Jane Lindskold

Most excellent. I hadn't heard of this novel of Lindskold's, but glad it came up in the fantasy book group I follow.
Coming out in 2022, this is essentially a portal fantasy, starring three older ladies (a librarian, aged hippy, and an archaeologist) who are summoned to a world populated by therionthropes and no full humans. As they are a bit bored from retirement, they decide to help and mentor the three youngsters with their quests.

The high magic world is beautifully realized and inventive, show more with a variety of non-Earth animals, an interesting culture, and the mystery involving the Library of the Sapphire Wind.

Highly recommend. I will be ordering the sequel asap. The author mentions that books one and two are the same story, and had to be split for publishing reasons. show less

This is the second adventure featuring Stephanie Harrington and the treecat she calls Lionheart but who calls himself Climbs Quickly. This time a study team has come to the planet Sphinx to study the treecats to determine their intelligence. Along with the team comes the son of the team leader - Anders Whittaker. Stephanie develops her first crush on him which the team leader wants to encourage in the hopes that she will share more with the team than she has shared in the past.

Stephanie is show more also concerned about getting her provisional air-car license and her role as a junior ranger in the Sphinx Forest Service. Her parents are concerned about her lack of friends her own age but Stephanie is slowly learning that all the kids her age are not "blackholes." She has always been friends with fellow junior SFS ranger Karl Zivonik but now she is getting to know some other kids - Toby, Jessica, Christine and Chet.

When the expedition including Anders goes missing (because of the arrogance of his father Dr. Whittaker), Stephanie is very concerned about locating them. The concern gets even higher when lightning-strike fires occur. Stephanie and Karl and their friends have to rescue a clan of treecats that are in the way of the fires and stumble on and rescue the scientists at the same time.

The story was entertainingly told both from Stephanie's and Climbs Quickly's points of view. We could see Climbs Quickly's frustration that the two-legs just didn't understand what the treecats were trying to tell them. He also had to try to understand the volatile emotions of Stephanie as she grows from child to woman.

I recommend this book and the first book in the series - A Beautiful Friendship - to all young science fiction fans. show less

What a nice book! It's clearly urban fantasy, but not of the kick-ass kind. Although there is enough ass-kicking going on, it is not of the Harry Dresden kind. Which is all to the good, as far as I am concerned. The magic is nicely original with its oriental shape. I'll admit some of the mahjong details went over my head, but fortunately it was not really important to be able to follow it. I liked very much that the crew was so mixed. Both in race, in gender, and in age. And they were show more properly mixed: not only young women and old men, or the other way around. Also, each of the characters was treated with respect: the young woman stood her own and did not act rashly when she had the opportunity; the old one was formidable and flexible.
The pacing was very much to my liking: stately in the beginning, with time for explanations and relationships to form; faster towards the end, when the conflict comes to a head. I liked that the villains were human as well, and I liked the ending, where the enemies become allies all of a sudden. This is an unusual turn of events and not often seen in fantasy. I'm quite curious to see where this will go, and will definitely buy the sequel. show less

I had such high hopes for this book. As someone who loves both fantasy and wolves, this series seemed like a perfect fit for my tastes... but instead, I admit I was tempted to abandon it at various points, and for the first time I can remember, I decided to simply actively skim whole chapters devoted to particular characters. That is, obviously, not a good sign for how I felt about the book as a whole.

On its surface, the concept here is simple--and I think that's where its power lies. For show more me, the chapters that focused on Firekeeper, her wolf companion Blind Seer, and their immediate companions were the heart of the work, and although I would have liked a bit more attention to be paid to Blind Seer--rather than him sometimes seeming only like a human voice in wolf form vs an actual wolf--those chapters felt engaging and true to the concept that made me pick up the book. Unfortunately, I'd say that half of this book was devoted to exploring court lineage and intrigue, to the extent of including full chapters focused on characters who, truly, the reader didn't need to get to know at anywhere near such length. The book would have been so much stronger if the writer had forced herself to stick to telling the story through chapters focused on Firekeeper and her immediate companions. Instead, however, it felt as if Lindskold wanted to spend time explaining every bit of world-building she'd come up with and every character's family--even if, in the end, they'd have no real effect on the story.

I suspect that, had this book been around 300 pages instead of near 600, I would have raved about it and immediately ordered the rest of the series. As things stand, I doubt I'll read anything more from the author. I do already have the second book in the series--I got it together with the first, I was so sure I'd enjoy this--so I may look at the book jacket and see if it sounds like there's a stronger focal point in the second book, but it's just as possible that I'll simply give the book away. This was an incredibly disappointing read, and I suspect the author was more interested in writing about court intrigue than fantasy, but thought this would be an angle through which to sell court politics. Certainly, that's how it felt. show less