I read both series, not knowing they were the same author. Both series came to me via friends shoving the book into my hands going, "READ! READ IT NOW!". I picked up The Broken Crown for about three years on my own, because my main criteria when looking for new authors is books over 300 pages, and a Jody Lee cover never hurts because I trust that the cover will actually be a scene from the story. The blurb on the back of the book caused me to put it down every time, because of the description of Diora as teh mostest beyootiful gracefulest specialist person evar zomg! When I opened the book and read the first little bit, it seemed to back up what the blurb implied - female lead who's perfect in every way needs rescue from her own life, hijinx ensue - and that's not a character I imagined wanting to read about. The friend who shoved it into my unwilling hands said, "George R.R. Martin meets Kate Elliot. You'll love it." He was right, although Diora still made me grit my teeth through at least the first book. (and it became part of the drinking game - "Every time Diora's described as 'graceful' or 'flawless', take a drink.")
The Cast books came to me via another friend, and I hadn't seen them on the shelves prior to that. I almost returned them when I got to anthropomorphic animal people, because that's usually a dealbreaker for me. It is all too often a vector for creepy pseudobeastiality scenes. The friend who loaned me the book said, "It's not what you think. Keep reading." I'm glad I did. The writing reminded me of Jane Lindskold and Tanya Huff before she started sounding like Laurel K. Hamilton.
When I discovered they were written by the same person, I could see why the name was different - they're different enough "voices" that someone coming from one series might have expectations that weren't found in the other - however, the writing is great in both and the characters are equally engaging even though they're different, and the worlds are different.
Curiosity made me pick up 'Into the Dark Lands' when I found it, although I haven't read it yet because I can't find the rest of the !#$%!@ series. Because, you see, I know that I'm going to start reading it, get sucked in, finish it in an hour, and have a major hissyfit because I'll have to special order the other books and wait a week until they get here. The writing voices are different, but the characters are always written dynamically, and I enjoy watching them grow and change throughout the story.
Had I known Sagara = West, I would have just bought the books outright, knowing nothing about the world or the characters or the plot, and there would have been no reluctance to read Cast. You're an author I trust to tell a good story, so it's not really going to matter to me when the world or characters or even genre changes - I'd still read them to find out what you were going to do to my brain this time. -T
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branchandroot
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Date: 2007-04-03 03:04 pm (UTC)The Cast books came to me via another friend, and I hadn't seen them on the shelves prior to that. I almost returned them when I got to anthropomorphic animal people, because that's usually a dealbreaker for me. It is all too often a vector for creepy pseudobeastiality scenes. The friend who loaned me the book said, "It's not what you think. Keep reading." I'm glad I did. The writing reminded me of Jane Lindskold and Tanya Huff before she started sounding like Laurel K. Hamilton.
When I discovered they were written by the same person, I could see why the name was different - they're different enough "voices" that someone coming from one series might have expectations that weren't found in the other - however, the writing is great in both and the characters are equally engaging even though they're different, and the worlds are different.
Curiosity made me pick up 'Into the Dark Lands' when I found it, although I haven't read it yet because I can't find the rest of the !#$%!@ series. Because, you see, I know that I'm going to start reading it, get sucked in, finish it in an hour, and have a major hissyfit because I'll have to special order the other books and wait a week until they get here. The writing voices are different, but the characters are always written dynamically, and I enjoy watching them grow and change throughout the story.
Had I known Sagara = West, I would have just bought the books outright, knowing nothing about the world or the characters or the plot, and there would have been no reluctance to read Cast. You're an author I trust to tell a good story, so it's not really going to matter to me when the world or characters or even genre changes - I'd still read them to find out what you were going to do to my brain this time.
-T