Lawrence Watt-Evans – my comfort read.

[avrelia]

I haven’t written about books for some time. You might think I didn’t read anything. ;)
Beside very boring laws.

I loved Lawrence Watt-Evans’ Ethshar stories long ago – way before I bothered to read books in English. In fact, Taking Flight was the very first book I actually dug up in one of then-two English bookstores in Moscow, bought – for what for me was a small fortune in rubles – and read from start to finish. All because the published translation was too slow to come out. I didn’t like that story very much, but it had lot of thing I love in general, and things I love these books for.

Now I’ve finished Ithanalin’s Restoration and I liked it a lot.

It was not anything special, and that’s one reason why I liked it. The heroine is a perfectly ordinary 17-years old girl – an apprentice. Even her appearance is described as a very boring one. Her master, wizard Ithanalin (and the world Ethshar has a very complicated system of magic and the trades in magic) specializes in animation spells, and one day, due to a random accident, the spell goes wrong, leaving his apprentice, Kilisha, the task of restoring Ithanalin to health. So she does, with trial and error, and learning along the way.

This Universe has a strong connection between cause and effect. Random accidents happen, but they influence other things, which influence other things and so on. Every book in this series is a stand-alone – plot-wise, but it depends on all other books in the building of the universe. Everything is connected, continuity rules. The actions of the characters in one book inform the actions of different characters in another book. Well, the actions of the characters also informs their own actions – as well as their talents and shortcomings do. Why does the apprentice have to perform the restoration spell and do all the work, instead of a skilled mage? Because all able mages are busy with the events that happened in another book, The Curse of the Black Dagger – and that is happening backstage.

Almost every question you may have has an answer – if not in this book, somewhere in this Universe. Cause and effect rule the world. Nobody cares if one a man or a woman if one can do the job.

See? Comfort read. ;)

And now off to watch Oscar.

Comments

[janedavitt.livejournal.com]

I don't know Lawrence as such but we used to both post to the same newsgroups and he's nice. I loved his essay on who Buffy should end up with in 'Seven Seasons of Buffy'.

[avrelia.livejournal.com]

Oh, cool! I really like his books.

As to that Bell deal, it didn't work out. I was bounced from voice mail to voice mail and was finally told to call in office hours, which I cannot do, having to work in office hours.

[janedavitt.livejournal.com]

Oh well, we tried :;hugs::