?

I adore The Thief and The Queen of Attolia SO MUCH. To me, they're perfection in literature. They're on the short list of books, and Turner is on the short list of authors, that I love so much I will never look for or read or attempt to write fanfic for them -- because the books are complete, in and of themselves, and any fic that's even slightly less-perfect would be such a huge step down from the canon itself that it would break my heart in half.

So I have shiny new copies of The King of Attolia and A Conspiracy of Kings sitting on my bedroom floor (er. I might need to clean my room.), and I'm trying to decide if I'm brave enough to read them.

What if they're not as good as the first two?

Any thoughts?

No spoilers, please. Just tell me if, loving the first two so much, I'm likely to be disappointed by the next two.


The rest of that short list? Ellen Emerson White's Vietnam-era books, Edith Pattou's East, and everything by Nicola Griffith (though I'd make an exception on that if kitty_ryan  was the one writing). Diana Wynne Jones would be on the list, but she's written so very many widely divergent and wonderously creative things, it feels less profane to fic her work, even if you make a bosh of it.

Trying, for a minute, to turn this back into what it was originally supposed to be: a fun journal of fannish fics and ramblings. So.

 

I'm getting ready to take part in the Yuletide fanfic exchange, and I'm super excited about it! I'm taking advantage of the chance to request, and hopefully write, some stuff that doesn't have a consistantly active and articulate fanbase of its own – most notably, various young adult fantasy novels.

 

The first side effect of this is that it's turning me into a total fandom slut. First it was just Buffy. Then Buffy and Tamora Pierce. Then I went and got obsessed with Firefly. Well, now it's all of the above and Across the Universe, L A Meyer's Bloody Jack series, Caroline Stevermer's College of Magics books, and most everything by the queen of YA fantasy, Diana Wynne Jones... and probably other stuff, too, as I come across it.

 

The second side effect is a prolonged trip down memory lane. Most of the YA fantasy I read is stuff I discovered as an adult – a lot of it hadn't even been written in the early to mid 90s, when I was in its target age group. But I first discovered Diana Wynne Jones in sixth grade, and so thinking about her work in detail, as I am now, is taking me back in time.

 

I read two of her books back to back, though I can't now remember which was the very first. Charmed Life was as fascinating as it was creepifying. Eight Days of Luke was one of the first books I reread purposely, to glean more details, rather than just out of boredom. It drew me in completely, sparked a fascination with Norse mythology, and tickled something in the back of my brain that I hadn't even noticed before.

 

( Minimal spoilers under the cut. )