Egan, Doris - The Gate of Ivory

Theodora Pyrene is a scholar from Athena who, through a variety of circumstances, has ended up on the planet Ivory without the fare to get back home. Eventually, Ran Cormallon, an Ivoran aristocrat or some sort of aristocratic equivalent, finds her reading fortunes in a market and hires her to be his own personal card reader for assorted complex reasons.

For further complex reasons, many people don't like Ran and attempt to get to him by trying to kill Theo.

Generally, I was confused by the plot; apparently my plot-brain has yet to return to me.

I think this is a book that I vaguely like, though I don't love. The assorted bits of Ivoran culture were interesting, but not necessarily memorable or squee-worthy. Also, the romance that came in felt like it was randomly thrown in; I had absolutely no clue that the two people were romantically attracted to each other, or even physically attracted to each other, or anything. I saw it coming, but that was more as a standard plot device than as a romance I believed in, if that makes any sense.

On the other hand, there was an excellent moment in which Theodora gets her period at the worst possible time and then has to get people to explain tampons to her (she used to have an implant, which, by the way, I want). Yay awkward moments! Also, yay for a heroine who is not insanely physical and actually gets really tired during long treks.

Links:
- kate_nepveu's review (entire trilogy, but no spoilers. Also quotes memorable menstruation section)

Duane, Diane - High Wizardry

Huh. I actually liked this better than Deep Wizardry, which seems to be the not-as-common reaction. I did sort of anticipate this though -- I like computers and computer magic much more than I like the deep seas, probably because there is something about computers that is so wonderfully mundane and yet completely mystifying and amazing and mindblowing at the same time. Not that the deep sea is not mystifying. But I feel there is much more fantasy already about the coolness of assorted animals than there is about computers.

Anyway. Nita's little sister Dairine has found out about the entire wizard thing, and worse come to worse, Dari has gone and taken the Oath. She's ended up with the beta software of the wizard's manual, handily stored in an Apple IIIc (OMG! Apple IIIc! Hee!). This book was written nearly twenty years ago, which shows with regard to all the computer stuff -- OS prompts! Actual floppy discs! Computers that don't just miraculously work the second you take them out of the box and plug them in! But honestly, I don't particularly care, as I am somewhat fascinated by it all.

Many people have noted in comments to the previous two books that Dari is quite a Mary Sue. I completely agree; she is smarter and faster than Nita or Kit, and she has even more raw wizard power than they do. But a large part of me just doesn't care. Dari believes that the way to get through the world is to accumulate as much knowledge as possible, and really, the second Duane mentioned that in the book, I was a goner. Also, Dari is an obsessive reader!

Go reader identification! This worked so much for me that I avoided being bugged by things like the prose and the "Eek! Cannot think about that!" bits of Kit and Nita growing into adolescents, complete with all those unpleasant adolescent things.

And finally, they go off into space! And visit different galaxies! There is a black hole!

( Spoilers )

ETA: spoilers for this book and minor spoilers for the next book in the comments.

Ozaki Kaori - Immortal Rain, vol. 01 (Eng. trans.)

(apologies for spamming the f-list)

Cue completely random volume of manga that I picked up in the library because the back cover copy promised an angsty immortal hero and the young female assassin determined to hunt him down. They fight crime!

vom_marlowe asked me what my story kinks were before; so far, I've been too lazy to write them up and inflict them on anyone. Also, it's almost embarrassing to see them repeated in all these book write-ups.

To continue with the story kinks, Rain Jewlitt (aforementioned angsty immortal hero) has this iron cross nailed to his chest where his heart should be, and Machika (aforementioned young female assassin) of course starts to fall in love with him. The surprising thing is, Rain is actually very cute and silly and sweet despite being an angsty immortal being, rather like Kenshin in a way. And he falls for Machika a bit.

The relationship and the story so far isn't very deep, but it wasn't as horrible as I expected. Also, in flashbacks, Machika's grandfather, Zol the Grim Reaper, is very hot and has a scar across his nose that, like all anime and manga scars, should be disfiguring but is instead extremely hot. And Rain has something to do with dead angels or imprisoned angels. Hi Oyce's storytelling kinks! Welcome to this manga!

And while the art is a little too eighties-influenced for me (the face shapes in particular), it's also very clean, which is appealing.

Also, did I mention the cute? I am strangely taken with the cute.

Not particularly recommended unless you like cute young perky female assassins and not-as-angsty immortal men. A lot.

ETA: Good lord! I got so caught up in my personal cool bits that I forgot about the HEAD IN A JAR! Oh manga, I love you so much.

Anyway, ( Minor spoilers, but hey, head! In jar! )