Of Swords and Parasols

Mickey Zucker Reichert's The Legend of Nightfall is my favorite of her books, and one of my favorite novels period.  In it, we meet Sudian, a thief and assassin known as Nightfall.  Nightfall is a jaded cynic firmly convinced he's among the most evil things to walk the earth.  Since losing his sole friend and father figure, Dyfian, years ago, Nightfall has only trusted one person with any of his secrets, including his name: the love of his life, Kelryn, a dancer and former prostitute who is his sole weakness.  A bit of a romantic at heart, Nightfall is utterly besotted with Kelryn and tends to think of her in flowery terms, a startling contrast to his coldness in all other regards.

Nightfall has plied his trade for 20 years in half a dozen countries, with a different civilian identity in each.  He is amazingly successful at his job, but, as always happens, he was eventually found out and thrown in the dungeons of Alyndar.  Normally, this would have led to a quick execution, but the king has a problem.  His older son, Leyne, is everything he could ask for: handsome, intelligent, a stateman with a good head on his shoulders, a leader of men on both the battlefield and in politics, etc.  But his younger son, Edward?  A naive idealist who sees the world through the thinkest rose colored glasses known to man.  Edward, or Ned, is on the fast track to crossing the wrong person and either getting himself killed or sending his country into war.  Not fond of either option, the king makes a deal with Nightfall:  "Nightfall" must die, but Sudian can live if he will agree to protect and guide Edward, but only after having a compulsion spell cast on him to make him obey Ned and be utterly loyal to him.  In addition, Nightfall must somehow contrived to get Ned respected and landed, and most importantly, keep him in one piece and not pissing anyone off, all the while without clueing Ned in to what kind of person he really is.  If he fails in any of this, he dies.  As the only option is death right then and there, Nightfall agrees.

While Ned is by far too honest, noble and forthright to be allowed to live, he actually manages to not make you want to punch him in the face, as most such young men in fantasy(ERAGON!) tend to do...a few smacks upside the head, sure, but no desire to shatter his nose and ruin his pretty profile.

What follows is a grand, swashbuckling adventure with Nightfall and Ned-and soon, Kelryn- eventually saving the kingdom and Ned himself becoming king, with Nightfall refinding his soul along the way.


Also, as I know this matters a fair bit to several on the f-list when it comes to fantasy:  The magic is pretty much limited to the fact that in this world, some people are born with a talent(in Sudian's case, the ability to control his weight) and sorcerers are people who murder them to steal the talent for their own.  Beyond that, it's simply a wellcrafted faux medieval world.

Spirit Fox is a high fantasy novel set in a world where heirarchy is determined by women (an aspect that is downplayed as opposed to turned into an endless power struggle or bondage game or any of those other things that tend to pop up in such fantasy worlds) and sometimes people "spirit link"(effectively, mix their souls with) animals at birth  (it's like Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar books only...kinda cool and fun.)

Kiarda, the firstborn daughter of a noblewoman, spirit links with a fox kit at birth.  However, her father, Stane, not knowing of the link, kills the fox kit out of mercy because it's weak and it's mother has died.  This causes the fox's spirit to enter Kiarda.  Instead of one soul in two bodies, as most linked pairs are, Kiarda has two souls in one body.  The fox spirit lies dormant inside Kiarda until she's sixteen, when it starts taking over from time to time.  The first time it happens, Kiarda ends up alone and naked in the mountains.  Maddock, a stableboy who loves her, finds her and saves her, but is accused of having kidnapped and raped her.

Right now I'm reading Moongazer by Marianne Mancusi, from the Shomi romance novel line, which is fun but would likely be more fun to the gaming/matrix crowd.  It is, however, a bit rough for me, as it's written in the first person, which I'm usually OK with but don't care for in romance novels, and in the present tense, which tends to give me hives.  Still, the story is fun and I'm enjoying it.

ETA:  Entry was rather rushed because there was free time before home time and I wanted to be productive.

Bifrost Guardians is a 5 book series from the 80s and early 90s about, basically, a Vietnam War soldier named Al Larson(incidentally, it didn't click until the last book that "Larson" indicates  nordic descent...) who is pulled into ancient Norway by the Norse god Freyr(Al jokingly sent out a prayer to Freyr before going into battle and dying) and put into the body of an elf.  Al gets himself dubbed Allerum and soon learns that his elfen body only has a fraction of the strength his own body had, leaving him rather peeved.  He's even less pleased when he's given a sword that talks back to him in his head(there's a god imprisoned inside) and learns he has to help a sorceress, Silme, and her samurai assistant, Gaelinar(he had a proper samurai name, but Silme renamed him) defeat the sorceress's evil brother.  I knew I liked it from the start, but I was in love when the samurai announced he was raiding Hel to bring back the dead, and invited the angsting lead to join him.

Meanwhile, across the world (or at least, in ancient Germany, so I suppose not THAT far...) a  thief  named Taziar is able to get revenge for the death of his father, who was executed as a traitor when Taz was a child. In the process, he meets and falls in love with a young sorceress, Astryd, an apprentice from Silme's school.  After she's forced to return to her studies, Taz decides to cross the ocean to find her and prove that, contrary to popular belief, a person really can break into the school.  This brings him into contact with Al, and they bond and do things like raise the dead(not as zombies, thankfully) jumpstart  Ragnarok, slay dragons, insult gods, and travel to the present, invading SCA meetings and scaling the Sears and Roebuck building.  And, naturally, teaching each other bad words in their own languages.

Al is, literally, insane from the war.  Even when his mind is fixed (it's nice to have gods needing you to be sane) he largely skirts on the edge of reason.  He is, however, very committed and driven, and loyal to his friends, which keeps him from losing it.  Most of the time.  Taz is also very driven and loyal, but not as angsty about it, and he thinks that words like "impossible" and "forbidden" mean "give it a whirl, maybe you'll be the lucky guy to pull it off without dying."  He tends to be right about that.  One of the more appealing parts of the series is that, while Silme and Astryd were raised to follow the norse pantheon, Al, Taz and Gaelinar weren't, and as they have no fear of the gods, they aren't afraid to back talk, leading to some of the funnier scenes I've read in fantasy that weren't complete riffs.

The two omnibuses the series clock it at about 1100 pages total, less than some single books these days, and, while it may not be the best fantasy series ever, it's quite good.

"This is All Larson.  I'm calling from eleventh-century Norway.  You see, officer, I'm standing here with a German pickpocket, a samurai, and a demon sorcerer.  Pause. That's right, sir, a demon sorcerer.  And did I happen to mention I'm an elf?  Click. Hello?  Hello?"

How do I not love?

I'm reading Mickey Zucker Reichert's Bifrost Guardians series about mortals caught up in the conflicts of the norse gods.  While this may sound relatively normal, I'd like to point out that our heroes are a soldier killed in Vietnam and transported into the body of an lf, a german thief, and a samurai warrior.  As these guys never heard of the norse gods before getting there, they lack the proper respect due to the gods and, not over pleased with having their lives manipulated, they backtalk.  A lot.  Guess it changes things a lot whn you know they need you alive.

Not that they're all necessarily all there to start with...the soldier is pretty much insane, the thief thinks "Impossible defenses and 5000000 death traps" means "please come steal from me," and the samurai ended the first book by announcing that he was going to go raid hell and get his mistress(of the Lord and Master variety) back.  Clearly, their brains to not operate in the same realms of reality as others.

There will be a proper post on it later(it's 5 short books in 2 omnibuses and I'm near the end of the 3rd and will have the second monday or Tuesday, so I'm just waiting until I've read the whole set for a proper post)

For the curous, comics, manga, and hopefully a coupla trades aside, reading goal for the month is these, the rest of the Dark Hunters series, and the rest of the 2146 series.

ETA:  Hmm...just realized...I got Eldest a few months back but haven't rad it yet...probably because, while I like the world and story and adore Murtagh, I can't stand Eragon himself.  I also need to get and read the more recent Simon R. Green and Juliet Marrillier books.