Back on the horse.

[swan_tower]

Okay, so my previous attempt at book-blogging Queen's Play failed miserably, helped along by the insanity that was 2008. But I've had the book on my desk for a few weeks now in an attempt to get started again, and a friend just tried to sic eclectician (aka "Stone Cold," from his Assassin days) on me as motivation, so in the interests of not being murdered by a combat librarian, I'm officially announcing a new attempt.

For those of you with no idea what I'm talking about, here's the original announcement, complete with link to my recommendation for the Lymond Chronicles. So far I've made it through the first book of the series; Queen's Play is the second volume. (It's also my least favorite, which is part of the reason for the stall. I have trouble remembering I liked it much better the second time I read it. If this were The Disorderly Knights, though, I would have blogged the whole thing a year ago, in record time.)

Anyway, if you or a friend of yours has read the whole series, drop me a line, and I'll add you to the filter for the posts. Do NOT ask to be added if you haven't read through the end of Checkmate; there are spoilers like whoa, both in my posts and in the comments, and I don't want to ruin it for anybody. But otherwise, the more the merrier.

Comments

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

hmmm...I've read the first five, but it's been a loooonng time.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Why did you stop?

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

So looooooong....

I'm not all that patient. I didn't start the next batch because it took so long to get them together (5 books, really) that I lost all my patience. I'm lazy, I admit it.

[jorrie-spencer.livejournal.com]

I've read the series twice :)

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

You're already on the filter. :-)

[malsperanza.livejournal.com]

Hey, I've read and reread all of the Lymond Chronicles and the Niccolo boosk as well.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I haven't actually read the Niccolo stuff -- yet, anyway -- but Lymond's all you need for admission to this party!

[mudiooch.livejournal.com]

Permission to come aboard, Ma'am? I'm a certified Dunnett adherent with twenty years experience!

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Welcome!

[moonandserpent.livejournal.com]

On a completely different note, I hate you.

I mean, it's not your fault, but I hate you.

See, I actually started revising Telepathine & Cordite a few weeks ago. Yeah, no promises as to ever finishing and there you go. Anyway, there I was trying to figure out why it didn't work and how to narrow the focus a bit and then it hit me.

My Cowboy Steampunk and Mesoamericans story really wants to be a Mesoamerican Steampunk + Cowboys novel. I mean, it would still involve a train driving through a zepplin and zombie Doc Holliday, but it wants way more ziggurats and much less time spent in the Middle East.

And since you are who I think of when I think of Mesoamerica... I hate you.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Kisses! <g>

[moonandserpent.livejournal.com]

So, most of my knowledge of mesoamerican societies comes from less-than-primary resources (I know 4 different ways to figure the dates on the long count) and I was wondering, oh author whom I am currently hatin', if you had any suggestions for a survey of the topic.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

The quickest way to answer that is to point you at the Mesoamerican books in my library:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/castlen&tag=mesoamerica

There are others, but that's a place you could start.

[carbonel]

Please add me -- I've read the entire series several times, but I'd enjoy reading someone else's perspective on the books.

[skirmish-of-wit.livejournal.com]

What's your envisioned timeline for posting? I ask because I'm in the middle of the series now, but once I finish the books (in a month or two), I'd like to be added to the filter.

(Also: um, hi, I loved Midnight Never Come.)

ETA: Uh, crap, wrong "reply" button. Sorry, carbonel!

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Oh, hell -- if TGoK is any example, I'll be lucky to finish blogging QP by the end of summer. And I don't mind at all having people backtrack to read or comment on old posts, so I can add you whenever you're done.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Certainly! You're on the filter now, and can backtrack for all the TGoK posts if you want.

[occultatio.livejournal.com]

I would like to be added in now please!

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Now that you've had almost a year to recover from the experience of reading them? <g>

[strangerian.livejournal.com]

You have me on the filter already. Do you know why Queen's Play didn't please you the first time? I happened to read it first, and then went and bought the rest of the series because it was *fascinating*. Is Lymond just a bit too-too in the wrong ways? Lymond is OTT as anything all the time, but there are ways and ways of doing it. But Archie is not to be missed.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Partly it was the circumstances of my reading: I was on vacation with my husband's family, and kept being distracted by other things. Partly it was trivial things: in two words, Thady Boy. (Also a niggling disjunct with Oonagh; she felt like the kind of character I normally like, but I just couldn't warm to her at all.)

I did like it a lot better on a re-read, though, when I followed much better what was going on, and saw what was going on with Lymond in that book, particularly wrt Robin Stewart.

[diatryma.livejournal.com]

I wish I could figure out my reaction to many books lately: if they are good, I shy away. I cannot read the tor.com entries on Bujold, and just now an icon that I think is from one of the books got me.
Dunnett, and thinking on it, would dissolve me.
Yet I will still read some of the entries, even if I feel bad about not reading all of them.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Hey, read whatever works for you, skip whatever doesn't. Dunnett's pretty intense in many ways, not all of them easy to take.

[scottakennedy.livejournal.com]

Do please add. I've read the series once, and think wistfully of the day when I'll have time to re-read it again or read the House of Nicollo series.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Done!

Aleays late to parties

[arkessian.livejournal.com]

Am I too late? I read them all years back, but would like a craft-focused re-reading...

Re: Aleays late to parties

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

See my most recent post for an update on the Lymond blogging.