Sagara, Michelle -- Cast in Shadow
Sagara, Michelle -- Cast in Courtlight
Someone commented that this series (by established fantasy author
Michelle Sagara-and/or-West) was the least romance-ish of the Luna
fantastic-romance publication line. I haven't read enough Luna stuff
to agree with that (I mean, I'd have to read all of them, right?) but
these are straight-up fantasy to my eye. Girl is a rookie cop in a
multi-species city -- elves, cat-people, hawk-people, others -- with
plenty of mysterious wizard lords and such to spice up the mix. Plus
she's a healer. Many a fantasy series has collapsed into sappy woo-woo
with such a premise, but this one is pleasantly hard-headed: magical
healing powers mean nobody ever lets you get a decent night's
sleep.
Anyway, there's politics and ancient magic and an angry teenager
banging the boundaries of her life into an acceptable shape, and it's
all solidly written. It doesn't dig deeply into the meaning of law
enforcement in fantasyland -- that's pretty much as written in our
world, gruff sargeants and all. (Re-read Point of Hopes and
Point of Dreams if you want deconstruction of the cliches.) But I'll
keep reading these as long as the politics and ancient magic are
interesting.
Books I have acquired recently
All the books I own