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walkitoutT. had a half day today. And it was one of the ones he was supposed to bring his own lunch for. Which we forgot (there was a fair amount going on yesterday what with the makeup swim lesson, the trip to the Apple Store, date night and homework). He texted me and I brought him a Dicapri pizza.
I finished the Rachel Bach / Deviana Morris trilogy. This was great! I really enjoyed it a ton. I recommended it to my friend K. after the first book, and she had already bought and read it, and is now rereading the first book (since she didn't remember a lot from it) preparatory to reading the rest of the series.
Space opera skin on what is basically a D&D Paladin story. Except it is even more of a mashup than that. There are dinosaurs in space (big lizards. Whatever.). Who are slavers. Who our Paradoxian heroine has spent some time fighting in the backstory, but in this story, goes to a dead tribe ship (dinosaurs in space are one of those bad guys that don't live on a planet anymore but float around in enormous ships. With trees in them. TREES!), only,
HEY SPOILERS! Reaper will get you!!!
Where was I?
Oh, yeah. ZOMBIE DINOSAURS IN SPACE!
Really it just keeps improving from there. The dinosaurs in space have this implant / symbiont thingie that was adapted to humans, so there are basically were-dinosaurs (they have scales, but remain humanoid).
Some critters came over from another dimension, and the mechanism for keeping them from destroying planets involves -- wait for it -- torturing one particular innocent girl forever, and then chewing through a lot of additional innocent girls as well. Justified by SEE KEEP THEM FROM DESTROYING PLANETS. Justifies a lot of bad behavior, basically.
Good news! This trilogy meets the minimum bar: strong heroine is at no point raped. Yay! The nonstop physical assaults aren't domestic / relationship related and she's got an armored suit she named Lady Gray that she loves loves loves. Also, the other merc with the bigger but not better armored suit dies a horrible death in book one, after calling her all sorts of nasty names.
Obviously, the Paladin thread is Devi Morris transitioning from being a merc who is starting to ask a few questions rather than just pursuing naked ambition to becoming a Devastator (work for the Sacred King with an even more badass armored suit), to rebelling at the idea that doing this to girl / girls is on any level okay. She acquires a complex, interlocking set of goals after being infected with the zombie virus from the zombie dinosaur tribal ship: keep herself alive long enough to kill the main girl (that's what the main victim wants -- that's all she wants) with the virus, let the critters from the other dimension return home, and DON'T accidentally kill all the other girl victims when the main girl dies. Oh, and try to keep her love interest alive, altho that particular goal evolves over time.
I bought this book based on a favorable mention on SBTB, so I was anticipating and received an HEA at the end of book 3.
Devi Morris is a surprisingly well written character, as are many of the other characters in the series. Anthony, for example, is very clearly depicted as being head over heels for Devi, and completely unrealistic about their chances together. Caldswell didn't take the warnings about his symbiont seriously, pulled something that felt very Heracles to me (alternatively, if you are going with the Kate Daniels analogies, he went loup). So after being all Oh That's No Big Deal I Can Handle It he became ludicrously No One Is Allowed To Be Attached To Anyone, about the symbionts / Eyes. And he's like that about the wall / Maat / the daughters. He knows it is a crap solution. He has a lot of reason to believe that Devi has a much better solution, but he's too hard line to try it. His justification is that he can't gamble what he can't afford to lose.
And this is crucial to understanding Paradoxians, Devi in particular, and the entire morality of the Bach trilogy. Honor in this universe isn't precisely about doing the Right Thing. Honor in this universe is willing to take really big risks, being willing to accept death, not only of oneself, but of others, if what is being gambled to win is Worthy. You don't even have to win (conveniently, Devi ultimately does), but it is quite clear that Devi's moral system is more about being willing to Risk, than the actual outcome.
Which is good, because without that moral system, holy shit that is one insane protagonist. As it is, she's a compelling leader in a seemingly impossible cause.
I might change my mind about this series in the future, but here and now, I just flat out loved it so much.
ETA: I'm going to keep track for a bit this year anyway. These are books #3, #4 and #5 since the beginning of the year.
Fortune's Pawn
Honor's Knight
Heaven's Queen
I finished the Rachel Bach / Deviana Morris trilogy. This was great! I really enjoyed it a ton. I recommended it to my friend K. after the first book, and she had already bought and read it, and is now rereading the first book (since she didn't remember a lot from it) preparatory to reading the rest of the series.
Space opera skin on what is basically a D&D Paladin story. Except it is even more of a mashup than that. There are dinosaurs in space (big lizards. Whatever.). Who are slavers. Who our Paradoxian heroine has spent some time fighting in the backstory, but in this story, goes to a dead tribe ship (dinosaurs in space are one of those bad guys that don't live on a planet anymore but float around in enormous ships. With trees in them. TREES!), only,
HEY SPOILERS! Reaper will get you!!!
Where was I?
Oh, yeah. ZOMBIE DINOSAURS IN SPACE!
Really it just keeps improving from there. The dinosaurs in space have this implant / symbiont thingie that was adapted to humans, so there are basically were-dinosaurs (they have scales, but remain humanoid).
Some critters came over from another dimension, and the mechanism for keeping them from destroying planets involves -- wait for it -- torturing one particular innocent girl forever, and then chewing through a lot of additional innocent girls as well. Justified by SEE KEEP THEM FROM DESTROYING PLANETS. Justifies a lot of bad behavior, basically.
Good news! This trilogy meets the minimum bar: strong heroine is at no point raped. Yay! The nonstop physical assaults aren't domestic / relationship related and she's got an armored suit she named Lady Gray that she loves loves loves. Also, the other merc with the bigger but not better armored suit dies a horrible death in book one, after calling her all sorts of nasty names.
Obviously, the Paladin thread is Devi Morris transitioning from being a merc who is starting to ask a few questions rather than just pursuing naked ambition to becoming a Devastator (work for the Sacred King with an even more badass armored suit), to rebelling at the idea that doing this to girl / girls is on any level okay. She acquires a complex, interlocking set of goals after being infected with the zombie virus from the zombie dinosaur tribal ship: keep herself alive long enough to kill the main girl (that's what the main victim wants -- that's all she wants) with the virus, let the critters from the other dimension return home, and DON'T accidentally kill all the other girl victims when the main girl dies. Oh, and try to keep her love interest alive, altho that particular goal evolves over time.
I bought this book based on a favorable mention on SBTB, so I was anticipating and received an HEA at the end of book 3.
Devi Morris is a surprisingly well written character, as are many of the other characters in the series. Anthony, for example, is very clearly depicted as being head over heels for Devi, and completely unrealistic about their chances together. Caldswell didn't take the warnings about his symbiont seriously, pulled something that felt very Heracles to me (alternatively, if you are going with the Kate Daniels analogies, he went loup). So after being all Oh That's No Big Deal I Can Handle It he became ludicrously No One Is Allowed To Be Attached To Anyone, about the symbionts / Eyes. And he's like that about the wall / Maat / the daughters. He knows it is a crap solution. He has a lot of reason to believe that Devi has a much better solution, but he's too hard line to try it. His justification is that he can't gamble what he can't afford to lose.
And this is crucial to understanding Paradoxians, Devi in particular, and the entire morality of the Bach trilogy. Honor in this universe isn't precisely about doing the Right Thing. Honor in this universe is willing to take really big risks, being willing to accept death, not only of oneself, but of others, if what is being gambled to win is Worthy. You don't even have to win (conveniently, Devi ultimately does), but it is quite clear that Devi's moral system is more about being willing to Risk, than the actual outcome.
Which is good, because without that moral system, holy shit that is one insane protagonist. As it is, she's a compelling leader in a seemingly impossible cause.
I might change my mind about this series in the future, but here and now, I just flat out loved it so much.
ETA: I'm going to keep track for a bit this year anyway. These are books #3, #4 and #5 since the beginning of the year.
Fortune's Pawn
Honor's Knight
Heaven's Queen