I look forward to the next book in the series which Sharon shinn has planned – more for our friends from these 4 books than for the Rider it’s going to be about, really!

I look forward to that book, too. We don’t really know too much about that rider but I think she could be interesting, and it would also be interesting to see Gilengaria post-war. Actually what I would most love to see in a Twelve Houses book is one that is set in the Lirrenlands. I think the Lirrenlands sound fascinating.

Nontheless, I think Shinn has written some beautiful books with more ambiguous characters. Jovah’s Angel, in particular, has a fascinating fallen archangel named Delilah, and Miriam in Angelica is also an interesting ambiguous secondary character. I would also suggest Heart of Gold, not so much for ambiguous characters as for what I thought was a very rich exploration of social and cultural conflicts, one that didn’t simplify them or offer an easy way out. And Shinn’s recent YA book, General Winston’s Daughter, did not have clear cut villains and heroes, though it does take a strong stance against colonialism.

Part of the reason I liked Mystic and Rider was that it was the beginning of a new adventure. I knew nothing about the people and their world. By Reader and Raelynx, I felt that the story had already been told.

I liked everyone. I liked Cammon and Amalie and felt that they were well matched. It just lacked the sparkle that I felt in the other books.

Kardis — I don’t believe we’ve reviewed The Thirteenth House yet. Personally, it’s my least favorite Shinn so far. I still enjoyed some parts of it, but overall I enjoyed Reader and Raelynx much more. I will be interested in how Jane answers your question, though.

Msaggie — Your B- grade falls exactly in the middle between mine and Jane’s. When you say that you agree with all of Jane’s points, does that mean that you figured out the nature of Amalie’s ablilities? I ask because it sounded like Jane might have, but to me, those came as a big surprise.

Since you brought up Tolkien, I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed The Hobbit, but could not get through The Lord of the Rings. However, what I meant was less a criticism of Tolkien himself than of the way so much of the fantasy genre is composed of books that try to duplicate his success by emulating his books (many books do this in a far more obvious way than Mystic and Rider did).

Therefore I find it much more fresh and interesting when a fantasy novel goes in a completely different direction than the group-of-companions-traveling-together-through-a-
fantastical-land-on-a-mission-or-a-quest story. When Tolkien came up with it it was unique and different, but at this point, it’s less so. I generally find that type of story formulaic, and frankly can’t finish most books with that premise, so it’s a huge testament to Shinn’s beautiful writing style and her compelling characters that I still enjoyed Mystic and Rider and thought it was a good book.

I mainly brought it up to say that though I agree with you and Jane about the resolutions to the conflicts and the fates of the villains, I still consider Reader and Realynx the fresher and more interesting of these two books.

Jane, how would you rate this book compared to The Thirteenth House? I know that I could just compare the grades, but color me lazy.

First, it wasn’t a slow read for me at all — I stayed up late into the night reading it. That might be partly because Shinn’s writing style enthralls me and because I liked Cammon and Amalie so much. But I also didn’t feel that the book was predictable because I was really drawn in by the way the mysteries about Amalie were gradually unveiled. I didn’t suss out the nature of her abilities at all (trying to avoid spoilers here), and I am usually very good at guessing surprises ahead of time.

Second, to me, Reader and Raelynx was actually less predictable than Mystic and Rider, a book I know you loved, Jane, and that I liked a lot. Probably because Mystic and Rider read more like traditional Tolkien-influenced sword-and-sorcery fantasy, while Reader and Raelynx was not focused on the jouney of several strangers together on a mission or a quest, so to me, it felt more fresh.

Third, I didn’t feel that Senneth overshadowed Cammon and Amalie. I felt that in this book they were every bit as interesting as Senneth.

I do feel though that the book would have been stronger if the focus hadn’t shifted away from Cammon and Amalie and toward Senneth at the end of the book. There were some beautifully romantic lines at the end of Cammon and Amalie’s last scene in the book, and I would have loved for the book to end with those.

And I absolutely agree with you about the contrivances. Maybe, too (I almost hate to say this because I love happy endings) the war would have been more meaningful if more people we’d cared about had been killed or maimed in a more major way. It did seem to me that Shinn was trying too hard to protect the characters and Gillengaria itself from the consequences of war.

Still, this book is my second favorite in this series so far (after Dark Moon Defender), and Amalie is my favorite heroine in the series. And I ended up enjoying Cammon much more than I expected to. So for me, it is definitely a recommendation, and I am glad I didn’t have to wait a year for it to come out in paperback! I think it’s worth the hardcover price, myself.