meganbmoore | (no subject)

On a very unwise whim, I went by the used bookstore (Because we all know how desperately I need new books. That, or I operate under the mistaken belief that if I feed the monster-sized backlog more books, it'll keep it from eating me.) after lunch with my mother today and got I think most of Marjorie M. Liu's Dirk & Steele books and some of the multi-author Crimson City series. Can someone who's read one or both clue me in on where I stand? (And if the ones I'm missing are needed.)

Dirk & Steele:

The Red Heart of Jade
Shadow Touch
The Wild Road
The Iron Hunt
The Last Twilight
Eye of Heaven

Crimson City:

Liz Maverick: Crimson City
Marjorie M. Liu: A Taste of Crimson
Jade Lee: Seduced by Crimson

Other grabs, if anyone is curious:

Shana Abe: The Last Mermaid
Joanna Bourne: My Lord and Spymaster
Lois McMaster Bujold: The Curse of Chalion and Young Miles
Susan Grant: Moonstruck and Your Planet or Mine?
Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett: Havemercy (for $1)
Robin McKinley: Rose Daughter
Dian Curtis Regan: Princess Nevermore
Nancy Springer: I Am Morgan LeFay

Not that I'm likely to read any of these by the end of the year, as I have a list of things I want to get read by then.

ETA: Also, I have decided that the computer and laptop should have names. The computer is black and a little older and pretty reliable, but it's also cranky and sometimes has to be coaxed into doing what I want. The laptop is newer and little and pretty and silver. It's pretty fast and generally willing to please , but sometimes throws temper tantrums when it thinks I'm taking advantage of its good will and working it too hard. Or something.

I'm pretty sure the computer is male, and the laptop is female. Name suggestions?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah, you can usually grab any book in a romance novel series without worrying about spoilers or continuity beyond who ends up with who, but this sounds like one that might have a few surprises tucked up its sleeve.

I am admittedly probably less OCD than you are about reading things in order, but this is one case where I pretty much literally went backwards -- I started out grabbing the most recent one with no knowledge of the series at all, and worked my way through the others in whatever order they popped up on Bookmooch -- I still haven't even managed to get my hands on the first book, as a matter of fact.

They're fairly fun -- not keepers for me, but definitely a lot easier for me to get into than most of the non-paranormal titles I've tried to pick up? Very plot-heavy, and the girls tend to have strong personalities and interesting powers that make them quite able to hold their own alongside the guys. The overall feel to me was more like F&SF/comics/manga, with an above-average level of care given to the romantic relationships, rather than romance with paranormal window dressing glued on to it. And I do like that she tends to write mixed-race characters, interracial relationships, etc. without pouring on all sorts of "I AM TRAPPED BETWEEN TWO WORLDS, OH WOE IS ME, I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO IDENTIFY MYSELF" angst, or treating them as exotics. Any exoticization or identity-angst here tends to be over the various paranormal aspects rather than human issues of race or culture.

Yeah, the non-wangsty mixed-race aspect was one of the things that grabbed me in mentions of it.