Books: Coronets and Steel
I just finished Coronets and Steel by Sherwood Smith. I checked it out of the library last night at 4:00PM, and worked today, so it was a very quick read. It was also the most fun I've had with a fantasy novel since Tanya Huff's The Enchantment Emporium. I love swashbuckling, which may explain part of it, but I also think it's a really really smoothly constructed book.
I have read Prisoner of Zenda, but washed out on the first sequel - I didn't discover it had sequels until I was an adult and by that time too many things about the world irritated me. But I liked it quite a lot when dad gave it to me as a kid. Coronets and Steel gave me the same gleeful subversive feeling, reading it, that I got from reading Tamora Pierce and Robin McKinley as a kid who'd read too much Pyle.
I have read Prisoner of Zenda, but washed out on the first sequel - I didn't discover it had sequels until I was an adult and by that time too many things about the world irritated me. But I liked it quite a lot when dad gave it to me as a kid. Coronets and Steel gave me the same gleeful subversive feeling, reading it, that I got from reading Tamora Pierce and Robin McKinley as a kid who'd read too much Pyle.