The Witches of Wenshar by Barbara Hambly

Set nine months after The Ladies of Mandrigyn, The Witches of Wenshar has Sun Wolf and his former second-in-command, Starhawk,  arriving in Tandieras, looking for a mage to serve as a teacher.  (Random aside:  why is his name as two words, and hers as one?)  The nearby kingdom of Wenshar, it seems, was once ruled by evil witches who summoned and controlled demons, but they had been wiped out.  However, a mage of Tandieras, Kaletha, claims to have found the books of the witches, and used the to train herself, and Sun Wolf attempts to learn from her, even as the king hires him to train his weak son, Jeryn, in the arts of war.

( mild spoiler for the first book )

It isn't as good as The Ladies of Mandrigryn, but it's still pretty good.  The thing is that LoM didn't really need a sequel, it wrapped up everything it needed to.  It didn't make the idea of a sequel an outright bad thing (I'd be appalled to learn that there are sequels to Dragonsbane even if I hadn't been warned they were bad, simply because that was very clearly The End of the story) as it's still set up for more adventures, they just aren't needed.  I have to admit, though, that while I really like Jeryn and his sister, Tazey (I wouldn't mind seeing more of them when they're older, but I doubt that will happen) and the murder mystery that's lurking in the first half, and more prominent in the second, I wasn't overly impressed with the various other adult characters aside from Sun Wolf and Starhawk.  I figure the LoM characters kind of spoiled me.

Claymore ch 82

OMG WTF WHAT WHAT WHAT???

( flail )

A Wise Man Sleeps Vol 1

After Miharu’s mother died a year ago, her father sunk deep into debt with the yakuza, and eventually ran away, leaving Miharu stuck with his debts. When a cowardly young man named Rintaro tries to buy a ring her mother left her for his organization, Miharu offers to sell it to the yakuza to pay off her debts, but reconsiders at the last minute and runs away. While she’s hiding, Rintaro reappears and explains that the reason the ring is so sought after is because the stone in it is a “wise man’s stone,” which is another term for a philosopher’s stone.

Still not willing to part with the ring, Miharu swallows it rather than let either party get it, causing Rintaro to reveal that he has his own ring that transforms him into Akechi, a tall, handsome, suave, ladies’ man (translation: smarmy and overly flirty) who just happens to also be a great fighter. When Miharu finally…aah “ejects” the ring, the stone is gone, and they realize she digested it. To solve both problems (Miharu digesting the stone he wanted was ordered to take possession of and Miharu’s financial troubles), Rintaro hires Miharu to work in his jewelry store, which is also stuffed full of creepy mystical artifacts. Including a talking vampire doll. As a result of her new life, Miharu starts encountering all sorts of stones connected to spirits and mystical properties.

I enjoyed this, but I’m not sure how long it can carry itself. I mean, the Rintaro/Akechi thing is a bit of a limited gag, especially without a lot of other things going on, and I don’t know how long Takeuchi can keep the whole “supernatural things surrounding jewels” thing going. There are hints of bigger things, such as the alchemists’ organization that Rintaro works for and Miharu’s emerging powers, but I don’t know if Takeuchi will go that route. I like Miharu, who’s more “Ateko if everything showed up and revolved around her” than Amane (this is by the same mangaka as Her Majesty’s Dog) but am fairly neutral about Akechi and Rintaro. Both amused me, though in different ways, but I don’t much care about them one way or the other. I think my main opinion on them right now is hoping this doesn’t turn into a bizarre love triangle. 

Question for Naruto fans

 So, I haven't followed Naruto in over a year, and I doubt I'll ever go back to it.  Not fond of Naruto himself, and I liked Sasuke initially, but that died off pretty well.  And...that was pretty much the whole series. That and fighting/power up sequences that put Bleach to shame.   Also, I could never figure out if the text or the fandom was harder on Sakura.  Maybe if it ever finishes.

But I do have a question regarding Jiraiya and Tsunade.  

( actually, the question itself is spoilery )

A Countess Below Stairs by Eva Ibbotson

Anna Grazinsky is a Russian countess who fled the Russian Revolution with the remnants of her family, ending up in England in 1919. However, a servant disappeared with all of the family jewels, leaving them penniless, so Anna, armed with a 2000 page book about being a proper maid, gets herself hired as temporary help at the estate of the Earl of Westerholme. Despite her unconventional ways, she tries hard and becomes a good maid, and soon finds herself falling in love with Rupert, the Earl. Even beyond the problem of her being a maid in his household, however, is his engagement to Muriel, a beautiful but snobbish heiress who plans to remake Westerholme in her own image. 

While I’m no expert on the period, I think it’s probably safe to say that while Ibbotson seems to have given good attention to historical detail in terms of events and dressing, relationships between the classes fell to the wayside. While I can buy into Anna getting hired despite clearly not being suitable (but just barely) her interactions with Rupert and his family in the context of her being a maid are a little too much. The book, however, treats the story almost purely as a fairy tale, and doesn’t pretend to be anything but. Characters are either very good and pure, or very nasty. Mistakes and insults are either dismissed with an apology, or proof that a person is horrible. Shades of gray don’t exist in this world.

The end result is that the book is charming, but part of what makes it charming makes it rather "surface only," and kept me from ever really being invested.  There was never really any need to worry about anything or anyone. I liked reading it, but there never seems to be much depth to the characters or relationships.  Everything is played completely straight and there's nothing resembling character growth or complexity with any of the characters.  It makes it easier to read because there's no real need to think, but it also reduces the need to care very much.  I’ll probably read more of Ibbotson’s books if I stumble across them, but I doubt I’ll make a lot of effort to find more. 
 
As a side note, it's marketed as YA, but I suspect it was marketed as either "romance" or "general fiction" when it first came out in 1981.