Pollyanna’s Booklist
This is Pollyanna’s Booklist where all is fairies and strong, self-sufficient young women and dragons and unicorns and loving kindness. Comments will be left open indefinitely or until this page sinks under its own weight.
March 31, 2008
This is Pollyanna’s Booklist where all is fairies and strong, self-sufficient young women and dragons and unicorns and loving kindness. Comments will be left open indefinitely or until this page sinks under its own weight.
If you haven’t read Audrey, Wait by Robin Benway, GO READ IT. It’s one of the best books I’ve read in a long time, and I work in the book industry. It’s about a high school girl who breaks up with her boyfriend, and he writes a song about the experience for his rock band. The song shoots up the charts to number 1, and soon Audrey is as famous as her ex-boyfriend. Other rock stars want to date her and girls want to be her, but she just wants to live her life and maybe date the geeky guy she works with at the ice cream place in the mall. So so so funny, and so good.
Not to get this off on the wrong foot or medium but the Douglas Adams quote makes me want to recommend the BBC Radio versions of the later Hitchhikers books - the Tertiary, Quandary and Quintessential Phases. They have most of the original cast back and in some ways the audio versions seems the truer version than the books.
Gerald Morris’ series based on King Arthur.
Kate Seredy’s The Good Master
The Hawk and the Dove by Penelope Wilcox
Second the first two! I haven’t read the third.
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Also, Kate Seredy’s The Singing Tree, sequel to The Good Master. :)d
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Especially read “Savage Damsel and the Dwarf” by Gerald Morris. I laughed so hard at times I swear I burned off calories.
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The Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters (started in the 1970’s, now going on 19 in the series)– very funny and action-packed, set in Egypt and England in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s, with at least one murder in every book, although not true ‘murder mysteries’.
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith–a stand-alone book about a young English girl and her eccentric family, set in the early/mid 1900’s (I think).
Sorcery and Cecelia (plus two sequels so far) by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer, also Dealing with Dragons (plus 3 sequels) by Patricia C. Wrede–YA fantasy, the Cecelia books set in early 1800’s England in an alternate universe with magic, the dragon series just plain fantasy, hilariously funny.
The Mary Russell series by Laurie R. King–about a retired Sherlock Holmes and his young, American, feminist assistant; excellently written.
Pretty much any book by Mary Stewart–most of her books are classified as ’suspense romance’; some are low-key, some quite exciting, just the right amount of mush. Some of my favorites are My Brother Michael, The Moonspinners, Nine Coaches Waiting, Airs Above the Ground.
The Sherwood Ring and The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope (not sequels)– YA historical fiction, set in the early/mid 1900’s (I think) and Elizabethan England respectively.
I love love love The Perilous Gard* and Mary Russell series.
*I always think of it with The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth Marie Pope; The Forestwife by Teresa Tomlinson; Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw and The King’s Daughter by Suzanne Martel. I think I read all those books in the same time frame, and continue to re-read them.
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Sigh. Yes, I did mean Speare. And Martel is unfortunately out of print; I hope you find a copy! The version I have is translated into English from French, which may account for the slight stiltedness of the language, but I love the story anyway. :)
I’m working my way through the Mary Russell series now, and it’s great.
My favorite Stewart mystery is Touch Not the Cat. Hopeless romantic. But I loved Airs Above the Ground, and all the Merlin books, of course.
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The first books I read and loved from Mary Stewart and which I still love are: Rose Cottage and Stormy Petrel.
I like her early ones and the Merlin trilogy very much but was very late in starting to read her as she was somebody I was “supposed” to read. She was a friend of my Aunt’s and one of her early books mentions Electra in the acknowledgements. Mary Stewart knew my father from Durham, where her husband was a lecturer (in geology I believe) and he gave her the introduction so she would get a more intimate view of the country. My Aunty had taken her around Athens and to Delphi, after which she wrote My Brother Michael… So my Aunt has all these early books in original hardback with dedications and was like… you should read them you know. And my reaction was (typical teenager) no way, no how… But then I just swallowed them whole. Just goes to show.
YES!! I LOVE Mary Stewart, but yes!, they do SMOKE all the time (the only exception appears to be Airs Above Ground, really love that one, it was the first of her books that I read).
I only every read Mary Stewart’s childrens books. “A Walk in Wolf Wood”, (a sister and brother pulled into the past in germany, to unfold a werewolves curse while remaining on their toes to stay undiscovered) “The Littlest Broomstick” (a very clever young girl, I quite enjoyed her, in a rather dark and twisted witches college) and “Ludo and the Star Horse” (alas, no girls that I recall in that story). For youth of course, but I quite love them.
*********** A good book is a good book. Full stop.
I would GREATLY recommend some new books that have recently come out.
PRINCESS BEN by Catherine GIlbert Burdock. Imagine for once, a princess that isn’t a willowy, blond, graceful twit! Meet Ben, chunky and loving herself anyway. While the heroine’s weight is not the main focus, to me, it is what puts this book apart from you’re average, ‘princess saves her world’ YA read.
THE SWAN KINGDOM: Ever read the fairytale, ‘The Wild Swans’? This version makes more sense and also features a high-powered princess who kicks major tail in the name of her kingdom.
Princess Ben has been a huge hit with every kid who has picked it up!
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I just finished “The Miracle of the Bells” by Russell Janney. There was a film by the same name based on this book made in the late 1940s, which I haven’t seen, so I can’t compare the two. The book is about a film promoter who brings the body of an actress back to her old hometown to be buried. He loved her but never told her. The things that happen in the town form the basis for most of the story, although his relationship with the actress is also told in flashback.
Although there’s some pathos in the book (the heroine dies, after all!), it’s mostly a happy, happy story about a man with a can-do attitude who refuses to accept defeat, and how his attitude becomes infectious, and how people, upon discovering their own efficacy, turn from mean people into nice people.
The fictional “Coaltown” in the book is a real place by the name of “Glen Lyon”, geographically set exactly where Coaltown is set in the book. The church of St. Michael the Archangel was a real church in the town, and was razed in 2005. The church of St. Leo’s is there, under the name of St. Adalbert’s (which is the name the author gives to the Czech church; odd, since St. Adalbert is a Polish saint). The “Breaker”, which in the last part of the book is speculated as something that might be there forever, closed around 1971 and was destroyed in a fire in 1974. If you decide to read the book, Google “Glen Lyon” for a street map of the place, and you’ll see the few streets that make up this tiny town, including the cemeteries where much of the action takes place. If you pull up the satellite picture, you’ll see the blank lot where St. Michael’s used to stand, right next to the real St. Adalbert’s (St. Leo’s in the book) at the corner of West Main street and South Market Street. The Breaker used to stand where East Main and West Main divided.
Judith
Caroline Stevermer’s solo books are also great fantasy reads; I particularly enjoyed A College of Magics and A Scholar of Magics.
If you like modern artists and mysteries solved by precocious middle school students who are gently but acerbically guided by a woman old enough to be their grandmother, I recommend Chasing Vermeer, The Wright 3 and The Calder Game by Blue Balliett. I’m about 2/3 done with The Calder Game right now. I read the first two during several lunch hours at the library where I work one day a week. The first two books also involved a fair amount of math.
Also by Caroline Stevermer, together with Patricia Wrede, is the series of books about Cecy and Kate: Sorcery and Cecelia, The Grand Tour, and The Mislaid Magician, all of which have long and humorous alternate titles. Very funny and lots of adventure and romance.
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P.G. –I’m re-reading the Crestomanci series for the first time in ages and Christopher reminds me a lot of one of his characters (Psmith).
Ursula LeGuin
If you like fantasy that is good for a laugh (hang on - you ARE on Robin McKinley’s blog, so never-you-mind!) you should check out Diana Wynne Jones’ Chrestomanci series. It’s a series about alternate universes to our own, some of which are magical, and therefore are patrolled and protected by a magician/sorcerer called the Chrestomanci.
She also has a wonderful book called ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ that was made into a beautiful animated movie by Studio Ghibli. But the book has a far, far better storyline than the movie version, and shouldn’t be missed.
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*winces in guilt*
Calvin and Hobbes, yes. Lord of the Rings, yes. Diana Wynne Jones….no. I’ll have to get to her after I finish Charles deLint, what with all this sideways pressure.
I love, love, love DWJ! I’ve got to add Dark Lord of Derkholm and Year of the Griffin to the list….as well as basically anything else she’s written….
I just read the first in the Chrestomanci series and was left a bit confused. I kept waiting for Gwendolyn to change her behavior for the better, and it took me a long while to figure out that that wasn’t going to happen. In retrospect I can see that she is supposed to be unapologetically bad. I’ll probably reread it, but I was wondering if anyone else got off on the wrong foot with this series. . . .will start dipping into the Dalemark quartet next.
(Not sure if this is sufficiently Pollyannish to be unscreened. . .just looking for feedback on the first book and series as a whole.)
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Sean, I waited for Gwendolyn to change too - upon her replacement I figured it finally wasn’t going to happen. Then I got attached to Janet, and went from there. Thankfully, I had already read Howl’s Moving Castle, and The Year of the Griffin by that time. The Dalemark quartet (I’ve read three of the four, can’t find Spellcoats, ARGH!) is wonderful.
I should warn people that Jones’ Castle in the Sky is NOTHING like the Miyasaki film Castle in the Sky. Completely different stories - the film can’t have been based on the book.
Dogsbody is waiting for me to tackle this weekend!
I loved Dogsbody. It’s still one of my favorite books. ^^ I liked Howl’s Moving Castle, Fire and Hemlock, and I remember liking the Homeward Bounders.
How many Chrestomanci books are there? Just when I think I’ve read them all, I find more. Which is good, only I don’t know what I’ve missed.
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My DWJ favorites definitely include Howl, but also Fire and Hemlock, and Hexwood, which I still don’t Quite understand, but love all the more for it. But then, I also tend to love Patricia McKillip (Especially Alphabet of Thorns, and The Cygnet and the Firebird) so perhaps that makes sense.
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Stardust, by Neil Gaiman. And, can I recommend comic books? Cause if I can, I’d recommend the Sandman series also by him. His title character, the Sandman (yes, that’s the guy who goes around putting people to sleep) is pretty cool, but the real draw for me is Death–a cute and cheerful goth girl with a top hat. Speaking of girls who do important things.
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Oh, don’t bail out on Sandman! It is terribly gruesome, especially at the end of the very first story arc, and a lot of fans abandoned it at that point. And perhaps don’t read ‘the dolls house’ But the rest is just brilliant! Season of Mists, and The Dream Country are awesome. He just plays with myths and gods and our cultural stories so well.
I would also recommend Gaiman’s 1602 - the X-Men/Marvelverse AU set in that year. It’s all kinds of awesome, even for a Marvelverse newbie.
I don’t love it as much as I love Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men (which I love more than is healthy), but that’s less to do with 1602 and more to do with (Whedon’s) Scott Summers, possibly.
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I just read The Spymaster’s Lady by Joanna Bourne. The only thing I dislike about this book are the heaving man-boobs on the cover. Everything else is awesome. It’s everything a romance book should be: lovely, engaging characters, including female ones who hold their own without being anachronistic; great friendship and banter, especially with the secondary characters; a romance that develops nicely, without clichés or contrivances (even the old captor/captive thing works well, the way its done here, when sex is not used as a weapon or bargaining tool, and there is no huge discrepancy of power between the two main characters), and between two adults who act like adults and the professional spies they are; amazing attention paid to the dialogue — one of the main characters is French and she speaks English, but the cadence of her language is French throughout (and different from the rhythms and patterns of the English speakers); that’s what makes it work, not the dropping in of the odd French word here and there. And just wonderful writing all around. I highly, highly recommend this book. I think her next book, My Lord and Spymaster, comes out later this year (July?).
_Tea with the Black Dragon_ and _Twisting the Rope_ by R.A. MacAvoy are two of my favorite comfort books. Martha is a great heroine; middle-aged yet still wierd and adventurous. And it’s hard to go wrong with a dragon as your sidekick.
I LOVE those two books - Tea with the Black Dragon was my very first booktalk in front of teenagers many years ago! My copies are locked up in one of the almost 100 boxes of books in my house (no bookshelves!), so I haven’t had a chance to reread them in almost 10 years.
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The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, and The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner. They form a series. Slightly spoilerish warning: the main character (Eugenides) has his hand cut off in the second book. But don’t let that stop you! The characters are complex and wonderful, the writing beautiful, and the setting (a sort of Byzantine never-never land) well worth visiting.
Anything by Robin McKinley. I particularly love The Blue Sword, Spindle’s End, Outlaws of Sherwood, The Hero and the Crown, and Sunshine. (Dragonhaven was quite different but equally amazing. I have not read Deerskin yet.)
Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart. “My personal name is Li and my surname is Kao, and there is a slight flaw in my character.” Sorry if I misquoted that–the book itself is a truly epic fairytale, with divinities, living legends, and an amazingly funny and humble hero/narrator.
Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan Adventures series, for those who love character driven sci fi.
And for any medievalists out there I highly recommend Catherine Jink’s Pagan books. Pagan Kidrouk is first a squire, later a cleric, and always a wiseguy. Funny, action-packed, and (to the best of my knowledge) historically accurate!
Rosemary Sutcliff, as well. The BEST historical fiction out there, with a focus of Roman and post-Roman Britain.
Georgette Heyer. Amusing, entertaining, and always tasteful Regency Romance. What’s not to like about a romance, for example, where the man calls the woman “my dear hornet”?
If you have not read Lord of the Rings, do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars (or whatever appropriate equivalent), and do not watch the movies. Go forth and read.
In the Castle of the Flynns by Michael Raleigh. Read it for the laughs. Read it for the heartbreak. Read it for the chicken getting loose on the city bus and making for freedom.
Sorry to blather so long, hope you find congenial company (or have found such company) in these books!
-Nema
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Some children’s books that I have enjoyed:
Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George
Carbonel by Barbara Sleigh (I’m extremely pleased that they’ve reprinted this.)
The 13th is Magic! by Joan Howard (I really wish they would reprint this one.)
The Ordinary Princess by M. M Kaye (Comfort reading in my opinion. I wish I had that fairy godmother.)
Coraline by Neal Gaiman (Read this in daylight with someone there to tell you it’s really just a story and not REAL.)
The Treasures of Weatherby by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
As i write this I realize that the only “adult” books I’ve read in the past six months or so are Georgette Heyer romances and books on container gardening. The romances were much more fun.
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*Loved* that book.
Got goosebumps just reading Zilpha Keatley Snyder’s NAME!!! I read everything I could get my hands on by her, back when… they’ve never left my imagination, even though I’ve long since left the town where I read everything the library had by her ’til the print faded. And borrowed some on interlibrary loan. A client of mine was rather startled when, in the midst of redoing her home network I got all excited to find the sequel to ‘The Egypt Game’ on her daughter’s bookshelf. Silly ageist perceptions of appropriate reading material!!
About Coraline by Neal Gaiman — I’ve heard that children under, say, age 10 or so just take this story at face value and don’t get creeped out by it the way adults do. Does anybody have any experience with this? My kid is just over 1, so I’ve got a while to wait…
Love Patricia McKillip - was next to McKinley at the library. :)
Nobody’s mentioned the Darkangel Trilogy by Meredith Ann Pierce. (Darkangel, Gathering of Gargoyles, Pearl of the Soul of the World) They are so beautifully written, the setting is amazingly original and the characters are complex. The reluctant heroine is a favorite.
Gormenghast, anyone? I read it and loved it - haven’t gone on to the sequels yet. I ordered the BBC radio production of it - the only problem is it’s on cassette, and I don’t have a cassette player anymore!
Every Pern thing by Anne McCaffrey ever written, but especially the Menolly books, Dragonsdawn, and Dragonseye (Red Star Rising in the UK - I guess they thought it would get mis-shelved over here. Probably would.) Also liked the first two in the Crystal Singer set. The Pegasus and later Rowan series are wonderful.
I adore anything Andre Norton wrote having to do with magic - all the Witch World novels and short stories. All her gates…. Not so big into the harder sci-fi stuff.
I do love The Alphabet of Thorn by Patricia McKillip. She wrote it in about three months and it’s got a few ragged edges, but that’s one of the reasons I like it. And I’m don’t mean to suck up but The Blue Sword is a big comfort read to me–I swear I have some of it memorized.
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I have read every book I can get my hands on by both McKillip and McKinley. I read The Blue Sword every year and it’s like watching my favorite movie again. A true old friend. The Hero and the Crown the prequal is also very enjoyable.
I’m reading Sunshine again right now. It went well after the Charles De Lint I just finished, Windershins. Urban fantasy meets great character developement.
I read what was said about a sequal to Sunshine and I am in the “want one” camp.
McKillip’s Harper Series is great and Od Magic.
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How about ‘Dragonskin Slippers’? (Jessica Day George) It was fun…. and Victoria Walker’s ‘The Winter of Enchantment’…. and its sequel…. ?
Pamela dean’s secret country work - YA, but much denser and more complex, so it impresses you at 40 the way “usual YA” would at 12. And the poetry quotes are fun to track down. Speaking od denser, go read Lois Mcmasters Bujold’s speech on how hard it is to find good new reading material in middle-age than when you were a kid, because your level of sophistication is so sky-high that relatively few authors can broaden your horizons in an astonishing way - whereas horizons are very easy to broaden when you’re 12. (Whooah….. if that’s how its spellled.)
Heinlein for hard sf of course, and Bujold’s Chalion series is even better than Vorkosigan, especially the interesting theology (what am I saying, how could this be interesting? but it is!)
Absolutely the Mary Russell series (discovered from Pollyanna list, yay, thankyou!!!), and Dorothy Sayers, and Georgette Heyer - and in the Heyer/ Bujold Venn diagram overlap, try the Liaden universe by Sharon Lee/Steve Miller. A lot of really good noir fantasy recently (thank goodness we got off the derivative pastel unicorns after 30 years), Laurell Hamilton - Merry Gentry is better than Anita Blake, though both skirt my absolute limit on sex and violence - also Carrie Vaugh’s Kitty books, C.E. Murphy, Patricia Briggs …. The first 2 Borderlands books about Lord Rabbit from Lorna ? Freeman?; she’s having much trouble getting the next one published which is a huge shame….Oh yes, the Mirador books by Sarah Monette, wonderful wonderful protagonist Mildmay although see the above comment on sex and violence……Lots more but brain-freeze has set in on author’s names.
************ YES. Well done her. do you have a link for this, or shall I just google for her web site?
Oh, Anita Blake is worth TEN Merry Gentrys!! :) But they’re WAY over my limit for sex and violence . . . I just read them anyway.
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Here’s the link to Bujold’s essay.
http://www.dendarii.com/collide.html
Anyone who is thinking of O’brien’s Maturin series should read C.S. Foresters hornblower series first - it’s much better writing (characterization), if you can get past the silly name, which admittedly took 3 years of ignoring the recommendation when I was a teen. Teens. There is also a Hornblower-in-space type series (Fisherman, David Feintuch, same moral-angst-of-commanding-officer).
You probably wanted to avoid nepotism, but Dickinson’s The Changes series are great YA, and Inspector Pibble is delightful. In middle-age, it’s GREAT to find middle-aged to elderly protagonists who Do Things.
And yes, I read a lot of Hornblowers a long time ago, and they’re one reason I never really got into the O’Briens, although I know it’s supposed to work the othe rway around. Another reason is that I kind of bailed on boats and sailors but maybe I should try again.
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Nodding in agreement… making notes… oh…
Is this what’s going on with Lorna Freeman’s books? Those are some of the most original books I’ve read in ages.
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A thematic approach……
Dragons and other sentient beings
Anne McCaffrey’s “Pern” series: A semi-feudal society has developed on a new world, and ‘Holds’ of dragons and their riders protect people by flying and breathing fire to burn away a destructive organism that falls like rain. There is always a large cast of characters, and the dragons are very personable. As the series develops, the people learn more about the technology that brought their forebears to this world, with a consequently interesting clash of cultures.
Mercedes Lackey’s “Jouster” series: A slave boy hides a dragon egg, nurtures its hatching, and imprints on it. When the dragon is large enough, they fly together away from captivity, back to his homeland, which he finds is in the grip of evil magicians. In a series of books, he turns around dragon training, good battles evil, new societies develop.
Naomi Novik “Temeraire” series: Anne McCaffrey meets Patrick O’Brian…Historical fantasy set during the Napoleonic wars. Our hero is a British naval captain, and on capturing a French ship, finds the precious cargo is a very rare dragon egg from China. It hatches, he imprints it, so has to leave off being a naval captain, and join a dragon regiment (to his horror). All the historical stuff sounds familiar and accurate, and the dragon contributions are woven into the war in a fascinating way. And Temeraire, the dragon, is ADORABLE. Subsequent books see them travel to China, Africa, et al.
Mercedes Lackey (again) “Valdemar” series: This started as YA book “Arrows of the Queen”, and developed in a series of trilogies and single books, both sequels and prequels, into an adult series. No dragons, the sentient beings are “Companions”, spirits disguised as white horses, which partner with a Herald. Heralds protect society – spies, police, fighters, judges, mediators, etc. It’s a dangerous job, particularly when renegade mages and insane neighbouring kings try to destroy the country. This is a very engaging series, with lively characters, interestingly varied societies, and the added attraction of Companions, fire cats and bond birds working with the humans.
Robin Hobbs “Assassin” series: I read the first and third series in this nine-book collection, and avoided the second series – sentient, talking ships? Creepy! However, having run out of Hobbs’ books and needing more, I gave in and read the second series, and I think it is now my favourite. The figureheads at the front of the ships are carved from special wood which is brought to life and bonded to the captain’s family. A mad ship, deserted, rotting on the shore, figurehead blinded, is brought back into use and is instrumental in fighting off pirates, invasion and sea serpents. Hobbs’ books are quite dark, but never to actual despair, with challenging moral issues and strong characters.
Sharon Shinn’s “Samaria” series: Like the “Pern” series, this is about a created world where the population has lost the connection to the technology that brought their forebears to it. This time the genetic engineering has been done on humans (not dragons), and a race of angels has developed. The angels provide leadership for their communities, and use music to manage the weather. I think it is best to read the second book of the original trilogy first “Jovah’s Angel” as all becomes clear about the origin of the world in it. The challenges for change in a society when a manufactured religion runs headlong into its technological beginnings are fascinating. Very engaging characters.
Sharon Shinn (again) “Twelve Houses” series: It is stretching it to say there are sentient beings in this series, but some of the characters are able to shape-change into birds and cats, etc. A moderate king is in conflict with aggressively conservative, anti-mystic nobles, and sends out a diverse group of spies to investigate. Adventure, romance, fantasy, prejudice. Sharon Shinn’s website has a number of review quotes including: ‘ “The most promising and original writer of fantasy to come along since Robin McKinley” Peter Beagle’.
So, she must be good! (I’ve just read ‘Dragonhaven’, hence the dragon theme. I enjoyed it very much, and await ‘Chalice’ eagerly.)
Susan in Melbourne
Postscript:
I had to look up Naomi Novik’s website to check that I had the correct spelling of Temeraire, and was momentarily distracted by her blog, where I discovered that she was dodging the chore of checking proofs by re-reading her Georgette Heyer collection. All the very best people do it! For years I’ve thought it was just me and my immediate chums with this Heyer fixation, but through this blog find this is not so…..
Susan in Melbourne
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********** Yes. We’re our own well populated little world. :)
There’s a reason why those books have never been out of print since they were written.
Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway (that was me up above, I’m just repeating myself)
Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
Betwixt by Tara Bray Smith
The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff
The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry (for younger readers, but my FAVORITE)
Red: The Next Generation of American Writers–Teenage Girls–On What Fires Up Their Lives Today, edited by Amy Goldwasser
CHALICE by Robin McKinley! LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT! Worth the wait, buy it in hardcover!
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Phillip Pullman - best known for His Dark Materials - absolutely amazing. (Movie of Golden Compass was alright but does not do book justice.)
I saw this mentioned on your lj one somewhere but not here, so Patricia McKillip. My absolute adored favourite is “The Forgotten Beasts of Eld” (it won some award, as it should). Rest are good too, sometimes a bit confusingly airy but even if you’re not sure what’s going on, the language is beautifully poetic.
I don’t know if you would like this, but Jane Lindskold wrote a series of books about a girl raised by wolves named Firekeeper, in a rather neat and highly detailed medieval world. I have forgotten which is the first book, but it is the best, and they are called things like “Wolf’s Head, Wolf’s Heart” and “Wolf Captured” etc, things with “wolf” in them. Firekeeper is definitley one of my favourite “goes out and does things” heroines.
Someone has mentioned Lindskold before–no, I don’t know her. Will have to look!
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The first one was Through Wolf’s Eyes. I think then it’s Wolf’s Head, Wolf’s Heart. Just a second….
Yeah. Through Wolf’s Eyes; Wolf’s Head, Wolf’s Heart; The Dragon of Despair; Wolf Captured; Wolf Hunting; and Wolf’s Blood. I read them mostly in order, except that I realized too late that The Dragon of Despair was part of the series, so I read it after Wolf Captured. Which was a bit confusing.
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