Cast in Ruin
Aug. 9th, 2013 10:24![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starladySagara, Michelle. Cast in Ruin. New York: Luna Books, 2011.
I always forget how much I enjoy Michelle Sagara's Cast novels until I read another one. Long-time readers will know that Michelle West, who also writes as Michelle Sagara, is one of my absolute all-time favorite authors, so this is somewhat unsurprising. But although this series doesn't offer the same pleasures as the epic fantasy novels that are the West books, it continues to be very pleasurable indeed.
Cast in Ruin is the seventh entry in the Chronicles of Elantra, a world that blends some aspects of semi-medieval fantasy settings with the police procedural show, if the police procedural show were constantly hijacked by increasingly eldritch incidents of magical and inter-species crisis. (Sagara has compared the books to the equivalents of episodes of Buffy.) Our protagonist is Private Kaylin Neya, who has magic that she doesn't understand, duties that she does, and responsibilities that she takes on with increasing knowledge and frequency. She is shadowed by her childhood friend Severn and increasingly calls on a growing cast of people of all species who have been her allies and friends before. In this book, which largely takes place in the fief outside of the imperial city and in the imperial palace, those are largely Dragons, along with some newer allies.
Sagara is a funny writer, although it's only in the last few West books that her characters have started being really sarcastic; the Elantra books have been funny from the beginning. Even though most of Sagara's books share similar themes (female protagonist learning to grow into her role, possibly the end of the world), the Elantra books have given her the space to play with some different kinds of things than the West books, in some ways, and I appreciate that. These books, being Luna Books, are also more explicit about romance than the West books (which, if you know the West books, means that they are approximately 25% as romantic as, say, the average Mercedes Lackey book, to mention an author who's also been published by Luna). I also really just like Kaylin, and I'm always interested to see where her stubbornness, coupled with her willingness to learn to bear the responsibilities she often shoulders without thinking, takes her next. In this case, since I fell off the schedule, I have Cast in Peril and Cast in Sorrow waiting for me in very short order, and I know that she'll be going outside the city, to the West March. I'm looking forward to it.
I always forget how much I enjoy Michelle Sagara's Cast novels until I read another one. Long-time readers will know that Michelle West, who also writes as Michelle Sagara, is one of my absolute all-time favorite authors, so this is somewhat unsurprising. But although this series doesn't offer the same pleasures as the epic fantasy novels that are the West books, it continues to be very pleasurable indeed.
Cast in Ruin is the seventh entry in the Chronicles of Elantra, a world that blends some aspects of semi-medieval fantasy settings with the police procedural show, if the police procedural show were constantly hijacked by increasingly eldritch incidents of magical and inter-species crisis. (Sagara has compared the books to the equivalents of episodes of Buffy.) Our protagonist is Private Kaylin Neya, who has magic that she doesn't understand, duties that she does, and responsibilities that she takes on with increasing knowledge and frequency. She is shadowed by her childhood friend Severn and increasingly calls on a growing cast of people of all species who have been her allies and friends before. In this book, which largely takes place in the fief outside of the imperial city and in the imperial palace, those are largely Dragons, along with some newer allies.
Sagara is a funny writer, although it's only in the last few West books that her characters have started being really sarcastic; the Elantra books have been funny from the beginning. Even though most of Sagara's books share similar themes (female protagonist learning to grow into her role, possibly the end of the world), the Elantra books have given her the space to play with some different kinds of things than the West books, in some ways, and I appreciate that. These books, being Luna Books, are also more explicit about romance than the West books (which, if you know the West books, means that they are approximately 25% as romantic as, say, the average Mercedes Lackey book, to mention an author who's also been published by Luna). I also really just like Kaylin, and I'm always interested to see where her stubbornness, coupled with her willingness to learn to bear the responsibilities she often shoulders without thinking, takes her next. In this case, since I fell off the schedule, I have Cast in Peril and Cast in Sorrow waiting for me in very short order, and I know that she'll be going outside the city, to the West March. I'm looking forward to it.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-08-09 18:12 (UTC)(You were wise to wait to read Peril, since far more than the previous books, it's the first half of a story.)
---L.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-08-09 18:21 (UTC)I wish I could claim some kind of grand plan--I ragebought this one last summer (long story) and then just didn't read it for a year. :P
(no subject)
Date: 2013-08-09 23:57 (UTC)"ragebought"?
---L.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-08-10 06:47 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-08-09 21:51 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-08-09 22:02 (UTC)facepalm yeah, I should correct that.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-08-11 01:37 (UTC)But I really liked the series overall, and it's been long enough that I think I'd have a fresh start, to a certain extent. I should denfintely add them to the list of books I am slowly slowly ordering from the library, so thanks for posting this!
(no subject)
Date: 2013-08-11 06:44 (UTC)